OPINION

Content in Motion: What iTunes Can Teach Us About Managing Web Content

By Guest columnist Piet Niederhausen, University Webmaster at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

PIET NIEDERHAUSEN SAYS CAMPUS WEBMASTERS NEED TO THINK IN TERMS OF DYNAMIC CONTENT NOT STATIC WEB PAGES

Terry Calhoun’s introductory note: Piet is a very active subscriber to the UWEBD (University and College Web Developers) discussion list who frequently shares his thoughts and expertise on what is simply the very best list of its kind. Interestingly, one of the topics that keeps coming up frequently is how to handle, create, manage . . . whatever . . . event calendars. Such calendars demonstrate the broadest possible range of content providers and epitomize what Piet calls “content in motion.”

Niederhausen writes: Content on the Web is undergoing a transition. Not long ago, most important Web content was hard coded into static Web pages. Web pages were considered a little more advanced than prior forms of content presentation because some Web pages contained links to each other, and because many Web pages were indexed in global search engines. Fundamentally, however, each piece of content was arbitrarily trapped in a document, and it took extra knowledge and effort to get to related content. An increasing number of Web sites are liberating their content from the confines of the Web page. We are creating structured content, tagging it with metadata, and letting each piece of content roam. We are sorting and grouping our content and creating containers where relevant content appears automatically. Read more

IT NEWS

Supreme Court Listens to Peer-to-Peer Arguments

What if we designed cars that couldn't speed and stopped on their own at traffic lights? That's just one of the arguments the Supreme Court heard this week. Another one: Why should a company be allowed to finance a startup industry by knowingly encouraging illegal behavior. Gonna be a tough call for the Justices. (USA Today)
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Robots Ready to Rumble

The Robotics Society of America and San Francisco State University are setting the stage for a robotic rumble, once again. Is this a seminal moment in the origin of The Terminator? (CNET News)
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Who Made Microsoft the World's Grammar Arbiter?

Sandeep Krishnamurthy, an associate professor at the University of Washington wants Microsoft to improve the grammar-checking function in Word. We continue to ask, if everyone uses it, who will know anyway? (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
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Mac Attacks Are on the Rise

Oh, no, say it isn't true! Or at least provide evidence of actual attacks, instead of just a handful of vulnerabilities. (Wired)
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Data Security Breach at George Mason University

There's no evidence of identity theft, but it could have happened. A department that processes ID cards stored data that is normally kept by other departments on a Unix system, in a Windows system, instead. Someone has gotten in and some law students are upset. (The Docket)
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RESOURCES

What's New at IBM's Industry Solutions Lab?

How about a mouse that can compensate for your Parkinson's disease? Or a watch that holds your complete medical history and also unlocks your car door? (IBM Research)

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DEALS, CONTRACTS, AWARDS

SunGard Acquired for More Than $11 Billion

Seven private investment firms have bought out SunGard for $11.3 billion, the largest leveraged buyout in a decade and a half. (USA Today)
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