November 16, 2008
Milestones
I've been meaning to blog about this for a while, but I've fallen out of the habit, unfortunately.
Nonetheless, I had to blog about this ...
I re-joined CLA (California Library Association). Registered for the Annual Conference in San Jose. Then, earlier today, I gave my first conference presentation.
"Privacy Concerns of Social Networking" was the title I thought up at the time when I submitted the proposal to talk about the issue of online information and Web 2.0. I had 45 minutes during a prominent lunchtime lecture, but people showed up and even stayed.
I took what would be considered a hard-line stance: there are myriad privacy issues with social networking, it's not the end of privacy and libraries/librarians have a role to play in pushing back against
Yes, I believe it. But it's the start of a conversation (I hope!) and I don't have solutions. I have suggestions, though ... look & see (PDF).
So ... the presentation was ... okay. I knew what I wanted to say, I didn't have the best flow with the slides, but I didn't keep my head in my notes and I made eye contact. Interesting comment section (someone thought that privacy as we know it is dead, one mentioned the USA PATRIOT Act and one asked about age verification practices (in connection with COPPA). I had an attack of flop sweat and forgot my words on occasion, but I'm told that it was otherwise a good job.
But then my day got even better when I HAD LUNCH WITH ZOIA HORN!!!
*squeeing and jumping around commences*
It was lovely. She is lovely and as the young people used to say, quite fierce. Truly an honour and pleasure to talk with her and hear her story from her lips.
Truly excellent day.
Posted by misseli at 11:58 PM
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September 07, 2008
Palin! Palin! Palin!
I know, you thought this place was dead, right? Well, thanks to my crack team of news junkies on LJ for making it hard for me to just go back to reading/being on SL ...
Lots of play on whether or not Sarah Palin was interested in engaging in book censorship and whether it ties to her attempt to fire Wasilla's now-former head librarian. (Thanks, Jessamyn!) There's more here from the Anchorage Daily News.
(3 times? She asked 3 times, including at a City Counsel meeting? Was this precipitated by more than 'complaints over inappropriate language' and did a cock crow after the 3rd question? And just what does "about understanding and following administration agendas" mean in this instance?)
I freely admit that, as a librarian, First Amendment geek, and former ACLU intern, information censorship is a huge button for me -- a red flag in front of a bull, as it were (only that turns out to be false ... nice going, eliminating a perfect analogy for wantonly provoking a dangerous response, Mythbusters!). So, let's take a step and look at something less intense but also informative as to the VP nominee's take on public educational institutions.
And according to these people, using the power of the line-item veto when approving the 2008 State Budget, Palin left in $500,000 (50% funding reduction) for a sports field, and removed some school funding -- approximately $500K. Actually, doing a quick search in the budget vetoes, a lot more than half a mil was taken from various school districts ... but focusing on just infrastructure maintenance and repair items, as well as the materials and tech items (books, laptops, wireless, etc.) ... the authors tote up about $500,000 in what a lot of people would consider mission-critical items for an educational institution in the 21st Century.
Doesn't answer any questions, but boy, wouldn't it be nice if someone could do some digging and ask some really in-depth, pointed questions along these lines? No, don't look at me, I'm busy learning about how to invalidate wills this semester ...
Posted by misseli at 02:31 PM
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July 08, 2008
Cake, Google and user privacy
Taking a step away from librariana ... I did a paper on data privacy and Google in relation to its acquisition of DoubleClick, so I'm rather interested in this issue. Is Google doing enough to protect the privacy of its users? According to this Op/Ed, the answer is no.
I have read and re-read Judge Stanton's decision in the Google/Viacom suit more times than I really should have. At first, I was as outraged as everyone else, assuming that Judge Stanton was one more government figure without a clue how the Internet even works.So I called my mother, who works in the courts, and ran it by her, and she pointed out two things to me: one, any Judge has a stable full of much younger and savvier law clerks who research this stuff to death, and two, everything a Judge does is based on precedent. So I went back and read the decision a few more times.
One thing keeps coming back when you look at it: the precedent cited in the decision was Google's own virtual flapping lips.
Posted by misseli at 05:25 PM
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June 06, 2008
Policy Wonkery with a FCCer
It's not every day I get to sit down with 30 other people and talk with an FCC Commissioner. Luckily, I was able to do just that with Michael Copps at NCMR2008. A loose transcript:
Roundtable - Michael Copps, FCC commissioner
What are the opportunities to move offensively - i.e. promote community interests rather than simply defend?
Now is the opportunity to go on the offensive ... not only can we, we MUST - we cannot have democracy without media democracy
We've had 25 years of deregulation
15 years of media consolidation
The public has not been well-served by the public airwaves
Poison for the civic dialogue - we have big media not reporting what's going on in the world, in the U.S. or in the localities in which we live
We've dumbed down news rooms, subsidized propaganda
Reason for optimism
A coming tide of change/reform
We need to be prepared on the media democracy
A downpayment on media democracy
* Some substantive, meaningful change immediately (Jan/Feb 2009)
* Old media: have an honest-to-God relicensing system that is guided by public interest guidelines -- end postcard renewals
* New media: A principle of non-discrimination on the Internet (i.e. Net Neutrality); let's make sure there's no gatekeepers for content; complex regarding the lines btw reasonable and unreasonable network management
We need to talk these things up with our neighbors and colleagues and representatives NOW
* Start working on more substantive, meaningful change
Citizen action still counts
The new president will get to name a new chairman
Municipal ownership of cable/Internet - how can we get away from duopoly?
We need to come up with more ideas, more experiments
Industry lobbyists are going to the FCC and crowing that muni broadband has failed completely - some even say that all muni broadband projects have failed (not true)
Public infrastructure issues and deregulation/market reliance
Net neutrality + broadband deployment to all? Are they related?
Universal service for Internet - truly extending solid, reasonably priced broadband for all
We need a broadband strategy in the U.S.
We lost our only progressive radio station in San Diego -- what can we do in terms of legal remedies to get it back?
Sounds more like a policy question/issue than a legal one
FCC doesn't attend to format, but ownership concern is a focus
What is the level of sophistication of Congress in dealing with these issues?
It is fairly sophisticated ... quite a few on Capitol Hill are well versed on telecom and other issues -- Dorgan and Markey are examples
Now 2-3 Cong. oversight hearings a year; previously very rare
My question - Is there common cause between FCC and FTC on new media policy?
Should be, once new administration is in, but not now
Brand X (basically held that Internet services are not like telephone or cable service and requirements for open access and universal service cannot be applied to it) - a horrid decision
We need a media literacy program that starts at kindergarten and goes through high school - not only how we use media, but how media uses us; but how to implement?
Why aren't PEG channels included in satellite?
Satellite doesn't go through franchising process, which is wearing PEG channels are negotiated
What is the role of traditional public television and public radio - is there positive reform in those areas?
Public TV is the crown jewel of our broadcast media, not that there aren't challenges and concerns
No silver bullet for the future of public TV
Commercial TV news has become a joke
What's the future of the evening news? Two execs of news divisions: Morning news make more money, but evening news make some money, so they aren't going anywhere.
"Media reform" is a cute way of saying "media crisis" -- are we at the end of an age of regulation, given the huge growth of Internet and the pressures towards convergence?
Probably, but we don't know when
As we move to Internet distribution/media, there is the possibility to leave certain populations behind, in particular deaf/hard of hearing communities, since closed captioning is standard for broadcasting, but is rare for Internet videos
People don't understand what their rights are - we need a governmental literacy program to explain how the gov. process works
Posted by misseli at 05:01 PM
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Debating Orphan Works Legislation
The reactions and discussion of the Sen Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008 is starting to rise on my radar (i.e. my email in-box). I haven't read it yet, although I intend to shortly. In the meantime, there are people who have written about the problem of orphan works.
Nancy Praeger's take, Part I and Part II.
The Future of Music Coalition's fact sheet on orphan works and the Bentley Act.
Artist and writers groups are gearing up to fight this legistlation. No piece of legislation is perfect, but are the flaws of this bill too bad to fix -- should the bill be scraped? Dunno ... I hope not, but the debate is far from over, and both all sides should have a chance to have their concerns attended to, in some fashion.
Posted by misseli at 09:10 AM
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May 14, 2008
Eliminating DRM from libraries?
Defective by Design is a campaign by the Free Software Foundation to highlight user-unfriendly features caused by digital rights management (DRM) and certain other IP-protective but anti-consumer practices.
DbD is calling on libraries to remove DRM tech from collections:
Recently, we took action against the Boston Public Library (BPL) demanding that they embargo the use of DRM technology on their collection and create a policy that respects the motto that hangs above their door: "free-to-all." To send a message to all libraries that they too should respect their patrons' freedom, we urge you to sign our open letter. To take action against your local library, we urge you to customize a letter from our template.Please, let us know if you have contacted or written your local library, and please let your friends and fellow patrons know about the open letter.
In solidarity,
Josh, John, Matt, Peter, and the DRM Elimination Crew.
Color me supportive but skeptical. Making people more aware of DRM and how it can inhibit reasonable and fair use of material is a good thing. And hasn't DRM died already? But unless I'm much mistaken, DRM isn't added by the libraries directly or even at their sole discretion - the publishers/vendors want it, they add it in and they may even control what gets shut off or turned on and under which parameters. Libraries seem to be a bit downstream of the process.
But if libraries are willing to add their voices to the DRM mix, so much the better ...
Posted by misseli at 12:10 PM
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