Artists are against SOPA too

I was hoping that SOPA was truly dead, but it's not. We do need to address piracy but not at the sake of controlling the internet - CENSORSHIP! One of the largest advocates for SOPA is the MPAAA, the organization responsible for censoring movies in the 1930s aka the Hays Code. (yeah, that was a great idea.... not)


I think it's important to remember that a big part of the equation is copyright and it FAILS for digital objects. We all know people who have violated copyright, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not -- those who bought a digital object and then shared it with someone else; or maybe they bought an object in another format and made multiple digital copies (because they have multiple devices) or maybe they made a mashup or collage work of art without any thought of copyright.Or perhaps, they converted file formats to use on their device and thus stripped out the DRM.

Copyright does not work for digital objects. I am an artist and I have had my digital work stolen. I have had my identity impinged upon -- but still I can't support SOPA as it stands at this point in time. Creative Commons is a good idea but the larger parameters of copyright just do not work for digital objects.

We are the internet.
How to make your voice know:
Google Take Action
EFF's Strike Against Censorship
Stop the wall

oh, and happy birthday to me!

Facebook kills library's historical profiles

Sooo… Facebook has already killed the historical profile accounts which were written about well... just about everywhere (Google Joe McDonald)  although it seems like they also killed a potentially great PR and marketing campaign. 

“While McDonald and Lewis initially only had friends who were distant relatives, their lists of connections swelled from just over 100 each to more than 1,000. They were featured in Mashable, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Yahoo! News and the UK’s Daily Mail.
Lewis and McDonald posted historically accurate status updates about their lives, photos of campus events such as “hop” dances and “Rugby Football matches” and listed musicians such as Scott Joplin and writers including Jane Austen among their favorites. Their profiles were hailed by many experts as a powerful example of social media’s power to bring history to life for a digitally absorbed generation.
But, as fake profiles, McDonald and Lewis clearly violated the first rule of Facebook registration: “You will not provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission.”

http://mashable.com/2012/01/11/facebook-kills-fake-historical-profiles

ACRL new media/visual literacy standards for higher ed

“The increasing dominance of images and visual media in contemporary culture is changing what it means to be literate in the 21st century. Today’s society is highly visual, and visual imagery is no longer supplemental to other forms of information. New digital technologies have made it possible for almost anyone to create and share visual media. Yet the pervasiveness of images and visual media does not necessarily mean that individuals are able to critically view, use, and produce visual content. Individuals must develop these essential skills in order to engage capably in a visually-oriented society. Visual literacy empowers individuals to participate fully in a visual culture…”

(Direct link to standards is at http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/visualliteracy)

-----------------------------------

We are pleased to announce publication of the new Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (pdf) by the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL).
The Visual Literacy Standards include:

• an introduction to and definition of visual literacy
• a brief discussion of visual literacy and higher education
• a brief discussion of visual literacy and information literacy
• suggestions for implementing the Standards
• key sources and bibliography
• 7 standards, 24 performance indicators, and 90 learning outcomes

The Visual Literacy Standards provide, for the first time, a common framework for visual literacy learning in higher education. The learning outcomes included in the Standards provide new opportunities for visual literacy teaching and assessment, and support efforts to develop measurable improvements in student visual literacy.
The Standards were developed over a period of 19 months, informed by current literature, shaped by input from multiple communities and organizations, reviewed by individuals from over 50 institutions, and approved by 3 ACRL committees and the ACRL Board of Directors. For a history of the Standards development process, please see the Standards project blog.
The Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education are a project of the ACRL Image Resources Interest Group, and were authored by the Visual Literacy Task Force – Denise Hattwig (chair), Joanna Burgess, Kaila Bussert, and Ann Medaille.

-          From http://acrlvislitstandards.wordpress.com/

Preorders of Semantic Web Technologies available

Semantic Web Technologies and Social Searching for Librarians (THE TECH SET® #20 [Paperback]
Robin Fay (Author), Michael Sauers (Author), Ellyssa Kroski (Editor)

There are trillions of bytes of information within the web, all of it driven by behind-the-scenes data. Vast quantities of information make it hard to find what s really important. Here s a practical guide to the future of web-based technology, especially search. It provides the knowledge and skills necessary to implement semantic web technology. You ll learn how to start and track trends using social media, find hidden content online, and search for reusable online content, crucial skills for those looking to be better searchers.

---------
If you don't know what the semantic web is or understand why (or how!) libraries (and others - our tips and tools can be used by nonprofits, museums, archives, educators, historians, and more) will fit into the semantic or social web - this is the book for you. Michael & I bridge social media, traditional search tools, and semantic web functionalities through the beauty of metadata, written in a very easy to understand manner.

Filtering, forgetfulness, and the semantic web

I've been catching up on some of my reading and tv watching over the holidays, especially with blogs and various tidbits of news (i.e., not headlines) and nonfiction. A few days ago I watched Botany of Desire based upon Michael Pollan's book of the same name. The book had been on my reading list for a while, but I just haven't made it to it yet (thank goodness for the cliff notes version aka tv...)

One of the most interesting thoughts from this program was about memory and the part that forgetfulness plays. Without forgetfulness (filtering) we would not be able to deal with all of sensory information we receive each day - forgetfulness gives us a filter to select (focus) on those parts which are most important or relevant (of course, that is if memory is working the way it should....)

Anyhow, in spite of the fact that I watched a show about the production and genetics of potatoes (among other topics!), there are some fascinating insights into culture, science, and more.

Watch Potatoes - Web Extra with Michael Pollan on PBS. See more from Botany of Desire.

I've been thinking a lot about the concept of forgetfulness as a filter when I read the Mystery of Expertise:

Riding a bike, tying your shoes, typing on a keyboard, and steering your car into a parking space while speaking on your cellphone are examples.... You execute these actions easily but without knowing the details of how you do it. You would be totally unable to describe the perfectly timed choreography with which your muscles contract and relax as you navigate around other people in a cafeteria while holding a tray, yet you have no trouble doing it. This is the gap between what your brain can do and what you can tap into consciously.
To the extent that consciousness is useful, it is useful in small quantities, and for very particular kinds of tasks. It's easy to understand why you would not want to be consciously aware of the intricacies of your muscle movement, but this can be less intuitive when applied to your perceptions, thoughts, and beliefs, which are also final products of the activity of billions of nerve cells.

So in some ways, the semantic web will just do what we already do as humans - it will make the path to get to our results less obvious and it will provide better filters without us having to do the work  (hmmm....  computers thinking like people, kind of AI, isn't it? ;-)