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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, OCTOBER 03, 2005 Yahoo Announces Book-Scanning Project LAMS Foundation Launches Community Web Site Google Offers to Unwire San Francisco Digital Music Sales Surge YAHOO ANNOUNCES BOOK-SCANNING PROJECT Yahoo has announced a plan to scan large collections of texts into an online digital archive, though officials said their approach differs in important ways from Google's similar venture, which has drawn extensive criticism and legal action. Yahoo's initiative, called the Open Content Alliance (OCA), represents a partnership with the University of California, the University of Toronto, the Internet Archive, and several other companies and organizations. Unlike Google's project, they will not scan any copyrighted work without explicit permission. Organizers of the project said the goal is to digitize and make freely available as much of what is in the public domain as possible. In addition, the archive will not be restricted to users of Yahoo. David Mandelbrot, Yahoo's vice president for search content, said the texts will be online in such a way that other search engines will be able to locate them. Much of the scanning for the OCA will be done by the Internet Archive, which has already been working with the University of Toronto on scanning several thousand books in its collection. Chronicle of Higher Education, 3 October 2005 http://chronicle.com/free/2005/10/2005100301t.htm LAMS FOUNDATION LAUNCHES COMMUNITY WEB SITE The Learning Activity Management System (LAMS) Foundation has announced the launch of a new Web site that will allow what it calls "open source teaching," in which educators can share and modify digital lesson plans. The LAMS Community Web site is based on the .LRN open source platform, developed at MIT. Using the LAMS Community Web site, teachers can search through various subset communities, looking for sequences of learning activities particular to their field. Available communities will initially include developers, technical support, and education, which will offer subcommunities for K-12, higher education and training, and research and development. New communities can be added later, such as a community focused on math teachers in the Boston area. The Web site will allow teachers to share their own learning sequences, access others' sequences, rate them, and discuss them. All of the content will be used under Creative Commons licenses. LAMS Foundation, 30 September 2005 http://www.lamsfoundation.org/news/lamscomm.html GOOGLE OFFERS TO UNWIRE SAN FRANCISCO Google is one of more than a dozen organizations that have submitted bids in response to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's call for a citywide wireless Internet network. The network would provide free Internet access to anyone in the city. Google finds itself flush with more than $7 billion in cash after recent stock sales. Industry observers speculated that setting up a municipal wireless network in San Francisco could be the first step in a Google plan to establish such a network nationwide, though the company said it currently has no plans to expand beyond the Bay Area. Analysts said Google's interest in facilitating increased Internet access directly serves the company's goals of organizing the world's information. In addition, providing Internet access to greater numbers of people means potentially more visitors to Google's site, which would increase advertising revenues. Wired News, 1 October 2005 http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,69059,00.html DIGITAL MUSIC SALES SURGE According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), sales of online digital music more than tripled in the first half of 2005, compared to the same period in 2004. Sales of legal music downloads totaled $790 million (representing 6 percent of total music sales worldwide), up from $220 million the year before. Most of the gains were seen in the world's top five music markets: the United States, Britain, Japan, Germany, and France. Sales of physical formats declined by nearly 7 percent in value and 3.4 percent in units. The IFPI said it will continue working to spur legal sales of online music while limiting the illegal sharing of music. John Kennedy, chairman and chief executive of the IFPI, said that "digital and physical piracy remain a big threat to our business in many markets. Our industry's priorities are to further grow this emerging digital-music business while stepping up our efforts to protect it from copyright theft." Wall Street Journal, 3 October 2005 (sub. req'd) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB112834107711958392.html ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your settings, or access the Edupage archive, visit http://www.educause.edu/Edupage/639 Or, you can subscribe or unsubscribe by sending e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To SUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName To UNSUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SIGNOFF Edupage If you have subscription problems, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE RESOURCES The EDUCAUSE Resource Center is a repository for information concerning use and management of IT in higher education. 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