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Thursday, June 13, 2002 |
Battlestar Galactica Mini Series In The Works.
"There appears to be a Battlestar Galactica Mini Series in the works. This quote of Tim Smith of Universal suggests its release in 2003.
" In 2003 there will be a lot of activity surrounding the 25th Anniversary of Battlestar Galactica, including a planned new television mini-series.".
Yes, I've been a nerd since the seventies." [DotBlog]
Yo, Bruce!! My cup runneth over! Wonder Twins and Battlestar Galactica in one week! I think somewhere I still have audiocassettes I made of the original show (yes audiocassettes).
11:51:49 PM Permanent link here
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Electronic Tuition Rates
"Other states should follow Georgia's lead and adopt electronic tuition rates that are not based on where a student lives, says Georgia Governor Roy E. Barnes, chairman of the Southern Regional Education Board. In an op/ed written for SREB, Governor Barnes says that the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia is on the right track in authorizing special tuition rates for distance education." [Serious Instructional Technology]
Posting this one for my dad because I think he'll find it interesting. For those of you that have seen my IS presentation, this is another example of how education will evolve as information becomes more and more shifted. Smart move on Georgia's part to recognize this trend.
11:46:33 PM Permanent link here
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Harry Potter Released Unprotected
"Warner Home Video has chosen not to copy-protect the home versions of its blockbuster movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in major markets, including the US and UK. This means people can go out and buy a DVD or VHS, connect the analogue output of their player to a recorder - either analogue or digital - and make free copies for friends.
Usually, hot new movies are protected by Macrovision, which tinkers with the analogue picture signal so that it can be viewed on a TV set but not copied.
The Harry Potter title was released worldwide in May. The chance discovery that it is unprotected was made by market analysts in the US, who interpreted it as loss of confidence in Macrovision. Tests run by New Scientist confirm that the UK release can also be copied.
Like all major movies, Harry Potter was widely pirated before its official release. Macrovisions-busters can also be bought, often disguised by names such as 'signal cleaners' to keep within the law. By not protecting Harry Potter, Time Warner has saved the five US cents or so per disc or tape that Macrovision charges. Analysts suspect that Warner left the release unprotected, to investigate whether this would have a significant impact on sales....
Industry eyes are all now on the next big video release, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, which is due in August. If this is also unprotected, Hollywood may have decided that it is cheaper to let a few people copy than spend money on protection." [New Scientist]
Just as with videos, as long as the price point is low enough (which for the Harry Potter DVD it is), then this won't be a problem. Just like it wasn't a problem ten years ago. This is a good strategy, one the record industry needs to adopt. There won't be any problems with the LOTR DVD, and it will probably become the fastest selling DVD ever (at least until Spider-Man is released). There will be some piracy, but there won't be any problems.
Maybe some industry execs are waking up to the fact that you just can't plug the analog hole after all.
11:33:05 PM Permanent link here
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File Sharing: Innocent Until Proven Guilty
"Now [Stan] Liebowitz has turned his attention to another hot-button issue where law and economics intersect: file sharing. It's a logical step for the professor. He's been following copyright law and its effects since the 1970s, when audiotapes were being denounced by the recording industry as tools for theft. On May 15, the Cato Institute published a new paper by Liebowitz, "Policing Pirates in the Networked Age," that takes a comprehensive look at the history of the recording industry's battle with piracy.
In the paper, Liebowitz argues persuasively that record industry experts failed to prove their assertion that Napster was gutting industry revenues. But he also argues that eventually, digital downloading will be a serious threat to those revenues. Both topics will be part of his upcoming book, "Rethinking the Networked Economy," due to be published in August. But the specifics of those arguments may be somewhat altered from their form in the Cato paper, because when Salon caught up with Liebowitz, he was reexamining his data and wondering, Why isn't the record industry hurting more, already?...
Liebowitz: 'But again, you have to remember that what seems to take a long time while it's happening, in a historical context can occur very quickly. Videotapes when they first came out were totally mispriced. They used to sell them for about $100 because the idea was, no one really wants to have a library of videotapes. Why would you watch a movie more than once? The video rental places were going to be the ones to buy the videotapes, and since they were going to rent it over and over again, a very high price should be charged. It was only by accident that the movie industry discovered that gee, it's a much more elastic demand than we had thought....
Looking back, it appears that it happened quite quickly. But at the time, there were a couple years where videotape people were mispricing videotapes. So it wouldn't be surprising if we had mispricing here as well. They're learning what to do....
And to be honest, it looks like [file sharing] should really cause problems. I honestly believed it too. If you look at the logic of it, then you say this one is real, this one should really do damage. And I'm not willing to say that it's not going to. But I'm just saying it's beginning to look like a lie....
They should have tried to negotiate with Napster to try to change the rules a bit. Number 1, they could have kept a bit of control over what was happening. They could have done a few things, like saying in order to download something you have to upload something. That would more likely make people want to buy originals. It's a more controllable form than the pure peer-to-peer without the central server.' " [Salon.com]
This interesting interview with Professor Liebowitz covers a lot of ground while trying to stay in the middle. I included the last bit above describing how expensive videos used to be because the industry misread potential demand. I've been meaning to make this point myself because I was flipping through TV channels recently, when I came across the movie Libeled Lady. I love classic movies, and this is an oldie but goodie. It's one of those 1930s screwball comedies and it stars Spencer Tracy, Jean Harlow, William Powell, and Myrna Loy (in an aside to their Thin Man days).
I first saw it in the 1980s on American Movie Classics, and I'd always wanted to see it again but it was rarely shown and I could never seem to catch it the few times it was on. I tried to buy it at the local video store, but they had never heard of it. When they looked it up in the catalog, it retailed for $99.98. This was for a little-known movie made in 1936! Even if I'd had $100 to spend on it, the price was ridiculous. Now you can get it for $19.99 at Amazon, though I haven't bought it because I'm waiting for the DVD, which will probably retail for $14.99 when they get around to releasing it.
I've always remembered this incident and it always boggled my mind that the studio didn't understand that my friends and I would want to own videos. And there was no way to prove to them that we were a viable market. I even called the folks that published the video store's catalog, and they re-iterated it would cost me $100 PLUS SHIPPING to own my own copy.
So the difference now is that there is a way for the market to make its voice heard. It's been a pretty loud wake-up call, too, and this time the industry has taken notice. Unfortunately, they're as clueless as they were 20 years ago. They refuse to learn from their past mistakes. One more excerpt from the Salon article, emphasis is mine:
Liebowitz: 'The idea [of digital rights management] has caused a fair amount of hysteria in the academic community, because they think fair use is going to disappear. I think that's totally not true. Fair use is still there. DRM can't keep you from reading the material, as long as you pay the price. Some say, Well, how can you take a paragraph and copy it anymore? That's what we normally consider to be fair use. But the fact is, you can still do that. You might not be able to cut and paste but as long as you can read it, you can type it....
You might have to pay something. But you can always go to someone that has a legitimate version, or to a library or something like that. So I don't think it's really changing fair use. It's what fair use was before the copier. We certainly had fair use then, so this doesn't kill fair use. It's just not as easy as it could be but it's not any harder than it was 30 years ago....
Academics have gotten a bit spoiled. These days they can copy things easily for free. If they had to pay some small amount, which is really all we're talking about, they get upset. I don't see the costs as a major problem.' "
I can't believe that Liebowitz doesn't understand the ramifications of DRM embedded in every digital file and every device capable of playing those files. There's no loophole for libraries to circulate material, which is a pretty big dent in fair use. So how do you read the material if you can't afford the price and the library doesn't have a legitimate copy because there's no exemption for them to circulate digital files? And if you can't access any current material, that's not just "harder than it was 30 years ago," it's impossible.
Obviously Liebowitz has let his job influence his world view. While it's true that academics are the ones most likely to be able to afford DRM payments, they account for a relatively small percentage of folks that would use digital files. His view that academics already post material for free anyway and that costs are not a problem are soundly refuted by the problems academic libraries face with spiralling prices of serials. It's not just a problem, it's a crisis of epidemic proportions. Just ask any academic librarian.
So just keep Liebowitz's bias in mind as you read this interview, because he's in a unique position that the rest of us are not in, and he can't see past his own blinders.
7:08:01 PM Permanent link here
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"Did you hear that NASA recently put a bunch of Holsteins into low earth orbit?
They called it the herd shot 'round the world." [davidgagne.net]
4:00:16 PM Permanent link here
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"This  web site is an experiment of sorts, one that focuses on 'interactive kinetic typography and communal interactivity in the web environment.' A compelling description for sure, but the site lives up to its hype. An experimental and incredibly rich study of 'type as a lifeform,' its diversions include ASCII-O-Matic, where you can upload an image and convert it to ASCII art, and the supercool Visual Composer, a place to create 12-second music passages. For a truly unique experience, check out the Good News, Bad News section -- on the left-hand side, you'll see real-time news headlines and images floating by, while the right-hand side features images and text posted by users. This remarkable site will even have you rethinking the very text on this page." [Yahoo Daily Picks]
12:56:39 PM Permanent link here
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How cool is this? Teri IMed me today to let me know that Chicago Library System (our friends to the north and Teri's employer) are offering a workshop on blogging. Here are the details:
Caught in a Blog
"What's a blog, who's a blog, and why would I want to be caught in one? Web logs, blogs, are web-based resources where people can provide commentary, links, and discussion about specific topics. Many people are turning to blogs as their primary source of news and information related to a topic. To find out more about blogs, visit http://www.blogspot.com and http://www.weblogs.com
Instructor: Dawne Tortorella
Time: 09:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Date: Tuesday July 9, 2002
Fee: $20.00"
Register here! Although I tried to cover blogging as one way to enhance your library's online services at our last SLS Tech Summit, so much has changed in just the last few months that we need to re-examine offering something similar at SLS. (I just noticed my presentation isn't online, so I'll try to rectify that.)
Of course, time and resources may delay this significantly, but maybe we can try for something in the fall. I don't know the details of Dawne's class, but she's a good instructor so you should consider attending the session if you're intrigued about blogging and want to know more.
10:55:07 AM Permanent link here
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TuneBlock
"It's coming.
It will be here soon.
The bold new music recording technology that will protect artists' rights while actually enhancing your music experience.
Starting in a very short while, all new music published by RIAA members will feature TuneBlock™, a method whereby special harmonics included in the songs will erase all memory of the melody, chords, and words from your mind shortly after you hear it, leaving nothing but a pleasant sensation of having enjoyed something.
Think of it. Every musical experience will be like the first time. Every track will be exciting and new. And you'll never have a song stuck in your head again.
Even better, TuneBlock™ will protect the rights of artists, eliminating the billion-dollar losses the music industry accrues from having songs illegally hummed in public and strummed in dorm rooms. And some of that money will be passed on to a few of our more popular artists." [The Brunching Shuttlecocks]
9:59:16 AM Permanent link here
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Two items of interest this morning from my local newspaper, The Daily Southtown, which I picked up in our staff lounge this morning because Dean brought in chocolate for everyone! Dean is my new favorite co-worker. :-)
- Great quote about the upcoming Taste of Chicago and the fact that Chicago has been named the second fattest city in the nation: " 'A nice big belly is a sign of success, I'm happy to be part of (creating them),' said Fireside Restaurant chef Richard Wohn. 'And a big belly needs more sunscreen, so that's good for the economy.' " More at 'Being fat is the least of our problems:' Get out your bib and prepare for 10 days of sweet gluttony.
- Return of the Living Dead?
"Tinley Park's Tweeter Center may be the scene of the first — and possibly only concerts — by the surviving members of the Grateful Dead since 1995." The Tweeter Center (formerly the World Music Center) is only a hop, skip, and a jump from my house! :-)
9:30:02 AM Permanent link here
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" 'Backseat Drivers Get an Office. Introducing the car that does everything. Also: Ford disses telematics business ... North Korea to go mobile ... Clear cell-phone calls in Australia ... and more, in this week's Unwired News. By Elisa Batista.' [Wired News]
Most interesting is the last item on the list:
'Unlimited text messaging: Leap Wireless, which operates in the United States under the 'Cricket' brand, has launched an unlimited text messaging service in 30 markets across the country for $5 a month.'
This is a part of what Jenny has been talking about, in terms of getting the prices for SMS down to a reasonable rate. Good move Cricket!" [Ryan Greene's Radio Weblog]
8:32:31 AM Permanent link here
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Watch Marylaine's Ex Libris site for a new column about utilizing social networks in libraries called "Who You Know Still Counts." Here's an excerpt:
"I've been reading a couple of books which I may tell you more about in subsequent issues,* and though one is about information entrepreneurship and the other about organizational culture, each of them makes the point that the internet and full-text databases have not changed a fundamental human instinct: when we need information, we ask somebody we trust. Indeed, in one study, people were five times more likely to approach friends or colleagues for information than to use a database or library....
It also suggests the vital importance of our mental or physical files of contact people and local experts (one of those books mentioned that when executives were asked what they would rescue from a burning office, virtually all of them said they'd grab their rolodexes first). We all have such files of experts; my question is whether we consolidate them with those of our colleagues and keep that composite file available on the reference desk.
It suggests that when we construct topical pages for our web site, with key resources for accounting and social work and such, we should make sure that we include networks for sharing personal knowledge in those subject areas: association web sites, listservs, usenet groups, and bulletin boards.
It may even suggest that we should emphasize the human connection side of what we do. We might let a little personality leak through on our web sites, even create quirky individual personas, like instant messenger screen names, for librarians staffing the virtual reference desks (TechWoman? KnowsAllSeesAll? Biblia, the Warrior Librarian comes to mind).
We might even bring our library staff out of the shadows or professional anonymity and introduce them on our web pages and library newsletters as living breathing people with specific educational backgrounds and hobbies and special knowledge areas. Kids might look at us quite differently if they knew we were fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or that we, say, signed our e-mails with a rock music quote of the week.
It may well be that our users who are flocking to the net instead of to the library are not exhibiting a new behavior at all; it's just that the technology has made it a little easier for them to ask somebody, or to find somebody to ask.
We may need to make it a little easier for them to find, and trust, us when they go hunting."
Great stuff that we really should be discussing in our profession. If I can get blogging started acrossing Illinois libraries, that might be one way to start viewing connections (think neighborhoods). And the new distributed directories feature of Radio would certainly have some applicability.
8:28:10 AM Permanent link here
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Adobe eBooks Go on Loan at Libraries
"Adobe Systems released Content Server 3.0, software that lets libraries loan and distribute eBooks written in the company's Portable Document Format. Content server lets administrators offer subscriptions, set expiration dates that disable the eBook on the borrower's computer, and provides packaging and encryption options for Internet delivery.
Content Server is available through eBook software providers Ebrary, Baker & Taylor, Follett and NetLibrary; through Adobe distributors including OverDrive; or from Adobe's eBooks Web site. The software costs $5,000 per site hosting as many as 250 eBooks, and $1,000 for every additional 500 titles." [ZDNet, via LibraryPlanet.com]
It's about freaking time! I thought this project had died because it's been so long since I've heard anything about it. It's great to see that it's alive and kicking, though. Why? Because there is no mass market for ebooks yet. The way to create one? Introduce them to the average reader via libraries. Adobe is smart to be the first one into the void, because they've got a pretty strong brand (despite other problems with the PDF format, including the fact that it's proprietary). Also, the ebrary connection is interesting. More on them in the future.
Unfortunately, the bulk number of public libraries can't afford it unless they band together and go for a group purchase. We'll have to keep an eye on this at SLS.
8:03:47 AM Permanent link here
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"For all of you librarians interested in trivia, the trivia archive of the bar trivia questions that I have been working on are all archived here." [librarian.net]
Andy B. and Kate Are Going to Love This! Very cool, although it does need a search engine (naturally).
2:06:18 AM Permanent link here
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26,747 New RSS Feeds Avaliable
"Taking to heart what Paolo said yesterday about aggregators not just reading news I sat down and wrote some PHP to turn all 26k+ artists on discogs (the most comprehensive electronic music database) into RSS feeds.
You can use this page to find an artist, I've provided auto-subscription links for both Radio and AmphetaDesk users.
So when a new release is added to discogs.com by an artist you are subscribed to it will show up in your aggregator. The next step is to tweak this a bit and allow you to subscribe to the 6,000+ record labels." [Adam Wendt's Agnostic Audiophile Smorgasborg]
Someone please point this out to the record labels as an example of something they should have done already! Way to go, Adam! A great service and a proof of concept for a future marketing model for the BigCos. Hot d-a-m-n but this has been a great day for RSS!
1:52:20 AM Permanent link here
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Shameless Google-Promotion
"At the top of a Google search, just underneath the "Searched the web for ..." bit, Google's been adding:
Try Google Answers to get help from expert researchers.
And at the bottom of your search you might find a new type of Google ad:
?Try Google Answers - answers.google.comWant expert help with your search? Set your price. Get a great answer.Shameless self-promotion
Since Google Answers is a revenue stream, I can understand them promoting it so heavily... Thankfully, they've been very tasteful about it so far." [Google Weblog]
So Google Answers gets links from Google now, highlighted with the usual Google sense of humor. It will be interesting to see if your average web surfer starts using it now. I still think it's too bad they didn't partner with libraries (something like QuestionPoint) to provide guaranteed, top-notch service.
1:47:25 AM Permanent link here
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Translating RSS
"Jenny asks
my next question is how do we get on-the-fly translation into news aggregators, but I'm sure we're a ways off from that.
Not that far off at all! I wrote Jenny an RSS cleanser in PHP recently, and it took me about 20 minutes tonight to add translation to it. I've showed it to Jenny but won't post it here because (a) it really burdens the translation service and (b) for some reason accented characters in the description break the RSS feed, even if I use their html entity equivalents."
More grist for the language translation debate. The implications are staggering if we can get past the accented characters. Brent's on a roll, and I am continually impressed at how quickly he turns ideas into reality!
Addendum: Brent provides an update noting that the entities don't actually affect RSS.
1:04:49 AM Permanent link here
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Distributed Directories
"Today, an application for Radio's outliner that will be new for many. We've brought a feature from Manila into Radio Community Server, making it possible for people to create Yahoo-like directories that appear in their Radio weblogs. These directories can include other directories. They're built on an open format, OPML; which can be created in any compatible outliner, including Radio's outliner. Viewed another way, directories are hiearchic blogrolls. When you start getting hundreds of links in your blogroll, and start categorizing them, it's time to look for something richer, and that's where directories come in." [Scripting News]
"Userland is seriously spooky. Ernie and I talked about this about a month ago, saying how nice it would be if we could each maintain directories of links that incorporated each others' links. The directory would update each time it was published - including updates from other directory owners.
It sounds as if this is exactly what Userland has done. Just for kicks, I created a 'Law Blogs' directory - not complete by a long shot, but it's a start. Go to:
http://www.rklau.com/tins/stories/2002/06/12/lawblogs.html
Two notes: (1) Those of us in the law blog world (you know who you are, and Denise, when are you crossing the chasm?!) should experiment a bit, then add this to the multi-author blog that's been quite quiet lately, and (2) I'll start a Prairie Blogs directory that Jenny, Prof. McGee, Eric, Mike, and others can include in their sites."
And that's just the first little mind-bomb. The directories concept is fantastic, one I definitely want to incorporate into the SLS portal (that currently resides only in my mind). To see another example of this type of directory, check out Mark Pilgrim's demo. Then Rick takes it a natural, but brilliant step further:
A wish list for the Distributed Directory....
"The possibilities of what we can do with the Distributed Directories concept are incredible. One thing to add to my wishlist (probably not hard, but I'm on my way to a customer dinner and don't have time to play) is to make this work with Marc Barrot's Active Renderer so that the directory is expandable/collapsable without causing a new page view. The user experience would be much nicer."
The best part, of course, is that you can subscribe to that directory page and get changes in your aggregator!
Side notes: Rick, count me in! Bruce, look at that list of law blogs and then think about getting all of their updates on one web page, every hour on the hour! Then call me since your birthday is in two weeks. As for the directories, this is a natural for librarians.
12:52:34 AM Permanent link here
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© Copyright 2004 Jenny Levine.
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