Resource of the Week: Democracy Internet TV
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

While going through my RSS feeds this week, I happened upon an intriguing item via the Mozilla weblog. Mozilla Corporation’s Seth Bindernagel, who manages the organization’s grants and donations program, announced a $100,000 grant to a Worcester, MA-based nonprofit with an intriguing name — the Participatory Culture Foundation (PCF).

According to Bindernagel, Mozilla puts its money behind organizations whose projects “will amplify impact to the community,” and that align with Mozilla’s primary mission — “to provide choice and innovation on the Internet.” It awarded a grant to Creative Commons last quarter.

So OK…I had to have a look….and what I found was something cool — Democracy, a “free and open source Internet TV platform.” PCF fervently believes “it’s a problem that a small number of corporations control mass media.” The solution, it says, is “free, open-source, open standards internet TV.”

The Democracy platform comprises four components:

A detailed FAQ provides more information about the project as well as help with the software and other features. If you’ve ever thought about creating and publishing your own video — something more and more librarians and libraries are doing these days — you’ll want to look at Make Internet TV, a guide that provides “step-by-step instructions for shooting, editing, and publishing online videos that can be watched and subscribed to by millions of people.”

Wired Magazine described Democracy Player as “the future of Net video,” in a May 2006 article. “With Democracy, a well-stocked BitTorrent tracker, and a little RSS fu, who needs a TiVo?” And the application has been the recipient of ongoing positive buzz around the blogosphere.

In his blog post, Mozilla’s Bindernagel noted that Democracy Player would soon be renamed Miro. PCF, on its website, says it is now offering “customized versions” of the player, which can include “a custom Channel Guide, your own set of default channels, and even an alternate icon.”

The source code, licensed under the GPL, can be downloaded from the development center.

Related Resources

++ Metavid
Complete video (searchable of the U.S. Congress).

Metavid is a project which seeks to capture, stream, archive and facilitate real-time collective [re]mediation of legislative proceedings. Metavid makes use of entirely free and open source software and video codecs to make both the footage and the architecture of the site available, accessible and reusable.

++ MIT World
Lectures and presentations from MIT. Currently, “Managing Copyright to Advance Research and Teaching,” is being featured. It’s a panel discussion led by Ann Wolpert, Director of the MIT Libraries.

++ ResearchChannel.org
Lectures from many universities.

++ PBS Video
Keyword search every word spoken on several PBS programs including the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and Washington Week in Review.

++ Webcasts from the National Institutes of Health

++ Web Video Cheat Sheet: List of 80 Video Sharing/Storing Services (via LightReading)

Recreation.gov Database of Over 2700 Fishing Spots in the U.S.
Focus by state, agency, keyword phrase. Other activities that can be searched for in the database include:
+ Biking
+ Hiking
+ Horse Back Riding
+ Water Sports
+ Many others

See Also: More Locations Can Be Found via various state fish and wildlife organizations. Here’s a directory with phone numbers and URLs.

Source: Recreation.gov

+ Yahoo’s Head of Technology Group and Chief Technology Officer To Leave Company
Farzad Nazem joined Yahoo in 1996. His resignation becomes effective on June 8th.
See Also: Separation Agreement

+ For Developers: Google Offers Code to Develop Offline Apps, “Google Gears” (via News.com)
See also: More from Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Land.

See Also: One Of Our Favorite Suites of Online Tools (they’ve got a lot), is ZohoZoho Office Plugin allows users the opportunity to edit text documents and spreadsheets both online and offline. Most Zoho products are available at no charge. In other words, excellent free resources.

+ Mahalo Launches With Human-Crafted Search Results (via Search Engine Land)
Of course, from a non-commercial side of things, info pros have been building excellent directories for many years that focus on quality over quantity. This work is not only important but also useful. Here are just a few of many examples:
Danny:
Just like to point out as I have in the past several excellent “non-commercial” directories coming from academia and the library world. Most offer a “collection” policy (what they will and will not add), excellent organization, and focuses on quality of the underlying resource vs. total size.

Examples (general) include:
+ Librarians’ Internet Index
http://www.lii.org
Powered with tech from Siderean

+ Intute (from the UK)
http://www.intute.ac.uk
Note: Intute even offers complete web research tutorials for many disciplines.
http://vts.

+ IPL
http://www.ipl.org

+ Infomine
http://infomine.ucr.edu

Of course, directories that focus on specific topics exist.

Here are four examples. Not only directories of key resources but also home to many other useful tools.
++ International Business

++ Resources for Educators
Like LII, powered with tech from Siderean.

++ ELDIS
“Development Gateway”

++ TechExtra

TechXtra is a free service which can help you find articles, books, the best websites, the latest industry news, job announcements, technical reports, technical data, full text eprints, the latest research, thesis & dissertations, teaching and learning resources and more, in engineering, mathematics and computing.

+ Free Educational Content Now Available from iTunes U on the iTunes Store

Apple announces iTunes U. A dedicated area within the iTunes Store, iTunes U features free content – course lectures, language lessons, lab demonstrations, sports highlights, and campus tours — from such leading universities as Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Duke University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Note: What would make this even cooler is to use something like Nexidia and make all of the spoken word content keyword searchable. Nexidia indexes by breaking down spoken words into phonetic sounds (phonemes). Demo here.
See Also: ResearchChannel.com
ResearchChannel content is also accessible via Blinkx.

+ Apple Launches iTunes Plus

iTunes Plus—DRM-free music tracks featuring high quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio quality virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings—for just $1.29 per song. iTunes Plus is launching with EMI’s digital catalog of outstanding recordings, including singles and albums from Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, Norah Jones, Frank Sinatra, Joss Stone, Pink Floyd, John Coltrane and more than a dozen of Paul McCartney’s classic albums available on iTunes for the first time.

Source: Apple

Scholarly Publishing: Top 50 Most-Cited JOSA, JOSA A and JOSA B Articles Featured Online

The Journal of the Optical Society of America (JOSA) began publication in January 1917. JOSA quickly became regarded as the world’s best optics journal. In addition to providing reputable peer-reviewed scientific articles, JOSA served as an archival record of OSA activities for nearly 50 years before OSA’s second journal, Applied Optics, was introduced. The early JOSAs included abstracts from OSA Annual Meetings, highlights from topical meetings, Ives lectures, book reviews, and society news.

+ Direct to List of 50 Most Cited Papers

OSA has made all top-cited articles from the original JOSA open access for everyone to enjoy (31 articles). These articles are marked with an open access icon in the list.

Source: Optical Society of America

Cross-Cultural Perspectives of International Doctoral Students: Two-Way Learning in Library and Information Science Education (PDF; 249 KB)

This paper draws upon a case study of library and information science (LIS) international doctoral students in the United States and documents their perspectives to identify ways to further internationalization. Internationalization is defined as incorporating non-US issues and elements into LIS education. The study explores internationalization in the context of a “two-way” learning process in which international students gain from the discipline, but also LIS education gains from the cross-cultural experiences of the students. Documenting the perspectives of LIS international doctoral students provides a critical outlook by giving voice to an under-represented group. It also becomes a methodological strategy to represent global diversity and facilitate cross-cultural exchange.

Data collection methods in this research included in-depth interviews with structured, semi-structured and open-ended questions, and informal discussions with all 21 international doctoral students in a premier American LIS institution. Documenting the perspectives of international doctoral students provided a critical outlook by giving voice to an under-represented group. Critical theory recognizes perspectives of all stakeholders in a particular situation. This includes points of view of the under-represented in order to “do justice to a diversity of socially defined perspectives while providing a grounding for the evaluation of controversial problems” (Endres, 1996, 24). Critical thinking goes hand-in-hand with a reflective process to question traditional understandings and scrutinize existing values, practices, ideological frameworks, and processes. The application of critical theory in this research becomes a methodological strategy to represent global diversity and facilitate cross-cultural exchange.

Source: International Journal of Progressive Education (via ERIC)

+ Truveo Upgrades Technology Platform for Video Search Partners
Truveo is the search technology that powers AOL’s first-rate video search engine.

+ The Link Broadens Radio Reach to Mobile Phones via UpSNAP
See Also: Public Radio Cellcasting from UpSnap (12/2006)
See Also: The Coming Age of the “Cellcast” or “Mobilcast” (11/2006)
See Also: Mobile Version of UpSNAP

Chemistry Glossary Added to NLM’s Division of Specialized Information Services Website

The Second Edition of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) “Glossary of Terms Used in Toxicology” has been added to the National Library of Medicine (NLM)’s Division of Specialized Information Services (SIS) Web site. The Second Edition glossary contains definitions and explanatory notes for terms frequently used in the multidisciplinary field of toxicology. It also contains a list of abbreviations and acronyms used in toxicology, a list of abbreviations and acronyms used by international bodies and by legislation relevant to toxicology and chemical safety, and a listing of the classifications of carcinogenicity according to the weight of evidence available.

Source: Specialized Information Services, NLM

Access Real Time Weather Info via IM
WeatherBug now offers automated bots that offer real time weather info for all U.S. Zip Codes. The bots are available for:
+ AIM (AOL Instant Messenger)
Add “weatherbugbuddy” to your buddy list. Here’s a list of what’s available. To get live conditions enter (L) and a Zip Code. For example: L 10036. For a weather forecast enter (F) and a Zip Code.

+ Skype IM
The bots name is ““weatherbug.” Add it to your contacts list.

+ Windows Live Messenger
The bots name is WeatherBugBuddy@hotmail.com.

++ More Updates at meebo
We posted about the new meebo rooms feature about two weeks ago. This time around several new features and fixes. Btw, since meebo allows you to access several IM products in one place (and without downloading any software), the weather bots listed above for AOL and MSN work fine. meebo is a free service.

Senate Confirms President’s Nominees to National Museum and Library Services Board
From the announcement:

The U.S. Senate confirmed three presidential nominees to serve as members of the National Museum and Library Services Board May 25, 2007. The board advises the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), an independent federal agency that is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s museums and libraries.

The three people confirmed are:

+ Douglas G. Myers, Chief Executive Officer, Zoological Society of San Diego

+ Jeffrey H. Patchen, D.M.E., President and CEO, The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis

+ Lotsee Patterson, Ph.D., Professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Oklahoma

Source: IMLS

Border Patrol takes library out of circulation

Step through the front door of the Haskell Library and you’re in the United States.

Walk across the carpeted floor to the circulation desk and you’re in Canada. But if you sit down on the couch, you’re back in the United States.

The 106-year-old Romanesque building, which straddles the international border, has enjoyed a kind of informal immunity from border restrictions through the years.

But a U.S. Border Patrol crackdown focusing on three unguarded streets linking Derby Line with Stanstead, Quebec, across the border, could soon change that.

“There’s been an increase in illegal activity, both north and south, in the last little while,” said Mark Henry, the operations officer for the Border Patrol’s Swanton sector, which runs across northern New York, Vermont and New Hampshire.

Under the crackdown, instead of parking their cars outside the library in Quebec and walking to the front door in the United States, Canadian patrons would have to detour through one of two ports of entry linking the municipalities.

Some people are leery about the change.

Source: AP (via Washington Times)

+ Webcam (via KPIX)
++ Time Lapse of GGB Cam (via ZeitCam)

Btw, the mobile version of the GG Bridge web site also offers the webcam view.

See Also: Collection of GG Bridge Multimedia Files including a Virtual Bridge Walk

See Also: Other Cams in Our Collection

Webcast: Debate at Oxford Union: Internet not a force for democracy

At an Oxford Union Debate on 18 May the motion ‘This House believes that the Internet is the greatest force for democratization in the World’ was defeated…speaking in favour of the Internet as a democratizing force were Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia), Ron Deibert (University of Toronto) and Bo Aung Din (Burma PDP), and in opposition: Jonathan Zittrain (OII), Robert Amsterdam (Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s Lawyer) and John Palfrey (Berkman Center).

The debate took place on May 18, 2007.

Source: Oxford Internet Institute

2007 ITRC Breach Report (PDF; 352 KB)
From press release:

In 2006, there were in excess of 315 publicized breaches affecting nearly 20 million individuals. Based on ITRC’s categorization, the breaches break down as follows: 29% government/military agencies; 28% from educational institutions; 22% from general businesses; 13% from health care facilities / companies; and 8% from banking / credit / financial services entities. In 2005, there were 158 incidents affecting more than 64.8 million people.

Statistics (52 KB): Broken down by categories which includes the percentages for each category (business, financial/credit, educational, governmental/military, and health care)

See Also:
+ 2006 ITRC Breach List
+ 2005 ITRC Breach List

Source: Identity Theft Resource Center (via DocuTicker)
Thanks to Pete W. for the news tip.

Just Released: New USGS Fact Sheet: Earthquakes Pose a Serious Hazard to Afghanistan

While human-induced rumblings have dominated life in Afghanistan for several decades, a more natural hazard may present a significant threat to this country undergoing massive restoration: earthquakes.

The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is located in a geologically active part of the world. Each year, Afghanistan is struck by moderate to strong earthquakes, and every few years, a powerful earthquake causes significant damage or fatalities. The seriousness of this hazard was poignantly demonstrated by the magnitude 7.6-magnitude earthquake on Oct. 8, 2005, in nearby Kashmir, Pakistan, that caused more than 80,000 fatalities and left an estimated four million people homeless. Without planning for the potential devastation that earthquakes can wreak, years of investment in restoration of Afghanistan infrastructure could be undermined in a matter of seconds.

Direct to Fact Sheet Highlights: Earthquakes Pose a Serious Hazard to Afghanistan

Direct to Full Text Report
4 pages; PDF.

Source: USGS/USAID