FGI on the road
Today we start a new feature, FGI on the road. From time to time we'll post upcoming events that FGI volunteers will be attending. We'll be doing this hoping that you'll stop by and say hello so we can meet and talk about government information issues!
Here are places we'll be over the next few months:
- San Francisco Bay Area. Ongoing
Shinjoung Yeo and James R. Jacobs put together monthly public talks and workshops for the Stanford Open Source Lab. Check the Open Source Lab blog for talk announcements. Talks are open to the public. - Urbana-Champaign, IL. April, 2008
Shinjoung and James R will be participating in a brown-bag discussion with graduate students at University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science. - Stanford University. May 27-30, 2008
IASSIST 2008 Conference
The theme of the 2008 meeting of the International Association for Social Science Information Services & Technology (IASSIST), Technology of Data: Collection, Communication, Access and Preservation, examines the role of technology and tools in various aspects of the data life cycle. Shinjoung and James R (local arrangements) and James A. Jacobs will be there. - Anaheim, CA. June 27, 2008.
ALA pre-conference Docs2.0: emerging web technologies for the government documents community. Friday, June 27, 2008, 9:00am – 12:30 (Event Code: GO2)
James A. and James R. will be presenting and will be joining Amy West, Interim Head, Government Publications Library, University of Minnesota (Amy was also an FGI blogger of the month), David Oldenkamp, International Studies Librarian, Indiana University, and John Wonderlich, Program Director, of the Sunlight Foundation. Registration is open, but seating is limited. - Anaheim, CA. June 26–July 2, 2008.
ALA 2008 2008 Annual Conference
Shinjoung and James R and Daniel Cornwall will be there. James R. will be doing a presentation and leading a discussion on digital collection development at GODORT's International documents task force. Daniel is planning a lunch or some other informal get together on the State Agencies Wiki. - Ann Arbor MI. August 11-15
Providing Social Science Data Services: Strategies for Design and Operation
This workshop covers the basics of providing services for social science data. James A. will be joining Diane Geraci, who starts as Associate Director for Information Resources at MIT Libraries in April, and Chuck Humphrey, the Data Library Coordinator at the University of Alberta. This workshop is part of the ICPSR Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research. Registration is limited to 20.
House passes FISA bill without telecom immunity!
After the Senate, on Tuesday, February 12, 2008, passed a FISA reform bill that included immunity for telecom companies from being sued for participating in the unconstitutional NSA wiretapping program, the House of Representatives today passed a version of the FISA bill *without* telecom immunity! There is sure to be much negotiation and politicking from the administration as the two bills go to the [w: United States Congress Conference committee]. Stay tuned and be sure to contact your Congressional representatives and let them know that telecom immunity is NOT OK! Continue reading
Yale researchers, Verizon use P2P to speed downloads
Here at FGI, we've been interested in [w: Peer-to-peer] (P2P) technologies for quite a while --I wrote a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) backgrounder (PDF) in 2004 for the Librarians Assn of the University of CA. P2P architecture (a structure much like the FDLP!), an extremely efficient method of digital distribution, offers great advantages for libraries in preserving and giving access to government information. Since [w: napster] hit the internet in 1999, P2P has been vilified in the media and by organizations like the [w: RIAA] as facilitating "piracy."
But now, according to the AP, Verizon is working with researchers at Yale to to build better P2P software to enable faster downloads -- and lower costs for ISPs where P2P accounts for 1/3 of all Internet traffic. Other companies, including NBC who wants to use P2P to save distribution costs, are finally coming around to P2P's benefits. According to the news article, "distributing an hourlong TV show in high definition using traditional delivery systems would cost the network about $1. With P2P technology, that cost can be cut by 75 to 90 percent."
In a traditional P2P network, if a Verizon customer downloads a file, only 6.3 percent of the data will come from another Verizon customer in the same city, said Doug Pasko, senior technologist at the company. In the "P4P" trial, 58 percent of the data came from nearby Verizon users, vastly reducing the company's cost of carrying the traffic. Levitan said the technology might be ready for use by next month, when NBC makes available free downloads of its TV shows using Pando's software. The shows will be financed by advertising, and P2P technology will be an essential way for NBC to cut costs. Distributing an hourlong TV show in high definition using traditional delivery systems would cost the network about $1. With P2P technology, that cost can be cut by 75 to 90 percent.[Thanks Boingboing!] Continue reading