*The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, May 19, 2004 PT1*
*****eBooks Readable By Both Humans and Computers Since July 4, 1971******
Newsletter editors needed! Please email hart@pobox.com or gbnewby@pglaf.org
Anyone who would care to get advance editions: please email hart@pobox.com
eBook Milestones
We Are Over 1/4 of the Way from 10,000 to 20,000
12,700 eBooks As Of Today
7,300 to go to 20,000
It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000
It took ~10 years from 1993 to 2003 to grow from 100 eBooks to 10,100
It took ~3 years from 2001 to 2004 for our last 10,000
[From 2,700 eBooks in July, 2001 to 12,700 eBooks in May, 2004]
***
[The Newsletter is now being sent in two sections, so you can directly
go to the portions you find most interesting: 1. Founder's Comments,
News, Notes & Queries, and 2. Weekly eBook Update Listing.]
Today, and until we actually GET a new Newsletter editor who want to
do another portion, there will be only 2 parts. . .this is Part 1,
and the eBook listings in Part 2 [New Project Gutenberg Documents].
[Since we are between Newsletter editors, these 2 parts may undergo a
few changes while we are finding a new Newsletter editor. Email us:
hart@pobox.com and gbnewby@pglaf.org if you would like to volunteer.]
This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter
Over Our 32 18/52 Year History, We Have Now Averaged About 390 eBooks/Yr
And This Year Averaged Over That Same New eBook Level. . .PER MONTH!!!!!
We Are Averaging About 400 eBooks Per Month This Year!!!
94 per week!!!
*** HOT Requests!!!
We may need a volunteer who is travelling to the US from
the UK or South Africa to bring a radio that might help
in the development of a world wireless eBook network.
***
We're working up a team to read our eBooks into MP3 files
for the visually impaired and other audio book users.
Let us know if you'd like to join this group.
More information at http://gutenberg.net/audio
***
Project Gutenberg Needs DVD Burners
So far we have sent out 2.5 million eBooks via snailmail!
We currently have access to a dozen DVD burners. If you have
a DVD burner or know someone with one, please email Aaron:
cannona@fireantproductions.com
We can set you up with images or snail you these DVDs
for you to copy. You can either snail them to readers
whose addresses we can send you, or you can do a stack
of the these and send the whole box back for reshipping
to individual addresses.
We can also send you blank discs in quantities of 50-100
an *perhaps* also provide envelopes, sleeves, etc.
We also have many volunteers who only have time to do one
DVD per day and mail it out. These are greatly appreciated.
There is no need to do a lot per person if we have a lot of
people working on this.
***
Project Gutenberg is seeking graphics we can use for our Web
pages and publicity materials. If you have original graphics
depicting Project Gutenberg themes, please contribute them!
To see some of what we have now, please see:
http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/images
***
In this issue of the Project Gutenberg Weekly newsletter:
- Intro (above)
- New Site (above)
- Hot Requests (above)
- Requests For Assistance
- Progress Report
- Flashback
- Continuing Requests For Assistance
- Making Donations
- Access To The Collection
- Information About Mirror Sites
- Have We Given Away A Trillion Yet?
- Weekly eBook update:
Updates/corrections in separate section
1 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.]
57 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
- Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage
- Information about mailing lists
*** Requests For Assistance
_I_ am still interested in a DVD that has an actual total
of 10,000 eBooks. . .or more. . .mostly for PR purposes--
if someone would be willing to make one.
*** PROJECT GUTENBERG IS SEEKING LEGAL BEAGLES
Project Gutenberg is seeking (volunteer) lawyers. We have
regular needs for intellectual property legal advice
(both US and international) and other areas. Please email
Project Gutenberg's CEO, Greg Newby <gbnewby AT pglaf.org> ,
if you can help.
This is much more important than many of us realize!
*** Progress Report
In the first 3.75 months of this year, we produced 1659 new eBooks.
It took us from July 1971 to Jan 1999 to produce our first 1,659 eBooks!
That's 19 WEEKS as Compared to ~28 Years!
58 New eBooks This Week
61 New eBooks Last Week
119 New eBooks This Month [May]
400 Average Per Month in 2004
355 Average Per Month in 2003
203 Average Per Month in 2002
103 Average Per Month in 2001
1793 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
9638 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 40.50 Months!
12,700 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
7,916 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
4,784 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
357 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
We're still keeping up with Moore's Law!
Moore's Law 12 month percentage = 103%
Moore's Law 18 month percentage = 100%
[100% of Moore's Law = doubling every 18 months]
Check out our website at gutenberg.net, and see below to learn how
you can get INSTANT access to our eBooks via FTP servers even before
the new eBooks listed below appear in our catalog.
eBooks are posted throughout the week. You can even get daily lists.
Info on subscribing to daily, weekly, monthly Newsletters, listservs:
http://gutenberg.net/subs.shtml
***
FLASHBACK!!!
1793 New eBooks So Far in 2004
It took us ~28 years for the first 1793 !
That's the 4.50 MONTHS of 2004 as Compared to ~28 YEARS!!!
Here Is A Sample Of What Books Were Being Done Around #1793
Jul 1999 Life of Charlotte Bronte, V1, by E. C. Gaskell[#3][1locbxxx.xxx] 1827
Jul 1999 Sarrasine, by Honore de Balzac [de Balzac #71][srrsnxxx.xxx] 1826
Jul 1999 Adventures of Reddy Fox by Thornton W. Burgess[#1][rdyfxxxx.xxx] 1825
Jul 1999 Peace Manoeuvres, by Richard Harding Davis[RHD#28][pcmnvxxx.xxx] 1824
Jul 1999 The Make-Believe Man, by Richard Harding Davis #27[mbmanxxx.xxx] 1823
Jul 1999 The Amateur, by Richard Harding Davis [Davis #26][thmtrxxx.xxx] 1822
Jul 1999 A Charmed Life, by Richard Harding Davis [RHD #25][chmlfxxx.xxx] 1821
Jul 1999 A Wasted Day, by Richard Harding Davis [Davis #24][wstdyxxx.xxx] 1820
Jul 1999 The Messengers, by Richard Harding Davis[Davis#23][msgrsxxx.xxx] 1819
Jul 1999 The Spy, by Richard Harding Davis[R. H. Davis #22][thspyxxx.xxx] 1818
Jul 1999 A Question of Latitude, by Richard H.Davis[RHD#21][qlttdxxx.xxx] 1817
Jul 1999 Tattine, by Ruth Ogden [Mrs. Charles W. Ide] [tttnexxx.xxx] 1816
Jul 1999 The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay[bloalxxx.xxx] 1815
Jul 1999 The Agony Column, by Earl Derr Biggers [gnyclxxx.xxx] 1814
Jul 1999 A Man of Business, by Honore de Balzac[Balzac #70][mnbusxxx.xxx] 1813
Jul 1999 A Prince of Bohemia, by Honore de Balzac [HdB #69][prbhmxxx.xxx] 1812
Jul 1999 Massimilla Doni, by Honore de Balzac[de Balzac#68][msmdnxxx.xxx] 1811
Jul 1999 A Second Home, by Honore de Balzac [de Balzac #67][2ndhmxxx.xxx] 1810
Jul 1999 Bucky O'Connor, by William MacLeod Raine[Raine #2][bkcnrxxx.xxx] 1809
Jul 1999 The Log of the Jolly Polly, by R H Davis[Davis#20][jlplyxxx.xxx] 1808
Jul 1999 The Lost House, by Richard Harding Davis[Davis#19][lsthsxxx.xxx] 1807
Jul 1999 The Frame Up, by Richard Harding Davis [Davis #18][frmupxxx.xxx] 1806
Jul 1999 The Gentle Grafter, by O. Henry [O Henry #6][grftrxxx.xxx] 1805
Jul 1999 War and the Future, by H. G. Wells[H.G. Wells #18][wrftrxxx.xxx] 1804
Jul 1999 Wyoming, Story of Outdoor West, by William M Raine[wymngxxx.xxx] 1803
Jul 1999 King Henry VIII, by Shakespeare [1ws4211x.xxx] 1802
Jul 1999 The Tempest, by Shakespeare [1ws4111x.xxx] 1801
(eBooks #1765 thru #1802 are typo-corrected Shakespeare.)
Jun 1999 The Winter's Tale, by Shakespeare [1ws4011x.xxx] 1800
Jun 1999 Cymbeline, by Shakespeare [1ws3911x.xxx] 1799
Jun 1999 Timon of Athens, by Shakespeare [1ws3711x.xxx] 1798
Jun 1999 Coriolanus, by Shakespeare [1ws3611x.xxx] 1797
Jun 1999 Antony and Cleopatra, by Shakespeare [1ws3511x.xxx] 1796
Jun 1999 Macbeth, by William Shakespeare [1ws3411x.xxx] 1795
Jun 1999 King Lear, by Shakespeare [1ws3311x.xxx] 1794
Jun 1999 Othello, by William Shakespeare [1ws3211x.xxx] 1793
Jun 1999 Measure for Measure, by William Shakespeare [1ws3111x.xxx] 1792
Jun 1999 All's Well That Ends Well, by Shakespeare [1ws3011x.xxx] 1791
. . .
***
Today Is Day #131 of 2004
This Completes Week #19 and Month #4.50
232 Days/34 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
7300 Books To Go To #20,000
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
94 Weekly Average in 2004
79 Weekly Average in 2003
47 Weekly Average in 2002
24 Weekly Average in 2001
41 Only 41 Numbers Left On Our Reserved Numbers list
[Used to be well over 100]
*** Continuing Requests For Assistance:
Project Gutenberg--Canada is now starting up!!!
Please let us know if you would like to volunteer!
Copyright in Canada is "Life +50" as in Australia,
and we have volunteers working on both of these.
We will also be seeking volunteers from others of
the "life +50" countries, as it looks as if the
Australian copyright law is falling victim to the
new "Economic Warfare" being waged by the World
Intellectual Property Organization and various
billionaire copyright holders around the world.
email: James Linden <jlinden@pglaf.org>
***
DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS NEEDS CONTENT, PROOFERS AND SCANNER TYPES
Please contact us at:
dphelp@pgdp.net
if you would like to know more about the Distributed Proofreaders.
Thanks to very good recent publicity, the Distributed Proofreading
project has greatly accelerated its pace. Please visit the site:
http://www.pgdp.net
for more information about how you can help a lot, by
simply proofreading just a few pages per day, or more.
If you have a book that has been scanned, but not yet run
through OCR (optical character recognition) or proofed,
and you would like the Distributed Proofreaders to work on it,
please email dphelp@pgdp.net and we will get things started.
Also, DP is seeking public domain books not already in the
Project Gutenberg collection. To see what is already online,
visit http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/GUTINDEX.ALL (a text file),
since the online database doesn't reflect recent additions.
Do you have Public Domain books your would like to see in the archive?
Can they be destructively scanned? If so send them to the Distributed
Proofreading Team! Please email dphelp@pgdp.net with your geographic
location. You will be given the address of the nearest high-speed scanner
(note that the high-speed scanner requires destruction of the book(s) which
will not be returned). We have high-speed scanners currently located in
the east, west and central portions of the US to make shipping easier.
Please make sure that any books you send are _not_ already in the archive
and please check them against David's "In Progress" list at:
http://www.dprice48.freeserve.co.uk/GutIP.html
to ensure no one is currently working on them. It would also be helpful if
you obtain copyright clearance before mailing the books, and send the 'OK'
lines to
dphelp@pgdp.net
Do you like to work on an entire book at once but don't have the time
or technology to do the scanning, OCR, and initial proofing yourself?
Distributed Proofreaders has the perfect solution! Just send us email
telling us that you are interested in post-processing and we will help
find a you project you would like to work on.
***
We Have Included Quick and Easy Ways to Donate. . .As Per Your Requests!
We Are Looking For Volunteers To Add eBooks In More Languages,
and in more formats, including music, artwork, movies, etc.
***
QUICK WAYS TO MAKE A DONATION TO PROJECT GUTENBERG
A. Send a check or money order to:
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
809 North 1500 West
Salt Lake City, UT 84116
USA
B. Donate by credit card online:
NetworkForGood:
http://www.guidestar.org/partners/networkforgood/donate.jsp?ein=64-6221541
or
PayPal to "donate@gutenberg.net":
http://www.paypal.com
/xclick/business=donate%40gutenberg.net&item_name=Donate+to+Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg's success is due to the hard work of thousands of
volunteers over more than 32 years. Your donations make it possible
to support these volunteers, and pay our few employees to continue the
creation of free electronic texts. We accept credit cards, checks and
transfers from any country, in any currency.
Donations are made to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
(PGLAF). PGLAF is approved as a charitable 501(c)(3) organization by
the US Internal Revenue Service, and has the Federal Employee Information
Number (EIN) 64-6221541.
For more information, including several other ways to donate, go to
http://promo.net/pg/donation.html or email donate@gutenberg.net
*** HOW TO GET EBOOKS FROM OUR MIRROR SITES
http://promo.net/pg (aka http://www.gutenberg.net) allows searching by
title, author, language and subject. Mirrors (copies) of the complete
collection are available around the world.
http://gutenberg.net/list.html can get you to the nearest one.
--"INSTANT" ACCESS TO OUR LATEST eBOOKS
Use your Web browser or FTP program to visit our master download
site (or a mirror) if you know the file's name you want. Try:
http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04
or
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04
and look for the first five letters of the file's name. Note that updated
eBooks usually go in their original directory (e.g., etext99, etext00, etc.)
*** Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet???
Statistical Review
In the 19 weeks of this year, we have produced 1793 new eBooks.
It took us from 1971 to 1998 to produce our FIRST 1793 eBooks!!!
That's 19 WEEKS as Compared to ~28 YEARS!!!
With 12,700 eBooks online as of May 17, 2004 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.79 from each book,
for Project Gutenberg to have currently given away $1,000,000,000,000
[One Trillion Dollars] in books.
100,000,000 readers is only about 1.5% of the world's population!
This "cost" is down from about $1.26 when we had 7803 eBooks A Year Ago
Can you imagine ~12,500 books each costing ~$.45 less a year later???
Or. . .would this say it better?
Can you imagine ~12,500 books each costing 1/3 less a year later???
At 12,700 eBooks in 32 Years and 10.50 Months We Averaged
386 Per Year [We do more per than that month these days!]
32.0 Per Month
1.05 Per Day
At 1793 eBooks Done In The 131 Days Of 2004 We Averaged
14 Per Day
94 Per Week
400 Per Month
The production statistics are calculated based on full weeks'
production; each production-week starts/ends Wednesday noon,
starts with the first Wednesday of January. January 7th was
the first Wednesday of 2004, and thus ended PG's production
year of 2003 and began the production year of 2004 at noon.
This year there will be 52 Wednesdays, thus no extra week.
***Headline News***
[PG Editor's Comments In Brackets]
>From NewsScan:
FORRESTER SPEEDS UP TIMELINE ON WHITE-COLLAR OFFSHORING
Forrester Research says the export of white-collar jobs is happening
faster than it had first predicted back in 2002, but that its long-term
outlook for offshore outsourcing hasn't changed much since that report,
which estimated that a cumulative 3.3 million white-collar jobs would be
shifted to other countries by 2015. Forrester's revised numbers project a
total of 830,000 jobs offshored by 2005, up from its earlier estimate of
just under 600,000. Ironically, Forrester analyst John McCarthy says the
media's focus on the issue has encouraged more companies to experiment with
offshore outsourcing. "While the press visibility has spurred offshoring's
emergence as a political third rail, it has also fostered an increase in
overall offshore alternatives," says Forrester's revised report. (Wall
Street Journal 17 May 2004)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108474869663912901,00.html (sub req'd)
PANEL URGES MORE PRIVACY PROTECTIONS IN FEDERAL 'DATA-MINING'
The Technology and Privacy Advisory Committee, a panel created by
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to scrutinize Pentagon programs in
the wake of criticism over the ill-fated "Total/Terrorism Information
Awareness" program, is urging Congress to pass laws protecting citizens'
civil liberties from overly intrusive federal data mining activities. "The
Department of Defense should safeguard the privacy of U.S. persons when
using data mining to fight terrorism," says the panel's report, which notes
that privacy laws lag far behind current capabilities in information and
communications technology. A key recommendation suggests federal agencies
should be required to obtain approval from a special federal court "before
engaging in data mining with personally identifiable information concerning
U.S. persons." Former FCC Chairman Newton Minow, who headed up the panel,
acknowledges that the proposals would "impose additional burdens on
government officials," but maintains that the requirements would improve
national security while enhancing personal privacy: "Good privacy
protection in the context of data mining is often consistent with more
efficient investigation." (New York Times 17 May 2004)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/17/politics/17privacy.html
GOOGLE'S AD PLANS THREATEN 'BUSINESS AS USUAL'
Google is challenging the status quo in online advertising by
offering to pay its publishing partners for display ads only when users
click -- a move that has irked other online ad networks that maintain the
value of online ads lies in the number of eyeballs that see them (known as
cost per impression or CPM). "Google's making a public statement that the
only value of a banner is when it's clicked upon, and it flies in the face
of all the research done in the last five years that demonstrates the
impact a banner can have on brand awareness and purchase intent," says Dave
Moore, CEO of 24/7 Real Media. "Why shouldn't I get paid for creating the
step to the ultimate purchase?" As Google readies itself for its
$2.7-billion IPO, the move into display advertising makes sense, say some
ad execs. "Google's future revenue growth could depend on attracting major
brand advertisers, because that's where the money is," says the head of a
brand measurement company. (CNet News.com 17 May 2004)
http://news.com.com/2100-1024-5213714.html
[and in a related story]
GOOGLE TO SELL BANNER ADS ON OTHER SITES
Google has begun selling banner ads and other graphic ads, on a test
basis, for display on other companies' Web sites. The new ads won't appear
on Google's own site, though Google says that may change in the future. (The
company now sells only small text ads related to the content of a page on
its own site.) Google vice president Tim Armstrong says that advertisers are
moving away from cost-per-thousand pricing to a system that's much more
targeted specifically to most-likely customers: "The world of advertising is
getting more quantitative and data-driven," he says.
(New York Times 13 may 2004)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/13/technology/13goog.html
[and even more, this time from Yahoo]
YAHOO: 'ALL (OR MOST) RETAILING IS LOCAL'
Yahoo thinks there's a lot of money to be made by linking Web surfers
with local retailers, restaurants, dry cleaners and other businesses.
(Currently, 20-25% of online queries have some local component.) Ted Meisel,
president of Yahoo's search engine subsidiary Overture, says: "We think now
is the right time to go after the local market. We are seeing users start to
look for local information and we see commerce opportunities in local
search... We are going to make it easier for advertisers to participate."
Yahoo senior marketing executive Cammie Dunaway says: "Yahoo is pretty
multidimensional. It is a great search engine, but it is much more than a
search engine." (Of course, Google is also busy adding features such as free
e-mail that will make it "much more than a search engine.") Yahoo's
marketing emphasis will be on major retailers and other large businesses in
a region, as well as the creation of a locator page for small businesses
that currently have no online presence. (Washington Post 13 May 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25522-2004May13.html
[and. . .wow lots of stories on these]
COMMERCIAL SEARCH ENGINES THREATEN NEWSPAPERS' LIVELIHOOD
Newspapers face a greater threat of revenue erosion from online
local-search products than they do from online job listings like
Monster.com, according to a new study by The Neil Budde Group and the
Advanced Interactive Media Group. "For local publishers, which have already
been fighting the 'new monsters' eating away at their classified
advertising, this may be a far greater challenge than the first Internet
wave. Well-funded competitors like Yahoo and Google are only starting to
target the local market, so local media still have time to respond," says
study co-author Neil Budde. The report notes that local advertisers like
car-repair shops, plumbers and restaurants could migrate to local search
pages, leaving newspapers' bottom lines bleeding red ink. "The ability to
directly target advertising at consumers, and to determine exactly what
the response to those ads has been, gives local advertisers more power than
ever before to focus their spending where it works," says co-author Peter
Zollman. "Few local publishers have realized yet how this will endanger
their business, and even fewer have responded with effective local search
tools for their advertisers." (AIM Group news release 11 May 2004)
http://www.aimgroup.com
THE BIG SWITCH FROM LANDLINE TO WIRELESS
The Federal Communications Commission says that at least 2.8 million
U.S. consumers have moved their telephone number between wireless carriers
or between a wireless phone and a landline phone since November.
FCC chairman Michael Powell says he switched carriers for his work wireless
phone as well as for his wife and son and that he "was shocked at how well
it worked." (Reuters/USA Today 14 May 2004)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/wireless/phones/2004-05-14-phoneports_x.htm
HISTORY CHANNEL USES VIDEOGAME TO REINFORCE ITS LESSONS
The History Channel's 13-episode series on "Decisive Battles" that
debuts July 17 makes use of a not-yet-released PC game to visually
re-create the epic battles that mark ancient Rome's colorful history.
"Rome: Total War" will be published by Activision this fall, but the
real-time strategy game already received accolades at last year's
Electronic Entertainment Expo, where it won an award for strategy game of
the year. The History Channel is betting that by incorporating videogame
graphics into its series, it will score points with younger viewers and
perhaps woo back some of the male cohort, aged 8-34, that reports spending
more time on games than watching television. In one episode, "Decisive
Battles" uses computer animation to provide an overview of the Battle of
Cannae, in which Hannibal and his vastly outnumbered troops completely
surrounded the Roman army using an ingenious crescent-shaped formation to
ensnare the Roman soldiers. Once trapped, the Roman legions were clustered
so tightly that they were helpless against Hannibal's infantry and his
Libyan spearmen. "We're pioneering something new in this series, and we'll
see how it evolves," says "Decisive Battles" executive producer Margaret Kim.
"The gaming industry is one of the fastest-growing, and it's likely that we'll
see more convergence between video games and programming in the future."
(Wired.com 17 May 2004)
http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,63455,00.html
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NEWSSCAN!
NewsScan was creted as a corporation ten years ago this month.
The first publication, Innovation Weekly, was followed somewhat
later by NewsScan Daily.
You have been reading excerpts from NewsScan:
NewsScan Daily is underwritten by RLG, a world-class
organization making significant and sustained contributions to the
effective management and appropriate use of information technology.
To subscribe or unsubscribe to the text, html, or handheld versions
of NewsScan Daily, send the appropriate subscribe or unsubscribe messages
(i.e., with the word 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe' in the subject line) to:
Text version: Send message to NewsScan@NewsScan.com
Html version: Send mail to NewsScan-html@NewsScan.com
NewsScan-To-Go: http://www.newsscan.com/handheld/current.html
***
>From Edupage
FEDS NO LONGER RECOGNIZING BOGUS DEGREES
Following an investigation by the General Accounting Office (GAO), the
federal government's Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has
announced a new policy of not recognizing degrees from diploma mills.
The GAO report identified several hundred federal employees, including
some high-level officials, who had reported earning degrees from
unaccredited institutions. Kay Coles James, director of OPM, sent a
memo to all federal managers stating that diplomas from degree mills
cannot be used in applying for any federal job, obtaining salary
increases, or receiving tuition reimbursement. The memo stated, in
part, "You may not send employees to diploma mills for degree training
or any other form of education.... You may not use your authority to
repay student loans if the degree is from a diploma mill." According to
the OPM, diploma mills are institutions that are unaccredited or that
award degrees with little or no coursework.
Federal Computer Week, 14 May 2004
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0510/web-creds-05-14-04.asp
[Makes you wonder how many such degrees were already recognized]
[Aha!]
GAO FINDS FEDERAL EMPLOYEES WITH FAKE DEGREES
The General Accounting Office (GAO) this week released findings from an
investigation into diploma mills. According to the report, hundreds of
federal employees list degrees from diploma mills on their resumes, and
some employees used federal tuition funds to pay for those degrees. The
GAO found 28 high-level officials who have degrees from diploma mills
and 463 employees who list degrees from unaccredited institutions in
their qualifications. Data obtained from two unaccredited institutions
shows $170,000 in federal tuition funds used at those schools. The
investigation was ordered by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chair of the committee, started looking into
diploma mills two years ago. According to Collins, there is "clear evidence
that tax dollars are being wasted on bogus degrees from unaccredited
institutions that the federal government does not even recognize."
Federal Computer Week, 11 May 2004
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0510/web-diploma-05-11-04.asp
MEDIA LAB LAUNCHES NEW INITIATIVE [Consumber Electronics Lab]
Nicholas Negroponte, director of MIT's Media Lab, this week announced
a new initiative focused on Consumer Electronics and the technologies
that drive them. The CELab will not have distinct facilities but will
include research projects at both the Media Lab in Massachusetts and
Media Lab Europe, based in Ireland. Because the new lab will not
require separate physical space, it has the possibility to generate
significant income for Media Lab with very low overhead costs.
Negroponte said people will soon be "eating, wearing, and breathing
computers" and that the CELab will be instrumental in developing the
technologies that will enable this breed of consumer electronics.
Negroponte made the announcement to a group of executives from consumer
electronics companies he hopes will join CELab as members. Companies
that become members, for as much as $200,000 per year, will be able to
license intellectual property developed by the lab and to join the
lab's steering committee.
Wired News, 11 May 2004
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,63412,00.html
REPORT CALLS ON U.S. GOVERNMENT TO REOPEN SITES
A government-funded report by the Rand Corporation calls on the Bush
administration to allow Web sites and databases that were shut down in
the aftermath of the September 11 attacks to be allowed back online.
Thirty-six Web sites were taken offline, as were more than 600
databases, based on concern that they made available information that
could be used by terrorists in future attacks. According to the Rand
Corporation's assessment, however, none of the sites included
information that isn't available elsewhere, such as in textbooks, in
trade journals, or on maps. Of the 629 databases taken down, only 4
were found to contain information that the researchers saw as
warranting restricted access. The report was welcomed by critics of the
administration's handling of the situation following the terrorist
attacks. Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American
Scientists' project on government secrecy, said he hopes the report
"brings some rationality back to this policy."
BBC, 11 May 2004
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3703559.stm
PANEL CALLS FOR RESTRAINT IN DATA MINING
A federal panel has written a report that calls on the Defense
Department as well as other areas of government to institute strong
measures to protect civil liberties in the context of data mining.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld appointed the panel, called the
Technology and Privacy Advisory Committee, in early 2003 in response to
criticisms of the Pentagon's data-mining program, the Terrorism
Information Awareness program. The panel's report, which is expected
to be released in about two weeks, says that although the goals of
data-mining programs are worthwhile, the government must take steps to
ensure that they do not infringe on individuals' privacy. The panel
also called on Congress, the president, and the courts to be involved
in efforts to safeguard personal privacy, as federal agencies sift
through databases with personally identifiable information, trying to
combat terrorism. Newton N. Minow, head of the panel and former
chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, noted that the
panel's recommendations would add a new burden of responsibility to
the government but said that the changes would enhance personal privacy
and ultimately national security. One panel member, William T. Coleman
Jr. filed a dissent, stating that the panel's proposals far exceed what
is required by the Constitution, federal laws, or former court decisions.
New York Times, 17 May 2004 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/17/politics/17privacy.html
You have been reading excerpts from Edupage:
If you have questions or comments about Edupage,
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-958352.html
or send e-mail to: edupage@educause.edu
To SUBSCRIBE to Edupage, send a message to
LISTSERV@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU
and in the body of the message type:
SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName
***
More Headline News Mostly Avoided By The Major U.S. Media
Nothing yet. . .
About the Project Gutenberg Monthly Newsletter:
[Goes out approximately first Wednesday of each month. But
different relays will get it to you at different times; you
can subscribe directly, just send me email to find out how,
or surf to promo.net/pg to subscribe directly by yourself.]
and
About the Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter:
[Goes out approximately at noon each Wednesday, but various
different relays will get it to you at different times; you
can subscribe directly, just send me email to find out how,
or surf to promo.net/pg to subscribe directly by yourself.]
***
Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists:
For more information about the Project Gutenberg's mailing lists
please visit the following webpage:
http://gutenberg.net/subs.html
Archives and personal settings:
The Lyris Web interface has an easy way to browse past mailing list
contents, and change some personal settings. Visit
http://listserv.unc.edu and select one of the Project Gutenberg lists.
Trouble?
If you are having trouble subscribing, unsubscribing or with
anything else related to the mailing lists, please email
"owner-gutenberg@listserv.unc.edu" to contact the lists'
(human) administrator.
If you would just like a little more information about Lyris
features, you can find their help information at http://www.lyris.com/help
pgweekly_2004_05_19_part_1.txt
If you liked this post, say thanks by sharing it.