Tagging

Del.icio.us, Technorati, and LibraryThing I had heard of before but didn't really understand how they worked or how to use them. I had a tagging epiphany when I realized I could tag my LibraryThing collection. Right now I have a book that I write down titles of books I've read or I'd like to read. I started it when I worked at the library because I couldn't possibly read all of the books I checked out but I wanted to refer back to them if needed. I tried to organize the titles by subject or genre (dream house, children's, etc.) but quickly got into the cataloger's dilemna of one book-one place. Now I can catalog my one book in multiple places by tagging it with multiple subjects!

Frenz

Making friends on MySpace is confusing.... do I click on the "Invite" tab? or the "friend requests" box? I've used MySpace before and it just doesn't get any easier. The comparison that teens use MySpace like we use the telephone for communication was effective.

I've used other social networking sites more successfully - Goodreads.com for sharing books among friends and Linkedin.com is one my fellow students at the iSchool are going to try to use to keep in touch after we all graduate.

Blogs n Feeds

The thing about picking a couple of blogs from the KCLS participants was I didn't know who anybody's blog was. So I just asked some people what they called their blob and subscribed to it.

On the RSS feeds... that was pretty cool. I don't know when I'll get around to reading all the RSS feeds and blogs I subscribed to ....

I looked through topix and thought it was annoying because you have to click on the post to find out when it was posted. I clicked through the different statistics on syndic8 which I thought might be interesting for somebody else but then I found a feed I liked i nthe "200 most recently pinged feeds".

Mashups

I loved the trading card Mashup. I think it would make a great party favor or even Christmas card!
http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/deck.php
I liked the spelling one too.
http://metaatem.net/words/

Wooster Collective

, originally uploaded by lepublicnme.

This photo is from Flickr from "lepublicnme". I've gone to www.woostercollective.com to look at the art but I never thought of looking for the art from The Wooster Collective on Flickr. It took me a while to figure out how to post the photo on my blog. When I tried the option of downloading the photo from Blogger I just got a little box with a red X and no picture. This time I tried "Blog this Photo" from Flickr. I hope it works!

lepublicnme - Art from the Wooster Collective

Pirates Beware!

You may be convicted of "Attempted" copyright infringement!!!

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9719339-7.html

They are going to need to build a LOT more jails.

On the plus side, we can all look forward to some great episodes of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report from our jail cells while we're serving life sentences. That might make it all worthwhile. :-)

Gonzales proposes new crime: 'Attempted' copyright infringement

Posted by Declan McCullagh

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is pressing the U.S. Congress to enact a sweeping intellectual-property bill that would increase criminal penalties for copyright infringement, including "attempts" to commit piracy.

"To meet the global challenges of IP crime, our criminal laws must be kept updated," Gonzales said during a speech before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington on Monday.

The Bush administration is throwing its support behind a proposal called the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007, which is likely to receive the enthusiastic support of the movie and music industries, and would represent the most dramatic rewrite of copyright law since a 2005 measure dealing with prerelease piracy.

Here's our podcast on the topic.

The IPPA would, for instance:

* Criminalize "attempting" to infringe copyright. Federal law currently punishes not-for-profit copyright infringement with between 1 and 10 years in prison, but there has to be actual infringement that takes place. The IPPA would eliminate that requirement. (The Justice Department's summary of the legislation says: "It is a general tenet of the criminal law that those who attempt to commit a crime but do not complete it are as morally culpable as those who succeed in doing so.")

* Create a new crime of life imprisonment for using pirated software. Anyone using counterfeit products who "recklessly causes or attempts to cause death" can be imprisoned for life. During a conference call, Justice Department officials gave the example of a hospital using pirated software instead of paying for it.

* Permit more wiretaps for piracy investigations. Wiretaps would be authorized for investigations of Americans who are "attempting" to infringe copyrights.

* Allow computers to be seized more readily. Specifically, property such as a PC "intended to be used in any manner" to commit a copyright crime would be subject to forfeiture, including civil asset forfeiture. Civil asset forfeiture has become popular among police agencies in drug cases as a way to gain additional revenue, and it is problematic and controversial.

* Increase penalties for violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's anticircumvention regulations. Criminal violations are currently punished by jail times of up to 10 years and fines of up to $1 million. The IPPA would add forfeiture penalties.

* Add penalties for "intended" copyright crimes. Certain copyright crimes currently require someone to commit the "distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period of at least 10 copies" valued at more than $2,500. The IPPA would insert a new prohibition: actions that were "intended to consist of" distribution.

* Require Homeland Security to alert the Recording Industry Association of America. That would happen when CDs with "unauthorized fixations of the sounds, or sounds and images, of a live musical performance" are attempted to be imported. Neither the Motion Picture Association of America nor the Business Software Alliance (nor any other copyright holder, such as photographers, playwrights or news organizations, for that matter) would qualify for this kind of special treatment.

A representative of the Motion Picture Association of America told us: "We appreciate the department's commitment to intellectual-property protection and look forward to working with both the department and Congress as the process moves ahead."

What's still unclear is the kind of reception this legislation might encounter on Capitol Hill. Gonzales may not be terribly popular, but Democrats do tend to be more closely aligned with Hollywood and the recording industry than is the GOP. (A few years ago, Republicans even savaged fellow conservatives for allying themselves too closely with copyright holders.)

On behalf of Rep. Howard Berman, the California Democrat who heads the House Judiciary subcommittee that focuses on intellectual property, a representative said the congressman is reviewing proposals from the attorney general and others. The aide said the Hollywood politician plans to introduce his own intellectual-property enforcement bill later this year but that his office is not prepared to discuss any details yet.

One key Republican was less guarded. "We are reviewing (the attorney general's) proposal. Any plan to stop IP theft will benefit the economy and the American worker," said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the House Judiciary committee. "I applaud the attorney general for recognizing the need to protect intellectual property."

Still, it's too early to tell what might happen. A similar copyright bill that Smith, the RIAA and the Software and Information Industry Association enthusiastically supported last April never went anywhere.

CNET News.com's Anne Broache contributed to this blog.

Encyclopedia of Life

I heard about this through a listserv at the iSchool:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199500715

they only have demo pages up right now, but they are very shiny.
Encyclopedia of Life:
http://www.eol.org/


Encyclopedia Of Life Debuts

The educational Web reference site is designed to document all 1.8 million species of plants and animals on the planet.

By Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek
May 10, 2007 03:00 PM

A group of scientific organizations on Wednesday launched the Encyclopedia of Life, an educational Web reference designed to document all 1.8 million species of plants and animals on the planet.

The Field Museum of Natural History, Harvard University, Marine Biological Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, and Biodiversity Heritage Library came together to launch the project, backed by a $10 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and $2.5 million from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

"The Encyclopedia of Life will provide valuable biodiversity and conservation information to anyone, anywhere, at any time," said Dr. James Edwards, executive secretary of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility who on Wednesday was named executive director of the Encyclopedia of Life, in a statement.

Edwards said that five years ago, scientists would have been unable to create such a resource and that advances in search, information presentation, and annotation made the project possible.

The Encyclopedia of Life entries will be created over the next 10 years as moderated wiki pages. They will include images, video, audio, maps, and other multimedia information when available. The focus initially will be on species of animals, plants, and fungi. Microbes may be covered in the future.

The Encyclopedia of Life will eventually feature "my eol" personalization tools. It plans to partner with other scientific and educational organizations around the globe to further understanding of life on Earth.

Cover Your Internet Tracks

Are you concerned about the internet archiving every electronic move you make? Every purchase, every search, every email... Here's a tool to cover your tracks

"TrackMeNot is a lightweight browser extension that helps protect web searchers from surveillance and data-profiling by search engines. It does so not by means of concealment or encryption (i.e. covering one's tracks), but instead, paradoxically, by the opposite strategy: noise and obfuscation."

http://mrl.nyu.edu/~dhowe/trackmenot/

Other privacy concerns resources from the same folks at:

http://www.nyu.edu/projects/valuesindesign/nyuportia.html

Hollywood Librarian

Support production of the documentary film "The Hollywood Librarian" ...

I recieved this forward from a Harvard student from a listserv at the iSchool at UofW:

I've started a Facebook group for supporters of the documentary film _The Hollywood Librarian_, which will premier at ALA this summer. I would be grateful if you would share this with your student colleagues at University of Washington and elsewhere. http://harvard.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2313596133
For more details:
production blog: http://hollywoodlibrarian.wordpress.com/
website: http://www.hollywoodlibrarian.com/
ALA 2007 conference premier details: http://www.ala.org/ala/eventsandconferencesb/annual/2007a/specialevents.htm#
hollywood

Many thanks,
George Clark

-- George E. Clark,
Ph.D. Environmental Resources Librarian
Harvard University
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~clark5

27 Things - KCLS Web 2.0

Well I've jumped in a little late but I've seen my co-workers getting a lot out of discussing these new technologies and it's time I started blogging!