Important Privacy Notice for Yahoo! Users

"I just got this from one of my Linux mailing lists.

'Yahoo is now using something called 'Web Beacons' to track Yahoo Group users around the net and see what you're doing - similar to cookies. Take a look at their updated privacy statement.

About half-way down the page, in the section 'Outside the Yahoo! Network", you'll see a little 'click here' link that will let you opt-out of their new method of snooping. You may want to do this. Once you have clicked that link, you are opted out.

Notice the 'Success' message at the top of the next page. Be careful, because on that page there is a 'Cancel Opt-out' button that, if clicked, will *undo* the opt-out.' " [Wil Wheaton Dot Net]

This type of behavior is just one of the reasons libraries should NOT be hosting their mailing lists on Yahoo Groups. If you're a SLS library and you'd like to start a mailing list, we will host one for you for free!

The Librarys Contribution to Your Community

"Here's A Great Resource, put together by dmA Planning and Management Services, for the Southern Ontario Library Services. The Library's Contribution to Your Community: A Resource Manual for Libraries to Document their Social and Economic Contribution to the Local Community. Here's the summary:

• is a manual designed for self-use by public libraries
• identifies 12 social and 9 economic benefits
• describes the information required to document how the library delivers each of the benefits
• provides tools for collecting the information needed
• outlines a communication strategy, which includes constructing the argument and preparing for counter-argument, for delivering your message to municipal politicians and administrators
• illustrates how to use the manual at a level of involvement comfortable for your library
• includes an extensive bibliography of related publications
• has been distributed to all public libraries in Ontario
• is available in English and French"

[LISNews.com]

RIAA, Tech Leaders Agree on Status Quo

"Ted Bridis at AP reports that the RIAA and at least one big tech-industry trade group will announce today that they have reached a 'landmark consensus' on lobbying strategy. Essentially, both groups agree to support the legal status quo. The tech industries will join the RIAA in lobbying against consumer fair use measures like the Boucher and Lofgren bills; and the RIAA will join the tech groups in lobbying against technology mandates like the Hollings CBDTPA....

As usual, end users were not at the table when this deal was made." [Freedom To Tinker]

So we have a brief détente. The only good news here is that the RIAA is scared enough of Rick Boucher's DMCRA bill that they are willing to say they will work against Hollings' CBDTPA and its ilk. Of course, the people affected by all of this - you and me - still need to be viligant and make our views known to our legislators and the media companies. Libraries especially need to keep paying attention.

Eternal Vigilance

"Will 2003 be the year we lose what remains of our digital rights? It's all too possible.

Perhaps I'm overly pessimistic, but just from the sheer number of political and legal threats to our rights looming in various and sundry quarters, it's hard not to be. To avoid any nasty surprises, let's look at the most obvious ones.

The biggest, baddest bogeyman on the horizon, of course, is the Hollywood lobby and the various bills it is pushing on Congress to control the future of technology products. The new Congress will doubtlessly see the introduction of the same or similar bills that we saw last year....

So is this list of potential horrors just my way of keeping you up nights, or is there something you can do about them? As a matter of fact, there is. Consumer and watchdog groups representing your interests are in these fights, but they are few and poorly funded compared to the lobbyists from the software industry, the motion picture industry, the television networks, etc.

The groups that represent the customer side need all the support they can get. I'm particularly partial to Americans for Fair Electronic Commerce (AFFECT) (www.ucita.com) for its work on UCITA and the EFF (www.eff.org) for the broad range of digital rights issues it covers. But other groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union (www.aclu.org), the Consumers Union (www.consumersunion.org), and the Consumer Project on Technology (www.cptech.org), are doing very important work as well. Take a look at what they're doing and decide what you can do to help, whether writing your congressperson or writing a check.

After all, it would be nice if in 2004 you still had a few rights worth worrying about." [InfoWorld]

@ Your Library: Download Promotional Photos

"These photos are from the Beyond Words: Celebrating America's Libraries Photo Contest, which helped mark National Library Week 1999 and the Bicentennial of the Library of Congress. Amateur and professional photographers alike were encouraged to capture the spirit of our nation's libraries and the many ways they touch our lives everyday. Libraries nationwide held local photo contests and submitted their first-place winners to ALA for national judging.

These photos belong to the American Library Association. By participating in the contest, photographers granted ALA the rights to use them in any and all promotions of libraries and literacy. They are yours to download and use at no cost for brochures, annual reports and other promotional materials. We do ask, however, that you attribute the photo to the Beyond Words Photo Contest and credit the photographer and the prize won."

"I'm planning the blogging website for Harvard in my head, and thought of a question I'd like to ask Harvard students and faculty. Would you like to participate in a project to create knowledge? I would have liked that question when I was a student. Of course! Yes yes yes. That's why I came to college. But there were so few ways for students to participate when I was a student. I wonder if it's like that at Harvard. I think about the Yahoo guys at Stanford and how inspired they were. What if a university like Harvard, not just a few students, got busy mapping the world of knowledge on the Internet. Each student would take responsibility for some period of time for some aspect of world knowledge. When they graduate they pass it on, or even better, take the responsibility with them, into life. Does any of this make sense? I'm beta testing ideas here as I go." [Scripting News]

Emphasis above is mine. I love the idea of students participating more interactively in their education, but just make sure you include the Harvard librarians, Dave, because we've been working on the idea of subject specialties for a more than a hundred years now.  :-)