Corporate networks are defenseless against the growing threat from instant messaging, and the government warns WiFi is insecure and easily sniffed.

Experts suggest we take precautions against the growing risk of p2p software that’s exposing sensitive documents and threatening national security.

Businesses blame security problems on their employees, their mobile devices, and other consumer technologies.

And now we have MySpace.

Note: this cross-posted item is my contribution to our Banned Books Week recognition. We’ve been pitting books against each other, hoping to illustrate that there are always (at least) two sides to every story. Most of the other books were more social or political, but I liked this pair.

Wikinomics authors Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams tell stories of how the the internet’s unprecedented collaboration opportunities are changing the rules of economics. IBM, in one example, estimates the value of work done by volunteer software developers on Linux, the open source computer operating system built largely by people working for free, to be about one billion dollars, annually.

But Andrew Keen, in The Cult Of The Amateur : How Today’s Internet Is Killing Our Culture, worries that collaborative technologies like Wikipedia and YouTube are unfairly cutting into established economic models and destroying record companies, television networks, and other cultural institutions.

Both books praise technology, but differ on how it should be used and who should control it. Tapscott and Williams say IBM’s decision to embrace Linux and support open source software is saving the company $900 million/annually, while Keen argues that experts should be given more control over what is published online.

Further reading:

• A debate between Andrew Keen and David Weinberger, from WSJ.com.
• Listen online as Andrew Keen, Xeni Jardin, Larry Sanger, and Clay Shirky discuss Cult of the Amateur on KCRW’s To The Point.
• NPR interview with Wikinomics co-author Don Tapscott
• Eric Raymond’s paper, The Cathedral vs The Bazaar, discussing how massive collaboration makes open source possible.

bbw2007, Wikinomics How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, Wikinomics, Don Tapscott, Anthony D. Williams, The Cult Of The Amateur How Today’s Internet Is Killing Our Culture, Andrew Keen, technology, internet, web 2.0, debate, banned books week

What a difference a year makes? Jessamyn was among those sharing her stories of how technology and tech staff were often mistreated in libraries, but there’s a lot of technology in this year’s ALA program (including three competing programs on Saturday: The Ultimate Debate: Do Libraries Innovate, Social Software Showcase, and Transforming Your Library With Technology.

And still, not all is well. Ryan Deschamps seems to have hit the button with a post from April of this year. It’s one of the most thoughtful and reasoned posts I’ve seen on the matter, so I’m calling the whole thing a must read, but here are a few quotes:

technology problems are ultimately organizational culture problems. How can something that seems to some to be a “no brainer” seem so high-level risk to others?

…

Technology has reached a stage that any idea to implement a technology ought to begin with a “yes.”

I mean it. Begin with a “yes,” then work through the barriers or fit the idea into a list of priorities after. No, that does not mean “implement new technology NOW!” It means “give us techies the benefit of the doubt and then determine if something is not sustainable, too resource-intensive or whatnot after we have had the opportunity to show you it can be successful.”

Say “yes” and then say “let me see the model or plan” and then criticize it on its merits. Then do a 5-minute Google or Wikipedia search to find out what we are trying to do. Say “yes” first, then ask the hard questions and when the idea falls off the rails say “ok — let’s look at this for another time.”

…

We are dying to flex our muscles, because we have been working hard at building them. Starting with “no” is like telling us we are fat in our jeans. We know we are not. We know we are sexy, in-demand and turning heads everywhere we go. You will not teach us humility, it will be through action, mistake and consequences that we will gain that virtue. You might as well let it happen. Library staff will be retiring in the near future — more than mere working bodies, you will be losing experience in your organizations. You need to be building that stuff up in your staff lickety-split. This is what performance management is all about.

This is a dangerous suggestion, but a simple fact: the libraries that so many people have spent their careers building will soon be falling into the hands of these brash, indiscrete punks who think they look so good in their jeans. We have an opportunity to adopt technology while we still have a rich supply of institutional knowledge, or we can wait until that knowledge is gone and pray it works.

The later option is more exciting. If successful, the younger generation will be able to say they did it alone, and if it fails, the older generation can point out how flawed the young turks were from the start. But if libraries fail, if inexperience leads to disorganized libraries that get closed for lack of funding, then who really wins?

What’s your transition plan? How are you adopting technologies that serve your patrons while also building experience in the next generation of library leaders?

library, libraries, lib20, library 2.0, experience, transition, technology, attitudes toward technology, management, business continuity

Inside Higher Ed asks Are College Students Techno Idiots? Slashdot summarized it this way:

Are college students techno idiots? Despite the inflammatory headline, Inside Higher Ed asks an interesting question. The article refers to a recent study by ETS, which analyzed results from 6,300 students who took its ICT Literacy Assessment. The findings show that students don’t know how to judge the authoritativeness or objectivity of web sites, can’t narrow down an overly broad search, and can’t tailor a message to a particular audience. Yikes. According to the article: ‘when asked to select a research statement for a class assignment, only 44 percent identified a statement that captured the assignment’s demands. And when asked to evaluate several Web sites, 52 percent correctly assessed the objectivity of the sites, 65 percent correctly judged for authority, and 72 percent for timeliness. Overall, 49 percent correctly identified the site that satisfied all three criteria.’

Here’s what I mean. Just because about 90% of American teens regularly use the web and over half are on MySpace doesn’t mean that they know a lot (or anything) about technology or critical thinking. To think it does reflects the huge difference between how they use and think about the web and how ‘adults’ do.

That isn’t to say all ‘adults’ are as mistaken as ETS and Inside Higher Ed appear to be. Flickr is a social photo sharing site teaming with ‘adults’ driven with the same motivation teens on MySpace have: to do something fun and share it.

And just because our teens are using the web doesn’t mean they don’t need good, innovative teachers who know how to communicate with them.

[tags]technology, information literacy, technoidiots, teens, students, web[/tags]

I happened to stumble back onto the Pew Internet Report on teens and technology from July 2005 that report that told us “87% of [US children] between the ages of 12 and 17 are online.” But the part I’d missed before regarded how these teens were using communication technology:

Email, once the cutting edge “killer app,” is losing its privileged place among many teens as they express preferences for instant messaging (IM) and text messaging [SMS] as ways to connect with their friends.

To them, email is increasingly seen as a tool for communicating with “adults” such as teachers, institutions like schools, and as a way to convey lengthy and detailed information to large groups. Meanwhile, IM is used for everyday conversations with multiple friends that range from casual to more serious and private exchanges.

It is also used as a place of personal expression. Through buddy icons or other customization of the look and feel of IM communications, teens can express and differentiate themselves. Other instant messaging tools allow for the posting of personal profiles, or even “away” messages, durable signals posted when a user is away from the computer but wishes to remain connected to their IM network.

Interesting. Connect that with a 2004 Korean study of student’s communication practices that revealed more than two-thirds of the 2,000 respondents “rarely use or don’t use e-mail at all.” Why?

…it’s impossible to tell whether an addressee has received a message right away and replies are not immediately forthcoming. [...] “The new generation hate agonizing and waiting and tend to express their feelings immediately,” said Professor Lee. “The decline of email is a natural outcome reflecting such characteristics of the new generation.”

Interesting. American teens say email is for old people, Korean high-school and college students say it’s too slow, and UNH’s students tells us they chat away an average of 9.3 hours a week in AIM.

aim, aol instant messenger, communication, im, instant messaging, instant messenger, short message service, sms, technology, teens, the death of email, youth

Somebody at Gizmodo found this Agence France-Presse story about the intersection of American surfing and bathroom habits in The Hindustan Times. It’s based on a report by the USC Annenberg School’s Center for the Digital Future. For five years running now, the center has tracked internet use (and non-use) in a 2,000 household representative sample of America (choosing a new sample each year).

This year, researchers found: “Over half of those who used Wi-fi had used it in the bathroom.”

Gizmodo is going a little farther than I’d initially care to by asking readers to comment on their behavior, but I found this gem that reminds us that this may just reflect the evolution of our media: “The laptop in the john is the new newspaper for the millennium.”

I apparently have too many neatnik issues to go down that path, but rather than devolve the discussion, I’d like to point out that this Center for the Digital Future report appears to be a good complement to OCLC’s latest report and the regular stream of reports from the Pew Internet Project.

Now back to the funny: RSStroom Reader.

restroom, bathroom, rss, media, newspaper, report, Center for the Digital Future, wifi, in the bathroom, technology, computer use, behavior, research, on the throne, in the can

I’ve been doing a lot of talking about the coming information age and how it depends on access technology that is as cheap and easy to use as our cell phones (and applications of it that are as appealing as people find their cell phones). But I’ve been slow to mention the MIT Media Lab’s One Laptop Per Child $100 laptop plan.

The truth is that I just don’t know that much about it. That’s why I was interested to find Andy Carvin’s video interview with Mary Lou Jepsen, the CTO of the project. Jepsen answers Carvin’s questions about what’s what and how it works. I was especially intrigued by how the screen works (it’s brighter because there are no color filters).

$100 laptop, mit, media lab, mit media lab, Mary Lou Jepsen, technology, hardware, laptop, information age, digital divide, ubiquitous computing, ubicomp, portable, portable computing

My wife Sandee cringes at the suggestion that she’s a geek. She writes poetry and teaches English, she cooks fabulous meals and dances all night long. Surely you’re mistaken she’ll say. But she does have a laptop, a digital camera, and an iPod. And she immediately saw the value of having a computer in the living room when MP3s replaced CDs many years ago. So you’ll point to all of this and ask for a clarification and she’ll explain that her use of technology does not make her a technophile any more than her use of a car makes her a NASCAR fan.

So it was a bit of a dilemma last week as she was packing for the NCTE and National Writing Project conferences at which she was presenting. Her hotel offered free WiFi, should she bring her iBook?

The answer was surprisingly easy: of course she did. Her computer doesn’t solve her technology needs, it answers her communication and social needs. She used it to email, to send photos, and take notes. Then, during a three-hour layover in Philidelphia she shared it with friends so they could check their email. And after the email was checked, they played word twister.

To many, this may seem only natural. But let me emphasize the obvious: computers and computer networks now offer real value to those who don’t value technology. This is driving the success of social software. This is the coming of the information age.

tags: anti-geek, antigeek, communication, communication technology, geek, information age, living room technology, social software, technology, technology value, word twister

We’ve all seen the ads they digitally insert on the field during football games and we’ve heard talk about inserting new product placements as old TV shows play in syndication.

Ernie Miller has been thinking about this recently. Last week he noted that folks are creating ipod-able, independent audio tours of museums.
“…Hack the gallery experience, [...] remix MoMA!” commands ArtMobs, one of the groups producing these unauthorized audio tours. In this context, the notion of hearing “things you’ll never hear through MoMA’s headphones” is an exciting example of the power of the technology/communication-enabled individual over the corporation.

On the other hand, Ernie sees parralells between this and the digital overlays described at the top. In a followup post inspired by a response from the lawfirm of Carson Bailey, he notes:

as our world becomes increasingly layered with digital data. We will be changed by this; how, I’m not sure.

Now, back to Carson Bailey LLC, the principles of which do some blogging. In this post responding to the “hack the gallery” rhetoric, they ask “whether asking students to plug in [to these unauthorized audio tours] challenges the museum’s authority as an institution or reinforces it.” But you’ll have to read the full post to know what they’re really getting at, because I’m going to take that quote in a different direction.

What I’m interested in is if the museums will try to prevent that sort of unauthorized remixing the same way recording artists have. Will MoMa start ejecting visitors sporting white earbuds? If they do complain, on what basis do they stand? Can they also prevent me from accompanying my friends and offering my tour and descriptions of the work?

Technorati Tags: audio tours, communication, ernie miller, gallery experience, independent audio, ipod, mobs, moma, product placements, technology