Reading now: UContent

UContent: The Information Professional's Guide to User-Generated Content, By Nicholas G. Tomaiuolo, Information Today, Inc. (2012), ISBN-13: 978-1573874250.

Extract from PREFACE:
"For librarians who want a shortcut guide to what it means to be a participant in these [e.g., Flickr, Wikipedia] and many more community sites, UContent provides a quick introduction to the practical ins and outs of participating, as well as how libraries are using these services and projects. Understanding the web and the many resources it offers our patrons (many of them created by their peers) is certainly a core job of the information professional, and UContent helps provide an orientation in a confusing, buzzword-y space. All libraries are situated within communities of participation in real life—within schools, research labs, or cities—and the internet is no different. The question is: Where will you participate?"
—Phoebe Ayers, librarian, University of California, co-author of How Wikipedia Works, and Davis trustee, Wikimedia Foundation [source]

What others say:

A thorough and thoughtful guide to Web 2.0, providing historical background on user-generated content and a field guide to Web 2.0 applications... --Ron Gilmour, natural sciences librarian, Ithaca College
... A fun book to read, it is worth the time of any librarian who wants to exploit Web 2.0 technology. --Eric Lease Morgan, digital projects librarian, University of Notre Dame.

Contents: Chapter 1: The Evolution of UContent, Chapter 2: Project Gutenberg, Chapter 3: Blogs, Chapter 4: Wikis, Chapter 5: Podcasts, Slides, Screencasts and Video, Chapter 6: Facebook, Chapter 7: Online Reviews of Products and Services, Chapter 8: Self-Publishing, Chapter 9: Citizen Journalism, Chapter 10: Tagging, Folksonomies and Social Bookmarking, Chapter 11: Custom Search Engines, Chapter 12: Cybercartography, Chapter 13: Yahoo! Pipes, Chapter 14: Flickr

Bottomline:
What is user generated content (in short, UGC or U-Content): ..."the production of content by the general public rather than by paid professionals and experts in the field." (p. 4)

Is this book about: a) Content added to websites, or b) content added to library's resources (OPAC, Blog, etc)?
The answer is, obvious from the Contents of the book (as listed above), the book is by and large about the Content added to websites. And, the context is equally divided by contributions by end-users on the Web, and library/librarians.

PS. Individuals interested in the controversy over the validity and reliability of user-generated content (UGC) may get a glimpse from the author's U-Content: Project Gutenberg, Me, and You.

Fair Use by Social Media, Revisted

Today, as I write this post, I get a) forwarded email, with fulltext, and NO citations (owner / creator / distributor), b) another invitation to download for free some ebooks, and c) the question of 'Is Fair Use in Jeopardy.' As librarians are we to allowed to extract or quote (fairly) or NOT? WebProNews' extract brings to fore a lot of recent transactions and the debate is again open for us (see the extract below).


Fair Use Controversy: The Gift That Keeps On Giving
Is Fair Use in Jeopardy? WebProNews,
Extract:

So the whole "what is fair use?" debate is back, as Fortune describes the business practices of Righthaven and the Las Vegas Review Journal of going after publications for violating copyright.

As the piece by John Patrick Pullen explains, the operation involves "transferring the copyright of content that has been reproduced on the Internet — either entirely or in part — from the Review-Journal to Righthaven, which then files lawsuits against the alleged infringers."

The EFF has reportedly stepped up to represent some clients the firm has gone after, while most are just settling with Righthaven, which has been seeking a maximum penalty of $150,000 plus seizure of the domain name in every case, according to the report.

The piece does appear to be a little sensational, asking questions like "Could clicking a Like button lead to a lawsuit?" and "Are the days of posting stories to Facebook, emailing articles to friends, or printing out pieces numbered?" continue reading (see also the comments)

On the same shelf:

Is there a cure for Facebook-itis? By Heather Mallick, Toronto Star -- Facebook’s purchase of tiny, sad Instagram for $1 billion reveals its desperate hunt for authenticity...

Whaddya Call It? All-a-do-about terminology management

"While using multiple terms to describe one thing is common, doing so can lead to product confusion and even compliance issues in the business world. Why you should be worried about terminology management."
By Donald DePalma

"...That’s not to say that big companies don’t worry about terminology. IBM has long employed a terminologist who works with a variety of teams for consistent product representation. The terminologist on staff at medical device manufacturer Medtronic gets involved at the earliest stages of a project, working with the development team to formalize the words used to describe the product they will build. And faced with a proliferation of terms due to mergers and acquisitions, companies like Cisco are actively reviewing their own terminology management futures. Companies such as Oracle, PTC, and Nokia also employ full-time terminologists.

Let’s complicate matters a bit more. Take terminology management one step further, beyond the simple transformations of product documentation in a single market, to a product that is sold in 10 other countries that speak different languages. Those 120 terms that refer to a single product now have the potential of becoming 1,200 terms once translated into those 10 languages. And each one of those translated terms will trickle through the documentation, online help, marketing, advertising, and other collateral information in each of those languages. These downstream uses all lead to the possibility of far more interpretations as creative writers, translators, and transcreators elsewhere in the supply and demand chains for that product.

The bottom line is that formal terminology management benefits companies both within a country and across its global business units. Harvesting, normalizing, and integrating your company and industry terminology into authoring and translation systems will allow you to save money on re-purposed content and translation, improve quality, and increase efficiency. At the same time, more consistent terminology can help you improve safety, compliance, and customer service..."s Read the full article