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TOP STORIES FOR WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2006 ETS Announces Results of Information Literacy Test Cornell Opens Collection to Microsoft Wikipedia Cofounder Launches New Site Study Shows Evidence of Web Addiction IFPI Files 8,000 New Lawsuits ETS ANNOUNCES RESULTS OF INFORMATION LITERACY TEST Results from the Educational Testing Service (ETS) indicate generally poor performance on the organization's new test, the ICT Literacy Assessment Core Level. ETS introduced the test to measure how information literate and computer savvy students are. The test was administered to volunteers at 44 institutions, including high schools and two- and four-year colleges. Of the roughly 3,000 college students and 800 high school students who took the test, only 13 percent were deemed information literate. Officials from ETS noted that because the test is new, the results are not authoritative or thorough but indicate important trends. In general, they said, students could identify relatively credible information from databases and knew that information from .com Web sites is likely to be less reliable than information from a .gov or .edu site. Students generally could not, however, discern bias in online content and were overly willing to trust suspect material. Chronicle of Higher Education, 17 October 2006 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/10/2006101701t.htm CORNELL OPENS COLLECTION TO MICROSOFT Microsoft has announced two partners in its book scanning project, which will compete with Google's controversial Book Search program. Cornell University will allow Microsoft to scan its library collection, and Kirtas Technologies will provide high-speed hardware for the scanning. Unlike Google's program, Microsoft's Windows Live Book Search will only scan books in the public domain or those whose copyright owners have granted explicit permission. Librarians from Cornell will select texts to be scanned and will oversee quality control for the process. Kirtas claims that its scanning machines are capable of digitizing 2,400 pages per hour and are gentler that human hands with the books. CNET, 18 October 2006 http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-6127081.html WIKIPEDIA COFOUNDER LAUNCHES NEW SITE One of the founders of Wikipedia has announced a new online encyclopedia that he hopes will embody the foundation of Wikipedia while overcoming some of its shortcomings. Larry Sanger's new project, called Citizendium, will use a number of tactics to elicit credible, useful content from a community of volunteers while avoiding the kinds of intentional distortions that have been a problem for Wikipedia. On Citizendium, contributors must register with their real names, and a team of editors will enforce a set of community rules. Sanger said that Wikipedia is an "amazing" resource but believes that "an even better massive encyclopedia" can be produced by overlaying a system of "gentle controls" on how content is developed and edited. The creation of Citizendium will involve a "fork" of the existing Wikipedia content. All current content from Wikipedia will serve as the basis for Citizendium. From there, the two collections will evolve and diverge based on their different approaches. ZDNet, 16 October 2006 http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6126469.html STUDY SHOWS EVIDENCE OF WEB ADDICTION A study conducted by researchers at Stanford University indicates considerable and rising rates of Internet addiction among U.S. users. The study, which asked more than 2,500 people about their Web habits, found that almost 14 percent said it was difficult to be offline for more than a few days. Eight percent said they use the Internet as a means to escape the real world, and a similar portion admitted to hiding their Web habits from their partners. Researchers said these kinds of behaviors are not unlike those exhibited by people with problems such as alcoholism. According to the study, the profile of a typical user who has problems with Internet addiction is a single, college-educated, white male who spends more than 30 hours per week using the Internet for "non-essential" purposes. Elias Aboujaoude, one of the researchers in the study, said that it is important to remind ourselves that despite all the benefits of technology, "it creates real problems for a subset of people." Indeed, six percent of the respondents said their addiction had adversely affected their relationships with other people. BBC, 18 October 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6062980.stm IFPI FILES 8,000 NEW LAWSUITS The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) announced that it has filed 8,000 new lawsuits against individuals accused of uploading copyrighted music files on P2P services including BitTorrent, eDonkey, SoulSeek and WinMX. Individuals named in the lawsuits are from 17 countries, including, for the first time, users in Brazil, Poland, and Mexico. Some lawsuits were filed against the parents of minors accused of illegally sharing copyrighted music. John Kennedy, chairman and chief executive of IFPI, said that with the proliferation of legal online music services, no one named in a lawsuit has an excuse for continuing to use illegal services. Critics of the ongoing legal action against illegal file sharing contend that the drop in CD sales in recent years is unrelated to online networks of file traders. BBC, 17 October 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6058912.stm ***************************************************** 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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