257 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
257 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
_Current Cites_
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Volume 11, no. 4, April 2000
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Edited by Teri Andrews Rinne
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The Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94720
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ISSN: 1060-2356 -
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http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/2000/cc00.11.4.html
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Contributors: Terry Huwe, Michael Levy, Leslie Myrick,
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Margaret Phillips, Jim Ronningen, Lisa Rowlison, Roy Tennant
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Brown, John Seely, and Duguid, Paul. "Special Issue with Excerpts
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from: The Social Life of Information" First Monday 5 (4) (April 3,
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2000) (http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue5_4/); Brown, John Seely
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and Paul Duguid, The Social Life of Information, Boston, MA:
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Harvard Business School Press, 2000. - The book has been on the New
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York Times Bestseller list, and an early manuscript was published here
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on First Monday a few years back. Now the netzine is publishing the
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table of contents, introduction, and first three chapters for the
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online audience to review. If you haven't browsed it in a bookstore,
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take a look here, for free. Iconoclastic and unflinching in their
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analysis, the authors skewer the many excesses of media hyperbole
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about information technology and the Internet. A refreshing focus on
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how people use -- and fail to use -- technology emerges from the text,
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a universal dilemma that librarians have been speaking to for years.
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An excellent read. - TH
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Buehler, Marianne. "U.S. Federal Government CIOs: Information
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Technology's New Managers - Preliminary Findings" Journal of
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Government Information 27 (1) (January/February 2000): 29-45. -
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"Elements of efficiency that customers can measure are the time they
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spend standing in line or being placed on hold at the end of a phone
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connection attempting to access information." But hasn't information
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technology made all that go away? I'm sure you know from experience
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(and inference from Buehler's quote above) that the revolution is far
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from complete, and some government agencies have been among the most
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recalcitrant. This article examines one aspect of recent Congressional
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and Executive mandates for improvement: the employment of chief
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information officers as agents for change. The Clinger-Cohen
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Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-106)
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and Clinton's Executive Order 13011 have been in effect long enough
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that the author felt a survey was in order, and she reports on
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compliance, the nature of the CIO position in practice, and impacts on
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agency information policies. The oversight roles of the General
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Accounting Office and the Office of Management and Budget are also
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described. As systems analysts know, the organization is an integral
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part of the problem, and can be part of the solution, too; these first
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CIOs are in a position to address the "pervasive waste in government
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IT spending and inexusably poor consumer-service systems" and take
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action. - JR
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Burk, Roberta. "Don't Be Afraid of E-Books" Library Journal 125(7)
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(April 15, 2000): 42-45. - There has been a lot of hype lately about
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e-books and how they are poised to transform the way in which we
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purchase and read books. This article goes beyond the hype by
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describing how one library has successfully added e-books and their
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associated readers to their collection. Ebooks that do not require
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specialized hardware (such as those offered by NetLibrary) are not
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covered in this article. A sidebar highlights several types of
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hardware- and software-based ebook systems. It is too early to tell
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what impact these devices may have on libraries, but this article is
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an important early report on how at least one library is being
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successful at integrating this type of material into their array of
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services. - RT
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Carr, Sara and Vincent Kiernan. "For-Profit Web Venture Seeks to
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Replicate the University Experience Online" The Chronicle of
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Higher Education (April 14, 2000): A59-A60. - Five educational and
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cultural institutions have come together to construct a for-profit web
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site that seeks to recreate not just university courses, but also the
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intellectual milieu of a university campus. Partner institutions
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include Columbia University, the British Library, the Cambridge
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University Press, the London School of Economics and Political
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Science, the New York Public Library, and the Smithsonian
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Institution's National Museum of Natural History, with possible
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additional participants joining later.Called Fathom
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(http://www.fathom.com/), the business will not grant degrees or
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create courses, but will market courses developed by its members.
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Although fees will be charged for courses and some online content,
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much of the content of the web site will be available for free once
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the site opens later this year. - RT
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Floyd, Michael. "Blowing XML Bubbles" Web Techniques (March
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2000) (http://www.webtechniques.com/archives/2000/03/xml/) - The hype
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surrounding XML has been ubiquitous enough to filter even into those
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circles which generally avoid structured text issues. Floyd explores
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the ever-expanding 'XML bubble' in a series of email interviews with a
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handful of representatives of some of the most pneumatic bubble
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blowers in the XML community: Reid Conrad from Extensibility, Bob
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Bickel from Bluestone Software, Coco Jaenicke from eXcelon, and Marie
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Wieck from the IBM Network Computing Software Division. The questions
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and answers explore: the roles and uses of XML (integration, exchange,
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content management) in the B2B and publishing communities, and whether
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the standard is seen to have fractured or aggregated different user
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communities; when XML might not be suitable (these evangelists were
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hard-pressed to find examples); what its limitations are; and a
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rundown of some of the most interesting innovative uses of XML the
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participants have come across. - LM
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Guernsey, Lisa. "Unplugged on Campus, but Always Connected" New York
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Times (April 20, 2000): Section D, p. 1 - Focusing on a small liberal
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arts college Mount St. Mary College in New York State, wireless
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technology and networks in the academic setting are seen as a
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relatively inexpensive means of providing network access. Wireless
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connectivity has so permeated the daily existence at this college that
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students, faculty and librarians are always connected, whether in the
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dorms, the library or the classroom. As with many schools, computer
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labs and offices had already been wired for high speed access but the
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problem was how to extend this to classrooms, dormitories and
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libraries without breaking the bank. Working with a company called
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Proxim the wireless network was installed, and students were given
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discounts for wireless adapter cards. The network consists of access
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points, or hubs, that are plugged into the existing network at a cost
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far less than a hardwired solution. With rapidly improving technology
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network speed is far greater than dial-up modems but still lags
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hardwired networks. - ML
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"The Next Chapter" 2600 17(1) (Spring 2000): p. 5-8. - We
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certainly wouldn't cite anything from 2600, the "hacker quarterly," as
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an endorsement of illegal hacking or as a validation of the more
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dubious claims made in its pages, but it's worth looking at because
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it's the single best source for learning about hacker ethics and
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attitudes. "The Next Chapter" is of interest because it includes,
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straight from the horse's mouth, typical arguments offered in defense:
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that hackers are benign investigators performing a service by
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uncovering ways to exploit security weaknesses, that freedom of speech
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overrides intellectual property protections, and that large media and
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communications companies are inherently tyrannical and deserve to be
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attacked. Specifically, it addresses the fact that the 2600 web site
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and others are being sued by the Motion Picture Association of America
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for publishing the deCSS code which can be used to defeat access
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controls on DVDs. (The essay isn't clearly attributed to "Emmanuel
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Goldstein," editor Eric Corley's pseudonym taken from Orwell's 1984,
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but I'm assuming it's his work since it fits the editorial pattern set
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in previous issues.) Other interesting pieces include a thank-you note
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from Kevin Mitnick to the readership, and of course many examples of
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the "how-to" articles which attract the attention of lawyers and FBI
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agents. If 2600 is new to you, it may help to know that it is
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something of an institution, having been in print since 1984, and is
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just one manifestation of a community that has employed Usenet, chat
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rooms, the web and other less obvious methods to stay connected. - JR
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Pack, Thomas. "Epublishing: Revolution or Virtual Vanity Press?"
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Econtent (April/May 2000): 52-56. - Pack offers yet another look
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at the double-edged sword that is e-publishing, and investigates some
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of the implications for information professionals of the
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e-self-publishing revolution. What, Pack asks, are the implications
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for libraries of the growing spate of e-publication? Is it merely
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adding to the problem of information overload? Without the traditional
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editorial vetting constraints on what gets published, how will
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librarians be able to sort the wheat from the chaff? On a more
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technical level, what issues will arise in the realm of e-cataloguing,
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e-ordering and e-purchasing? His focus here is on Fatbrain.com's
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eMatter initiative, which is poised to become a revolutionary forum
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for serialized works in the manner of Dickens' A Christmas Carol; all
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sorts of shorter works of non-fiction and fiction, how-tos, and
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technical manuals, among others. Fatbrain.com has also established
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itself as a place for published authors to offer out-of-print titles
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to which they hold copyright. Needless to say, scholarly publication
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is another can of worms altogether. Whereas the scientific community
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has taken swift advantage of scholarly web publishing consortia for
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expediting dissemination of time-sensitive findings and fostering
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interactive scholarship, humanities scholarship, despite generalized
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rankling over 2-to-3-year backlogs at some major print journals, seems
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slow to accept web publication as a viable standard. Pack's article
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addresses the familiar concern that in many cases the e-publishing
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process bypasses a certain level of critical vetting by agents,
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editors, scholarly readers and publishers. He explores how the eMatter
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initiative is facing this issue by striving to assure quality in its
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offerings and by educating its users to make intelligent choices. In
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the place of traditional critical vetting stands The Market, along
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with a "decency" criterion which proscribes hate language, slander and
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obscenity. Further, a proposed e-manuscript must run the gauntlet of
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the 4 Bs (i.e., that it is suitable for bathroom, bedroom, bus and
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beach). The Fatbrain.com website offers a standard box of tools for
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making critical choices, such as editorial promotion and highlighting
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of the highest quality material, dynamically sorted best-seller lists,
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along with offering reader reviews and author bios. It also backs up
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its transactions with a moneyback guarantee. - LM
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Trehub, Aaron. "Creating Fee-Based Online Services: A New Role for
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Academic Librarians" Library Hi Tech 17(4) (1999): 372-389. - In
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this overview of two fee-based services at the University of Illinois
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Library at Urbana-Champaign, Trehub makes a case for libraries and
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Librarians as "start-to-finish content creators." New opportunities
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opened up by the Internet and the web have allowed the University of
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Illinois to migrate the Bibliography of Slavic and East European
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Studies (ABSEES) and the Illinois Researcher Information Service
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(IRIS) into web-based subscription services. He outlines the basic
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ingredients necessary for a successful fee-based service, which
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including high quality content, adequate hardware and software,
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programming and systems support, administrative support, an
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advertising budget, skilled bibliographers and indexers and
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institutional commitment. Responding to the debate over fee vs. free
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services Trehub believes that fee services can augment and support
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traditional library services. While the case is forcefully made, the
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problem is that the IRIS database of federal and private funding
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opportunities, is subsidizing the more "traditional" bibliographic
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guide ABSEES. The question then remains whether something like ABSEES
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can survive in the marketplace without such outside financial
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assistance. In any case, such ventures for Trehub have the added
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benefit of promoting what has been dubbed "intellectually-based
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librarianship" and thereby raising professional status. - ML
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"Secure Your Data" Web Techniques (April 2000)
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(http://www.webtechniques.com/archives/2000/04/) - April's Web
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Techniques features a handful of articles addressing various ways of
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stopping up those nasty security holes we inevitably open ourselves up
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to when we head for the net, whether as surfers, e-consumers,
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information technologists, or administrators. Aviel D. Rubin, in
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"None of Your E-Business"
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(http://www.webtechniques.com/archives/2000/04/rubin/) , examines the
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web user's vulnerability to identity theft, surveillance and
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monitoring due to greatly enhanced means for the aggregation and
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cross-referencing of personal information amassed through snooping
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into email, cookies, e-business transactions (whether at e-bookstores,
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e-groceries, or e-pharmacies -- 50 packs of cigarettes in a month?
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what would your insurance provider think?). Rubin offers a few weapons
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to fend off e-salesmen, the boss, the system admin, or the hacker down
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the hall with a packet sniffer, including: using proxy servers, PGP
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encryption, certificates, secure channels, and clearing your cache.
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Lincoln Stein, in "Security in an 'Always On' World"
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(http://www.webtechniques.com/archives/2000/04/webm/) , realized early
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that his new "Always On" DSL service translated to "Always Exposed".
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You may not have a server humming away in your basement, but if you
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do, this article is packed with good advice for hiding IPs, keeping
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your ports probe-free, and protecting your data behind firewalls. Matt
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Curtain, in "On Guard: Fortifying Your Site Against Attack"
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(http://www.webtechniques.com/archives/2000/04/curtin/), outlines how
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to turn your web server into a bastion host, complete with a DMZ
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network (it's a war out there!), cryptography, and security patches.
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Chuck Newman in "Sharing Too Much: The Dangers of Hosting on
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Windows NT" (http://www.webtechniques.com/archives/2000/04/newman/) ,
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shares what he learned about NT server security when he was able to
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hack into his ISP's entire file system using a humble File System
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Object. - LM
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_________________________________________________________________
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Current Cites 11(4) (April 2000) ISSN: 1060-2356
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Copyright <20> 2000 by the Library, University of California, Berkeley.
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All rights reserved.
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Copying is permitted for noncommercial use by computerized bulletin
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board/conference systems, individual scholars, and libraries.
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Libraries are authorized to add the journal to their collections at no
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cost. This message must appear on copied material. All commercial use
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requires permission from the editor. All product names are trademarks
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or registered trade marks of their respective holders. Mention of a
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product in this publication does not necessarily imply endorsement of
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the product. To subscribe to the Current Cites distribution list, send
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the message "sub cites [your name]" to
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listserv@library.berkeley.edu, replacing "[your name]" with your
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name. To unsubscribe, send the message "unsub cites" to the same
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address. Editor: Teri Andrews Rinne, trinne@library. berkeley.edu.
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