Monday, September 3, 2018

Print Is Dead? Not Here; The New York Times, September 2, 2018

Ted Geltner, The New York Times; Print Is Dead? Not Here


[Kip Currier: Timely New York Times article, given my Letter to the Editor that I emailed to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on September 1, 2018.]

"Practically every morning begins with a thud on the driveways of the roughly 50,000 homes here. The newspaper has arrived.

That newspaper, The Villages Daily Sun, which exhaustively covers this rapidly growing retirement community in Central Florida, is in the midst of a boom that few other papers can even imagine. According to the Alliance for Audited Media, the Sun’s weekday circulation of 55,700 is up 169 percent since 2003. Over the same time, weekday newspaper circulation across the United States has dropped 43 percent. (The Orlando Sentinel, the region’s largest newspaper, is down 53 percent.)...

Elsewhere around the country, the industry continues to cough and wheeze its way from print to digital, with layoffs and closings in its wake. Just this week, Pittsburgh became the largest city in the United States without a daily print paper when the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette announced it was cutting its print distribution to five days a week, ending a nearly 100-year history of seven-day-a-week publication."

Saturday, September 1, 2018

Letter to the Editor: "Get the Facts on Readers", Emailed to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Kip Currier, September 1, 2018


[Kip Currier: I'm copying below a Letter to the Editor--titled "Get the Facts on Readers"--that I emailed today (September 1, 2018) to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. For additional background, see this story.]


Get the Facts on Readers

Dear Editor,

The Post-Gazette is running a multi-platform ad campaign that weaponizes variations of the line “I will never go digital” to make fun of older readers, depicted as fuddy-duddy Luddites. In one particularly offensive TV spot, a digitally-savvy granddaughter openly mocks her grandmother who prefers print.

Research refutes the ageist “messages” in the P-G’s divisive marketing campaign. Many adult U.S. readers—of all ages—are hybrid readers who want the choice of information in both print and digital formats.

As evidence, take a look at some of the key findings from a Jan. 3-10, 2018 national survey of 2,002 U.S. adults, reported by the well-respected, non-partisan Pew Research Center:

Despite some growth in certain digital formats, it remains the case that relatively few Americans consume digital books (which include audiobooks and e-books) to the exclusion of print. Some 39% of Americans say they read only print books, while 29% read in these digital formats and also read print books.

And the coup de grace to the P-G’s graceless stereotyping:

Some demographic groups are more likely than others to be digital-only book readers, but in general this behavior is relatively rare across a wide range of demographics. For example, 10% of 18- to 29-year-olds only read books in digital formats, compared with 5% of those ages 50-64 and 4% of those 65 and older.

The P-G’s preening effort to digitally divide users borders on farce, given that P-G writers and staff repeatedly concede the deplorable state of the newspaper’s digital search and archival features.

The P-G’s tagline is “One of America’s Great Newspapers”. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, that tagline is not supported by facts. So, here’s a “message” for P-G ownership:

Hire some of the Pittsburgh region’s highly educated information professionals to help the P-G become a bona fide leader in print and digital content, search, and delivery. Give the Pittsburgh region a truly great newspaper that inclusively serves and respects all of its readers and residents.


James “Kip” Currier 
Mt. Lebanon

Post-Gazette Is Going Digital, At Least On Some Days, With An Ad Campaign That Is Raising Eyebrows; KDKA 2 CBS Pittsburgh, August 22, 2018

Jon Delano, KDKA 2 CBS Pittsburgh; Post-Gazette Is Going Digital, At Least On Some Days, With An Ad Campaign That Is Raising Eyebrows

"The PG has billboards up around town and television ads on-air, featuring those who say they will never go digital.

One TV advertisement: “PGe and PG NewsSlide, who the bleep needs them. Last time I went on line they tried to track my cookies. They’ll never get my cookie recipe.” 

Another TV advertisement: “Now they’re telling me PG is going digital. They can stick their digital. I’m not doing that.” 

“It’s a little insensitive to the readers who really are connected to print, who really depend on print,” said [Andrew] Conte [director of Point Park University’s Center for Media Innovation].

Not true, says [Allan] Block [chairman of Block Communications that owns the PG]."

Friday, August 31, 2018

IBM makes millions off patents, but it could make billions with open source; TechRepublic, August 24, 2018

Matt Asay, TechRepublic;

IBM makes millions off patents, but it could make billions with open source


"While patent collectors will often claim that their portfolio is a good indicator of the deep research and development they do, rarely do we see patent heft translate directly into product success. Why? Because rarely do products succeed simply because of technical merit.

Instead, the most successful companies are those that can execute (sales, marketing, etc.) around a product, whatever its technical merits. In this area, IBM has largely failed over the last decade...

IBM has long been one of the pioneers in open source software, which is where most usable innovation seems to be happening today. From TensorFlow to Apache Kafka to Kubernetes, if IBM wants to compete with modern technology giants like Google and Microsoft, it needs to innovate in the same way they do, too. Yes, they still gather patents, but their more interesting work emerges as open source software."

New Paper Looks At Differential Protection For Traditional Knowledge, Folklore; Intellectual Property Watch, August 30, 2018

Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch;

New Paper Looks At Differential Protection For Traditional Knowledge, Folklore

 

"The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) based in Canada recently issued a paper [pdf] on the tiered or differentiated approach to traditional knowledge (TK) and traditional cultural expressions (TCEs)."

Trademarks, Patents and Copyrights, Oh My! What's the Difference?; Business News Daily, August 10, 2018

Adam C. Uzialko, Business News Daily;

Trademarks, Patents and Copyrights, Oh My! What's the Difference?


"Intellectual property might seem esoteric, but it's important to protect it like you would any other asset. To do so, you'll need to understand some basics about intellectual property rights first. 

Two of the most common forms of intellectual property protections are the copyright and the trademark. While the two are often confused, they protect very different types of intellectual property. Learning the differences, and how you can use both to protect your own creative output, is essential to securing your assets."

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Ethics in Computing Panel; InfoQ, August 28, 2018

[Video] InfoQ; Ethics in Computing Panel

"Summary
 
The panelists discuss the important points around privacy, security, safety online, and intent of software today." 


"Kathy Pham is currently researching the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence and Software Engineering at the Harvard Berkman Klein Center and MIT Media Lab."

Kathy Pham quote from video: 

[13:11 in video] "What a good engineer is maybe is something we should rethink as well.

I spend a lot of time in academia now. And I hear over and over again that people who are of the computer science plus philosophy or computer science plus social science background, have the hardest time finding jobs. Even if they're within the CS Department they have such a hard time getting jobs because they're not like the real hard science, or the real hard engineering discipline...

Those kinds of people provide a really different perspective on how we build our products. So if you're in charge of hiring for your companies, perhaps we all just need to rethink how we hire people and what makes a good engineer."

"Natalie Evans Harris is COO and VP of Ecosystem Development at BrightHive."

Natalie Evans Harris quote from video:

[12:28 in video:] "While we look at resumes and we care where you get your skills and degrees from, we also want to know what your ethical code of conduct is."

Predatory publishers: the journals that churn out fake science; The Guardian, August 10, 2018

Alex Hern and Pamela Duncan, The Guardian;

Predatory publishers: the journals that churn out fake science

"A vast ecosystem of predatory publishers is churning out “fake science” for profit, an investigation by the Guardian in collaboration with German publishers NDR, WDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin has found.

More than 175,000 scientific articles have been produced by five of the largest “predatory open-access publishers”, including India-based Omics publishing group and the Turkish World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, or Waset."

 

California Bill Is a Win for Access to Scientific Research; Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), August 30, 2018

Elliot Harmon, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF); California Bill Is a Win for Access to Scientific Research

"In Passing A.B. 2192, California Leads the Country in Open Access

The California legislature just scored a huge win in the fight for open access to scientific research.

Now it’s up to Governor Jerry Brown to sign it. Under A.B. 2192—which passed both houses unanimously—all peer-reviewed, scientific research funded by the state of California would be made available to the public no later than one year after publication. There’s a similar law on the books in California right now, but it only applies to research funded by the Department of Public Health, and it’s set to expire in 2020. A.B. 2192 would extend it indefinitely and expand it to cover research funded by any state agency...

Finally, it’s time for Congress to pass a federal open access bill. Despite having strong support in both parties, the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR, S. 1701, H.R. 3427) has been stuck in Congressional gridlock for five years. Take a moment to celebrate the passage of A.B. 2192 by writing your members of Congress and urging them to pass FASTR."

Copyright and Cosplay: Working With an Awkward Fit; Public Knowledge, August 29, 2018

Meredith Filak Rose, Public Knowledge; Copyright and Cosplay: Working With an Awkward Fit

"One of the questions about copyright that comes up most often at fan conventions is whether or not cosplay is “legal.” It’s a good question, but it gets into some of the murkiest areas of copyright law."

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

The Biggest Mistakes When Dealing With Copyrights; FosterSwift via YouTube, June 18, 2018

[Video] Josh W. Mashni, FosterSwift via YouTube; The Biggest Mistakes When Dealing With Copyrights

WIPO Traditional Knowledge Committee Begins Work On Core Issues; Indigenous Peoples May Be Left Out; Intellectual Property Watch, August 27, 2018

Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch;

WIPO Traditional Knowledge Committee Begins Work On Core Issues; Indigenous Peoples May Be Left Out


"The World Intellectual Property Organization’s committee seeking to find solutions against misappropriation of traditional knowledge opened this morning. While delegates are expected to negotiate wording of a potential treaty, the fund allowing indigenous peoples to participate in the discussions is empty with no foreseeable new donors, described by the chair as a historical situation. The committee is also trying to agree on recommendations for the upcoming WIPO General Assembly next month. On core issues, such as what the protection should cover, who would benefit from it, and under which conditions, delegates still have to find common positions."

Trump’s NAFTA Revision Could Further Extend Copyright Term (Or Not); Comic Book Resources, August 27, 2018

Eirik Gumeny, Comic Book Resources; Trump’s NAFTA Revision Could Further Extend Copyright Term (Or Not)

"An ambiguous press release from the United States government relating to the North American Free Trade Agreement is causing unexpected confusion for authors and copyright lawyers, as one specific document seems to state that the copyright term may be extended to 75 years. The wording, however, is unclear.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, a fact sheet released today by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative indicated that the “copyright term” — the length of time the creator of a particular work is entitled to certain protective rights — would “extend” to 75 years. Currently, the copyright term is set for the life of the author, plus 70 years."

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

The Story of the American Inventor Denied a Patent Because He Was a Slave; Gizmodo, August 28, 2018

Matt Novak, Gizmodo;

The Story of the American Inventor Denied a Patent Because He Was a Slave


"The world of invention is famous for its patent disputes. But what happens when your dispute wasn’t with another inventor but whether the Patent Office saw you as a person at all? In 1864, a black man named Benjamin T. Montgomery tried to patent his new propeller for steamboats. The Patent Office said that he wasn’t allowed to patent his invention. All because he was enslaved."

This New Hotel Room Is So Groundbreaking That They Patented It; Forbes, August 26, 2018

Christopher Elliott, Forbes; This New Hotel Room Is So Groundbreaking That They Patented It

"Can a hotel room be so groundbreaking that it deserves a patent? If it's the WorkLife Room, billed as the “guestroom of the future,” the answer apparently is yes.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) just approved InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG)'s application for its new WorkLife Room at its Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts brand."