Pictures in Blog

After sitting through my Monday IDE classes, I have realized that I have been neglecting my responsibility to cite where I have taken my pictures from.  

Although some of them are from my own personal libraries,.... there are some graphics which are from the web.

From now on, I will cite all media or photography which is not taken directly by me.

Regards - 

Mark

E-Books and copyright infringement....

For those playing at home, here is the link from which thou post is draweth by

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/ebooks.html

Summary of Article

The author, Richard Stallman, uses a highly opinionated voice while explaining to his readers, what he thinks, is a lack of response to e-book related activities. The first, is the inability of the US constitution to mend the copyright laws from back in the day, to fit the modern day "utopia" of information on the world wide web.

Stallman explains how copyright laws were put into place to encourage the legal production of many publications. It was a system to start the networking between publishers when professional writing began picking up steam. An example,... Benjamin Franklin would need to call (or write) to Thomas Jefferson and request to use his copyrighted Declaration of Independence.

Stallman also speaks about the tool the computer and internet has become. He speaks a little bit about the Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998, which gives companies power over their digital publications.

Stallman wants to know how far this copyright over digital publications will go. Financially, a little bit of a monopoly looks to be brewing, due to some companies owning specific software to view specific e-books. Stallman more or less says, if a company owns all the software and all the ebooks...well, then you don't pass go, and you don't college $200 dollars.

MY Personal Opinion

I agree somewhat with what Stallman says, ...but not really at the same time. Yes, there is a strong threat regarding e-books becoming owned by one or two major companies, and disbursed when and for how much they prefer.

If history repeats itself though, which it has been known to do every once in a while, I see e-books becomming so popular, that those one or two companies cannot contain the rate of spreading information.

The reason.... Look at Napster. The music industry begain attempts to sell music online through very exclusive and technology specific software / hardware. What did people do? They created an underground resource for downloading unlimited amounts of music and software. Yes, the government retaliated and charged thousands of people, but in the spectrum of things, this was the tip of the iceberg.

Right now, through torrents mostly, this sort of process is beginning. EBooks are available for (illegal) download on sites such as thepiratebay.org, and mininova.org. Go ahead, check em' out.... but don't download. I don't need to be an accessory to first degree pirating.

What are the Implications?

We are beginning to see a very useful tool (ebooks...let's focus now) become an entity up for bid between legal and illegal sources. Information, is now being price tagged, and battled for between Congress and the public. I already blogged about ebooks having the power to shut down libraries and small bookstores, but expand that to the internet.... what happens to amazon? Will they have to spend more for sole propriety of ebooks in order to sell them legally? Will there be a bidding war for the rights to "Catcher in the Rye" so that only Yahoo can sell it as a digital form?

I don't know, but I'm eager to find out.

Until another day -

Mark

Check out my other Blog

Shameless plug, ....

If you click on my "Blogger" profile, you will see a link to my other blog, 

"Through Mark's Lens". 

I am picking up digial photography as a hobby, and any feedback would be great!  I will be uploading my first set of photos tomorrow or the next day.

Oh,.. and I may export them to a digital e-book as an experiment for this class.... "so I've got that going for me, which is nice." 

Thanks! 

Burning the 11:55pm Oil

We are burning the 11:55 pm oil over here in E-Book world.  I definately had a Brian Regan moment for those who follow the comedian... "Oh no... that's due today!  I had 6 months to do it, and I've done nothing!"

I apologize to my group C members who may be eagerly longing to read my next post who don't find the humor funny.

To E-BOOKS!

Brief Introduction

I wanted to do some research on whether or not anyone has begun to store up a library of e-books, including archived newspapers and other written media.  I stumbled upon a site called "Project Gutenberg", which is devoted to creating and archiving e-books. 

Excited? ... Me too.  Here is the URL for the audience at home; http://www.gutengerg.org

Gutenberg

The interesting thing I want to discuss with this website is it's 25,000 plus FREE e-books.  What does this affect?  First, I believe Libraries are on the chopping block if this type of archiving becomes popular.  Why would the general public leave their homes to go rent a book and risk late charges or car accident or expend their gas tanks?  

This technology is bringing literature to people in their homes.  This is the important concept. Not only do they offer e-books in the thousands, but they also provide multiple file types, as to serve the most amount of customers.

Personal Reflection

I am a huge fan of this technology, but slightly hesitant to see us step even closer to computer dependancy.  This technology, although highly resourceful and convenient, will put many librarians and other people out of jobs if it catches on and becomes a societal norm. 

Steering

When responding to this unbelievably revealing and interesting blog post, let me know what you think about this, and what it's pro's and con's are.  Also, please let me know if you know who (stated earlier) Brian Regan is.

Thanks! 'Till next time

Mark

E-Book Madness

Good evening -

I appreciate you "tuning in" and taking a look at my post.

I want to start each of my posts with a small little joke to break the ice before we dig into the serious stuff. Enjoy!

Ok, onto the topic of the blog....

E-Books! ....(contain yourself if you can)

Introduction

Short for "electronic books", e-books are beginning to make their own little impact in society. Different industries are beginning to get their feet wet introducting e-books as an effective piece of their productivity puzzles. Unfortunately , I am going to concentrate on e-books and the advancing technology being used in educational settings. I may pull different examples from other industries to show a common trend in technology, but that's about it.

Tonight's Topic - Textbooks being replaced?

Here is the article link if you would like to read it before we start...

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/education/stories/110406dnmetebooks.3255a88.html

(Link is from a online newspaper from Dallas, Texas. It is about a transition from paperback textbooks to electronic tablet laptops and updateable e-books)

My initial thought to this article was amazement! It is about time schools found an alternative to paying ridiculously large amounts for textbooks which update every year! With this new technology, schools can update their textbooks via online downloads and servers. Instead of paying shipping costs for each individual class and package, they can now just hook up a wireless network, set up a download time, and have the laptops with the e-books update overnight.

The implications of this technology far surpass just high schools. In college, speaking from experience, we get absolutley hosed when it comes to textbook purchases. If I could get into a situation where I purchase a laptop, then pay a small fee for e-book subscriptions, I would do it in a heartbeat. Not only are we as students paying thousands of dollars for textbooks, but the buy-back rates are short of robbery.

In my mind, I want this technology to develop, and to develop fast.

Potential Problems

- The tool turning into a distraction for high schoolers.

- Costs of maintenance (when, not if) repairs are needed.

- Delay of information if for some reason the servers are down or if the software gets corrupted.

- Kids attempting to manipulate the data being used... they're sneaky like that.

Final Thoughts

I am going to do some more research and see if I can find out what the price difference is between e-book textbooks and regular textbooks. Check back in a couple of days and see if there is much of a difference. If you want to comment on any past experiences with this new e-book technology,..... gimme a shout.

Thanks

Mark

Start up thoughts

Good afternoon - 

This is the first entry into my blog for IDE 611.  This blog will be focussing on two forms of information technologies.  Also, to further discussion, different electronic sources and articles will be cited for supporting my own personal comments regarding the chosen technology.

In the meantime, I will be researching two already existing blogs and writing a detailed report based on my findings.  This will allow me to critically inspect content and structure, and help me with my own personal blog.

That's it for now. I'll post again in the near future.

Mark -