Web 2.0: Blogs & Wikis

Recently two articles have been published that discuss the authority of blogs and wikis. When, if ever, can they be used as reliable information resources?

The Wikipedia article: Schiff, Stacy. "Know it All: Can Wikipedia conquer expertise?" New Yorker July 31, 2006.
Schiff argues that while "Wikipedia is to Britannica as American Idol is to the Juilliard School," it has a wealth of information not available in the traditional encyclopedia. For every three errors in Britannica, there are four in Wikipedia. Pretty good stats for a startup!

The blog article: Zeller, Tom, Jr. Anne Frank 2006: War Diaries Online. New York Times July 24, 2006.
The blog is the 21st century's personal narrative. This is primary source material. To get a real feel for what is going on in the Middle East today, go to any of the blogs listed in this article and read what is really going on from a first person perspective. Not only will you find text, you will find photos and videos of events as they happen--uncensored!

Scholarly Publishing Goes Digital

From Inside Higher Ed: "New Model for Scholarly Publishing"

Rice University Press is making a comeback as a digital publisher. Their rationale?

• no pressure to publish works that will sell enough copies to justify print run
  
• junior professors will have an easier time getting published
• more affordable publishing
• more streamlined
• maintain peer-review

These publications will be available for free download on Connexions.

VoIP Phones

Earlier this summer, the IT department installed Cisco IP phones. The library is only the second department on campus to be using these state-of-the-art gadgets. The sound quality is much better than that of VoIP in the old days (3-4 years ago). There is an echo reminiscent of that heard on WATTS line many years ago. There is no latency--guess this is a packet-preferred system.

Some cool features include:

• Voice mail that is forwarded to e-mail
• All kinds of rings....most of which can't be used in a library setting...
• online directory of other IP phones on campus
  
• caller ID on campus from other IP phones
• caller phone listings
• unanswered call queue
  

"Generation Deaf"

This article in today's Chronicle of Higher Education was interesting:

Staff at the U of Illinois Urbana were surprised when students in the library failed to react to a tornado siren. They were all listening to iPods and other devices at volumes that exceeded the sound of the siren’s blast…

Are students that disconnected from RL that they are unaware of possible dangers? Should we be sure that our emergency warning systems include a visual alert system--flashing red and blue lights? I'm told our new library has these, but will they be visible to everyone?