E.T. Phone Home (or Take Pictures, or Go Online and Check E-mail...)

"After years of hype met by the collective yawns of consumers, smart-phone sales during the first quarter of 2003 reached 1.7 million units, up almost fourfold over the same period last year. That's still only a sliver of the mobile-handset market's 410 million total units, but it's evidence that consumers are buying the concept. United Kingdom-based research firm Canalys predicts that this year, for the first time, Europeans will buy more smart phones than traditional handheld computers such as Palm organizers.

The biggest reason for all the enthusiasm is that there are more cell-phone models, most of which actually deliver on their promises. As usual, Nokia is leading the pack with innovative products like its 3650, which combines a large color screen, a built-in camera, and a visually pleasing circular keypad design. Sony Ericsson's P800 packs the typical PDA functions -- contacts lists, a calendar, notes, e-mail -- into a slim flip-top device that has built-in Internet access. Other devices, such as Orange's SPV and Handspring's Treo, have also proven popular with consumers....

Sure, it will be another year or so before smart phones ship in mass-market volumes, but the revolution is clearly under way." [Business 2.0]

More Mobile Minutes in the U.S.

"Wireless telephone subscribers in the United States now spend, on average, more minutes talking on their mobile phones than they do on traditional landline phones, according to the Yankee Group's latest quarterly Wireless/Mobile North American Carrier Tracker. Mobile phone use has been growing rapidly - with the average U.S. subscriber logging 490 minutes of use per month - and surpassed residential landline use during 4th quarter of 2002." [infoSync]

Now if the carriers would just get their acts together, we'd see an increase in text messaging, too. (Emphasis above is mine.)

Support the Freedom to Read

"The ACLU's action center is running a campaign that lets you write to your congresscritter to ask her/him to endorse the "Freedom to Read Protection Act," which will restrict the ability to law-enforcement agencies to secretly and warrantlessly gather information on your habits at bookstores and libraries. Go ahead and ping your lawmaker -- let's get this bill passed and then take on the rest of the evil PATRIOT act. Discuss (Thanks, Pete!)" [Boing Boing Blog]

Check it out - another blogging convert! Kristen Newton Smith has started the Algonquin Area Community Board using Blogger to post to the Library's community site on NorthStarNet! She's using it mainly to announce events and happenings in the area, but I'll bet they start using blogs in other ways, too, now that they understand the power of them! Bwahahahaha!

On a side note, I used to work on NorthStarNet, and blogging is the perfect vehicle for the project. NSN provides a community web site plus web hosting for nonprofits at no charge, all of which is run through the local public library. But HTML and its authoring tools were always too high a barrier for most organizations. Blogging breaks down that barrier and puts community information providers online quickly and easily. It's basically what Andy B. and I talked about years ago... we just didn't realize it, and we never had the chance to create it.

I really hope North Suburban Library System installs Movable Type for the participating libraries and community groups. I think they'd see a whole new level of interest and content. If they don't, participating libraries should learn how to use Blogger and teach their IPs. SLS libraries could then promote NSN accounts to their local nonprofits and get more content into the Community Organization Guide. It's an explosion that's just crying out for one swift kick to jumpstart the whole domino effect, and libraries should lead the way.

The Fametracker Forum on Publishing and Multimedia Talk picked up on the Public Library Wishlists at Amazon and brought it full circle back to Pamie, the instigator behind this great idea. The second post ends by noting:

"This means several things:

1. The grassroots attempt to save libraries may very well take off, which is of course a good thing.
2. It's possible that we have enough blogs that all link to each other.
3. Eventually, someone's going to build a fifty-foot-high statue of Pamie for single-handedly saving the library system."

All of which should totally happen, because Pamie has another good idea as a follow-up to her attempt to help with the Oakland Public Library's dilemma:

"I wish Amazon.com knew about this and matched all of our donations with another set of books. I know we don't always need corporate sponsorship, but with the way we've pumped money into Amazon this week, you'd think they'd want to give something back. By the way, Cody's Books does give you free shipping, if you mention the books are for the Oakland book drive."

Match, Jeff, match! :-)

"Sometimes technology backfires on you. The Thai finance minister was on his way to a meeting became trapped in his car when the onboard computer of his BMW malfunctioned, shutting down the engine, locking all the doors and windows, and sealing him and his driver in. With air running out, they found out the hard way how well-built the cars are, and had to have someone come around with a sledgehammer and smash one of the windows after they failed to kick one out from the inside.
Read [Via TechDirt]" [Gizmodo]