On ALA 2.0 Bootcamp and free access to online learningALA, librarianship, online education, social software

by Meredith Farkas on 5/26/2006 with 31 comments

It’s been thrilling to see the growth of online educational opportunities for librarians. From OPAL, to SirsiDynix, to HigherEd BlogCon, to WebJunction, to podcasts, screencasts and countless blogs… there’s a lot of great free online educational content out there! Learning to be a tech-savvy, user-centered 21st century librarian doesn’t need to cost money or require …

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Firefox is on fire!!!open source

by Meredith Farkas on 2/16/2005 with 3 comments

I was very excited to hear, via Research Buzz, that Firefox has been downloaded more than 25 million times! That’s fabulous! Hopefully we’ll see it replacing Internet Explorer more and more in libraries. Most of the library bloggers I know seem to use Firefox (or Safari), but I really haven’t seen it on library public …

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The community in computingblogging, open source

by Meredith Farkas on 2/7/2005 with Comments Off on The community in computing

The Linux Librarian has a great post on why open source and blogging are so great: This is why open source works. From my comments, from yesterday, from James Robertson: Hi, I’m the main BottomFeeder developer. What system are you trying the app on? What specific version did you try? Thanks This is why open …

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OSS Patent Searchopen source

by Meredith Farkas on 1/31/2005 with Comments Off on OSS Patent Search

For those interested in developing open source software based on the patents offered for free by IBM and others, PatentCafe has come out with OSS Patent Search Engine, a natural language patent search. It’s a new search engine and only has the 500 IBM patents in its database so far. It’s free to search the …

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Open source in Brazilopen source

by Meredith Farkas on 1/31/2005 with Comments Off on Open source in Brazil

NPR this morning had a great story about how Brazil is switching 300,000 government computers from Windows to Linux. Not only are they switching to Linux, but they are dropping all proprietary software. The Brazilian government wants access to the source code of the software they use and control over their information (which includes security …

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Changing corporate image with open sourceopen source, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/27/2005 with Comments Off on Changing corporate image with open source

In light of IBM’s offer to allow use of 500 of their software patents for open source applications, Sun is now freely offering 1600 of its own patents for open source development. This comes on the heels of their announcement that they are open sourcing Solaris’ source code through the CDDL (Common Development and Distribution …

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The Max Power wayintellectual freedom, open access, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/18/2005 with Comments Off on The Max Power way

According to Techdirt, a California state senator has introduced a bill that threatens developers of file sharing applications with jail time. John Borland at CNET, writes, “if passed and signed into law, it could expose file-swapping software developers to fines of up to $2,500 per charge, or a year in jail, if they don’t take …

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A new corporate approach to intellectual propertyopen access, open source, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/13/2005 with Comments Off on A new corporate approach to intellectual property

IBM is making 500 of its patents available for free to people doing open source projects. Rock on! From the New York Times: I.B.M. executives say the company’s new approach to intellectual property represents more than a rethinking of where the company’s self-interest lies. In recent speeches, for example, Samuel J. Palmisano, I.B.M.’s chief executive, …

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Exhuming McCarthyintellectual freedom, open source, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/6/2005 with Comments Off on Exhuming McCarthy

Bill Gates recently sat down with CNET for an interview (which begins with the frightening teaser “Bill Gates is coming to your living room, whether you like it or not”). In it, Gates talks about the current state of intellectual property law and the recent challenges to it from certain “communist elements” in the digital …

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Open Accessintellectual freedom, open source, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 12/30/2004 with Comments Off on Open Access

I guess this is the day to post intros! Peter Suber, at Open Access News, has published a very concise introduction to the concept of open access. A Very Brief Introduction to Open Access is a shorter version of his Open Acecss Overview. Both are great documents, though the former is certainly easier to digest …

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A Net Nanny with an MLSintellectual freedom, libraries

by Meredith Farkas on 12/24/2004 with Comments Off on A Net Nanny with an MLS

Wow! In an age of shrinking budgets and shrinking staffs, the Phoenix Public Libraries has secured $175,000 to hire one full time professional librarian and three paraprofessionals to police their no-porn policies. The professional, this “Internet Resource Specialist”, would monitor people’s use of the Internet and deal with people’s requests to turn off the filters …

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Satellite radio safe… for nowintellectual freedom

by Meredith Farkas on 12/20/2004 with Comments Off on Satellite radio safe… for now

According to the Curmudgeony Librarian, the FCC has declined a request by a Saul Levine — a California radio station owner — to apply the same standards to satellite radio as they do to AM/FM radio. Essentially, he wanted satellite radio to be censored just like AM/FM radio: Levine argued among other things that this …

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Where Google leads…intellectual freedom, open source, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 12/18/2004 with Comments Off on Where Google leads…

Here is an interesting article I found via Resource Shelf. The Open Archive Initiative (OAI) and Google Scholar by Nick Luft looks at one positive effect Google (and specifically Google Scholar) may have on digital publishing. One of the greatest barriers to retrieving and exchanging scholarly information online is the fact that database vendors (and …

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Linux more secure? Look at the statistics.open source

by Meredith Farkas on 12/15/2004 with Comments Off on Linux more secure? Look at the statistics.

According to Wired, a four-year study of the 2.6 Linux production kernel by Stanford University researchers has determined that there are 985 bugs in the 5.7 million lines of code. While this may seem a lot (it’s 0.17 bugs per 1,000 lines of code), compare that to the average piece of commercial software, which has …

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