This 2008 paper by Charles W Bailey Jr is the most lucid explanation I've read of an author's rights, publisher agreements, self-archiving, open access, and associated copyright issues.
The paper is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Thursday, November 6, 2008
And another paper on ebooks
Titled Ex Libris' Response to the E-Book Focus Group Report: Recommendations and Requirements for E-Book Functionality, it was published by Ex Libris in June 2008.
It offers an interesting discussion of possible enhancements to ebook functionality to render ebooks more findable and usable.
The appendices cover ancillary topics including definition of an ebook, where ebooks fit into institutional strategies, findings from the University College, London, Superbook Project (using deep log analysis to see how users actually behave when using ebooks), future roles for university publishing, providing students with digitised core course readings, and the impact of open access.
It offers an interesting discussion of possible enhancements to ebook functionality to render ebooks more findable and usable.
The appendices cover ancillary topics including definition of an ebook, where ebooks fit into institutional strategies, findings from the University College, London, Superbook Project (using deep log analysis to see how users actually behave when using ebooks), future roles for university publishing, providing students with digitised core course readings, and the impact of open access.
The role of online books in supporting academic researcher productivity
Yet another paper on ebooks. This one is a white paper published by Elsevier.
In 2007 a number of academics from universities and research institutes in countries around the world was interviewed to find out how ebooks impact on the way they work.
They used a range of book types - reference works, handbooks, book series, monographs and textbooks.
Ebooks are seen as important for basic knowledge, well-established work and reference information, and they provide overviews of specific subject areas. The respondents' primary uses were reading up on new subject areas and preparing course materials. The pluses of ebooks are that they are more accessible and this increases productivity, and integration of ebooks with journals (where this is available) provides a broader perspective, especially when starting a new research project.
In 2007 a number of academics from universities and research institutes in countries around the world was interviewed to find out how ebooks impact on the way they work.
They used a range of book types - reference works, handbooks, book series, monographs and textbooks.
Ebooks are seen as important for basic knowledge, well-established work and reference information, and they provide overviews of specific subject areas. The respondents' primary uses were reading up on new subject areas and preparing course materials. The pluses of ebooks are that they are more accessible and this increases productivity, and integration of ebooks with journals (where this is available) provides a broader perspective, especially when starting a new research project.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Using leisure-based communication tools in an educational setting
This paper, written by Juliet Eve and Tara Brabazon, and published in the Journal of Literacy and Technology, volume 9, number 1. April 2008, pp. 36-61, hypothesises that, "when using platforms most frequently positioned in leisure-based environments, such as the iPod, text messaging, and discussion fora, there are institutional and ideological blockages to creating a successful learning experience and scholarly environment."
It was written after an incident in which a group of first year media and communications students attended a lecture and were shown a short video. Issues for discussion were given. The students then logged into their 'Virtual Classroom' (Blackboard, included an online chat room and discussion board) to discuss issues arising from the video.
Unfortunately some students hijacked the issues-related discussions between some other students using inappropriate language, despite the lecturer being online as well. Their language, and what they talked about, might have been acceptable in a peer-to-peer exchange about leisure activities, but it wasn't right for the learning and educational context.
The authors have provided an indepth review of previous writings on the impact of computer mediated communication on education, and a discussion on changes in the culture of education.
However, I couldn't help but wonder if the experience could have been turned around by making it an opportunity to raise awareness of communication styles being appropriate for any given context. Perhaps, too, some lessons on manners would not have gone astray!
It was written after an incident in which a group of first year media and communications students attended a lecture and were shown a short video. Issues for discussion were given. The students then logged into their 'Virtual Classroom' (Blackboard, included an online chat room and discussion board) to discuss issues arising from the video.
Unfortunately some students hijacked the issues-related discussions between some other students using inappropriate language, despite the lecturer being online as well. Their language, and what they talked about, might have been acceptable in a peer-to-peer exchange about leisure activities, but it wasn't right for the learning and educational context.
The authors have provided an indepth review of previous writings on the impact of computer mediated communication on education, and a discussion on changes in the culture of education.
However, I couldn't help but wonder if the experience could have been turned around by making it an opportunity to raise awareness of communication styles being appropriate for any given context. Perhaps, too, some lessons on manners would not have gone astray!
Preservation of ejournals - how far have we come?
Earlier this year (2008) Portico and Ithaka, with encouragement from the Portico Advisory Committee, surveyed library directors to fnd out their opinions on digital preservation of ejournals and to gauge their feelings on progress to date.
The resulting report, titled Digital preservation of e-journals in 2008: Urgent Action revisited, found that library directors believe that ejournal preservation is important. However, thinking it's important, and taking action to ensure it happens are two different things. Libraries were not involved in a preservation program for a range of reasons - wide range of opinions on how urgent the need is, wanting to wait, e-preservation is seen as complicated, who should do it, and competing priorities meaning that preservation has not become a strategic budgeting priority.
In conclusion, some questions were asked:
- who is responsible?
- when will the responsibility for such preservation be spread more widely than amongst the "trailblazers"?
- if libraries wait too long, will they run out of options?
- what can we do to simplify the preservation landscape?
- where does preservation sit in the priority scale?
The resulting report, titled Digital preservation of e-journals in 2008: Urgent Action revisited, found that library directors believe that ejournal preservation is important. However, thinking it's important, and taking action to ensure it happens are two different things. Libraries were not involved in a preservation program for a range of reasons - wide range of opinions on how urgent the need is, wanting to wait, e-preservation is seen as complicated, who should do it, and competing priorities meaning that preservation has not become a strategic budgeting priority.
In conclusion, some questions were asked:
- who is responsible?
- when will the responsibility for such preservation be spread more widely than amongst the "trailblazers"?
- if libraries wait too long, will they run out of options?
- what can we do to simplify the preservation landscape?
- where does preservation sit in the priority scale?
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
More on ebooks - they still have a way to go?
The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) has published a report on ebooks titled E-Books in Research Libraries: Issues of Access and Use.
After a brief history of ebooks (definitions, ebook readers,who invented ebooks, growing importance), the report discusses the themes drawn from a literature review. These include:
After a brief history of ebooks (definitions, ebook readers,who invented ebooks, growing importance), the report discusses the themes drawn from a literature review. These include:
- confusion and instability in the ebook market - vendors, technologies and business models are evolving;
- issues of access and management - licensing models can be grouped into broad categories including print, database, and open access;
- rights, values and strategies for management - libraries and vendors have differing values;
- differences between access and use of print books and ebooks and the impact on scholarship;
- use for interlibrary loan (or not);
- jurisdictional conflicts (as with journal licenses);
- how different licenses deal with reserves, multiple copies and persistent URLs;
- digital rights management (DRM) - a major difference between ebooks and ejournals; and
- impact on scholarship - the 'literature does show that ease of access and ease of use will determine the success of e-books in the academic environment'.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Cloud Computing
Background Briefing, on ABC Radio National on 14 September 2008, looked at cloud computing - the good, the not so good, and the ugly.
Stan Correy describes cloud computing as "taking the information off your laptop, off your desktop computer, out of your office, out of your home or apartment and putting it into giant data centres owned by Google and others."
So what's good about it? Well, it means that using the internet will be much simpler, as the applications and other programmes that you use do do whatever you do will be hosted somewhere out there and you won't have to worry about set up - just click and go. Furthermore, in theory big companies can get rid of their IT departments as all the work is done somewhere out there.
The ugly side is loss of privacy.
The bad is that the end user has no control over whether or not an application that's vital to what they do will continue to be available (see Kerry Webb's item about the disappearing Google Page Creator in the October 2008 issue of InCite.
The issue of cloud computing has come to the fore recently with the launch of Google's browser, Chrome, designed to make online life simpler and faster.
Stan Correy describes cloud computing as "taking the information off your laptop, off your desktop computer, out of your office, out of your home or apartment and putting it into giant data centres owned by Google and others."
So what's good about it? Well, it means that using the internet will be much simpler, as the applications and other programmes that you use do do whatever you do will be hosted somewhere out there and you won't have to worry about set up - just click and go. Furthermore, in theory big companies can get rid of their IT departments as all the work is done somewhere out there.
The ugly side is loss of privacy.
The bad is that the end user has no control over whether or not an application that's vital to what they do will continue to be available (see Kerry Webb's item about the disappearing Google Page Creator in the October 2008 issue of InCite.
The issue of cloud computing has come to the fore recently with the launch of Google's browser, Chrome, designed to make online life simpler and faster.
Monday, October 13, 2008
eBooks – The End User Perspective
This report discusses the findings of a survey by Springer of end users at five institutions to ascertain how they use ebooks and what they think of them.
The majority of users were aware of them (52-84%) and had used them at least once (58-80%). Users didn't always get to these ebooks via their library catalogue - many found them somewhere on the Internet, eg by using Google Book Search. They accessed these ebooks with 50-100% of the frequency with which they accessed online journals.
Most users accessed ebooks on a weekly or monthly basis, primarily for research or study rather than for leisure or teaching.
Age of an ebook's content appears to have little impact on usage levels.
Users liked the ease of finding and accessing an ebook (compared to print). They also liked being able to do keyword searches of ebooks for relevant content. The portability of ebooks was also an advantage.
Having to read on the screen was seen as a disadvantage, especially if reading cover to cover. However, when searching for specific information ebooks did have the edge.
Ebooks complement print books - both have a place, depending on needs, and print won't disappear soon.
The majority of users were aware of them (52-84%) and had used them at least once (58-80%). Users didn't always get to these ebooks via their library catalogue - many found them somewhere on the Internet, eg by using Google Book Search. They accessed these ebooks with 50-100% of the frequency with which they accessed online journals.
Most users accessed ebooks on a weekly or monthly basis, primarily for research or study rather than for leisure or teaching.
Age of an ebook's content appears to have little impact on usage levels.
Users liked the ease of finding and accessing an ebook (compared to print). They also liked being able to do keyword searches of ebooks for relevant content. The portability of ebooks was also an advantage.
Having to read on the screen was seen as a disadvantage, especially if reading cover to cover. However, when searching for specific information ebooks did have the edge.
Ebooks complement print books - both have a place, depending on needs, and print won't disappear soon.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Blogging - opening up non-Western cultures?
An article by Antony Loewenstein in the Weekend Australian Review sectoin (23-24 August, pages 6-7) suggests that bloggers in non-Western societies are providing a more balanced view of their cultures than we in the West are used to hearing.
He found that, 'blogs offered a window into mainly middle-class segments of societies rarely examined by the West.' They helped to elucidate such issues as what does a Saudi Arabian male thinks about his country's adherence to Wahhabism, how the average China user copes with multi-national-assisted filtering, and what is Cuba's likely future after Fidel Castro.
He also found that most people in these countries didn't want revolution, they wanted gradual change (reform), and they were actually quite happy with the way their countries were heading.
Loewenstein has written a book, 'The Blogging Revolution', about to be published by Melbourne University Press.
He found that, 'blogs offered a window into mainly middle-class segments of societies rarely examined by the West.' They helped to elucidate such issues as what does a Saudi Arabian male thinks about his country's adherence to Wahhabism, how the average China user copes with multi-national-assisted filtering, and what is Cuba's likely future after Fidel Castro.
He also found that most people in these countries didn't want revolution, they wanted gradual change (reform), and they were actually quite happy with the way their countries were heading.
Loewenstein has written a book, 'The Blogging Revolution', about to be published by Melbourne University Press.
Blogs - taking their place in the mainstream?
A recent article in the Australian Financial Review (Review section, pages 9-10, 29 August 08, 'Attention grabber with legal byte', by Andrew Keen) suggests that blogs are definitely taking their place in the mainstream world of journalism.
Keen discusses Ariana Huffington, a Greek-born American who in May 2005 launched the Huffington Post (HuffPost), a 'progressive news blog'. Contributors include Huffington's 'hand-picked network of celebrities and experts'. Most 'content is produced by unpaid contributors', many of them celebrities who gain by the exposure, so costs are low - there is a small number of paid staff, but nothing like the number employed by traditional news media. And these contributors' work is rarely edited - which saves on costs as well. Visits to the site are increasing, in comparison to traditional news media that aren't doing so well in the online world. But is it quality journalism?
Keen discusses Ariana Huffington, a Greek-born American who in May 2005 launched the Huffington Post (HuffPost), a 'progressive news blog'. Contributors include Huffington's 'hand-picked network of celebrities and experts'. Most 'content is produced by unpaid contributors', many of them celebrities who gain by the exposure, so costs are low - there is a small number of paid staff, but nothing like the number employed by traditional news media. And these contributors' work is rarely edited - which saves on costs as well. Visits to the site are increasing, in comparison to traditional news media that aren't doing so well in the online world. But is it quality journalism?
Monday, August 11, 2008
Learning Online
Fast learners, an article by Beverley Head in the June/July 2008 issue of Information Age (pp26-29) describes how companies and tertiary institutions are moving their teaching and learning environments online.
Wikis are being used as information radiators - academics in universities use them to radiate information out to students. Cochlear has been using wikis for project management.
e-learning can be done informally 'on the go', eg by participating in email listserv communities. TSA Telco Group uses e-learning systems to keep its staff up to date on OHS and EEO issues.
Online universities are starting to compete with physical uni campuses. MIT's Open Courseware (OCW) initiative makes online courses provided by traditional universities freely available. The courses are published under a Creative Commons licence agreement so the content may be reused and mixed (with approriate attribution) to construct education mashups. Wikipedia is establishing an online campus, Wikiversity.
Virtual worlds, of which Second Life is probably the best known, are being used more and more frequently for training by organisations, particularly where the cost of bringing trainers and employees together in the one physical location is expensive and environmentally unfriendly.
Wikis are being used as information radiators - academics in universities use them to radiate information out to students. Cochlear has been using wikis for project management.
e-learning can be done informally 'on the go', eg by participating in email listserv communities. TSA Telco Group uses e-learning systems to keep its staff up to date on OHS and EEO issues.
Online universities are starting to compete with physical uni campuses. MIT's Open Courseware (OCW) initiative makes online courses provided by traditional universities freely available. The courses are published under a Creative Commons licence agreement so the content may be reused and mixed (with approriate attribution) to construct education mashups. Wikipedia is establishing an online campus, Wikiversity.
Virtual worlds, of which Second Life is probably the best known, are being used more and more frequently for training by organisations, particularly where the cost of bringing trainers and employees together in the one physical location is expensive and environmentally unfriendly.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Travelling with Web 3.0?
Virtual journey, by Kendall Hill, outlines how 'intuitive and intelligent search engines' will enhance the would-be traveller's ability to plan the perfect trip online.
The article, published in June 2008's Financial Review Boss magazine, tells us that 'travel is the world's largest industry, accounting for 8% of global employment, 9% of capital investment, and 10% of GDP.' Moreover, 2007 was the first year in which more than half of all travel was booked online, in the US at least.
Web travel began with companies such as Flight Centre setting up shop online. Then user-generated sites such as Lonely Planet's forum Thorn Tree, with travellers' reviews, photos and recommendations, allowed prospective travellers to make their own decisions rather than having to rely on travel agents.
The next big thing, Hill says, will be Web 3.0's intelligent search engines that understand what you want and only deliver sites that fit your criteria. For example, a search for somewhere to ski in March would suggest only resorts that actually have snow in March and have space available. To put it another way, the websites will understand the context of a user's query, rather than just matching on keywords.
Also emerging are sites that try to tailor suggestions to your interests. Triporati, a website that asks you to indicate your interests and preferred activities, will make recommendations based on what you've said about yourself.
Also becoming more common are mobile travel appliances. The mobile phone is such an appliance - you can now have weather and flight time updates sent to your phone by SMS, and GPS software can help you find the nearest hotel.
The article, published in June 2008's Financial Review Boss magazine, tells us that 'travel is the world's largest industry, accounting for 8% of global employment, 9% of capital investment, and 10% of GDP.' Moreover, 2007 was the first year in which more than half of all travel was booked online, in the US at least.
Web travel began with companies such as Flight Centre setting up shop online. Then user-generated sites such as Lonely Planet's forum Thorn Tree, with travellers' reviews, photos and recommendations, allowed prospective travellers to make their own decisions rather than having to rely on travel agents.
The next big thing, Hill says, will be Web 3.0's intelligent search engines that understand what you want and only deliver sites that fit your criteria. For example, a search for somewhere to ski in March would suggest only resorts that actually have snow in March and have space available. To put it another way, the websites will understand the context of a user's query, rather than just matching on keywords.
Also emerging are sites that try to tailor suggestions to your interests. Triporati, a website that asks you to indicate your interests and preferred activities, will make recommendations based on what you've said about yourself.
Also becoming more common are mobile travel appliances. The mobile phone is such an appliance - you can now have weather and flight time updates sent to your phone by SMS, and GPS software can help you find the nearest hotel.
Wikepedia in the schools
An article in the Sydney Morning Herald by Stephen Hutcheon on 26 May tells us that NSW HSC students will be able to take a course in studying Wikipedia.
HSC students to get Wikipedia course says that Wikipedia has been listed by the NSW Board of Studies as a prescribed text for an elective course in the English syllabus for 2009-12. Wikipedia will be one of the texts that students choose to study to examine how the world's communities interact and communicate. The elective is called The Global Village. The course is intended to teach students the analytical skillls to be more discerning about web content.
HSC students to get Wikipedia course says that Wikipedia has been listed by the NSW Board of Studies as a prescribed text for an elective course in the English syllabus for 2009-12. Wikipedia will be one of the texts that students choose to study to examine how the world's communities interact and communicate. The elective is called The Global Village. The course is intended to teach students the analytical skillls to be more discerning about web content.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Facebook vs. LinkedIn: Which is better for business?
Preston Gralla and Jake Widman's article in Computer World describes 6 business scenarios and compares the use of the social networking sites, Facebook and LinkedIn, to solve them. These are:
- Look for a job without your boss knowing. The answer? It's a tie - LinkedIn seems to have better job search services but it's much easier to use Facebook anonymously for this sort of task.
- Find information about a job you're being interviewed for. The answer? LinkedIn - both sites are good for networking but LinkedIn provides more chances of finding and communicating with the right contacts.
- Find a contract worker for a 3-month Web project. Facebook comes out ahead here - its networking abilities are better and cheaper.
- Solicit ideas and discussion from team members. Facebook wins here too - it's set up to allow communication within groups of people while LinkedIn is focussed more on the individual.
- Get feedback on a nasty IT problem from peers outside the company. LinkedIn is superior here - it has an Answers area where you can post a question to your network, categorise it eg by subject and see what others say about it.
- Keep track of former associates. Another tie here - networking is what both these sites do.
All A-twitter
This short article by Rhea Kelly, published in Campus Technology on 1 March 2008 has some positive things to report about Twitter. (I was struggling to find much of a use for it, too!) She starts by lamenting the trend towards no longer reading books now that it's so much easier and quicker to read online sources such as blogs and so on.
She describes the experience of Dave Parry, an assistant professor at The University of Texas at Dallas. After using Twitter with his students he suggested that what it IS good for is - "getting a sense of the world (what people around the globe are paying attention to at any moment); tracking language trends (how a word is used from post to post, or how the 140-character limit can affect spelling, grammar and communication); and utilizing a "public notepad"(gaining inspiration from the creativity of others)."
Parry feels that Twitter "can enhance a sense of classroom community". Twittering students came to see their fellow students as real people and not just fellow students they saw for a short time each week. They were more likely to speak up in and out of class and, even when not in class, to continue to discuss isssues raised in class. This, Parry said, reinforced and connected the issues and the real world.
In conclusion, Kelly says she'll be twittering some book recommendations as a way of encouraging people to read, or read more.
She describes the experience of Dave Parry, an assistant professor at The University of Texas at Dallas. After using Twitter with his students he suggested that what it IS good for is - "getting a sense of the world (what people around the globe are paying attention to at any moment); tracking language trends (how a word is used from post to post, or how the 140-character limit can affect spelling, grammar and communication); and utilizing a "public notepad"(gaining inspiration from the creativity of others)."
Parry feels that Twitter "can enhance a sense of classroom community". Twittering students came to see their fellow students as real people and not just fellow students they saw for a short time each week. They were more likely to speak up in and out of class and, even when not in class, to continue to discuss isssues raised in class. This, Parry said, reinforced and connected the issues and the real world.
In conclusion, Kelly says she'll be twittering some book recommendations as a way of encouraging people to read, or read more.
Science 2.0 - Is Open Access Science the Future?
Or, to rephrase the question, is posting raw results online, for all to see, a great tool or a great risk?
M Mitchell Waldrop's article discusses how Web 2.0 tools enhance the ability of researchers to communicate, collaborate and cooperate. This article is a very positive look at scientists' use of tools such as blogs, wikis, and so on, and it suggests ways that they will fit with the traditional publication process.
Published in Scientific American Magazine, April 21, 2008.
M Mitchell Waldrop's article discusses how Web 2.0 tools enhance the ability of researchers to communicate, collaborate and cooperate. This article is a very positive look at scientists' use of tools such as blogs, wikis, and so on, and it suggests ways that they will fit with the traditional publication process.
Published in Scientific American Magazine, April 21, 2008.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
HULU & new trends in program distribution
This report on ABC Radio National's Media Report on Thursday 24 April 2008 segues well from the previous post on the future of television.
Anthony Funnell talked to James McQuivey, a senior media analyst with Forrester Research in Boston.
James recently attended the 2008 conference of the National Association of Broadcasters. He came away feeling that the organisation should be renamed something like the National Association of Video Programmers because that's what the so-called broadcasters are now doing - they're getting into internet-delivered television (IPTV).
So what's HULU? Well, Wikipedia already has an entry for it so you can get an idea there of what it's about. It's a combination of shows from multiple broadcasters (with ads, which helps to pay for it). Users can share videos, or just the bits of videos that they want to share. This in turn gets more people interested in the shows and makes them want to look for and try more, and ... viral marketing takes off.
Anthony and James then moved on to the deal between MySpace and a British-based production company that allows users to post their own home-grown videos. The production company then picks up on any that it thinks have potential as the basis of successful professionallly produced shows. It makes them up and then users who've seen the original think, "Oh, there's a show now based on that video I saw? I must try it." Result? Viral marketing takes off.
Anthony Funnell talked to James McQuivey, a senior media analyst with Forrester Research in Boston.
James recently attended the 2008 conference of the National Association of Broadcasters. He came away feeling that the organisation should be renamed something like the National Association of Video Programmers because that's what the so-called broadcasters are now doing - they're getting into internet-delivered television (IPTV).
So what's HULU? Well, Wikipedia already has an entry for it so you can get an idea there of what it's about. It's a combination of shows from multiple broadcasters (with ads, which helps to pay for it). Users can share videos, or just the bits of videos that they want to share. This in turn gets more people interested in the shows and makes them want to look for and try more, and ... viral marketing takes off.
Anthony and James then moved on to the deal between MySpace and a British-based production company that allows users to post their own home-grown videos. The production company then picks up on any that it thinks have potential as the basis of successful professionallly produced shows. It makes them up and then users who've seen the original think, "Oh, there's a show now based on that video I saw? I must try it." Result? Viral marketing takes off.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
TV's uncertain future
"Television and the internet are moving towards an intriguing hybrid", writes Michael Hirschon on the Review section of the AFR on Friday 11 April (page 1-2).
Traditional television viewing is a passive experience - we watch programmes in a sequence that's been decided for us. Yes, we have a choice of channels, especially if we've gone for cable television, but it's still passive viewing.
Hirschon predicts that in the future we'll be able to mix and match our own viewing, and in addition, we'll be able to edit it, 'poke at' it, comment on it, parody it, and rebroadcast it, using the internet to receive and deliver. We'll no longer be just viewers, we'll also be users. So "who gets paid by whom to deliver what to whom"? He cites the example of a friend who has dispensed with the TV and has set up the 20' iMac wide screen as a kind of home theatre, and is feeding it with content from iTunes, various other web-based media services and DVDs.
Will we get web-enabled TV sets that allow us to do all this?
Traditional television viewing is a passive experience - we watch programmes in a sequence that's been decided for us. Yes, we have a choice of channels, especially if we've gone for cable television, but it's still passive viewing.
Hirschon predicts that in the future we'll be able to mix and match our own viewing, and in addition, we'll be able to edit it, 'poke at' it, comment on it, parody it, and rebroadcast it, using the internet to receive and deliver. We'll no longer be just viewers, we'll also be users. So "who gets paid by whom to deliver what to whom"? He cites the example of a friend who has dispensed with the TV and has set up the 20' iMac wide screen as a kind of home theatre, and is feeding it with content from iTunes, various other web-based media services and DVDs.
Will we get web-enabled TV sets that allow us to do all this?
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Mouse clique that roars
Published in the Weekend Australian o April 5-6 2008 on Page 6, this article by Lauren Wilson discusses the ways that Generation Y enjoys an 'online culture of resistance and political art. Us baby boomers took to the streets with placards and not a little noise, but the young take to sites such as YouTube to make their points.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Will social networking make money for its providers?
An article in the March 29-30 2008 Australian Financial Review, weekend edition, page 34, reprinted from The Economist, thinks not. Currently most social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, are closed to all but it's own users. To see what someone has said, you need to be signed up to the service too.
So, maybe email, with its address books, calendars, contacts and inboxes that can link to and talk to almost anyone, may yet be the best social networking facility so far.
So, maybe email, with its address books, calendars, contacts and inboxes that can link to and talk to almost anyone, may yet be the best social networking facility so far.
The perils of work-related blogging
An article by Michael Orey in the March 29-30 2008 issue of the Australian Financial Review weekend edition, page 33, relates the sad story of a blogger and his blog, Patent Troll Tracker.
Patent trolls, in case you didn't know (I didn't) is "a derogatory term used to decribe businesses that make money by purchasing patents and then suing big companies for infringement."
The blogger described himself as a patent lawyer gathering info about patent litigation, but revealed no more about himself. His blog gained a reputation as a good source of information.
When unmasked, it turned out that he works for Cisco Systems, a company that doesn't like patent trolls. So his viewpoint was in line with company policy though Cisco did not sanction the blog, but now both he and his employer (he still works for Cisco) are on the receiving end of defamation law suits.
The moral of the story is - if blogging about company business, anonymity can lead to trouble.
Patent trolls, in case you didn't know (I didn't) is "a derogatory term used to decribe businesses that make money by purchasing patents and then suing big companies for infringement."
The blogger described himself as a patent lawyer gathering info about patent litigation, but revealed no more about himself. His blog gained a reputation as a good source of information.
When unmasked, it turned out that he works for Cisco Systems, a company that doesn't like patent trolls. So his viewpoint was in line with company policy though Cisco did not sanction the blog, but now both he and his employer (he still works for Cisco) are on the receiving end of defamation law suits.
The moral of the story is - if blogging about company business, anonymity can lead to trouble.
Friday, March 28, 2008
10 Tips for Injecting New Technology into Your Campus
This article, on the Campus Technology web site, gives ten such tips. It's based on the example of an actual project to introduce classroom clickers to faculty and students. It's a useful outline of how to address the all-too-common issues of "too busy" and "why learn another tool". The ten tips are:
- Move quickly, before preferences are staked out;
- Make the selection process inclusive of students, faculty and staff;
- Do the product research;
- Save time by skipping the pilot if you can;
- Get creative to gather feedback;
- Take your input to the vendor;
- Remember integration issues;
- Keep the initial group of adopters small;
- Be ready to transition support when you reach a tipping point in adoption; and
- Remember your goal.
7 things you should know about Google Apps
This is one of the "7 things you should know ..." series from Educause. The 7 things are:
- What it is - "a collection of web-based programs and file storage that run in a web browser, without requiring users to buy or install software";
- Who's doing it - especially higher ed students and institutions;
- How it works - via a web browser, with the ability to set permissions, see different versions of the documents, and much of the functionality is available on mobile devices;
- Why it's significant - saves costs (the institution doesn't need to provide IT support) and it's shareable;
- The downsides - loss of control, security ...;
- Where it's going - "increased integration across the family of Google companies"; and
- Implications for teaching and learning - facilitates building a more collaborative environment.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Facebook and the 'social graph'
An article published in the March/April 08 issue of Technology Review and titled Between Friends discusses the concept of the social graph and how sites like Facebook are proving the value of this concept.
This article is best viewed in colour as the colour graphics help in understanding what is meant by 'social graph'. It's about links between users and blogs (based on subject(s) in common), comments (one user commenting on content in another's online presence, eg MySpace), Twitter, IBM's Atlas (social networks in the workplace), and viral marketing (using consumers' social connections for marketing).
This article is best viewed in colour as the colour graphics help in understanding what is meant by 'social graph'. It's about links between users and blogs (based on subject(s) in common), comments (one user commenting on content in another's online presence, eg MySpace), Twitter, IBM's Atlas (social networks in the workplace), and viral marketing (using consumers' social connections for marketing).
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Facebook 101
This article, by Thomas Krivak is subtitled 'Ten Things You Need to Know About Facebook'. It gives a succinct overview of Facebook. The ten things are:
- Who is using Facebook? Numbers and %ages by age group, rate of joining, how much time is spent per day there;
- What can you find on Facebook? People's interests.
- Why are people using Facebook? It's an easy icebreaker, you can upload and share photos.
- What kinds of third-party programs can you add?
- What are advertisers doing there? Advertising - to quote one, they find it 'invaluable'.
- Who else is joining the Facebook network? It's not just college students, and political figures are there too.
- What groups are now on Facebook? Lots, including professional organisations.
- Why is Facebook so popular for sharing photos? Easy to upload. More photos than Flickr.
- How do you find old friends and new colleagues? It sounds easy.
- What about privacy? There are ways to avoid being visible to the whole world, but it's up to the user to implement them.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
The Wirearchy versus the Heirarchy
An article by Beverley Head titled 'Go with the Flow' and published on pages 34-36 of the November 2007 AFR Boss magazine discusses how knowledge within organisations is far more easily shared, so leading to a wider spread of power across and through these organisations.
The article quotes Jon Husband's definition of wirearchy: "a dynamic two-way flow of power and authority based on knowedge, trust and credibility, which is enabled by interconnected people and technology". An organisation's staff, suppliers and clients, now "easily connected by the internet", can "freely share information and opinions using a variety of tools from simple email to blogs or wikis."
Maybe there's nothing really new about this, given that organisations have long had both an official framework, usually an heirarchy, and an unofficial network of the "hubs, gatekeepers and enablers" who actually get things done. New tools just make it quicker and enable more people to have a say.
The article quotes Jon Husband's definition of wirearchy: "a dynamic two-way flow of power and authority based on knowedge, trust and credibility, which is enabled by interconnected people and technology". An organisation's staff, suppliers and clients, now "easily connected by the internet", can "freely share information and opinions using a variety of tools from simple email to blogs or wikis."
Maybe there's nothing really new about this, given that organisations have long had both an official framework, usually an heirarchy, and an unofficial network of the "hubs, gatekeepers and enablers" who actually get things done. New tools just make it quicker and enable more people to have a say.
The Horizon Report 2008
The New Media Consortiumand the Educause Learning Initiative collaborated to produce the 2008 Horizon Report. The report "seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, or creative expression within learning-focused organizations."
This report describes 6 emerging technologies or practices that are likely to become mainstream in such organizations over the next 1 to 5 years. For each technology/practice there is an overview, a discussion on its relevance for teaching, learning, and creative expression, examples, and links to further reading. The last includes a link to resources tagged on del.icio.us by the Horizon Advisory Board for the technology/practice, and readers are invited to add their own, appropriately tagged links. Also described are a set of challenges and trends that will probably influence us within the above time frame. The precise research methodology used to compile the report is described. So, on to the technologies ...
Time to adoption horizon: 1 year or less
1. Grassroots video, easily produced, edited and made available on the Web by anyone with the right hardware, software, and ideas.
2. Collaboration webs, using free or inexpensive web-based tools to set up collaborative workspaces, allow users to easily work, share resources and capture ideas.
Time to adoption horizon: 2 to 3 years
3. Mobile broadband, perhaps best illustrated by the statement that "mobiles are increasingly about networking on the go", with an ever-expanding variety of content.
4. Data mashups, web applications that combine data from a number of sources
Time to adoption horizon: 4 to 5 years
5. Collective intelligence can be explicit (such as Wikipedia) or tacit, resulting "from the data generated by the activities of many people over time", eg Google's PageRank system.
6. Social operating systems, of which Facebook and MySpace are precursors. Such systems recognise webs of links, both actual and potential between people.
The critical challenges identified by the Horizon Advisory Board members include:
- Significant shifts in scholarship, research, and creative expression leading to a need for innovation and leadership at all levels of the academy;
- Higher education facing a growing expectatin to deliver services, content and media to mobile and personal devices;
- The renewed emphasis on collaborative learning that is pushing the educational community to develop new forms of interaction and assessment; and
- The academy being faced with a need to provide formal instruction in information, visual and technological literacy as well as in how to create meaningful content with today's tools.
The significant trends identified include:
- The growing use of Web 2.0 and social networking, combined with collective intelligence and mass amateurization is gradually but inexorably changing the practice of scholarship;
- The way we work, collaborate, and communicate is evolving as boundaries become more fluid and globalization increases;
- Access to and portability of content is increasing as smaller, more powerful devices are produced; and
- The gap between students' perception of technology and that of faculty continues to widen.
Also in the Report is a reflection on the first five years of the Horizon Report. The topics identified each year have proved without exception to be "worthy of our attention". Three metatrends are becoming clear:
- The collective sharing and generation of knowledge;
- Connecting people throug the network; and
- Moving the computer into three dimensions.
The Report concludes by listing the 36 members of the 2008 Horizon Project Advisory Board. They come from higher education institutions around the world (including two from Australia), representatives of the New Media Consortium and Educause, and people from a number of private and public sector organisations.
The 2008 Horizon Report is well worth reading.
Post-script
The Horizon Report Australia-New Zealand Edition for 2008 was published subsequently. This report follows the same format as The Horizon Report 2008. It's "the first in a new series of regional reports and examines emerging technologies as they appear in and affect higher education in Australia and New Zealand in particular."
Key trends include production of mobile phones "driving innovation and adoption of ever more capable portable devices", "an increasingly important set of influences from the workplace that are impacting how learning is designed and conducted", the increasing connectedness of people is continuing to reduce collaboration costs, and the set of technologies available to educators increases as both computers and the network increase in connectedness and capability.
Critical challenges include protectionism limiting "access to materials, ideas and collaborative opportunities", teachers lacking skills needed to make use of emerging technologies and teach their students how to do so, need for assessment before adoption, and poor quality broadband limiting options.
Technologies to watch include:
A. Time to adoption horizon one year or less:
1. virtual worlds and other immersive digital environments;
2. cloud-based applications;
B. Time to adoption horizon two to three years:
3. geolocation;
4. alternative input devices;
C. Time to adoption horizon four to five years:
5. deep tagging; and
6. next-generation mobile.
As with the original 2008 report, or each technology there is an overview, a discussion on its relevance for teaching, learning, and creative expression, examples, and links to further reading. The last includes a del.icio.us-tagged resources and readers may add to these.
Finally, the methodology is described and the members of the ANZ advisory board are listed.
Again, this report is well worth reading.
This report describes 6 emerging technologies or practices that are likely to become mainstream in such organizations over the next 1 to 5 years. For each technology/practice there is an overview, a discussion on its relevance for teaching, learning, and creative expression, examples, and links to further reading. The last includes a link to resources tagged on del.icio.us by the Horizon Advisory Board for the technology/practice, and readers are invited to add their own, appropriately tagged links. Also described are a set of challenges and trends that will probably influence us within the above time frame. The precise research methodology used to compile the report is described. So, on to the technologies ...
Time to adoption horizon: 1 year or less
1. Grassroots video, easily produced, edited and made available on the Web by anyone with the right hardware, software, and ideas.
2. Collaboration webs, using free or inexpensive web-based tools to set up collaborative workspaces, allow users to easily work, share resources and capture ideas.
Time to adoption horizon: 2 to 3 years
3. Mobile broadband, perhaps best illustrated by the statement that "mobiles are increasingly about networking on the go", with an ever-expanding variety of content.
4. Data mashups, web applications that combine data from a number of sources
Time to adoption horizon: 4 to 5 years
5. Collective intelligence can be explicit (such as Wikipedia) or tacit, resulting "from the data generated by the activities of many people over time", eg Google's PageRank system.
6. Social operating systems, of which Facebook and MySpace are precursors. Such systems recognise webs of links, both actual and potential between people.
The critical challenges identified by the Horizon Advisory Board members include:
- Significant shifts in scholarship, research, and creative expression leading to a need for innovation and leadership at all levels of the academy;
- Higher education facing a growing expectatin to deliver services, content and media to mobile and personal devices;
- The renewed emphasis on collaborative learning that is pushing the educational community to develop new forms of interaction and assessment; and
- The academy being faced with a need to provide formal instruction in information, visual and technological literacy as well as in how to create meaningful content with today's tools.
The significant trends identified include:
- The growing use of Web 2.0 and social networking, combined with collective intelligence and mass amateurization is gradually but inexorably changing the practice of scholarship;
- The way we work, collaborate, and communicate is evolving as boundaries become more fluid and globalization increases;
- Access to and portability of content is increasing as smaller, more powerful devices are produced; and
- The gap between students' perception of technology and that of faculty continues to widen.
Also in the Report is a reflection on the first five years of the Horizon Report. The topics identified each year have proved without exception to be "worthy of our attention". Three metatrends are becoming clear:
- The collective sharing and generation of knowledge;
- Connecting people throug the network; and
- Moving the computer into three dimensions.
The Report concludes by listing the 36 members of the 2008 Horizon Project Advisory Board. They come from higher education institutions around the world (including two from Australia), representatives of the New Media Consortium and Educause, and people from a number of private and public sector organisations.
The 2008 Horizon Report is well worth reading.
Post-script
The Horizon Report Australia-New Zealand Edition for 2008 was published subsequently. This report follows the same format as The Horizon Report 2008. It's "the first in a new series of regional reports and examines emerging technologies as they appear in and affect higher education in Australia and New Zealand in particular."
Key trends include production of mobile phones "driving innovation and adoption of ever more capable portable devices", "an increasingly important set of influences from the workplace that are impacting how learning is designed and conducted", the increasing connectedness of people is continuing to reduce collaboration costs, and the set of technologies available to educators increases as both computers and the network increase in connectedness and capability.
Critical challenges include protectionism limiting "access to materials, ideas and collaborative opportunities", teachers lacking skills needed to make use of emerging technologies and teach their students how to do so, need for assessment before adoption, and poor quality broadband limiting options.
Technologies to watch include:
A. Time to adoption horizon one year or less:
1. virtual worlds and other immersive digital environments;
2. cloud-based applications;
B. Time to adoption horizon two to three years:
3. geolocation;
4. alternative input devices;
C. Time to adoption horizon four to five years:
5. deep tagging; and
6. next-generation mobile.
As with the original 2008 report, or each technology there is an overview, a discussion on its relevance for teaching, learning, and creative expression, examples, and links to further reading. The last includes a del.icio.us-tagged resources and readers may add to these.
Finally, the methodology is described and the members of the ANZ advisory board are listed.
Again, this report is well worth reading.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Imagining Tomorrow's Future Today
This article by Art St George and the Educause Evolving Technologies Committee reports on the seven evolving technologies that they consider are having the most direct impact on higher education. The report is based on the white papers written by individual members of the committee. These white papers can be found on the Evolving Technologies Committee web site.
- The Web in 2007: It's not Just a Browser, It's a Platform. Not only do we have APIs (application programming interfaces) and mashups, we also have RIAs (rich internet applications) - tools that can be moved out of the browser and onto the desk top. RIAs could become the 'balance point that joins the advantages of Web and Internet access with the "user experience" of desktop applications.'
- Integrating Google Apps for Higher Education. These Apps range from Gmail to Google Groups and GoogleSketchUP6 and they can be used to enhance collaborative learning. They're part of the whole Web 2.0 environment - users can publish, discuss and become part of the content.
- The Evolution of Web Conferencing. This technology 'provides a way for individuals and groups to bridge distances and to communicate in exciting new ways."
- M-Learning. In this context it means portable and personal technology and its use in higher education can produce much greater flexibility and enhanced communication.
- 3D Printing: Turning Virtual Models into Hard Copy. This can add a tactile experience to design work.
- Virtualization: Applications, Systems, and Beyond. Allows for greater customisation in the delivery of applications.
- Information Lifecycle Management and Physical Storage Technologies for Digital Preservation. As increasing amounts of material is digitised, or born digital, ways of preserving it for the long term become increasingly necessary.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Let's share
Another article in the AFR of 18/1/08 is titled 'Social sites must learn to share'. It's on page 79. It highlights the problems associated with transferring your content from one social networking site to another. For example, you might want to move from MySpace to Facebook or Twitter, or transfer your photos from Yahoo! Flickr to Google's Picasa, but the current lack of standards mean it's almost impossible to do so.
Companies that own these sites may be reluctant to allow this, but users are saying that they (the users) own their friendships, not the sites.
There's now an Australian-based working group, Dataportability.org, that's 'aimed at creating and promoting open standards for personal data across the internet'. One member of this group is quoted as predicting that the company that's the first to allow such data portability is in a powerful position as users would become committed to such as site, knowing that they can move in the future if they wish.
Companies that own these sites may be reluctant to allow this, but users are saying that they (the users) own their friendships, not the sites.
There's now an Australian-based working group, Dataportability.org, that's 'aimed at creating and promoting open standards for personal data across the internet'. One member of this group is quoted as predicting that the company that's the first to allow such data portability is in a powerful position as users would become committed to such as site, knowing that they can move in the future if they wish.
Offices Face up to networking craze
The Aust Fin Review from 18 January 2008 has an article on the use of Facebook in the workplace (see Pages 1, 57). For example, Qantas group QF Crew is for staff using it to swap stories about their 'high-flying workplace'. Then there's the Qantas Flight Atendants group for, you guessed it, flight attendants.
In some workplaces Facebook is now seen as a third means of communication (the others being email and phone). Members can include senior staff and board directors - this is especially likely in 'knowledge work' in industries such as consulting, legal and financial services.
Included in the article is a table of Australian based companies showing their attitudes to the use of Facebook in the workplace. These range from 'official corporate presence' to 'tolerates it' and 'bans it', plus one company, AMP, which is believed to be working on an alternative.
Those that ban it cite reasons such as time spent on the site and the effect on bandwidth of 'content-heavy' pages. Most of those that tolerate it provided employees' use doesn't breach internet usage guidelines. Some use it as a way to communicate with staff and customers. Some are also investigating developing their own internal facilities because of the potential value as a team space.
One concern cited is that of security, that is, the potential for sensitive or confidential company information to be inadvertently revealed to the world.
However, 'ultimately, if there is one message that corporate Facebooks users commonly espouse, it is that the technology and social networking are here to stay'.
In some workplaces Facebook is now seen as a third means of communication (the others being email and phone). Members can include senior staff and board directors - this is especially likely in 'knowledge work' in industries such as consulting, legal and financial services.
Included in the article is a table of Australian based companies showing their attitudes to the use of Facebook in the workplace. These range from 'official corporate presence' to 'tolerates it' and 'bans it', plus one company, AMP, which is believed to be working on an alternative.
Those that ban it cite reasons such as time spent on the site and the effect on bandwidth of 'content-heavy' pages. Most of those that tolerate it provided employees' use doesn't breach internet usage guidelines. Some use it as a way to communicate with staff and customers. Some are also investigating developing their own internal facilities because of the potential value as a team space.
One concern cited is that of security, that is, the potential for sensitive or confidential company information to be inadvertently revealed to the world.
However, 'ultimately, if there is one message that corporate Facebooks users commonly espouse, it is that the technology and social networking are here to stay'.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Work <--> Social online
An article in USA today, Social, work lives collide on networking websites, starts with the story of Wadooah Wali who, after her marriage, changed her status on Facebook and MySpace to 'married' and posted some pictures of her new partner.
Congratulations and best wishes from family and friends poured in. Then there was a short comment ('nice pictures') from a little-known professional contact. Wali realised that her work and social circles had intersected and that privacy as we know it offline doesn't extend to online and social networking sites.
The article goes on to discuss how easy it is to befriend people, even comparative strangers, online, and how this 'friendship' can open up your personal information to a wider and wider audience. And these friends can add information to your pages - information that may be derogatory, uncomplimentary, or just not nice.
Now Facebook and MySpace plan to allow users to 'manage' their friends, separate them into different groups, and decide what and how much information these groups can see.
Or should we just become more open and transparent about what we share online if we feel the benefits outweigh the risks?
(Maybe you're wondering why Wali was concerned that a professional contact had seen her wedding news. Her partner is a woman, and she was apprehensive that knowledge of her sexual orientation might cause some work colleagues to react negatively towards her.)
Congratulations and best wishes from family and friends poured in. Then there was a short comment ('nice pictures') from a little-known professional contact. Wali realised that her work and social circles had intersected and that privacy as we know it offline doesn't extend to online and social networking sites.
The article goes on to discuss how easy it is to befriend people, even comparative strangers, online, and how this 'friendship' can open up your personal information to a wider and wider audience. And these friends can add information to your pages - information that may be derogatory, uncomplimentary, or just not nice.
Now Facebook and MySpace plan to allow users to 'manage' their friends, separate them into different groups, and decide what and how much information these groups can see.
Or should we just become more open and transparent about what we share online if we feel the benefits outweigh the risks?
(Maybe you're wondering why Wali was concerned that a professional contact had seen her wedding news. Her partner is a woman, and she was apprehensive that knowledge of her sexual orientation might cause some work colleagues to react negatively towards her.)
Monday, January 21, 2008
Information behaviour of the researcher of the future
This ciber briefing paper, commissioned by JISC and The British Library, suggests that the term 'Google Generation' is a myth. The paper was based on a literature review plus some new primary data from a study of how people actually use the British Library and JISC websites.
The study investigated whether young people (the Google generation) are searching for and researching content in new ways, and if they are, whether this is likely to shape their future behaviour as mature researchers. Will these new ways be any different to the ways that current researchers and scholars work?
They found that typical information seeking behaviours are diverse, and include skimming, spending a lot of time online just navigating, browsing rather than in-depth reading of a document, lots of downloading a lot of content but not necessarily spending a lot of time reading that content, and relying on favoured brands such as Google.
Young people, the authors concluded, spend little time evaluating what they find, they have a poor understanding of their information needs, they use natural language rather than analysing their needs to identify relevant keywords, they don't necessarily understand how the internet is structured, and they may find library resources unintuitive to use - they prefer Google or Yahoo for their simplicity and familiarity.
Young people like the social networking aspect of the internet, but for socialising, not for study and work.
A number of assumptions about the Google generation are discussed and are found wanting in many cases, and often not unique to this generation - "In a real sense, we are all Google generation now".
The message for librarians and others is that we need to make our resources as easy to use as possible, and these resources should be better integrated with commercial search engines. More effort needs to be invested in ensuring that young people acquire appropriate levels of information and digital literacy skills at an early age.
The study investigated whether young people (the Google generation) are searching for and researching content in new ways, and if they are, whether this is likely to shape their future behaviour as mature researchers. Will these new ways be any different to the ways that current researchers and scholars work?
They found that typical information seeking behaviours are diverse, and include skimming, spending a lot of time online just navigating, browsing rather than in-depth reading of a document, lots of downloading a lot of content but not necessarily spending a lot of time reading that content, and relying on favoured brands such as Google.
Young people, the authors concluded, spend little time evaluating what they find, they have a poor understanding of their information needs, they use natural language rather than analysing their needs to identify relevant keywords, they don't necessarily understand how the internet is structured, and they may find library resources unintuitive to use - they prefer Google or Yahoo for their simplicity and familiarity.
Young people like the social networking aspect of the internet, but for socialising, not for study and work.
A number of assumptions about the Google generation are discussed and are found wanting in many cases, and often not unique to this generation - "In a real sense, we are all Google generation now".
The message for librarians and others is that we need to make our resources as easy to use as possible, and these resources should be better integrated with commercial search engines. More effort needs to be invested in ensuring that young people acquire appropriate levels of information and digital literacy skills at an early age.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
The 2007 Australian Federal Election on the Internet
This paper, by Edgar Crook, Senior Librarian Web Archiving Section, at the National Library of Australia, discusses the use of the Internet in the election, and outlines some of the challenges associated with archiving the associated internet sites.
The internet tools used included web sites (eg parties, newspapers), online videos, YouTube, FaceBook and MySpace.
There is also a comparison of how, and how effectively, the different parties used the internet.
The internet tools used included web sites (eg parties, newspapers), online videos, YouTube, FaceBook and MySpace.
There is also a comparison of how, and how effectively, the different parties used the internet.
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