It's rare to find someone who has researched weblogs thoroughly enough to really know what they're talking about, yet has managed not to succumb to the contagious enthusiasm surrounding the phenomenon. This three-page report features lots of links, with quite a few that were new to me. Plus, the authors grant me one of their weekly awards. Here's a quote to spark your interest:
we suspect that the blog phenomenon is about to peak and that most will soon be stored in the part of cyberspace dedicated to hula hoops, pogo sticks and other fashions that reached their use-by date.
I'll let you read and think about it for yourself before I comment.
"This essay at the 'Disenchanted' website includes the following summary:
A robotic descendant of an ancient library's servants forces a new generation to learn some skills that they just don't teach in school, these days.
But that doesn't do the article justice. The author begins by comparing the Library of Alexandria's practice of stealing books from incoming vessels to Google's spiders caching webpages. Later, he or she talks about common fallacies reported in schools and other reputable sources, and shows that Google often has more and better material refuting these than supporting them.
I don't know if I'm doing the article justice either, but trust me. You want to read this." [LISNews.com]
Want to buy Mitnick's laptop?. Mitnick, 39, pleaded guilty in March 2000 to wire fraud, computer fraud and intercepting communications. Under supervised release, which ends January 21, 2003, he has permission to use a cell phone and computer, but not the Internet. … Officials gave him permission to write a book, titled "The Art of Deception," which features a foreword by Wozniak. Due to go on sale October 25, the book describes how people can get sensitive information without even stepping near a computer through "social engineering" -- the use of manipulation or persuasion to deceive people by convincing them that you are someone else. [Smart Mobs]
NAWeb 2002 Blog. This is a bit of an experiment, but the conference has wireless access, and it only took a half hour to set this up, so it's worth a try. I have created a blog, linked to here, for the NAWeb 2002 conference. Anybody at the conference will be able to post updates to the blog (I'll post the information or if I'm lucky Rik will announce it). I am also bringing my webcam and will be sending live pics to the blog every 30 seconds or so from my computer. If it works we should have a great running commentary of the conference. If it doesn't work, I'm sure I'll learn some lessons (and you'll still get my blogs, so it's not a total wash). What will be really interesting is blogging (and webcamming) my own presentation Sunday as I give the presentation. The preconference starts Saturday and the conference itself runs Monday and Tuesday; I will start the blog Saturday evening or so. [OLDaily]
I have an answer: movie buffs. Not only have fans moved almost all of music into the digital era, they have been busy moving hundreds of millions of documents onto the Web and are producing millions of pages of daily reporting and news in Weblogs. And without the help of paralyzed publishers, avid readers have already converted nearly 20,000 books in the public domain. [Smart Mobs]
Wikipedia is another fine example of ordinary folks taking charge of building a digital commons.
