Today Bill Drew, The Wireless Librarian, pointed out an excellent article explaining the various 802.11 standards for wireless networking. Learn your wireless ABCs with ZDNet's The ABCs of 802.11 Standards.

"After 13 years of proprietary products and ineffective standards, the networking industry has finally decided to back one set of standards for wireless networking: the 802.11 series from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). These emerging standards define wireless Ethernet, or wireless LAN (WLAN)."

One of the biggest challenges for the folks that "get it" is going to be making the other millions of people who don't "get it" understand why we need to speak out against the DMCA and CBDTPA now before things get any worse. Bruce and I had a discussion the other day about how to get this down to a personal level that my Mom, my neighbor, or John Q. Public will understand.

I was noting how you probably wouldn't be able to email a Word document, fax a copy of a contract, or send a digital video of your daughter to her favorite aunt. Heck, webcams might become illegal (not that John Q. Public uses them, but the breadth of consequences is truly staggering).

To this end, Mary Wehmeier has helped greatly in this area by writing an open letter to Senator Hollings in which she explains how the consequences of his proposed legislation will put her small business out of business.

"The proposed 'Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act' (CBDTPA) you and Senators Feinstein, Stevens, Inouye, Breaux and Nelson are co-sponsoring will make it impossible for independent editor like myself, to remain in business. Why? Because the proposed SSSCA does not differentiate between someone illegally duplicating DVDs or video tapes for sale, from me trying to earn a living by editing a commercial spot from my home....

In essence the CBDTPA will put me out of business. Because as a small business, I can not afford to purchase expensive proprietary editing stations used by the corporate entertainment industry to upgrade my business in the coming years. Our editing systems use reasonably priced off-the-shelf computers. Furthermore, the CBDTPA makes it clear that it would be illegal for me to purchase or alter a stock system in order to do my work. So either way I lose."

She even explained this one step further for me in an email that I hope she won't mind me quoting:

"Here's a thought-- if Hollings' Bill goes through, independent video and audio editors like me are totally screwed.  To you as a librarian, all that AV equipment used to create materials in your library goes bye bye, or the prices go so insanely out of budget you will never see it. Why? Because about 80% of those materials are produced today by people like me."

That's one end of the dilemna this will pose for libraries. The other is that your existing collection (audio and video) suddenly becomes either illegal or it's unplayable on new equipment that has the copyright protection embedded in it. The cost to replace all of those materials would be astronomical (it would be like starting over from scratch), but the truth is that it would be a waste of your time to even try.

The BigCos can't provide you with digital materials you can circulate because their copyright protection schemes won't allow it. The minute they open a loophole for libraries, hackers have an open door through which to decrypt the content, which puts them back where they are now. So clearly they're not going to allow for the traditional exemption of circulation rights for libraries. But without it, you have no digital material to circulate to your patrons. Even pretending you did, it probably wouldn't play on all of the various machines out there, because who really expects the tech, music, video, TV, publishing, and other industries to all agree on one standard?

So now we have a future where consumers, the tech industry, small businesses, and libraries lose all of their existing rights and purposes. Consumers lose fair use, the tech industry (hardware and software) loses innovation and progress, small businesses lose the ability to communicate digital files (which means anything you do on your PC, fax machine, email, the web, etc.), and libraries lose access to all future content that is created in an electronic format. All so the entertainment industry can keep their content locked up from the very people that want to be entertained by it in the first place. It's absurd!

Valdis let me know that there is an additional updated map on his site that shows the direct and indirect associates of the 9/11 hijackers. He also alerted me to the fact that the next issue of First Monday will have an article about how this map was made. Watch for this one on... well, Monday.

And speaking of First Monday, I'd like to get their monthly articles to appear in my news aggregator, too.

Peter further explains his idea for making blogs part of the semantic web using RDF metadata.

"So why bother? Bootstrapping! The Semantic Web will start to exist when enough resources (RDF-speak for "things you can connect to on the web") include semantic information."

I haven't had time to figure out which method I want to use to add metadata to my blog, but it's defnitely on the To-Do list.

It doesn't get any better than this. I just got back from the north side of the city, where my family and I visited with my aunt, my cousin, and my parents. With Reza's food and a wonderful Death by Chocolate cake, no less (don't worry, Bruce - I ate your piece for you).

The occasion? Tomorrow my parents leave for a 3-week trip through China. They've always wanted to do this, so I'm happy for them that they've gotten to the point in their lives where they can. We should all be so lucky.

Bon voyage, Mom and Dad! :-)

"Let's get this rolling. These are 'pro digital consumer' senators. If you feel this list is incorrect or have additions then please email me or leave a comment."

• Senator Patrick Leahy (D - Vermont)
• Senator Orrin Hatch (R - Utah)
• Senator Maria Cantwell (D - Washington)

[Matt Goyer]

Plus Representative Rick Boucher (D - Virginia).

Another Punch for Copy Protection

"On Wednesday, Rep. Adam Schiff of Burbank, California, circulated a letter on Capitol Hill seeking co-sponsors for his legislation, which he said would follow the same approach as the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA) in the Senate....

By introducing this measure in the House, Schiff hopes to accelerate the passage of digital rights management legislation: The House can move forward on it without waiting for the Senate to act first....

Jack Valenti of the Motion Picture Association of America hailed it as a welcome measure that will bring about 'the goal of a digital environment that is respectful of copyrighted creative works....' " [Wired News]

Note that Valenti wants a "digital environment that is respectful of copyrighted creative works," not consumers or the public good. You can smell the stench from here.

Social Animals

"Jon Udell pointed to Malcolm Gladwell's "Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg" article in The New Yorker. I finally got around to reading it over the weekend. It reminded me of Thomas Stewart's article "America's Secret Weapon" in the December 2001 issue of Business 2.0, and in particular the map showing the social relationships of the 9/11/2001 hijackers. I find it interesting how the Internet changes social dynamics. Someone may be a Connector in cyberspace, but a dud in meatspace. How long is your Buddy List? [The Peanut Gallery]

I'm posting this for my future memory loss because I was looking for the map of the relationships between the 9/11 hijackers the other day and couldn't find it. Serendipity is a wonderful thing!

Doesn't it seem, though, like the names should be links to information about the hijacker, along with a picture?

I'd like to see this type of map done for libraryland. I think it would be interesting to see the blogging relationships and then map the spread of memes against them.

I'm still waiting for this whole Instant Outlining mind bomb to go off in my head. I'm missing a piece of the puzzle or I've taken a wrong turn in the maze or something. Maybe this is one of those things where I just have to try it to understand it. I am especially confused about the whole project management/communication angle. How would it fit into my portal project at SLS?

Collected reading on this topic:

• Some thoughts on Instant Outlining from Adam Curry
• Jon Udell's first essay on Instant Outlining
• Jeremiah Rogers' first essay on Instant Outlining
• Radio's Outliner

I feel like the kid who can't quite figure out her multiplication tables, waiting for the light bulb moment.

Dutch Court Clears Web Music Swapping

"In a setback for efforts to halt copyright abuse, a Dutch appeals court on Thursday told a technology firm it could distribute a software program that is designed to let users share music and films on the Internet.

The ruling in the case between Internet software company KaZaA and Dutch music rights organization Buma Stemra overturned a decision in November in favor of the music industry....

KaZaA attorney Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm expected the Dutch ruling to be closely watched in the U.S., as his defense was partly built on a 1984 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which said manufacturers of video recorders are not liable if consumers use their products to abuse copyrights." [NYTimes Technology, via Matt Goyer]

So even if the Supreme Court was to declare such software illegal, it would still be legally produced in other countries, which means it can still be downloaded in the U.S. It would be illegal to do so and to use it, but it illustrates how out-of-touch the BigCos are to think they can stop this kind of software from replicating and being distributed.

Shutting down Napster didn't really help, now did it? Apparently, Mr. Eisner has studied only a narrow period of U.S. history, because he doesn't realize that even his hardware solution is doomed to failure. It's like the argument for filters in libraries - you can't stop all of the illegal activity no matter what you do. So rather than abridging the rights of citizens - and in this case your customers - you're better off working with them to find a workable solution for everyone.

 It's too bad they don't realize they could already be making money from all of this instead of spending it on lawsuits instead.

This Jayhawks Fan Leads a Charmed Life

"I'm a tough person to be around on a good day. When Kansas is playing, forget it. My sports department co-workers in Detroit once voted to give me Final Four Monday off -- that's akin to Deloitte & Touche insisting an accountant spend April 14 at the beach. These people preferred doing my work than having me in the office when Kansas played Oklahoma. Good call. I yelled myself hoarse the first half, then bawled the second half -- in the privacy of my living room." [via MetaFilter]

Most people will post this link as an example of a crazy person at whom we should be laughing. Not me. I understand Tracee and support her 100%. Although I've really toned down my game-time behavior during the last few years (out of respect for my loved ones who have to be in the same house as me), I still have some rituals, I still keep my rubber Bad Call Brick to throw at the TV when Ed Hightower blows a call, and I still find myself standing for most of the game even though I'm in the comfort of my own home. I have the cassette of Rock Chalk Jayhawk songs, I still have my Terry towel, and my framed cover of the UDK from 1988 when the Hawks last won it all shines above the TV.

When I start a presentation, I joke about my soft voice, noting that I'm a librarian. The truth is that I have a paralyzed vocal cord and I couldn't talk very loudly even if I wanted to. After a full day of presentations, I'm hoarse and my throat hurts. The doctors can't tell me why this suddenly happened to me back in 1989, but they don't have to. I know.

During the winter of 1987-88 I had mono, but I still attended every KU basketball game. Along with every other student in the crowd, I stood for the whole game, I shook newspapers at the beginning of the game, I had all of the clapping and arm motions down pat, and I shouted all of the fight songs. I shouted a lot at the refs, too (nothing obscene - just letting them know when they made a lousy call). You can imagine how much I screamed when we ended up winning the National Championship that year.

So I know that I gave up a vocal cord that year in sacrifice to my team but in return, Danny Manning and the Miracles went all the way. Ironically, they beat Oklahoma that year to do it, so you can imagine what many of us devoted fans are thinking about this year. I think that between Tracee and me, the Hawks can do it again this year! If you feel the ground shaking Saturday night, you'll know why.  :-)

PBS has put up a companion web site for its current special on learning differences and disabilities. Misunderstood Minds goes beyond the usual explanations to offer you the chance to experience firsthand the difficulties kids with reading problems face when they try learn a skill most of us take for granted. I highly recommend that you try taking their tests, because they really will give you a better understanding of the issues involved.

If you live in the Chicagoland area, you can catch a repeat broadcast of the show on Sunday morning at 2:00 a.m. on WTTW.

osama's bin bloggin

Storage and copyrights.  There is little doubt that the current copyright system, and how copyright owners sell their poducts, is in freefall.  The reason for this is the rapid growth in storage capacity....

With this in mind, it's easy to see that the real driver behind the attack on digital media copyrights is the rapid expansion of storage space on PCs.  It is doubling faster than Moore's law.  The standard $2000 PC today sells with 120 Gb of storage space more than twice what was available on the standard PC last year at this time.   This unused space asks, no demands, to be filled.  What are people filling it with?  Music.  Movies.  Digital media.

The entertainment industries greatest fault is that it isn't finding ways to fill this unused capacity with their products.  They want to keep a system in place that slowly dribbles digital media to customers in a tightly managed way, in spite of the fact that customers demand, and can easily absorb, a firehose of digital media.  Until the entertainment industry finds a way to open the floodgates they will be the losers in this battle.  Personal leverage through the use of technology is the greatest trend of all time.  Fighting that is not just stupid, it's insane." [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

I know this holds true for me in terms of television. Ever since I first bought a ReplayTV digital video recorder, I store a lot more television than I ever did before. Even on my 60-hour unit, I usually only have about 5 hours clear at any given time because I'm recording everything I or my family might want to watch. Some of the stuff on there has been waiting months for me to watch it. Other stuff I just delete without watching when I need the room.

I could probably record enough off of basic cable to keep that 60-hour box full, but I still pay for the full digital cable package anyway. Why? Because of the broad offerings and the convenience the digital storage gives me. Granted, I can't send a show to another TV (I don't have any ReplayTV 4000s yet), but I can off-load stuff to videotape if need be or if I want to let a friend watch a show. I rarely do that, though, because I have enough storage on that box.  In fact, I'm starting to view my 30-hour ReplayTV as inferior and not "large enough." I openly salivate when I think about the 320-hour Replays.

The same would be true for music. If I could easily pull in digital music that interested me, I'd pay full price and I'd listen to a lot more of it than I do now because of the increased convenience and the ability to store all of it.

Remember that I'm "shifted," which really just means that I'm very busy and that I want to watch TV and movies when it's convenient for me. The same holds true for music - I want to listen to it when and where it's convenient for me. If you're going to wait around for me to turn on the radio at 5:08 pm in order to hear the song you want me to hear so that I'll buy that band's album, it isn't going to happen. That's why music sales are declining. Disney, Time-Warner, etc. all need to study the digital video recorder industry very closely and recognize how to meet me in my world. Then I'll start buying their products again.

Oxford Online: Will People Pay?

"Oxford University Press (OUP) is publishing its core language and subject reference dictionaries online for the first time, creating what could be the largest general knowledge source on the Web. ...

The Core Collection, the first database to be available as part of Oxford Reference Online, integrates over 100 dictionaries and reference titles across an array of subjects -- from astronomy to zoology -- into a single cross-searchable resource....

All that information comes at a price, however. Annual subscription fees will cost approximately $250 a year for schools and anywhere from $395 to just under $3,000 for multiple-user accounts such as libraries....

'There is a great deal of free information on the Web, but Oxford Reference Online offers reference material that is of the highest quality that is easily searchable -- with the ability to cross-search from any word -- all in one location," Scriven agreed. "Nothing similar is offered free on the Web....'

Oxford Reference Online follows the launch of the Oxford English Dictionary in March 2000 as part of the dictionary's first complete revision in its 120-year history." [Wired News]

I think it's great that Oxford is making their collections available online, and they're doing it the right way, too. The next time you hear someone say that libraries are irrelevant because of the internet, ask them to shell out $1000 for access to this one Oxford collection alone.

That's why libraries are a public good, and a bargain of a one at that. Librarians love the OED, and looking up a word there is always much more fun than looking it up in any other dictionary. Making it searchable will only increase its value, although I worry a bit of the sense of history and wonder might be lost so I don't want to lose the print version of this one either.

The idea of being able to search (let alone cross-search) all of the Oxford guides online someday is making more than a few librarians do the happy dance.  :-)