Bill in U.S. Congress on Fair Use Called "Watered-Down"

Ken Fisher of Ars Technica isn't impressed by a Bill on Fair Use that was recently introduced by Congressmen Rick Boucher (D-VA) and John Doolittle (R-CA).

Calling it "watered down", Fisher comments:

Yet again, the bill does not appear to deliver on what most observers want: clear protection for making personal use copies of encrypted materials. There is no allowance for consumers to make backups of DVDs, to strip encryption from music purchased online so that it can be played anywhere, or to generally do any of the things that the DMCA made illegal in one fell swoop."

Ape with a Termite Stick': Jon Udell on Screencasts

Learn by seeing other people doing things. We used to call it 'monkey see, monkey do'. Jon Udell calls it "ape with a termite stick".

In any case, that's what a screencast does and Udell, who's done a number of them, has a nice write-up, "Screencasting Tips" that's full of observations like the following:

Given all the network connectivity that we have nowadays, it’s perhaps surprising — but nevertheless true — that we have few opportunities to directly observe how other people, who are proficient users of software tools, do what they do. Screencasts are the best way I've found to make such tool use observable, and thus learnable.

I'd only add that as the variety and importance of these software tools grow, so too does the need for good examples.

84 Steps to Getting Square Corners in CSS

This one was funny. It comes from a spoof site called 'Drivl.com' which accepts user-submitted posts.

Step 4 for Getting Square Corners in CSS:

Squeeze the drippings from an uncooked 12 oz porterhouse steak onto the butcher paper, smear the steak around until a greasy sheen is clearly visible.

My Talk on Web 2.0 to Librarians from National Louis, Benedictine & the College of Dupage

Leo Klein at Benedictine University: I'd like to thank all of the librarians who came to my talk on Web 2.0 at Benedictine University yesterday.

We had a good group with representation from National Louis, Benedictine and the College of DuPage. Everyone was completely engaged and asked great questions -- even though I ran half an hour longer than scheduled (sorry).

I'd like to thank all of the participants. I'd also like to thank hosts Jack Fritts and Kent Carrico from Benedictine and Kathryn Miller from National Louis who did the original scheduling.

A copy of my presentation can be found here...

UPDATE: See the version on SlideShare.net here...

Captcha for Humanists

Submission for the redesign of 'captcha' according to humanistic principles (patent pending):

Enough with Overweight Podcasts!

I love podcasts. For me, podcasts are the New Radio. They're a welcomed and increasingly critical source of information.

But please -- please! -- I'd love them even more if the person putting them together respected bandwidth constraints.

I'm ready to admit that I grew up in the days of 14.4 modems. My first attempt at dealing with media was trying to make pictures look good using only 256 colors. "Crackly" doesn't begin to describe the quality of audio I had to churn out due to low bandwidth.

But even in this great age of DSL, there still are a couple of conventions that content providers need to observe. One of them is never, ever use more bandwidth than you actually need.

Now I've just downloaded two podcasts from institutions that ought to know better, each of which was close to an hour long and each of which weighed in at close to 60 megs!

Let me tell you, Ladies and Gentlemen, 60megs for an hour's worth of audio is way overweight. If what you're dealing with is 'talk', you ought to be able to get it down to half that size without much difficulty.

Mono for Voice

The first thing you can do is output the file as mono. Stereo has two channels, mono one. 'Voice' doesn't need stereo so you'll be saving space by eliminating the extra track.

Lower the Bit Rate

Media files have a "bit rate". Basically it's how much information, measured in kilobits that goes through the pipe per second -- hence 'kbps'. Many of the encoding applications default, it seems, to 128kbps. This is way more than you need. All you have to do is take it down to 56kbps, 48kbps or even 32kbps and you'll still have perfectly good audio. It won't sound like a concert performance but then again it's not a concert performance that you're serving up.

Getting files down to the lowest size possible is the digital equivalent of dotting your 'i's and crossing your 't's. It's what a responsible content provider does to ensure the widest possible audience. For all we know, it's someone on a cellphone who's trying to access that material. The file size ought to work for all users.

Tim O'Reilly on Various Library Standards & Applications

(Okay, so he's not directly addressing things like Z39.50, OpenURL or ILS's, but you'd think the same rules apply.)

Under the heading "Lightweight Programming Models", he lists the following "significant lessons" (in abbreviated form):

1. Support lightweight programming models that allow for loosely coupled systems. [...]
2. Think syndication, not coordination. [...]
3. Design for "hackability" and remixability. [...]

Go ahead and read the whole thing...

User-Centered Design Requires Actual Users

I've been going through a lot of material in anticipation of my talk at National Louis-Benedictine next week.

USER-CENTERED APPROACH

It's amazing how many people say their approach is "User-centered". They talk about it as if it were something new. "Our innovation," they proudly declare, "is that we're finally making users the center of our design".

I'm happy to hear it! On the other hand, I can't really imagine a person or institution ever claiming NOT to be user-centered. Why hell, even the Library at Alexandria probably thought it was user-centered.

And who wouldn't? As an institution, you just don't go around saying, 'our new policy is to completely neglect the needs of our users (and oh, BTW, would you like to help contribute either financially or otherwise to this worthy goal)'.

It just doesn't happen.

BOTHERING TO ASK

But the other thought that grips me when I hear how user-focused everything has become, is: well, have you asked any actual users?

And I'm not talking of the theoretical kind.

Every day we're got users in the tens, hundreds or even thousands -- depending on the institution -- literally cramming through our doors. Each one of them is a potential gold mine of information on just how user-centered our services are.

That's why I'm always confused by the level of theory in library discussions; Especially when there are so many opportunities to actually test out our assumptions.

ADVANCE IN OUR UNDERSTANDING

The greatest advance in web technology came -- not with any particular technological innovation -- but when we realized that developing systems isn't an armchair operation and that the smartest thing to do -- the safest thing to do -- is to actually go out and grab one of those people we spend so much time talking about.

It's keeps us anchored on Planet Earth -- and the results are so much more satisfying.

Snowy Chicago

Snowy Chicago. UIC looking west at around 4:30pm. Classes for the afternoon were canceled.

It's Curtains for Clippy

Few animated characters have raised the ire of so many as Clippy, the erstwhile tech assistant for MS Office starting in 1997. Literally at the drop of a hat, and for no apparent reason, Clippy would jump out and offer his unwanted services.

For ten long years, we have had to live with Clippy. Now he is no more. Read the details of his demise here...  (h/t Slashdot)

At the Dental Clinic with a New Friend

I had an appointment at the UIC Dental Clinic today. Apparently before the students get to work on real-live patients, they practice on a bunch of rubber dummies -- rubber heads to be precise -- that conveniently fit into the neck-rest of the chair. I kind of like this guy -- with his mustache and beard, he looks kind of Beatnik. 

Video: Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

Excellent video by Michael Wesch of KSU demonstrating some characteristics of online digital culture. I always get nervous when we get to lines like "we are the machine and the machine is us" but other points such as the role of content and its fungibility are dead on. (h/t Somewhat Frank)

Addendum: Link to video on youtube: https://youtu.be/6gmP4nk0EOE

On the Misuse of the Word, 'Conversation'

Is it me or does the use of the word, 'conversation' for just about any communication between human beings cause others to cringe as well?

First, the guy on our local NPR Station talked of having some politician in for a "conversation" back in March; then Hillary Clinton runs on a platform called "Let the Conversation Begin". Now, a report just out on social networks in libraries is called, "Participatory Networks: The Library as Conversation". It concludes (not surprisingly): "...[T]here is now a need to broaden both the scope and scale of the conversation."

Is there no end to this? It's like using 'luxury' to describe condo units. The word begins to lose all meaning -- or even worse begins to take on the opposite of what's intended -- simply because it's used so much.

When I hear 'conversation', increasingly I think: 'insincere attempt to get my attention for trivial, banal or commercial purposes'. Sorry, but I'm just conversation'ed out.

CTA EL Train Crash : Feb. 4, 1977

Thirty years ago, I had a part-time job at Carson, Pirie, Scott in Chicago. It was a Friday night and I had just gotten off of work, walking down Michigan Avenue to catch the 151 Bus.

When I got to the corner of Lake & Michigan, I looked west and saw the most incredible thing: a CTA EL train dangling from the overhead tracks all the way to the ground. There were police cars, fire trucks and ambulances all over the place. Huge spotlights shone on the train.

It was an incredible sight -- something you'd see in a Hollywood disaster movie but it was all too real. One of the great people working at Carson, Pirie Scott was in that train and while she survived, she was unable to ever come back to work.

I was reminded of that scene by a report on WBBM Radio. They have an article about it on their site. Chicago-l.org also had an informative page on the accident.

It's something I'll never forget.

Famous Last Words in IT

1. What do you mean we need a paper record for our Electronic Voting Machine System?
2. Sure, it only works on Windows. What's the problem?
3. Let's just use Mr. Sid!
4. Trashbin to delete files?  Typing 'DEL' plus the file name is so much better!
5. But it breaks the 'back' button!!!
6. People don't want all that eye-candy on the Web, they just want information.
7. Welcome to our Scholars' Workstation Gateway Portal Social Network!
8. Does anyone ever read the manual?
9. Dear User: Your password is required to be at least eight characters long and contain at least one small letter, one large letter, a number and a punctuation mark. You are required to change your password every six months. (This last is dedicated to the IT people at NYU.)

Go Bears! (CTA Bus Edition)

Go Bears! Next Stop, Miami. (CTA Bus Edition)

Current Cites for January 2007

Current Cites for January 2007 is out. I've got three citations again -- and I might've done more, had I been able to get my hands on Electronic Library in time. In any case, you can find the issue here...