textfiles/magazines/CURRENTCITIES/2001.12-10

                               CURRENT CITES
   
                      Volume 12, no. 10, October 2001
                                      
                          Edited by [2]Roy Tennant
                                      
           The Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94720
                             ISSN: 1060-2356 -
       http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/2001/cc01.12.10.html
   
    Contributors: [3]Charles W. Bailey, Jr., [4]Margaret Gross, [5]Terry
   Huwe, [6]Shirl Kennedy, [7]Leo Robert Klein, [8]Margaret Phillips, Jim
                         Ronningen, [9]Roy Tennant
   
   Agre, Phil. [10]"Networking on the Network" (October 21, 2001)
   (http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/network.html) - Agre,
   associate professor of information studies at UCLA, feels "few people
   have figured out how to use the Net productively." While much emphasis
   has gone into technologies that help people find information online,
   he says, "hardly anybody has been helping newcomers figure out where
   the Net fits in the larger picture of their own careers." Agre, who
   edits the popular [11]Red Rock Eater News Service mailing list, has
   written this 120-page document primarily for those in the academic and
   research communities. But the advice he offers is useful for just
   about anyone whose professional skills could use a boost. Topics
   include the ins and outs of networking, using e-mail effectively,
   speaking at conferences, carving out a professional identity, and
   developing leadership skills. The paper also offers an extensive
   bibliography of print and online resources. - [12]SK
   
   Dorr, Jessica and Richard Akeroyd. [13]"New Mexico Tribal Libraries:
   Bridging the Digital Divide" [14]Computers in Libraries 21(8) (October
   2001) (http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/oct01/dorr&akeroyd.htm). - For
   those library folks with conflicting feelings about [15]Gates
   Foundation grants, I think this article will (unintentionally) put
   those conflicts in boldface: the large-scale philanthropy made
   possible by monopolistic business practices, the reaching out to help
   while creating new Microsoft customers, the gratitude vs. the grudging
   acceptance. There is a clear need for computing and Internet
   connectivity in these Native American lands (not to forget more
   pressing issues like the lack of basic services), and in this article
   the authors, who are Gates Foundation employees, do a good job of
   describing the process of working with the tribes to implement custom
   systems in their libraries. They also do a self-serving job of
   plugging Microsoft, e.g. the tender moment a trainer had when
   "teaching a young woman who became teary as she was learning Microsoft
   Word. 'She was just so happy to be learning new things.'" Well yes,
   Microsoft Word has brought tears to the eyes of many, all around the
   world ... Technical specs for the installed systems are included, as
   are data about the Native American Access to Technology Program grants
   and plans for the program's next steps. - JR
   
   Dowling, Thomas. [16]"One Step at a Time" [17]NetConnect A supplement
   to Library Journal and School Library Journal (Fall 2001):36-37
   (http://libraryjournal.reviewsnews.com/index.asp?layout=article&articl
   eid=CA178131). - Dowling is well-known on the electronic discussion
   [18]Web4Lib as a straight shooter who really knows his stuff. So when
   Dowling talks, people listen. And if you manage a web site, no matter
   how large or small, you should listen too. In this brief but pithy
   piece, Dowling explains not only the technical methods by which you
   can make sure not to lose your users when you move a web page or site,
   but also the process and timing. Don't be dismayed by the two years he
   says it takes to do this right, since most of that time is spent
   waiting for crawlers and those with links to catch on to the move. In
   any event, do your users a favor and just follow the instructions.
   We'll all be better off for it. - [19]RT
   
   Farrell, Elizabeth F. and Florence Olson. [20]"A New Front in the
   Sweatshop Wars?" [21]The Chronicle of Higher Education 48(9) (October
   26, 2001): A35 (http://chronicle.com/free/v48/i09/09a03501.htm). -
   When it comes to the working conditions and wages of the offshore
   workers who provide much of the labor for campus and commercial
   projects to digitize of scholarly texts, librarians get a better grade
   than Kathie Lee. Student activists and independent watchdog groups
   have long been condemning campus stores for subcontracting with
   apparel manufacturers known to engage in sweatshop conditions, and
   they have begun to raise questions about scholarly digitizing
   projects. Projects at the University of Michigan and Harvard, for
   instance, have contracted with companies in India and Cambodia to
   provide digitizing tasks such as scanning and keyboarding. As it turns
   out, these jobs require a relatively high level of skill and workers
   tend to be well-educated and are typically paid well above minimum
   wage in their countries, in some cases up to ten times the minimum
   wage. Activists argue that overseas digitizing contracts should serve
   as an opportunity for the universities involved to demonstrate global
   social responsibility. - [22]MP
   
   Ferrell, Tom. [23]"Three Questions For Your Web Agency" [24]Usability
   InfoCentre (Sept. 26, 2001)
   (http://infocentre.frontend.com/servlet/Infocentre?page=article&id=225
   ). - In web design and development just about everyone can talk the
   talk but figuring out who can walk the walk is another thing. To help
   us out, web-site deconstructionist and usability pro Tom Farrell
   suggests three great things to ask. - [25]LRK
   
   Festa, Paul. [26]"Net Security: An Oxymoron" [27]CNET (October 18,
   2001) (http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1014-201-7572885-0.html). - Peter
   Neumann, principal scientist at [28]SRI International's Computer
   Science Laboratory, thinks the only way to solve security problems on
   the Internet is to rebuild the network from scratch. The Net, he says,
   "is populated by computers that were not designed with network
   security in mind." As a result, "security is addressed on a
   patch-by-patch basis." In this interview, Neumann says that
   September's terrorist attacks have not changed his job or his
   concerns, as he's been preaching for years about the growing severity
   of network security problems. "What's changed," he says, "is the
   awareness that essentially everything is at risk." Neumann says there
   is not one solution to solving security problems, so the government
   must approach the problem from a variety of directions, e.g., support
   for security research, better education. The interview also covers
   Neumann's thoughts on public key encryption; he says the "trapdoors"
   desired by law enforcement agencies would weaken the technology, erode
   privacy rights and, ultimately, not really solve the problem of
   criminal or terrorist use. - [29]SK
   
   Foster, Andrea L. [30]"40 Computer Scientists Abandon a Print Journal,
   Preferring Its Online Competitor" [31]The Chronicle of Higher
   Education (October 18, 2001)
   (http://chronicle.com/free/2001/10/2001101801t.htm). - On October 8,
   UC Berkeley professor of computer science and statistics Michael I.
   Jordan drafted a letter which was signed by 40 of his colleagues in
   which they collectively resigned from the editorial board of the
   journal [32]Machine Learning to join another publication the
   [33]Journal of Machine Learning Research which is distributed free
   online. Stating that journals should principally serve the needs of
   the intellectual community "by providing the immediate and universal
   access to journal articles that modern technology supports, and doing
   so at a cost that excludes no one." Articles in Machine Learning are
   not reaching a large enough audience, the letter states, because the
   subscription fee for the journal is too high and the publisher policy
   on the circulation of online articles are to restrictive. Furthermore,
   it can take more than a year for articles to be published in Machine
   Learning whereas the competing journal, which is also peer-reviewed,
   can publish articles in much less time. - [34]MP
   
   Gu<47>don, Jean-Claude. "[35]In Oldenburg's Long Shadow: Librarians,
   Research Scientists, Publishers, and the Control of Scientific
   Publishing." In [36]Creating the Digital Future: Association of
   Research Libraries, Proceedings of the 138th Annual Meeting, Toronto,
   Ontario, May 23-25, 2001. Washington, DC: Association of Research
   Libraries, 2001 (http://www.arl.org/arl/proceedings/138/guedon.html).
   - In this lengthy paper, Gu<47>don examines the origin of scientific
   journals, their role in scholarly communication, the creation of the
   concept of "core journals" as a result of Science Citation Index, the
   subsequent "serials crisis" as publishers discovered that they had a
   captive market for these journals, the establishment of the SPARC
   initiative ([37]http://www.arl.org/sparc/) to counter this trend,
   scholars' reactions to and explorations of the possibilities of
   electronic publishing, the central role of licensing in commercial
   electronic publishing efforts, the limitations of library consortial
   licensing efforts, and the development of preprint servers and other
   efforts to make scientific literature freely available. He concludes
   by strongly endorsing the Open Archives Initiative
   ([38]http://www.openarchives.org/) and SPARC. Whew, if he covered all
   this in his talk, I hope that ARL provided free espresso. Brew
   yourself a cup (or two) and read this interesting paper, which has
   also just become [39]available from ARL in printed form as a
   monograph. - [40]CB
   
   Jacobs, Jim and Karrie Peterson. "The Technical IS Political" Of
   Significance... 3(1) (2001). - In the [41]September 2001 issue of
   Current Cites I cited an article by Jacobs, Peterson, and Elizabeth
   Cowell, that appeared in American Libraries. This piece, which appears
   in the journal of the [42]Association of Public Data Users, is a much
   more thorough explication of what is at stake these days with
   government information. Recent changes in how government information
   is published and distributed are presenting new problems for public
   access and preservation. Jacobs and Peterson enumerate issues such as
   "cost shifting", in which the cost (in money or time or both) of
   accessing and using the information is shifted from the government to
   the library or user. Other concerns include privacy issues and the
   replacement of government-issued products with commercial ones. And by
   no means least is the issue of preservation. When the government is
   the only source for certain information, it can be all too easily
   altered, removed or destroyed. This is not a trivial issue. Anyone
   interested in freedom of information, government responsibility, and a
   strong democracy should be interested in this issue. And by my
   reckoning, that should cover just about everyone from sea to shining
   sea. - [43]RT
   
   Miall, David S. and Teresa Dobson. [44]"Reading Hypertext and the
   Experience of Literature." [45]Journal of Digital Information 2(1)
   (Aug. 2001 [announced October 2001])
   (http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Articles/v02/i01/Miall/). - There's
   nothing nicer in Autumn as the days grow cool than snuggling up to a
   weighty article on the nature of hypertext. The focus here is the
   process of reading and whether a strongly non-linear structure helps
   or hinders this process. The intent of the authors is to argue against
   what they describe as "misleading" claims made by hypertext
   enthusiasts. These claims see hypertext as a vehicle of liberation
   that will free readers from the doldrums of traditional
   (authoritarian) printed books whose demise, for this reason, is
   imminent. In response, the authors set about testing two groups of
   readers: one that reads a traditional linear piece of fiction and a
   second that reads the same text albeit in "simulated hypertext
   format". No extra credit for guessing which group expresses the
   greater comprehension and satisfaction. - - [46]LRK
   
   Morris, Peter W.G. "Updating the Project Management Bodies of
   Knowledge" [47]Project Management Journal 43(3) (September 2001). - A
   must for understanding project management are the "Bodies of
   Knowledge" or BOKS, published by professional project management
   associations. These documents provide guidelines and standards to best
   practices. This article is an introduction and overview of the various
   BOKs, where they originate, and how they differ. Further highlighted
   is the difficulty encountered in working towards the goal of a single,
   unified and universally accepted BOK. There are three primary Bodies
   of Knowledge. In North America, the accepted document [48]A Guide to
   the Project Management Body of Knowledge, is published by [49]PMI, The
   Program Management Institute. In Europe, the corresponding [50]Body of
   Knowledge document originates with the U.K's [51]APM, the Association
   for Project Management. Numerous national bodies in Europe have issued
   BOKs similar to the U.K.'s, but in their own national language. By the
   middle 1960s, these national organizations formed a federation called
   the [52]IPMA, International Project Management Association, comprising
   twenty-eight National Associations. IPMA has issued a BOK, which is
   accepted throughout Europe. Interestingly, one of the only national
   associations not a member of IPMA, is the American PMI. The European
   Bodies of Knowledge are broader in scope than the PMI BOK. The
   American BOK is organized as a hierarchical structure, limited to
   managing scope, time, quality, resources, risk, procurement, and
   communications. The [53]IPMA ICB Competence Baseline is structured in
   the form of a sunflower. Each petal is a competency, thus obviating
   the dissent and disagreement caused by which concept should take
   precedence in a hierarchy. Addressing the professional ethos of
   project management, it includes additional concepts such as
   technology, environment, and regulatory issues. All BOKs can be
   downloaded from their respective web sites. This reviewer is well
   aware that as librarians, we are often tasked with managing projects
   directly, or we are called upon to provide pertinent project
   management information to senior staff members. In exposing the
   complexity of updating the standards, Mr. Morris provides a good
   primer to the underlying methodology of project management.- [54]MG
   
   Olsen, Stefanie. [55]"Sites Seek to Blast Ad Blockers" [56]ZDNet News
   (October 10, 2001)
   (http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5098080,00.html). - The
   Internet advertising wars have just been ratcheted up a notch. As more
   and more Web users employ ad-blocking software as they browse, a
   German company ([57]MediaBeam, http://www.mediabeam.com/), has come up
   with a software product it says will detect ad-blocking software and
   stop the user from accessing a site's content without paying a fee.
   AdKey, a plug-in for Web servers, operates from the server side via
   http. It can tell whether a Web page "has loaded properly." If all the
   graphics haven't loaded, the page issues a message that prevents the
   surfer from accessing the page's content. Analysts and technology
   pundits doubt that AdKey will have much of an impact on peoples'
   browsing habits. The ad-blocking software vendors are bound to come up
   with ways of getting around AdKey and, anyhow, it's estimated that
   only 5 percent of surfers actually use ad blocking software. The other
   95 percent largely ignore the ads. - [58]SK
   
   Scott, Brendan. [59]"Copyright in a Frictionless World: Toward a
   Rhetoric of Responsibility." [60]First Monday 6(9) (September 3, 2001)
   (http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_9/scott/). - Scott assesses
   the history and application of copyright, and pays particular
   attention to its treatment of author's rights and privileges. He then
   expands his to the distribution chain, and argues that copyright is
   actually structured to benefit distributors and publishers. This
   historical treatment is driving much of the struggle over intellectual
   property in the digital era. He identifies challenges faced by
   distributors and publishers in enforcing their rights without the
   various sources of "friction" which made infringement difficult. On
   the consumption side, he finds that consumer cynicism is a powerful
   and influential arbiter of actual practice, and it has far more
   influence on compliance that the feeble add-ons to traditional
   copyright law. He concludes that it would be more productive for
   distributors to "tone down" the rhetoric about "rights" and emphasize
   the rhetoric of "responsibility". - [61]TH
     _________________________________________________________________
   
            Current Cites 12(10) (October 2001) ISSN: 1060-2356
    Copyright <20> 2001 by the Regents of the University of California All
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