Google Print: It’s a Good Thing

I found an article concerning the debate existing between Google Print proponents and the Authors Guild by searching “google print” AND “authors guild” in the Yahoo News engine. After reading many current articles, I found out that the Authors Guild, along with three authors, is bringing the first official lawsuit against Google’s new digitized library project, “Google Print.” Google lists the goal of their project as the “ability to introduce millions of users to millions of titles can only expand the market for authors’ books, which is precisely what copyright law is intended to foster,” on their own Google Blog. Mostly, I found most people agreeing that if Google stays within the “fair use” laws and only digitize copyrighted works they have been explicity allowed, only good can come from this project.
In all honestly, I am biased on this issue. My roomate is a history major at the University of Mary Washington and my best friend is a history major at Davidson College. The second week of school my roomate told me to call my best friend and inform her about the wonder that is Google Print. Now both girls do nothing but sing its praises to me on a regular basis. So, like most articles I found today, I cannot find any problem with Google wishing to create a large digital library for use by people all over the world. However, I definetly believe they shoud abide by all copyright laws, attain as much permission as is humanely possible, and work hard to gather works from different countries, or at least link to similar projects in the works in such countries. [According to “Google Print Goes to Europe” by Susan Kuchinskas on internetnews.com, this link will be occuring with at least 5 countries.]

“Weblog Ethics”

I found the blog entry entitled “Weblong Ethics” by Rebecca Blood (found at Rebecca’s Pocket) to be a mediocre read. I can't argue Blood’s six standards for Weblogs, though I doubt most bloggers would appreciate being told what to do. It is surprising that the 2nd standard: “If material exists online, link to it when you reference it,” is not followed more strictly by most. Blood makes a good point that the whole idea of the Blogosphere is that all the sites are interconnected. Since linking is so easy, I cannot see why so many bloggers deglect to do it more often. Even Blood mentioned “Cory Doctorow, one of the contributors to the Boing Boing weblog” in her third standard definition, but she failed to link to any information on him or Boing Boing. To be honest, from about that point on in the article, I was just skimming for major points since she was not following her own standards. I did not enjoy the authority her writing seemed to command without knowing her background. By clicking on her “about” page (the specific page is linked above) I found out that Blood holds a BA in English and she has held more jobs than I have (her words, not mine). Right away I was put off and I am very thankful I read the entire blog entry before I read that. Her formal bio, which she provides for the press, really does nothing more than link to sites she says she has published for and proclaims that she is “widely regarded as the world's foremost authority on blogging.” Needless to say, I was not impressed with what was in Rebecca's Pocket.

“Database Fights Diploma Mills”

The accreditation system described in “Database Fights Diploma Mills” by Ryan Singel is a good start to a defense against these fraudulent internet sites. The system allows both an employer and a potential or former student the ability to look up an institution and verify its accreditation. However, towards the end of the article, Vicky Phillips, the CEO of GetEducated.com, makes a good point that databases like these only tap the surface of the problem.
Personally, I did not realize these Web sites, like Kennedy-Western University, were causing such a problem. Singel links to his other article, “U.S. Officials Sport Fake Degrees,” which tells you about “at least 28 high-ranking government officials, including three managers responsible for emergency operations at nuclear facilities,” who have degrees from unaccredited institutions. I am not so dismayed at the degrees from unaccredited institutions as long as the persons involved are receiving some sort of educational training. I do realize this is most likely not the case, but it would be better than the ‘Diploma Mills’ who give degrees based on life experience. The whole article makes me wary of any online education programs. Hopefully, these Web sites will not sully the name of good programs which are online to give more people access to a higher education.

Do I Exist On The Internet??

Searching for myself on the Internet was a very humbling experience. Since I stopped playing sports sophomore year in high school, I’m not very active in the community (neither of which is anything to be proud of), and I’m not any kind of celebrity, I can say very confidently that no Web pages even mention my name. By putting my full name into both Google.com and Yahoo.com basic searches (meaning I did not make any adjustments to the homepage of each engine), I got 22 sites total, 19 of which came from Google. Needless to say they were mostly genealogy sites about other Jennifers. When I put just my first and last name into both basic searches, I received 52,200 and 133,000 sites respectively. Since my first and last names are very popular I decided not to go too far into the 185,222 sites. I also did not search more than one directory site, People Finders was a pay site and I just did the most basic free search, since I am not in any way connected to the places which I call home.
And so, by spending about an hour looking for myself I have concluded that the University of Mary Washington’s people search is the only site which yields any information about me, my school assigned email address. And that's okay by me.

Filtering & Blocking Devices

In our book for this course, Learning to Use the Internet and World Wide Web by Ernest Ackermann and Karen Hartman, the authors touch on the subject of filtering and blocking devices in a section entitled “Content Issues: Pornography, Free Speech, Censorship, Filtering and Copyright.” One site provided in the section, http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/electacc.html says there supposedly exist individuals that believe that since a library’s intention is to provide access to all information, they should not filter out any information provided by their own internet connections. I can see how people use this interpretation to finagle access to inappropriate materials in a library. However, the section also mentions how opponents argue that since a library does not normally provide the materials commonly filtered out, they should not have to allow its access through the internet. I would have to agree with this side of the argument. I do not see how anyone would want there to be access to such inappropriate materials as pornography on machines so easily accessed by minors. The best solution seems to be installing filters which can be easily maintained so that they can be properly turned on and off by authorized users. Until that solution can be met, all inappropriate material should be barred without arguement.

“Do Search Engines Suppress Controversy?”

Within the conclusion of "Do Search Engines Suppress Controvery", Susan Gerhart wrote, “A searcher who went no further than the top 50 simple topic search results of any engine could easily miss interesting and important content.”
Last semester, spring 2005, I fulfilled my science requirement with Chemistry 106, or as it is more commonly referred to, “Stupid People Chemistry.” My particular professor assigned at least 4 papers which required web based research. “Survey: Searchers are Confident, Satisfied & Clueless,” by Chris Sherman, talks about how any given searcher’s confidence in their searching abilities can affect how deep they will probe an engine before they become satisfied with their results. This is definitely an overconfidence I suffer from. Thus, in every class where we discussed a subject I had researched I was very disappointed to hear that I had a lot of holes in my knowledge since I always just assumed I had all the information with the first 20 or so sites I read. I swear on every subject there was some point, however significant, which I just totally missed. I absolutely fell right into the search engine trapp described in Gerhart’s report and I wholeheartedly agree with the conclusion stated above.

Digital Piracy Issues: Music

By putting digital piracy issues into the search engine at news.google.com I found an article describing a new method of releasing music to consumers. The article is “Recording Industry Update” by Wes Phillips and it is maintained on Stereophile.com , a magazine by the same name’s Web site which is dedicated to informing and educating the public about the latest technology. Dated August 29th of this year, Phillips discusses Warner Music Group ’s newly announced “e-label.” With this form of music release, artists will no longer release full length albums every couple of years. Instead they will release a cluster of about three songs every few months. “And, finally, and perhaps most revolutionary, artists retain ownership of their masters and copyrights while signed to this label.”
This second fact is what the article really pertains to. This announcement of the “e-label” was made at an advocacy group’s conference, Progress & Freedom Foundation , “an organization described by most news reports as a think tank dedicated to studying ‘the digital revolution and its implications for public policy.’” Phillips remarks that this form of release, along with the retention of copyrights and masters, is the record label’s response to the growing popularity of downloading music and the effects it is having on CD sales. Warner Music Group chairman and CEO Edgar Bronfman, Jr, who made the announcement, admitted that the music industry obviously likes legislative decisions which benefit them and they are very much in favor of finding a more legitimate to take advantage of this wave of downloading popularity. These clusters of song releases should aid them in this goal.
The rest of Phillips article is dedicated to iTunes and the way individual songs are priced and the “turf war” which is developing between themselves and the recording industry. So far iTunes controls “75% of all legal downloads and 80% of the portable digital player market.” And while the recording industry initially championed the sale of songs for 99¢, basically placing purchasing a CD along the same price line, the four major labels seem to be split on how pricing should change. This issue over pricing will obviously have a great impact on the downloading of music by the general public, since as pricing becomes unfair in the eyes of the downloading youth, illegal downloads will surely increase.

Note: The end of the page gives you a link to a blog maintained by the lawyers for Patricia Santangelo, a mother fighting the RIAA’s accusations that she took part in illegal file sharing on her computer. It’s a very detailed blog with lots of information concerning what the group calls “oppressive and unfair” lawsuits regarding digital piracy. The blog, "Recording Industry vs. The People," is also maintained on blogspot.com. Small world, ain’t it?

Computer Security

The assignment for one of my posts this week was to describe a personal event concerning computer security. Like most of the posts I’ve read from the members of my class, I have never had a computer security problem. Very lucky me. To fulfill the assignment, however, we were told we could research an article concerning the topic. Much to my dismay the article I found, “Payments Enter Into Government Spotlight” by Patti Murphy, mentions a security breach at CardSystems Solutions, Inc.
I know, who are they and why do you care? Well, the company is a third party processor for places like Bank of America Corporation, which is my bank. By reading on I did realize that the issue really only effected federal employees who have SmartPay travel cards, but still. The very idea that the place where I put my little paycheck every two weeks is not totally and completely secure is pretty frightening. Senator Dianne Feinstein said, “The fact that hackers could have accessed data on up to 40 million accounts because of a processor's failure to follow your own established rules makes me question the effectiveness and ability of self-regulation by your industry.” I agree.
Overall the article brings up a lot of good points about how important it is that we regularly scrutinize computer security in the financial world, especially since it has become so integral to how we do business. The rules established for any interactions involving computers need to be strictly enforced by all parties.

"The Tyranny of Copyright?"

It seems like people on both sides of an issuing concerning any new or developing technology agree that we need proper legislation to either control its use or prevent our freedoms from being restricted. In “The Tyranny of Copyright?” Robert S. Boynton tries to give the reader a little perspective from both sides.
The “Copy Left” is the name Boynton gives to those who fear stricter copyright legislation. Members of the Copy Left do realize copyrights have their place in our society, but believe the system shouldn’t inhibit our “ability to experiment and create.” For the most part, the article works to describe the Copy Left as the more American side of the issue. The opposing side of this copyright war is not depicted as nicely by Boynton. This side is not given a special name, nor does their side of the issue get more than a few paragraphs’ worth of attention.
Like most college students I tend towards the more left spectrum of politics, while still wanting to believe America is basically great. However, I found this article put me right in the middle of the copyright and Internet issue. I agree that ideas should exist more freely, allowing creativity to ebb and flow in a natural way. We are living in a really exciting time (wow, that sounds really trite, huh?) where access to the Internet and its wealth of resources is becoming more easily available. Nevertheless, I doubt I will ever think anyone should be able to use another person’s anything without giving them due credit, and if they insist on it, proper payment. We all know that creating a bibliography for a paper with a lot of sources can be a major pain, but it’s not like it takes hours out of your life. And maybe having to pay for every minute piece of information seems distressing, but once a fair and accurate comes into place you will merely be paying for exactly what you get.

Something For Me To Look At

Autumn in Bavaria, 1908
by Wassily Kandinsky

The Internet Movie Database

I can’t quite remember when I first discovered the wonders of the Internet Movie Database. Like most other movie goers, I enjoy debating who’s who in any and all movies I watch. After “Googling” countless actors to discover what other films they’d be in, I realized the Web site which usually appeared within the top three listed had the domain name imdb.com. By clicking on the site’s upper left hand logo, boasting this as the “Earth’s Biggest Movie Database,”™ I began to take in all that is IMDB.
The main purpose of IMDB is to provide the most extensive and complete database of all things movie and television which have ever been produced. In fact, I have yet to search any movie, television show, and or actor and come up completely empty handed, though some searches yield unsatisfying results. Each entry, be it person or production, is hyper-linked to other pages. A cast or crew member’s page typically gives you a link to a biography, trivia and pictures. It also provides links to the pages for each production they have taken part in. The production pages usually carry the most information. Besides giving you a synopsis and a listing of cast and crew members, all hyper-linked to their own pages, the page links you to photos, reviews and awards, taglines, other sites and merchandising, and, best of all, trivia, goofs, soundtrack information and movie connections. By creating a database you can search anything of common linkage from particular movies to place of birth to how someone has passed away. With this wealth of knowledge one could certainly become very adept at Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, among other things. As if this were not enough, IMDB provides you with an extensive listing of upcoming movies, appearing on each cast and crew members page and organized into their own section, reviews, studio and celebrity news, and message boards for members of the database to make use of. Hyperlinks to all these sections are conveniently located on the site’s homepage.
When your work load gets too tough and you are in need of some entertainment, or when an actor looks so familiar and you can’t figure out why, check out imbd.com. It is definitely worth a look.

Club Carnival

It’s about quarter past four on Monday the 5th of September and I am trying to kill time before I head out to my fourth and final Club Carnival. As any member of the University of Mary Washington community knows, Club Carnival usually occurs on a Monday at the beginning of September and it provides students the opportunity to explore the many, many clubs and organizations which call UMW home. Well on my way home from the still shiny and new fitness center Sunday afternoon I noticed many students setting up tables in anticipation of when Ball Circle will fill up with students looking to expand their activities, make new friends, or merely gather clubs in a vain attempt to prepare for future application additions. Normally the tables are "decorated" with at least a homemade poster and the members of said organization peddle their free wares in order to get you to jot down your name and email. I must admit that I grimaced at the thought of having to peruse each table on Monday, searching for the only clubs I have actually put anytime into over the course of my three years at Mary Washington; Cheap Seats, Spirit Commitee and, recently, Huswifery. Though I know I should expand my horizons I have found that most clubs do not always contact you when you sign up for them at Club Carnival.
And yet, though I am NOT looking forward to the time I will spend sweltering in the heat, I find that as I write this I am excited to experience my final “carnival.” It may be sweltering out there, it may be boring and unfun, and I can say with all certainty I won’t sign up for anything new, it is still worth the short trip from the Mary Washington Apartments to find friends and get away from the work which is already piling up by my feet.


post script. I am editing this having gone to Club Carnival and while it wasn't that bad and I'm glad I went, I still spent way too much time there :).

Comments on "Critical Thinking in the Internet Era"

"many students have difficulty recognizing trustworthy sources, though perhaps the underlying problem is a lack of understanding of the Internet as an unmonitored source of information."

I guess I agree with the statement above from “Critical Thinking in the Internet Era.” However, I feel that the article needs to stress that this problem is not merely limited to students. I’m sure there are teachers all over the world who contribute to the problem by allowing students to rely on internet sources for assignments they do not deem worthy enough to verify. I know that when I receive an assignment which is not worth much of my grade I tend towards doing all my research online. (Throughout high school and even elementary school I always thought if I picked a topic the teacher did not know much about they probably would not realize if I got a fact wrong.) This inversely proportional relationship has yet to lead to any real problems for me because these assignments are usually for introductory courses which do not rank very high on my to do list. Honestly, I don’t think I have ever researched a paper in the library which was worth less than 10% of my grade. (Though, I am a mathematics major and have really only researched in writing intensive courses, like CPSC 104). So perhaps we need the teachers, professors, etc. to stress that every assignment needs to be properly researched using print materials in addition to internet sources.

First Day of Class

Web journal for The Internet: Technology, Issues & Information at the University of Mary Washington.