Bear Flag Republic Radio Weblog

< 4:25:02 PM        >

"Thanks to the work going on in labs today, pundits predict that soon you'll have scrolling headlines on your pen, news reflected against the inside of your sunglasses and coming out of your keychain. Maybe one day we'll each have a "brainbone" that delivers sights, smells and sounds to accompany the story you're reading....

The biggest change is that the information you get over your laptop, Palm or pen probably won't be free. And if it is free to peek at, you probably won't be able to copy and paste it, print it, look at it a second time, or store it on your hard drive in any way -- unless you pay for the privilege.

A relatively new markup language called XrML is being tweaked by Xerox, Microsoft and others to protect copyrighted materials in the digital domain. At Xerox, researchers are developing a digital rights manager software suite that will let people use XrML to protect everything from songs to written stories....

Any cellular hardware company with more than one employee seems to be working on "concept phones" -- handsets that feature full color video screens and other wonders, and very often don't look like phones at all. These all-in-one devices will deliver content that looks more like a live TV show than a still newspaper or ticker....

According to Nokia's Web site, '3G is being on a train and watching clips from your favorite soap; 3G is being out and sending images back to headquarters; 3G is using your phone to take holiday pictures to instantly send to friends at home; 3G is using your phone for a videoconference in a taxi.'

By next year, industry players like Nokia and Ericsson predict, three times as many people will be surfing the net with smart mobile phones than with PCs, and mobile phones will be more like hybrids between computers and handsets. Some manufacturers, including eggheads at Qualcomm, are expecting 3G devices to be built into clothes and everyday items -- such as make-up cases, pens, gloves and key chains -- within a decade....

Once all this stuff gets set up, you'll be able to watch events live as they unfold, from the privacy of your sunglasses. That's good news for content developers looking for new paying customers. Nokia already has announced one content agreement: Web site Eurosport.com will deliver Formula One racing and soccer headlines -- complete with color images and audio clips -- directly to subscribers' phones....

Xerox Corp. spin-off Gyricon Media and MIT spin-off E Ink Corp have been developing electronic 'paper' technology over the last decade. Researchers hope the paper will be ready for prime time by 2005.

Gyricon's SmartPaper -- actually two layers of thin plastic with a layer of beads in between -- can be rolled and folded and put into a pocket. It will use less energy than Palm or computers because it needs no backlighting in its display -- only the same natural, reflective light you use to see books or paintings....

Researchers hope the paper will eventually use smaller beads and have a higher resolution. They hope the convenience of SmartPaper -- it will eventually be able to download your daily paper via satellite, taking care of that pesky recycling problem -- will convince newspapers and their readers to adopt their new technology." [Online Journalism Review]

This article is very similar to my own Information Shifting presentation, except that I talk about how these same technologies will affect libraries. I'm fascinated by how the challenges that libraries face are so similar to those facing newspapers. As you read this article, think about how each of the items would affect libraries, because they will. Profoundly.

I'm very enthusiastic about moving towards these types of gadgets and services, but I don't believe paper will be going away any time soon, and I certainly don't believe that "three times as many people will be surfing the net with smart mobile phones than with PCs" by next year. Maybe in 3-5 years, with early adopters picking up the service beginning late this year.

However, this is good, as it will give us time to start adapting to the brave new world of wireless, and to fight for our rights to circulate digital content. Of course, that means we have to start being more proactive now. We didn't have this kind of lead time on the CDs or the internet, so we need to make the most of the next year.

comments < 4:23:56 PM        >

Hands on with the PDA-killer Sony P800.

"Although the Treo and the P800 are functionally similar, our first impressions of the new Ericsonny device leave the Treo looking like Dilbert's secret Elbonian recipe for mud (that's soil and water, by the way).

It's far from perfect, but after several years of looking at smartphones, the P800 has the kind of potential to break out of the geek ghetto, and one that leaves us even more convinced that today's PDAs need to evolve dramatically, and fast....

Sony/Ericsson isn't the first phone that grafts PDA functionality into the device without compromising the low mass of a real phone - that goes to last year's Accompli - but it is the richest: a far more capable color device, that just happens to include a camera too....

There's no USB connector, but we're told that the Ericsson texting pad - a tiny Alphanumeric keyboard - will work with the device. A combination bluetooth and infra red port is on the left of the device, along with a rocker wheel, and a thin plectrum of a stylus slots uncomfortably onto the right. This is fiddly and will hopefully be fixed when the device goes on sale in the fall. It's the weakest design feature of the phone. On the right side you'll also find the camera button, and a blue button that "connects you directly to the Internet". Strange for an always-on device: we figure this means that when you're out of range of a GPRS cell, it makes a regular GSM call on your behalf....

It's running on a 320x208 display, which feels cramped compared to PocketPC PDAs but is luxurious compared to PalmOS devices. In terms of UI metaphors, it very closely resembles the Palm UI, applications overlay each other, but with the addition of a tabbed navigation strip at the top of the screen....

It's a triband device, so it will work on US networks, and the camera will allow you to store 200 pictures in VGA format. (The screen supports 4,096 colors).

In conclusion, it's probably the most desirable little piece of technology we've seen for a while. It certainly obliges Handspring and Danger to price their Treo and HipTop smartphones low, as the Ericsson is from the outset a much more capable device. But we hope there's room in the market for all three." [The Register]

I don't count the current HipTop because it doesn't have a color screen, and I'm not sure I'd buy a Treo because of its limited functionality. The interface on the P800 sounds like the best cell phone implementation yet, so apparently my lust for Sony products will continue through the rest of the year.

[The Shifted Librarian]
comments < 4:23:20 PM        >

"Google is now a clearinghouse for reference questions. Curious about the accuracy, cost and timeliness of the new service, I ask both Google and NYPL's Ask Librarians Online the same question, "What is the origin of the term 'shoestring' as it is used to refer to a small budget?"

Each site has a requirement; Google wants money, and NYPL wants your library card number. I told Google that I would pay up to four US dollars for an answer, and have not heard back. NYPL, happy enough to know that I had a card, answered in about 22 hours.

You don't have to have an NYPL card to receive a timely, accurate and detailed answer from a librarian. Tons of libraries are doing it; some require cards and other do not." [The Rogue Librarian]

Check out the NYPL's detailed and authoritative answer, including the sources (a print title and a fee-based database). Not only that, the answer is already indexed in Google! As Drew Barrymore said in Charlie's Angels, "And that's kicking your @ss!"

[The Shifted Librarian]
comments < 4:22:40 PM        >

At Home on the Edge of a Profession.

"This gigantic room full of books was indispensable to our civilization, and this one person was indispensable to this particular room of books. To me, that seemed like a lot of responsibility without a lot of fanfare. As I spent the rest of the weekend listening to the jargon-addled ramblings of "important" academics and the slippery slick poses of high-paid confidence men, that seemed like just the tonic. I began the application process to library school within a week.

What I never expected was the camaraderie. I knew that being a law librarian would provide an environment where I could grow intellectually, where I could be a part of something more important than a single person and, I was soon to discover, a profession where I'd probably never want for work opportunities. I just never expected to like so many of the people I work with. And that started as soon as I was introduced to the field....

Spending the bulk of my time at the reference desk has enhanced my education by at least a factor of 10. While my classes are certainly valuable, they are only intermittently -- and sometimes, accidentally -- so. But every time I'm on the reference desk I'm learning something that will come up again. Whether it's explaining to first-year law students the value of West's Digest or carefully navigating the Sargasso Sea of the patent process with a pro se patron without actually giving legal advice, it is all worth my time. After the excitement I felt having just completed an attenuated session of tracking down an obscure Australian treaty, I told a colleague that working the reference desk is like a never-ending Mensa tryout but without all the people in turtleneck sweaters.

I suspect there will come a time when I'm not so sanguine about the idea of spending so much time on the reference desk ... and I bet it will have something to do with legislative histories. But I'm not there yet. Right now I feel very fortunate to get paid to spend my days in a library trying to figure out legal problems without actually having to figure out legal problems. If someone had told me at the beginning of law school that there was a job where I could work on legal matters, where I would be encouraged to research and publish, but where I wouldn't spend my evenings wondering if I'd done enough with my days, I wouldn't have believed them." [Law.com, via Virtual Acquisition Shelf & News Desk]

Ernie will appreciate this one.

[The Shifted Librarian]
comments < 4:22:11 PM        >