Monthly Archives: October 2003

ebooks in the UK

Content suitable for UK (and European) markets was, until recently, in very short supply, although pricing and access models also put ebooks out of reach for many UK public libraries. In some subject areas it may not matter if materials have a US bias, but it is important in subjects such as law and medicine, … Continue reading ebooks in the UK →

New issue of Ariadne available

I always look out for new issues of Ariadne as I set it up many years ago with John MacColl (now at University of Edinburgh). The October 2003 issue is now available with some interesting articles and trip reports from ECDL, DC2003, and other stuff. Ariadne Issue 37 | Contents

Automatic classification and web harvesting

Jessica Lindholm, Tomas Schonthal and Kjell Jansson describe the background to and the work involved in setting up Engine-e, a Web index that uses automatic classification as a means for the selection of resources in Engineering. Considerations in offering a robot-generated Web index as a successor to a manually indexed quality-controlled subject gateway are also … Continue reading Automatic classification and web harvesting →

Trip Report – DLF Steering Committee and NDIIPP

The October DLF Steering Committee meeting included a presentation from Laura Campbell (LC) and Clay Shirky (consultant) about NDIIPP. There was considerable focus on the technical architecture being developed. They were not able to talk about the current solicitation (they can only answer questions submitted in writing). Final decisions about successful proposals under the current … Continue reading Trip Report – DLF Steering Committee and NDIIPP →

Economist on Google IPO

Via Brian: Even more frightening (especially to those who remember Netscape’s fate in the browser wars), Microsoft smells blood. It is currently working on its own search algorithm, which it hopes to make public early next year, around the probable time of Google’s share listing. Historically, Microsoft has been good at letting others (Apple, Netscape, … Continue reading Economist on Google IPO →

Clay Shirky

Clay Shirky is working as a technical consultant to the Library of Congress NDIIPP initiative. Mr. Shirky divides his time between consulting, teaching, and writing on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies. His consulting practice is focused on the rise of decentralized technologies such as peer-to-peer, web services, and wireless networks that provide … Continue reading Clay Shirky →

ZDnet on federated identity

Article by Dan Farber overviewing some recent developments in federated identity management. Interestingly, he does not mention Shibboleth. The most interesting and promising development I encountered at Digital ID World was Ping Identity. The 12-person company, led by CEO Andre Durand, offers SourceID an open source platform for deploying federated single sign-on or enabling federated … Continue reading ZDnet on federated identity →

Why aren’t user interfaces more like cars ..

Now what about user interface design? Every software application I own has a bespoke interface. No doubt this has a lot to do with differentiating oneself in tough markets, and I do like variety and novelty, but come on. These apps are needlessly different. Mozilla mail is nothing like The Bat!, which is nothing like … Continue reading Why aren’t user interfaces more like cars .. →

Update of Varian/Lyman “how much information” study

This study is an attempt to estimate how much new information is created each year. Newly created information is distributed in four storage media – print, film, magnetic, and optical – and seen or heard in four information flows – telephone, radio and TV, and the Internet. This study of information storage and flows analyzes … Continue reading Update of Varian/Lyman “how much information” study →

JSTOR e-archiving initiative

From the inception of JSTOR, we anticipated the need to preserve the “born-digital” editions of scholarly journals. In order to focus on the special preservation and access challenges that this content raises, we have created a new unit within JSTOR, known as the Electronic-Archiving Initiative, or “E-Archive” more informally. Within JSTOR, E-Archive’s mission is to … Continue reading JSTOR e-archiving initiative →