Rough Drafts

INFORMATION SCIENCE: THE INVISIBLE SUBSTRATE, by Marcia J. Bates, UCLA From the abstract: “The mental activities of the professional practice of the field are seen to center around representation and organization of information rather than knowing information. It is argued that such representation e

The Digital Library: A Biography, by Daniel Greenstein, California Digital Library, and Suzanne E. Thorin, Indiana Univ. With 6 case studies of digital library evolution, including CDL, Indiana, Harvard, and others.

Like many LA Times features, this one is nearly epic in length. But it’s an outstanding profile of Lawrence Lessig, his work on the upcoming Eldred case, and on copyright history. The Cultural Anarchist vs. the Hollywood Police State (registration required — free, but annoying)

Gary Shapiro on Intellectual property: “This term is so well established and that there is virtually no chance of rolling it back. But its usage serves to strengthen the position of the content business vis-a-vis information consumers (i.e. society as a whole). It amplifies the similarities and obsc

Nick Denton has a smart critique of Google News: “It discriminates against an exclusive, which is perverse. A story exclusive to one source — the New York Times scoop on US war plans, for instance — will rank low. While a standard calendar-driven wire service story — reported everywhere, without any

Don’t miss my latest Business 2.0 column, Are You Overpaying for Content Management?

A big heartfelt welcome to Scot and Amy’s beautiful baby boy!

Golan Levin and the Whitney Museum have produced an entertaining, interactive work of art: Click on any three countries in an on-screen world map, and it will tell you what axis of power they represent. Mexico, Canada, US: Axis of oil-producing, vodka-exporting, nuclear-powered, cannabis-cultivating

More and more journalists are starting to run their own weblogs on the side. “If I’m a lawyer advising a news organization, the idea of a Web log like this would just make me break out in hives,” says a journalism prof at U. Minn. The NYT reports. (thanks, Romenesko) Thought experiment: What will ha

New look and features for Google News. Cool! Much slicker looking, much more newspapery. It takes a little getting used to but actually makes scanning the news much easier — it includes short story summaries and some photos, both new, and options to see stories from more sources. The page claims tha

The numbers aren’t pretty. Fifty-three percent of companies will have deployed new content-management systems by the end of this year. Given the expense involved — a high-end CMS like Vignette can cost upwards of $100,000 for the software alone, plus another multiple of that in installation costs —

Annalee Newitz: “Internet Archive volunteers have put about 9,000 public domain books on its site, and now they’re driving around the United States in a high-tech bookmobile where people can link to the archive via satellite, download the book of their choice, print it out, and take it home to read.