Kindle and NowNow

OK, I got the Kindle (I’m an eBook freak, sue me). There are plenty of places to read the reviews, and the potential criticisms, so I won’t retread that ground. Rather, a clarification and a funny story.

The clarification first. I’ve read on several posts about the Kindle charging for free material, and restricting everything to a proprietary format that is DRM’d. Yes, the books you buy through the Kindle/Amazon store are proprietary and DRM’d. Yes, if you e-mail a document directly to the Kindle it costs 10 cents. However, if you have a computer with a USB port (Mac or Windows), putting your own content on the Kindle is easy and free. Amazon really messed this up in their marketing, but in the manual it shows you how to put a txt file directly on the Kindle, or how to convert a Word or html file for free. Instead of e-mailing it directly, you can email it to an alternate address, and they send you back the converted file all ready to copy over USB…free. Have a speech you want on the Kindle? Free. Itinerary? Free. Project Gutenberg texts? You guessed it.

OK, now the story. I turn it on and browse around, and find a menu “Experimental.” In there are services Amazon is playing with and one is called “Ask Kindle NowNow” that reads:

Ask us any question you want. Real people will research your question on the Web and send up to three answers to your Kindle, usually within in ten minutes.”

How am I not going to try this? So I ask “what is meant by participatory networks?” Sure enough a couple of minutes later, sent right to the Kindle, an answer. I’m reading through it and get really excited that they are talking about social networks, then Web 2.0, then Library 2.0! Wow, I say, Amazon knows about libraries! I keep reading and something starts sounding awfully familiar here. Sure enough the whole answer was a direct quote from the tech brief I co-authored for ALA. There at the end is a URL that points me right to the brief. So at least I was cited and can be happy that someone in NowNow land found my stuff, I just wish there was a bit of a preamble.

A little while later I got two more answers. The second one pointed to a CoLIS paper I did, and the third pointed to an item Todd Marshall posted on http://participatorynetworks.com/ . Looks like I have to do some more looking into NowNow (just found http://www.nownow.com/ ). Also interesting in light of the recent DigRef discussion on commercial grade services and eRef.

Click “Read More” for the full responses.

From: NowNow
Date: November 29, 2007 1:22:08 PM EST
To: “[email protected]”
Subject: RE: what is meant by participatory networks?
Reply-To: NowNow

Your Question:
what is meant by participatory networks?

Answer from NowNow:
“Participatory Networks” can have a few meanings, but it is related to social networking

Participatory networking encompasses the concept of using Web 2.0 principles and technologies to implement a conversational model within a community (a library, a peer group, the general public, etc.). Why not simply adopt social networking, Web 2.0, or Library 2.0 for that matter? Let us examine each term’s limitations:
Social networking: Social network sites such as MySpace and Facebook have certainly captured public attention. They have also proven very popular. In their short life spans these sites have garnered an immense audience (MySpace has been ranked one of the top destination sites on the Web and drawn much attention from the press.
Some of that attention, however, has been very negative. MySpace, for example, has been typified as a refuge for pedophiles and online predators. Even the television show Saturday Night Live has parodied the site for the ease with which users can create false personas and engage in risky online behaviors.

To say you are starting a social networking site in your library may draw either enthusiastic support, vehement opposition (“social networking experiment in my library?!”), or simply confused looks. Add to the potential negative connotations the
ambiguity of the term. Is a blog a social networking site? Is Flickr? To compound this confusion, the academic domain of Social Network Theory predates MySpace by about a decade. Web 2.0: Ambiguity also dogs the Web 2.0 world. For some, it is technology (blogs, AJAX, Web Services, etc.). For others, it is simply a buzzword for the current crop of Internet sites that survived the burst of the .com bubble. In any
case, Web 2.0 certainly implies more than just the inclusion of users in systems.

Library 2.0: The term Library 2.0 is a vague term used by some as a goad to the library community. Further, this term limits the discussion of user-inclusive Web services to the library world. While this brief focuses on the library community, it also sees the library community as a potential leader in a much broader field. So, ultimately, the authors propose “participatory networking” as a positive term and concept that libraries can use and promote without the confusion and limitations of previous language. The phrase “participatory network” also has a history of prior use that can be built upon. The phrase “participatory networks” represents systems of exchange and integration and has long been used in discussions of policy, art, and
government. The phrase has also been used to describe online communities that exchange and integrate information.

Source:
http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:CWlaRO23d0cJ:iis.syr.edu/projects/PNOpen/ParticiaptoryNetworks.pdf+what+is+a+%22participatory+network%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

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From: NowNow
Date: November 29, 2007 1:50:29 PM EST
To: “[email protected]”
Subject: RE: what is meant by participatory networks?
Reply-To: NowNow

Your Question:
what is meant by participatory networks?

Answer from NowNow:
Participatory networks: the library as conversation.

Introduction. The paper presents a metascale framework for libraries based upon conversation theory, and the basic concept that knowledge is created through conversation. Since libraries are in the knowledge business, they are also in the conversation business.
Method. The basic tenets of conversation theory are discussed, then used to examine the current state of libraries, particularly online library systems and so-called Web 2.0 concepts.
Analysis. The paper presents an anticipated trajectory of library system development towards a truly “participatory” library where library systems merge, and library patrons are part of the system development process.
Results. The results of the paper are a series of recommendations and approaches to libraries as conversation.
Conclusion. The authors recommend the creation of a shared participatory test bed for libraries. This network would not only experiment with new collaborative Web technologies, but also work with library organizations and vendors to speed innovation in traditional library systems.

Source:
http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:Vov37h93pXoJ:informationr.net/ir/12-4/colis/colis05.html+participatory+networks&hl=nl&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=be

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From: NowNow
Date: November 29, 2007 3:33:01 PM EST
To: “[email protected]”
Subject: RE: what is meant by participatory networks?
Reply-To: NowNow

Your Question:
what is meant by participatory networks?

Answer from NowNow:
The Latest News about Participatory Networks

A Working Brain Model
Wednesday, 28 November 2007

A computer simulation could eventually allow neuroscience to be carried out in silico.
An ambitious project to create an accurate computer model of the brain has reached an impressive milestone. Scientists in Switzerland working with IBM researchers have shown that their computer simulation of the neocortical column, arguably the most complex part of a mammal’s brain, appears to behave like its biological counterpart. By demonstrating that their simulation is realistic, the researchers say, these results suggest that an entire mammal brain could be completely modeled within three years, and a human brain within the next decade.

“What we’re doing is reverse-engineering the brain,” says Henry Markram, codirector of the Brain Mind Institute at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, in Switzerland, who led the work, called the Blue Brain project, which began in 2005. (See “IBM: The Computer Brain.”)

Article

Could the be the ultimate, man made participatory network?

Source:
http://participatorynetworks.com/

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