I’m back in the US, almost back in Vermont. Got this little bizarre piece of news today: Society of American Archivists decides to nuke its listserv archives. Huh.
A little more from Australia
Hi. Sorry to everyone who tried to access my 2.0 talk and found that it dropped out after the Cluetrain part. A little embarassing, talking about new tech and not being able to get your old tech to work… In any case, it’s fixed now. I’ve also been able to pop in a little and see some of the blogosphere responses to my talks and thought I’d list them here. I’m going to meet with some new librarians from ALIA in Melbourne tomorrow for lunch (thanks for arranging this Michelle!) and then I’m off to Sydney for two days and then home. So, I haven’t been online much — not at all in the past two and a half days — so not much else to report except that I have a sunburn and I plan to have been to four state libraries on this trip by the time I get home which I think is half of… all of them. It’s been a great trip and a real vacation; I’ll be back regular-link next week.
- Some Flickr photos from my Adelaide talk.
- Techxplorer Corey discusses my Adelaide talk.
- Kayo from off the trolley puts my talk into a few succinct bullet points.
- I added the Playford Library Service to my MySpace friends list.
- I met Constance, and Kathryn. So great!
- Sputty took my picture in Perth.
My two Australian talks
I’m making use of the wifi here at the Convention Center to make sure my talks are online. Both have been updated, these versions are shorter than similar versions I’ve given before. Thanks to everyone at the LocLib conference for your hospitality, attention and collegiality.
on the road
I’m on the road for a few weeks, starting pretty much now. I usually don’t even bother saying “won’t be posting here” anymore, since with RSS you don’t even have to care. However I am giving a few talks, two at the LocLib Conference in Perth Australia on March 2nd and one in Adelaide at the State Library on March 6th. I will also be going out to lunch with some librarians in Melbourne on the 10th and attending a MetaFilter meetup in Sydney on the 11th. If you are in any of these places, please try to come by and say hello. I’m also vacationing with my sister, so other than these professional and semi-professional activities, I’ll be away from the keyboard. I return on the 14th, though if the trip is anything like last time, my mind will stay in Australia for several more weeks.
man using library wifi after hours gets laptop confiscated
This story about a guy being busted for using public wifi is making the rounds and, like the recent scrotum story, has a lot of possible ways of interpreting events. Short story: guy gets busted for using public library wifi when library is closed, gets laptop confiscated for up to a week. Longer story is in the details.
- Guy in question has been asked to not use wifi in residential neighborhoods and so moved himself to outside of the library. Police officer might have a grudge, or a point.
- Library wifi is normally turned off after hours but they have been waiting for a technician to “install a timer” (hint: look for off button, works just as well)
- The police officer took the laptop to inspect it to see what the guy was downloading but since the library director is on vacation, they’ll be keeping it until the director gets back. They claim to be putting together a warrant to search the laptop.
- The use of the word “addicting” adds nothing to this story and seems immaterial to it except to stir things up.
- The police officer claims there are “requirements” to use the wireless, but that is not elaborated on in the story nor is that information available on the library website.
- No one from the library has commented on the story as of this morning, except they’re quoted to explain how the wireless works, but it’s already around the blogosphere.
So, what to make of this? Is there a law against using wireless that’s made publicly available? Is it okay to confiscate someone’s laptop for a week while you put together a warrant to search it? How much responsibility does the library have to implement technological solutions to enforce their policies (if there is in fact a policy, which is totally unclear from this story)? How much weight does the police officer’s assertion that the guy was “feeding off something that we know the city of Palmer pays for” carry legally? Is this guy really going to face criminal charges? I’m sure there is more to this story and it may make what we know of it make more sense, but for now I’m left scratching my head.
I install wireless access points for libraries and I make the various levels of access crystal clear to them (want a password? want a new password every day? want to turn it off at night? want to limit downloading? want to block certain users? want to make the network invisible?) and let them make their own choices. These are all hardware/software problems, not social problems and certainly not legal problems. They may become legal problems if we shirk responsibility for maintaining and understanding our own technology, but can we please not let it get to that? [link o’ day]