Best Practices in Online Video

A conversation with Pat Aufderheide, who led the creation of a guide to the legal rights of people, such as professors and students, who make Web videos.

Full-text article by Jeffrey R. Young is available via the Chronicle of Higher Education, 7.25.08. [Subscription required.]

New Ways to Connect Data, Computers, and People

A conversation with Edward Seidel, an astrophysicist who will lead the National Science Foundation's efforts to advance computer science by exploring new ways to connect data, computers, and people.

Full-text article by Andrea L. Foster is available via the Chronicle of Higher Education, 7.11.08. [Subscription required.]

Beyond Blogs

An interesting article from the May 22, 2008 edition of Business Week:

"The year was 2005, and the story was "Blogs Will Change Your Business." It marked our plunge into the world of bottom-up media, of news as a "conversation." Many people at the time-including a good number at this magazine and throughout the business world-considered blogs to be a publishing tool for trivia, banality, venom, and baseless attacks. This was all true, the article conceded.

But in the helter-skelter of the blogosphere, we wrote, something important was taking place: In the 10 minutes it took to set up a blogging account, anyone with an Internet connection could become a global publisher. Some could become stars and gain power. That was already happening. In this new world, any business that hoped to "control" information-and that included just about everybody-was in for a wild ride. This promised a seismic shock in our own media world. No mystery there. But it also posed challenges for businesses in practically every realm. Every e-mail or memo could be blogged. Every employee, no matter what rank, could become a voice for the company, either publicly or cloaked, some gaining more power than the entire public relations department. "Your customers and rivals are figuring blogs out," we warned, adding: "Catch up...or catch you later.""

Read the full article.

Donations Are Up, But Not From Alumni

The Council for Aid to Education is releasing a report today that documents the "success of colleges in attracting support from alumni, other individuals, businesses and foundations" as well as some trends that could cause concern such a decline in alumni giving. The report expands on some explanations for this decline, including "a number of which are based on demographics and technology, not changing attitudes among alumni."

Read more of this February 20, 2008 article from Inside Higher Ed.

A Few Good Tools: Low-Cost Constituent Databases

The Foundation Center (http://www.foundationcenter.org) is offering a series of articles about the effective use of technology by nonprofits.

Click here to read the first article in the series about organizing constituent data and questions you should as before choosing a database.

The 13 Scariest Things in IT in 2007

Tracking IT developments in the business world is a smart way to stay ahead of your organization's technology needs. This humorous look at challenges being faced across the globe by for-profits presents the key issues for non-profits, although many of us have not yet run into these issues.

Click here to view the 13 scariest things in IT in 2007.

Wading Into Web 2.0

From the Chronicle of Higher Education...

Over at ACRLog, Steven Bell flags "Sharing, Privacy and Trust in Our Networked World," a new report released by the OCLC Online Computer Library Center. The report - drawn from surveys of American librarians and library patrons in six nations - should provide plenty of grist for librarians as they debate how their institutions should make use of Web 2.0 tools and other new social media.

Read more.

Banks to Share Platform for 144a Trades

By Lynn Cowen

A dozen Wall Street firms have decided to drop their competing trading systems for the unregistered securities known as 144a offerings and cooperate on a single platform operated by Nasdaq Stock Market Inc.

The decision, expected to be announced today, will revamp Nasdaq's Portal system, using some of the technology the investment banks have incorporated in their own systems. The result of nearly two months of negotiations, the new trading platform should be operational in the first quarter.

Read more of this 11.12.07 Wall Street Journal article.

Soon millions of Facebookers won't be incognito

Facebook, the popular social-networking site is making its listings available to anyone who searches the internet.

By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO - Social network Facebook will soon make the listings - the name and photo - of its 40 million active members available to anyone who searches the Internet on Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. But in its pursuit of building a bigger audience, Facebook has set off privacy alarms among customers who don't necessarily want their listings to be an open book.

Read more of this 9.13.07 article from USA TODAY.

Firefox Web Browser Introduces Campus Edition

New! Firefox Campus Edition. This version of Firefox includes add-ons such as Zotero (plugin for research and notetaking), StumbleUpon (a popular bookmarking tool), and Foxytunes (controls iTunes from the browser).

By Jeffrey R. Young

It's the time of year to stock up on school supplies: spiral notebooks, folders embossed with college logos, and a...new Web browser. Last week Mozilla, maker of the popular Firefox Web browser, released the Firefox Campus Edition for free download.

Read the full story from the 9/7/2007 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education