Last updated on June 19, 2007
This week’s 4cast:
1. Oh Dewey, You Old Coot
In his new book, Everything Is Miscellaneous, David Weinberger argues that the Internet and the onset of inherently chaotic organizational models (like tagging), are destroying traditional, structured, straightforward methodologies of describing things (i.e. traditional librarianship).
- Everything is Miscellaneous – how the Web destroys categories, disciplines and hierarchies (Boing Boing)
- Metacrap and Flickr Tags: An Interview with Cory Doctorow (Epicenter)
- Weinberger’s Well-ordered Miscellany (ALA TechSource)
- “Everything is Miscellaneous” (Free Government Information)
2. There’s Still Time To Be Ahead of the Pack
The latest report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project (PDF) report focuses on Internet usage among American adults, and finds that as the geeks obsess over Web 2.0, most of us still haven’t mastered Web 1.0.
- Pew Research: ‘Web 2.0’ Crowd A Small Minority (Search Engine Land)
- Wired but not Web 2.0? That’s normal, study says (CNET News)
- Half of Americans irritated by life online, 15 percent log off completely (Ars Technica)
- Web 2.0 Audience in Mirror May Be Smaller Than It Appears (Digital Daily)
3. Introducing the 21st Century Mob
Last week, an anonymous hacker, who was having trouble playing a lawfully purchased HD-DVD movie, managed to crack the hidden, 16-digit “key” that unlocks the DRM technology built into all HD-DVDs. When this number was posted on various websites, the group owning that technology (AACS) sent letters threatening to sue any site relaying the number. Outraged netizens responded by taking over the popular community-driven news website Digg, publishing the secret code anywhere they could, and provoking the legal wrath of the AACS.
- DVD DRM row sparks user rebellion (BBC)
- In Web Uproar, Antipiracy Code Spreads Wildly (New York Times)
- Digg Surrenders to Mob (TechCrunch)
- AACS LA: Internet “revolt” be damned, this fight is not over (Ars Technica)
4. Do Dusty Bytes Just Disappear?
When a book goes out of print, an old copy (or three) is probably preserved somewhere in a library. But what happens when a blogger stops writing? Or an article only available online disappears? Librarians and archivists are worried about a potential “digital dark age.”
- Saving Digital History (Library Journal)
- Saving our history 01101001001110-style (LibrarianInBlack)
- History, Digitized (and Abridged) (New York Times)
- Society of American Archivists changes stance on listserv archives (librarian.net)
