Internet

The Web’s Creator Looks to Reinvent It

Still, not all the major players agree on whether the web needs decentralizing.

“The web is already decentralized,” Mr. Berners-Lee said. “The problem is the dominance of one search engine, one big social network, one Twitter for microblogging. We don’t have a technology problem, we have a social problem.”

One that can, perhaps, be solved by more technology.

From The Web’s Creator Looks to Reinvent It – The New York Times

Still, not all the major players agree on whether the web needs decentralizing.

“The web is already decentralized,” Mr. Berners-Lee said. “The problem is the dominance of one search engine, one big social network, one Twitter for microblogging. We don’t have a technology problem, we have a social problem.”

One that can, perhaps, be solved by more technology.

From The Web’s Creator Looks to Reinvent It – The New York Times

June 8, 2016 by Blake Internet

In Omaha, A Library With No Books Brings Technology To All

“I’ve always thought of libraries as places full of tools. Books are tools, scrolls are tools, computers are tools,” she says. “This vision of bringing technology to everyone in the community, it just gets people very excited.”

Taxpayers didn’t fund this library. Instead, Heritage Services, a coalition of Omaha philanthropists, donated $7 million to renovate the building — which had been a Borders bookstore — and pay for computers, 3-D printers and the Internet bandwidth. Sue Morris speaks for the donors.

From In Omaha, A Library With No Books Brings Technology To All : All Tech Considered : NPR

“I’ve always thought of libraries as places full of tools. Books are tools, scrolls are tools, computers are tools,” she says. “This vision of bringing technology to everyone in the community, it just gets people very excited.”

Taxpayers didn’t fund this library. Instead, Heritage Services, a coalition of Omaha philanthropists, donated $7 million to renovate the building — which had been a Borders bookstore — and pay for computers, 3-D printers and the Internet bandwidth. Sue Morris speaks for the donors.

From In Omaha, A Library With No Books Brings Technology To All : All Tech Considered : NPR

Library Metadata Specialist – Accidental Computer Programmer

So by accident or design you found yourself in a position that involves computer programming. A common situation for library metadata specialists. I recall projects in graduate school where we mapped records from one metadata format or standard into another. Yet, we never discussed who creates the scripts to transform the records with your mapping (spoiler: its probably you). The result of this for me, someone who did not come from a computer science background, was getting the skills I needed through a mixture of things recommended by mentors, co-workers, and internet searches. Here is what worked best for me.

From Library Metadata Specialist – Accidental Computer Programmer – Heidi Uphoff

May 28, 2016 by Blake Internet Librarians Libraries School Libraries Technology

How I used lies about a cartoon to prove history is meaningless on the internet

But like any worthwhile fiction writer, I believe my lies have highlighted an important modern truth: history is more mutable than it has ever been thanks to the explosion of information on the internet. We form rough consensuses based on vast amounts of conflicting data, but who really has the power to verify any of it? This is especially true when the stakes are low. A lot of people will put effort into dispelling rumors that the Moon landing was fake or that Hitler is still alive, sure, but who cares enough about something as meaningless and easy to ignore as Street Sharks to make sure all the information about it online is totally accurate? Some people do, which is why my lies were mostly removed, but that took years and they didn’t fully stamp out every online instance of Roxie or Meathook.

From How I used lies about a cartoon to prove history is meaningless on the internet | News | Geek.com

But like any worthwhile fiction writer, I believe my lies have highlighted an important modern truth: history is more mutable than it has ever been thanks to the explosion of information on the internet. We form rough consensuses based on vast amounts of conflicting data, but who really has the power to verify any of it? This is especially true when the stakes are low. A lot of people will put effort into dispelling rumors that the Moon landing was fake or that Hitler is still alive, sure, but who cares enough about something as meaningless and easy to ignore as Street Sharks to make sure all the information about it online is totally accurate? Some people do, which is why my lies were mostly removed, but that took years and they didn’t fully stamp out every online instance of Roxie or Meathook.

From How I used lies about a cartoon to prove history is meaningless on the internet | News | Geek.com

May 27, 2016 by Blake Internet

Facebook begins tracking non-users around the internet

Facebook will now display ads to web users who are not members of its social network, the company announced Thursday, in a bid to significantly expand its online ad network. As The Wall Street Journal reports, Facebook will use cookies, “like” buttons, and other plug-ins embedded on third-party sites to track members and non-members alike. The company says it will be able to better target non-Facebook users and serve relevant ads to them, though its practices have come under criticism from regulators in Europe over privacy concerns. Facebook began displaying a banner notification at the top of its News Feed for users in Europe today, alerting them to its use of cookies as mandated under an EU directive.

“Publishers and app developers have some users who aren’t Facebook users,” Andrew Bosworth, vice president of Facebook’s ads and business platform, tells the Journal. “We think we can do a better job powering those ads.”

From Facebook begins tracking non-users around the internet | The Verge

Facebook will now display ads to web users who are not members of its social network, the company announced Thursday, in a bid to significantly expand its online ad network. As The Wall Street Journal reports, Facebook will use cookies, “like” buttons, and other plug-ins embedded on third-party sites to track members and non-members alike. The company says it will be able to better target non-Facebook users and serve relevant ads to them, though its practices have come under criticism from regulators in Europe over privacy concerns. Facebook began displaying a banner notification at the top of its News Feed for users in Europe today, alerting them to its use of cookies as mandated under an EU directive.

“Publishers and app developers have some users who aren’t Facebook users,” Andrew Bosworth, vice president of Facebook’s ads and business platform, tells the Journal. “We think we can do a better job powering those ads.”

From Facebook begins tracking non-users around the internet | The Verge

May 27, 2016 by Blake Books EBooks Internet Privacy

With no good libraries in Gurgaon, people exchange books online

Gurgaon is no city for those who like to spend hours in a library.
The concrete jungle has over three dozen malls and over 1,000 swanky high-rise residential and commercial complexes, but it is still missing a well-equipped library.
In the name of a public library, Gurgaon has one small building with dusty books, broken chairs and erratic power supply. The renovation work of this library near Civil Lines is progressing, but it will take a few months to set the infrastructure and procure new reads.
But the city’s bibliophiles have found an alternative to their reading woes, thanks to online social networking. Book-lovers are depending on city-based social media groups to exchange and read books.

From With no good libraries in Gurgaon, people exchange books online | gurgaon | Hindustan Times

May 27, 2016 by Blake Books EBooks Internet Libraries

The OKCupid data release fiasco: It’s time to rethink ethics education

In mid 2016, we confront another ethical crisis related to personal data, social media, the public internet, and social research. This time, it’s a release of some 70,0000 OKCupid users’ data, including some very intimate details about individuals. Responses from several communities of practice highlight the complications of using outdated modes of thinking about ethics and human subjects when considering new opportunities for research through publicly accessible or otherwise easily obtained data sets (e.g., Michael Zimmer produced a thoughtful response in Wired and Kate Crawford pointed us to her recent work with Jacob Metcalf on this topic). There are so many things to talk about in this case, but here, I’d like to weigh in on conversations about how we might respond to this issue as university educators.

From The OKCupid data release fiasco: It’s time to rethink ethics education | Social Media Collective

May 27, 2016 by Blake Internet

China’s scary lesson to the world: Censoring the Internet works

Indeed, China’s Firewall is far more sophisticated and multi-tiered than a simple on-off switch: It is an attempt to bridge one of the country’s most fundamental contradictions — to have an economy intricately connected to the outside world but a political culture closed off from such “Western values” as free speech and democracy.

From China’s scary lesson to the world: Censoring the Internet works. – The Washington Post

Indeed, China’s Firewall is far more sophisticated and multi-tiered than a simple on-off switch: It is an attempt to bridge one of the country’s most fundamental contradictions — to have an economy intricately connected to the outside world but a political culture closed off from such “Western values” as free speech and democracy.

From China’s scary lesson to the world: Censoring the Internet works. – The Washington Post

May 24, 2016 by Blake Censorship Internet

How copyright law is being misused to remove material from the internet

…but censorship using the DMCA is common online. The act allows web hosts a certain amount of immunity from claims of copyright infringement through what is known as the “safe harbour” rules: in essence, a host isn’t responsible for hosting infringing material provided they didn’t know about it when it went up, and took it down as soon as they were told about it.

In practice, however, this means that web hosts (and the term is broadly interpreted, meaning sites like YouTube, Twitter and Google count) are forced to develop a hair-trigger over claims of copyright infringement, assuming guilt and asking the accused to prove their innocence.

From Revealed: How copyright law is being misused to remove material from the internet | Technology | The Guardian

May 24, 2016 by Blake Censorship Google Internet Legal Issues

97% of Research Library Searches Leak Privacy… and Other Disappointing Statistics.

Over the weekend, I decided to try to quantify the extent of privacy leakage in public-facing library services by studying the search services of the 123 ARL libraries. These are the best funded and most prestigious libraries in North America, and we should expect them to positively represent libraries. I went to each library’s on-line search facility and did a search for a book whose title might suggest to an advertiser that I might be pregnant. (I’m not!) I checked to see whether the default search linked to by the library’s home page (as listed on the ARL website) was delivered over a secure connection (HTTPS). I checked for privacy leakage of referer headers from cover images by using Chrome developer tools (the sources tab). I used Ghostery to see if the library’s online search used Google Analytics or not. I also noted whether advertising network “web beacons” were placed by the search session.

From Go To Hellman: 97% of Research Library Searches Leak Privacy… and Other Disappointing Statistics.

May 24, 2016 by Blake Google Internet Librarians Libraries Privacy