September 2007 Issue

The problem in Boston was not the number of violent crimes (which had indeed been rising), but the “code of silence and lack of cooperation” from the community, according to Boston Police Department (BPD) spokesperson Elaine Driscoll. Boston has had a Crime Stoppers tip line in place for a decade, but use had dwindled and a new commissioner—Ed Davis, who took the helm in December 2006—needed ideas.

Right now, searching for an image relies on text, whether in the name of the image or somewhere in a description, which means the searcher is dependent on how an image is labeled. Search engines cannot “see” an image and report back based on description.

Activism has stepped off the soapbox and moved online. The IFAW is only one of the latest activist organizations to turn to the blogosphere to raise awareness.

It wasn’t all that long ago that, if you wanted to purchase an item online, you needed at least a credit card or a checking account to complete the transaction. Not so any longer. With the latest online payment solution developed by BSG Clearing Solutions, dubbed Bill2Phone, all you’ll need is a telephone. Or, more accurately, a telephone bill.

The digitization of content, from print to video to audio and beyond, has major implications for corporations and consumers. Never has content been more flexible and accessible, and never has the threat of misuse of copyright been greater. Yet despite the ever-shifting shape of copyright problems, solutions are emerging to help users comply.

Print plagiarism used to be considered an occupational hazard for scholars and writers. However, with the advent of the internet, plagiarizing someone else’s original work requires less heavy lifting than ever. Luckily, the digital environment can make spotting poached pieces easier too.

To keep a portal from being more than just a pretty face, it is essential to untangle this confusing market and examine portal functionality as it relates to different projects.

Publishers may have been short-changed when they embraced the fixed internet only to see their brands and offerings diluted by major search-engine brands that called the shots and picked the content. Thus, they would be short-sighted not to explore the world of exciting and lucrative opportunities offered by the emerging mobile web.

As we get older (and in my case grayer), we have great difficulty in tracking the new entrants to our profession and business, and by the same account they would probably not be aware that we even exist and have networks that they could use.

Just because some organizations do not appreciate libraries or research analysts does not mean that these are not good career paths; it just means that individual librarians need to reposition themselves and emphasize the value they offer to an organization.

The most effective way to market products and services online is to develop thought leadership-based content that existing and potential customers will actually want to read.

In his most recent book, Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder, Weinberger humanizes the nearly inconceivable scope of the digital content universe.

The problem of video search has been waiting in the wings for a number of years now. True believers like Blinkx and Truveo (now part of AOL) were patiently experimenting with ways of indexing and tagging video assets long before the broadband penetration rates and usage curves supported it. During the last year, at YouTube, the dam has broken. People are starting to look for video in the same way they hunt for text.

“I go out and play on the internet at least once a month just to see what is going on out there.”

In overhauling its content management system—and approach—Siteworx worked with NAFSA to develop a more modern design, a more intuitive navigation system, indexed search functionality, and professional networks for different specialties.