This week’s 4cast:
1. Sold! To the Giant Corporation with Deep Pockets, in the Back.
In January, the FCC will auction off the 700-MHz broadcast spectrum (see 4cast #66, item 2), with observers predicting an upwards of $30 billion pricetag. At stake is the future course of American wireless network services (including broadband), and the competition should be fierce, with Google, AT&T, and Verizon all poised to bid.
- FAQ: Inside the High-Stakes 700-MHz-Spectrum Auction (Wired News)
- The 700 MHz Spectrum Auction. Who’s In, Who’s Out. (TechCrunch)
- Sizing up the likely bidders for next month’s spectrum auction (Ars Technica)
- The 700MHz Question: Will the Wireless Spectrum Auction Lead to Innovation or More of the Same? (informIT)
2. Kindle Me This…
Several weeks after its release, people can’t stop writing about the Kindle (see 4cast #80) – particularly, whether it’s going to have any impact on the future of reading, publishing, and/or libraries.
- Beyond the Kindle Hype (Law Librarian Blog)
- E-Book Malaise (Hectic Pace)
- Amazon Kindle – Will Your Library Buy it for Patrons? (The Information Literacy Land of Confusion)
- Kindle again (Lorcan Dempsey’s weblog)
3. See Jack Watch TV (Not Read)
Of course, no device – eBook or otherwise – is going to help the book industry if Americans are really reading less and less, as a new National Endowment of the Arts study (To Read or Not To Read PDF) claims.
- National Endowment of the Arts Announces New Reading Study (NEA)
- Government Study: Americans Reading Less (Associated Press)
- Reading Down or Up? Not (Stephen’s Lighthouse)
- the NEA’s misreading of reading (if:book)
4. This Game is Most Definitely ON
So if teens and kids are less interested in books, should libraries start expanding their videogame collections?
- A Quick Guide to Gaming in Libraries (iLibrarian)
- Gaming in Libraries LTR Update (The Shifted Librarian)
- ESA: Games industry an economic powerhouse, outgrew US economy by 4 to 1 (Ars Technica)
- Gaming and Libraries: Reference Ain’t Dead (Technaeum)
