Jason Griffey

Amazon.com is in the process of digitizing 120,000 books, and making the FULL TEXT searchable online. The kicker? You can't access the entire book digitally…just the pages that are returned for your search. This is in an attempt to increase the utility of their commercial venture. So….it could be better, but the utility will still be incredible.

Full story from Wired….here's an excerpt:

“Amazon's Alexandrian scheme hinges on the insight that physical books can be turned into electronic databases and then – in the retail process – turned back into physical books. This is one of the boldest maneuvers yet in an intense commercial competition, but for all its cunning, this is a civilized, even civilizing war, one that builds libraries rather than burns them. “

Jean…you must use this image somewhere in your master’s paper. It’s a necessity.

Bloggers Manga?

from Amazon.com Japan

Amazon.com is in the process of digitizing 120,000 books, and making the FULL TEXT searchable online. The kicker? You can’t access the entire book digitally…just the pages that are returned for your search. This is in an attempt to increase the utility of their commercial venture. So….it could be better, but the utility will still be incredible.

Full story from Wired….here’s an excerpt:

“Amazon’s Alexandrian scheme hinges on the insight that physical books can be turned into electronic databases and then – in the retail process – turned back into physical books. This is one of the boldest maneuvers yet in an intense commercial competition, but for all its cunning, this is a civilized, even civilizing war, one that builds libraries rather than burns them. “

And finally….Fall Break. All I can say is: About fucking time.

Not that there's a break there. We're gonna do a little travelling, probably to Busch Gardens in VA.

Also, a list of things to do over break:

• Get recommendations for jobs lined up and sent to Career Services
• Start outline of Master's Paper
• Watch a lot of movies with Betsy
• See friends
• Work on projects for classes
• Finish Quicksilver
• Read articles for INLS 180

And finally….Fall Break. All I can say is: About fucking time.

Not that there’s a break there. We’re gonna do a little travelling, probably to Busch Gardens in VA.

Also, a list of things to do over break:

• Get recommendations for jobs lined up and sent to Career Services
• Start outline of Master’s Paper
• Watch a lot of movies with Betsy
• See friends
• Work on projects for classes
• Finish Quicksilver
• Read articles for INLS 180

Cause it seems like they might just get it there. Here’s a link to the speech given by Ashley Highfield, Director of BBC New Media & Technology, and here are 5 things you will NEVER hear an American Media leader say:

1. “At the simplest level — audiences will want to organize and re-order content the way they want it”
2. “We should create more programmes that come with the meta-data, the tags in the programme that allow it to be chopped up and consumed piece meal by the viewer. ”
3. “Traditionally we have always thought that TV was about lying back relaxing and at best, half hearted interaction. In fact, recent trials again in Hull proved otherwise — audiences want a lot more than this. They want to create their own content either from scratch, or perhaps using tools and support that a broadcaster can provide”
4. “Downloading and sharing this video is the final piece of the jigsaw and will create a killer combination that I believe could undermine the existing models of pay-TV. ”
5. “We are exploring legitimate peer-to-peer models to get our users to share our content, on our behalf, amongst themselves, transparently.”

I’m just testing some new blog software…WordPress, an offshoot of B2. We’ll see how this goes for a bit, with some tweaking. I like Userland, but this has some advantages, esp the fact that I can access it from anywhere, rather than just from my laptop.

So, unless I get Tiki working, and it just blows me out of the water, I will switch over to WordPress.

Freaking fabulous news from the BBC: They're putting their archives (both radio and TV) online, for free, accessible by anyone. This is just completely the coolest thing ever…hopefully this will be a model for future open information from other media creators.

Best quote of the year (I want this thing on a T-shirt):
“I believe that we are about to move into a second phase of the digital revolution, a phase which will be more about public than private value; about free, not pay services; about inclusivity, not exclusion. ” -Greg Dyke, director general of the BBC

Read the story here.