"Joshua Allen speaks up, eloquently, for The Semantic Web." [Scripting News]

Here is (of course) my favorite part:

"Few people think about the noble role that librarians play.  Our ability to collect, organize, and preserve the voices and observations of those who came before us is critical to our continued survival as a species.  The story of Babel is a metaphor for what later happened at Alexandria; a reminder that we all suffer when we lose our ability to pass lessons to future generations.  It is possible for a single person to memorize the Quran and pass it on to others, but word-of-mouth is not enough to perpetuate the bulk of knowledge that enables the planet to support six billion people today.  Without written language and our knowledge stewards, we would have to eliminate many billions of people, because we wouldn't be able to maintain the capabilities that support them all.  Again, the Internet has had a profound impact on our ability to preserve our collective memory, but we are still very fragile.  A true librarian has vivid memories of Babel and Alexandria (when we also considered ourselves invincible), and lives the motto 'never again!'.  The first lesson of history (that we must learn and never repeat) is that history lost is humanity lost."

Amen! As Joshua goes on to say later in his essay (not specifically about librarians but I'm going to include us in the list), don't bet against us.

StumbleUpon

"StumbleUpon is a browser add-on for finding and sharing great websites. Unlike directories or search engines, StumbleUpon uses member ratings to form collective human opinions on website quality." [via MetaFilter]

This is somewhat similar to the tool I want for librarian pagerank. Instead of "good" or "bad," a site would be "authentic" or "trustworthy."