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Microsoft Made Choices, Libraries Must Respond
,----[ Quote ]
| Since the program was part of a project by the
| Gates Foundation, ostensibly with primary usage
| aimed at these libraries, it makes one wonder
| what the folks at Microsoft are thinking.
|
| My first opinion, and one I believe Iâll stick
| with, is that there is absolutely no need to
| update to Windows 7, for as the saying goes âif
| it isnât broken, donât fix itâ. Though the
| talking heads at Microsoft would have you
| believe that Windows 7 is worlds better than
| Windows XP, that is far from true. If there are
| any small differences in security, they can be
| fully mitigated with a simple change of
| browser, firewall, and antivirus/antimalware
| programs.
|
| [...]
|
| SteadyState is descended from the Public Access
| Computer security software developed in the
| early 2000s by the Bill and Melinda Gates
| Foundation. It was part of the foundationâs
| ongoing drive to put computers into schools and
| libraries.
|
| In 2005, Microsoft picked up the torch with the
| release of the Shared Computer Toolkit and then
| followed with SteadyState in 2007 for Windows
| XP.
|
| Ironically, news of Microsoftâs decision not to
| support SteadyState in Windows 7 arrived in the
| same month as a Gates Foundationâfunded,
| University of Washington study, which reported
| that some 77 million Americans used a library
| computer or Wi-Fi network to access the
| Internet last year.
|
| [...]
|
| Not only is the Gates Foundation supposed to be
| sensitive to this, Microsoft, working in its
| own best interest, should see the immediate
| need to do something, or else, some
| enterprising person will come along and show
| many libraries the benefits of a little jewel
| called Linux.
|
| Letâs face it, for what people do on computers
| at the library, Linux, specifically Ubuntu or
| OpenSuSE would work very well, and be very
| easily administered by the right person. SO
| each library district may have to pay for that
| right person, in the long run it saves
| thousands, if not millions of dollars in
| bypassing the Microsoft trough, and forced cash
| removals every 3-4 years.
`----
http://myblog.latestrend.com/general/microsoft-made-choices-libraries-must-respond/
Recent:
British Library's Bitter Digital Milestone
,----[ Quote ]
| That is: digitising content that is out of
| copyright, in the public domain, and then
| making us pay through the nose - us as in
| muggins public, which has kept the British
| Library going for two centuries thanks to
| our taxes, in case you'd forgotten - for
| the privilege of viewing it online.
|
| Thanks a bunch, BL, for locking up "an
| increasing proportion of the nation's
| intellectual output" behind a paywall,
| where few will ever see it: that's what
| spreading knowledge is all about, isn't it?
| Great work from a quondam great
| institution, more millstone than
| milestone...
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/11/british-librarys-bitter-digital.html
British Library Turns Traitor
,----[ Quote ]
| This once-great institution used to be about opening up the world's knowledge
| for the benefit and enjoyment of all: today, it's about closing it down so
| that only those who can afford to pay get to see it.
|
| What an utter disgrace.
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/07/british-library-turns-traitor.html
British Library fears loss of history
,----[ Quote ]
| Lynne Brindley, director of the British Library, said that data and
| information on our time that has been entrusted to the web is being lost as
| some sites close or the technology they have stored the information on
| becomes obsolete.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/623/1050623/british-library-fears-loss-history
Related:
No need to burn books you can't read - DRM and public libraries
,----[ Quote ]
| As my correspondent says: "After all that I still couldn't open the document
| (which I've only opened once before) and got this. Now I know I haven't
| opened the document at another computer because this is my only computer with
| a printer - so I didn't open it anywhere else. I am never using this service
| again. The British Library, Microsoft and Adobe can go shove their DRM up
| their document delivery service exit. "
|
| This, let me reiterate, is a public body providing publicly paid-for research
| to a highly-qualified professional engaged in impeccable work for the public
| service.
|
| It is hard to imagine something more expensive, condescending, inaccurate,
| frustrating and enraging â nor something better calculated to restrict
| knowledge and broadcast ignorance.
|
| It's almost as if the parties involved actively want to prevent people
| learning. It certainly feels that way.
`----
http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10009526o-2000331777b,00.htm
BL = Betrayed Library
,----[ Quote ]
| So the BL's idea of progress is locking down books - you know, those
| old-fashioned things without DRM - with patent-encumbered technology.
| That's "giving as wide an audience as possible the most accurate experience
| of reading the real thing"? Only in the minds of rather dim librarians who
| understand nothing about the broader implications of the shiny technology
| they choose. Me, I call it a betrayal of everything the once-great BL stood
| for....
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2008/08/bl-betrayed-library.html
Good bye, British Library
,----[ Quote ]
| This is an image from the good old days. Microsoft's Jean Paoli hands over
| the OOXML specification to Jan van den Beld, the general secretary of ECMA.
| And you find Adam Farquhar from the British Library, the bearded person on
| the right. The British Library was instrumental to legitimizing the whole
| ECMA and ISO OOXML standardisation process as an 'independent' participant in
| the committee work. ECMA did a brilliant job to mature the specification text
| to get it ISO fast-tracked. Or as the ISO BRM convenor and recent consultant
| for the British Library Alex Brown reflects1:
|
| Ecma made the road very rocky though, by initially producing a text that
| was so lousy with faults.
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-61777/good-bye-british-library
Ecma - a case study for vendor capture
,----[ Quote ]
| A small network of people of ECMA International dominated the whole ISO
| process around OOXML while technical experts of national ISO members were
| impeded by committee stuffing, rules bending and political intervention and
| the general restrictions of the revamped ISO/IEC fast-track process.
|
| [...]
|
| On the right you find a picture of Jan van den Beld, back then general
| secretary of ECMA international who received the 2000 pages from Microsoft
| represented by its employee Jean Paoli (center). Jean Paoli is probably best
| known for taking the Microsoft credit for the standardization of XML. The
| other person with the beard is Adam Farquhar from the British Library, chair
| of ECMA TC 45. You also find the picture on the right in Adam Farquhar's May
| 07 presentation which advocates for OOXML.
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/ecma-and-vendor-capture
,----[ Quote ]
| And the company Griffin Brown, of which the BRM convenor Alex Brown is the
| director, sent out a press release 13 March 08 celebrating the 10th
| anniversary of XML:
|
| "Recent moves by Microsoft to standardise its Office products around XML file
| formats merely confirms that most valuable business data in the future will
| be stored in XML. â Alex Brown is convenor of the ISO/IEC DIS 29500 Ballot
| Resolution Process, and has recently been elected to the panel to advise the
| British Library on how to handle digital submission of journal articles."
|
| [PJ: A bit of background on the British Library here, but the short version
| is that it uses Microsoft, was a co-sponsor of having Ecma put what is now
| OOXML on the fast track, and says today it is "pleased".] - No OOXML
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/newsitems.php
British Library books go digital
,----[ Quote ]
| Digitised publications will be accessible in two ways -initially through
| Microsoft's Live Search Books and then via the Library's website.
`----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7018210.stm
Britain: E-Mail Time Capsule in Works
,----[ Quote ]
| Now the British Library is appealing to ordinary Britons for their
| e-mails, saying it wants to create a snapshot of British life in 2007.
|
| [...]
|
| The e-mails will be collated and indexed by Microsoft Corp., which
| has previously partnered with the library to digitize books from
| its archive, and they will be available to researchers before
| the year's end.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070503/britain_e_mail_archive.html?.v=1
Vista and British Library put da Vinci online
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft and the British Library have digitised two of Leonardo da
| Vincis' notebooks.
|
| [...]
|
| The British Library has created an updated version of its application
| called "Turning the Pages" which allows people to browse parts of
| its 150 million piece collection via a web browser. We heard how
| this works better using Vista.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/30/vinci_notebooks_vista/
Publish And Perish
,----[ Quote ]
| Alexander Rose, the executive director of the futurist Long Now
| Foundation, worries about the impermanence of digital information.
| "If you save that computer for 100 years, will the electrical plugs
| look the same?" he asks. "The Mac or the PC--will they be around?
| If they are, what about the software? " So far there's no business
| case for digital preservation--in fact, for software makers like
| Microsoft, planned obsolescence is the plan.
|
| "The reality is that it's in companies' interest that software should
| become obsolete and that you should have to buy every upgrade,"
| Rose says. We could be on the cusp of a turning point, though, in the
| way businesses and their customers think about digital preservation.
| "Things will start to change when people start losing all of their personal
| photos," Rose said.
`----
http://www.forbes.com/2006/11/30/books-information-preservation-tech-media_cx_ee_books06_1201acid.html?partner=yahootix
http://tinyurl.com/yyjqoh
British Library calls for digital copyright action
,----[ Quote ]
| In a manifesto released on Monday at the Labor Party Conference
| in Manchester, the United Kingdom's national library warned that the
| country's traditional copyright law needs to be extended to fully
| recognize digital content.
|
| "Unless there is a serious updating of copyright law to recognize
| the changing technological environment, the law becomes an ass,"
| Lynne Brindley, chief executive of the British Library, told ZDNet
| UK.
`----
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6119043.html
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