Tag Archives: The New York Times

Taking Another Look at the Google Book Search Settlement

An editorial in today’s New York Times notes that hearings will be held in the fall by a federal court that is looking into the settlement over Google Book Search that Google struck with the Author’s Guild and the American Association of Publishers.

For a good overview of the controversy over the Google Book Search settlement and the larger issue of the future of the book, this 29 May 2009 article by Sarah Glazer from CQ Researcher is great. You may also want to check out other Newman Library Idea Lab posts on Google Book Search.

Glazer, Sarah. “Future of Books” CQ Researcher 19.20 (2009): 473-500. CQ Researcher Online. Web. 29 July 2009.

“Google’s Big Plan for Books.” The New York Times, 29 July 2009. Web. 29 July 2009.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Taking Another Look at the Google Book Search Settlement

Information May Want to Be Free, But Is That Always Beneficial?

Today’s New York Times carried a front-page story (below the fold) reporting on yet another Wikipedia controversy. An ER doctor in Canada added all ten images from the Rorschach inkblot test to the Wikipedia entry for “Rorschach test.” Typically, the distribution of educational and psychological test materials is limited to qualified professionals, lest wider dispersion of such assessment and measurement tools lead to people learning how to game the tests and render the tools useless.

To really delve into the issue beyond where the Times article takes it, take a look at the discussion page for the “Rorschach test” entry in Wikipedia.

Cohen, Noam. “Has Wikipedia Created a Rorschach Cheat Sheet?” The New York Times, 29 July 2009. Web. 29 July 2009.

“Rorschach test.” Wikipedia, 29 July 2009. Web. 29 July 2009.

“Talk:Rorschach test.” Wikipedia, 29 July 2009. Web. 29 July 2009.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Information May Want to Be Free, But Is That Always Beneficial?

What Data Do New Yorkers Want?

The City of New York is ramping up its efforts to make some of the vast amounts data it gathers and stores more easily accessible. A recent post on the New York Times blog, City Room, detailed major web initiatives that the city just announced it is working on:

  • Launch NYC Big Apps, an annual competition for technology companies to develop proposals for new applications to make data sets more usable (the city has selected eighty data sets from thirty-two different agencies for entrants to work with).
  • Create a 311 portal site that pulls together all the data on complaints that New Yorkers have left on the city’s 311 phone number.
  • Use Skype and Twitter as additional ways to communicate with the city (you’ll be able to call 311 via Skype and receive alerts from the city via Twitter)
  • Work with Google to get a better handle on how users are searching for information on NYC.gov and for city information generally in Google searches

You can read more about these initiatives on this press release from the city.

A number of outside companies are already scraping data from various city data sets and offering a friendly interface to that data. A great example of such an enterprise can be found in the EveryBlock service, which offers data harvested from municipal sources in fifteen cities, such as:

Chan, Sewell and Patrick McGeehan. “City Invites Software Developers to Crunch Big Data Sets.” City Room. The New York Times. 29 June 2009. Web. 8 July 2009.

City of New York. Mayor Bloomberg Announces Five Technology Initiatives to Improve Accessibility, Transparency and Accountability Across City Government. 29 June 2009. Web. 8 July 2009.

EveryBlock. Web. 8 July 2009.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on What Data Do New Yorkers Want?