Digital Libraries

According to Wikipedia, a Digital Librarie is alibrary in which collections are stored in digital formats (as opposed to print,microform, or other media) and accessible by computers.The digital content may be stored locally, or accessed remotely via computer networks. A digital library is a type of information retrieval system.

Most digital libraries provide a search interface which allows resources to be found. These resources are typically deep web (or invisible web) resources since they frequently cannot be located by search engine crawlers. Some digital libraries create special pages or sitemaps to allow search engines to find all their resources. Digital libraries frequently use the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) to expose their metadata to other digital libraries, and search engines like Google Scholar, Yahoo! and Scirus can also use OAI-PMH to find these deep web resources.

ADVANTAGES:

• No physical boundary.The user of a digital library need not to go to the library physically; people from all over the world can gain access to the same information, as long as an Internet connection is available.
• Round the clock availability. A major advantage of digital libraries is that people can gain access to the information at any time, night or day.
• Multiple access. The same resources can be used simultaneously by a number of institutions and patrons
• Information retrieval. The user is able to use any search term (word, phrase, title, name, subject) to search the entire collection
• Preservation and conservation. Digitization is not a long-term preservation solution for physical collections, but does succeed in providing access copies for materials that would otherwise fall to degradation from repeated use.

Which are the main differences between the e-book and the traditional book?

As we all know nowadays readership is declining. So is not common to see people reading paper books or e-books. Altough in some years it will be very common that the little group of people that like reading will do it in an e-book because of the advantaged that this suposses: more confortable, cheaper…

Altough there´s a group of people that don’t agree with this kind of literature because they want to preserve the traditional book due to different reasons.

According to Wikipedia an e-book is known as a digital book, is an e-text that forms the digital media equivalent of a conventional printed book, sometimes protected with a digital rights management system. E-books are usually read on personal computers or smart phones, or on dedicated hardware devices known as e-Readers or e-book devices. Many mobile phones can also be used to read e-books.

Early e-books were generally written for specialty areas and a limited audience, meant to be read only by small and devoted interest groups. The scope of the subject matter of these e-books included technical manuals for hardware, manufacturing techniques, and other subjects.

FORMATS:

There are a variety of e-book formats used to create and publish e-books. A writer or publisher has many options when it comes to choosing a format for production. While the average end-user might arguably simply want to read books, every format has its proponents and champions, and debates over “which format is best” can become intense. The myriad of e-book formats is sometimes referred to as the “Tower of eBabel”. For the average end user to read a book, every format has its advantages and disadvantages.

ADVANTAGES:

• An e-book can be purchased, downloaded and used immediately, whereas when one buys a book one has to go to a bookshop, or wait for a delivery.
• There are over 2 million free books available for download as of August 2009.
• Educational text books (e-textbooks) can be distributed at a lower cost than print versions per student.
• Second generation e-books (and colour e-readers) have motion capability.
• e-Books can be printed for less than the price of traditional new books using new on demand book printers.
• Text can be searched automatically and cross-referenced using hyperlinks.
• A single e-reader containing several books is easier to carry around (less weight and volume) than the same books (or sometimes even a single book) in printed form. Even hundreds or thousands of books may be stored on the same device. Using removable media even more can be carried around easily.
• Also at a fixed place such as at home it can be an advantage that an e-book collection requires very little space.
• Mobile availability of e-books may be provided for users with a mobile data connection, so that these e-books need not be carried around.
• E-books can allow non-permanent highlighting and annotation.
• Font size and font face can be adjusted.

DISADVANTAGES:

• Reading e-books requires an electronic device and software. Even in the case of reading it on a personal computer one already has, it may require additional software.
• A small book is easier to carry around than a typical e-book reader.
• E-book readers require electrical power; in the case of mobile use, the battery can get exhausted.
• E-book readers are more fragile than paper books and more susceptible to physical damage.
• E-book readers can malfunction and e-books can be damaged due to faults in hardware or software.
• E-book readers are more likely to be stolen than paper books.
• Depending on the device an e-book may be difficult to read in bright sunlight.
• Most publishers don’t produce the e-book equivalent of their printed books. In other cases the product quality is lower or it is released later.
• E-books can be easily hacked through the use of hardware or software modifications and widely disseminated on the Internet and/or other e-book readers, without approval from the author or publisher. This ease of piracy is a significant drawback for publishers.

REFERENCES:

• Libro electrónico. Wikipedia, La enciclopedia libre. Retrieved 9th October 2009 11:50. From: http://es.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Libro_electr%C3%B3nico&oldid=30293706.
• Suit101. Colaboracion y contenidos de calidad. Javier Yohn Planells( 2009). Retrieved the 9th  October 2009 11:51. From: http://gadgets.suite101.net/article.cfm/un_futuro_sin_papel

• Oswaldo. Blog personal( 2007). Retired the 9th of October 2009, 11:52. From: http://oswaldolilly.blogcindario.com/2007/11/01998-el-e-book-y-los-libros-de-papel.html

TIM BERNERS-LEE

A graduate of Oxford University, England, in 1989, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, an internet-based hypermedia initiative for global information sharing while at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory. He wrote the first web client and server in 1990. His specifications of URIs, HTTP and HTML were refined as Web technology spread.

He is the 3COM Founders Professor of Engineering in the School of Engineering with a joint appointment in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he also heads the Decentralized Information Group (DIG). He is also a Professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Southampton, UK.

He is the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a Web standards organization founded in 1994 which develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential. He is co-Director of the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI) started in 2006 to help create the first multidisciplinary research body to examine the World Wide Web and offer the practical solutions needed to help guide its future use and design. He is also a Director of the World Wide Web Foundation, started in 2008 to fund and coordinate efforts to further the potential of the Web to benefit humanity.

RESOURCES:

• Tim Berners-Lee . Retrieved 29th september 2009 12:43. From : http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/
• Wikipedia, La enciclopedia libre, Tim Berners-Lee. Retrieved: 29th September 2009 12:45. From:http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee
• Las artes @ Digital. El autor y la autoría en el mundo digital. María Jesus Lamarca. Retrieved: 29th September 2009 12:45. From: http://artesadigital.blogspot.com/2009/02/el-autor-y-la-autoria-en-el-mundo.html

Enciclopedia francesa del siglo XVIII

La enciclopedia francesa  del s. XVIII surge casi de forma anecdótica, al aceptar Diderot la traducción del diccionario de Chambers, Cyclopaedia o Universal Dictionary of Art and Sciences (1728), inicialmente confiada a otros, que Diderot comenzó más bien a transformar y reconstruir que simplemente a traducir. Los editores aceptaron la sugerencia de publicar una obra original y así nació el proyecto o Prospecto de la Enciclopedia, en 1750.

Diderot pidió la colaboración de d´Alembert, quien se encargó de redactar el Discurso preliminar. En él d´Alembert presenta la Enciclopedia como un sistema de todos los conocimientos humanos; al ser éstos inabarcables, busca una manera de representarlos en síntesis y, para ello, sigue la clasificación del «árbol del canciller Bacon», que divide la actuación de las facultades intelectuales y fabriles del hombre en facultades de memoria, razón e imaginación. La memoria es la sede de la experiencia o del conocimiento directo (historia); la razón, de la reflexión hecha con el razonamiento (filosofía); la imaginación, de la imitación reflexiva (bellas artes o poesía). Cada uno de estos grandes grupos de ciencias y actividades humanas se subdivide en muchos otros apartados que configuran, en definitiva, el árbol «de las ciencias, de las artes y de los oficios».

El primer volumen aparece en 1751; su publicación se suspenderá en 1752, tras la publicación del segundo volumen, y en 1759, cuando d´Alembert se retira del proyecto y se suprimen los permisos de publicación concedidos. A partir de esta fecha, publicados siete volúmenes, Diderot prosigue solo la edición de diez volúmenes de texto y cuatro de índices hasta 1765 y, posteriormente, cuatro volúmenes más de índices hasta 1772. Colaboran en la obra Rousseau, Voltaire, Duclos, Holbach, Quesnay, Turgot, Toussaint y otros escritores y philosophes ilustrados (hasta un total de 160).

La crítica y hostigamiento contra los prejuicios, la ignorancia y el error, el cuidado en definir y precisar bien los diversos conceptos, el espíritu de defensa de las libertades, el escepticismo derivado de la influencia de P. Bayle y el empirismo inspirado en Locke, concitan una pronta animadversión por parte de jansenistas, jesuitas y diversos centros de opinión y poder.

La Enciclopedia ha sido considerada por la historia como el aparador de las ideas de la ilustración francesa y una de las obras más libres del espíritu humano.

La Enciclopedia se proponía hacer un inventario de lo conocido, y para esto examinarlo todo, removerlo todo sin excepción y sin miramientos; pisotear las viejas puerilidades, derribar los idolos que la razón desaprobaba; y poner un signo glorioso a los valores modernos.  No contendría nada superfluo, nada anticuado; todo en ella estaría en acción y vivo; ni siquiera se contentaría con explicar y describir; grabados y láminas mostrarían las formas concretas del trabajo incesante que crea la civilización. Esta era la segunda gran ambición de la obra, junto con la exposición metodológica de los conocimientos.

La Enciclopedia se insertaba en un movimiento general que exaltaba y dignificaba las artes mecánicas -la técnica- que los puros pensadores ignoraban o desdeñaban y a los que solo la especulación pura les parecía digna. !Honor a los que contribuyen a la felicidad terrena!. El instrumento de la felicidad sería el progreso material.

Kevin Kelly: the next 500 days of the web [Group article] (bis)

Kevi Kelly’s video in youtube is about the prediction of the web, exactly of the next 5000 days of the web, has had a lot of views and has been used in some university research. The main consequence qe can take form it is that ina few years, maybe earlier tha we may think, we are going to be part of the web and the web part of us as well, as consequence of the huge development that the Net is suffering.

He says that the web is 5,000 years old, and that about 10 years ago, anyone could imagine that it would be so big. How could we think that we would be able to see a satellite image of the Earth through the web? And how is it so powerful? It’s a machine that has never been broken down. It’s been running for 5,000 without stopping. That something any machine could do before. And, moreover, there are billions and billions of clicks everyday, trillions of links… the memory the machine needs is huge. Incredible. We can even compare it to our brain, with a little difference: our brain doesn’t double its capacity every two years, and the web does. This means, as Kevin Kelly says, that “by the year 2040 the total processing of this machine will exceed the total processing power of humanity in all bits and stuff”.

In a few years, everything will be part of the web. And it will be more and more intelligent every day. It will know everything. If we put “Pacifica” on the Internet, it will know we’re talking about a place. How can a machine do that?
And scarier than that, it will have our personal details. We will be transparent. What if we forget our telephone number? No problem, Google will know it.

So, Kevin Kelly thinks that in some years, we will be the web. We will be part of  “The One machine“. We will be the One.

 

RESOURCES:

• Transcription of Kevin Kelly’s talk about the next 5000 days of the web.  In Wiki Littera Deusto. Retrieved 6th september 2009, 14:32. From:http://wiki.littera.deusto.es/en/index.php/Ist0809/KevinKelly5000days
• Kevin Kelly (editor). (2008, October 9). In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 6th september 2009,14:35, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Kelly_(editor).

Orality and the Hypermedia [Group article] (bis)

First of all we have to define both concepts.  Acording to Wikiepdia HYPERMEDIA is used as a logical extension of the term hypertext in which graphics, audio, video, plain text and hyperlinks intertwine to create a generally non-linear medium of information. This term was first used in a 1965 article by Ted Nelson. There are different types of hypermedia as for example: Hyperfilms, hypertexts…

 

Orality verbal expression in society. The studying of orality can develop countries that are in poverty and help in the process of globalization. We can find the primary orality and the residual orality.

• PRIMARY ORALITY: refers to thought and its verbal expression within cultures “totally untouched by any knowledge of writing or print.”
• RESIDUAL ORALITY: refers to thought and its verbal expression in cultures that have been exposed to writing and print, but have not fully ‘interiorized’ (in McLuhan’s term) the use of these technologies in their daily lives. As a culture interiorizes the technologies of literacy, the ‘oral residue’ diminishes.

Some experts say that the HYPERMEDIA has changes the ORALITY. As Perez Tornero mentions, thanks to the hypermedia we can send an oral message from one point of the planet to another, giving a kind of ”globalisation” to the text and without realising how far the person receiving the message is. However, according to Brian and Williams, the hypermedia contributes to the worsening of the language as they, as well as networks, are opened to anybody. Besides, almost anything is accepted and owing to that, some writers transfer some of their bad acquired habits in writing from one media to another. Moreover, a big percentage of the users may write without any kind of information or taking it from poor sources.

RESOURCES:

De la escritura la hipermedia by Jose Manuel Perez Tornero from Comunidad de formadores. Retrieved: 29th August 2009, 15:58 from
http://e-formadores.redescolar.ilce.edu.mx/recursos/pdfs_tornero/escritura_hipermedia.pdf

Hypermedia. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved:29th August 2009, 15:59 from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hypermedia&oldid=245357554

Orality, Literacy, Digitality . In Tarleton State University. Retrieved: 29th August 2009,16:00. From http://www.tarleton.edu/~lilly/discuss2.htm

The Hypertetxt (bis)

Hypertetxt can be definined as a special type of database system, invented by Ted Nelson in the 1960s, in which objects (text, pictures, music, programs, and so on) can be creatively linked to each other. When you select an object, you can see all the other objects that are linked to it. You can move from one object to another even though they might have very different forms. For example, while reading a document about Mozart, you might click on the phrase Violin Concerto in A Major, which could display the written score or perhaps even invoke a recording of the concerto. Clicking on the name Mozart might cause various illustrations of Mozart to appear on the screen. The icons that you select to view associated objects are called Hypertext links or buttons.

TYPES AND USES OF HYPERTETXT

Hypertext documents can either be static (prepared and stored in advance) or dynamic (continually changing in response to user input). Static hypertext can be used to cross-reference collections of data in documents, software applications, or books on CDs. A well-constructed system can also incorporate other user-interface conventions, such as menus and command lines. Hypertext can develop very complex and dynamic systems of linking and cross-referencing. The most famous implementation of hypertext is the World Wide Web (first deployed in 1992) and later added to the Internet (developed/tested c.1977).

Hypertext systems are particularly useful for organizing and browsing through large databases that consist of disparate types of information. There are several Hypertext systems available for Apple Macintosh computers and PCs that enable you to develop your own databases. Such systems are often called authoring systems . HyperCard software from Apple Computer is the most famous.

APPLICATIONS:

The first hypermedia application was the Aspen Movie Map in 1977. In 1980, Tim Berners-Lee created ENQUIRE, an early hypertext database system somewhat like a wiki. The early 1980s also saw a number of experimental hypertext and hypermedia programs, many of whose features and terminology were later integrated into the Web. Guide was the first hypertext system for personal computers.

RESOURCES:

• The hypertetxt. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved: 29th August 2009, 14:58 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext
• ¿Qués es la Web, el hypertetxo y la hypermedia?. Retrieved: 29th August 2009, 15:00 from http://www.duiops.net/manuales/faqweb/faqweb1.htm
• Hypertetxt. Webopedia. Retrieved: 29th August 2009, 15:02 from http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/H/hypertext.html

RSS (bis)

RSS is the acronym used to describe the de facto standard for the syndication of Web content. RSS is an XML-based format and while it can be used in different ways for content distribution, its most widespread usage is in distributing news headlines on the Web. A Web site that wants to allow other sites to publish some of its content creates an RSS document and registers the document with an RSS publisher. A user that can read RSS-distributed content can use the content on a different site. Syndicated content can include data such as news feeds, events listings, news stories, headlines, project updates, excerpts from discussion forums or even corporate information.

Because there are different versions of RSS, the term RSS is most frequently used as a name to mean the syndication of Web content, rather than as an acronym for its founding technology. When using the name RSS the speaker may be referring to any of the following versions of Web content syndication:

• RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9, RSS 1.0)
• Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0)
• Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)

When using the term RSS, most will use it in reference to Rich Site Summary or the previous version called RDF Site Summary. When referring to Really Simple Syndication, it will usually be called RSS 2.0, not RSS.  There are several versions of RSS available, with the most commonly implemented version being RSS 0.91.  The most current version, however, is RSS 2.0 and it is backward-compatible with RSS 0.91. RSS was originally developed by Netscape.The RSS 2.0 specification was authored by Dave Winer.

Compare with Atom, an alternative open source XML-based Web content and metadata syndication format.

But how does RSS work?If you want to use RSS, you will have to follow these steps.Firstly, you need a RSS reader like Google reader (there are more RSS readers but this is a good one). Then, you create an account in Google reader and go to your favourite blogs. Finally, when you are in the blogs you only have to copy the feeds and add them to Google reader. You will only have to go to Google reader to see if there have been changes in your favourite blogs.

This method is very useful and more and more people are starting to use it. Try to get used  to the symbol of the photograph because you are going to see  it many times.

RESOURCES:

• RSS . In Webopedia The first encyclopedia dedicated to technology. Retrieved 28th August 2009, 17:18 from http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/RSS.html
• Video: RSS in Plain English.  In commoncraft.Retrieved 28th August 2009, 17:35 from http://www.commoncraft.com/store-item/rss_plain_english
• ¿ Qué es el RSS y comó es útil. In Youtube. Retrieved 28th August 2009, 17:43 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lL_Nv7oObY

Difference between XML-HTML [Group article] (bis)

According to Wikipedia XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a set of rules for encoding documents electronically. XML’s design goals emphasize simplicity, generality, and usability over the Internet. It is a textual data format, with strong support via Unicode for the languages of the world. Although XML’s design focuses on documents, it is widely used for the representation of arbitrary data structures, for example in web services.

There are a variety of programming interfaces which software developers may use to access XML data, and several schema systems designed to aid in the definition of XML-based languages.

As of 2009, hundreds of XML-based languages have been developed,including RSS, Atom, Soap, and XHTML. XML has become the default file format for most office-productivity tools, including Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org, AbiWord, and Apple’s iWork.

And HTML is the predominant markup language for Web pages. It provides a means to describe the structure of text-based information in a document written in tags.

XML-Training-Guide.com says that XML and HTML are different and they both have different goals. They are designed for different purposes. Some people think that xml is an advanced version of html and it has come to replace html. It is not the case. Both will be there as they are used for different purposes.

XML files are meant to hold data and data in an xml file is well described. If you look at an xml file you can say what it holds. For example if you find a number in an xml file you can find out easily what that number identifies, whether it is the number of products, or the price of a product etc. In html it is not the case.

HTML is used to display the data in a formatted way. You can apply styles and use different layouts to display the data in an html file. The data that is displayed in an html file could come from an xml file.

Resources:

• HTML. (2009, August 26). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:28, August 25, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HTML&oldid=257683789
• Markup language. (2009, August 26). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:36, August 25, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Markup_language&oldid=257834827
• XML-Training-Guide.com (2009, August 26). Retrieved 18:46, August 25,2009, from http://www.xml-training-guide.com/d-xml4.html

Web 2.0 (bis)

According to Wikipedia Web 2.0” refers to the second generation of web development and web design that facilitates information sahring, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web. The advent of Web 2.0 led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and web applications. Examples include social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mashups and folksonomies.

In general when we mention Web 2.0, we refer to a chain of applications and internet pages that use a kind of group intelligence to serve an interactive service, giving the user an autonomic control around his documents.

Tim O´Reilly devided it in four set of levels:

-level 3:applications that exist only on the internet to help users with an inter-human connection between them. Here we have web pages like Ebay, Wikipedia…
-level 2:some applications that can either be used offline or online but that gains when ist used online.Examples:Flirck
-level 1:applications that can be either used online or offline but gains features online. Examples: Google Docs,iTunes,…
-level 0:applications that work online as well as offline some examles of this are:yahoo, google maps,…

Resources:

• Web 2.0. (2009, August 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15:45, August 25, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Web_2.0&oldid=309724425
• What is the web 2.0(2009,August 25). O´Reilly media. Retrieved 15:46, August 25,2009 from http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html
• Web 2.0 The Machine is Us/ing Us (2009, August 25). Youtube. Retrieved 15.46 August 25, 2009, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE