Steve Lohr in his November 6, 2005 article at the NY Times, "Just Googling It Is Striking Fear Into Companies" writes about the fact that even the largest retailer in the US, Wal-Mart, is wary of Google these days. Read the article to find out why.
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Sunday, November 06, 2005
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Blogs Bloggers BCRA Campaign Finance Law FEC Freedom of Speech & Press
VoteLaw has a posting about a one-page order just issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit which has "declined to reconsider a decision requiring the FEC to write new rules to carry out a 2002 campaign finance law". Reference is made to a Boston Globe AP article of October 24, 2005 titled "Appeals court declines to review decision on campaign finance rules".
This is a development of utmost importance to blogging. What is the background?
The Bloglines Blog (see also WingedPig) has a posting about the fact that the FEC (Federal Election Commission) has been reviewing regulations concerning political speech on the Internet, including blogging.
The Committee on House Administration held a hearing on the topic on September 22, 2005.
The issues involved are found in this statement by Committee Chairman Robert W. Ney which we have excerpted:
"The Committee is meeting today to hear testimony on the subject of regulation of political speech and activity on the Internet....
The Bi-Partisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold or BCRA) required the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to develop regulations to implement the Act. The Commission determined that Congress did not intend for BCRA to cover Internet communications and, therefore, adopted regulations that exempted them.
Congressman Shays and Meehan, believing the FEC regulations did not follow the intent of BCRA, sued the Commission. The Court [see material below] agreed with the Congressmen, and ordered the FEC to rewrite the rules.
As a result of this lawsuit and Court decision, the FEC was forced to rewrite the rules that cover communications on the Internet. That new rulemaking began in March 2005.
While this new rulemaking was going on, some Members of Congress were making clear that they did not intend for BCRA to cover the Internet, and that they did not want the FEC regulating these communications. In March, Congressman Conyers and 13 of his colleagues wrote to the FEC seeking an exemption for web logs or blogs....
Identical bills were also introduced in both bodies to preserve the exemption – in the Senate by Minority Leader Harry Reid and in the House by Jeb Hensarling (R-TX). Their bill language was adopted by this committee, and included in H.R. 1316, the Pence-Wynn bill, reported by the committee on June 8, 2005.
These bi-partisan congressional endorsements of the exemption show there still some issues on which both sides of the aisle can agree. We’ll later hear from two witnesses who operate blogs, one conservative and one liberal, who probably do not agree on anything except that they do not want the FEC to be regulating what they say or do on their websites.
The debate here then is not between Republicans and Democrats or liberals and conservatives. Instead, the debate here is between those who favor regulation and those who do not...."
The court decision in question was described at the hearing by Scott E. Thomas, Chairman, Federal Election Commission as follows [we quote footnote 1 at the linked source]:
"The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia concluded that the Commission’s broad Internet exemption would “severely undermine [the Federal Election Campaign Act’s] purposes,” and would permit “rampant circumvention of the campaign finance laws and foster corruption or the appearance of corruption.” Shays v. FEC, 337 F. Supp. 2d 28, 70 (D.D.C. 2004), aff’d, 414 F.3d 76 (D.C. Cir. 2005), petition for rehearing en banc filed (Aug. 29, 2005). Though the district court held some 15 regulations invalid, it nonetheless indicated that pending resolution of the litigation and adoption of needed revisions by the FEC, the challenged regulations remain in effect. Shays v. FEC, 340 F. Supp. 2d 39, 54 (D.D.C. 2004)."
This is the court decision which the D.C. Appeals Court declined to reconsider.
Here are the issues:
Thomas points out in his testimony that the Internet should be regulated by the BCRA because the Internet is becoming a major player on the political scene.
Vice Chairman Michael E. Toner of the FEC testified that political speech on the internet should not be regulated and that the BCRA was never intended to apply to the internet.
Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub of the FEC emphasized that "the focus of the FEC is campaign finance. We are not the speech police." Hence, Weintraub indicates that the proposed rules will in fact regulate the internet, but that substantial exemptions will be made.
Bradley A. Smith, Professor of Law at Capital University Law School, and former Chairman of the FEC, testified that the "the on-line community has reason to be concerned" and that "there is a sizeable and powerful lobby both in and out of Congress that clearly wants to regulate the internet....A regulated internet will strengthen those who already have political power and influence; a deregulated internet will boost the influence of ordinary Americans who just want to play by the rules...." Smith particularly points to the inherent conflicts created between internet regulation and press freedom, the resolution of which is a controversial matter. For the position of blogs, see The Volokh Conspiracy.
Lawrence Noble, Executive Director and General Counsel of the Center for Responsive Politics, testified that: "There is little doubt that the Internet can be used in much the same way television, radio and the print media have been before; as an avenue for the spending of large amounts of undisclosed soft money to finance various forms of political ads aimed at electing or defeating Federal candidates. "
Michael J. Krempasky of RedState.org provided testimony from one side of the political spectrum of blogging and Duncan Black of Eschaton provided testimony from the other side. Both stated that blogs should be exempted from the BCRA.
Some links to the history of this topic are:
CNet News.com
beSpacific
Volokh Conspiracy
pbaHQ
CDT
In the Agora
Michelle Malkin
Democracy Project
InstaPundit
Ask Jeeves Blog
Captain's Quarters
Bainbridge
Patterico
Newspaperindex
Given this court decision and barring Congressional action, there will now be much, much more about this matter on the blogosphere, you can be sure.
Technorati Tags:
internet law, political speech, campaign contributions, blogs, blogging, bloggers, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, FEC, Federal Election Commission, Campaign Finance Law, Campaign Reform Act, BCRA, legal, House Administration, Committee on House Administration, McCain-Feingold, Pence-Wynn, communications, Internet, Kaulin, web logs, campaign finance, online community, internet regulation.
Crossposted to LawPundit.
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This is a development of utmost importance to blogging. What is the background?
The Bloglines Blog (see also WingedPig) has a posting about the fact that the FEC (Federal Election Commission) has been reviewing regulations concerning political speech on the Internet, including blogging.
The Committee on House Administration held a hearing on the topic on September 22, 2005.
The issues involved are found in this statement by Committee Chairman Robert W. Ney which we have excerpted:
"The Committee is meeting today to hear testimony on the subject of regulation of political speech and activity on the Internet....
The Bi-Partisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold or BCRA) required the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to develop regulations to implement the Act. The Commission determined that Congress did not intend for BCRA to cover Internet communications and, therefore, adopted regulations that exempted them.
Congressman Shays and Meehan, believing the FEC regulations did not follow the intent of BCRA, sued the Commission. The Court [see material below] agreed with the Congressmen, and ordered the FEC to rewrite the rules.
As a result of this lawsuit and Court decision, the FEC was forced to rewrite the rules that cover communications on the Internet. That new rulemaking began in March 2005.
While this new rulemaking was going on, some Members of Congress were making clear that they did not intend for BCRA to cover the Internet, and that they did not want the FEC regulating these communications. In March, Congressman Conyers and 13 of his colleagues wrote to the FEC seeking an exemption for web logs or blogs....
Identical bills were also introduced in both bodies to preserve the exemption – in the Senate by Minority Leader Harry Reid and in the House by Jeb Hensarling (R-TX). Their bill language was adopted by this committee, and included in H.R. 1316, the Pence-Wynn bill, reported by the committee on June 8, 2005.
These bi-partisan congressional endorsements of the exemption show there still some issues on which both sides of the aisle can agree. We’ll later hear from two witnesses who operate blogs, one conservative and one liberal, who probably do not agree on anything except that they do not want the FEC to be regulating what they say or do on their websites.
The debate here then is not between Republicans and Democrats or liberals and conservatives. Instead, the debate here is between those who favor regulation and those who do not...."
The court decision in question was described at the hearing by Scott E. Thomas, Chairman, Federal Election Commission as follows [we quote footnote 1 at the linked source]:
"The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia concluded that the Commission’s broad Internet exemption would “severely undermine [the Federal Election Campaign Act’s] purposes,” and would permit “rampant circumvention of the campaign finance laws and foster corruption or the appearance of corruption.” Shays v. FEC, 337 F. Supp. 2d 28, 70 (D.D.C. 2004), aff’d, 414 F.3d 76 (D.C. Cir. 2005), petition for rehearing en banc filed (Aug. 29, 2005). Though the district court held some 15 regulations invalid, it nonetheless indicated that pending resolution of the litigation and adoption of needed revisions by the FEC, the challenged regulations remain in effect. Shays v. FEC, 340 F. Supp. 2d 39, 54 (D.D.C. 2004)."
This is the court decision which the D.C. Appeals Court declined to reconsider.
Here are the issues:
Thomas points out in his testimony that the Internet should be regulated by the BCRA because the Internet is becoming a major player on the political scene.
Vice Chairman Michael E. Toner of the FEC testified that political speech on the internet should not be regulated and that the BCRA was never intended to apply to the internet.
Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub of the FEC emphasized that "the focus of the FEC is campaign finance. We are not the speech police." Hence, Weintraub indicates that the proposed rules will in fact regulate the internet, but that substantial exemptions will be made.
Bradley A. Smith, Professor of Law at Capital University Law School, and former Chairman of the FEC, testified that the "the on-line community has reason to be concerned" and that "there is a sizeable and powerful lobby both in and out of Congress that clearly wants to regulate the internet....A regulated internet will strengthen those who already have political power and influence; a deregulated internet will boost the influence of ordinary Americans who just want to play by the rules...." Smith particularly points to the inherent conflicts created between internet regulation and press freedom, the resolution of which is a controversial matter. For the position of blogs, see The Volokh Conspiracy.
Lawrence Noble, Executive Director and General Counsel of the Center for Responsive Politics, testified that: "There is little doubt that the Internet can be used in much the same way television, radio and the print media have been before; as an avenue for the spending of large amounts of undisclosed soft money to finance various forms of political ads aimed at electing or defeating Federal candidates. "
Michael J. Krempasky of RedState.org provided testimony from one side of the political spectrum of blogging and Duncan Black of Eschaton provided testimony from the other side. Both stated that blogs should be exempted from the BCRA.
Some links to the history of this topic are:
CNet News.com
beSpacific
Volokh Conspiracy
pbaHQ
CDT
In the Agora
Michelle Malkin
Democracy Project
InstaPundit
Ask Jeeves Blog
Captain's Quarters
Bainbridge
Patterico
Newspaperindex
Given this court decision and barring Congressional action, there will now be much, much more about this matter on the blogosphere, you can be sure.
Technorati Tags:
internet law, political speech, campaign contributions, blogs, blogging, bloggers, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, FEC, Federal Election Commission, Campaign Finance Law, Campaign Reform Act, BCRA, legal, House Administration, Committee on House Administration, McCain-Feingold, Pence-Wynn, communications, Internet, Kaulin, web logs, campaign finance, online community, internet regulation.
Crossposted to LawPundit.
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Monday, October 24, 2005
Test of Link Feature at Blogger
This is a test to see how the new link feature at Blogger works Link to This Page at LawPundit.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Technorati adds Blog Finder
Technorati has added a Blog Finder (beta) based on its tags directory. The HTML they use for that is different than for the normal tags previously used.
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Monday, September 19, 2005
LIFT Text Transcoder - Web Pages in Text-Only Version
The LIFT Text Transcoder makes it possible to convert web pages to text-only versions. The manual states:
"LIFT Text Transcoder (or transcoder) is a web application that converts a web page into its text-only version on-the-fly by eliminating all page layout that is present in the original page and by hiding many accessibility defects.
The transcoder is useful for the website visitor, since it removes some accessibility issues and small defects like missing image ALTs or forms that are not properly linearized or flash objects. It can be used also by the web developer to determine if the reading order of the information presented in the page makes sense when read in the order that would be followed by a screen reader or speech browser.
LIFT Text Transcoder (enter a URL at that page to try it out) is especially useful for people and situations where:
- graphics cannot be seen (e.g. blind persons, text-only browsers, ...);
- sizes of the page elements have to changed (e.g. a low-vision persons that maximizes the browser windows to enlarge its contents; a PDA user who has to fit everything on a small screen);
- size of text that has to be changed (e.g. a low-vision person; a presenter that has to project a web page to an audience via a projector);
-links and buttons have to be easily located and operated (e.g. a person with motor disabilities that cannot move his/her hand with precision, like somebody with a broken arm);
-form fields need to be easily layed out to be used (e.g. a low vision person using a screen magnifier that restricts his/her field of vision)."
The options that are available for each text-only page so produced are:
"Change the current font size: larger | default | smaller
Current color mode is Black on White, other available modes: Yellow on Black | Black on Cream
Show textual links as buttons
Do not move navbars
Open not handled documents directly
Hide the Text/Graphical View Panel
Hide Text Only Options
Open the original version of this page."
Cross-posted to LawPundit.
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"LIFT Text Transcoder (or transcoder) is a web application that converts a web page into its text-only version on-the-fly by eliminating all page layout that is present in the original page and by hiding many accessibility defects.
The transcoder is useful for the website visitor, since it removes some accessibility issues and small defects like missing image ALTs or forms that are not properly linearized or flash objects. It can be used also by the web developer to determine if the reading order of the information presented in the page makes sense when read in the order that would be followed by a screen reader or speech browser.
LIFT Text Transcoder (enter a URL at that page to try it out) is especially useful for people and situations where:
- graphics cannot be seen (e.g. blind persons, text-only browsers, ...);
- sizes of the page elements have to changed (e.g. a low-vision persons that maximizes the browser windows to enlarge its contents; a PDA user who has to fit everything on a small screen);
- size of text that has to be changed (e.g. a low-vision person; a presenter that has to project a web page to an audience via a projector);
-links and buttons have to be easily located and operated (e.g. a person with motor disabilities that cannot move his/her hand with precision, like somebody with a broken arm);
-form fields need to be easily layed out to be used (e.g. a low vision person using a screen magnifier that restricts his/her field of vision)."
The options that are available for each text-only page so produced are:
"Change the current font size: larger | default | smaller
Current color mode is Black on White, other available modes: Yellow on Black | Black on Cream
Show textual links as buttons
Do not move navbars
Open not handled documents directly
Hide the Text/Graphical View Panel
Hide Text Only Options
Open the original version of this page."
Cross-posted to LawPundit.
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Friday, September 16, 2005
Google Blog Search
Google has launched a blog search function at
Google Blog Search.
The same results in somewhat different format can be obtained at the Blogger Blog Search Beta, which is of course not limited to Blogger blogs.
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Google Blog Search.
The same results in somewhat different format can be obtained at the Blogger Blog Search Beta, which is of course not limited to Blogger blogs.
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Thursday, September 01, 2005
RSS Readers
Chris Sherman reviews RSS Readers in Choosing an RSS Reader, a September 1, 2005 article at Search Engine Watch.
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Monday, August 22, 2005
Blogging in Malaysia
The Oxford Business Group has an August 22, 2005 article entitled The New Blogocracy covering blogging in Malaysia.
An excerpt from that article states:
"The recent news that a group of five online diarists, or 'bloggers', participated in a 24-hour 'blogathon' to raise money for charity highlighted the important role these online journals now play in disseminating information to the Malaysian public."
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An excerpt from that article states:
"The recent news that a group of five online diarists, or 'bloggers', participated in a 24-hour 'blogathon' to raise money for charity highlighted the important role these online journals now play in disseminating information to the Malaysian public."
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Sunday, August 07, 2005
Apophenia and Blogs - The Bridge between the Digital and the Physical
Danah Boyd, a former Googleite and Bloggerite now a Yahootite, blogging at zephoria ipseity, has the blog motto "apophenia :: making connections where none previously existed ". She studies "how people negotiate their presentation of self in mediated social contexts to an unknown audience" in media such as blogs. She is "fascinated by moments when people don't realize the bridge between the digital and the physical." Those out there who think that digital communication is not "real" human communication should read some of these posts. Great Stuff.
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Monday, July 25, 2005
Podcasting as a New Podium
Virginia Heffernan has a nice July 22, 2005 article at the New York Times on podcasting entitled The Podcast as a New Podium. Here is a sample paragraph:
"On "Catholic Insider" Father Vonhögen leads audio tours of Rome, which he often visits, and parses the Vatican's reaction to the new Harry Potter novel; he also boasts about how many subscribers he has, as all podcasters do. Recently he told a reporter: "On Sunday, in my church, I can reach about 500 people. But with my podcasts I can reach about 15,000 listeners or more.""
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"On "Catholic Insider" Father Vonhögen leads audio tours of Rome, which he often visits, and parses the Vatican's reaction to the new Harry Potter novel; he also boasts about how many subscribers he has, as all podcasters do. Recently he told a reporter: "On Sunday, in my church, I can reach about 500 people. But with my podcasts I can reach about 15,000 listeners or more.""
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Sunday, July 17, 2005
Solving Template Problems Arising since the Introduction of Blogger Images
The introduction of Blogger Images has caused some template problems for numerous users because as Blogger Buzz writes:
"In order to provide the layout options in our newly released Blogger Images we had to wrap all posts in a
"In order to provide the layout options in our newly released Blogger Images we had to wrap all posts in a
tag."
This tag is NOT found in your templates, but shows up first when you view the source code of one of your Blogger blog pages.
The solution is to go to your Blogger blog dashboard and set the newly added "Enable float alignment" option in the blog settings to NO.
That will solve template problems but will create left and right alignment problems for the new Blogger Images feature.
Hat Tip to FamilyGreenberg.com.
This tag is NOT found in your templates, but shows up first when you view the source code of one of your Blogger blog pages.
The solution is to go to your Blogger blog dashboard and set the newly added "Enable float alignment" option in the blog settings to NO.
That will solve template problems but will create left and right alignment problems for the new Blogger Images feature.
Hat Tip to FamilyGreenberg.com.
Blogger Dashboard Update Feature Finally Fixed
The Blogger Dashboard update feature has finally been fixed, after months and months of being disabled. Bloggers can now once again tell from the Blogger Dashboard how many posts they have posted for each blog and when their last posting for each blog was made. It used to also be possible to see how many words a blogger had posted, but this feature appears to have been discarded for this newly fixed Dashboard version.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Google Bombing
As we have recently stated, we have shifted from Google to Yahoo as our search engine of choice because of the fact that Google searches were too often resulting in sites that LINK to the desired page rather than the page itself.
A commentator informed us as to why the current Google search algorithm is faulty, precisely because it places too much emphasis on links, rather than paying more attention to what a site is about, even at the simplest level of the URL itself.
This emphasis on links has resulted, at its worst, in what is called Google Bombing, utilizing the principle that if enough sites link to any given site using the same link word or phrase, then that site will come up first on the Google results page.
Some links to Google Bombing are.
Adam Mathes - the original Google Bomber
Word Spy - definition of Google Bombing
A superb lengthy article by John Hiler on Google Blombing at Microcontent News - The Online Magazine for Weblogs, Webzines, and Publishing
Infothought - Seth Finkelstein's blog
The Underground Dailectic - blog
Links and Law - links
A commentator informed us as to why the current Google search algorithm is faulty, precisely because it places too much emphasis on links, rather than paying more attention to what a site is about, even at the simplest level of the URL itself.
This emphasis on links has resulted, at its worst, in what is called Google Bombing, utilizing the principle that if enough sites link to any given site using the same link word or phrase, then that site will come up first on the Google results page.
Some links to Google Bombing are.
Adam Mathes - the original Google Bomber
Word Spy - definition of Google Bombing
A superb lengthy article by John Hiler on Google Blombing at Microcontent News - The Online Magazine for Weblogs, Webzines, and Publishing
Infothought - Seth Finkelstein's blog
The Underground Dailectic - blog
Links and Law - links
Blog-Fearing ALA President Bitten by the Blogs
The Law Pundit has frequented libraries since his early days and has quite a private library of his own, so that he is certainly no enemy of good libraries.
However, we see that Google's digitization of millions of books for online access by "the masses" has the poor library people up in arms. Indeed, particularly the rise of the masses in blogs seems to be a cause for the librarians' wrath.
Michael Gorman, president-elect of the American Library Association, and Dean of Library Services, Madden Library, California State University, Fresno, has an appropriately blog-fearing article in the Library Journal of February 25, 2005 entitled Revenge of the Blog People!.
Gorman has made the mistake of attacking bloggers (this is generally done only by those who really understand nothing about blogging), and also the present posting is his reaping of the fruits of the seeds he himself has sown.
Here is how Gorman describes blogs:
"A blog is a species of interactive electronic diary by means of which the unpublishable, untrammeled by editors or the rules of grammar, can communicate their thoughts via the web. (Though it sounds like something you would find stuck in a drain, the ugly neologism blog is a contraction of "web log.") Until recently, I had not spent much time thinking about blogs or Blog People."
What a stupid thing to write. It is rather hard to believe that the president-elect of the ALA could be this out of touch with reality.
Not having learned from experience, he writes the above article defiantly after bloggers had already criticized him previously for questioning the usefulness of Google book digitization, by which he called into question the usefulness of digital availability of such information to all citizens. Some people still do not understand "democracy" in its core value.
With uninformed people like this at the head of the main US library institution, the demise of libraries is not far off. Mark our words that the next decades will be marked by massive library closings since all the world will doing their research on the screen. Blog Bitten People such as Gorman will have accelerated this development.
The entire controversy reminds us of the Egyptology library at the University of Trier in Germany, our former abode as Lecturer in Law. That library is kept unter lock and key like the safe of a bank to make sure that unauthorized persons do not obtain access to books which might be used to upset the dusty applecarts of the virtually mothballed academic disciplines which deal with this region of the world.
Freedom of Information is simply not something relished by information monopolists.
Gorman wirtes:
"In the eyes of bloggers, my sin lay in suggesting that Google is OK at giving access to random bits of information but would be terrible at giving access to the recorded knowledge that is the substance of scholarly books. I went further and came up with the unoriginal idea that the thing to do with a scholarly book is to read it, preferably not on a screen. It turns out that the Blog People (or their subclass who are interested in computers and the glorification of information) have a fanatical belief in the transforming power of digitization and a consequent horror of, and contempt for, heretics who do not share that belief."
Horror, no. Contempt, yes.
However, we see that Google's digitization of millions of books for online access by "the masses" has the poor library people up in arms. Indeed, particularly the rise of the masses in blogs seems to be a cause for the librarians' wrath.
Michael Gorman, president-elect of the American Library Association, and Dean of Library Services, Madden Library, California State University, Fresno, has an appropriately blog-fearing article in the Library Journal of February 25, 2005 entitled Revenge of the Blog People!.
Gorman has made the mistake of attacking bloggers (this is generally done only by those who really understand nothing about blogging), and also the present posting is his reaping of the fruits of the seeds he himself has sown.
Here is how Gorman describes blogs:
"A blog is a species of interactive electronic diary by means of which the unpublishable, untrammeled by editors or the rules of grammar, can communicate their thoughts via the web. (Though it sounds like something you would find stuck in a drain, the ugly neologism blog is a contraction of "web log.") Until recently, I had not spent much time thinking about blogs or Blog People."
What a stupid thing to write. It is rather hard to believe that the president-elect of the ALA could be this out of touch with reality.
Not having learned from experience, he writes the above article defiantly after bloggers had already criticized him previously for questioning the usefulness of Google book digitization, by which he called into question the usefulness of digital availability of such information to all citizens. Some people still do not understand "democracy" in its core value.
With uninformed people like this at the head of the main US library institution, the demise of libraries is not far off. Mark our words that the next decades will be marked by massive library closings since all the world will doing their research on the screen. Blog Bitten People such as Gorman will have accelerated this development.
The entire controversy reminds us of the Egyptology library at the University of Trier in Germany, our former abode as Lecturer in Law. That library is kept unter lock and key like the safe of a bank to make sure that unauthorized persons do not obtain access to books which might be used to upset the dusty applecarts of the virtually mothballed academic disciplines which deal with this region of the world.
Freedom of Information is simply not something relished by information monopolists.
Gorman wirtes:
"In the eyes of bloggers, my sin lay in suggesting that Google is OK at giving access to random bits of information but would be terrible at giving access to the recorded knowledge that is the substance of scholarly books. I went further and came up with the unoriginal idea that the thing to do with a scholarly book is to read it, preferably not on a screen. It turns out that the Blog People (or their subclass who are interested in computers and the glorification of information) have a fanatical belief in the transforming power of digitization and a consequent horror of, and contempt for, heretics who do not share that belief."
Horror, no. Contempt, yes.
BlogBib Goes Biblio Blog
BlogBib, An Annotated Bibliography on Weblogs and Blogging, with a Focus on Library/Librarian Blogs..., by Susan Herzog, Information Literacy Librarian @ Eastern Connecticut State University has an excellent series of postings on blogging in 8 PARTS.
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Articles & Interviews About Blogs
Part 3: BlogBib: Blogging @Your Library
Part 4: BlogBib: Blogging Tools
Part 5: BlogBib: Select Librarian/Library Blogs
Part 6: BlogBib: Books on Blogging
Part 7: BlogBib: Studies on Blogging
Part 8: BlogBib: Presentations on Blogging
This is must read about blogging.
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Articles & Interviews About Blogs
Part 3: BlogBib: Blogging @Your Library
Part 4: BlogBib: Blogging Tools
Part 5: BlogBib: Select Librarian/Library Blogs
Part 6: BlogBib: Books on Blogging
Part 7: BlogBib: Studies on Blogging
Part 8: BlogBib: Presentations on Blogging
This is must read about blogging.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
The FeedBurner Weblog - Burning Questions
We have just subscribed to Burning Questions the offical FeedBurner Weblog, which has 934 subscribing readers as of this date +1 for our subscription. Take a look. The last posting there was on RSS Metrics and Podcasting.
Giving Google the Goodbyes
What has Google recently done to its search algorithm? It is a disaster.
There is an old wisdom which holds that "power corrupts" and "absolute power corrupts absolutely". And Google appears to be corrupted - absolutely.
Whereas most of the world has increasingly been singing the praises of Google, we have become increasingly wary of this search engine whose overly smart but increasingly complicated algorithms are perhaps beginning to run asunder.
Until about a week ago, the entry of "lawpundit" into Google expectedly returned the blog "LawPundit" as the first search listing, as it should be, since there are no competing websites or blogs with that name.
What we now find is that the entry of "lawpundit" into the Google search box no longer turns up that blog but an absolutely confused mess of websites that LINK to the blog. There appears to be no rhyme or reason to the listing whatsoever and many of the sites who do link to our blog are not very important, since some of them are our own LESSER, seldom used, blogs.
Or to put it another way, when looking for the blog LawPundit on Google, Google is useless. Even keying the words "LawPundit" and "Blog" does not provide the desired result. Something has gone very badly bonkers in the algorithm of the Google search system in the last week or two.
Our tolerance level for nonsense is low. We do not wait long. We have installed both the Yahoo and MSN toolbars and are going to give Google the boot. Yahoo's first four results for LawPundit are perfect:
1. http://www.lawpundit.com/blog/lawpundit.htm - the LawPundit blog page
2. http://www.lawpundit.com - the LawPundit website index page
3. http://lawpundit.blogspot.com - the previous LawPundit blogspot location
4. http://feeds.feedburner.com/lawpundit - the FeedBurner RSS feed
That's the way it should be. For any entered artificial keyword such as lawpundit, we - at the least - expect the search engine to find the comparably named URLs and RSSs and rank them ahead of sites that merely LINK to them. God forbid.
Goodbye Google. Yahoo is now our toolbar of choice. It has some new features we were not even aware of, such as an anti-spyware button which permits immediate scans of the hard disk. Terrific. And the search results are just as good, if not better now.
Giving Google the Goodbyes....
Crossposted to LawPundit.
There is an old wisdom which holds that "power corrupts" and "absolute power corrupts absolutely". And Google appears to be corrupted - absolutely.
Whereas most of the world has increasingly been singing the praises of Google, we have become increasingly wary of this search engine whose overly smart but increasingly complicated algorithms are perhaps beginning to run asunder.
Until about a week ago, the entry of "lawpundit" into Google expectedly returned the blog "LawPundit" as the first search listing, as it should be, since there are no competing websites or blogs with that name.
What we now find is that the entry of "lawpundit" into the Google search box no longer turns up that blog but an absolutely confused mess of websites that LINK to the blog. There appears to be no rhyme or reason to the listing whatsoever and many of the sites who do link to our blog are not very important, since some of them are our own LESSER, seldom used, blogs.
Or to put it another way, when looking for the blog LawPundit on Google, Google is useless. Even keying the words "LawPundit" and "Blog" does not provide the desired result. Something has gone very badly bonkers in the algorithm of the Google search system in the last week or two.
Our tolerance level for nonsense is low. We do not wait long. We have installed both the Yahoo and MSN toolbars and are going to give Google the boot. Yahoo's first four results for LawPundit are perfect:
1. http://www.lawpundit.com/blog/lawpundit.htm - the LawPundit blog page
2. http://www.lawpundit.com - the LawPundit website index page
3. http://lawpundit.blogspot.com - the previous LawPundit blogspot location
4. http://feeds.feedburner.com/lawpundit - the FeedBurner RSS feed
That's the way it should be. For any entered artificial keyword such as lawpundit, we - at the least - expect the search engine to find the comparably named URLs and RSSs and rank them ahead of sites that merely LINK to them. God forbid.
Goodbye Google. Yahoo is now our toolbar of choice. It has some new features we were not even aware of, such as an anti-spyware button which permits immediate scans of the hard disk. Terrific. And the search results are just as good, if not better now.
Giving Google the Goodbyes....
Crossposted to LawPundit.
Saturday, February 05, 2005
Brilliant Button Maker
Via the German law blog Streitsache, we point to a site which automatizes the making of buttons for blogs. See the Brilliant Button Maker by LucaZappa.com.
Friday, February 04, 2005
NOFOLLOW - a new attribute against spam
The Google Blog has the simplest explanation we have found of the new "nofollow" attribute on URLs as a means of preventing comment spam and similar URL spam abuses.
Not only have the major blog software makers signed on to this project, but MSN Search, Yahoo and also Wikipedia (1.4 Beta 6) are on board.
Do you follow?
Not only have the major blog software makers signed on to this project, but MSN Search, Yahoo and also Wikipedia (1.4 Beta 6) are on board.
Do you follow?
Saturday, January 22, 2005
Trackback for blogs by CNET
TMCnet.com has a January 20, 2005 story via the Business Wire from CNET News.com entitled CNET News.com Introduces TrackBack, Linking Blog Commentary to CNET News.com Stories. As written there:
"TrackBack is an emerging protocol that allows Web sites to automatically store records of any links which occur between them. For example, for each article produced by CNET News.com, TrackBack automatically creates and posts records of any blogs that link to that article. As a result, readers can easily find the blogs that discuss the story, gaining multi-faceted insight on the issues that interest them. In turn, bloggers using TrackBack gain visibility before the audience of one of the most popular news sources on the Web when they link to a CNET News.com story, and the CNET News.com editorial team gains valuable feedback to their stories and insight on which topics are generating the most buzz, so they can expand their coverage of those topics.
The TrackBack protocol was introduced by Six Apart, makers of the Movable Type publishing platform and TypePad personal weblogging service, and is free to use. "We're pleased CNET News.com has chosen TrackBack to link blog comments with their news articles," said Ben Trott, Six Apart's co-founder and CTO and creator of the TrackBack protocol."
We are regular CNET website readers, for example, try this January 21, 2005 News.com article by Charles Cooper "When blogging can get you locked up", covering blogging dangers around the world.
Here is a description of CNET operations from that same article:
"CNET Networks, Inc. (http://www.cnetnetworks.com/) is a premier global interactive content company that informs, entertains, and connects large, engaged audiences around topics of high information need or personal passion. The company focuses on three categories -- personal technology, games and entertainment, and business technology - and includes such leading brands as:
CNET, [the computer and digital hardware site par excellence]
ZDNet, [technology news, blogs, downloads, white papers, reviews, prices]
TechRepublic, [e.g. their free download (to registered users) of "48 questions you need to answer for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance (according to the auditors)", a useful download for corporations and their legal staffs and counsel.]
MP3.com [music]
GameSpot, [games]
CNET Download.com, [downloads, but also analysis, e.g. their feature today is "The problem with porn We don't care whether you frequent adult sites, but we do want to help you keep spyware off your machine. Our newest spyware horror story describes how surfing for smut took a costly toll."]
CNET News.com, [e.g. today's article: "How Significant Is SCO's Win?" by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols writing "How significant was The SCO Group Inc.'s victory in its discovery motion over IBM in the companies' ongoing battle over Linux copyright and Unix contract issues? It depends on which analysts and lawyers you talk to about Magistrate Judge Brooke Wells' decision."]
Webshots, [digital photos]
Computer Shopper magazine, [technology products] and
CNET Channel [structured and standardized product information for electronic catalogs in the IT industry]. With a strong presence in the US, Asia and Europe, CNET Networks has operations in 12 countries. "
Crossposted to LawPundit.
"TrackBack is an emerging protocol that allows Web sites to automatically store records of any links which occur between them. For example, for each article produced by CNET News.com, TrackBack automatically creates and posts records of any blogs that link to that article. As a result, readers can easily find the blogs that discuss the story, gaining multi-faceted insight on the issues that interest them. In turn, bloggers using TrackBack gain visibility before the audience of one of the most popular news sources on the Web when they link to a CNET News.com story, and the CNET News.com editorial team gains valuable feedback to their stories and insight on which topics are generating the most buzz, so they can expand their coverage of those topics.
The TrackBack protocol was introduced by Six Apart, makers of the Movable Type publishing platform and TypePad personal weblogging service, and is free to use. "We're pleased CNET News.com has chosen TrackBack to link blog comments with their news articles," said Ben Trott, Six Apart's co-founder and CTO and creator of the TrackBack protocol."
We are regular CNET website readers, for example, try this January 21, 2005 News.com article by Charles Cooper "When blogging can get you locked up", covering blogging dangers around the world.
Here is a description of CNET operations from that same article:
"CNET Networks, Inc. (http://www.cnetnetworks.com/) is a premier global interactive content company that informs, entertains, and connects large, engaged audiences around topics of high information need or personal passion. The company focuses on three categories -- personal technology, games and entertainment, and business technology - and includes such leading brands as:
CNET, [the computer and digital hardware site par excellence]
ZDNet, [technology news, blogs, downloads, white papers, reviews, prices]
TechRepublic, [e.g. their free download (to registered users) of "48 questions you need to answer for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance (according to the auditors)", a useful download for corporations and their legal staffs and counsel.]
MP3.com [music]
GameSpot, [games]
CNET Download.com, [downloads, but also analysis, e.g. their feature today is "The problem with porn We don't care whether you frequent adult sites, but we do want to help you keep spyware off your machine. Our newest spyware horror story describes how surfing for smut took a costly toll."]
CNET News.com, [e.g. today's article: "How Significant Is SCO's Win?" by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols writing "How significant was The SCO Group Inc.'s victory in its discovery motion over IBM in the companies' ongoing battle over Linux copyright and Unix contract issues? It depends on which analysts and lawyers you talk to about Magistrate Judge Brooke Wells' decision."]
Webshots, [digital photos]
Computer Shopper magazine, [technology products] and
CNET Channel [structured and standardized product information for electronic catalogs in the IT industry]. With a strong presence in the US, Asia and Europe, CNET Networks has operations in 12 countries. "
Crossposted to LawPundit.
Friday, January 14, 2005
Enterprise Blogging
The FreePint Newsletter has an article by Laurel A. Clyde evaluating the current status of Enterprise Blogging.
The article is based on the Enterprise Blogging presentation at the December 2004 Online Information conference in London .
Clyde, e.g., cites to one law firm's experience with blogging.
Crossposted to LawPundit.
Via TVC Aert.
The article is based on the Enterprise Blogging presentation at the December 2004 Online Information conference in London .
Clyde, e.g., cites to one law firm's experience with blogging.
Crossposted to LawPundit.
Via TVC Aert.
Sunday, January 09, 2005
Six Apart buys Live Journal
Om Malik on Broadband (Om is senior writer with Business 2.0 magazine) reports that Live Journal is to be purchased by Six Apart, a story also found under the catchy title Turmoil in blogland in an article by Danah Boyd at Salon.com. Of course, Live Journal also has something to say about the deal as does Six Apart at Mena's Corner.
Friday, January 07, 2005
Citizen Journalists and Tsunami Coverage a Watershed
Steve Outing in Poynter Online and the article Taking Tsunami Coverage into Their Own Hands delivers his opinion and that of his colleague Dan Gillmor that the tsunami marks a watershed in the development of "citizen journalists".
Video Blogging (Vlogging) On its Way
As we might guess from the coming Vloggercon 2005 on January 22, 2005 in New York City at the Parsons School of Design, another new direction in blogging is going to be video blogging, something that Adrian Miles at VLOG 2.1 calls not Vlogging but "Vogging". Adrian even has his Vogma, a vogging manifesto, which has run into some legitimate criticism from Mike Slone to which Adrian has written a reply.
We think that the term vlogging will remain the term of art. Indeed, Jeff Jarvis at Buzz Machine already commented in detail on vlogging and vlogging software late in 2002.
As just announced at the CES 2005 in Las Vegas, Serious Magic at Vlog.com (pages still substantially under construction) will be introducing what it calls the world's first video blogging software Vlog It! in February, which will make vlogging possible by anyone, allegedly even those with no video experience or technical skills.
At the moment, there are still very vew vbloggers out there. See VideoBlogging.info which is trying to maintain a list of Videobloggers
It will be interesting to see whether vlogging will be incorporated into the existing blogosphere or whether it will create a vlogosphere of its own.
We think that the term vlogging will remain the term of art. Indeed, Jeff Jarvis at Buzz Machine already commented in detail on vlogging and vlogging software late in 2002.
As just announced at the CES 2005 in Las Vegas, Serious Magic at Vlog.com (pages still substantially under construction) will be introducing what it calls the world's first video blogging software Vlog It! in February, which will make vlogging possible by anyone, allegedly even those with no video experience or technical skills.
At the moment, there are still very vew vbloggers out there. See VideoBlogging.info which is trying to maintain a list of Videobloggers
It will be interesting to see whether vlogging will be incorporated into the existing blogosphere or whether it will create a vlogosphere of its own.
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Bill Gates on Blogs, RSS, IP Law and IT at CES 2005
Via the Law Pundit FeedDirect Newsfeed of Blogging News we are taken to Search Engine Watch and Search Engine News who comment on a January 5, 2005 News.com article by Michael Kannellos (Staff Writer, CNET News.com) entitled "Gates taking a seat in your den", which contains a Q&A session with Bill Gates at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2005) in Las Vegas.
Gates comments on blogs, RSS, intellectual property law (IP Law) and other new developments in information technology around the world. Read the article here.
Crossposted to LawPundit.
Gates comments on blogs, RSS, intellectual property law (IP Law) and other new developments in information technology around the world. Read the article here.
Crossposted to LawPundit.
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
SEA-EAT - The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog
The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog also known as "SEA-EAT" ("I saw the sea eat my wife and kids")
was set up as a clearinghouse to mobilize help for tsunami victims.
It has had over a million hits in its first nine days, showing the tremendous practical use to which blogs can be put.
Crossposted to LawPundit.
was set up as a clearinghouse to mobilize help for tsunami victims.
It has had over a million hits in its first nine days, showing the tremendous practical use to which blogs can be put.
Crossposted to LawPundit.
Weblogs, Inc. - Weblogs for business - The Future is Here
Weblogs, Inc. - Weblogs for business - is going blogs in a big way. As written at the Weblogs, Inc. blog:
"Weblogs, Inc. is dedicated to creating trade Weblogs (a.k.a. blogs) across niche industries in which user’s participation is an essential component of the resulting product...."
Take a look at AutoBlog, a member of the Weblogs, Inc. Network to see what's coming...actually, it is already here.
Weblogs, Inc. writes further:
"Partnering is better than owning. Our goal is to partner with individual bloggers, letting them do what they do best (writing, creating community, researching) and support them with what we do best (upgrading the software that drives their Web site, generating revenue, running the business). We split the profits 50/50 with each of our bloggers taking out only hard costs (i.e., sales commissions, credit card fees)."
The Weblogs, Inc. Network currently includes the following blogs:
Blogs for Consumers
Autoblog
Blogging Baby
Engadget
Gadling
hack a day
Joystiq
Luxist
TUAW (Apple - Unofficial)
Technology Blogs
Apple (Unofficial)
CSS
Digital Photography
Flash Insider
Google (Unofficial)
Grid Computing
JavaScript
Microsoft (Unofficial)
Office
Open Source
Peer-to-Peer
Photoshop (Unofficial)
RSS
SAS (Unofficial)
Search Engine Marketing
Social Software
Spam
Tablet PCs
VoIP
Yahoo (Unofficial)
Blogs for Wireless Technology
Bluetooth
Engadget: Cellphones
Engadget: GPS
RFID
Ultra Wideband
WiFi
The WiMAX Weblog
Engadget: Wireless
Wireless Dev
Wireless
Blogs for Video Games
Blogging E3
Engadget: Gaming
Joystiq
Playstation 3
Video Games
Xbox 2
Media & Entertainment Blogs
Art
Design
Digital Music
Documentary Film
Droxy (Digital Radio)
Independent Film
Magazine Design
Nanopublishing
Business Blogs
The Mortgages Weblog
Online Finance
Outsourcing
Life Sciences Blogs
The Cancer Blog
The Diabetes Blog
Medical Informatics
Telemedicine
Personal Blogs
Brian Alvey
Jason Calacanis
Blog Maverick
Gordon Gould
Judith Meskill
Events Blogs
Blogging E3
Blogging ETech
Future of Music
Blogging Milken
Blogging Sundance
Blogging Web 2.0
Other Blogs
Weblogs, Inc.
"Weblogs, Inc. is dedicated to creating trade Weblogs (a.k.a. blogs) across niche industries in which user’s participation is an essential component of the resulting product...."
Take a look at AutoBlog, a member of the Weblogs, Inc. Network to see what's coming...actually, it is already here.
Weblogs, Inc. writes further:
"Partnering is better than owning. Our goal is to partner with individual bloggers, letting them do what they do best (writing, creating community, researching) and support them with what we do best (upgrading the software that drives their Web site, generating revenue, running the business). We split the profits 50/50 with each of our bloggers taking out only hard costs (i.e., sales commissions, credit card fees)."
The Weblogs, Inc. Network currently includes the following blogs:
Blogs for Consumers
Autoblog
Blogging Baby
Engadget
Gadling
hack a day
Joystiq
Luxist
TUAW (Apple - Unofficial)
Technology Blogs
Apple (Unofficial)
CSS
Digital Photography
Flash Insider
Google (Unofficial)
Grid Computing
JavaScript
Microsoft (Unofficial)
Office
Open Source
Peer-to-Peer
Photoshop (Unofficial)
RSS
SAS (Unofficial)
Search Engine Marketing
Social Software
Spam
Tablet PCs
VoIP
Yahoo (Unofficial)
Blogs for Wireless Technology
Bluetooth
Engadget: Cellphones
Engadget: GPS
RFID
Ultra Wideband
WiFi
The WiMAX Weblog
Engadget: Wireless
Wireless Dev
Wireless
Blogs for Video Games
Blogging E3
Engadget: Gaming
Joystiq
Playstation 3
Video Games
Xbox 2
Media & Entertainment Blogs
Art
Design
Digital Music
Documentary Film
Droxy (Digital Radio)
Independent Film
Magazine Design
Nanopublishing
Business Blogs
The Mortgages Weblog
Online Finance
Outsourcing
Life Sciences Blogs
The Cancer Blog
The Diabetes Blog
Medical Informatics
Telemedicine
Personal Blogs
Brian Alvey
Jason Calacanis
Blog Maverick
Gordon Gould
Judith Meskill
Events Blogs
Blogging E3
Blogging ETech
Future of Music
Blogging Milken
Blogging Sundance
Blogging Web 2.0
Other Blogs
Weblogs, Inc.
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
ABC News: People of the Year: Bloggers
ABC News has named Bloggers People of the Year.
That choice well understands the impact blogs are having and will continue to have on local, regional and world affairs. See also boing boing and popdex for more.
Crossposted to Law Pundit.
That choice well understands the impact blogs are having and will continue to have on local, regional and world affairs. See also boing boing and popdex for more.
Crossposted to Law Pundit.
Monday, January 03, 2005
Blogs going Mainstream
Blogs going Mainstream
Jennifer LeClaire of EcommerceTimes, part of the ECT News Network, has a January 3, 2005 article which also appears on Technology News at TechNewsWorld indicating that blogging is going bigtime, referring to surveys by Pew Internet & American Life Project.
See - in .pdf format - the full article of the January 2005, Data Memo at Pew Internet on The state of blogging by Lee Rainie, PIP Director.
Rainie writes that "By the end of 2004 blogs had established themselves as a key part of online culture."
What is most interesting is that the number of blog readers increased in 2004 by a much greater percentage than the number of bloggers, clear evidence that blogging is becoming an integral part of what internet users regularly read online.
Jennifer LeClaire of EcommerceTimes, part of the ECT News Network, has a January 3, 2005 article which also appears on Technology News at TechNewsWorld indicating that blogging is going bigtime, referring to surveys by Pew Internet & American Life Project.
See - in .pdf format - the full article of the January 2005, Data Memo at Pew Internet on The state of blogging by Lee Rainie, PIP Director.
Rainie writes that "By the end of 2004 blogs had established themselves as a key part of online culture."
What is most interesting is that the number of blog readers increased in 2004 by a much greater percentage than the number of bloggers, clear evidence that blogging is becoming an integral part of what internet users regularly read online.
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Ancient Signs
NEW! Ancient Signs The Alphabet & The Origins of Writing, a print & ebook,
shows modern alphabets are derived from ancient alphabets that in turn were derived from syllabic scripts (Sumer, Egypt, Elam, Anatolia, Crete, Cyprus).
shows modern alphabets are derived from ancient alphabets that in turn were derived from syllabic scripts (Sumer, Egypt, Elam, Anatolia, Crete, Cyprus).