Wednesday, August 14, 2002

I like the term "digital cultural content" #

I have found the term "digital cultural content" extremely helpful.  I got it from Gill, T. and Miller, P. Re-inventing the Wheel? Standards, Interoperability and Digital Cultural Content. D-Lib Magazine, 8 (1). http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january02/gill/01gill.html A small but significant part of this information explosion is digital cultural content--digital resources that help to capture our cultural memory and preserve the human record for future generations. Digital cultural content is a broad and intentionally ill-defined concept that includes digital multimedia surrogates for cultural artifacts of the kind typically held in the collections of the world's museums, libraries and archives, and the associated descriptive and contextual information associated with them. It can also include "born digital" resources; in fact, pretty much any digital object that is created and maintained to help document and explain the human experience can be considered digital cultural content. In terms of quantity, digital cultural content represents a mere rock pool at the shoreline of the vast and rapidly expanding networked information ocean, but qualitatively it is an interesting microcosm that is attracting a lot of interest from multiple constituencies, for a number of reasons. Although there are inevitably exceptions to all of these assertions, much digital cultural content: Originates from trusted and respected non-partisan information providers such as museums, libraries and archives; Is of high quality; Has an intrinsically high value for education and research, helping to support structured curricula, lifelong learners and scholars; Is relatively stable over time (meaning that there is a potentially unlimited return on the initial investment); Is either politically benign or non-controversial; Helps to promote a sense of cultural identity at local, regional and national levels; Is attractive and interesting to multiple audiences.   Posted by Raymond Yee on 8/14/02; 10:55:14 AM from the Web Technology dept. Discuss

NYRB: "Its Own Worst Enemy" #

Yesterday morning, I was planning to blog about Tony Judt's essay in the latest NYRB.  As the anniversary of September 11 comes up, essays such as these speak loudly to me.  Judt is reviewing Joseph Nye's The Paradox of American Power: Why The World's Only Superpower Can't Go It Alone.  The basic argument of the book and the essay is that although the U.S. is indisputably the world's great military power, the country is depending too much on sheer mililary power to get its way.  Americans need to learn how to exercise "soft power" (economic influsence, moral suasion, self-sacrifice, following their own advice) to do well for themselves -- and for the rest of the world.  Judt provides a fascinating analysis of the difference between the U.S. and Europe -- which is of great personal relevance because I live with a German graduate student and a Hungarian family.  As the U.S. flexes its miliary muscle (which has its place, mind you), we living in the U.S. don't necessarily feel any safer than, say, six months ago.  There's only so much that sheer coercive force can accomplish. The essay has ties to another wonderful piece, this one in the Atlantic Monthly by Charles Mann about computer security expert, Bruce Schneier.  Mann basically tells the story of how Schneier has changed his focus from technical fixes to human processes in the area of computer security -- and how often so-called technical fixes make us less secure.  Lessons from computer security have implication for international security, wouldn't you think? Undoubtedly, the U.S. would not be the one global hyper-power if it weren't for its military power.  There  is sometimes no substitute for sheer brawn.  But I'm afraid that this country has gotten too reliant on muscle power and technical fixes alone to deal with the challenges that face us all today.    Posted by Raymond Yee on 8/14/02; 10:49:21 AM from the Unclassified dept. Discuss