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</font> </font><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black" size="5">Information
Technology in Libraries</font></div>
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<p align="center"><b><font size="2" face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black">CONTENT</font></b><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black" size="2"><b>S:</b></font></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="#crt">The CRT Display Lives on, in Disguise</a></li>
<li><a href="#progress">Municipal WiFi Progress</a></li>
<li><a href="#fibre">The Changing Cost of Broadband Services</a></li>
<li><a href="#rfid2">Financial Effects of RFID</a></li>
<li><strong><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="#ie7">Internet
Explorer 7</a></font></strong></li>
<li><strong><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="#digLib">European
Digital Library</a></font></strong></li>
<li><a href="#access"><strong><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">WiFi
Access</font></strong></a></li>
<li><a href="#rfid">RFID</a></li>
<li><b align="left"><font size="2" face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black"><a href="#browser">Browser
Wars</a></font></b></li>
<li><a href="#laptop">Progress Towards the $100 Laptop</a></li>
<li><a href="#lunch">No Free Lunch?</a></li>
<li><a href="#sanF">San Francisco Unwiring</a></li>
<li><a href="#tier">Tiered Internet Services</a></li>
<li><a href="#win">Windows Support</a></li>
<li><a href="#media">European Media Usage</a></li>
<li><a href="#OCA">Open Content Alliance</a></li>
<li><a href="#openoff">OpenOffice 2.0</a></li>
<li><a href="#google">Google Flexes Muscles</a></li>
<li><a href="#256k"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">256k
to 18M</font></a></li>
<li><a href="#bookse" align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Electronic
Books</font></a></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black" align="left"><a href="#LinvWin">Linux
Versus Windows Costs</a></font></li>
<li><a href="#laptop">Laptops are for Holidays as well</a></li>
<li><a href="#eml">Not Just for Email</a></li>
<li><a href="#next_gen">Internet The Next Generation</a></li>
<li><a href="#floppy">Another Workhorse Pensioned Off</a></li>
<li><a href="#2012">2012 Plus</a></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="#fifth"><strong>Society's
Fifth Estate?</strong></a></font></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="#gtool"><strong>Google
Toolbar</strong></a></font></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="#wikipedia"><strong>Wikipedia
Use Surges</strong></a></font></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="#mouse"><strong>The
Assistive Mouse</strong></a></font></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="#BPL"><strong>Broadband
Powerline Technology Progress</strong></a></font></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="#mozilla"><strong>Mozilla
Gaining Ground</strong></a></font></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="left"><a href="#greying"><strong>The
Greying of the Internet</strong></a></font></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="#mobile"><strong>Mobile
Phone Nuisance</strong></a></font></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="#future"><strong>The
Future of Public Libraries</strong></a></font></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="#EBOOKS"><strong>E-Books</strong></a></font></li>
<li><b align="left"><font size="2" face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black"><a href="#WiMax">WiMax</a></font></b></li>
<li><b align="left"><font size="2" face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black"><a href="#harris">Harris
Poll on US Online Activity</a></font></b></li>
<li><b align="left"><font size="2" face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black"><a href="#offcom">Offcom
Statistics</a></font></b></li>
<li><b align="left"><font size="2" face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black"><a href="#york">Urban
Broadband from the Sky</a></font></b></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black"><b><font size="2"><a href="#CDplus"><strong>CD
Problems Revisited</strong></a></font></b></font></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="#GRID2"><strong>Grid
Computing Revisited</strong></a></font></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b align="left"><a href="#ican">iCan</a></b></font></li>
<li><a href="#CDs"><strong><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">CD
Problems</font></strong></a></li>
<li><b><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black" size="2"><a href="#MIT">MIT
Online</a> </font></b></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black"><b><font size="2"><a href="#Vanderpool">Vanderpool</a></font></b></font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black"><b><font size="2"><a href="#openT">OpenType</a></font></b></font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black"><b><font size="2"><a href="#will">Whats
in London's Libraries</a></font></b></font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black"><b><font size="2"><a href="#wifi">Community
Broadband Access</a></font></b></font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black"><b><a href="#GRID"><font size="2">Grid
Computing</font></a></b></font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black" size="2"><a href="#access"><b>Computer
Accessibility</b></a></font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black" size="2"><b><a href="#Powerline">Powerline
Internet Connection</a></b></font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black"><b><font size="2"><a href="#NationalStats">Internet
Subscriptions<br>
- Aug. 02</a></font></b></font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black"><a href="#broadband"><b><font size="2">Broadband
Again</font></b></a></font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black" size="2"><b><a href="#everybody"> Everybody
Online</a></b></font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black"><b><font size="2"><a href="#books">Books
on Line</a></font></b></font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black"><b><font size="2"><a href="#pervasive">The
All Pervasive Internet </a></font></b></font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black"><a href="#party"><b><font size="2">Is
the (Internet) Party Over Already?</font></b></a></font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black"><b><font size="2"><a href="#pcs">Internet
Connections and PCs in Libraries</a></font></b></font></li>
</ul>
<p><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black"><b><a href="mailto:admin@librarylondon.org">email
us <br>
<font size="2">mail@librarylondon.org</font></a> </b></font></p>
<p align="center"><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black"><b><font color="#660033"><img src="assets/Afalog%7E1.gif" width="103" height="92"></font></b></font></p>
</td>
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<td width="6" height="16885" valign="top"><font size="2"> </font></td>
<td height="1242" colspan="3" rowspan="2" valign="top">
<p><a name="crt"></a><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>The
CRT Display Lives on, in Disguise</strong></font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In December 2006,
Toshiba announced that it was on track to mass-produce SED TV sets
by 2008. Production will be in cooperation with Canon, which has been
working on the technology since 1986. Small-scale output will commence
in 2007, but when the inevitable computer monitor derivatives will
become available is not yet clear.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Each Pixel of a SED
(surface-conduction electron-emitter display) is an individual device
which produces electrons to excite a surface phosphor coating, in a
similar way to a CRT. Each device consists of a thin slit across which
electrons tunnel when excited by moderate voltages (tens of volts).
When the electrons cross electric poles across the thin slit, some
are accelerated toward the display surface by a high voltage gradient
between the display panel and the surface conduction electron emitter.
The energy carried by the electrons is given up to the phosphor on
impact to produce the pixel.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The claimed advantages
for SEDs are:<br>
Very high contrast ratios (50,000:1 to 100,000:1) <br>
Exceptional 1ms response time<br>
180 degree viewing angle. <br>
Brightness of 450 nits</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.canon.com/technology/canon_tech/explanation/sed.htm">http://www.canon.com/technology/canon_tech/explanation/sed.html</a><br>
<a href="http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2006_03/pr0801.htm">http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2006_03/pr0801.htm</a></font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> AT, Dec06 </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><a name="progress"></a>Municipal
WiFi Progress</strong></font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Singapore is the
latest world-class city (actually, it is a nation with a population
of 4.6m people) to commit itself to providing a wide coverage WiFi
service for its citizens. The estimated set-up cost of the system is
S$100m (£33.2m), with S$30m of this being provided by the Singapore
government. The remaining S$70m will be supplied by three telecom operators,
SingTel, iCell & Qmax. Internet access will be available in most
public areas at speeds of up to 512kbps. This is rather slow broadband – but
it will be free for at least two years from the start date of September
2007.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The stated aims of
the new development are to “broaden the opportunities for all
segments of the population to access and benefit from technology”,
together with the determination to “create digital opportunities
for all Singaporeans and never allow a digital divide in our society.” Worthy
goals that London should take heed of – self congratulation for
the success of the People’s Network is now beginning to look
a little self indulgent, as the UK digital divide reopens in the WiFi
access area.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">To ensure that the
poor of Singapore do actually benefit from the WiFi network, the government
will offer 10,000 subsidised computers to low-income families with
school age families.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
Of course, local authorities are not just concerned about the plight
of the poor. They provide services for all and to do that they have
to invest in a wide range of assets. Many of these assets are mobile,
e.g. cars, vans, lorries & buses, and tracking them is a difficult
problem. Nortel, a large equipment supplier to internet service providers,
has announced what it considers to be the answer to the problem.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Nortel has integrated
active RFID tags with GPS receivers. The tags communicate with a tag
reader which then uses the municipal WiFi network to report the position
of the asset. Such a system does not have to be limited to tracking
assets which are inherently mobile. A normally fixed, high value asset
which suddenly becomes mobile is probably being stolen and its whereabouts
is of great interest to the police.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">More information: <a href="http://www.ida.gov.sg/home/index.aspx">http://www.ida.gov.sg/home/index.aspx</a></font></p>
<p>AT, Dec 06</p>
<p><strong><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a name="fibre"></a>The
Changing Cost of Broadband Services</font></strong><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
<br>
A report issued by Point Topic at the beginning of December showed that
the worldwide cost of broadband delivered by optical fibre has fallen
below that of cable.<br>
<br>
The report is based on research carried out by Point Topic up to the
end of September and found that the rate of decline in cost of DSL and
cable delivered broadband has slowed slightly, wheras the rate of decline
for fibre delivered broadband has accelerated. The result of these changes
is that cable is now the most expensive and fibre is the second most
expensive. The cost of DSL services, carried over old fashioned telephone
lines, is still significantly below the competing methods, but fibre
is rapidly closing the gap.<br>
<br>
Currently, the purchasing power parity* monthly rental costs are:</font></p>
<blockquote>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Cable $29<br>
Optical fibre $28.1<br>
DSL $25</font></p>
</blockquote>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> *purchasing power
parity is a method of adjusting currency exchange rates in order to
equalise the purchasing power of the currencies.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Coincidently, or
possibly not coincidently, BT has announced that it has recently installed
2,300 km optical fibre as part of its IP based network transformation.<br>
<br>
AT Dec.06<br>
<br>
More information: <a href="http://www.point-topic.com/content/dslanalysis/061206benchmark.htm">http://www.point-topic.com/content/dslanalysis/061206benchmark.htm</a></font><br>
</p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><a name="rfid2"></a>The
Financial Effects of Implementing RFID Technology</strong></font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">For some time, academic
and public libraries in the developed world have been implementing
rfid technology to manage their stocks (see <a href="#rfid">RFID</a> below).
Last month, the public libraries of the city of Hamburg became the
latest to start introducing it.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The advantages of
rfid systems are obvious but it has been rather difficult to obtain
reliable, quantified information on how these advantages affect overall
performance. The Dutch bookshop chain Boekhandels Groep Nederland (BGN)
has now published the results of a trial that it has carried out in
one of its shops</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">BGN tagged the stock
of its Almere outlet from April 06 and found that, in the following
6 months, its sales increased by 12%. This improvement is attributed
to the ease with which customers were able to locate books.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The store has also
cut back its inventory time for each box of books, from four minutes
to a few seconds. Misplaced books are also found faster. If these cost
reductions were replicated in all 42 BGN stores, handling 7 million
books per year, it is estimated that $3.8 million per year would be
saved.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The increased turnover
and reduced costs have resulted in plans to introduce the technology
in a further 16 BGN stores.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">AT, Nov 06</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">More information: <a href="http://www.rfidlowdown.com/libraries/index.html">http://www.rfidlowdown.com/libraries/index.html</a><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font> </p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong> <a name="ie7"></a></strong></font><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Internet
Explorer 7</strong></font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Microsoft Corp. released
Internet Explorer 7 on 18th Oct. This is the first major upgrade to
its Web browser since 2001 and is designed to counter the inroads that
Mozilla’s Firfox product has been making in a market segment
dominated by Microsoft (See <a href="#browser">Browser Wars</a> & <a href="#mozilla">Mozilla
Gaining Ground</a> below).</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Firefox features
such as an integrated search window (allowing users to carry out a
Web query without opening another page), tab browsing (allowing toggling
between different sites) and a pop-up window blocker have now been
incorporated in IE7. Unsurprisingly, IE7 uses Microsoft’s Windows
Live as the default search engine, whereas Firefox uses Google as the
default.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">One of the advantages
claimed for IE7 is the ability to restore work after a browser/PC crash. </font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Microsoft now has
a product which can compete very well with the current Firefox browser.
However, Mozilla plans to release an upgraded browser, Firefox 2, within
the next few weeks. </font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">A recent survey by
OneStat.com has found that Internet Explorer has a 86% global share
and Mozilla Firefox 11.5%. Within the very important U.S. browser market,
80.77% of users surf the Web on IE and 14.88% on Firefox. Firefox is
most popular in Germany (33.4%); Australia (25.5%); and Italy (21.6%).<br>
</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">IE 7 is available
immediately to Windows XP users and it will eventually serve as the
default browser for Microsoft's much-heralded Windows Vista operating
system, due to be released to consumers in early 2007.<br>
<br>
IE7 can be downloaded from <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/ie">www.microsoft.com/ie</a>. <br>
Browser market survey is available from <a href="http://www.onestat.com">www.onestat.com</a></font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">AT, Oct 06</font><br>
</p>
<p><strong><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a name="digLib"></a>European
Digital Library</font></strong></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> The European Commission
has called on Member States to contribute to the European digital library
by setting up large-scale digitisation facilities to accelerate the
process of getting Europe's cultural heritage on line via the European
Digital Library. </font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">At present, only
a small fraction of the cultural collections in the Member States is
digitised but, by 2008, it is planned that two million books, films,
photographs, manuscripts, and other cultural works will be accessible
through the Digital Library. It is expected that his figure will grow
to at least six million by 2010 and will ultimately be much higher,
as potentially every library, archive and museum in Europe will be
able to link its digital content to the new library. </font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Obviously, the input
from the UK’s public library services will be limited. However, the
academic libraries have an enormous amount of suitable material and
a good start has been made in digitising this. It is to be hoped that
the Google / MicroSoft initiatives in this area will be complementary
rather than competitive (see: <a href="#OCA">Open Content Alliance</a> & <a href="#google">Google
Flexes Muscles</a> ). </font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The European Library
portal is at: <a href="http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/portal/index.htm">http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/portal/index.htm</a> </font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Further information: <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/1124&format=HTML&aged=0)#uage=EN&guiLanguage=fr">http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/1124&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=fr</a> </font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">AT Sep. 2006 </font></p>
<div align="center">
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><a name="access"></a>WiFi
Access</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
Bloomberg New York City administration is slowly becoming more receptive
to the concept of providing WiFi access for the public. Unlike other
large US cities (e.g. San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Sacramento) where
free access is becoming the norm, NY City has been reluctant to do
more than pontificate about the supremacy of private enterprise in
the USA and it has been left to the students of Monroe College and
local community groups to set up hot spots in the city.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Now,
the city no longer expects to make money from any WiFi ventures in
its jurisdiction and, by the end of the summer, ten of its parks
will have WiFi access provided (eight locations within Central Park).
In addition, squares in Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens will be covered.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">A
Senator representing New York State, Chuck Schumer, has stated that
he will introduce a bill to provide US federal funds to communities
wishing to install WiFi systems citywide or countywide.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Reuters
reports that the mayor of Paris is planning to install 400 WiFi access
points in the city’s public areas such as parks and libraries.
Some free access is expected when the system goes live next year.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Pity
poor London.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">More
information: <a href="#sanF">San Francisco Unwiring</a> , <a href="http://www.nycwireless.net">http://www.nycwireless.net</a> , <a href="http://today.reuters.com/news/home.aspx">http://today.reuters.com/news/home.aspx</a></font></p>
<p></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><a name="rfid"></a>RFID</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
semiconductor arm of Philips, the multinational electronics group,
has announced the launch of its next generation of rfid (radio frequency
identification) chips. The company, the world’s largest producer
of rfid chips, is targeting the library market for its new product
via collaborating hardware manufacturers and system integrators.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Rfid
technology has been around for some time but has only made a small
impact on the library world (there are only a few hundred libraries
using it, worldwide). Probably, the reason for this is the fairly
high cost. However, costs are falling as the retail market increasingly
adopts the technology. The retail market segment will need very many
million items per year and economies of scale will result. The standardization
of library system technology that is both ISO15693 and ISO 18000-3
compliant will also help in rfid take-up in libraries.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">North
American libraries are leading the adoption of rfid technology, but
the Netherlands has recently decided that its libraries would also
utilise it. UK libraries seem to be taking a wait and see stance.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">For
hard-pressed UK local authorities, a reduction in the cost of book
issuing is potentially the most attractive aspect of rfid technology.
A borrower does not have to struggle with a bar code reader to take
out /return a book via a self-service terminal. So these terminals
become much more user-friendly and can be deployed on a wider scale.
Indeed, the 2 metre range of the new devices suggests that dedicated
terminals may not be necessary anyway. Grouped library catalogue
computers could possibly be used or even People’s Network computers.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">One
of the most frustrating aspects of trying to use a public library
as a reference source is the mismatch between the library catalogue
and the actual stock on the libraries’ shelves. Although staff
do periodically check that books which have not been issued for a
given duration are actually on the shelves, this is only a partial
remedy and it is quite time consuming (costly). With rfid, proper
stock-taking can be quickly accomplished and, in theory, could be
undertaken each day to ensure efficient stock management, at almost
zero cost. The remote searching of on-line catalogues would thus
become far more useful.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">More
information: <a href="http://www.semiconductors.philips.com/news/content/file_1248.html">http://www.semiconductors.philips.com/news/content/file_1248.html</a> <br>
<a href="http://www.ala.org/ala/pla/plapubs/technotes/rfidtechnology.htm">http://www.ala.org/ala/pla/plapubs/technotes/rfidtechnology.htm </a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">AT,
June 06</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><a name="browser"></a>Browser
Wars</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
alpha 3 release of Mozilla’s Firefox 2 browser is expected
to become available on 25th May. As an alpha release, it is still
in the development phase and is still some distance away from a final
release.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
current full release of Firefox (version 1.5) has been nibbling away
at the market dominance of version 6 of MicroSoft’s Internet
Explorer (see <a href="#mozilla">Mozilla Gaining Ground</a> below)
and MicroSoft has been working hard to bring out an upgrade to its
offering to counter this (IE7 is now at betta 2 release). Both IE7
and Firefox 2 are believed to have final release dates at the end
of the year.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
more seamless operation with the Windows operating system that MicroSoft
can offer with its browser product is a huge advantage, so Mozilla
has to offer other advantages to offset this. MicroSoft’s position
has been further strengthened in this respect by Apple computers
now running the Windows system.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">More
Information: <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx">http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx</a> , <a href="http://www.mizilla.org/projects/firefox/">http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">AT
May 06</font><br>
</p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Progress
Towards the $100 Dollar Laptop</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Nicholas
Negroponte, a professor at the MIT, has been developing the concept
of low cost computers for third world countries for some years and
reported project progress at the recent LinuxWorld event. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
Negoponte led one laptop per child (OLPC) initiative has obtained
$29 million in funding for engineering. It is expected that the project
launch will be in 2007 with shipments of between 5 million & 10
million units initially in China, India, Thailand, Egypt, Nigeria,
Brazil and Argentina. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
key to achieving the target $100 price for the laptop is the huge
volumes needed – up to 100 million per year. Initially, the
computer will cost $135, although it is expected that this will fall
to hit the $100 target by 2008. The cost may even drop as low as
$50 in 2010.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Negroponte
has pointed out that 50 percent of the cost of a normal notebook
is attributed to sales, marketing and distribution costs. OLPC claims
that it has no such costs. In addition, OLPC expects to avoid the
25 percent of total cost contributed by a Windows operating system
license by using Linux instead. The remaining 25 percent of the total
normal cost is that of the display. OLPC will reduce this by utilizing
a dual-mode display that is both reflective and transmissive i.e.
reducing the backlighting requirement.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
$100 laptop computer will have a 500MHz AMD x86 processor and 128MB
of DRAM & 512MB of Flash memory. It will have a power drain of
less than 2 watts, which is expected to be generated by windup power,
similar to the successful radio designed for the third world market.
Wi-Fi connectivity will be provided and there will be three or four
USB ports. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Although
the $100 laptop does not appear to be very attractive for the more
developed markets such as the UK, the enormous component volumes
that will be required for its manufacture will have a great influence
on the design of computers intended for those markets and will, inevitably,
result in further price erosion there.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Further
information: <br>
<a href="http://laptop.org">http://www.laptop.org</a> <br>
<a href="http://www.media.mit.edu/people/bio_nicholas.html">http://www.media.mit.edu/people/bio_nicholas.html</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">AT,
April 06</font><br>
</p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><a name="lunch"></a>No
Free Lunch?</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">There
has been much high volume comment from, and inspired by, large US
telecomms. companies about the supposed unsustainability of the business
model used by schemes offering free wireless broadband internet access
to city communities. Whilst these incumbent service providers heavily
criticize the pioneering municipal WiFi/WiMax schemes, they are quietly
beginning to follow the same strategy themselves. Sprint is now setting
up two free wireless internet access zones in a suburb of Las Vegas
to test the idea before rolling it out. Verizon and Time Warner are
also companies that have had an unpublicised change of heart. Of
course, this about turn has nothing to do with the fact that large,
non-telecoms companies (such as IBM & Google) are showing intense
interest in the sector, or has it? </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Further
information: <a href="http://www.roisforyou.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_roisforyou_archive.html">http://roisforyou.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_roisforyou_archive.html</a><br>
<a href="http://www.successful.com/abstract-2-06.html">http://www.successful.com/abstract-2-06.html</a></font></p>
<p align="left">AT, Mar 06<br>
</p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><a name="sanF"></a>San
Francisco Unwiring</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Six
bids for the San Francisco citywide WiFi system were received by
the city on 21st February. As predicted, Google was one of the bidders
(see <a href="#google">Google Flexes Muscles</a> ). The search engine
company has teamed up with EarthLink, the well-known ISP, to propose
a two level system. Google would offer a free, slow service (256
to 384 Kbps), whilst the Earthlink service would be fee based but
faster (1Mbps in both directions). The companies would share the
cost of deployment and operation.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
powerful SF Metro Connect alliance (IBM and Cisco Systems, together
with SeaKay), has also submitted a bid for the San Francisco contract.
It is believed that this also has free access provision. Other proposals
have been submitted by Communication Bridge Global, MetroFi, NextWLAN
and Razortooth Communications.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">San
Francisco is not the first US city to launch a citywide WiFi project.
Philadelphia, Anaheim (both EarthLink projects) and some other major
cities have also done so and it is expected that about 25 major US
cities will have been “unwired” in the next two years.
Although these are largish cities, they are generally far smaller
than London (San Francisco has a population of less than 1 million
people).</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">New
York City is closer in size to London, with a population of just
over 8 million people and has an enthusiastic group of Councillors
advocating the construction of a citywide WiFi system. However, the
free marketer Republican mayor, Michael Bloomberg, believes that
a private sector group should set up a system, if it is needed. He
has, therefore, been placing obstacles in the way of efforts to implement
a community run operation. Discussions have been going on for over
three years and the only progress has been the introduction of a
City Council Bill to set up a task force to investigate the matter.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Bloomberg’s
hope of a private sector WiFi solution for NY City has not produced
any firm response from companies. EarthLink has stated that it was “theoretically” interested,
but would prefer to have the city as a partner.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Not
all influential people in the USA agree with the stance of the NY
Mayor. Two Bills were recently introduced into the US Senate to allocate
more of the available RF spectrum to community use. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Whilst
the NY citywide WiFi scheme may only be crawling slowly forward,
a London scheme has yet to even get to the public discussion stage.
There is a great danger that the enormous opportunity presented by
the 2012 Olympic Games for setting up a London-wide WiFi/WiMax system
will be lost. The advertising possibilities open to any organisation,
such as Google, willing to put such a system into London by 2012
would more than compensate for the large initial cost. Thus, London
is in a good position to get a very good deal, but only if it moves
in time.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <a href="http://www.earthlink.net/about/press/pr_san_francisco_network/">http://www.earthlink.net/about/press/pr_san_francisco_network/</a><br>
<a href="http://www.sfgov.org/site/tech_connect_page.asp?id=37706">http://www.sfgov.org/site/tech_connect_page.asp?id=37706</a><br>
<a href="http://muniwireless.com/community/1050/">http://muniwireless.com/community/1050/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
</font><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">AT. Feb 06</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><a name="tier"></a>Tiered
Internet Services </strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">America
Online and Yahoo have announced that they intend to introduce a preferential
email service. They intend to offer privileged treatment to companies
which are prepared to pay for the delivery of email messages.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
internet companies allege that the preferential service will help
them identify legitimate mail and cut down on junk mail. Presumably,
all unpaid emails will be defined as junk mail. This perception is
reinforced by the intention of AOL to allow preferential emails to
bypass its spam filters and to delete links & images from most
unpaid messages.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
new proposals seem to offer very little advantage to bulk email senders
(the prime target) over the far cheaper, fixed fee services already
provided by other companies. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Of
course, one suspects that the new proposals are all about the huge
additional revenue AOL and Yahoo will generate – if they succeed
in their ploy. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
principle of net neutrality states that network owners should remain
neutral with respect to the content they carry. There has not been
any outright dissent from this principle. However, AOL and Yahoo
seem determined to ignore it. Additionally, executives at three of
the largest US network operators (BellSouth, AT&T and Verizon
Communications) have also suggested that large content providers
should pay extra for priority use of their networks. The idea that
service quality levels should only be guaranteed at a price has caused
the US Consumers Union, the Consumer Federation of America and Free
Press to call on Congress to enact net neutrality legislation. The
US Senate has started taking evidence and a Google executive has
argued forcefully against the suggested changes to current practice.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">If
the companies proposing the changes are successful, it is to be expected
that other internet companies will then follow suit and the free
services currently available will become progressively worse and
worse until they are finally discontinued. There is no doubt that
a great blow will have been delivered to the vision of the open world
wide web which was generally accepted such a short time ago.<br>
</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">More
information:<br>
</font><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.commerce.senate.gov/hearings/testimony.cfm?id=1705&wit_id=3971">http://commerce.senate.gov/hearings/testimony.cfm?id=1705&wit_id=3971</a><br>
<a href="http://www.computerworld.com/printthis/2002/0.4814.73532.00.html">http://www.computerworld.com/printthis/2002/0,4814,73532,00.html</a><br>
<a href="http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/1234000267073488/">http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/1234000267073488/</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">AT,
Feb 06</font><br>
</p>
<p align="left"><strong><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a name="win"></a>Windows
Support</font></strong></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">This
year will see the beginning of the end for MicroSoft’s Windows
XP operating system. On the last day of 2006, MicroSoft will stop
supporting WinXP Home - it says. Support for WinXP Pro, the more
expensive version, will continue until 2011.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">There
is some doubt about whether MicroSoft will actually carry out its
published program, as it has failed to live up to past, similar declarations
concerning Win98. After “several stays of execution”,
MicroSoft now intends to stop issuing new patches, updates and fixes
for Win98 on 30/06/06 and to remove the self help pages from its
website one year later. It probably means what it says about support
for Win98 this time.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">After
a life of eight or nine years, it is reasonable to retire Win98.
However, the original retirement dates were obviously determined
by MicroSoft’s income requirements rather than any great market
need. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
retirement dates of WinXP are again being driven by cash generation
considerations – the release of Windows Vista (formerly Longhorn)
is expected to be announced in the autumn, with availability aimed
at Christmas 2006. The major specification improvements promised
for the new version are greatly improved security and, for gamers,
64 bit operation.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Providing
that the applications running on an operating system are performing
well, there is no great urgency to upgrade. Most current application
software still supports Win98 and, of course, all of it that is aimed
at the Windows system (rather than the Mac or Linux systems) supports
WinXP. However, it is not absolutely necessary to ever upgrade Windows,
one could simply change to <a href="#LinvWin">Linux</a>, at no cost.
Free versions of the Linux, such as Mandrake and Centos (Community
ENTerprise Operating System) can be downloaded. These are based on
the Red Hat Linux source code - quite legally, as Red Hat is released
under the standard Linux GNU Public Licence and they are regularly
upgraded, just like other operating system software. If the Linux
operating system is coupled with <a href="#openoff">Open Office</a> , <a href="#mozilla">Mozilla's
Firefox</a> browser and Grisoft's AVG antivirus package, 95% of software
for a good home PC can be obtained free. There may be a very small
cost for a business PC, but it would be insignificant compared with
continuing to use Windows.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">More
information:<br>
<em><strong>Windows</strong></em> </font><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifeselectindex"><br>
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifeselectindex</a><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.aspx"> <br>
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.aspx</a><br>
</font><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><em>Linux</em></strong><br>
<a href="http://www.linux.org">http://www.linux.org/<br>
</a><a href="http://www.linux.org/dist/list.html">http://www.linux.org/dist/list.html</a><br>
</font><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><em>Mandrake<br>
</em></strong></font><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://wwwnew.mandriva.com/community/">http://wwwnew.mandriva.com/community/</a><br>
</font><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><em>Centos</em></strong><br>
<a href="http://www.centos.org/">http://www.centos.org/</a><br>
</font><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><em>Firefox<br>
</em></strong><a href="http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/">http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/</a><br>
</font><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><em>AVG</em></strong><br>
<a href="http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1">http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><strong><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">PS:</font></strong><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> A
few days after the above article was posted on the LLL website, MicroSoft
deleted<br>
the 31 Dec 2006 date from the XP support timelines. The MicroSoft website
now <br>
states that mainstream support will end two years after the next version
of<br>
Windows is released. This should now push support for WinXP out to
the end of 2008 / beginning of 2009, as a minimum.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">AT,
Jan.06<br>
</font><font size="2"> </font> </p>
<p align="left"><strong><a name="media"></a><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">European
Media Usage</font></strong></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">An
interesting report from the European Interactive Advertising Association
was issued at the end of 2005 which compared the popularity of the
different types of media on offer in Europe.<br>
The report found that the European usage of online media grew by 17%
in 2005 compared with TV at +6%, radio at +14%, newspapers at +13%
and magazines at -7%.<br>
<br>
France was found to lead the league table of internet usage with the
average consumer spending 13 hours per week online. The UK and Spain
were placed second in the table with the average consumer spending
11 hours per week online. Italians were the least enthusiastic internet
users with an average of 8 hours per week online.<br>
<br>
One surprising finding in the report was that already 10% of Europeans
use VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) for their telephone calls.
This rapid take-up of the technology must be causing concern in BT
and the other European wired & wireless telecom. companies.<br>
<br>
More information: <a href="http://www.eiaa.net">http://www.eiaa.net</a> <br>
</font><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.voip-info.org">http://www.voip-info.org</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
AT, Jan 06<br>
</font> </p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><a name="OCA"></a>Open
Content Alliance</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Microsoft
has joined the Open Content Alliance (OCA) and Yahoo, to become a
rival to Google (see <a href="#google">Google Flexes Muscles</a> )
in the scramble to digitise the world's libraries. As result of the
collaboration, Microsoft will launch MSN Book Search next year. Other
contributors to the OCA initiative include Adobe Systems, Harvard
University, The Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, the Smithsonian Institution,
the UK National Archives and York University.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">MSN
Book Search will also deliver results from academic libraries, periodicals
and other print sources, putting the service in direct competition
with Google.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">One
of the first significant outcomes from the Microsoft initiative is
an agreement with the British Library to digitise its out-of-copyright
collection and to provide search facilities for it. During 2006,
it is expected that 25 Million pages (100,000 books) will become
available on the internet from the British Library. This is only
a small part of the British Library collection, but the project is
expected to continue beyond 2006.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Of
course, the Gutenberg project (see <a href="#books">Books on Line</a> )
has been making available on the internet out-of-copyright books
for many years and public spirited authors have been increasingly
bypassing the publishing houses by simply uploading their books onto
websites. The new developments bring to bear the enormous resources
of Google & Microsoft and this should ensure that progress will
very rapidly accelerate.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">More
information:<br>
<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/oct05/10-25MSNBookSearchPR.mspx">http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/oct05/10-25MSNBookSearchPR.mspx</a><br>
</font><a href="http://www.opencontentalliance.org">http://www.opencontentalliance.org</a><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
<a href="http://www.bl.uk/about/strategy.html">http://www.bl.uk/about/strategy.html</a><br>
<a href="http://www.bl.uk/news/2005/pressrelease20051104.html">http://www.bl.uk/news/2005/pressrelease20051104.html</a></font><br>
<a href="http://www.textbookrevolution.org/">http://www.textbookrevolution.org/</a> </p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">AT
Dec 05</font><br>
</p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><a name="openoff"></a>OpenOffice
2.0 Has Arrived - Free!<br>
</strong></font><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
OpenOffice 2.0 final was released at the end of October. By default,
it uses a vendor-independent format to save documents - </font><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">utilising
the open standard OASIS OpenDocument XML format. This file format is
recommended by the European Commission.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">As
a direct competitor to Microsoft’s Office suite, OpenOffice
has the overwhelming advantage of being FREE to download. In common
with Microsoft’s offering, the OpenOffice package is large
(75MB). Downloading via a broadband connection is therefore a practical
proposition but doing so via a dialup connection would probably be
a little difficult. Very cheap CDs of OpenOffice are often available
and provide an alternative to downloading. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Microsoft
has a near monopoly position in general office software used in library
services and this is an unhealthy situation. Should not OpenOffice
be seriously considered at the next upgrade? </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Choosing
Microsoft is the easy option – it does not require any thought.
However, this used to be the situation with IBM computers and now
they are just one of the many that are in the market place. Why should
the situation be different for software?</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Download & more
information:<br>
<a href="http://download.openoffice.org/index.html">http://download.openoffice.org/index.html</a><br>
<a href="http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/1.1/index.html">http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/1.1/index.html </a><br>
<a href="http://www.europa.eu.int/idabc/en/document/3439">http://www.europa.eu.int/idabc/en/document/3439</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">AT,
Nov. 05</font><br>
</p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><a name="google"></a>Google
Flexes Muscles</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Google
is stirring up hostility from the publishing world by extending its
search technology to the world of books. Its new Google Print venture
is intended to do for the print medium what it has done for the internet
i.e. to point the user to the source of information in print. This
idea was originally received by academic librarians with some enthusiasm
(Oxford, Stanford, Harvard & Michigan universities have agreed
to open their collections to Google), as the resources that Google
can employ are enormous and this would obviously be, potentially,
a great help in research tasks. The New York Public Library has also
opened its collection to Google. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Books
in English were the first Google Print target and it has already
run into opposition from the (hidebound?) book establishment. The
US Guild of Authors and three authors are suing Google for breach
of copyright. Google believes that it has no case to answer, as what
it is doing comes within the fair use definition, and it is pressing
ahead with its program by expanding beyond the US / UK sources. Oxford
University and the N.Y. Public Library have avoided the wrath of
US authors by limiting Google’s access to documents that are
out of copyright.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">It
is difficult to see how Google’s activities can be other than
an advantage to the vast majority of genuine authors i.e. authors
who have created original material. However, there are a small number
of reference book compilers who may be able to show that scanning
their works is a breach of copyright. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By
embarking on a legal fight with Google over the interpretation of
copyright law, authors could be opening Pandora’s box. Copyright
laws are very much more generous to authors than patent laws are
to inventors and there is a school of thought that suggests there
should be relaxation of the copyright rules.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">A
high profile copyright legal fight may well open up the discussion.
One of the leading critics of copyright law, Lawrence Lessig, a professor
at the Stanford Law School, has suggested that one cannot accept
the activities of the various internet search engines as being legal
without accepting that similar scanning is also legal for print media.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Alternatively,
the converse argument may be true. If the scanning of books is illegal
for the purposes of providing source information, the traditional
activities of internet search engines are probably also illegal.
It looks as though the action by the US authors strikes at the very
roots of the internet.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Having
upset the US Guild of Authors, Google then went on to join up with
Sun Microsystems to create a software business that could prove a
great threat to the worldwide domination of Microsoft. Microsoft’s
Office suite market has been suggested as a likely target for the
new group. It is some time since Microsoft has had a strong competitor,
so it too is likely to be a little miffed.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Finally,
Google has proposed setting up a free, citywide WiFi system in San
Francisco. This will upset yet another set of business people. Google
will use its usual advertising method of funding for the new venture.
Could this be the way forward for London?<br>
</font><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
More information:<br>
<a href="http://print.google.com/googleprint/about.htm">http://print.google.com/googleprint/about.htm </a><a href="http://google.weblogsinc.com/1234000253061424/">http://google.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000253061424/</a><br>
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/">http://creativecommons.org/</a><br>
<a href="http://www.lessig.org/blog/">http://www.lessig.org/blog/</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">AT
Oct.05</font></p>
<p></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><a name="256k"></a>256k
to 18M</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Londoners
are to be offered an ADSL2+ internet access service in October. This
type of service will provide broadband access speeds up to 18Mb/s+.
The new offering will not come from BT, which has been testing a
similar scheme, but from Be and UK Online. The cost of the new service
is expected to be between £20 and £30 per month. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">BT
is concentrating on rolling out its 8Mb/s service across the country
and did not expect a full UK roll-out of ADSL2+ for some time.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Another
new service for Londoners, which started operation this month, is
a broadband wireless one from UK Broadband. The speed range of this
service is 256kb/s (cost £10/month) to 1Mb/s (cost £18/month). </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Further
information: <a href="http://www.ukonline.net">http://www.ukonline.net</a> , <a href="http://www.ukbroadband.co.uk">http://www.ukbroadband.co.uk</a> </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">AT,
Sep 05</font><br>
</p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><a name="bookse"></a>ELECTRONIC
BOOKS - PROGRESS</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
IFA tradeshow in Berlin during the first week of September was the
showcase for two new developments which could prove to be significant
milestones on the road to practical, mass-market electronic books. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> The
first development is a 8GB 1 inch hard drive which provides a storage
density of 105 GB per square inch. This Hitachi device is also claimed
to consume 40% less power than its predecessor and to be highly shock
resistant.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
1 inch Hitachi drive is 5 mm in height and 13 grams in weight. So,
it is very suitable for electronic products intended to be carried
in pockets. The low power requirement and good shock resistance are
also considerable advantages for this type of application. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
next size up from the 1 inch drive is the 1.8 inch format. The increase
in diameter (the height is still 5mm) has enabled Hitachi to make
a 30GB drive available now and to promise a 60GB drive in early 2006.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">These
new drives would provide sufficient storage capacity for a small
to medium library of books, providing that there are only a limited
number of photographs present in those books. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
second development is a flexible display called the Readius. This
has been produced by Polymer Vision, a spin out from Philips in Eindhoven. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">When
not in use, the screen is rolled up and the overall size of the product
shrinks to 100mm x 60mm x 20mm, approximately 1/3rd of the size of
an average paperback book. However, when required for use, the device
unwinds to provide a 4.8 inch (122mm) paper-like display.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
display is monochrome and uses the bistable E-Ink technology. The
lack of colour is not really a great drawback for text, but the bistable
nature of the display is a great advantage, as it would allow small
batteries to be used. This is the same technology that is used in
Sony's e-book reader, LIBRIe, which was launched approximarely 18
months ago (see <a href="#EBOOKS">EBOOKS</a> )</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Mass
availability of electronic book readers, based on these and similar
developments are still a few years away, but it is only a few years.
When people have the capability of carrying around hundreds of books
in their pockets, what will be the function of public libraries?</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Further
information:<br>
<a href="http://www.polymervision.nl/New-Center/Press-Releases/Article-14693.html">http://www.polymervision.nl/New-Center/Press-Releases/Article-14693.html</a><br>
<a href="http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/site/en/menuitem.368c8bfe833dee8056fb11f0aac4f0a0/">http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/site/en/menuitem.368c8bfe833dee8056fb11f0aac4f0a0/</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">AT
Sep 05</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><a name="LinvWin"></a>LINUX
VERSUS WINDOWS COSTS</strong><br>
In early September, IBM issued two reports dealing with the total cost
of ownership (TCO) of Unix based servers when compared with Microsoft’s
Windows system.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
first report, “TCO for Application Servers: Comparing Linux
with Windows and Solaris”, states that the TCO of a Linux application
server over three years is $40,149 compared with $67,559 for Windows
and $86,478 for Solaris. These totals include costs associated with
transferability of administrator skill and hardware architecture
portability, in addition to the immediate installation costs.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Other
benefits that Linux bestows are the flexible licensing model of Linux
and its compatibility with a broad range of hardware platforms.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
second report, “Beyond TCO: The Unanticipated Second Stage
Benefits Of Linux”, considers the skill based benefits of using
Linux. IBM suggests that Linux is very popular with IT staff and
especially with young IT staff. The reason for this is the great
support for Linux in universities and colleges. Thus, graduates leave
university with a good knowledge of Linux and recruiting them tends
to be easier for organisations employing the system. Their managers
also find the flexibility of the open source model an advantage.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Further
information: <a href="http://www-1.ibm.com/linux/competitive/solarisToLinux.shtml">http://www-1.ibm.com/linux/competitive/solarisToLinux.shtml</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> AT
Sep 05<br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font> </p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><strong><a name="laptop"></a>LAPTOPS ARE
FOR HOLIDAYS AS WELL</strong><br>
<br>
Tobacco, alcohol, drugs and now emailing have been found to be addictive.
At least that appears to be the conclusion to be drawn from two recent
US surveys.<br>
<br>
An Intel sponsored survey carried out by Harris Interactive has found
that 51% of respondents took their laptop computers on holiday with
them. The vast majority of these people used their computers to send/receive
personal emails and a rather sad 43% sent/received work related emails.<br>
<br>
A second survey by America Online has found that 60% of US holidaymakers
use their laptops to check their emails (13% for business purposes
and 47% for personal reasons).<br>
Running games, films and music were also uses found by America Online
to be popular holiday time uses for laptops (56% of respondents).<br>
<br>
Only 45% of the AOL respondents used their laptops to obtain travel
information whilst travelling and 30% used them to edit holiday photographs.<br>
<br>
The fact that a large proportion of US citizens refuse to be parted
from their laptops because they cannot bear to be away from their email
intrays has interesting implications for those public libraries in
central London that are considering setting up WiFi zones. <br>
<br>
More information:<br>
http://www.harrisinteractive.com<br>
http://www.aol.com</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT, July 05<br>
</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><strong><a name="eml"></a>NOT JUST FOR
EMAIL</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Public library internet provision is sometimes
criticized as being predominately used for email. Whilst there is
nothing wrong with this use, a recent survey suggests that the popular
view may become outdated, if it is not now. The Pew Internet & American
Life Project, 2005 has found that adult internet activities can be
broken down as follows: </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><br>
Research into products and services 78%<br>
Read news items 72%<br>
Look up DIY information 55%<br>
Bid in online auctions 24%<br>
Visit chat rooms 17%</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Of course, this is an American survey
and will not translate exactly to the UK. However, the UK usually
follows where the US leads, so the survey can be used as an indication
of the near future in this country. As the three most popular internet
activities are surely also those which would be at the top of the
list in any public reference library in the UK, the survey results
should not be a great surprise. Perhaps there is something for the
supporters of public library reference collections to worry about
though.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The search for DIY information was found
to go well beyond the expected home improvement and gardening themes.
The advantage of the internet as a very broad source of information
is clearly an important factor here.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">More information: <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/">http://www.pewinternet.org/ </a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT, June 05 </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><strong><a name="next_gen"></a>INTERNET – THE
NEXT GENERATION</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">There are two developments slowly creeping
up on internet users. They have both been around, in theory, for
some time and are now becoming practical propositions. They each,
of course, have the obligatory acronym without which it would be
impossible for the internet community to take them seriously - IPv6
and ADSL2+.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Internet Protocol version 4, IPv4, has
been in existence for a very, very long time. It provides the method
of defining a unique address for the huge number of internet users
that exist worldwide and now is being superseded by IPv6. The main
reason for the change is that there are simply too many hosts on
the internet and IPv6 provides an increase from 4 to 16 bytes (32
to 128 bits) for use in the address. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The migration of dial-up internet users
to wideband internet use has resulted in these users changing from
temporary holders of IP address numbers (automatically allocated
by their internet service provider) to permanent holders of an IP
address. The efficiency with which the available addresses are used
has, therefore, declined at the same time as the overall use of the
internet is increasing. Without the changeover to IPv6, this would
be a recipe for disaster.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">It may seem rather strange that the Internet
Protocol version following version 4 should be version 6. Just as
telephone system planners did not realise that they would eventually
run out of telephone numbers, the internet planners were slow to
understand that the same could happen on the internet. Thus, the
IPv5 designation was allocated to a parallel development called the
Internet Streaming Protocol before the potential problem was recognised.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">With the introduction of IPv6, the internet
user will not normally notice any difference in operation when he/she
goes online. At least, that is the hope/expectation. However, there
have been some problems reported. For instance, Microsoft’s
Internet Explorer has been found to be unable to resolve domain names
(the www.xxxx name) to IPv6 addresses for some servers.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Whilst the objective of the IPv6 change
is simply to keep the internet operational, the objective of ADSL2+
is to improve performance. Most people who have a broadband internet
connection actually utilize ADSL (asynchronous digital subscriber
line) technology and it allows a download rate of 1 or 2 Mbit/sec & an
upload rate of a few hundred kbit/sec to be achieved – a significant
improvement on the speeds available with a dial-up connection. That
this transmission rate is fairly reliably accomplished on a basic
POTS (plain old telephone system) copper network of the order of
100 years old (in London) is astounding. That there should be plans
to accelerate the transmission rates by a factor of 10 to 20 seems
unbelievable. However, the International Telecommunications Union
(the international body overseeing telecommunications standards)
approved the ADSL2+ standard in Jan 2003 to do just that.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The infrastructure upgrade necessary to
meet the ADSL2+ standard will, no doubt, be something that BT will
carefully control. However, ADSL2+ has been designed to be backward
compatible with existing ADSL equipment, so there should be a seamless
changeover to the new system, as far as the user is concerned. London,
with its large population concentrated within 4 to 5 km of local
exchanges and mostly within 2km, will probably be the first large
scale deployment of ADSL2+ in the UK, although this is likely to
be preceded by several small pilot trials. The 2km distance is important,
as that is the present limit for achieving the maximum data rate
transmission.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">BT has only recently completed upgrading
its telephone exchanges to make available standard ADSL service to
virtually the entire UK population. So why should it start immediately
on another round of upgrades? The answer is that it makes good commercial
sense. With the higher transmission rates of ADSL2+, it is possible
to simultaneously carry high definition TV (HDTV) broadcasts, internet
data and internet phone calls over that POTS network that BT owns.
The internet data transmission business has, over the past few years,
become an important profit earner for BT and it expects that HDTV & VoIP
(voice over the internet protocol – internet telephone calls)
will become just as profitable.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">So, when ADSL2+ has been fully rolled
out, we will be able to look forward to a future of stable internet
technology, where everyone will be know what is on offer and everyone
will be able to get it. Well no, not quite. There are already plans
to increase transmission rates beyond those of ADSL2+. Look forward
to the VDSL standard where rates increase to 30 to 100 Mbits/sec.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">More Information: <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnolwinxppro/plan/faqipv6.mspx#ECCAA">http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/plan/faqipv6.mspx#ECAA</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT, June 05<br>
</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><a name="floppy"></a><strong>ANOTHER HORKHORSE
PENSIONED OFF</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Sony, the inventor of the 3.5 inch floppy
disc, has announced that it is to stop making this product. This
workhorse version of removable storage has fallen victim to the improving
reliability and decreasing cost of CDs. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The floppy disc cannot compete with the
cost per MB of a CD and, with the high demand for image storage devices,
it is unable to deliver the required storage capacity. It is useless
as a system backup storage device. Nevertheless; it has given excellent
service and is far more rugged than its predecessor 5.25 and 8 inch
diskettes.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">There are, of course, other manufacturers
of 3.5 inch floppies. However, Sony has declared the death of the
medium and it will not be long before it is buried. We all need to
plan for that event by transferring must-keep data to CDs. The next
PC purchased is unlikely to have a 3.5 inch floppy disc drive – some,
corner-cutting versions don’t have them now.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">In the recent past, the reliability of
CDs has caused concern with data becoming irretrievable after only
a few months of storage (see <a href="#CDs">CD Problems</a> & <a href="#CDplus">CD
Problems Revisited</a>, below). However, it is now clear that, provided
the user is careful with his / her labelling (the adhesive on some
labels and the ink in some felt-tip pens attacked the CD) and does
not live in the Amazon rainforest (fungal growth was an occasional
problem), CDs will provide a useful data storage life. The length
of that life depends on the type of CD used.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">If long storage life is the criterion
for choosing a CD, the CD-R type is obviously preferred over the
CD-RW type (why pay more for the ability to overwrite data). </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The cheapest CD-R discs are constructed
by sandwiching a cyanine dye between a transparent polycarbonate
main body and a reflective aluminium foil layer. The writing laser
burns pits into the dye through the polycarbonate plastic to record
the ones and zeros of the data. These pits can then be read by a
low power laser which does not alter them. With this construction
(recognisable by its bluish or blue/green tinge), it is claimed that
a data storage life of 10 – 70 years is achievable.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The longest life for CD data storage is
claimed for CDs which use a phthalocyanine dye with a gold reflective
foil. The foil, seen through the transparent dye, gives the disc
a golden colour and this also reflects the high cost. This type of
CD has a claimed data storage life approaching 100 years.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Between the two extremes, there are two
other types which give a better life than the cyanine / aluminium
type but not as good as the phthalocyanine / gold type. These are
formazan dye, gold foil type (light green colour) and metallized
AZO /silver foil type (dark blue colour).</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Remember to keep the CDs vertical and
protected from dust.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">More information:<br>
<a href="http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disc#The_3.BD-inch_micro_floppy_diskette">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disc#The_3.BD-inch_micro_floppy_diskette</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT May 05<br>
</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><strong><a name="2012"></a>2012 PLUS</strong><br>
One aspect of the London 2012 Olympics bid that has not been widely
aired is the communications legacy that would be left behind. To
properly accommodate the needs of the visiting athletes, hacks
and public; it will almost certainly be necessary to upgrade the
landline, cell phone and Wifi infrastructure throughout London,
but especially in east & central London. Not to do so would
put in jeopardy the operation of London’s businesses.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The world-wide popularity of cell phones
suggests that this is the area which will need greatest work. However,
by 2012, Wifi use will have expanded far beyond its present rather
limited employment. Most new laptop computers have a Wifi capability
and people are becoming more and more familiar with its use. Taking
into consideration the fact that most of the visitors coming to expensive
London will have to be fairly affluent, the demand for Wifi services
can be expected to be great. Provision will have to be improved and
there is a place for public libraries in the plan. Hopefully, the
outrageously expensive British Library scheme (£4.50/hour for
normal use and 50p/min for help) would not be considered to be the
model.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT May 05<br>
</font> </p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><strong><a name="fifth"></a>SOCIETY’S
FIFTH ESTATE?</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The internet did not loom very large in
the recent UK general election. However, analysis of the US Presidential
election in 2004 now indicates that it could become another potent
source of political comment. The BuzzMetrics and Pew Internet & American
Life Project report “Buzz, Blogs and Beyond: The Internet and
National Discourse in the Fall of 2004" compared political blog
activity with that of other media in the last stages of the US Presidential
election. Influence and “buzz generation” (buzz generation
= amount of simultaneous talk) was also compared.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The study considered 40 sites (16 conservative
blogs, 16 liberal blogs and 8 general blogs). Conservative bloggers
made 6,716 unique posts, the liberal bloggers wrote 7,151 entries;
and neutral blogs had 4,251 unique posts between 27 September and
31 October, 2004.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The researchers allocated chatter on political
message boards and forums to one of the conservative/liberal/general
categories and found that there were 984,549 unique conservative
posts, 947,503 liberal posts and 98,963 neutral posts in the period.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Campaign releases and official blogs generated
by the two political parties were monitored and it was found that
there were 955 Republican messages and 835 Democrat messages.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The US public does seem to have taken
the opportunity to make its voice heard above the noise from the
political parties and may well pose a future threat to the power
of the media barons. If the US experience can be replicated in this
country, democracy will be strengthened. The opportunity for the
public to make its views heard directly, rather than via a media/government
filter should act as a counter to apathy. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The danger is that the party political
machines may try to highjack the new outlet and thus damage its credibility.
The Labour party has been found to have used party activists to append
their names to template and other biased letters to local newspapers.
These supported party policy without acknowledging the party affiliation.
It would be just as easy for the political parties to use this underhand
technique on the internet. However, the technology exists to simply
and quickly search for common phrases or other groups of words over
a wide range of websites. The template nature of such internet messages
would then become obvious, as would the original source. Not only
would the practice quickly become public knowledge, but it would
become self defeating.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">More information: <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/">http://www.pewinternet.org/</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT May 05<br>
</font> </p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><strong><a name="gtool"></a>GOOGLE TOOLBAR</strong><br>
<br>
Google is rolling out a new feature for its widely used toolbar. It
calls this addition Google Compute and it is the visible part of an
initiative to aid the scientific community.<br>
<br>
The initiative is to implement in the widest possible way distributed
computing – a subject that has already been discussed here (see <a href="#GRID">Grid
Computing</a> &<a href="#GRID2"> Grid Computing Revisited</a>).
Google is effectively inviting users of its toolbar to participate
in scientific computing projects simply by clicking an icon. It is
offering two methods of participation, Standard and Conservative. The
Standard mode allows Google Compute to run in the background whenever
the computer is fully powered up i.e. not in stand-by mode. The Conservative
mode allows Google Compute to run only when the computer user is nor
actively using the computer. In addition, it is possible for the computer
user to specify the amount of processor idle time which is allocated
to Google Compute.<br>
<br>
At present, the scientific project using the public’s computers
is the nonprofit Folding@home project at Stanford University. This
is attempting to model the geometric structure of proteins – a
fundamental property of life. Although Google is an American company,
one would hope that it would not restrict access to Google Compute
to US researchers. If the computers being used are sited internationally,
then the benefits should be shared internationally.<br>
<br>
Google has attempted to address privacy issues with its Google Compute
offering. However, as with its other products, there is the concern
that it is a US company, subject to the laws and law enforcement agencies
of that country.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><br>
More information:<strong><a href="http://toolbar.google.com/dc/faq_dc.html#about1"> http://toolbar.google.com/dc/faq_dc.html#about1</a></strong> ,<br>
<a href="http://folding.stanford.edu/"><strong>http://folding.stanford.edu/</strong></a>.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT May 05<br>
</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><strong><a name="wikipedia"></a>WIKIPEDIA
USE SURGES<br>
</strong><br>
Wikipedia, which receives charitable funding from Google and Yahoo,
is quickly improving its popularity, according to the online intelligence
service Hitwise. The data collected by Hitwise from ISPs and mega panels
suggests that in March 2005 Wikipedia was the 33rd most popular site
for visits from search engines. The site has been consistently improving
its ranking during the second half of 2004 and throughout 2005.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Wikipedia is usually simply described
as a free on-line encyclopaedia, but it is also popular as a source
of news items. Although news items are more ephemeral than the traditional
contents of an encyclopaedia, it is advantageous to have them grouped
in one place. The background to the news items can then be looked-up
very easily.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The open source Wikipedia is now proving
to be more popular than the commercial general reference websites
such as Answers.com and Encarta. Wikipedia achieved a traffic rate
(market share) of 3.84% compared with 1.9% for Answers.com and 1.81%
for Encarta. However, the most popular website in the overall reference
category is Dictionary.com with a traffic rate of 4.46%.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">More Information: <a href="http://www.hitwise.com">www.hitwise.com</a> , <a href="http://www.wikipedia.org">www.wikipedia.org</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT May 05<br>
</font> </p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><strong><a name="mouse"></a>THE ASSISTIVE
MOUSE</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">IBM has designed a small unit which is
intended to help people with hand tremors to use a computer mouse.
It has granted a licence to a small UK company, Montrose Secam Ltd.,
to manufacture the unit. At less than £70, incl VAT, the unit
is affordable by most libraries and represents a significant improvement
in the service that can be offered to a segment of the community
which is often ignored.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">More information:<br>
Montrose Secam Ltd:<a href="http://www.montrosesecam.com/index1.html"> http://www.montrosesecam.com/index1.html</a><br>
International Essential Tremor Foundation:<a href="http://www.essentialtremor.org"> http://www.essentialtremor.org</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT. Apr 05</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><br>
<strong><a name="BPL"></a>BROADBAND POWERLINE TECHNOLOGY PROGRESS</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">On 24th February a US report was released
which suggested that 2005 might be the year that broadband power-line
technology (BPL) becomes a realistic third option for<br>
computer users – adding to the existing high-speed connection
options of cable or DSL. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">BPL operates in a similar way to that
of DSL and cable. The signal is carried<br>
along existing power lines and emerges through any standard electric
outlet into a<br>
modem that is plugged into the socket.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The current BPL speeds are 500 kilobytes
to 1 megabyte per second, although some of the world's major modem
producers are developing technology allegedly capable of 100 megabytes
per second.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Unsurprisingly, urban areas are expected
to provide the main market for BPL.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The Washington based New Millennium Research
Council report concluded that consumer and regulatory issues are
by no means insurmountable.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">BPL is not being ignored in Europe. The
telecom standard organisation, ETSI, carried out laboratory tests
and the French electricity supply company, EDF, carried out field
tests on medium and low voltage networks at a site just outside Paris
in November 2004. The electricity supply companies are not yet completely
convinced that providing communication systems for the public is
a good commercial proposition. However, they can see great benefits
in using the technology to manage their networks.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">More information:<br>
<a href="http://www.newmillenniumresearch.org/news/forbes_031805.pdf">http://newmillenniumresearch.org/news/forbes_031805.pdf</a><br>
<a href="http://www.etsi.org">http://www.etsi.org</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT Mar 05</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><strong>MORE</strong> on BPL<br>
At the Intel Developers Forum in San Francisco on 24 Aug 2005 - The
HomePlug Powerline Alliance, the powerline communications standards
group, announced that Intel Corporation, Linksys and Motorola,
Inc. had become new sponsor members. Subsequently Intel’s
Matt Theall was elected as president of the Alliance.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The inclusion of these electronics industry
heavyweights in the group suggests that powerline communication systems
are now being taken very seriously, at least in the USA. There appears
to be only one UK member of the group – Pace, the set-top box
manufacturer.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT Sep 05</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><strong><a name="mozilla"></a>MOZILLA
GAINING GROUND</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">A recent market survey by Janco Associates
has shown that the Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox browser has
become the second most used browser in North America with 4.48% of
the market. Of course, this is a long way behind MicroSoft’s
Internet Explorer (84.85%). However, Mozilla can claim that every
user of its product made a deliberate product choice – something
that MicroSoft cannot claim, due to its past bundling policy.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Although the Firefox market share is miniscule
compared with that of Internet Explorer, it is still impressive -
Firefox was only upgraded from the beta version in November. Even
more encouraging for Mozilla is the fact that Firefox is the only
widely used browser which is increasing its market share.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The rapid growth in market share of Firefox
has been mainly driven by the “blogger” community where
its market share is a very respectable 35%. This suggests that there
is much more growth to come for Firefox, as knowledge of it leaks
out into the general population.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The “also rans” in the browser
race are Netscape (3.03%), AOL (2.20%), MSN (0.58%) and Opera (0.34%).</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">MicroSoft does not have a history of tolerating
competition and another study, by Gartner, concludes that the software
giant will respond to protect its market position. It certainly was
not slow to do so in its war against Netscape.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Ironically, the destruction of Netscape
by MicroSoft is responsible for the creation of the Mozilla suite
of Firefox (web browser) and Thunderbird (mail client). One of the
last acts of Netscape as an independent company was to make available
to the open source community the Netscape source code and Mozilla
has built on this.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Version 1 of the Thunderbird email client
was released in December 2004 and is a direct competitor of MicroSoft’s
Outlook Express. In the first month after its release, two million
downloads of the software were made. The advantages of Thunderbird
over Outlook Express are far faster operation and an inherently cross
platform product (the open source legacy).</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">More details:<br>
<a href="http://www.mozilla.org">http://www.mozilla.org/</a> <br>
<a href="http://www.e-janco.com">http://www.e-janco.com</a><br>
<a href="http://www4.gartner.com/Init">http://www4.gartner.com/Init </a></font></p>
<div align="left">
<p><font size="2">AT 02/05 </font></p>
<p><font size="2"><br>
<strong>UPDATE ON FIREFOX</strong><br>
A market survey published on 26 April showed that Firefox has continued
to find consumer favour and has more than doubled its market share
(10.28%) at the expense of Internet Explorer (83.07%), AOL (0.85%)
and Netscape (0.92%).<br>
More details: <a href="http://www.e-janco.com">http://www.e-janco.com</a> <br>
AT 05/05</font></p>
</div>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><a name="greying"></a><strong>THE GREYING
OF THE INTERNET</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The way that the internet scene is developing
in the USA is of particular interest to the UK, as there is a tendency
for the UK to follow the same path. A survey carried out by International
Demographics found that the US growth in internet use has changed
direction. Young people were the initial driving force but, in the
last four years, internet growth has been dominated by people who
are over 55 years old. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><a href="http://www.themediaaudit.com"><strong>http://www.themediaaudit.com</strong></a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT, Dec 04</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><a name="mobile"></a>MOBILE PHONE NUISANCE</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Mobile phones are disruptive and annoying
in a library environment and most public libraries are plastered
with notices asking people to turn them off. These requests are comprehensively
ignored and the nuisance goes on. Most library staff seem to have
given up making an effort to enforce the rule, just as the police
have opted out of enforcing the law on using cell-phones while driving.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">So, the mobile phone has taken over and
there is nothing that we can do about it. Well, not quite. QuinetiQ,
the defence research organisation, has perfected the manufacturing
process for a wallpaper that will screen out the mobile phone signals.
This process prints a frequency selective metal pattern onto either
flexible or rigid substrates using far fewer production stages than
would be necessary at present. It is therefore very cost effective.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The next time that a library needs to
be refurbished or built, it would be a good idea if this type of
wall surfacing was included in the specification.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Of course, there would have to be consideration
of the radio-frequency leakage effect of windows. However, the new
process can be used on rigid substrates, so it is probably extendable
to glass. Even if it was not, the technology of incorporating metal
patterns in glass is already well established for car window heaters
and adhesive, transparent screening films are available.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Just think. All those notices asking people
to turn off their mobile phones could be replaced by notices telling
them that they are entering a mobile phone quiet area – there
would probably be a queue to get in.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">One side effect of screening a library
from mobile phone signals is that any wireless local area network
set up in that library could be made inaccessible from outside – usually
considered to be a good thing.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Further information: <br>
<a href="http://www.qinetiq.com/home/newsroom/qitms/2004/3rd_quarter/7.html">http://www.qinetiq.com/home/newsroom/qitms/2004/3rd_quarter/7.html</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><strong><a name="future"></a>THE FUTURE
OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">At a Developer Forum in Frankfurt recently,
Tim Johnson of UK research company Point Topic suggested that broadband
internet use is growing at a faster rate than mobile telephone use
ever managed to achieve. He said that the present estimate is for
150 million broadband lines to be installed by the end of 2004 and
that South Korea is the country leading the change to broadband use
with 24% of the population having this type of internet access.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The Ofcom April 2004 broadband connection
figure for the UK is 3.99 million (2.45 million DSL connections +
1.54 cable connections). Comparison with the South Korea figure is
difficult, as it is not clear from the Ofcom data how many people
use each broadband connection in the UK on average. However, Ofcom
states that 15% of homes have broadband, so it is reasonable to suppose
that the UK cannot be very far behind South Korea. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">BT has frequently been cast as the villain
in the broadband story. It has been accused of deliberately delaying
conversion of telephone exchanges in order to obtain a commercial
advantage. However much truth there is (or was) in the accusation;
it is becoming irrelevant, as 84% of UK homes and businesses now
have the DSL service available and this will soon (summer 2005) be
improved to 99.6% of all households. Although the cable availability
map overlaps the DSL one, the actual overall broadband availability
will be slightly higher. Even those homes a long way from an exchange
may soon be able to benefit from a broadband connection, as BT begins
500kb/s ADSL trials over 10km lines.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Next year, the telephone exchange conversion
program will be virtually complete and it is obvious that the government
deadline of all homes having broadband capability (if required) by
2008 will be met. It only remains for the potential users to be persuaded
that high-speed internet access is worth the money. Once the infrastructure
is in place and paid for, there will be an enormous pressure on the
service providers to maximise the utilisation of that infrastructure.
Thus, it is to be expected that the cost of a broadband contract
will continue its downward slide and the services provided will be
expanded further.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">This view of the future is not restricted
to the writer. During its recent, first Investment Analyst Conference,
Ofcom stated: “By the end of the decade, the successful introduction
of greater infrastructure competition combined with continued innovation
in access technologies, could enable a majority of UK households
to benefit from affordable and accessible broadband connections delivering
video-quality bandwidth” [i.e.very wide bandwidth].</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The question arises as to how this changing
situation will affect London’s Library Services. In the short
term, there probably will not be much of an impact. There will be
a continuing need to provide a computer literacy education program
and to ensure that internet access is not exclusively for the affluent.
Lending of books, CDs etc will go on as before.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">In the long run, when hardware and on-line
access costs have reached a very low level, the public internet access
facilities now provided by public libraries will be of small value
to the community and their popularity will wane. Further, the computer
literacy initiative will have worked its way through that part of
the adult population reachable by such a program (the children are
and will be covered by school programs). At best, there will be a
small residual requirement for on-line access for visitors to the
capital and a minority of residents. The People’s Network will
have done its work and will probably need to be retired.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Long term developments in the range of
services provided on-line and new hardware designs are likely to
have an increasing impact on the core library activities that are,
at present, not seen to be related to computer use. Probably the
first areas to be affected will be the CD / DVD hire activity. With
fast download, 24/7 availability and a vast catalogue to choose from;
the on-line businesses will have major advantages over any high street
operation whether in the public or private domain. Added to this
advantage is the inherent low overhead cost applicable to the on-line
businesses.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">It is just possible to see the beginning
of this shift in market position with the pain now being experienced
by traditional record shops. The more volatile part of the record
industry, i.e. the pop record part, is suffering badly now, but the
classical end is just as vulnerable in the long term. The record
industry may well succeed in combating copyright infringement. However,
this will do little to help the high street record shop – the
die is cast and public libraries will not be immune.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Once it is accepted that the contents
of CDs can be obtained more easily and more cheaply via the internet
than from a public library, it becomes clear that all associated
electronic media will eventually also fall into this category. Thus
the public library video tape and DVD collections, which have been
so enthusiastically built up, will become wasteful space fillers
from an income generation viewpoint. At some point, it will be necessary
to decide whether to remove these items from the selves or to remove
the charges. If removal from the shelves is the preferred option,
will books be substituted?</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">There are many electronics development
projects still in the research phase which will accelerate the trend
already identified and these will eventually come to bear on all
core public library activities. In the very long term, even the book
lending activity will not be immune from radical change. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Speaking at the recent Public Library
Authority Conference; Lord McIntosh, the Libraries Minister, stated “Books
are here to stay because people want them and they will be a key
element in the library service in the foreseeable future.” It
is true that books are very popular at present, but one should ask
why this is before assuming that they will continue to be so.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">After 500 years of printing development,
books have become relatively cheap, convenient, easily obtainable
and easily used containers of information (factual and fictional)
i.e. it is the currently preferred delivery method for most detailed
content. If an improved delivery method becomes available, it is
inevitable that it will replace the currently preferred one. The
research is underway in many parts of the world in preparation for
this new product type.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"> There is little doubt that Library Services,
over the next few decades, can be expected to change out of all recognition.
Interesting times?</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">More details:<br>
<a href="http://www.culture.gov.uk/libraries_and_communities/Quicklinks/press_notices/default.htm">http://www.culture.gov.uk/libraries_and_communities/
Quicklinks/press_notices/default.htm</a><br>
<a href="http://www.ofcom.org.uk">http://www.ofcom.org.uk</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT<br>
Oct 04</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><strong><a name="EBOOKS"></a>E-BOOKS</strong><br>
<br>
The concept of the portable electronic book originated in 1968 and
has since been slowly developed. The speed of development has been
dictated by the lack of suitable electronic components. However, this
situation is changing and the rate of change is accelerating. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">In particular, the range and quality of
displays is improving fast. It is still not possible to find a commercial,
portable display which can match the resolution available from good
quality printing on good paper but, after less than half a century
development, it is possible to believe that this standard will be
achieved in the short to medium term. This should be compared with
the half a millennium required to reach this quality level by the
print industry.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Late April will see the introduction of
Sony’s e-Book reader, LIBRIe. This utilizes the Phillips /
E Ink “electronic ink technology” to give a monochrome
display with a resolution of approximately 170 pixel per inch (similar
to newsprint). Although this resolution is not high, it has certainly
proved to be acceptable to millions of newspaper readers throughout
the world.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The real advantage of the LIBRIe display
technology is the fact that it is non-volatile i.e. it only requires
to draw electrical power when changing the display contents. This
mitigates the second problem associated with the electronic book
concept, the poor power density available from current batteries.
High power density batteries are a prime requirement for a successful
e-book machine, as the reader must be light-weight and easily handled.
Although a considerable research effort is underway to solve this
problem, commercialisation of the results has not yet materialized.
The LIBRIe’s power source is made up of four cheap, widely
available, standard AAA batteries, which is sufficient to read 10,000
pages.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">One inherent advantage of the e-book concept
is the number of books that can be carried by one person – a
fallout from the intense development effort that was aimed at improving
computer storage technology. The LIBRIe can store 500 downloaded
books. The range of books commercially available is continually increasing
and, with programmes such as the Gutenburg Project (see below) dedicated
to increasing the availability of digital books, there is no doubt
that there will be sufficient content to justify the LIBRIe’s
storage capacity.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">There have been several false starts in
the e-book area and it is just possible that this new entrant will
be another one. However, it is clear that each new entrant moves
a step closer towards the ideal product and eventually there will
be a product that is sufficiently close for the public to enthusiastically
use it. If the experience of similar products is repeated, when that
happens, the switch is likely to be very fast. This has profound
implications for publishing, book retailing and libraries of all
kinds. The mess that the recorded music business has got itself into
by ignoring technical developments would pale into insignificance,
if the book world followed suite.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">More information:<br>
<a href="http://www.semiconductors.philips.com/news/content/file_1054.html">http://www.semiconductors.philips.com/news/content/file_1054.htm</a><br>
<a href="http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue29/wilson">http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue29/wilson.htm </a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT April 04</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><strong><a name="WiMax"></a>WiMax</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">One of the problems with implementing
a community WiFi system is the short range obtainable with the standard
antennas available for the IEEE 802.11 a/b/g specifications. This
is now being addressed by Intel and other companies as they carry
out development of components designed to meet the provisions of
the new standard IEEE 802.16a. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">WiFi was originally intended to only give
communications over a relative small area such as offices or cafe
hotspots. However, the potential for more universal use was quickly
recognized and many community-wide schemes have been successfully
set-up. These have needed careful design in order to overcome the
inherent limitations of the WiFi specifications.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The new WiMax standard is intended to
provide greater range and bandwidth than the existing WiFi specification.
Potentially, IEEE 802.16 equipment will give transfer data rates
up to 70 Mbit/sec over a range of 30 miles. This has to be compared
with 11 / 22 / 54 Mbit/sec over a range of 2 miles (say). Intel has
a test system operating from the roof of its Santa Clara headquarters
which has received data from a distance of 12 miles.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">WiMax, when it becomes available in 2005,
will allow the copper / fibre optic “last mile” connection
to be replaced with wireless for broadband internet use. This will
be of great interest to ISPs (internet service providers) that are
frustrated by the slow conversion of BT’s exchanges to broadband
use.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The designers of IEEE802.11 equipment
are also busily seeking ways of improving performance. Motia's smart
antenna design is claimed to extend WiFi range by up to four times
and the Atheros variable bandwidth (channel bonding) technology will
allow data rates to rise to 108 Mb/s.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The potential for Library Services to
extend their public access internet service is obvious. With WiMax,
a 24 /7 service does become economically possible.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">More details: <a href="http://www.intel.com/ebusiness/pdf/wireless/intel/80216_wimax.pdf">http://www.intel.com/ebusiness/pdf/wireless/intel/80216_wmax.pdf</a> | <a href="http://www.tmcnet.com">http://www.tmcnet.com</a> | <a href="http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/news/article.php/3301101">http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/news/article.php/3301101</a> |<br>
<a href="http://www.motia.com/press/pr120203.htm">http://www.motia.com/press/pr120203.htm</a> | <a href="http://www.atheros.com/news/adaptive.htm">http://www.atheros.com/news/adaptive.htm</a> </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT Mar & Apr 04</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><strong><a name="harris"></a>HARRIS POLL
on US ONLINE ACTIVITY</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">A telephone poll during December 2003
by Harris showed that 69 % of US adults were internet users (compare
with Offcom figures below). This total has grown by 3% in three years.
The most popular activity for users was emailing, with research for
school and work a poor second choice.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Least popular activities were found to
include financial management, making travel arrangements and obtaining
information about health and disease.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">More information: <a href="http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=433">http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=433</a><br>
</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT, Mar 04</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><strong><a name="offcom"></a>OFFCOM STATISTICS</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">In January Offcom issued statistics on
UK computer and internet use. The residential figures are:</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">59% of UK homes have a personal computer<br>
50% of UK homes are connected to the internet<br>
12% of UK homes are connected to broadband services</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Thus, 41% of homes are without a computer.
With the rapidly falling cost of computers, one would expect this
figure to be a lot lower. If cost is not the sole, or even a prime,
reason for the "information poor" to ignore the benefits
of IT, what are the others?</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Fear is perhaps one of the major reasons
for the reluctance to acquire the new IT skills. The oft repeated
phrase is "I am too old to learn new tricks". This response
can come from people who are highly intelligent as easily as from
people who have genuine learning difficulties and from people who
are far from old. Of course, it is a fallacy that has been disproved
many times.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Fear of computers is just one aspect of
a general fear of technology present in the UK and is, at least partly,
caused by the two culture syndrome. A syndrome strengthened and propagated
by an education system that historically believed that numeracy (the
basis for all science & technology) was an optional extra.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The role of public libraries has always
been to provide a second chance for those that missed out in the
education lottery. In IT, the UK libraries are following this tradition
and are providing a very valuable means of escaping from the two
culture sickness. The Offcom figures suggest that there is still
much to be done. All those library computers are still desperately
needed.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">More details:<br>
<a href="http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/consumer_audience_research/139330/InternetandBroadband.pdf">http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/consumer_audience_research/139330/InternetandBroadband.pdf</a> </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT, Feb 04</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><strong><br>
<a name="york"></a> URBAN BROADBAND FROM THE SKY</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"> The country's 35,000 mobile phone masts
that now cause great controversy could become things of the past.
They would be replaced by airships, or small pilot-less light aircraft,
beaming down radio communications, if the EU funded Capanina project
is successful.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"> The University of York is leading the
14 partner, international project to develop multi-media systems
for installation in High Altitude Platforms (HAPs) - airships, balloons
or small aircraft. These platforms would be positioned at an altitude
of about 20km i.e. above airliner flight paths but lower than satellites.
The platforms would have a good field of view over wide areas, and,
it is claimed, would offer better and cheaper communications than
either existing cellular phone or satellite systems. It is expected
that broadband internet connection speeds would be 200 times faster
than possible with wired ADSL.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"> Because they would operate at extremely
high frequencies (47-48GHz or , outside Europe, 28-31GHz), HAPs would
be able to deliver broadband internet and mobile telephone access
as well as large numbers of TV and video channels. They could even
replace current satellite or cable TV systems.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"> .Normally, such technology is proposed
as the answer to the poor broadband internet provision in rural areas,
but the university is also suggesting that HAPs could be of great
use in urban situations. Whilst high flying airships and small aircraft
appear to be fairly safe options for urban sites, the cables of tethered
balloons (expected to be the first type of HAP to be deployed) would
seem to pose a very high risk to the airliners which thickly populate
the skies above cities such as London.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"> Urban populations are attractive to commercial
ventures and, presumably, this is the reason for the interest in
this type of site. The university has suggested that the HAP antennas
could be directed at city centres during the day and at suburbs during
the evening. How acceptable a part-time service would be to customers
remains to be seen.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"> The use of high altitude antennas mitigates
the problem of poor coverage which usually plagues extremely high
frequency transmitters. However, it does not completely remove the
problem and it may be necessary to use several/many platforms to
give acceptable coverage in places like central London.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"> The University of York is planning to
launch a spin-off company to exploit the potential this work has
to offer. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Last year, the Swedish Space Corp. successfully
demonstrated a broadband link over a distance of 310 km via a balloon
drifting at a height of up to 29.7km.<br>
Further information: <a href="http://www.york.ac.uk/admin/presspr/haps">http://www.york.ac.uk/admin/presspr/haps.html</a> <a href="http://www.alvarion.com/RunTime/CorpInf_30130.asp?fuf=281&type=item">http://www.alvarion.com/RunTime/CorpInf_30130.asp?fuf=281&type=item</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"> AT, Feb 04<br>
<strong>Update on HAP Broadband:</strong><br>
Trials in October 2004 successfully demonstrated 120Mbit/s links from
tethered balloons and in the summer of 2005 trials using untethered
balloons will take place.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">In the summer of 2006, the project partners
will collaborate with Japan's National Institute for Information
and Communication Technology on a global HAP trial using solar powered
unmanned aircraft. This type of aircraft has been shown to be very
practicable by NASA's Helios flying wing project. One of the organisation
working with NASA on that, Japan Stratosphere Comms, has become a
HAP project partner.<br>
Further information: <a href="http://www.capanina.org">http://www.capanina.org</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT, May 05</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><strong><a name="CDplus"></a>CD Problems
revisited</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The long-term CD/DVD storage problem was
originally discussed in Nov. 03. CD & DVD manufacturers have
been, understandably, rather low key about the subject but, now,
there is an independent source of information. This is the "Digital
Preservation Program" sponsored by the US National Institute
of Standards and Technology. A 50 page guide is available on the
storage and handling of CDs and DVDs. For those who have only minutes
to allocate to the subject rather than hours, there is also a one
page summary.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Full guide: <a href="http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/carefordisc/CDandDVDCareandHandlingGuide.pdf">http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/carefordisc/CDandDVDCareandHandlingGuide.pdf</a><br>
Summary:<br>
<a href="http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/carefordisc/onepage.pdf">http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/carefordisc/onepage.pdf</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT Feb 04</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><a name="uscert"></a><strong>New US Government
Security Website</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The US government has just started operating
a website dedicated to providing information on the latest computer
viruses. Although it recommends using the websites of the anti-virus
software suppliers, it does give useful advice on what to do if/when
your computer is infected. This is very sensible, as the internet
often becomes inaccessible when a computer has a virus. Of course,
it is preferable to visit the government site before being infected</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">For more information on computer viruses
(including the MyDoom.B virus) visit: <br>
<a href="http://www.us-cert.gov">http://www.us-cert.gov </a></font> </p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT Feb 04</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><strong><a name="GRID2"></a>Grid Computing
Revisited</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">All things within the IT industry develop
at a very fast pace and grid computing is no exception. Since our <a href="#GRID">original
article</a> on this subject was written in April 03, tools to ease
the implementation of new schemes have matured and, possibly as a
result of this, there is a degree of specialization creeping into
the field.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The grid computing field has divided into
two sectors - public and private grids. The sector differentiator
is whether the grid network is closed or open.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The simplest, easiest to manage grid network
is the closed, self contained or private type. Most academic and
company grids fall into this category.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Public grid networks are more complex
than the private type and are therefore more difficult to manage.
However, they are potentially far more powerful. Because there is
less control over individual computers, more redundancy has to be
built into public grid networks. Also, communication speeds tend
to be slower, as many of the computers will not have the best broadband
access or even low speed ADSL. These difficulties are small drawbacks
when very large numerical problems have to be solved.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Grid computing tools are available from
Sun and from the Globus Alliance.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The Sun Grid Engine has now reached version
5.3 and is available in two versions. The small scale version is
free and should be suitable for most private grid networks. The large
scale version is available with technical support and, of course,
must be paid for. Sun has built its Grid Engine on the Linux and
Solaris operating systems.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">As the name implies, the Globus Alliance
is an organization which brought together many companies, US government
departments, quasi-government organizations and academic institutions.
Included in the list of collaborators are IBM, MicroSoft and NASA.
Inevitably, the collaborators are mainly US based, but the UK is
represented by the e-Science Grid Core Programme.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The Globus Toolkit is now in version 3
and has been developed via an open-source strategy, similar to that
used for Linux development.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">More information from:<strong><br>
<a href="#http://www.sun.com">http://www.sun.com/software/gridware</a><br>
<a href="#http://www.globus.org">http://www.globus.org </a><br>
</strong><a href="#http://www.escience-grid.co.uk"><strong>http://www.escience-grid.co.uk</strong></a><strong> </strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT Jan 04</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><a name="ican"></a><strong>iCan</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The BBC has used its extensive internet
experience to set-up a new website - www.bbc.co.uk/ican. It has been
working on the project for over a year and has now reached the beta
release stage (development close to completion).</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The new site will provide a forum to discuss
local issues. Issues currently headlined include Post Office Closures,
Wind Farms, Chewing Gum and Equal Rights for Fathers. Unsurprisingly,
items on BBC programs are also prominent (perhaps just as interim
space fillers). The new website could provide a very useful platform
for debate if (when?) library closures again become fashionable.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">A similar site to the new BBC one is at
www. upmystreet.com. Although this site has the distinct disadvantage
of being heavily encrusted with adverts, it provides useful information
on a, user defined, post code area (schooling, housing, council)
and includes a discussion forum.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Of course, there are many community websites
run by volunteers which provide local information and discussion
facilities for their areas.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/ican">http://www.bbc.co.uk/ican</a> <br>
<a href="http://www.upmystreet.com">http://www,upmystreet.com </a> </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AAT Dec 04</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><strong><a name="CDs"></a>CD PROBLEMS</strong></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Compact discs have been around for some
time. It is therefore rather surprising that two very basic problems
with their operation have now surfaced.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The first problem is that occasionally
they shatter and throw plastic shrapnel out of the disc drive at
high velocity. There is a high probability that the disc drive with
suffer damage and the computer user will not be immune, if he/she
is in the wrong position at the time. It is believed that the cause
of the problem is slight imperfections on the edge of the disc's
hub opening. At the high speeds used by current CD drives, small
nicks & cracks can rapidly propagate to produce a catastrophic
failure.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The second problem is that some CDs have
been found to be unreadable after a very short time (of the order
of one year). Several causes for this problem have been suggested.
Most of these point to possible poor storage conditions e.g. high
ambient light, high temperatures. However, the adhesive on disc labels
also seems to be a high probability cause of degradation and a tropical
fungus is an additional suspect.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT Nov 03</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"> <b><a name="MIT"></a>MIT ONLINE</b></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">MIT, the world renown Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, has published its course-work on the internet at <b><a href="http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm">http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html</a><a href="http//:ocw.mit.edu/index.html"> </a>. </b>There
are 500 courses in 33 academic disciplines</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">There is no cost associated with the use
of the course-work, apart from the telecom costs. This move can only
enhance MIT's reputation for innovation and leadership. One wonders
how long it will take for the Open University to follow - to truly
become Open.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT Oct 2003</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><b><a name="Vanderpool"></a>VANDERPOOL</b></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The operating system running on over 95%
of the world's personal computers is a version of MicroSoft's Windows
program. One of the reasons for this near monopoly is the close co-operation
which has existed between Intel, the dominant microprocessor manufacturer,
and MicroSoft.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"> It now looks as though Intel has decided
to hedge its bets. It has announced that its new "Vanderpool" chip
will be capable of running more than one operating system at a time.
This will be a direct benefit to Linux users and, thus, will not
make MicroSoft happy.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Linux is beginning to chip away at the
MicroSoft market and, given its very large price advantage, it can
be expected to continue to grow in popularity. Some PC manufacturers
are now offering Linux as the standard, inbuilt operating system
for some of their products.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The slow erosion of the MicroSoft market
will not have gone unnoticed by Intel and, when the Vanderpool chip
reaches the marketplace in five years time, Linux can be expected
to have become a significant competitor to Windows.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT Oct 2003</font></p>
<div align="left"> </div>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><b><a name="OpenT"></a>OPENTYPE</b></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">In the early days of personal computing,
the range of fonts available was very limited unless users obtained
Adobe's PostScript set. This changed in 1991/92 when Apple and MicroSoft
both incorporated TrueType fonts in their offerings. This, Apple
developed, set allowed users access to a wide selection of fonts
without incurring the very high costs associated with PostScript.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The situation remained unchanged until
1996. Then, arch rivals Apple and MicroSoft, agreed to develop a
common set of fonts called OpenType. The results of this collaboration
began to appear with Windows 2000 and, with Windows XP, it has now
become almost fully implemented.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Adobe has not been standing idly by and
has released its full font library in OpenType format (OTF). Since
OpenType is natively supported in Windows 2000 & XP, no add-on
utility is required to run the Adobe fonts on the current Windows
platforms.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Independent font foundries are following
the lead of MicroSoft, Apple and Adobe, so the OpenType fonts appear
to becoming the accepted industry standard. The advantage of this
is that the appearance of any document will not change with a change
in computer / application. The design becomes fixed at the originator's
monitor.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">A.T. Oct 2003</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><b><a name="will"></a>WHAT IS IN LONDON'S
LIBRARIES</b></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The London Library Development Agency
(LLDA) has been awarded £200k by the People's Network Excellence
Fund for the LLDA's WILL (Whats in London's Libraries) project. This
project aims to link up all the catalogues and community information
databases of London's public libraries. Some museums and archives
databases will also be included as a pilot.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">A web interface will be developed to allow
users to simultaneously search a range of resources across London.
It is not intended to develop a single database.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The project is expected to be completed
by September 2003.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">More: <a href="http://www.londonlibraries.org.uk/will">http://
www.londonlibraries.org.uk/wil</a>l </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT, July 2003</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">PS @ Oct 03<br>
You may momentarily be confused by the above link, but it is not the
LLL address - just a very, very, very close approximation to it.
In addition, if you happen to investigate further, you will find
that the WILL logo looks extremely like the Thames diagram which
has been the top of this page for several years. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><b><a name="wifi"></a>COMMUNITY BROADBAND
ACCESS</b></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">London is something of a super-tanker
- slow to respond and sometimes slow to seize opportunities. This
appears to be what has happened with WiFi community projects. Cardiff
has led the way in this area with a project, called "Arwain". This
has equipped Cardiff with hotspots which give city centre dwellers
free broadband access to on-line services and information. The hotspots
are actually wireless local area networks (WLAN). The technology
has only recently become available and, naturally, is being applied
enthusiastically in the USA. One of the US projects even has a range
of 30 miles and is being aimed at coastal shipping! </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Arwain is part of Cardiff's assault on
the digital divide and a similar project really should be included
in London's strategy. The geographic spread of libraries throughout
the capital make them ideal places to establish hotspots for broadband
connection. A small neighbourhood library is as good as a large flagship
library in this respect and, because it is often physically closer
to its user community, it may even be better. Libraries are already
delivering free broadband internet access to their users and this
new development will simply extend that to a 24 hour, 7 days a week
service.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"> There is a one difficulty with the WiFi
community idea. It will not directly help the poorest of the poor,
because it is necessary to have a computer at home to take advantage
of the facility. However, this is where computer recycling comes
into the picture. In the longer term, rapidly falling computer costs
(a new internet ready computer now costs less than a mid-range television)
will erode the disadvantage. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">I am not aware of any general strategy
to develop public use of the internet beyond the excellent, but restricted,
facilities presently provided in libraries and community centres
etc. By giving the user freedom to choose when he/she can use the
internet, WiFi community projects seem to provide the necessary second
step on the ladder up to full digital equality.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">More information at <a href="http://www.arwain.net"><b>www.arwain.net</b></a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT, April 03</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><b><a name="GRID"></a>GRID COMPUTING</b></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">About two years ago the Search for Extra
Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project analysed huge quantities
of data from space by utilizing, via the internet, millions of home
computers around the world. This was the first large scale example
of grid computing.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"> Library Services throughout London now
own a large number of public access computers, thanks to the People's
Network initiative. For most of the day, these computers are unused.
So, why not use them for grid computing? Compared to the SETI project,
coupling up to the public access computers in libraries for a London
wide grid should be fairly straight forward and would give London's
Library Services a very valuable "overnight resource" to market to
researchers. It is possible that, after the initial expenses, this
could be the way that future funding for public access computers
is obtained or it may be that it will be an additional reason for
non Local Authority money to be provided. Whatever is the outcome,
grid computing is something that London's Library Services can benefit
from. <br>
<br>
The government certainly thinks that grid computing has possibilities.
It recently joined Oxford University and IBM in a grid computing project,
called "eDiamond", connected with breast cancer screening. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT, April 03 </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><b><a name="access"></a>COMPUTER ACCESSIBILITY </b></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Due to the well funded "Peoples Network" project,
London's libraries are now fairly well stocked with public access
computers. Although there has been some criticism of the methods
used to make room for them (see side bar), these computers have proved
very popular with library users. That is, they are popular with those
library users who are able to operate them. For those people with
a language, motor or visual impairment, the digital divide is still
alive and well and is operating in a library near you. This need
not be the case, as assistive technology is available to provide
help.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">For computer users with a language impairment,
screen review utilities make on-screen information available as synthesized
speech and couples the speech with a visual representation of a word
e.g. by highlighting a word as it is spoken.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Mobility impairment has many forms and
there are several pieces of hardware (large keyboards, small keyboards,
keyboards with alternative layouts) which can be simply plugged in
to a standard computer to provide some alleviation. Where mobility
is severely restricted, it is possible to use a scanning option with
an on-screen keyboard to allow individual keys to be highlighted
and then selected by a switch positioned near a part of of the user's
body over which he/she has voluntary control.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Visually impaired computer users have
probably the widest range of hardware and software to choose from.
These include screen enlargers, screen readers, speech recognition
systems, speech synthesizers (audio output of keyboard input), refreshable
Braille displays (tactile output of computer screen), Braille embossers
and talking / large print word processors.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">It may be too much to expect every public
library to provide computer access for everyone irrespective of their
level and type of disability. However, some improvement on the present
situation is essential.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT, March 03</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><b><a name="Powerline"></a>POWERLINE INTERNET
CONNECTION</b></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The electrical power distribution company
Scottish & Southern Energy has become the latest organisation
to attempt to use the nation's power lines as a substitute for the
telephone cable system.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">There are over twenty other European power
companies carrying out trials involving the transmission of high
bit rate data over their distribution networks. In the German city
of Mannheim, approximately 3000 homes are involved in the trials
there. However, the Scottish & Southern trials are on a much
smaller scale with only 50 customers taking part.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">For over a decade companies have been
trying to push digital communication through powerlines. Although
several companies reached the public trial stage, none have yet been
successful enough to launch a commercial operation.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Initially, the main problem that had to
be overcome was the high level of interference that existed on the
powerlines. This difficulty has now been largely solved but it has
been, paradoxically, replaced by the problem of interference caused
by the digital signals themselves. The powerlines act as antennas
and it is feared that they will broadcast interference in the high
frequency radio bands. This would disrupt international broadcasting,
amateur radio and maritime / aircraft communication & navigation.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT January 03</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><b><a name="NationalStats"></a>INTERNET
SUBSCRIPTIONS - Aug. 02</b></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The Office of National Statistics has
announced that, for the year to the end of August, internet subscriptions
had increased by 11.8%. However, for the July - August period, the
number of subscriptions had fallen by 0.3%. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The July - August decrease was caused
by a 1.0% fall in dial-up subscriptions, but this was partly masked
by a 9.9% growth in broadband connections. As the proportion of broadband
subscriptions is quite low (7.2% in August), rapid growth in this
type of connection has only a marginal effect on the overall figure. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The Office of National Statistics figures
support the OFTEL findings on the increase in broadband connections
(see article below). The growth for the year in this area has been
354.8%.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">It is expected that the growth in internet
subscriptions will decrease in the summer months, but a fall is unusual.
Due to cost differentials, the broadband community is dominated by
business users, whilst the dial-up community consists mainly of home
users. Therefore, the implication of the ONS figures is that the
public's interest in the internet is beginning to moderate. The winter
months will determine whether, or not, this is correct. If it is,
very high growth in the number of home users will only be restored
when the cost of a broadband connection becomes generally affordable
- the magic figure has been suggested as £9.99 / month.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT October 02</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><a name="Broadband"></a><br>
<br>
<b>OFTEL - BROADBAND AGAIN</b></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">At the beginning of May, OFTEL reported
that there were 500,000 broadband subscribers in the UK (see "The
All Pervasive Internet" below). Now it says that there are one
million. This fast increase is presumably due to the recent decrease
in cost.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">However, the UK broadband total should
be compared with the situation in Japan, a country with a similar
sized population. There, the Ministry of Public Management, Home
Affairs, Posts & Telecommunications announced that the number
of Japanese broadband subscribers was 4.22 million at the end of
September.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT October 02</font></p>
<div align="left"><font size="2"><b><a name="everybody"></a>EVERYBODY
ONLINE </b></font></div>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Citizens Online has announced the first
local launch of its national project "Everybody Online".
The first launch took place in the China Clay area of St Stephen
in Brannel in Cornwall and was received very positively by the community
as a whole.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">In partnership with BT, Citizens Online
will be working in selected low connectivity areas of the UK. The
aims of the Everybody Online Project is to work with local partners
and the local community using facilities that are already available.
Citizens Online has found that in most areas of the UK, there are
untapped resources that are available to fulfil the needs of local
citizens. The aim of the project is to bring these together.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">For further information about Everybody
Online, the St Stephen launch and other locations where they will
be working, visit their website - <br>
<a href="http://www.citizensonline.org.uk">http://www.citizensonline.org.uk</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT September 02</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><b><a name="books"></a>BOOKS on LINE -
PROJECT GUTENBERG</b></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">No, not another web bookshop. This is
a University of North Carolina project to give everyone direct access
to a wide range of books via the web. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">"The Project Gutenberg Philosophy is to
make information, books and other materials available to the general
public in forms a vast majority of computers, programs and people
can easily read, use, quote and search" - not just the Bible and
Shakespeare. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Of course, your local library also does
this quite well - both via computers and real books. However, for
the housebound, Project Gutenberg could be a very, very useful facility.
The rural population may also find it of use. For the rest of us,
it could be the answer to the problems caused by over enthusiastic
weeding of library selves by the staff. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">For people with a broadband internet service,
reading books via this service would be cost effective as well as
convenient. However, a dial-up service would make it an expensive
exercise. As the cost of a broadband connection to the internet falls
in the future and its use becomes widespread, Project Gutenberg should
become a significant resource. Looking into the distant future, when
existing laboratory development projects have emerged into the market
place, this method of accessing literature could become dominant.
The Project Gutenberg people just need a little patience. This is
something they have in abundance - the project has been running since
1971. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">There is an opportunity to contribute
to the project, if you think that it a good idea. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Further information: <a href="http://www.gutenberg.net">http://www.gutenberg.net</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">AT September 02 </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><b><a name="pervasive"></a>THE ALL PERVASIVE
INTERNET? </b></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">As you are reading this note, you are
almost certainly one of the 50% of UK adults that use the internet.
Also, if you are at home, then you are one of the 46% of UK adults
that logs on from there. These figures have been gleaned from an
interesting Oftel report to be found at <a href="www.oftel.gov/publications/research/2002q8intr0402.htm">http://www.oftel.gov.uk/publications/research/2002/q8intr0402.htm.</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"> It seems that 4% of UK adults use the
internet from locations outside the home. The workplace, internet
cafes and public libraries are obviously the most significant of
these other locations. Access to the internet from the workplace
is, on the whole, a privilege enjoyed by the middle class and internet
cafes are predominately the haunt of the more affluent. However,
the option of using the internet from public libraries is a right
which can be exercised by all sections of the community. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Public libraries have taken on the task
of ensuring that the benefits and frustrations of internet use are
introduced to the widest possible audience, irrespective of their
ability to pay. The Oftel report indicates that they may be succeeding,
as it notes that, since August 2000, there has been a marked increase
in C2DE households using the internet. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Other figures from the Oftel report are:<br>
43% of the 10 million internet homes use unmetered access <br>
3% of internet homes have broadband access (at the beginning of May<br>
2002 there were 500,000 UK broadband users of all kinds) <br>
9 hours per week is the average household on-line time</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"> AT<br>
May 02 <br>
<a name="party"></a> </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><b>IS THE PARTY OVER ALREADY?</b></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"> For over a year, the Virtual Society?
Programme has been warning that the great public interest in the
Internet could be beginning to wane. These words of caution, almost
drowned out by high volume hype, result from a research programme
being undertaken by 25 universities in Denmark, Holland, the UK and
the US. This research has found that "Growing numbers of people,
many of whom are teenagers, are becoming "former users" of the Internet.
Such drop offs suggest that only limited sub-populations will experience
saturation, and that providers will need to become skilled at selling
new products to a relatively static customer base." </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">No doubt, the hype merchants, with high
fees and salaries to protect, will dismiss such findings as unrepresentative.
However, the consumer group Which? has found a similar trend among
UK email users. It has discovered that the percentage of surfers
choosing email as their preferred method of communication has fallen
over the past year from 14% to 5%, whilst those surfers preferring
face-to-face meetings has risen from 39% to 67% over the same period. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Equipment suppliers have provided further
confirmation of the illusory quality of the predictions of ICT pundits
with axes to grind. The user friendly internet TV and its cheaper
set-top-box brother have failed to achieve significant sales. The
trial blazing Bush sets are being sold off cheaply as sales are currently
running at less than 40% of planned levels. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">The worldwide downturn in personal computer
sales may also be partly due to a stagnating Internet related market. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">So, does this suggest that the information
revolution has ended before it has properly begun? No, the Virtual
Society? research suggests only that the rather simplistic expectations
of the policy makers will not be met. The Internet is causing significant
changes in personal and corporate behaviour. Not unexpectedly, the
changes which are occurring are not always to the benefit of society
as a whole. Careful research, such as that carried out in the Virtual
Society? Programme can provide the information required to maximize
the benefits and minimize the damage caused by the information revolution.
However, for this to happen, policy makers have to accept that the
changes which are occurring are not always benign. Sadly, if the
experiences of library user groups are taken as a guide, any organization
is simply ignored if it dares to suggest that much tighter ICT management
is necessary by central & local government and others. The operating
philosophy seems to be "Never Mind the Quality Feel the Width". </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><b>Reference:</b> <br>
1. <a href="http://www.virtualsociety.org.uk">http://www.virtualsociety.org.uk</a> <br>
2. <a href="http://www.which.net/surveys/intro.htm">http://www.which.net/surveys/intro.htm</a> <br>
<b>A.T., July 2001</b> </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><a href="#top">top of page</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><a name="arttop"></a><a name="pcs"></a><b>21
May 2001</b></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><b> INTERNET CONNECTIONS AND PCs IN LIBRARIES </b><br>
<br>
These comments are based on the way I use public internet connections
and PCs. Of course I know others will want different things from the
machines. I have used several library systems around the country and
have found that all too often they give the impression of being designed
by computer experts who do not understand what the user wants out of
them, nominally controlled senior library staff who do not understand
enough to dictate effectively to the IT specialists, and without asking
users what they want to find. It is indeed hard to decide what the
ideal public library system should include. These systems are presumably
intended to attract inexperienced users who will find it hard to say
what they will eventually find useful. On the other hand, computer
devotees (who are in any case unlikely to make much use of public library
machines) might know about the systems available, but will probably
not understand how non-devotees want to use them. It would be useful
if someone could draw together what we, the users, want to do with
the machines, and what we expect to find in the library. I am sorry
if the comments show my ignorance of the technology, but if they do
I am pretty sure I have plenty of company. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">I<b>NTERNET SYSTEMS <br>
Downloading to a floppy disk </b><br>
Downloading matters. Library systems should allow files to be downloaded
to the user's own floppy disk, but most I have found don't. Many people,
like me, have home computers which are too old to be connected to the
internet. Also, serious study of documents often takes more time than
is allowed by the library booking system So, I want to copy internet
material from library machines to a floppy disk I can use at home.
For example, the "Project Gutenberg" offers an immense range of out-of-copyright
literature, including much that modern libraries would be hard-put
to obtain. And studying in depth official reports; the latest DCMS
news release, and so on is not a thing to do in the library. Also,
as long as most library systems do not have "unzippers", downloading
at least allows me to "unzip" at home. Objections to downloading When
I moan to library staff about the lack of downloading, I am usually
told about the dreaded virus hazard. But this need not be an insuperable
obstacle - Croydon library insists on virus-checking floppies, and
it is always possible to allow only new floppies sold by the library
(but, please, not as a petty money-making venture). Bromley has a system
which requires the staff to install a floppy drive on request, (I think
is needed because their machines are coin-operated and too many users
put money into the floppy drive). - they do not try to interfere with
the users once the drive is in place.. All the cybercafes I know let
users fetch their own floppies and even to "upload" files, presumably
without anything dire happening to their systems. I have also heard
hints of a fear that the machines might be used to download pornography.
But this problem, if it is a real one, ought to be controllable without
negating an important function of the system. <br>
</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Unzippers <br>
The system should include an "unzipper" programme allowing "zipped" files
to be put into a usable form, but most public library systems do not
have this facility. This means there are serious limits on what can
be read. This limitation is especially nonsensical because some documents
available through the Department of Culture, Media and Sport website
are "zipped". So these cannot be read on the very machines which are
being installed to satisfy DCMS demands! Only those with home internet
connections may know what they say. The cliches "socially excluded" and "joined
up government" spring to mind. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2">Word-processor <br>
Word-processors are needed All internet machines should have a word-processor
installed on them to manipulate material captured from the internet,
before printing or downloading it.. I have never found a library
internet machine that has one. If I humbly grumble about its absence
I am usually told something like "Oh, that machine is for the internet
- If you want a word-processor you must use the machine over there" -
staff just don't understand why I want both on the same machine.
Downloading a Web page a floppy disk for home processing, is not
the answer. This simply results in text lost among impenetrable
code that has to be weeded out. Much better to "cut and paste" the
internet text into a word-processor on the same machine, then save
that in a form intelligible to the home computer. At the moment
if I find something interesting via the library's machine I head
for a cybercafe to get a usable copy to take home. If the library
allows printing but not downloading a word-processor is still needed.
Printing a webpage can be a vile task. Paper is wasted when the
text is spread down long thin columns. Some web "pages" produce
many printed pages, even when only a bit of the text is needed.
Printing only "selected" text is likely to be impossible in practice
(it rarely comes out in the right place on the printed page). Much
better to "cut and paste" the text to a local word-processor, sort
it out there and print only what is needed. Why differentiate machines?
Library Authorities might be encouraged to look at why they have
different PCs for different tasks (internet, CDRom player or word-processor).
No-one would set up a modern office in this way; it would mean
too many machines cluttering up the place. Better to have every
machine capable of performing every task. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><b>Speed </b><br>
The dreaded slowcoach Some systems in public libraries are fast, Croydon
is the best I have found, but others are terrible (Lewisham, Chorley
when I was last there). Greenwich was fast, but is getting slower,
presumably as the central system becomes more burdened.. This is
more than a minor grumble. Introducing new users to the internet
via a library machine with an inefficient server results in them
becoming utterly confused by its hesitations and delays - people
who type faster than the system can work get the impression that
their commands have disappeared into the ether, try again and are
rewarded with an unstoppable series of repeats or some other confusion.
Such folk are likely to dismiss the internet as useless. Hardly
what the DCMS says the government wants to achieve. I now encourage
anyone new to the internet to have their first try at a good commercial
cybercafe, where the confusion is at least due to the nature of
the Web, and not the local system. Excuses excuses The common response
of librarians to complaints does not help. Often it is to the effect "Oh
well, you must understand that the World Wide Web does slow up
when it is busy." But, modern cybercafes can keep up the speed,
so it is hardly credible that a Local Authority system cannot do
as well, and wrong of Local Authorities to use the half truth that
the Web can slow to deny the limitation of their own system which
is often the main culprit. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><b>Censorship </b><br>
I accept, that Local Authorities are likely to try to exercise some
kind of control over what their machines are used to look at, but
systems need to be run by people with a thorough understanding
of what they are stopping coupled with a genuine desire to allow
the internet to be used as a gateway to the whole breadth of information
it available on it. A typical example of over zealous censorship
includes Chorley Lancs, where the censor (Cybersitter, I think)
would not let me look up "Noise at Work Regulations 1989" - a few
experiments showed it did not like the word "regulation". A grumble
to the librarian produced an offer to switch the system off, but
that is hardly a general solution -surely we should encourage folk
wanting to find out about the laws of our land. Greenwich denies
all access to Deja News newsgroups, apparently on the grounds that
they are uncensored. But, some of these newsgroups are there for
serious discussions and it is rather insulting to tell the users
they cannot have access because they might read something naughty.
To the credit of libraries, however, I have not yet come across
political censorship - I have been able to access even politically
incorrect sites. But we users should be alert to censorship coming
in even here. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><b>Access to internet machines<br>
Systems open to all </b><br>
A few libraries (eg Greenwich) allow only registered ticket-holders
to use internet machines. This means that users who want access while
moving around the country are denied access to the internet or must
pay cybercafe rates (if they can find a cybercafe):- they become "socially
excluded". This might make some sense to the parochially minded, but
it is better for society to regard libraries collectively as a national
resource. When in a strange town I look for the public library as the
place where I can obtain information, and just as I can look at any
reference book it has I should be able to use any available PC (unlike
a loan book, I am not going to take the PC away with me). </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><a href="#arttop">top</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><b>CDRom PLAYERS </b><br>
What CDRoms can be played? Some libraries have both a loan collection
of CDRoms and computers with CDRom players, but fight any suggestion
that a CDRom from the loan section may be used in one of the library's
CDRom machines (eg Bromley). I can see there are problems here.
The loan CDRoms will probably include games, and many library users
would not want to be told they cannot look up business information
or use teaching programmes because all the machines are booked
by people playing games. But, with firm management (including,
I fear, a specification of what CD Roms may and may not be used
on the library machines) this should be soluble. Once again, the
usual explanation that I get from library staff - fear of a virus
caught from a smuggled-in CDRom - does not convince. Good cybercafes
can cope, and libraries should as well. <br>
</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"> <b>OPACS </b><br>
OPACS should be fast and simple The slowly growing number of On-line
Public Access Catalogues available through the internet is welcome.
But too many of them work badly. Systems which ask me to wait "a
few seconds" while the system is loaded are especially annoying,
particularly as they usually then go on to work slowly even when
loaded. Many public lending libraries, as well as the British and
Scottish National libraries show that catalogues can be fast and
simple as well as easy to use. On these services we can do without
flashy graphics and other slowing devices. Also, some of the catalogues
provide only limited ways of searching the stock - again annoying.
OPACS should be fully available to all users The systems used should
allow for all those using the Internet to make full use of them
- ie no matter whether their browser is Netscape, Opera, Internet
Explorer, or whether they have Windows, Unix, Linux, Apple, or
whatever as the operating system. A little paranoia regarding tempting
offers from firms promoting particular software systems is in order
here. A public service should not be seduced into using a system
that will work slowly or badly unless the remote user's machine
has a particular firm's operating system installed on it. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><b>REPLACING EQUIPMENT AND SYSTEMS </b><br>
Start thinking about replacing the system before it is first installed
Computers and their software have a horrifyingly short life, and
need to be maintained by skilled staff. The rapid changes of the
past seem set to continue - indeed purveyors of systems and equipment
appear to be growing more uninhibited about offering products that
will only work badly with old systems. If those installing systems
do not look well ahead today's shiny new system launched with much
media hype will end up a cluncky slow and unreliable relic that
users reject. The finance for maintenance etc should be in place
when systems are installed. And OPACs etc should be kept simple
and as timeless as possible. <br>
<br>
<b>ALAN DOVE</b></font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2"><a href="index.htm">Home Page</a> | <a href="#top">Top
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Again</font></b></a></font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black" size="2"><b><a href="#everybody"> Everybody
Online</a></b></font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black"><b><font size="2"><a href="#books">Books
on Line</a></font></b></font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black"><b><font size="2"><a href="#pervasive">The
All Pervasive Internet </a></font></b></font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black"><a href="#party"><b><font size="2">Is
the (Internet) Party Over Already?</font></b></a></font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Black"><b><font size="2"><a href="#pcs">Internet
Connections and PCs in Libraries</a></font></b></font></li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
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