Friday, October 3, 2008
Muddiest point - wk 7
In the article on Dismantling ILS Roland Dietz is quoted to have said, "incremental functionality improvements [to existing systems] are more and more expensive." Why is this the case? Having worked in a library that used III Millennium system, I have experienced this phenomenon first hand. Each update to the system came with a huge price tag. How can it be so expensive to add improvements to an existing infrastructure?
Africa needs Google!
Sergay Brin and Larry Page are quite the comedy duo. Google would certainly be a great place to work....of course, it's too late for me to work there, they only employ the 20 something population?! While most of the world seems to be enjoying Google, searching day and night in technicolour, there are some rather telling spots where the spires of light are dramatically missing. The entire continent of Africa (excluding some sparse bits in S.A.) was virtually bereft of activity. Brin made an effort to show real concern for this absence, Page seemed less concerned and made some comment about access to electricity. I think that there is more to it than whether or not the people on an entire continent have electricity.
There are several major urban centers on the African continent; Cairo, Dakar, Nairobi to name a few. Where are the POPs, MANs and fiber optic networks - that we read about in the article on networking - readily available in Europe, North America, and Asia (mostly in the urban areas of China and a few Middle Eastern cities) to connect this massive audience? South America had a little more activity but nothing to compare to Europe and North America. Is this the result of governmental restrictions or lack of interest in providing access to these regions?
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
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