OK...first some fun. In New Orleans, food is always a good topic of conversation. Last summer Food TV did The Great Food Truck Race. Around the same time, I started noticing food trucks around Baton Rouge, particularly on North Street, and on Tuesdays, along Spanishtown Road. (I can see the latter from my office window.) I have eaten from a couple, and today, I found a great web site which lists all the BR food trucks along with their most recent tweet, twitter name, and web site (where applicable). Loads of fun, and the food is good, too!
Now on to the more serious stuff!
Iris Jastram is always thoughtful. Her job is so very different than mine that she gives me a valuable insight into the world of an academic reference librarian. (She works at Carleton College in Northfield MN. It is a highly regarded, small liberal arts college.)
Part of her official job includes instruction. Admittedly much of that is to what seems to a public librarian a fairly homogeneous audience. They are usually between 18 - 21 years old, and bound by the topic of the class which they are taking. More recently she blogged about learning goals.
It is an interesting post...there is a lot of content there. However, I'll note that what she talks about is what Boy Scout Leadership Training (both for youth and adults -- note: I have participated as an adult in both courses linked here) as well as my current work place call "learning objectives." When I do a presentation currently, one of the first slides is always. "By the end of this session you will know..."
The ALA Washington Office has a long (for them) post about what is going on in Congress over net neutrality. It is a good place to catch up on the latest.
Maybe this belongs in the post about e-books, but Jessamyn West posted before the current kerfuffle about e-books and libraries. She starts with "This is shaping up to be the year that people really start seeing ebooks and libraries as things that can go together." I hope she is correct.
Finally (for this post), the ever thoughtful Karen Schneider has a nice piece on advice for new librarians and mentoring. It is worth reading, and if you haven't read her other posts on the topic recently, follow her links.
Showing posts with label Net Neutrality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Net Neutrality. Show all posts
Friday, February 25, 2011
Thursday, September 09, 2010
September Links #1
The title assumes that there will be at least one other post with links this month.
From Salon, comes and an article about the trouble with Google Books.
And here is an interesting take on the concept of privatizing public libraries from Google's staff futurist. Not sure what to think about this.
Stephen Abram has a wonderfully thoughtful post about our freedoms and rights called
We strengthen our rights by exercising them. I highly recommend it!
There was a interesting series of articles about ALA's Midwinter and Annual meetings and the possibility of Reed Exhibitions taking over the management of the conferences and perhaps combining Annual with the BEA trade show. I first caught the Library Journal article which cited an article in PW. [Both LJ and PW used to be owned by Reed, but they are now separately owned by others.] ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels denied this was happening. My first clue was that I cannot find anything in the ALA Executive Board documents which refers to it, and secondly, the PW article talks about a combined ALA/BEA event in the summer of 2012 in Chicago -- when ALA's conference is scheduled to be in Anaheim. ALA will next be in Chicago in 2013. The schedule of dates and locations for ALA Conferences is set well in advance, and is currently planned through 2019.
Somewhere I came across this explanation of net neutrality on the Criminal Law Library Blog. It includes links to the AALL (American Association of Law Librarians) statement on the issue.
Kate Kosturski Librarian Kate wrote some interesting perspectives about the de-professionalization/professionalisation discussion which took place just before Labor Day.
Sarah Houghton-Jan asks questions and posits some thoughts about how libraries (particularly public libraries) are handling music in this day of downloads. I don't know the answers, but do know that it is something we need to think and worry about.
And finally some fun (with a shout out to Michael Sauers from whom I got this):
From Salon, comes and an article about the trouble with Google Books.
And here is an interesting take on the concept of privatizing public libraries from Google's staff futurist. Not sure what to think about this.
Stephen Abram has a wonderfully thoughtful post about our freedoms and rights called
We strengthen our rights by exercising them. I highly recommend it!
There was a interesting series of articles about ALA's Midwinter and Annual meetings and the possibility of Reed Exhibitions taking over the management of the conferences and perhaps combining Annual with the BEA trade show. I first caught the Library Journal article which cited an article in PW. [Both LJ and PW used to be owned by Reed, but they are now separately owned by others.] ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels denied this was happening. My first clue was that I cannot find anything in the ALA Executive Board documents which refers to it, and secondly, the PW article talks about a combined ALA/BEA event in the summer of 2012 in Chicago -- when ALA's conference is scheduled to be in Anaheim. ALA will next be in Chicago in 2013. The schedule of dates and locations for ALA Conferences is set well in advance, and is currently planned through 2019.
Somewhere I came across this explanation of net neutrality on the Criminal Law Library Blog. It includes links to the AALL (American Association of Law Librarians) statement on the issue.
Kate Kosturski Librarian Kate wrote some interesting perspectives about the de-professionalization/professionalisation discussion which took place just before Labor Day.
Sarah Houghton-Jan asks questions and posits some thoughts about how libraries (particularly public libraries) are handling music in this day of downloads. I don't know the answers, but do know that it is something we need to think and worry about.
And finally some fun (with a shout out to Michael Sauers from whom I got this):
Thursday, July 26, 2007
WiLS World - Net Neutrality
Bob Bocher, my e-rate hero, did a great presentation based on his work on the ALA level. (He is second from left in the photo I linked to.)
He posted his presentation before the program (way to go!), but did have paper handouts. His defense of the paper handouts (so 20th Century) was that the paper industry is important to the Wisconsin economy.
Common carriage dates to the Middle Ages when the crown required that "public service" entities like those managing river crossings, could not refuse service to those who have ability to pay. This carried over to telecommunication including AT&T (the old "Ma Bell") in the 1930s when the New Deal began to regulate telephones.
Bob gave a great overview of the underlying structure for telecommunications services in the US today. [It reminded me why he was so good as the Chair of the E-Rate Task Force a couple of years ago.]
The power point includes a great chart showing the growth of DSL and death of dial-up. He notes that the FCC considers "broadband" as 200K, and that is a fairly low level, "but of course the FCC often operates at a fairly low level."
Net neutrality is critical for who controls what happens, right now, end users control what happens on the network (gaming, for instance), but with out net neutrality, the provider of the pipe/fiber may exercise control over the priority for service across the Internet.
Innovation is at the edges of the network. What new and exciting innovations have come from telcos or cable companies? None. Innovations come from the edge of the network.
There are some real concerns which the network providers have. They must be able to manage the network: security, traffic management, illegal content. They also need a return on their infrastructure investments.
Have there been abuses or discrimination? Net neutrality was in effect from September 2005 - 2006, so that there has not been a long history. There is an allegation from Vonage that some carriers are refusing to allow Vonage packets.
Roadblocks are more possible the further the message goes. The more networks touched, the more the possibility that one network [controller of a circuit] may choose to not pass the information (packets) quickly. Question was asked, who would investigate, and there is not a good answer nor is there much trust that the FCC and FTC would effectively investigate.
If net neutrality breaks down, it would mean that libraries (and consumers) would be in a more difficult position in choosing a provider since you would need to ask about all their special deals.
The FCC did require ATT to adhere to net neutrality as part of its purchase/merger with SBC. This has tempered the rush to a legislative solution.
He posted his presentation before the program (way to go!), but did have paper handouts. His defense of the paper handouts (so 20th Century) was that the paper industry is important to the Wisconsin economy.
Common carriage dates to the Middle Ages when the crown required that "public service" entities like those managing river crossings, could not refuse service to those who have ability to pay. This carried over to telecommunication including AT&T (the old "Ma Bell") in the 1930s when the New Deal began to regulate telephones.
Bob gave a great overview of the underlying structure for telecommunications services in the US today. [It reminded me why he was so good as the Chair of the E-Rate Task Force a couple of years ago.]
The power point includes a great chart showing the growth of DSL and death of dial-up. He notes that the FCC considers "broadband" as 200K, and that is a fairly low level, "but of course the FCC often operates at a fairly low level."
Net neutrality is critical for who controls what happens, right now, end users control what happens on the network (gaming, for instance), but with out net neutrality, the provider of the pipe/fiber may exercise control over the priority for service across the Internet.
Innovation is at the edges of the network. What new and exciting innovations have come from telcos or cable companies? None. Innovations come from the edge of the network.
There are some real concerns which the network providers have. They must be able to manage the network: security, traffic management, illegal content. They also need a return on their infrastructure investments.
Have there been abuses or discrimination? Net neutrality was in effect from September 2005 - 2006, so that there has not been a long history. There is an allegation from Vonage that some carriers are refusing to allow Vonage packets.
Roadblocks are more possible the further the message goes. The more networks touched, the more the possibility that one network [controller of a circuit] may choose to not pass the information (packets) quickly. Question was asked, who would investigate, and there is not a good answer nor is there much trust that the FCC and FTC would effectively investigate.
If net neutrality breaks down, it would mean that libraries (and consumers) would be in a more difficult position in choosing a provider since you would need to ask about all their special deals.
The FCC did require ATT to adhere to net neutrality as part of its purchase/merger with SBC. This has tempered the rush to a legislative solution.
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