Cyber defense, Feb. 23-25

SIUC to host statewide cyber defense competition:

"Would-be computer hackers and 'cyber-terrorists' will face a stiff challenge next month at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

SIUC's School of Information Systems and Applied Technologies will host the Illinois Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, Feb. 23-25. Students from five universities and community colleges will defend a corporate computer network — and keep it running and functional — against a cyber-attack, school director William R. Devenport said."

No Internet access at rest areas -- for now

Pantagraph.com reports: State pulls plug on Internet access at rest areas:

"State transportation officials have pulled the plug on a plan to offer free Internet service at interstate rest areas.

According to the Illinois Department of Transportation, only one company submitted a proposal to offer wireless access at the rest areas, triggering officials to put the idea on hold.

'That essentially puts us back to square one,' said IDOT spokesman Matt Vanover.

Earlier this year, transportation officials had sought to add Illinois to the growing list of states that are transforming rest areas into hot spots for web browsing.

Vanover said officials envision motorists stopping to check out weather and road conditions. They also saw it as a way to help drivers find hotels and restaurants near their destinations.

Iowa, Texas and Washington are among other states that have recently installed wireless Internet capability at rest areas. Some states charge for access, but Illinois had wanted to offer the service for free."

Intelligent machines

In the field of artificial intelligence, robotics, computer simulation and control theory, SIUC's Henry Hexmoor, an SIUC computer science professor, finds "ways to make computers do what humans do."

According to the News Service Release,

Hexmoor wants to find ways to make multiple machines — called "agents" — share a single objective, but work independently and cooperatively to achieve it. [boldface added]. One such experiment, for example, replicates the sidewalk dilemma, where several robotic agents are trying to pass through roughly the same space at about the same time.
***
Hexmoor has received about $2 million in research contracts over the years. Most recently, he received a $35,000 subcontract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to examine human control of a 'community' of five robots. Hexmoor's SIUC students will assist in writing the software for the project, he said.

U.S. Department of Defense wants 'agents' that can "seek to identify and engage multiple 'targets" according the SIUC press release. "The current trend in military operations is to emphasize off-site control of remote equipment, like unmanned aircraft."

Hexmoor explained, We want to capture the spirit of what the humans want done and translate that to a machine.'"

In other words Hexmoor is building a T-800 model that won't bump into itself.

Here's the press release: Professor trying to add 'smarts' to computers.

"Chants of a lifetime" deal for Indians�

Reuters, Oddly Enough: 'Chants of a lifetime' deal for Indians�:

"Xavante Indians living on the southern edge of Brazil's Amazon rainforest plan to start selling ringtones of traditional chants like 'the hunt song' and 'the healing dance' to cell phone users in China and Europe.

Brazilian cell phone users can already download the tones for about $1.40 each and 100 Xavante in the remote Sao Pedro village in Mato Grosso state have been profiting from the sales for the past few months, said Gilson Schwartz, coordinator of an aide group called Cidade Movel.

His group helps riverside communities in the Amazon find alternative sources of income in a region where most people live without modern conveniences and economic growth usually depends on mining or logging the forest.

'We want to create a business model of social content for the wireless phone industry,' he said."

Local SEM Expert Seeks Employment

Local newspapers may appreciate the suggestion by Dallas Maverick owner and blogger extraordinaire, Mark Cuban -- a way for them to increase ad revenue. I hope he doesn't mind me re-posting The Google Brilliance applied to Newspapers and Local Media. The part that applies to local newspapers:

. . . Whether you are a stand-alone newspaper, or a local media conglomerate with Paper, TV and more, the one thing you have without question is a sales force. A sales force that goes out into the business community and sells them on the benefits of advertising on your properties. The job of each sales rep, when done well, is to create a return to the customer that exceeds their investment. Of course its not always easy to define that return, but the sales rep hopefully has a close enough connection to the customer that they can evolve the strategy to fit their needs.

The "touch" methods of selling for local media, as opposed to the "self service purchase" of Google Adwords and its competition have been viewed by some in the Web2.0 world as a disadvantage. I think it creates an amazing opportunity to pull one from the Google Playbook.

There are couple certainties in the advertising world today.

1. Google isn't going to send a sales rep to visit, or have an inside salesrep call on the local 5 store pizza, dress, toy, laser surgery, dentist, whatever chain of stores. You are.
2. Some percentage of those small to large localized businesses you call on will have a website and of those, the vast majority of them will have no idea how to properly use web services like AdWords or AdSense to either generate foot or phone traffic (the 2 Fs of brick and mortar) for their businesses or make some money from advertising.
3. Local traffic is worth more per click through than national traffic is.

Which creates a phenomenal opportunity for your company. Just as Google arbitraged its selling ability between its ability to monetize traffic and AOL and Myspace, why not use your sales force to arbitrage the ability of your sales force to sell locally and all the Google Adsense/Yahoo/MSN networks to sell locally?

You are already selling display and classified ads for the paper, or commercials for your TV station, why not expand that effort to include Search Engine Marketing? Why not hook up with a local SEM expert and make that a service that you offer to your customers? There is very little chance the local Pizza chain or Body Repair shop knows how to use SEM correctly and those that try more often than not waste a ton of money trying to figure it out. Why not offer it up as a service, even if they don't buy ads for your newspaper or TV station? In other words, you put yourself in the position to become the dominant force for local advertising in your markets, NO MATTER WHAT PLATFORM those ads appear on.

Why not buy a media planner that specializes in your market? Or put together the resources to compete with them? Selling locally is a core competency. Optimizing advertising in a comprehensive campaign is a skillset that all local businesses need and many don't know how to find.

(boldface added)

Carbondale Wireless seeks service provider

On Sunday, a local organization, advertised the Carbondale Wireless Initiative RFP announcement in the Southern. The website has the PDF files available for service providers to appy for the project.

Carbondale gets wireless Internet grant

The Southern Illinoisan reports: Carbondale gets wireless Internet grant:

"The city of Carbondale has landed a $17,875 state grant to help establish a downtown wireless Internet network, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn announced Friday.

The city, in partnership with Carbondale Main Street, was awarded the grant through the state's Wireless Main Street program. . . .

'This free wireless network will enhance the experience of the tourists and students who come to downtown Carbondale,' Quinn said. 'Downtown Carbondale was already a hub for residents, students and visitors. Now it will be a virtual hub for web visitors and local businesses alike.'

Sites to be included in the wireless network include City Hall, Carbondale Public Library, town square, Friendship Plaza, Veterans Plaza and Memorial Hospital of Carbondale. The city's information systems division would operate and maintain the network.

Those with Wi-Fi compatible laptops or other devices would be able to access the Internet for up to two hours per day, according to the city's plan.

Mayor Brad Cole said the grant would allow the city to advance the project and 'move to the second phase much quicker,' which could include expansion to city parks. Cole said offering wireless Internet access would be a boon to the city's tourism and downtown businesses.

'We need to be on the forefront of this type of technology and be able to provide this service to the community,' Cole said Friday. 'I'm very excited about it.'

Cole said he hoped the grant would allow the online network to be 'up and running' by December."

Download the classics

Official Google Blog: Download the classics:

"Starting today (Aug. 30, 2006), you can go to Google Book Search and download full copies of out-of-copyright books to read at your own pace. You're free to choose from a diverse collection of public domain titles -- from well-known classics to obscure gems."

Global Advertising

SIUC to host television, advertising expert: "John Sinclair, of the University of Melbourne, will present a lecture and discussion titled 'Globalization of the Advertising Industry' beginning at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 31, at the GMRC, 803 S. Oakland Ave. The event is free and open to the public."

Wiki Is as Wiki Does

Wired News: The domain name 'Wiki.Com' sells for $2.8 million!

Searching for Order in the Blogosphere

An article in the Washington Post: Searching for Order in the Blogosphere:

"Sphere and Technorati also are partnering with traditional news sites, adding buttons to news articles that allow readers to quickly find blog commentary related to those articles. The link-focused Technorati shows only blogs that have linked to the specific news story. Sphere, by contrast, analyzes the news story and then links to all blogs that touch on the same subject matter, even if there's no direct link to the story.

To see examples, go to any news story on washingtonpost.com and you'll find a Technorati link under the heading 'Who's Blogging.' Over at Time magazine's Web site ( http://www.time.com ), news stories include a Sphere button with a link to 'related blogs.'

Those sorts of relationships are the ones we need to watch.

'I think the blogosphere and traditional media can be a very powerful couple if they can figure out how to dance together,' Conrad said."

Home Sweet Blog

Blogger's quest ends with keys to house - Yahoo! News

Diary of a Community Technology Advocate

In Ohio,a Community Technology Advocate reports she "was invited to sit at Barack Obama's Blogger's table at the Ohio Democratic Party 2006 State Dinner (yes, Obama actually sponsored a blogger's table at the dinner for which he was the keynote speaker). You can make whatever suppositions you would like to about what this means :-) but at face value it conveys the obvious --- that Obama is a blogger and understands the power of blogs. "

The topic on everyone's mind was "net neutrality" -- keeping the internet playing field level. Obama feels so strongly on this issue that he issued a podcast statement on the subject. Not deserving a grammy, but a "Bloggy", maybe.

NanoPublishing

NanoPublishing: "NanoPublishing Workshop, June 29"

Prof researches "Internet Newspapers"

Xigen Li, Assistant Professor of Journalism at SIUC, has written a book, "Internet Newspapers: The Making of a Mainstream Medium," published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Li edited the collection of research papers contained in the book, and also authored or co-authored eight of the 16 papers, written by "the most prominent researchers in the U.S. on this issue."

Li began teaching and research in the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts August -- since the Journalism program at SIUC wanted "to get more deeply involved in electronic delivery of news,"

"'In the long run, the Internet will dominate,' Li said. 'I seldom read a print newspaper unless I'm traveling, and I don't really miss it.'"

Reported in an SIUC Press Release.

The Toys of Summer

When the weather gets warm, you know one thing is for certain: new stuff is coming out. Movies, books, clothes, and especially...wait for it...the newest version of the linux distro Ubuntu? Apparently, even programmers want to get out in the sun and enjoy themselves at this time of year. That means finishing those projects that have been hanging over their heads for months, years, whatever.

I'm writing this post from the chocolate brown world of Dapper Drake, the newest release of Ubuntu. In the interest of full disclosure: I know next to nothing about linux. And when I say next to nothing I really mean absolutely nothing. Except how to spell linux. And that it magically has created Ubuntu in the same way that chicken and hamburger magically appear on the shelves of my supermarket and in the way that those meats have magically never looked different than they magically do in their magical supermarket packages.

My old version of Ubuntu was called Breezy Badger, for obvious reasons. As I have already said, this newest release is call Dapper Drake, for equally transparent reasons. And by "obvious" and "transparent" I really mean just nod your head and pretend to understand Why We Let Programmers Name Things. If you've ever wanted to put your fist through your monitor because your computer crashed for the tenth time, you might benefit from trying Ubuntu. Also, upgrading to the next version of Ubuntu is as easy as clicking "yes" when the update manager program asks if you want to download and install it. Just don't mistakenly assume that "easy" is a synonym for "fast" as my upgrade took like three hours start to finish. One thoroughly cleaned office and two sets of impeccibly pedicured toenails later (don't ask), I was computing on the bleeding edge of the geek vanguard.

Of all the linux distros, I like Ubuntu best because a) I've never tried any other linux distros, b) I like the word Ubuntu (seriously. look it up.) and c) I'm not entirely sure what distros are. Bottom line: It's free. You can order a bunch of Ubuntu cds in these cool little packages and give them to your friends. It's supposedly more stable than Windows. Less prone to viruses. Did I mention the packages? Or the magic?

OLPC: A Prototype Emerges

From the department of Just Checking In:

MIT's OLPC (On Laptop Per Child, AKA "the $100 laptop") posted pictures of its working prototype on flickr a couple of days ago. This piece of technology is still being intended for large institutional purchasers in mainly developing countries, but you've gotta think it's going to benefit kids and education in our country too. Plus it's cool that the laptop kinda looks like a Pokemon.

Innovate Illinois, Southern style

The list of winners for the Southern region in Innovate Illinois business plan contest, list of judges, plus some photos of the awards ceremony.

"Blooks" Are In Bloom

An Artcle in Business Week Online: "'I am now more open to blogs than I would have been [before],' says Judy Clain, executive editor at Little, Brown. And a dozen new businesses, such as Blog-based Books have sprung up with the intent of helping scribes turn their blogs into books.

Blurb.com has raised $2 million so far and is expected to announce another round of venture funding shortly. It's working on software it calls Slurper, designed to make converting blogs into books a snap. Due out this summer, Slurper will help writers strip blog entries of hyperlinks, comments, or pingbacks, saving hours in manual editing. Blurb.com will then invite bloggers to place their blooks into one of a half-dozen professionally designed templates, such as for a cookbook or a book of poetry. More than 500 people have already signed up for a test version of Slurper, says Gittins, a serial Web entrepreneur.

"Sign me up," says dave.

Carbondale Wireless

Carbondale Wireless: "The plan is for a municipally owned wireless network for the public. Public access for public service.

[Carbondale Wireless (James Throgmorton)] will be documenting the stories as they are presented by the people of Carbondale, and how they would like to use the wireless internet service that is hosted by the city.

This will also act as an information gateway for the use of the service. "

The Weekly Google: Walter Wendler, Professional Job Applicant

This week’s featured search is a local public individual best known for regularly appearing in regional and national searches for some of the top positions in academe. Based on the places looking at him, I assume that his current job – whatever it is – involves teaching or managing or organizing stuff and things of diverse sizes and shapes in new and exciting ways for varied and sundry arcane and mysterious purposes. This man is working harder looking for a new job than Michael Brown. (Who became, after his recent awkward appearance on The Daily Show, the first individual ever to be officially declared a national disaster area. When asked to respond about whether “resigning amid criticism” from FEMA had a role in creating the shame-spiral in which he currently found himself, Brown reportedly replied, “What’s FEMA?”)

Most recently, Wendler has been attached to a posting at Mississippi State University. Insiders in the search process have heaped compliments on Wendler as a “name” that has “surfaced in the MSU presidential search”. If that isn’t enough, this insider - in an almost obscene display of bootlicking - goes on to applaud Wendler as a “candidate” who “is said” by some to be “in the hunt”. High praise indeed.

Last year, Mr. Wendler unsuccessfully sought the presidency of Louisiana State University. In an often contentious final debate, the board of supervisors came to a closely divided “unanimous recommendation” to hire Sean O'Keefe. Former NASA director O’Keefe backed into the position on a technicality, impressing no one with his “exemplary record of public service.”

However, if Neil Steinberg has taught us anything, it is that most of us, like Wendler, are doomed to fail, miserably, bitterly, and unashamedly. So we, like he, must find our rewards on the road to failure, in the search if not the result. Rewards like sitting in a really nice car.

Wendler beats us to it: “Walter Wendler sunk into the driver's seat of the sleek automotive machine that was the 2006 Pontiac Solstice and admitted it felt good - much more stylish than the Ford Crown Victoria provided to him as a perk of his job.”

They gave him a Crown Vic? Who knew he was a cop?

Pass on the Corn, Please

While working on various things this afternoon, I was also listening to Fresh Air with Terry Gross streaming on the Internet (from WBUR in Boston). Terry's main guest was Michael Pollan, journalism professor at UC-Berkeley and recent author of The Omnivore's Dilemma. Pollan's book tracks the lifecycle of "industrial food" from seed to plate. Of note: his discussion of how corn -- in the guise of high fructose corn syrup -- has infiltrated almost every area of our diet. Pollan calls the syrup a "marker" for highly processed food. If you are into avoiding such food, look for ones that don't have it on their labels and you've made a good start. When I heard about corn's overwhelming hold upon our diet, I nearly dropped my Hot Pocket.

Environmental damage, industrial farming, food processing, fossil fuels, over-fertilization: the list of Pollen's complaints is nothing new. What I did find interesting and new from his discussion was his methodical approach to tracking the sources of these complaints, his nuanced attitudes towards the producers of the food and his critical examination of the alternatives to the typical methods of production. Whole Foods Markets, for example (a chain of natural foods supermarkets that he sometimes frequents) are described as a good thing in some respects -- their food does come from sources that make pains to produce them in a more environmentally sustainable way -- but he also criticizes them when they get their products for sale from geographically remote sources -- like grass-feed beef from New Zealand. In the case of the New Zealand beef, Pollen points out that the fossil fuels required to bring it from there to here tend to negate the environmental benefits accrued through the circumstances in which it was raised and slaughtered.

It is local food -- no surprise here -- that apparently has Pollen most excited. Here you can have the environmental benefits of (potentially) sustainable farming practices AND of the lesser amounts of energy required to get the foods to market -- and to your plate. [Begin gratuitous -- and irrelevant! -- Japanimation allusion disguised as a plug for locally-grown produce] Carbondale Farmer's Market Hyper Robot Happy Fun Rocket Team Go! [End allusion]

I presume there are sources of local eating (and I don't mean eating in local restaurants) in Carbondale and the surrounding, but what are they? The farmer's market (Hyper Robot Happy...oh, forget it) of course, but where else? How much local food is at the Coop?

None of this is meant as a criticism of the practices of local food producers and produce eaters -- I'm hardly a poster boy for good eating -- rather more out of a simple sense of curiousity and of keeping an open mind about improving myself and my family.

Of course, the question that should be on all of our minds is, and you all are sure to agree with me here, "Can I select, gather and prepare a meal cooked entirely from local foodstuffs without ever leaving my house to select, gather and prepare it?" Let's find out.

The Neighborhood Coop is a logical place to start. Apparently, they do carry locally-grown foods. Can I find out from their website? No. Do they deliver? Can't tell. They do have all their newsletters in PDF -- these could be a potential goldmine of information about their products and services. When the documents finish loading on my computer later this month, I'll let you know what I find out. Strike one.

The Carbondale Farmer's Market is a local summer institution. Many awesome venders awesomely share the awesomeness of their awesome goods and produce. It is, you will be surprised to discover, unlikely that delivery is available. Also, you can't place orders over the Internet. Or even get online at the market. Strike two. (Bythewayit'sawesomedidImentionthat?)

Von Jakob Vineyard has -- according to their website -- 20 different wines. Again, ixnay on the nternetiay rderingoay. But...if I used skype to place the call, technically I'd still be online! Base hit.

For dessert, I'll order some fudge from Arndt's Fudgery in Newton. 75 flavors of fudge made fresh and delivered to my door? Can you say "sampler"? Sacrifice bunt.

Ok, so I couldn't find any local produce, but I did find some local food/beverage type products. Although if I am broadening my definition of local food to include these, I might as well just order a pizza from Quatros and be done with it. AndI will right after I finish this case of Honey Blush. And this last. piece. of. fudge.

In addition to the letter, I think I may have lost sight of the spirit of my original proposal. Getting drunk and wired on excessive sugar can still only be considered healthy in the future world of Woody Allen's Sleeper.

The moral? It's good to pause to consider the impact that the industrial production of our food has on our environment. And its good to realize we can't have a healthier diet without making some effort to seek out alternatives. Points to ponder. Right after I finish this awesome bowl of High Fructose Corn Syrup O's.

Junk on a Map

Living in a small to medium sized town like Carbondale, it's easy to get used to getting wherever you want to go in town in at most ten minutes. So, unless your job causes you to travel to other towns or the kinds of things you want to do require you to go far afield you probably don't have a lot of use for Google's maps feature (aka "Google local"). That is unless you are someone who must time-wastingly play with any new technology because doing so is hard wired into our nerd DNA.

It is also nerd DNA that makes us applaud people who find actual practical uses for this technology. One such applause-worthy venture is Garbagescout. Garbagescout is basically just a website where people can post pictures of street trash. The wrinkle that makes this cool is that these pictures (that people take with their camera phones and then email to the garbagescout website) are linked to specific addresses on a locally embed-able version of Google maps. Garbagescout is mainly in NYC right now, but this simple concept seems like it might catch on -- in other large cities, at least.

It is the downloadable Google Maps API that makes this site possible, because by using it you can create a google map for your interests and your local area to go on your website. It does take a bit of coding skill to make it work, but nothing that is beyond someone with knowledge of some basic html (because Google gives you lots of sample code you can use and modify).

Your local google map can have as much functionality as the original - including the ability to "tag" items of interest to a specific address with a marker and a little popup description. Sound interesting?

Just think of the uses! How about a map that continually updates the locations of (and provides an image of the merchandise from) all the garage sales in the Carbondale? Why not create a map that displays the addresses (and images) of all the most derilict buildings in the area. (I know someone was making such a list...who was that?...hmm, if I could only remember...) Or for fun, how about a geocaching-esque city-wide treasure hunt? (You are given the address and an image of what you must find, but not its exact hiding place at that address. The person who collects the most items is declared the winner.)

Or one could simple follow the Garbagescout example and post the images and locations of interesting bits of detritus -- I mean, there's always someone out there for whom this trash will be treasure, right?

I won't need to post mine because every time we leave something out by the street, it's gone in like 20 minutes. I just need to remember not to park my car too close to the garbage cans with the doors unlocked and the keys in the ignition. Again.

Pay to Play

As bloggers, the staff of the Cyberdale often finds itself writing stories of stories of stories of stories of stories of items that originated from events and narratives that began their existence outside the net. This means news articles from traditional media, as well as public events that predate the Web but that now find new life and new spin from this generation of wired observers to name two kinds. But not today. Today, we bring you a story of a story of a story of a story that came to life because its creator is a blogger who thought to tap the power of his readers for more than ego support.

This is about Joshua Ellis who wrote a proposal in his blog that he would travel to the atomic bomb test site in Los Alamos and write a story about it if his readers would fund him to the tune of $500. He raised the money, set off on his trip, and posted the results.

It's definitely a good bit of blog-style writing - blog writing tends to be heavier on intimate personal observations juxtaposed with - sometimes questionable - sweeping pronouncements. Witness, for example, Ellis' observations on the city of Los Alamos: "It is an odd little place -- beautiful, to be sure, but it seems devoid of the sort of small-town closeness that other small American cities like it possess, where everybody knows everybody else. There seem to be a lot of strangers living next to one another in Los Alamos."

I'm not sure how much credibility we should grant a tourist on such a brief sojourn in reaching such a conclusion. Like most tourists, even especially sensitive ones, I suspect Ellis is merely finding what he expects to find. Or perhaps because he is himself a stranger, he sees strangers everywhere. Its also at least a little bit difficult to take completely seriously someone who posts a list of "ninja skills" on his bio page next to - and with no ironic separation from - his traditional professional accomplishments.

Having said that, we still enjoyed his essay and will leave it to the professional journalists, historians and physicists to say whether the information and observations in his essay have any lasting merit. We here at the Cyberdale are more interested in the very real merits suggested by the success of Ellis' project for how readers can now help determine the content they want to support and can use the power of the purse to raise the standards of the stories they get from the net.

And perhaps also raise the standards of their existing media. This might be a way for more traditional outlets to pick up a bit more of the investigative report they used to do but have gotten away from because of the effort and expense involved. I wonder if the Southern would be willing to propose multi-layered stories on local and regional topics to its readers with the understanding that in order to do them, those readers would have to make special monetary contributions above their regular subscriptive responsibilities? How about offering us a menu of special subjects that we can choose from with the editorial greenlight going to the one (or ones) that find greatest financial favor?

Or is this too much baggage to pack on such an unique, personal project? Its certainly easier to ask for a small amount of money to support something unexpected than it is to raise larger sums in an ongoing fashion for things we already pay for. Perhaps local bloggers might benefit more from this approach than institutional information outlets? Prefunding could certainly help those bloggers to raise their eyes and standards in reaching for stories of greater complexity than that which can be settled with a laptop at Panera fueled by coffee and a multigrain bagel.

The weekly google: Mayor Brad Cole

Each week, the staff of the Cyberdale uses Google's wildly popular search engine to learn more about local public figures. The search itself takes approximately 5.72 second on average (including typing time). But because we are all about creating an enriching informational experience, we put the items we find from that search into the kind of context you just can't create for yourself without wasting another 33.2 seconds of your valuable time. This week's subject is Carbondale's Mayor, Brad Cole.

The first listing on Google for "Mayor Brad Cole" is the mayor's own website @ www.teambrad.com. The site's alternate address is www.bradcole.org. Put them together and you've got one good source of information on the public activities of our mayor. After the revelation that his site straddles the worlds of commerce (.com) and public service (.org), one wonders if he is seeing the beginnings of a blooming political colossus (Dave would surely write, "Cole-ossus". We are not Dave.). A single internet domain containeth him not.

Mayor Cole is restless for new challenges. He has been- I think we're only scratching the surface here - both a mandala artist and a beverage label designer. His web listings stretch to a healthy 13 pages. And as a sign that Cole's political career is still in its infancy, it seems possible that some of these listings may not be composed exclusively from press releases!

A quick peek under Google's "news" tab and we get two more pages of mayoral insight. Not surprisingly, most of the news items are links to articles in the Southern. More suprisingly, there's only one item from the DE. This descrepancy is likely due at least in part to the Egyptian's policy of referring to Mayor Cole as "That Dude".

Online Collaboration with Writely

It's fairly recent news that Google has acquired online word processing program Writely. As a result, Upstartle (the company that created the tool) has frozen new registrations until the migration to Google's service is complete. Once access is restored, I'm sure I will be among the first to explore the new setup.

There's been a positive explosion of tools like this one in the last few years. I'm not sure if this explosion has driven interest in online collaboration or whether interest in online collaboration has made it possible for people to create these tools. Whatever the case, Writely is an idea that has legs. However, not having had personal experience using it, I can't give it an unqualified recommendation. Yet, the idea of it certainly intrigues me -- especially in the context of using it for group projects for classes that are partially or fully online.

I like the idea of the instructor creating a registration for each group that is accessible only to the group. Members of a group can then sign on to Writely and edit the group document. The final document is then easily submitted to the instructor via secure email. I know that there are other ways of creating these kinds of group documents already -- wikis are a popular example -- but I think the format of a word processor is particularly appealing because students are already familiar with it. In online courses, instructors need to consider the "lowest common denominator" student (in terms of familiarity with technology). For groups, the transition from offline to online word processing looks to me like a shorter step than from word processor to wiki. (I've used a wiki as a student in an online class, so I can speak anecdotally about its merits and frustrations. While the experience was empowering in some ways, we also tended to delete each others' contributions when adding our own, meaning we had to reconstruct the document several times from scratch.)

I know this isn't really a local story. But I'm thinking Logan and SIU instructors would benefit from hearing about a tool like this one. There's so much potential for online learning these days, much of it coming from the power that the Internet has for facilitating collaboration. Even classes taught primarily in traditional classrooms can benefit.

Man in the Gay Flannel Suit

iWon News: "A computer disk that the Minnesota Republican Party prepared to support a ban on gay marriage has another purpose: gathering data on the politics of the people who view it.

. . . GOP officials said the final version of the CD that's due to be mailed soon to hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans will contain a notice that the information gathered may be used by the party.

The disks contain video clips from Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer, State Auditor Pat Anderson and House Speaker Steve Sviggum. They talk about what they consider the dangers of gay marriage and why they believe a constitutional amendment is needed to ban it.

To watch the video, a person has to go to an Internet site and punch in an ID code that tells the party who is viewing it. Once the video is going, viewers are asked questions on subjects like abortion, gun control and party preference.

Party officials distributed what they called test copies of the CDs to the media on Monday. Those disks contained no disclaimers saying that data was being collected and transmitted.

Political parties used to collect voter information by canvassing citizens one by one or paying for subscriber lists. Minnesota GOP spokesman Mark Drake said the CD is just the latest way to collect information.

Bloggers beware

Cyber libel suits on rise: "Unlike a newspaper or a television broadcast, something on the Internet is available to anyone in the world.

While a definitive court definition of what constitutes 'broadcasting' has yet to be made, anyone posting anything anywhere on the Internet can be considered to be a broadcaster, unlike a decade ago when it was restricted to TV and radio stations holding a government licence.

Lawyers also say people posting on the Internet may think they are anonymous when, in fact, they are anything but. That perceived cloak of anonymity leads them to post opinions that they would never put in a signed letter to the editor, for example. "

To Complain is Human, But to Blog . . .

To Complain Is Human. But to Blog About It . . .:

"For McLean-based BearingPoint Inc., which is trying to rebuild its business after an accounting scandal and with a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation still underway, the musings of a disgruntled blogger might be a small problem. But it's a reminder that in the information age, no viewpoint is private, no slight unavenged and no joke too tasteless."

Regional Wireless

Reported in the DE: "Carbondale isn't the only city in southern Illinois thinking about wireless Internet access. Rex Duncan, a research project specialist at SIUC, is working on wireless and broadband Internet access throughout the rest of southern Illinois, including areas like Du Quoin and Chester. He's part of a group called Connect SI.

It's still in the early stages, but Duncan said the group has secured nearly $100,000 in grants to install wireless or broadband Internet."

If they can have Wi-Fi in Mountain View, why not in City Hall?

Official Google Blog: Wi-Fi in Mountain View: "There have been reports that Google plans to unwire the world with free Wi-Fi. In fact [the plan is] to provide free Wi-Fi to the city of Mountain View, where [Google] is headquartered. . . . It's actually a community outreach program."

Perhaps the City of Carbondale could make City Hall and the Civic Center wireless -- a community outreach program.

No such thing as free Breakfast

Due to "constraints of budgets and personnel," the quarterly "Carbondale to Cyberdale" breakfast seminars will be discontinued, it was announced last week. Southern Tech will continue to have periodic forums and educational seminars that will be held through the various programs via the Office of Economic and Regional Development (OERD).

The Age of the Page

Google's digital library of books has just gone live. Of course, you can't actually read the books online. But you can search them. And search for them.

For example, I found the play Carbondale Dreams, by playwright Steven Sater. I searched inside the book, but couldn't find any Quatro's references. Nor SIU.

Part of the play takes place in a home "set beside a lake on the outskirts of Carbondale, Illinois." That's ALMOST MY HOUSE!

When Virtual Environments Collide

This fall, I'm taking a class online about taking classes online. (Next up for me? Writing a book about writing a book, and recording a podcast about recording a podcast.) It's being offered through ION (Illinois Online Network). ION's a great source for educators accross the state (in business and institutional environments). They are leading the way in the maturing area of online learning.

Recently, in the class I'm taking there's been some discussion of the merger of the online education environment companies WebCT and Blackboard and what this merger might mean for online educators. Both companies are in the business of creating online classrooms. They give you the basic stuff you need -- chat rooms, test editors, discussion boards, assignment submission tools, student tracking, etc -- and you, the educator, arrange it all to suit your classroom goals. Then students log in with a password to access the class. Online education has come a long way from the time when someone c0uld throw a few links up on a webpage and call it a resource.

ION itself uses Moodle (The Moodle link takes you to a page which is itself an example of what the moodle environment looks like), which is from neither. Moodle is open source, which basically means the software is free and you are free to change the it's code (assuming you know how). So you can see how the war between the VLEs (Virtual Learning Environments) is getting complicated.

With education budgets shrinking, colleges and university have to take a long, hard look at open source solutions to online course management. SIU uses WebCT, but I've heard that they are looking at other options. Are they going open source? I don't think so, but it's not because those alternatives aren't there.