OPINION

Net Generation and Degeneration of Online Forums

By Terry Calhoun

A while ago I wrote a column describing what I felt was a Lord of the Flies situation in cyberspace, because young people (early teens) were spending a lot of time online interacting in venues where there was not only very little adult presence, but little or no established culture, and no mature role models.

Now I read about what’s been happening in MySpace and other online venues, and it seems as though there now is a developing culture coming out of that, but–-surprise-–it’s not the kind of culture most of us older folks are very comfortable with. Well, whenever was there any youth culture that was comfortable for adults? Actually, the mere existence of a youth culture may be relatively scarce in human history, since it d'es require a certain degree of affluence.
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IT NEWS

A Business Management Breakdown

Lansing Community College (MI) president Paula Cunningham resigns after the school's Oracle-designed software causes a technology fiasco and is revealed to have cost millions of dollars. (Lansing State Journal)
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MySpace Rises as New Online Star

College students' favorite, MySpace.com, has more than twice the amount of traffic as Google. Free publicity for bands and free music for fans accelerated the site's trip to the top. (A.P.)
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Schools Grapple with Policing Students' Online Journals

Only K-12, right? No way—students at Sacramento State (CA) are being subjected to codes of conduct for posting to online forums and blogs. (The State Hornet)
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Vint Cerf Joins Chorus Against 'Two-Tier' Internet

Internet pioneer says: "Nothing less than the future of the internet is at stake in these discussions. We must preserve neutrality in the system in order to allow the new Googles of the world, the new Yahoo!s, the new Amazons to form. We risk losing the internet as catalyst for consumer choice, for economic growth, for technological innovation, and for global competitiveness." (The Register)
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RESOURCES

Digital Library Initiatives: Next-Gen Libraries

Keeping a history of peace studies. Cataloging audio and video broadcasts important to the Northwest. Digitizing images and other documents older than the state of California. All of these efforts are important steps toward preserving the history of our nation’s development. And all of them are going on right now, thanks to various digital library efforts.

As digital repositories continue to evolve, keep your eye on these projects. They may serve as the models for your own digitization initiatives. Read on!.(Campus Technology)
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DEALS, CONTRACTS, AWARDS

UN Body Backs MIT’s $100 Laptop Project for World's Kids

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) signed a partnership agreement with the head of the project, Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Nicholas Negroponte.
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