In this installment of Digital Campus, we couldn’t decide if we were happy with Google or mad at Google. Tom, Dan, and Mills were so confused about our feelings on the whole Google issue that we invited two new “irregulars” to join us — Jeff McClurken and Amanda French — but they proved to be just as unsettled as we were. Even though they didn’t help us much on our core problem, we enjoyed having them on the show so much that we’ve decided to ask them back on the show again along with some other irregulars to be named later. All five of us also discussed the future of libraries in the digital age and a new raft of picks you should check out.

Links mentioned on the podcast:
Libraries of the Future conference
Google study tips
Invincible Cities
Planned Obsolescence
TED talk: Schools Kill Creativity
TED talk: The Best Stats You’ve Ever Seen
Jeff McClurken and Tim O’Donnell’s seminar using TED talks
Social Media Governance

Running time: 51:01
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The Digital Campus team is delighted to be back after a summer hiatus with a new podcast covering the many important developments from the past few months related to academia, libraries, museums, and technology. We cover and make pointed (and occasionally wisecracking) commentary upon the status of the Google Books settlement, ebook readers, and cameras on student devices, among other topics. We also cover shiny new things like Google Wave, RSSCloud, and PubSubHubbub. Picks include a new blog, an article on the future of journals, and how to take command of the command line. We’re looking forward to another year of the podcast, and hope you are too!

Other links mentioned on the podcast:
Sugar on a Stick
ProfHacker.com
Learning Unix
Is There a Future for Journals in the Humanities?
Cool-er ebook reader

Running time: 50:21
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The Digital Campus crew finally tackle the Great Recession: the significance of the financial meltdown on universities, libraries, and museums. What will change and what will stay the same? Are there technologies that can help us in our time of need? We also talk more about e-books, campus iPhone apps, and lecture podcasts.

Links mentioned in the podcast:
Google Apps For Your Domain
Duke U. Unveils Application Suite for iPhone
‘iTunes university’ better than the real thing
Tip Jar
Digital Archivists, Now in Demand

Running time: 44:41
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The big news this week was the announcement that a settlement had been reached between Google and authors and publishers over Google’s controversial Book Search program, which has scanned over seven million volumes, including many books that are still copyrighted. The Digital Campus team takes a first pass at the agreement and tries to understand how it might affect higher ed. Other news from a busy week include the release of the first phone based on Google’s Android operating system, and Microsoft’s conversion to “cloud” computing. Picks for this podcast include a new report on teenagers and videogames, a new version of Linux for the masses, and a program to help you focus on the Mac.

Links mentioned on the podcast:
Google Book Search Settlement Agreement
Open Library
Ubuntu
Think for the Mac
Android
Microsoft Azure
Pew report on teens and videogames

Running time: 49:29
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As forms of scholarship move from the analog world of paper to the digital realm of the web, a debate has begun about how to give credit—if at all—to these new forms for the purposes of promotion and tenure. What will happen to peer review? What kinds of digital work should “count,” and how? That’s the featured discussion on this episode. We also cover the launch of Firefox 3, university presses putting their books on Amazon’s Kindle device, and the release of better copyright records.

Links mentioned on the podcast:
Google publishes copyright status of books from 1923-1963
U.S. Copyright Office Record Search
Mills on “Making Digital Scholarship Count”
Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage
Creative Commons Case Studies
MozillaZine on “about:config”

Running time: 44:02
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As Dan finally buckles under and joins in the most hyped Web 2.0 site of the moment, Twitter, Tom and Mills join him to debate the merits—and demerits—of the “microblogging” craze. Do services like Twitter merely increase the distractions and noise from the web, or might they be helpful for communication and community building in academia? In the news roundup, we cover Microsoft’s exit from book digitization and the significance of the tech layoffs at the University of Washington. Picks of the week include a podcast series from Harvard, a blog post explaining the semantic web, and a wiki for digital research tools.

Links mentioned on the podcast:
Mills on Twitter
Media Berkman
Semantic Web Patterns
Digital Research Tools (DiRT) wiki

Running time: 47:21
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Can print on demand shake up academic publishing, book buying, and reading habits? Another terrific guest joins us on the podcast for a feature segment on the promise and perils of print on demand: Yakov Shafranovich, a software developer who specializes in print on demand services including PublicDomainReprints.org, covered in several prior Digital Campus episodes. We spend most of the news roundup debating the impact of the Harvard faculty vote in favor of open access scholarship, while also covering Blackboard’s victory in a flimsy patent case. Picks of the week include a good new podcast, a flashy historical website, and an easy way to add images to your blog posts.

Links mentioned on the podcast:
Harvard Open Access Policy
PublicDomainReprints.org
New Academia Press
European Navigator
First Monday Podcast
PhotoDropper

Run time: 58:32
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On our first podcast of the new year, we look at the rise of the small, cheap laptop and its significance for education and cultural sites. In addition to a full rundown of the latest news about the One Laptop Per Child project and its $188 XO laptop, we cover the wildly popular Asus Eee PC and the forthcoming Everex CloudBook, both costing under $400. In the news roundup we note the end of the line for Netscape, mention the darker alleyways of social networking, and congratulate ourselves for predicting the decline of Second Life. And at the end of the podcast we highlight a great new word processor for the Mac, a service to print out-of-print books, and the digitization of a gigantic medieval bible.

Links mentioned on the podcast:
One Laptop Per Child
Pixel Qi
Asus Eee PC
Everex CloudBook
Scrivener
Codex Gigas
Public Domain Books Reprints Service
THATPodcast
THATCamp

Running time: 45:48
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