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Current Cities Volume 12 Number 10
CURRENT CITES
Volume 12, no. 10, October 2001
Edited by [2]Roy Tennant
The Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94720
ISSN: 1060-2356 -
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/2001/cc01.12.10.html
Contributors: [3]Charles W. Bailey, Jr., [4]Margaret Gross, [5]Terry
Huwe, [6]Shirl Kennedy, [7]Leo Robert Klein, [8]Margaret Phillips, Jim
Ronningen, [9]Roy Tennant
Agre, Phil. [10]"Networking on the Network" (October 21, 2001)
(http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/network.html) - Agre,
associate professor of information studies at UCLA, feels "few people
have figured out how to use the Net productively." While much emphasis
has gone into technologies that help people find information online,
he says, "hardly anybody has been helping newcomers figure out where
the Net fits in the larger picture of their own careers." Agre, who
edits the popular [11]Red Rock Eater News Service mailing list, has
written this 120-page document primarily for those in the academic and
research communities. But the advice he offers is useful for just
about anyone whose professional skills could use a boost. Topics
include the ins and outs of networking, using e-mail effectively,
speaking at conferences, carving out a professional identity, and
developing leadership skills. The paper also offers an extensive
bibliography of print and online resources. - [12]SK
Dorr, Jessica and Richard Akeroyd. [13]"New Mexico Tribal Libraries:
Bridging the Digital Divide" [14]Computers in Libraries 21(8) (October
2001) (http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/oct01/dorr&akeroyd.htm). - For
those library folks with conflicting feelings about [15]Gates
Foundation grants, I think this article will (unintentionally) put
those conflicts in boldface: the large-scale philanthropy made
possible by monopolistic business practices, the reaching out to help
while creating new Microsoft customers, the gratitude vs. the grudging
acceptance. There is a clear need for computing and Internet
connectivity in these Native American lands (not to forget more
pressing issues like the lack of basic services), and in this article
the authors, who are Gates Foundation employees, do a good job of
describing the process of working with the tribes to implement custom
systems in their libraries. They also do a self-serving job of
plugging Microsoft, e.g. the tender moment a trainer had when
"teaching a young woman who became teary as she was learning Microsoft
Word. 'She was just so happy to be learning new things.'" Well yes,
Microsoft Word has brought tears to the eyes of many, all around the
world ... Technical specs for the installed systems are included, as
are data about the Native American Access to Technology Program grants
and plans for the program's next steps. - JR
Dowling, Thomas. [16]"One Step at a Time" [17]NetConnect A supplement
to Library Journal and School Library Journal (Fall 2001):36-37
(http://libraryjournal.reviewsnews.com/index.asp?layout=article&articl
eid=CA178131). - Dowling is well-known on the electronic discussion
[18]Web4Lib as a straight shooter who really knows his stuff. So when
Dowling talks, people listen. And if you manage a web site, no matter
how large or small, you should listen too. In this brief but pithy
piece, Dowling explains not only the technical methods by which you
can make sure not to lose your users when you move a web page or site,
but also the process and timing. Don't be dismayed by the two years he
says it takes to do this right, since most of that time is spent
waiting for crawlers and those with links to catch on to the move. In
any event, do your users a favor and just follow the instructions.
We'll all be better off for it. - [19]RT
Farrell, Elizabeth F. and Florence Olson. [20]"A New Front in the
Sweatshop Wars?" [21]The Chronicle of Higher Education 48(9) (October
26, 2001): A35 (http://chronicle.com/free/v48/i09/09a03501.htm). -
When it comes to the working conditions and wages of the offshore
workers who provide much of the labor for campus and commercial
projects to digitize of scholarly texts, librarians get a better grade
than Kathie Lee. Student activists and independent watchdog groups
have long been condemning campus stores for subcontracting with
apparel manufacturers known to engage in sweatshop conditions, and
they have begun to raise questions about scholarly digitizing
projects. Projects at the University of Michigan and Harvard, for
instance, have contracted with companies in India and Cambodia to
provide digitizing tasks such as scanning and keyboarding. As it turns
out, these jobs require a relatively high level of skill and workers
tend to be well-educated and are typically paid well above minimum
wage in their countries, in some cases up to ten times the minimum
wage. Activists argue that overseas digitizing contracts should serve
as an opportunity for the universities involved to demonstrate global
social responsibility. - [22]MP
Ferrell, Tom. [23]"Three Questions For Your Web Agency" [24]Usability
InfoCentre (Sept. 26, 2001)
(http://infocentre.frontend.com/servlet/Infocentre?page=article&id=225
). - In web design and development just about everyone can talk the
talk but figuring out who can walk the walk is another thing. To help
us out, web-site deconstructionist and usability pro Tom Farrell
suggests three great things to ask. - [25]LRK
Festa, Paul. [26]"Net Security: An Oxymoron" [27]CNET (October 18,
2001) (http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1014-201-7572885-0.html). - Peter
Neumann, principal scientist at [28]SRI International's Computer
Science Laboratory, thinks the only way to solve security problems on
the Internet is to rebuild the network from scratch. The Net, he says,
"is populated by computers that were not designed with network
security in mind." As a result, "security is addressed on a
patch-by-patch basis." In this interview, Neumann says that
September's terrorist attacks have not changed his job or his
concerns, as he's been preaching for years about the growing severity
of network security problems. "What's changed," he says, "is the
awareness that essentially everything is at risk." Neumann says there
is not one solution to solving security problems, so the government
must approach the problem from a variety of directions, e.g., support
for security research, better education. The interview also covers
Neumann's thoughts on public key encryption; he says the "trapdoors"
desired by law enforcement agencies would weaken the technology, erode
privacy rights and, ultimately, not really solve the problem of
criminal or terrorist use. - [29]SK
Foster, Andrea L. [30]"40 Computer Scientists Abandon a Print Journal,
Preferring Its Online Competitor" [31]The Chronicle of Higher
Education (October 18, 2001)
(http://chronicle.com/free/2001/10/2001101801t.htm). - On October 8,
UC Berkeley professor of computer science and statistics Michael I.
Jordan drafted a letter which was signed by 40 of his colleagues in
which they collectively resigned from the editorial board of the
journal [32]Machine Learning to join another publication the
[33]Journal of Machine Learning Research which is distributed free
online. Stating that journals should principally serve the needs of
the intellectual community "by providing the immediate and universal
access to journal articles that modern technology supports, and doing
so at a cost that excludes no one." Articles in Machine Learning are
not reaching a large enough audience, the letter states, because the
subscription fee for the journal is too high and the publisher policy
on the circulation of online articles are to restrictive. Furthermore,
it can take more than a year for articles to be published in Machine
Learning whereas the competing journal, which is also peer-reviewed,
can publish articles in much less time. - [34]MP
Guédon, Jean-Claude. "[35]In Oldenburg's Long Shadow: Librarians,
Research Scientists, Publishers, and the Control of Scientific
Publishing." In [36]Creating the Digital Future: Association of
Research Libraries, Proceedings of the 138th Annual Meeting, Toronto,
Ontario, May 23-25, 2001. Washington, DC: Association of Research
Libraries, 2001 (http://www.arl.org/arl/proceedings/138/guedon.html).
- In this lengthy paper, Guédon examines the origin of scientific
journals, their role in scholarly communication, the creation of the
concept of "core journals" as a result of Science Citation Index, the
subsequent "serials crisis" as publishers discovered that they had a
captive market for these journals, the establishment of the SPARC
initiative ([37]http://www.arl.org/sparc/) to counter this trend,
scholars' reactions to and explorations of the possibilities of
electronic publishing, the central role of licensing in commercial
electronic publishing efforts, the limitations of library consortial
licensing efforts, and the development of preprint servers and other
efforts to make scientific literature freely available. He concludes
by strongly endorsing the Open Archives Initiative
([38]http://www.openarchives.org/) and SPARC. Whew, if he covered all
this in his talk, I hope that ARL provided free espresso. Brew
yourself a cup (or two) and read this interesting paper, which has
also just become [39]available from ARL in printed form as a
monograph. - [40]CB
Jacobs, Jim and Karrie Peterson. "The Technical IS Political" Of
Significance... 3(1) (2001). - In the [41]September 2001 issue of
Current Cites I cited an article by Jacobs, Peterson, and Elizabeth
Cowell, that appeared in American Libraries. This piece, which appears
in the journal of the [42]Association of Public Data Users, is a much
more thorough explication of what is at stake these days with
government information. Recent changes in how government information
is published and distributed are presenting new problems for public
access and preservation. Jacobs and Peterson enumerate issues such as
"cost shifting", in which the cost (in money or time or both) of
accessing and using the information is shifted from the government to
the library or user. Other concerns include privacy issues and the
replacement of government-issued products with commercial ones. And by
no means least is the issue of preservation. When the government is
the only source for certain information, it can be all too easily
altered, removed or destroyed. This is not a trivial issue. Anyone
interested in freedom of information, government responsibility, and a
strong democracy should be interested in this issue. And by my
reckoning, that should cover just about everyone from sea to shining
sea. - [43]RT
Miall, David S. and Teresa Dobson. [44]"Reading Hypertext and the
Experience of Literature." [45]Journal of Digital Information 2(1)
(Aug. 2001 [announced October 2001])
(http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Articles/v02/i01/Miall/). - There's
nothing nicer in Autumn as the days grow cool than snuggling up to a
weighty article on the nature of hypertext. The focus here is the
process of reading and whether a strongly non-linear structure helps
or hinders this process. The intent of the authors is to argue against
what they describe as "misleading" claims made by hypertext
enthusiasts. These claims see hypertext as a vehicle of liberation
that will free readers from the doldrums of traditional
(authoritarian) printed books whose demise, for this reason, is
imminent. In response, the authors set about testing two groups of
readers: one that reads a traditional linear piece of fiction and a
second that reads the same text albeit in "simulated hypertext
format". No extra credit for guessing which group expresses the
greater comprehension and satisfaction. - - [46]LRK
Morris, Peter W.G. "Updating the Project Management Bodies of
Knowledge" [47]Project Management Journal 43(3) (September 2001). - A
must for understanding project management are the "Bodies of
Knowledge" or BOKS, published by professional project management
associations. These documents provide guidelines and standards to best
practices. This article is an introduction and overview of the various
BOKs, where they originate, and how they differ. Further highlighted
is the difficulty encountered in working towards the goal of a single,
unified and universally accepted BOK. There are three primary Bodies
of Knowledge. In North America, the accepted document [48]A Guide to
the Project Management Body of Knowledge, is published by [49]PMI, The
Program Management Institute. In Europe, the corresponding [50]Body of
Knowledge document originates with the U.K's [51]APM, the Association
for Project Management. Numerous national bodies in Europe have issued
BOKs similar to the U.K.'s, but in their own national language. By the
middle 1960s, these national organizations formed a federation called
the [52]IPMA, International Project Management Association, comprising
twenty-eight National Associations. IPMA has issued a BOK, which is
accepted throughout Europe. Interestingly, one of the only national
associations not a member of IPMA, is the American PMI. The European
Bodies of Knowledge are broader in scope than the PMI BOK. The
American BOK is organized as a hierarchical structure, limited to
managing scope, time, quality, resources, risk, procurement, and
communications. The [53]IPMA ICB Competence Baseline is structured in
the form of a sunflower. Each petal is a competency, thus obviating
the dissent and disagreement caused by which concept should take
precedence in a hierarchy. Addressing the professional ethos of
project management, it includes additional concepts such as
technology, environment, and regulatory issues. All BOKs can be
downloaded from their respective web sites. This reviewer is well
aware that as librarians, we are often tasked with managing projects
directly, or we are called upon to provide pertinent project
management information to senior staff members. In exposing the
complexity of updating the standards, Mr. Morris provides a good
primer to the underlying methodology of project management.- [54]MG
Olsen, Stefanie. [55]"Sites Seek to Blast Ad Blockers" [56]ZDNet News
(October 10, 2001)
(http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5098080,00.html). - The
Internet advertising wars have just been ratcheted up a notch. As more
and more Web users employ ad-blocking software as they browse, a
German company ([57]MediaBeam, http://www.mediabeam.com/), has come up
with a software product it says will detect ad-blocking software and
stop the user from accessing a site's content without paying a fee.
AdKey, a plug-in for Web servers, operates from the server side via
http. It can tell whether a Web page "has loaded properly." If all the
graphics haven't loaded, the page issues a message that prevents the
surfer from accessing the page's content. Analysts and technology
pundits doubt that AdKey will have much of an impact on peoples'
browsing habits. The ad-blocking software vendors are bound to come up
with ways of getting around AdKey and, anyhow, it's estimated that
only 5 percent of surfers actually use ad blocking software. The other
95 percent largely ignore the ads. - [58]SK
Scott, Brendan. [59]"Copyright in a Frictionless World: Toward a
Rhetoric of Responsibility." [60]First Monday 6(9) (September 3, 2001)
(http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_9/scott/). - Scott assesses
the history and application of copyright, and pays particular
attention to its treatment of author's rights and privileges. He then
expands his to the distribution chain, and argues that copyright is
actually structured to benefit distributors and publishers. This
historical treatment is driving much of the struggle over intellectual
property in the digital era. He identifies challenges faced by
distributors and publishers in enforcing their rights without the
various sources of "friction" which made infringement difficult. On
the consumption side, he finds that consumer cynicism is a powerful
and influential arbiter of actual practice, and it has far more
influence on compliance that the feeble add-ons to traditional
copyright law. He concludes that it would be more productive for
distributors to "tone down" the rhetoric about "rights" and emphasize
the rhetoric of "responsibility". - [61]TH
_________________________________________________________________
Current Cites 12(10) (October 2001) ISSN: 1060-2356
Copyright © 2001 by the Regents of the University of California All
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