[LINK] Innovative Ideas Forum on Mobile Internet and Archives

[Tom Worthington]

The third annual Innovative Ideas Forum started at the National 
Library of Australia in Canberra this morning. This is a one day 
event for librarians and other information professionals. There is 
almost a full house in the NLA theatre. It is very pleasant to be 
able to just sit here and let someone else do the organizing, after 
last week's Open 2020 Summit.

The proceedings are being recorded and will be podcast by the NLA, 
along with copies of the speaker's slides next week.

The ideas forum is a curious blend of the old and the new. Demetrius 
of Phaleron, librarian at the ancient Great Library at Alexandria, 
would have felt at home at the NLA; it looks like a temple for books. 
If you look closely, some of what was on paper, such as catalogs and 
signs, have been replaced with electronic screens. But the operation 
and feeling remains the same. No doubt Demetrius would have attended 
forums on "papyrus 2.0". ;-)

The event was opened by Professor Gerard Goggin on Internet and 
Mobile Phone. He described broadband as a "totem" for the new 
government and asked what it might be used for and the role of 
wireless. Roger Clarke got a mention in recording the history of the 
Internet. Gerrard pointed out that scientists figured prominently, 
but activists should be mentioned. My recollection from around the 
early 1990s is that we deliberately clothed any social activism of 
the Internet in scientific language to make it politically palatable. 
Having, for example, someone who had been jailed for their political 
activism did not seem a good way to get the government onside.

Professor Goggin mentioned several Internet historians and activists. 
But he did not mention Carl Malamud's "Exploring the Internet : A 
Technical Travelogue" (1992), which was about trip around the world 
visiting Internet pioneers, including those in Australia. This book 
has a large effect on me. Much of what is advocated has happened. 
Some of open access to documents may be about to happen.

Professor Goggin asks for histories of how and when the Internet 
developed in different parts of the world. However, he proposes to 
approach this from that of the key figures involved. The problem with 
this is that the people saying things publicly in traditional forums 
were not necessarily the people actually key to the process. Many of 
the key strategists were not public figures, relying on others to put 
the message out. Also the technology was used, so that the work was 
done by loose online groups which did not necessarily have leaders or 
formal structure. Those involved in this process may not necessarily 
know who did what.

This distributed approach still applies to Internet development. As 
an example, a few weeks ago I was part of a process to tell the 
government that it was not a good idea to give each school child a 
laptop. Within 24 hours, a cabinet minister said this to the media. 
It is not clear who said what to who and for this form of political 
communication to work, the lines of communication need to remain unclear.

It was not clear in the 1990s that "the Internet" would be a success 
and their were many alternatives which were proposed, failed and 
forgotten. It is very much the case with the Internet and the web 
that the victors have written the history. The other forgotten 
histories are buried in electronic archives, yet to be dug up by 
Internet archaeologists.

Professor Goggin pointed out that exciting new developments in the 
use of mobile phones in developing nations do not get considered. He 
also said that exactly what would be done with broadband on mobiles 
in Australia was not yet clear.

The commons approach then got a mention (of which Creative Commons is 
an example). He argued that the commons approach to mobiles has not 
been explored. This is relevant to broadband development in 
Australia, as the Australian Government recently cancelled the Opel 
contract to build a wireless broadband network in regional Australia. 
The government has no viable strategy to replace that network. A 
commons approach may help solve a looming political problem for the 
government. The opposition could get political traction around the 
perception that regional Australia is missing out on broadband access.

At question time I asked if historians needed to adopt analytical 
techniques to discover the history of the Internet. I suggested 
reading what people wrote in old fashioned paper books is not the way 
to do it. Also reading Wired magazine is not the way to do it 
(described by my technical colleagues as "The Dolly magazine of the 
computer industry"). The Internet Archive and others have kept 
records which can be analyzed to see who said what first. Professor 
Goggin replied that both approaches were needed. He was working on an 
analytical analysis of how Australian youth use mobiles, but it was 
also important to look at what historians say about topic.

Next there was Kris Carpenter Negulescu from the Internet Archive. 
She started off pointing out that the archive has more than just 
copies of old web pages, with books, music and video. Alos the use of 
the archive for research was emphasized, with "content as 
infrastructure" and "examination of primary data". She mentioned 
challenge with archives linking together with APIs. One aspect of 
interest was the risk of patent which risk the use of common 
approaches, such as a US company patenting the us of a thumbnail of a 
web page next to a reference to it. As an expert witness I have used 
the Internet Archive to check the prior art for such patents.

One interesting development was the use of Zotero in place of End 
Notes to keep research references. Mellon is funding an extension to 
this to allow a social network of researchers to exchange their 
references in a closed group or publicly.

Also it is interesting that data can in the archives can have 
analysis. An example Kris gave was of the use of the term "Cube Farm" 
to refer to an open plan office with low partitions. In passing she 
mentioned that Herman Miller was horrified that his idea of a more 
comfortable more flexible office layout turned into the confined cube farm.

Kris pointed out that the trend in research funding in the USA was to 
require the researchers to plan for sustaining the results of their 
work beyond the end of the funding. In Australia there has been some 
limited discussion of doing this, with researchers having to put 
their data in an institutional repository and pay for its upkeep.

More at 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2008/04/innovative-ideas-forum-on-mobile.html>.



Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd            ABN: 17 088 714 309
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617                      http://www.tomw.net.au/
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, ANU