Week 15 readings

1)Cloud Computing
   -SaaS- delivers a single application through the browser to thousands of customers such as Google apps
   -Utility computing-third party storage over a network or "off-site" such as Amazon
   -Web service in the cloud-active application over the internet that do not require embedded applications such as Google maps
   -platform as a service-You build your own applications that run on the provider's infrastructure and are delivered to your users via the Internet from the provider's servers
   -Managed service providers-kind of an in house applications just for the IT guys, the end user never sees it even though it might affect them, such as spam filters
   -Service Commerce Platforms- ok, I still don't really understand this one
   -Internet Integration- Once the goal to create a platform that would connect clouds, but never really achieved it's goal or potential

1)Video:Explaining Cloud Computing
The potential for cloud computer seems emmence.  A cheap alternative to smaller entities to store their data.  It seems exotic to be able to say well I'm storing my book collection at Amazon in the cloud, or I keep all my research paper on Google docs.  But there are two interesting counterpoints.  One, it relates back to last weeks articles.  Cloud computing is the ultimate end result of my trading privacy for convenience.  My books at Amazon or my documents at Google Docs can be views by anyone,  kept track by the vender and hacked into by an eighth grader (ok, maybe not an eight grader, but you get the point).  Yet the second point is that could computing in the first real swipe on the market control of Microsoft and other big computer software companies.   No longer do companies and individual need to pay hundred dollar plus licensing fees for data storage and software packages. Google, Apple does it for us.  Sure Microsoft has a cloud too, but they'd rather you still by Office from them.

3)Thomas Frey
Ok, I admit, I am a bit tired by the time I got to this article.  But it made to think of how Voyager categorizing system now has a cloud capability.  Now there is the library of the future. Perhaps Frey is right and the printed work will be irrelevant in 100 years.  Perhaps St. John was right and the end of the world is really coming.  Frey is all speculation with out hope or compromising.  But faith and skepticism in both mankind and in technology is important in these halcyon days of information.  Not just how we approach technology but how we the librarians and information scientist teach the next generation about technology and information is what will make Frey's predictions good or disappointing.  The technology world will keep moving forwards whether we like it or not, but teaching the young to use it cautiously and wisely is the key to technology being a betterment to society at large.  Ok, enough about Frey - time for bed! 
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Week 13 lab

http://liswiki.org/wiki/User:Pattyhurley

Week 14 readings

So first off, I'm writing this from my neighborhood Starbucks. This weeks series of reading should make me outraged and appalled at the lack of privacy in our digital 21st century lives. But admittedly I crave convenience.  I'm not here because I need to be hyped up and connected 24/7- but rather, I'm a middle aged mom who finds writing her blog with three kids pining for her attention and Spongebob in the background a bit on the distracting side.  Alas, this leaves me exposed and and vulnerable.  My online activity is foot printed constantly.  Whether is be at home or at the Starbucks.   Every time I log on to itunes my preference for Thepainoguys and the crazy covers of pop songs with piano and cello is being profiled for future "we think you'd like to buy....".  But what is the fine line before the Oz behind the Curtain doing amazing things across the Ethernet and turning my rights over to a distopic government.  There is an excellent BBC movie staring Benedict Cumberbatch called The last enemy, that talks about this.  Actually, the movie almost a what it scenario if the US senate hadn't woken up to the risks of Poindexter and the TIA plan.  The ease in which we trade privacy for safety and in which those in leadership are equally willing to trade our freedom for control all in the name of security. 
Access to private data to mine for threatening activity might seem justifiable in the heated moment, but presence then occurs although terrorism is the issue dejour, who or what is to say what will the risk behavior of tomorrow or the out group yet to be named.  Take for example what a slippery slope will occur if the French bill just purposed in the French senate state that if the state notices you going to suspected terrorist websites too many times (the too many times or the suspected sites is left ambiguous) is a federal offense under french law. In name the law means to be good, but how easily it could be abused is such a short time and to such a huge extent is amazing to me. This such the case of the TIA case.  The connection between the monitoring me writing this at the Starbucks and the mining of it later for "risk" factors.  For now we will have to keep faith that like in the TIA case, those we elect to have good common sense will remain to do so. At least in this case.  Too much is at risk. 

week 12 reading notes

It almost seems like a fantasy book or maybe the prefect combination of fantasy and science fiction, this weeks reading really delves into the dark places of the web.  The web below the web.  It is almost like the multiple layers of the web. 
First there is the searching and crawling of the web (Hawking).  That the coded algorithms for crawling effects speed of the searches, keeps the request for don't clog the web and  requests are answered systemically.  In addition, that only the web site you want or close to the website is the one that is pulled form the super highway and rejects bad request or spam sites,  The basis of this is Javascript, with hyperlinks de-coding to meet end users requests. 
Then we explore the deep web, or the web below the web.  Which is500 times larger than what we think of and can hold huge amounts of information.  It contains 550 billion individual documents compared to the 1billion on the traditional web.  More than 200,000 deep websites current on deep web.  The deep web receives twice as much traffic than traditional web sites with deeper content than the conventional web.  The deep web can easily meet the needs of every known information community.  It is very topic specific database.
This leads to the Open Archives Initiative.  The OAI protocols were widely adapted in 2001, with the test format being organized by U Of I.  The goal of OAI is to develop and promote interoperability stands that aim to facilitate the effective use of content.  Goal is also to better relationships to data providers (repositories) and service providers (harvesters).  It capitalizes on Dublin Core metadata cataloging so that users can search effectively.  The protocol can provide access to parts of the "invisible web" that are not easily accessible to search engines.

Week 11 lab:Google scholar/Web of Knowledge

For google scholar I used digital library and virtual reference
For Web of Knowlege I used virtual reference