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Current Cities Volume 11 Number 10
[1]Current Cites (Digital Library SunSITE)
Volume 11, no. 10, October 2000
Edited by [2]Roy Tennant
The Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94720
ISSN: 1060-2356 -
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/2000/cc00.11.10.html
Contributors: [3]Terry Huwe, [4]Michael Levy, [5]Leslie Myrick , Jim
Ronningen, Lisa Rowlison, [6]Roy Tennant
Issue Spotlight: Peer-to-Peer Networking
Not since the release of NCSA Mosaic, the networking application that
spawned the phrase "killer app", have we seen the like. Once again it
took a youngster (in this case an 18-year-old college dropout) to rock
our world -- with a networking application that bears his nickname:
"Napster". But as quickly became apparent, Napster was just the first
salvo in a new battle over freedom, intellectual property rights, and
the future of the Internet.
Other clients using the same technology (called "peer-to-peer"
networking since it is individual clients (peers) communicating
directly with one another instead of through a central server),
quickly appeared, with Gnutella and Freenet being among the most
widely known. Developments have been happening so quickly that it's
hard to believe that Napster isn't even two years old yet, but already
the old guard very much has it's guard up. The music industry has
hauled Napster, Inc. into court and the publishing industry surely
isn't far behind, if they could only find some one or some
organization to sue. But there's the rub. With anonymous applications
like Gnutella and Freenet, there is no one to sue. We're in an
entirely different ball game. But don't take my word for it. This
month we've reviewed some of the best articles we could find on this
new phenomenon. They speculate on the future of creativity,
publishing, and access to information in the wake of an unstoppable
technology that will change everything. Can I possibly be any clearer?
-- The Editor
Adar, Eytan, and Huberman, Bernardo A. [7]"Free Riding on Gnutella."
[8]First Monday 5(10) (October 2, 2000)
(http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue5_10/adar/). - Two Xerox PARC
researchers analyze use traffic on [9]Gnutella, the underground
peer-to-peer file sharing service, and find that usage patterns aren't
really all that egalitarian. Over a single 24 hour period, nearly 70
percent of users shared no files; instead, they spent their time
"free-riding" on the system. Of the overall traffic, 50 percent of
responses were returned by only one percent of the total sharing host
population. The authors determine that this does not bode well for
community-based file sharing, since communities depend on broad
participation, just as healthy democracies depend on a populace that
actually takes the time to vote. Adar and Huberman suggest that
copyright infringement fears may diminish if this trend predominates
in similar communities. It will be interesting to follow the
peer-to-peer underground movement's growth with this assertion in
mind. - [10]TH
Barlow, John Perry. [11]"The Next Economy of Ideas." [12]Wired
(October 2000): 240-252
(http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.10/download.html). - Building on
his famous article [13]The Economy of Ideas, John Perry Barlow looks
at the issue of copyright in the [14]Napster era. As Barlow comments
"no law can be successfully imposed on a huge population that does not
morally support it and possesses easy means for its invisible
evasion." Launching into a scathing criticism of the entertainment
industry and their attempts to protect intellectual property using
such means as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Barlow sees the
media behemoths as fighting a losing battle. In his call to arms the
future is one where "there will be no property in cyberspace." If
there is no property how will those creating content be rewarded and
given incentives? He believes that the interests of creators will be
assured by practical values: "relationship, convenience,
interactivity, service and ethics." Summing his stance up Barlow
envisages artists entering into relationships with consumers who will
be ethically inclined to pay for services. While some will still
dismiss him as a hippy out of touch with the reality of the modern
economy his ideas are thoughtful, provocative and he might just be
right. - [15]ML
Chudnov, Daniel. [16]Docster: The Future of Document Delivery?"
[17]Library Journal 125(13) (August 2000): 60-62. - In this
provocative piece, Chudnov proposes that libraries modify the Napster
model of file sharing for use in interlibrary lending. The main change
that Chudnov suggests is to add copyright compliance. For details on
what he suggests and how it would work, see the article. But what I
find most impressive about this article isn't so much the details as
the idea itself. Libraries need imaginative ideas, and this is one.
Building on a technology that isn't even two years old yet, Chudnov
has proposed a reasonable solution to a common library problem. We
need more ideas like this, and more librarians with Chudnov's
combination of imagination and technical savvy. - [18]RT
Cohen, Adam. [19]"A Crisis of Content." [20]Time 156(14) (October 2,
2000): 68-73
(http://www.time.com/time/magazine/articles/0,3266,55700,00.html). -
When Time magazine "gets it," you know the rest of the population
can't be too far behind. And this article shows that they do. What
they "get" is that where intellectual property rights are concerned,
the cat is out of the bag, the cow has vacated the barn, and the
bottle no longer holds the genie. Napster is just the tip of the file
sharing iceberg. As new peer-to-peer clients like [21]Gnutella
(http://gnutella.wego.com/) and [22]Freenet
(http://freenet.sourceforge.net/) show, any intellectual content is at
risk of being freely shared on the Internet. To demonstrate this,
Cohen uses such examples as sewing patterns (about as non-Napster like
as you can get), which are being freely (and illegally) swapped
online. For a taste of what Cohen has to say about all this, here are
a couple quotes from this piece: "There is no underestimating the
threat that all this free file sharing poses to existing business
models" and "The only thing that is certain in the content business is
that everything is up for grabs." And if you think this only affects
businesses, and not non-profit libraries, think again. - [23]RT
Heilemann, John. [24]"David Boies: The Wired Interview." [25]Wired
(October 2000): 253-259
(http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.10/boies.html). - At first
glance, it appears to many onlookers that it is clearly illegal for
users to record MP3 files from copyrighted CDs and make them available
for dowloading by any Napster user on the planet. But as this
interview with the lead defense attorney in the Napster case points
out, this is far from an open-and-shut case of copyright infringement.
He identifies four major arguments that the defense is making, any one
of which will win their case if they prevail. Frankly, I couldn't care
less if Napster gets shut down, but the legal defense of Napster
involves issues that go much beyond whether a particular company can
continue to do business or not. - [26]RT
Kuptz, Jerome. [27]"Independence Array." [28]Wired (October 2000):
236-237 (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.10/architecture.html). -
The tagline to this overview of how Gnutella works is "Gnutella:
Unstoppable by Design". And they aren't kidding. Smart people with
nothing better to do have worked hard at making sure that files can be
shared directly between individual network users in an undetectable
and untraceable fashion. Sneaking through via the HTTP protocol
(here's a hint, it's the protocol upon which the web runs), there are
no central servers (like with Napster), no log files, and no central
organization behind it. This two-page spread on how Gnutella actually
works is available on the web, but the graphic version in the print
copy of the magazine lays out the whole bloody mess in a much more
entertaining fashion. - [29]RT
Crane, Gregory, et. al. [30]"The Symbiosis Between Content and
Technology in the Perseus Digital Library" [31]Cultivate Interactive
(October 2000) (http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue2/perseus/). - The
[32]Perseus Project is one of the most well-developed scholar-led
digital library projects around. In this conceptual overview of the
project and its many aspects and phases, Crane et. al. describe the
motivations behind this eclectic set of collections. Maybe it was
their enthusiasm or their "can-do" attitude, but by the end of the
article it actually made sense to me that the project should be
dabbling in Shakespeare and Arabic texts on mechanics at the same
time. As they put it, "While all these projects differ substantially,
they are united by our consistent effort to study the ways in which
documents which are distinct in print libraries begin to merge with
one another in a digital library, dissolving their individual
structures and supporting new patterns of intellectual inquiry." Areas
in which they remain interested include: 1) the development of new
integrated collections, 2) the cognitive effects of digital libraries,
3) integration of modern computational linguistic techniques, and 4)
information extraction and visualization. Those wishing for more
technical background on the project should refer to Crane's [33]recent
piece in D-Lib Magazine. - [34]RT
Crawford, Walt. [35]"Guest Editorial: Talking about Public Access --
PACS-L's First Decade." [36]Information Technology and Libraries 19(3)
(September 2000): 112-115
(http://www.lita.org/ital/1903_editorial.html). - I distinctly
remember returning from the 1989 American Library Association Annual
Conference and rushing to sign on to a new electronic discussion that
had just been announced at the conference: the [37]Public Access
Computer Systems Forum, or PACS-L. Unfortunately, the instructions for
signing up assumed you were on BITNET, and I was trying to sign on via
the Internet. The ensuing days of digging around for documentation and
discovering the way I had to send my message to sign on was one of my
first trials by fire on the Internet. But PACS-L was well worth the
effort, and was so for years. As Crawford documents so well, PACS-L
was *the* library discussion list of most of the 90's, before becoming
a victim of its own success. Although it has been resurrected, it will
never be the same as it was when a profession was remaking itself in
light of world-wide computer connectivity. If this sounds nostalgic,
it is, as is Crawford's tribute. I guess you just had to be there. -
[38]RT
Drost, Karen, and Jorna, Miriam. [39]"Empowering Women Through the
Internet: Dutch Women Unite." [40]First Monday 5(10) (October 2, 2000)
(http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue5_10/drost/). - Drost and Jorna
assess the experience of a Dutch collective known as
[41]"Webgrrls-NL", an organization whose goal is to train Dutch women
in the use of the Internet. Webgrrls creates a forum where Dutch women
can learn about computers and the Internet "without the intervention
of men or others who feel the need to show rather than to teach." That
quote points out the feminist perspective of this organization, but it
also opens the door to think about the ways in which different
communities can best learn in the Internet era. A large body of
research confirms that women and men approach technology differently,
and this article is further grist for the mill. It's also interesting
and very pragmatic in its approach. The conclusions that are offered
could easily apply to other self-identifying groups who wish to take
advantage of the Internet on their own terms. - [42]TH
Evans, Fred. [43]"Cyberspace and the Concept of Democracy." [44]First
Monday 5(10) (October 2, 2000)
(http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue5_10/evans/). - Social
theorists and futurists will enjoy this well-researched inquiry into
the nature of democracy in the Net era. Heavily footnoted and densely
populated with ideas and questions, this article nonetheless raises
some blunt questions that are on a lot of peoples' minds. For example,
what are the characteristics of the body politic, if it's living in
the "real" and the "virtual" worlds at the same time? What are the
hazards of this new and uncharted domain for affecting hearts and
minds in the political process? While the author has many optimistic
analyses to share, he also finds a "dark" side to politics and the
Net, which he categories as oracular in nature. - [45]TH
Griffiths, Jose-Marie. "Deconstructing Earth's Largest Library"
[46]Library Journal 125(13) (August 2000): 44-47. - Current Cites
readers are familiar with [47]Steve Coffman's provocative thoughts on
what librarians can learn from Amazon.com. This piece aims to "debunk"
Coffman's ideas. Since Griffith does not make her points as clearly
and forcefully as [48]Walt Crawford, they are somewhat difficult to
extract, but they can be roughly summarized as "we can't cooperate
enough to pull it off, our current automated systems are too limited,
and it would be too difficult and costly." From there, Griffiths
explores the issues of digital opportunities (formerly known as the
Digital Divide), the library as place, and the value of the library
'brand'. A sidebar highlights the [49]Internet Public Library,
[50]Contentville.com, and [51]Fathom.com as "libraries in cyberspace."
- [52]RT
Hawkins, Donald T. "Electronic Books: a Major Publishing Revolution.
Part 2: The Marketplace" [53]Online 24 (5) (September/October
2000):18-36. - As the author himself acknowledges, "The marketplace is
moving so rapidly that any list of players quickly becomes outdated."
Some of the specifics relating to the vendors here have changed since
the article's publication, with probably the biggest news being that
Rocket eBooks and SoftBooks now have the same parent company and are
sold through eBook-Gemstar. So, check the company websites listed for
the latest word. As for Hawkins' more general take on how the market
is shaping up, this is an excellent continuation of part 1, which was
published in the July/August issue. He explores the many ways
(including device-independent ways) in which e-books are being
disseminated, including the system of interest to many libraries now,
netLibrary. - JR
Rutenbeck, Jeff. "The 5 Great Challenges of the Digital Age"
[54]Library Journal NetConnect (Supplement to Library Journal and
School Library Journal, Fall 2000): 30-33. - We've survived Y2K little
the worse for wear, just in time to face the five "great challenges"
Rutenbeck identifies in this provocative piece. What are they, you
ask? 1) Malleability: "through digital technologies we're inclined to
do much more than preserve or distribute information: we're prone to
manipulate it, alter it, and enhance it in often profound ways", 2)
Selectivity: selecting digital over print; selecting the small amount
of print materials we're capable of digitizing, 3) Exclusivity: the
digital divide, the dominance of English as the language of the
Internet, the necessity to have typing skills, 4) Vulnerability: "we
are only now beginning to realize that the benefits of
interconnectedness via the global network also bring with them an
unprecedented shared vulnerability", and 5) Superficiality: the
shallowness of our interactions with information and others in a
networked world. Whether or not you agree with Rutenbeck's assertions,
or his elevation of them to "great challenges", these issues are
important and may be increasingly so. - [55]RT
"Special Issue: Digital Reference Services: Papers Based on the
Virtual Reference Desk Conference" [56]Reference & User Services
Quarterly 39(4) (Summer 2000) - We've come far from the notion that
online reference service is a nice embellishment, to an expection from
users that there will be a computer interface available for any
library need, including that (potentially) most complex exchange, the
reference session. The articles here address such issues as assessing
the quality of online reference service, the "how-to" points to
consider when creating such a service, what to expect in workload
changes and how to manage them, how to create a successful reference
interview environment when the face to face element is removed, and
how the culture of library use for reference information is changing.
The gatekeeper function of reference librarians is changing, some
would say radically, and these articles are very helpful for
information providers adapting to the new patterns of
information-seeking behavior. - JR
Taylor, Mary K. [57]"Library Webmasters: Satisfactions,
Dissatisfactions, and Expectations." [58]Information Technology and
Libraries 19(3) (September 2000): 116-123
(http://www.lita.org/ital/1903_taylor.html). - This article reports on
the findings of a 1998 survey of library web managers of institutions
that are members of the Association of Research Libraries. From the
survey data one can glean such interesting nuggets as the fact that of
the respondents, less than a third have attended an HTML workshop or
seminar, and 83% of respondents were self-taught to a greater or
lesser degree. A finding I found surprising was that more than 50% of
the respondents shared their position with another person or
committee. The vast majority find satisfaction in their work, and what
the largest number liked the least was not having enough time to spend
on the web site and to learn new skills. Taylor ends the review of
survey results with a list of recommendations based on her findings. -
[59]RT
West, Darrell M. [60]"Assessing E-Government: The Internet, Democracy,
and Service Delivery by State and Federal Governments." (September
2000) (http://www.insidepolitics.org/egovtreport00.html). - Some of
the most far reaching and effective delivery of information services
via the Internet has been by Federal and State governments. In this
study of "E-Government" the author surveyed over 1800 websites during
the Summer, 2000. Unsurprisingly, states with smaller populations and
therefore fewer resources performed poorly compared to larger states,
and federal government provided better services compared to state
governments. Overall the websites were weakest in areas of security,
privacy, disability access, offering specific online services such as
purchasing a license, filing a complaint or requesting a publication,
and democratic outreach such as email, message boards and the ability
for citizens to receive periodic updates on specific issues. The
conclusion of the study is that the "e-government revolution has
fallen short of its true potential." - [61]ML
_________________________________________________________________
Current Cites 11(10 (October 2000) ISSN: 1060-2356
Copyright © 2000 by the Library, University of California, Berkeley.
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[63]Copyright © 2000 UC Regents. All rights reserved.
Document maintained at
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/2000/cc00.11.10.html by
[64]Roy Tennant.
Last update September 23, 2000. SunSITE Manager:
[65]manager@sunsite.berkeley.edu
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