Jay Gillette

Directing your attention to "The Attention Economy"

In 2001, Thomas H. Davenport and John C. Beck published
The Attention Economy [link to wikipedia's entry on the concept]
through Harvard Business School Press.

Here's the money quote:

"In postindustrial societies, attention has become a more valuable currency than the kind you store in bank accounts. The vast majority of products have become cheaper and more abundant as the sum total of human wealth increases. Venture capital dollars have multiplied like breeding hamsters. The problems for businesspeople lie on both sides of the attention equation: how to get and hold the attention of consumers, stockholders, potential employees, and the like, and how to parcel out their own attention in the face of overwhelming options. People and companies that do this, succeed. The rest fail. Understanding and managing attention is now the single most important determinant of business success. Welcome to the attention economy." (p. 3)

This book and its theoretical approach tell us what to do after we go beyond providing information access. Now the work is to get the attention of those awash in information flows. It's worth your attention.

JEG

Read C. Tuite's post on rational systems security and how to use email "Subject" lines for real information

As usual, Charles Tuite's blog "Seeing To It"
has nailed another key issue in contemporary information science.

He is one of the thought-leaders produced by the Center for Information and Communication Sciences
master's program at Ball State University.

I recommend you read in its entirety his latest post, "A New Coat of Paint"
Tuite says:

[A]t least a passing comment is needed to address the seemingly endless stream of FUD ["Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt"] coming out of the security segment of the IT world regarding social networking and the associated softwares. The simple fact of life is that the only absolutely secure software is one never installed, and the only safe network is one powered down. There are varying degrees of security and hardening, but it is more guaranteed by the policies and implementations of technology than by any one software.

Note the force of the well-written phrase: "The simple fact of life is that the only absolutely secure software is one never installed, and the only safe network is one powered down."

CICS Bloggers--Charles Tuite's "Seeing to It"; Amy Clevenger's "Rolling Relic"

I'm taking time in a busy period to call attention to some great bloggers
in the community of interesting people that make up the Center for Information and Communication Sciences.
They are Charles Tuite and Amy Clevenger:

1. Alumnus Charles Tuite has a great blog called "Seeing to It"
He hasn't said this, but I reckon the name comes from his university login, which I see a lot--"ctuite"--and I have no doubt he gets told "see to it" often, by the people who recognize (and exploit) his competence, including me...

Here follows a great quote from his continuing reflections on technology and design, often inspired by watching his smart daughter, who's a Toddler, First Class. This is from an entry he calls "Sophie Tech":

Economist Robert Solow--"Places with distinctive identities are more likely to prosper"

I'm at the Intelligent Communities Forum
conference in New York City.

Lots of discussion here about how communities
can survive and prosper in the 21st century information economy.

I found a great quote attributed to Robert Solow, economist:

"Over the long term, places with strong, distinctive identities are more likely to prosper than places without them. Every place must identify its strongest most distinctive features and develop them or run the risk of being all things to all persons and nothing special to any...Livability is not a middle-class luxury. It is an economic imperative."

Source is the Wikipedia article on Solow, with quotes at bottom of article

Live blogging--ITERA/ACUTA Conference--Miles O'Brien Keynote: New Media

Live blogging--ITERA/ACUTA Conference in Atlanta.

ITERA is International Telecommunications Education and Research Association,
holding a joint conference with ACUTA,
now known as the Association for Information Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education.

Miles O'Brien is keynote speaker. He is demonstrating via a multimedia presentation on stage.

He has brought in via BGAN, a blogging correspondent from the Himalayan mountains in Nepal
Here's a definition of BGAN:

Broadband Global Area Network or BGAN for short, is a global Satellite Internet Network with telephony using portable terminals.

Live blogging--Ball State University 2009 Copyright Conference--Recent Copyright Cases

Donna L. Ferullo, J.D.
Director, Copyright Office,
Purdue University

Recent Copyright Cases

Not too much new legislation. Here some key legislative efforts coming forward however.
Note these:

--Fair Copyright in Research Works Act, H.R. 801

--Higher Education Opportunity Act

--Orphan Works

Live blogging--Ball State University 2009 Copyright Conference--Dwayne Buttler presentation

Professor, University Libraries, University of Louisville

The basic questions:

1. Is the work copyrighted at all?

2. How do you plan to use the work?

3. Is the work covered by a license?

4. Does the law contain a specific exception allowing your use?

5. Will I need permission from the copyright holder?

Live blogging--Ball State University 2009 Copyright Conference--Intro & Basics

This is the 6th annual copyright conference, held by Ball State University (BSU) at its Alumni Center in Muncie, Indiana.

The BSU Library is chief developer of this conference. There are a number of other supporting organizations such as Digital Policy Institute, which I am representing today on behalf of its Senior Research Fellows.

The BSU Library Dean Arthur Hafner gives a welcome with notice that there are over 110 participants from 10 states here today.

Dr. Fritz Dolak, chairs the conference. He is the director of the BSU Library's Copyright and Intellectual Property Office. The conference's main focus is on copyright use, done legally, in academic settings.

First speaker is Michelle Cooper, J.D. Her presentation is an introduction to basic copyright:

Entrepreneur talk--Live blogging Women Working in Technology (WWiT) 2009 Conference

Dr. Michael Goldsby,
Directory of Entrepreneurship
Miller College of Business
Ball State University

on "Creativity, Innovation , and Entrepreneurship: It All Starts with a Mouse"

1. Defines creativity--doing something different that is accepted

2. Innovation--bringing ideas into reality that change a domain

2.1 first enterprise to make a given technical change is an innovator; following ones are imitators

3. Entrepreneurship--finding and developing new sources of income or revenue

3.1 new new = new products and services

3.2 new old = new markets for existing products and services

3.3 management/optimization versus entrepreneurship

Live blogging Women Working in Technology (WWiT) 2009 Conference--Leadership talk

Susan Klingle-Dowd, professor of communication, Ball State University
on "Leadership Styles"
at the 2009 Women Working in Technology (WWiT) conference

1. Prof. K-D covering communication as basis of leadership.

2. Historical coverage of 20th century management approaches,
starting with Taylor on scientific management
of work processes in directing time and motion,
through the human resources model, with people as the prime means getting work done.

3. Major focus on attitude; participants think it's one of the most important attributes
of "who we are and what we are"--