Thursday, March 8, 2007

Wiki Use in Libraries. Want to know more about Wiki use in libraries? Check out week 3 of the Five Weeks to a Social Library course. Most of the content here is open access either as podcasts or screencasts. http://www.sociallibraries.com/course/week3 [EDUCAUSE CONNECT blogs] 3:16:21 PM      Google It!.

Google Maps Unveils New Local Business Features. dhinckley writes "Google Maps has added some new features including pictures of the front of the locations you're searching for. Additionally, Local Businesses can enter custom information about their companies including pictures, websites, what type of payment they accept, and even offer coupons through Google Maps."[Slashdot] 3:13:07 PM      Google It!.

C-SPAN Adopts Creative Commons-Style License. Trillian_1138 writes "C-SPAN, a network in the US dedicated to airing governmental proceedings, has adopted a Creative Commons-style license for all its content. This follows the network claiming Speaker of the House Pelosi's use of C-Span videos on her site violated their copyright. Specifically, 'C-SPAN is introducing a liberalized copyright policy for current, future, and past coverage of any official events sponsored by Congress and any federal agency [~] about half of all programming offered on the C-SPAN television networks [~] which will allow non-commercial copying, sharing, and posting of C-SPAN video on the Internet, with attribution.' Here is the press release. The question remains whether videos of governmental proceedings should be public domain by default or whether the attribution requirement is reasonable in the face of easy video copying and distribution."[Slashdot] 12:23:08 PM      Google It!.

Adobe Tackles Photo Forgeries. Several readers wrote in with a Wired story about the work Adobe is doing to detect photo forgery. They are working with Canon and Reuters (which suffered massive bad publicity last year over a doctored war photo) and a professor from Dartmouth. (Here is Reuters's policy on photo editing.) Adobe plans to produce a suite of photo-authentication tools based on the work of Hany Farid (PDF) for release in 2008.[Slashdot] 8:39:10 AM      Google It!.

Samsung Ships Hybrid Hard Drives. writertype writes "ExtremeTech reports that Samsung has become the first company to begin shipping hybrid hard drives as discussed last fall on Slashdot. (Some photos here.) Unfortunately, there's no word yet (beyond 'soon') on when retail shipments will begin, or when (or if) 3.5-inch models will be available. Note that these hybrid drives are different than the ReadyBoost USB flash drives optimized for Vista; hybrid drives contain a smaller amount of flash, and work as a write cache for your notebook drive, extending battery life."[Slashdot] 8:35:10 AM      Google It!.