Jenny Levine: Information Shifting

I'm so proud of myself - I'm blogging while messaging with Kate and watching the Olympics. See, 15-year olds have nothing on me!

One Out of Four Americans Have Downloaded MP3s, Says New Study [at MusicDish]

"Fifty million people, or almost one-quarter (23%) of the American population aged 12 and over, have downloaded a music or mp3 file from of the Net, say findings from a new study examining the influence and effects of online music distribution around the world. By comparison, Napster claimed to have around 40 million users in its heyday, says research firm Ipsos-Reid which conducted the study last November and December. Similar proportions of Americans report having listened to Internet radio (27%) and streamed audio (21%), and over one-third (37%) indicate they have listened to a pre-recorded music CD that was playing in the CD-ROM drive of their PC, Ipsos-Reid found in Tempo: Keeping Pace with Online Music Distribution."

In other words, 50 million Americans realize how inane the record companies are, are tired of being screwed over, and are going elsewhere to get the services they want.

"The firm went on that young Americans continue to lead this Internet music phenomenon, as approximately two-fifths of 12-24-year-olds have downloaded music or MP3 files off of the Internet (44% of 12-17 year-olds, and 42% in the 18-24 age group)."

No surprise there. Think of all that disposable income the record companies are losing....

"Among adults aged 25-34, one-third (35%) have also downloaded music, demonstrating that older age groups are beginning to dabble in the new digital music arena as well. Not only are these individuals trying out music downloading capabilities, they are returning for more, says Ipsos-Reid. Three-fifths of (59%) of Americans who have downloaded a music or MP3 file in the past indicated that they are somewhat, very, or extremely likely to download again in the next 30 days."

Hello, Mr. Record Company, this is your wake-up call.

Your Phone as Your Wallet, Part 2

"At this time, welcome PayBox, a German company that is establishing itself slowly but surely. To use the system, you register with your bank account and PayBox then acts as a link between your mobile phone and your bank account. If I would like to pay for a cab then I give the driver my mobile phone number, or alias, and he enters it into his system. I then get a phone call and a nice voice tells me that this cab driver is requesting an amount of X EUR. I can then say yes and enter my password and the money is securely deducted from my bank account. For me, the entire system is free. The system is gaining acceptance on the web, at least in Germany, but for paying in stores it is moving along at a slower pace, partly because a POS (point-of-sale) terminal is needed there...."

"Paying for a coke with your VISA card is not really efficient but if you pay with your phone bill then it might work a lot easier. You can already get a coke out of a vending machine with your mobile phone in Finland, and I am sure this will be something that we will be accustomed too fairly soon. An example of this can be what Europolitan Vodafone and TietoEnator are launching a new payment method in Sweden. I also recently learned that you can pay for drinks and subway tokens with your mobile phone in Santiago (Chile)." [InfoSync]

Suh-weet! This is definitely the entry point for micropayments to become widespread. So when can I pay my library overdues using my cell phone?

"When we bought our house in Amsterdam it had many modern features that I would never think of installing myself, but was always happy to have a fully automatic urinal, bulletproof glass windows, full climate control and fm transmitter for audio, just to name a few of the gadgets. We were also impressed with the Swedish toilets: You sit and the 'odor-fan' kicks in immediately. A button on the side 'irrigates' with warm water, followed by warm air to dry you off. Go ahead and laugh all you want, but now you too can own your own Curry Commode at a fraction of the price! This model straps-on to your existing seat for hours of hygienic fun." [CurryDotCom]

I didn't think I could be jealous of somebody else's toilet, but I am.

Today I got an email from Matt at Audible. It went out to some kind of a list, but it included two documents, an overview of the company and its services in general, and an overview of its services for libraries. When Matt spoke at our Tech Summit in September, only the Kalamazoo and Highland Community College libraries were actively circulating Audible titles. NOLA was just getting started, but now there are four more libraries on board the program. Here's their list, which is labeled as "partial":

King County, Washington
NOLA (Northern Ohio system)
Kalamazoo, MI
Broome County, NY
Carroll County, MD
Highland County, IL Community Coll.
Rochester, NY (Henrietta Branch)

In my previous post about Audible, I was thinking of the Kalamazoo Public Library, not King County. KPL has a page devoted to their MP3 audiobook program, and it includes first and second quarter reports (both in PDF format). Their program has also been wildly successful.

Also of interest in Audible's general overview document is continued progress towards something called "AudibleWireless," which provides "customized spoken audio content based on the customer's individual selections, delivered to a wireless device or accessed with an ordinary handset."

So the next time you see an ad for a cell phone or PDA that plays MP3s and you ask yourself why on earth anyone would want that, now you know. It's another type of "heavenly jukebox" digital content coming to you wherever you are via your wireless device. I wonder if Audible can partner with satellite radio companies in order to stream content of your choosing to your car or home stereo. Hey, Matt....

Two articles about a Girl Scout report that studied girls' use of the Internet. It's interesting to see the different takes on them.

Girl Scouts Survey Net Sex [at Wired News]

"Of the girls who said they were harassed, only 7 percent reported telling their parents what had happened. Thirty percent said they 'didn't tell anyone' about the incidents, and another 21 percent said that such harassment 'happens all the time and is no big deal.' Girls were reluctant to inform their parents, said Whitney Roban, the survey's senior researcher, because the teens are "worried they'll be blamed for what happened (and) that parents will take away their Internet connection."

"Teens aren't going to accept such "blanket prohibitions" against Internet use, added Harriet Mosatche, a child and adolescent psychologist also at the event. Fifty-eight percent of the girls surveyed by the Scouts considered themselves the savviest computer user in the household."

Girls Know Way Around Net, Parents [at USA Today]

"58% of girls say they are the savviest computer user at home; 14% say Mom knows the most, while 11% say Dad does." Go moms!

"Most girls say they can get around parents' rules; 86% say they can secretly chat, 57% can read parents' e-mail, and 54% can carry on a cyber love affair. Nearly half say they're able to set up an in-person meeting with an online friend (46%) and get into a porn site (42%), while 18% say they can hack into their school's computer."

Newspapers: Don't Blow It Again "A common theme heard throughout the conference -- as told by Saffo as well as many other speakers and participants -- was that the newspaper industry has got to "think different" from now on. We haven't done a good enough job of casting aside the old metaphors..." [at Editor & Publisher, via Tomalak's Realm]

"Think different" = shift. Because I quote liberally from this article, I put my thoughts on a separate page called Everybody Has to Shift.

I don't watch the "Stargate" TV series, so I was completely oblivious to the current controversy over it. Salon has an excellent article about the whoop-di-doo called Will Women Destroy Stargate? Ignore the incendiary title of the article and read it for what it tells you about bigcos and how they view their audiences (also called "customers"). This ties in nicely with Adam's trust issues that I discussed yesterday. It also shows the new reality for how customers react, a la the Cluetrain Manifesto. Next up, watching the demise of clue-less record companies.

Qualcomm's Vision of the Wireless Future "When he finished, there were 20 brand-new, CDMA-based mobile handsets and devices arrayed on the table, the high-tech souvenirs of Belk's most recent trip to Hong Kong and Japan.... 'These are not PowerPoint slides,' Belk said. 'These are real devices that are already shipping in volume in Asia.' " [at Business 2.0]

And there's the rub. When I do my presentations, that's all I have - pictures of prototypes or of devices not available in the U.S. Europe and Asia really are 18 months ahead of us in this area.

"Beale also discussed Qualcomm's gpsOne location technology.... It also opens the door for many new location-based services, such as traffic information and local weather forecasts. On Japan KDDI's network, there are already more than 20 location-based services available -- all of which are relatively inexpensive, costing less than $5 per month."

I'm looking forward to being able to travel and have information come to me automatically based on my location. For example, if I'm at a conference and I'm looking for a restaurant, I'd like my phone/PDA/whatever to know where I am and offer a list of nearby choices. Maybe it should tell me what movies or plays are on tonight and if there are still tickets available. You get the idea....

"Predictably, both Belk and Beale anticipate strong growth for the wireless industry as ever-more-compelling products and services become available and the industry settles on a single communication standard. How long will that take? Belk, whose career began in the personal computing business in 1983, likened the wireless industry today to the PC business of the 1980s. 'I wouldn't worry about the wireless industry yet, it's still relatively young,' he said. 'Just look how long it took the PC industry just to get to the point of standardized parallel cables.' "

Not to beat a dead horse, but the ebook industry is even younger than PCs, and PDAs have really only come into their own during the last few years. So don't count any of these technologies out just yet.

I talk about this in my Information Shifting presentation, but here's why you need to pay attention to digital audio titles, which right now means MP3s. You may have seen libraries that are integrating bib records for eBooks into their online catalogs (usually for netLibrary). Maybe you're even one of those libraries. All a patron has to do is search the catalog, view a record, and click on the link to the online version, all without leaving their PC.

So take that scenario one step further. Let's say I'm a patron that wants to borrow "Pomp and Circumstance" for a party for my new graduate. What if I can go to your catalog, search for it, click the link, and download it for a two-week loan period, all without leaving my PC. Now I don't have to come in to pick up a whole CD (that you hopefully have); I can just download the one song that I wanted.

Of course, that's if your library has access to digital files such as eBooks and MP3 audiobooks in order to circulate them. Don't ever forget that the bigcos don't want you to have that access.

And BTW, the King County Library System is also offering their patrons access to Books24x7 ebooks online. They are the baton twirlers at the head of the shifted parade.

Eric's been holding out on me. I thought his Libtech blog was on the Radio servers, but he's actually elsewhere and I've been missing his posts. Today he posted a link to an Eastside Journal opinion about the King County Library System's MP3 audiobook program. I'm a big proponent of both MP3 audiobooks and the company they are partnering with, Audible.com.

In fact, our SLS Tech Summit last September featured Audible, with presentations by both a rep from the company (thanks for coming that day, Matt!) and Eric Welch from Highland Community College Library (Eric is also circulating Audible titles on MP3 players). I'm still hoping to jump start a group discount for SLS libraries, but the KCLS program is a great model, as well as proof that this works.

As the Up for Library Innovation editorial notes, "Thumbs up for the King County Library System, which is continuing its record of being on the cutting edge of information services. The latest is acquiring 200 MP3 players that allow patrons to listen to audio books. The 3-ounce devices are much smaller than ordinary cassette tape or compact disc players. They can hold the equivalent of 20 cassettes and the material is merely downloaded onto the device. If you want to use one -- you can check one out for 28 days -- be prepared to stand in line behind 753 people who already have their names on the waiting list. The good news? The library will double the number of MP3 players by year's end."

If you want to see the presentations from last fall, find them on the SLS InfoTech site.

If you want to find out more about the wildly successful KCLS program, visit their eAudio site. They used to have their quarterly reports available online, but I can't find them now. I'll look it up tomorrow at work and see if I can track them down.

If you want to know if your library should pursue this, then just take my word for it and do it. You don't have to be a big library system to offer a new, quality service to your patrons. Trust me - they'll thank you for it.

I haven't visited Kottke in a few days (bad Jenny!), so I'm overwhelmed by new things to read and play with from his site. A sampling:

Developing a personal schema/taxonomy - me, too!
Line from an upcoming dot com movie starring Tom Cruise: You had me at "Hello, world." (I know, I know, you're not laughing because it's not that funny, but this *killed* at lunch the other day. Killed!)
James Gleick's forthcoming book
The Nutshell toolbar - I'm installing this at work and at home
Why I read Kottke

Watch Out for a New Watchphone "Samsung's SPH-S1OO 'watchphone' accepts voice commands so it can be used hands-free. It rings in different ways for different callers and automatically keys in preprogrammed letters or numbers to make quick work of logging into online services. There's also a 'Secret Phone Book' where every saved phone number can be used only after the person keys in a 4-digit code, according to the device's 112-page user manual.... The FCC go-ahead is instead a 'proof of the technology,' the spokesman said. He declined to say when and where the watchphone would be available." [at ZDNet]

The analyst is right that it will take a long time for something like this to take off, even if Samsung starts actually making them. However, can you imagine what it would be like to be a kid growing up with this kind of device widely available and inexpensive? Always connected to a 3G network? Talk about information shifting!

And speaking of Philips....

Dashboard surfing for the masses "Philips Semiconductors debuts a new chip it says will take the emerging niche of dashboard electronics beyond the realm of the luxury car. Analysts, however, are skeptical." [News.com]

I honestly believe that most Americans exposure to wireless convergence will begin in their cars.

John Robb thinks out loud about smart money. He's right - it's a "mini mind-bomb."

Web Journals by Pros Are a Font of Insight "Tech 'bloggers' (that's really what they call themselves) are most often industry pros who keep their Weblog as a hobby-something to do at 2:40 a.m. While some of the sites offer straight tech news, most are sprinkled with a lot of personality, authoritative firsthand information, and fresh insights. With so many tech magazines out of business (we're not naming names), these e-newsletters, once solely for tech heads, are becoming mandatory information sources for the mainstream." [at Fortune, via Scripting News]

This is what I was trying to say on the ILA RTSF list last week. I don't really read tech magazines anymore, and while I have a core set of mailing lists to which I'm subscribed, I get most of my news, tech tips, and insights from blogs now.

This is part of a larger phenomenon I've noticed in my life that I plan to write an essay about soon.

I have to leave soon because I'm going out of town overnight, so I'm just going to post links to some stuff. Sorry I don't have time to comment on them right now. First up:

You Can Surf, but You Can't Hide. "Software can already tell your friends when you log on or off. Now, "presence awareness" capabilities are being designed into other devices. Is this technology helpful or creepy?" [at NY Times]

Even though it won't be up for very long, I'll still point to this Chicago Tribune story explaining why the Olympic Games Won't Be Streaming onto the Web. [via Lockergnome] "The IOC's stance is an aberration at a time when sports leagues are increasingly turning to the Web as an alternative --and revenue-generating -- outlet for audio and video. Major league baseball sells subscriptions to a full season of games on Web radio, for example.'There are two main reasons,' said Stephane Kanah, Internet manager for the IOC. 'Today, there is not sufficient bandwidth or quality to show the emotions and to be able to view the competition properly.'"

Ahem. Again, feel free to laugh that they would even be quoted saying this.

" 'And most importantly, in order to protect our broadcasters' rights, especially those who are not broadcasting the games live ... we have restricted live videos until there is a technology that allows us to restrict access to videos [geographically].' "

Ding, ding, ding - it's all about the money.

"If viewers can get their fill of bobsledding or snowboarding races from a Web site, ratings and advertising revenue will drop. Broadcasters will bid less for the rights to the next Olympics, generating less money for the Games."

Isn't that a contradiction? Are they saying that it's possible for me to get my fill of bobsledding over the Web, but wait, not the "emotions," so I can't really get me fill. Right? Er. Um. I'm confused. Like you didn't see this coming: IOC = not shifted.

Renzo Riga: "The Boston Globe didn't update their page all night. Talk about missed opportunities and not knowing how to capitalize on new media." [via Scripting News]

Bad Globe, bad! Sooooo not shifted.

For your reading delectation, A Shifted Reading List. You can find it permanently in the navigation on the left.

More good stuff from USA Today: High school limits student cell phone use "Administrators say they have to draw the line somewhere to keep phones from becoming a distraction. By relaxing the rules, they say they're acknowledging that cell phones are an everyday part of life.... Students at Stevenson High School say they've seen some students breaking the new rules — using their phones in school bathrooms, for example. But they say phones that ring in classrooms more often belong to teachers. 'It's like the Internet — they wouldn't take away access to that,' says Stevenson senior Darren Nasatir. 'I e-mail my parents from school, and it's no big deal. Why should calling them be a big deal?'"

See how they equate cell phones and the Internet as communication mediums? For them, email is the same as calling someone. "Why would they take away access to that?"

Blah. Today I got an email from the Chicago Tribune asking me to register with them for access to all of their content and the ability to search seven measly days of the archive. I can't remember where, but I recently read a rant about the NY Times and how they should get rid of their silly registration process, and now the CT goes and joins them. Goodbye, CT. In this day and age, you should be thrilled that I'm coming to your site, not putting up barriers to my quest for information.

I hadn't seen the Beloit College Mindset List before, and I find it fascinating. In fact, this is very similar to something I do during my presentations - listing things kids today have and grew up with that folks in the room didn't grow up with. For the Class of 2005 list, "they were born the same year as the PC and the Mac," and "they have always had access to email." Think about that for a second, and you'll realize that these kids are truly information-shifted. [roundabout via the Interesting People list]

Here is a beta tester's review of the pay version of Napster. Note how there is absolutely no role, no way, no how for libraries in this model. :-\

Libraries have to get on the radar in order to have access to the "Heavenly Jukebox" of digital material. Consider this your wake-up call.