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Category: Alumni and other friends (Page 3 of 38)

EFF on DCMA exemptions and LC on Ocracoke

Even out on Ocracoke you can’t get away from IP talk. One morning at the Ocracoke Coffee Company I struck up a conversation with a pleasant guy who was in the process of moving down to the island. Turns out that he’s Peter Vankevich of the Library of Congress’ Copyright Office. We had a great talk as two IP/Copyright geeks.

Peter told me to be sure to take a look at the announcement from LC about DCMA exemptions. I was finally getting around to that (having been mostly net-free on Ocracoke) when I found the EFF’s analysis of the exemptions (here).

Peter had convinced me that he was really a nature photographer specializing in birds. He was being far too modest. He’s a very very serious birder and photographer. Now I know how he could pick out a myrtle warbler so quickly and easily.

Andy Ihnatko disses Zune

Andy I
Old bud Andy Ihnatko completely disses the Zune in a Chicago Sun-Times article that begins “Avoid the Looney Zune” and ends “Microsoft gets music player all wrong.”

Yikes, Mr. Gates all this and Vista too?

Not that there aren’t non-iPod players that Andy thinks are competitive and fun to use. He likes several non-Apple products:

“The Zune is a complete, humiliating failure. Toshiba’s Gigabeat player, for example, is far more versatile, it has none of the Zune’s limitations, and Amazon sells the 30-gig model for 40 bucks less.”

“Companies such as Toshiba and Sandisk (with its wonderful Nano-like Sansa e200 series) compete effectively with the iPod by asking themselves, ‘What are the things that users want and Apple refuses to provide?'”

Andy’s bottom line: “Result: The Zune will be dead and gone within six months. Good riddance.”

Who’s on the Left? Jones and Moglen in India

Owning the Future

Possibly the only time that I’ll be to the left of Eben Moglen is preserved on this video made at the “Owning the future: Ideas and their role in the digital age” conference in India. I’m on your right tho ;->

Can lawyers say yes? Eben says he can since he represents hackers. Much more here in this nicely produced, CC licensed video from Red Hat.

The road to Delhi with Eben Moglen and Paul Jones
Produced by Kristin Hondros

Ever wished you could be a fly on the wall when tech-savvy folks gather? We got the chance at this summer’s Knowledge Symposium in Delhi, India.

The official title of the conference was “Owning the future: Ideas and their role in the digital age.” In between the discussions and sessions, we sat in on a conversation between Eben Moglen and Paul Jones. Two of the open source movement’s big thinkers–the lawyer (and founder of the Software Freedom Law Center) and the curator of ibiblio.org (one of the Internet’s largest public repositories).

Moglen and Jones have an open and fast-paced discussion that touches on international labor dynamics, technology expansion, intellectual property, economics, capitalism, and freedom. (Just imagine what they could do in more than 8 minutes…)

Ruby’s 2nd Life Roots Camp

Ruby's Roots Camp
Even as political junkie and OrangePolitics keeper of the relative peace Ruby was getting updates on the results of last night’s election, she was telling me about her Roots Camp being held in Second Life on Better World Island starting today at 4 pm EST.

Ruby tells me that the purpose of this Roots Camp is to “de-brief on the election and get a jump-start on organizing for 2008 by interacting with and learn from other leading Progressives in a cutting edge virtual environment that is likely to play a major role in online political organizing for 2008.”

Roots Camps are modeled directly on Bar Camp right down to the wiki and nearly to the logo. They’re about getting down to your netroots, if your roots are progressive (NewSpeak won’t allow you to say Liberal).

Second Life is a 3D virtual environment built by the residents (NewSpeak won’t allow you to say Users). There were at last count about 1,305,950 citizens (they say people) inhabiting Second Life.

For more on Roots Camp SL go here.

Personal Penguin not = Linux Desktop — or is it?

David Menconi unearths this monster of the id, “I want to be your personal penguin,” sung by Monkee Davy Jones. It’s unshakable but would be better performed with the Bonzo Doo Dah Dog Band.

Davy, Sandra, Michael — Call the boys! They’re on tour now but will be available for recording and performance after the first of the year.

Aimed at kids who have read and reread Sandra Boynton‘s book, “Your Personal Penguin,” the song could easily become a theme for the Fedora Project and any other friendly Linux desktop project. Ubuntu? There are penguins in Africa. I saw them on the Cape.

Webology or Information Science?

Sayan writes:

I came across this article on BBC where TBL says “When you look at university courses, web science isn’t there – it seems to fall through the cracks ”

The latter half of the article is entirely devoted to this idea. I think this is a good opportunity for SILS to pursue. Just my $0.02 Love to hear your take on the issue and what SILS is planning to do about this.

I reply:

The announcement from Southhampton and MIT gives a little more background.

I see this announcement as Computer Science trying to pick up all the threads they lost when they ignored anything besides technology. Web 2.0 and News 2.0 and Business 2.0 use technologies but the secret sauce that makes GooTube, Flickr, Blogger, even NetFlix and Amazon work and be worth millions isn’t the technologies — I keep saying.

Kathy Sierra has a nice and timely bit on her “Creating Passionate Users” blog called “Why does Science/math/engineering education education in the US suck?”. Kathy is on to what’s left out and why Information Science done right won’t turn out mere engineers.

In UNC SILS, we like to think we are already there using sociology, psychology, history, story telling, systems thinking, etc starting from a human interaction perspective.

Love is all around: McGuinn/Dylan, Jones/Viscomi, Lyceum

Roger McGuinn writes to say that Bob Dylan and company have added the Folk Den as a special link from their site with this testimonial Roger McGuinn’s Folk Den: We recommend Roger McGuinn’s excellent Folk Den website, where Roger continues to chronicle some of the greatest songs in the folk tradition.”

Dr. Joe Viscomi and I get a little ink in the Durham Herald Sun about our Wilson Knowledge Trust Awards

Joseph Viscomi, a professor of English at UNC and Paul Jones, director of the ibiblio Web collection at the university, were honored as trailblazers in information and library science and information technology in the first Knowledge Trust Honors ceremony. They were among five “Knowledge Masters” honored for making a significant difference in education, exploration, innovation, next-generation leadership and lifetime achievement.

JJB writes to point out a great new Lyceum installation Libraries of the University of Queensland in OZ.

November 10: Peg Leg Sam, Possum Trot, and Pilebutts

What: Peg Leg Sam, Possum Trot, and PilebuttsFolkstreams.net at CRADLE Friday
When: noon – 1 pm Friday November 10
Where: 214 Manning Hall, UNC – Chapel Hill

Paul Jones and Kristina Spurgin will talk about preservation, digital preservation and access issues in Folkstreams.net, A National Preserve of Documentary Films about American Roots Cultures streamed with essays about the traditions and filmmaking. The site includes transcriptions, study and teaching guides, suggested readings, and links to related websites.

A recent award of a new IMLS grant will allow folkstreams.net to expand its collection of documentaries by 35 films.
Folkstreams.net will use also produce original material relating to the Folkstreams project, including:

. a guide to best practices in video digitization;
. video clips for the site’s Video Aids for Film Preservation section
. portals, guides and outreach materials for senior citizens and teachers.

Folkstreams.net

Signal needs Joomla help

Uzi sends this plea on behalf of Signal: The Southeast Electronic Music Festival in Chapel Hill:

Signal is ramping up for the 07 festival in April. We desperately need a joomla expert to configure some
settings for us (it’s probably not much work but I just can’t figure it out to fix it). If anyone is interested, I can send you a link the site that’s under construct to see what our requirements are. If you can do the job, we’ll work out the payment.

Contact him: uzoma nwosu uzoma .nwosuATgmail.com

Open Source Hardware today at Duke

In about an hour in fact, Chuck (who recently posted here) will be speaking about Open Source Hardware. Here’s the dope:

*Wednesday, November 1st, 2006** :: 12:00 PM – 01:00 PM
John Hope Franklin Center, Room 240, Duke University
Wednesdays at the Center*

Free Design and The Open-Source Hardware Movement
Chuck Messer, Tackle Design
Sponsored by John Hope Franklin Center and the ISIS (Information Science + Information Studies) Program
For more information, contact Grant Samuelsen by phone at 919-684-6469 or by email at grant.samuelsenATduke.edu

Two Good Essays on Social Networks by Fred

Fred Stutzman has two new essays up on his blog. One on Friendship In Youth Social Networking in which he looks at Harris and other poll data as well as surveys regarding cell phone call lists, IM buddy lists and SNS. In the other, he attacks various misreadings of SNS use. Is SNS use declining? Is SNS use aging rapidly so that 45 year olds on kids’ sites is now the norm? Nope, says Fred.

Both essays and their links are well worth your time.

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