Arts thru tech

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) published a report on Americans' participation in certain "benchmark" arts activities through electronic and digital media--radio, TV, CDs, DVDs, the Internet, and portable media devices. The benchmark activities surveyed: Jazz, Classical music, Opera, Musical plays, Non-musical plays, Ballet and other dance, Visual arts such as paintings, sculptures, or photography, and Programs about artists, art works, or art museums. The report is based on the 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA).

Its conclusions:

• Arts participation through media appears to encourage — rather than replace — live arts attendance.
• Education shows the strongest relationship with arts participation through electronic media.
• A sizeable group of Americans — particularly racial/ethnic minorities and older adults — participate in benchmark art forms solely through electronic media.
• The rate of arts participation through electronic media for different racial/ethnic groups depends on the art form.
• Given the relatively high rate of young adults who engage in literature through media, the overall rate of literary participation via media may increase markedly in the future.

Audience 2.0: How Technology Influences Arts Participation, June 2010
      Report (pdf, 146pp/2.72MB)
      Multi-media version

Google snafu

So what happens when Google snafus? Seems Google insists on publishing the phone number to the smaller, special Legislative Reference Bureau Library (808-587-0690), which serves the Hawaii legislative community, as the number for the main Hawaii State Library. The methods Google has in place to correct inaccurate information seemingly do not work (at least for several months in this case), whether directly from the web search results page or from the map page. Phone call queries to Google by both libraries have also not resulted in correction of information.

Recently it has been noticed how Google is beginning to presume the user's actual wants. As a Google member, one may choose for Google to save all of one's web searches to build upon subsequent searches, no matter how seemingly irrelevant the later search might appear. However, when search history is not to be saved nor the user signed in as a member, even the most general of search queries usually lists the inquirer's IP location specific results high on the returned page, flavoring it with many local commercial sites not usually expected to rank so high.

The volume of indexed information on the Internet is too massive to imagine. How to manage the data or how to access the information without presuming too much knowledge would seem to be still in the future...and sometimes the data is just plain wrong.

Backyard city hall

Local governments are releasing data in the hopes (and fears) that citizens will make it meaningful and "perhaps think differently about their city and its government." New York Times published a story today on city governments' release of formerly hard-to-get data sets which might change the way local governments "deliver programs, services and promises."

Advocates of these open-data efforts say they can help citizens figure out what is going on in their backyards and judge how their government is performing...

By releasing data in easy-to-use formats, cities and states hope that people will create sites or applications that use it in ways City Hall never would have considered.

Internet, income, education, civic engagement

Whether they take place on the internet or off, traditional political activities remain the domain of those with high levels of income and education.

So begins the summary to a new study by researchers at the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Traditional Internet political civic engagement activities are viewed as: emailing government officials; signing an online petition, emailing an editor; making political contributions on the internet; communicating with civic/political groups by messaging, instant messaging or using the group's social networking site.

Examining the data regarding offline civic activities and their online counterparts, the researchers found:

Online political activities are marked by the same high levels of stratification by income and education as their offline counterparts.

Political activity is highly correlated with income, whether that activity takes place online or off.

However, examining political engagement on blogs and social networking sites, they found "young adults more likely to engage in "new" forms of online civic engagement;" and the income and education gaps for these who take part in the new civic activities are reduced:

...those under age 35 represent 28% of the respondents in our survey but make up fully 72% of those who make political use of social networking sites, and 55% of those who post comments or visual material about politics on the Web. The youngest members of this group—those under age 25—constitute just 10% of our survey respondents but make up 40% of those who make political use of social networking sites and 29% of those who post comments or visual material about politics online.

Without offering more than the suggestion that the new social media might be changing the traditional character of civic engagement, the study asks:

[W]ill these forms of internet-based political engagement which entail opportunities for political expression and communication among large numbers of dispersed people foster the forms of political participation that involve attempts to influence political outcomes?

The Internet and Civic Engagement by Aaron Smith, Kay Lehman Schlozman, Sidney Verba, Henry Brady
(Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, 2009, pdf, 66pp/5MB)

Just In...second life grid

Kimberly Rufer-Bach of The Magicians, a 3D interactive software development company, has authored a guide for organizations considering Second Life. The virtual world offers not only unbounded environs for personal development and social dynamics, but provides a platform for the expanded development of organizations as well.

Drawing on her involvement in several government agencies' and educational institutions' projects to establish their Second Life presence, Ms. Rufer-Bach initiates the reader into the creative and sometimes demanding social and cultural protocols for a successful Second Life.

the second life grid, the official guide to communication, collaboration, and community engagement, by Kimberly Rufer-Bach

GV1469.25 S425 R84 2009

Clouds in my way

Issues in Science and Technology, a National Academy of Sciences publication, is "a forum for discussion of public policy related to science, engineering, and medicine." The Summer 2009 issue currently features an article on personal computing in the Cloud.

The Internet is entering a new phase that represents a fundamental shift in how computing is done. This phase, called Cloud computing, includes activities such as Web 2.0, Web services, the Grid, and Software as a Service, which are enabling users to tap data and software residing on the Internet rather than on a personal computer or a local server.

According to the author, Michael R. Nelson, the Cloud offers users:

• Limitless flexibility
• Better reliability and security
• Enhanced collaboration
• Portability
• Simpler devices

Mr. Nelson discusses the importance public policy decisions will have on the Cloud's development and character, and the "key policy factors" influencing its pace of progress, which include:

• Research
• Privacy and security
• Access to the Cloud
• E-government and open standards
• Competition and antitrust
• Wiretapping and electronic surveillance
• Intellectual property and liability
• Consumer protection

The Cloud, the Crowd, and Public Policy, by Michael R. Nelson
(Issues in Science and Technology, Summer 2009, html)

Sweatshops are not a game

New York Times posted a story online Tuesday (appearing in print July 1, 2009, B4) on China's latest attempts to restrict the trade and use of virtual money, banning virtual currencies being exchanged for real world goods...

The buying and selling of the make-believe currencies used in online gaming has become so widespread that Chinese authorities fear it will affect the real economy.

NYT writes that the China Internet Network Information Center found that nearly $2 billion in virtual currency was traded in China in 2008. Real world sweatshops producing earned virtual credits later to be resold at profit to overseas customers and online marketplaces trading in virtual goods for real goods and cash are two sides of the online coin.

NYT reports Edward Castronova, a professor of telecommunications at Indiana University Bloomington, approves China's response and considers virtual currencies pose a possible threat to world economies.

As virtual currencies take over more and more purchasing power, control over the effective money supply shifts from the central bank to the game developers.

Author of such works as, Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun Is Changing Reality and Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games, Castronova as early as 2001 predicted:

Unlike many internet ventures, virtual worlds are making money -- with annual revenues expected to top USD 1.5 billion by 2004 -- and if network effects are as powerful here as they have been with other internet innovations, virtual worlds may soon become the primary venue for all online activity.

While describing China's current regulations to rein in online gaming as their toughest, NYT points out the activity continues to grow.

Law's second angle of vision

The July 2009 Scientific American Magazine* includes an article by Michael Tennesen examining the possible legal issues of virtual realities:

...as online communities conduct actual financial transactions and draw in more participants, some legal experts think that it may be time to extend brick-and-mortar jurisprudence into the virtual realm.

Examples of fraud, marital alienation, character and attributes theft, even murder are cited to have overflowed into the real world demanding courtroom adjudication. Tennesen supposes:

Courts could set precedents as cases arise from the virtual world. South Korean courts, for instance, have done so a number of times in dealing with virtual property; in contrast, U.S. courts have shied away from the issue. The scope of the online realm suggests that legislation may be desirable. Virtual commerce is worth about $1 billion annually and is set to get bigger...

Avatar Acts: Why Online Realities Need Regulation by Michael Tennesen
(July 2009 Scientific American Magazine, html)

*Scientific American Magazine is made available online over the course of each month.

Recent GAO reports

From the Government Accountability Office (GAO):

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION: Greater Attention Is Needed to Enhance Communication and Utilization of Resources in the Division of Enforcement, GAO-09-613T (pdf, 14pp/164kB), May 7, 2009

This testimony on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Division of Enforcement (Enforcement) is based on GAO's earlier report (pdf, 64pp/1.1MB) of the same title, issued March 31, 2009. The testimony focuses on (1) the extent to which Enforcement has an appropriate mix of resources; (2) considerations affecting penalty determinations, and recent trends in penalties and disgorgements ordered; and (3) the adoption, implementation, and effects of recent penalty policies.


GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM: Significant Challenges in Sustaining and Upgrading Widely Used Capabilities,
      Report (pdf, 61pp/1.4MB), April 30, 2009
      Testimony (pdf, 15pp/196kB), May 7, 2009

The U.S. provides free Global Positioning System (GPS) data and service, the Dept. of Defense (DOD) develops and operates GPS, and the Air Force, which is responsible for GPS acquisition, is in the process of modernizing GPS. In both the report and testimony, GAO expressed concern as to the Air Force's timely acquisition of next-generation GPS satellites. GAO assessed progress in (1) acquiring GPS satellites, (2) acquiring the ground control and user equipment necessary to leverage GPS satellite capabilities, and evaluated (3) coordination among federal agencies and other organizations to ensure GPS missions can be accomplished.


FINANCIAL LITERACY AND EDUCATION COMMISSION: Progress Made in Fostering Partnerships, but National Strategy Remains Largely Descriptive Rather Than Strategic, GAO-09-638T (pdf, 20pp/176kB), April 29, 2009

In 2003 the Financial Literacy and Education Improvement Act established the Financial Literacy and Education Commission to improve financial literacy and education through a national strategy. In Dec. 2006 GAO published a report (pdf, 54pp/580kB) with recommendations to the Commission on its national strategy, Web site, reviews of federal activities, and development of partnerships. This testimony is on the Commission's progress in implementing GAO's recommendations and key challenges the Commission faces.


AUTO INDUSTRY: Summary of Government Efforts and Automakers' Restructuring to Date, GAO-09-553 (pdf, 48pp/624kB), April 23, 2009

To stabilize the auto industry, in Dec. 2008 Treasury established the Automotive Industry Financing Program (AIFP) under TARP. Through March 2009, Treasury allocated $36 billion to AIFP. As part of GAO's mandate to oversee TARP activities, this report discusses the (1) nature and purpose of assistance to the auto industry, (2) how the assistance addresses three principles (identifying and defining the problem, determining the national interests and setting clear goals and objectives that address the problem, and protecting the government's interests), and (3) important factors for Chrysler and GM to address in achieving long-term viability and the challenges they face to become viable.


COMMERCIAL AVIATION: Airline Industry Contraction Due to Volatile Fuel Prices and Falling Demand Affects Airports, Passengers, and Federal Government Revenues, GAO-09-393 (pdf, 58pp/1.4MB), April 21, 2009

According to GAO, U.S. passenger airlines lost $4.3 billion in the first 3 quarters of 2008, largely due to volatile fuel prices, and the outlook for profitability in 2009 is uncertain. For this report, GAO examined how (1) the financial condition of the U.S. passenger airline industry has changed, the principal factors affecting its condition, and its prospects for 2009; (2) airlines have responded to the factors affecting their financial condition; and (3) changes in the industry have affected airports, passengers, and the Airport and Airway Trust Fund (AATF), which funds the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) capital programs and most of its operations.

E-books

In an article recently published in the International Journal of the Book, John Warren of the RAND Corporation examines the pros and cons of e-books with three examples:

• I Want You! The Evolution of the All-Volunteer Force (RAND, 2006) a history e-text that includes 1,700 primary-source documents linked from footnotes


• Pinzas de Metal (Metal Tweezers), 2003, by Tina Escaja, a hypertext novel that "presents the reader with a menu of choices in character, place, and object—the reader uses a magnifying glass to select one choice of each set and a brief text ensues, overlaying a jigsaw puzzle....In Escaja’s work, the reader becomes an active participant in the story."


• Digital textbooks. The authors cites Yale Books Unbound and Rice University's Connexions as examples of innovative collaboration in scholarly works.

Innovation and the Future of e-Books (pdf, 15pp/556kB)

Info and communications tech (ICT)

On Jan. 14 the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program released a report on the Aspen Plan for information and communications technologies (ICT). Last August the Institute gathered 29 leaders in communications policy to formulate recommendations to the next administration on leveraging ICT "to help stimulate the economy and establish long-term economic growth." The Aspen Plan presents 3 initiatives:

• Establish presidential leadership on ICT
• Economic stimulus and ICT infrastructure (telecom plan)
• ICT, energy and the environment

The report concludes:

The technologies necessary for (a) ubiquitous, national broadband network are available, and the time has come to finish building the network’s infrastructure and encourage 100% popular adoption. It is time to prepare ourselves, so that every American will be able to enjoy the benefits when the economy and government inevitably migrate to primarily electronic platforms.

ICT: The 21st Century Transitional Initiative (pdf, 58pp/960kB)
Initiative Recommendations (pdf, 7pp/160kB)
Press release, Jan. 14, 2009

News - Net surf's up

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, "an independent opinion research group that studies attitudes toward the press, politics and public policy issues," published a report yesterday based on their most recent installment of the weekly News Interest Index examining news interest relating to the news media's coverage. The study found:

The internet, which emerged this year as a leading source for campaign news, has now surpassed all other media except television as a main source for national and international news.

They found 40% of the respondents to their questionaire say they get most of their news about national and international issues from the internet, "and more people say they rely mostly on the internet for news than cite newspapers (35%)." Television is cited as being the chief source of national and international news (70%).

Internet Overtakes Newspapers As News Source - Pew Research Center for the People & the Press News Interest Index
(December 2008, pdf, 7pp/44kB)

Summary (html)

"Emerging challenges"

"Issues Over the Horizon: Eleven Emerging Challenges" is the cover story of the Summer 2008 issue of the RAND Review (pdf, 32pp/2.17MB), a publication of the RAND Corporation. There are 11 essays on "important policy issues not currently receiving the attention they deserve in the public debate." Among the issues:

• The Aging Couple - Social Security and Medicare
• Corporate America's Next Big Scandal - corporate income tax avoidance
• Innovative Infrastructure - using electronic sensors instead of human inspection
• The Day After - when electronic voting machines fail
• Beating the Germ Insurgency - drug-resistant diseases
• A Second Reproductive Revolution - "egg banking" will stop the biological clock
• From Nation-State to Nexus-State - networks without boundaries

Digital humanities

There is an Office of Digital Humanities (ODH) in the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Brett Bobley, ODH Director, this morning posted a paper, "Why the Digital Humanities?" (pdf, 3pp.), on its website. ODH was established in March 2008, its primary mission being "to help coordinate the NEH's efforts in the area of digital humanities." Bobley explains:

Let me expand on what I mean by “digital humanities.” We use “digital humanities” as an umbrella term for a number of different activities that surround technology and humanities scholarship. Under the digital humanities rubric, I would include topics like open access to materials, intellectual property rights, tool development, digital libraries, data mining, born-digital preservation, multimedia publication, visualization, GIS, digital reconstruction, study of the impact of technology on numerous fields, technology for teaching and learning, sustainability models, and many others.

Bobley also notes the massive digitization of cultural heritage materials, cyberinfrastructure (new technologies for humanities scholars), and the rise of digital humanities centers.

You're on YouTube

Note should be taken of a recent federal court for the Southern District of New York ruling (pdf) in the Viacom v. Google litigation. The Electronic Frontier Foundation blogs the story in a July 2 post by EFF staffer, Kurt Opsahl.

Google [is ordered] to produce to Viacom (over Google's objections): all data from the Logging database concerning each time a YouTube video has been viewed on the YouTube website or through embedding on a third-party website.

The Logging database contains: for each instance a video is watched, the unique “login ID” of the user who watched it, the time when the user started to watch the video, the internet protocol address other devices connected to the internet use to identify the user’s computer (“IP address”), and the identifier for the video.

The Net media, Good Morning Silicon Valley, reports that Google's argument (which cited the VPPA, 18 U.S.C. § 2710) "that such a release would represent a massive violation of user privacy was waved away by the judge."

EFF's Opsahl writes:

The Court's erroneous ruling is a set-back to privacy rights, and will allow Viacom to see what you are watching on YouTube. We urge Viacom to back off this overbroad request and Google to take all steps necessary to challenge this order and protect the rights of its users.

related links:

The New York Times initial story, March 14, 2007

Wired blog post, July 2, 2008

TechCrunch blog post, July 3, 2008

L.A. Times Technology blog post, July 3, 2008

Give and get

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is an education project to provide the world's children "with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves.".

Any nation's most precious natural resource is its children. We believe the emerging world must leverage this resource by tapping into the children's innate capacities to learn, share, and create on their own. Our answer to that challenge is the XO laptop, a children's machine designed for "learning learning."

The XO laptop is a "a flexible, ultra-low-cost, power-efficient, responsive, and durable" laptop. Its operating system is built from free and open-source software:

The children-and their teachers-will have the freedom to reshape, reinvent, and reapply their software, hardware, and content.

Beginning November 12, OLPC will offer its Give 1 Get 1 Program: $399 will provide one XO laptop to be "sent to empower a child to learn in a developing nation," and one will be sent to your home.

Plugged into science

The National Academies offers a weekly series of podcasts "focusing on a wide range of critical issues in science, engineering, and medicine." Begun in early March 2007, the many podcast topics include:

• None of Your Business: Privacy in the Information Age (Fri, 14 Sep 2007)
• Critical Issues in Transportation (Fri, 31 Aug 2007)
• Uninsured in America (Fri, 6 Jul 2007)
• Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity: How Do We Measure Up? (Wed, 6 Jun 2007)
• Tech Tally: Approaches to Assessing Technological Literacy (Fri, 23 Mar 2007)
• Engaging Schools (Fri, 16 Mar 2007)

The shows are ten minutes in length and, like all podcasts, may be donwloaded and played on one's computer or loaded onto an MP3 player for playback on the go. The National Academies also provides a subscription link for automatic download.

The Sounds of Science Podcast - key findings and important recommendations made by The National Academies.

Tracking bill status Hawaii style

The Hawaii State Legislature's website currently offers bill status via RSS syndication. To monitor the status of any bill, users can obtain the feed link for their RSS feed readers on the bill's status page. The website's RSS help page explains it clearly for those unfamilar with RSS syndication and its benefits.

Visit the Hawaii State Legislature Status and Documents to search current legislation.

D.C. beat, e-style

National politics press gets a new online news provider. Recruiting writers from such established press as The Washington Post and launched January 23, The Politico self-described emphasis is "on the 'backstories' -- those that illuminate the personalities, relationships, clashes, ideas and political strategies playing out in the shadows of official Washington."

We will focus on three arenas. The first is Congress and the constant flow of agendas, personalities and power struggles that define daily life on Capitol Hill. The second is the 2008 presidential campaign, a race already churning and one likely to shape history in ways far beyond the typical election. The third is lobbying and advocacy, a part of the capital economy undergoing rapid growth and change.

With a slick, sophisticated look of an east coast news magazine, The Politico offers the expected modern, blog features of permanent links to articles and columns, reader comments interaction, and registered user access to email alerts and participation in chats and forums.

Running on the broadband

A post-election survey by Pew/Internet reports "the number of Americans using the Internet as the source of most of their political news doubled since the last mid-term election." Examining the rate of primary use of news sources (TV, newspapers, radio, Internet, magazines), the survey finds only the Internet steadily increased in popularity . The remaining sources lost in popularity: TV and newspapers the bigger losers reporting political source popularity dropping from 82% to 69% and 57% to 34% respectively, with radio rising from 12% to a high of 19% then dropping to 17%. Magazines lost a 11% popularity among voters to a low of 2%.

The survey also reported:

• 31% of Americans used the internet during the 2006 campaign to get political news and information and discuss the races through email.
• Relatively young broadband users say the internet is a more important political news source than newspapers.
• A new online political elite is emerging as 23% of campaign internet users became online political activists.
• A majority of Internet users now get political material from blogs, comedy sites, government websites, candidate sites, or alternative news sites.
• More than half of campaign Internet users cite the Internet's breadth of information and perspectives as a major reason for their online activity.

Election 2006 Online
(January 2007, pdf, 33pp/308kB)