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Open Library -- all the books, free and wikified

Cory Doctorow: Rich Prelinger sez,

The Internet Archive has launched a demo of the Open Library, a project that seeks to gather all the information about all the world’s books and make it publicly available as a giant books wiki.

While many books are making their way online for free access, most still are restricted or cost money to touch. The Open Library combines links to open resources with information on in-copyright works and enables you and me to review, annotate, correct and convene.

I think this project (which right now seems to point to almost half a million books) is very cool — it’s going to be a major addition to the world’s open cultural infrastructure. I have a hunch that it’s going to be the primary way many if not most people access books, and I see it becoming an always-open window on the desk of every librarian.

Aaron Swartz led this project, which was conceived by Brewster Kahle — please send them support, critiques and book databases!

Book Price Comparison Shopping Tool

I buy and read a lot of books. If you do as well, you might find this handy little tool called Booksprice useful. The tool allows you to enter a book title or ISBN and then get a report of the current price from dozens of sources including sources like eBay.

Here an example search using Duct Tape Marketing: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide

You can also use the service to compare prices on CDs, DVDs, and games.

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Ani DiFranco: copyright in an open source culture

I spent the morning removing Ani DiFranco lyrics from my book manuscript.  I was obliged to do so because DiFranco had refused me permission to use them, despite two emails to Righteous Babe Records that were thorough, pointed and courtesy. 

It’s not as if DiFranco had anything to fear from this anthropologist.  My treatment was laudatory.  I regard her as a transformational exemplar. Here’s my opening sentence for her from the book.

Ani DiFranco is a phenomenon, largely self taught, almost entirely self invented, the creator of a genre of music, the founder of her own record company, and probably the most gifted feminist performer at work in the U.S. today.

And it’s not like I was asking for the catalogue, probably around 130 words taken from a variety of songs.   I think this represents a very nervous eye on the copyright watch. 

DiFranco is entitled to control copyright in this way, but it is also worth observing that she has made a career mocking music labels for their narrow, controlling ways.  Apparently, it’s ok for her to act this way. 

And odd too.  This is not the DiFranco you think you see on stage and in the ones and zeros.  I guess this tells us that she never was what she contrived to seem, a champion of an open source culture. 

DiFranco’s contribution to the open source culture came in the powerful argument that women should decide who they are, not men, and that individual women should decide who they are, not groups of women.  Or to use the more particular language of open source, DiFranco seemed to say that every women has the right to do her own coding, to construct herself according to her own objectives out of our her scripts and routines, and that she is free  to refuse “sealed code” from higher authorities and the originating software provider.

The second possibility is that DiFranco is aging, changing, narrowing, risking less and controlling more. 

I guess the transformational career continues. 

Answerbag is Extremely Addictive

Answerbag

I have found a new addiction. It is even more addictive than my previous addiction, StumbleUpon.

Answerbag is a website/community that has users ask questions and give answers to those questions. As the community progresses a large FAQ is created on a wide number of subjects.

Users have ranks based on how useful their questions and answers were to the other users. The higher the rank, the more points you can give or take from a Q or A.

Answerbag also has a Facebook group and a Facebook application.

I’m telling you, this site is great. Now I am going to stop writing this post so I can go back to answerbagging.

How to View and Edit New Microsoft Office Formats in Earlier Office Versions?

File extensions like .doc (for Word), .xls (for Excel) and .ppt (for Powerpoint) were used in earlier versions of Microsoft Office (Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003). But Microsoft Office 2007 comes with new file extensions like .docx (for Word), .xlsx (for Excel) and .pptx (for Powerpoint). By default these file extensions are not backward compatible with earlier Office versions.

Moving forward you are more likely to get Office files in the new format as they offer higher degree of formatting and options. For example, Excel 2007 can store upto 1 million rows and 16 thousand columns in a spreadsheet and Office also supports 16 million colors now.

With Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack, you can can view, edit and save files in these new Office formats in earlier Microsoft Office versions (Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003).

Download Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats

Note: This compatibility pack is installed as a separate program so that it can be uninstalled alone at any point of time. In case you are planning to install Office 2007 at a later point of time, make sure you uninstall ‘Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office System‘ from the system through ‘Add or Remove Programs‘ before installing Office 2007.

, How To, microsoft, MS Office, Powerpoint, Software, tweaks, Word

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Related Articles at Lyte Byte:

• Link O! Byte - 4
• Get ready for the impact of earlier Daylight Saving Time 2007
• Is Google concerned about its sick employees or its productivity?
• Shortcut to add current Date and Time in MS Office Word and Excel
• How to Subscribe and Read RSS Feeds in Outlook 2007?

(via Kevin Bondelli’s shared items in Google Reader)

The Transformers Movie: Totally Sweet

Last night I went to a preview showing of the new Transformers movie and I was very pleasantly surprised.

I’m not going to lie, I was a little worried about the Michael Bay thing, everyone was talking about how he was going to ruin the movie. Even I had to make a wisecrack when just as the movie was about to start the houselights turned back on and the film stopped rolling for a minute: “I new Michael Bay was going to ruin this movie.”

Well guess what, we were all wrong. These robots are pretty sweet. Some of the scenes were even met with cheers from the audience, and when the movie finally ended the entire theater erupted in applause.

You should definitely check out the movie, even if you weren’t a big Transformers fan. The visuals alone will make it worth your while, and I’m not just talking about Megan Fox.

(via KevinBondelli.com)

Facebook Applications: Survival of the Fittest

Since Facebook has allowed for the implementation of third-party applications, tons of them have been created and used by Facebook users. Facebook has recently limited users to sending 10 invites per day per application from the unlimited invitations allowed at the launch of the application platform. What does this mean for Facebook applications?

Well, first it is going to contribute to the inevitable application Darwinism. At the platform launch many users added all kinds of applications to their profiles, regardless of how useful it is. Now users are more likely to only add the applications that they see on their friends’ profiles that seem to be especially cool or useful. Only the best applications will continue to see steady growth in users.

As time goes on, even applications with large amounts of users will have a hard time retaining those users if the application isn’t worth the Facebook profile real estate that it consumes. It is extremely easy to remove an application from a profile, and those applications that may have seen a huge increase in users because of the unlimited invites may start to lose users if it is not good enough to keep on their profiles.

I think that as more time passes from the initial platform launch fewer Facebook applications will remain with a strong user base as weaker applications are removed to make way for better ones.

Do you think this is the case? And which applications do you think are going to be the winners/losers in the long run? Leave a comment!

11 Things You Can Bet On (Legally)

Prediction markets allow you to speculate on many things today - from the success of the iPhone to the next US President. Knowing these things in advance can lead to riches - or at least extreme smugness.

To get you started with this under-rated form of social software, here’s a selection of sites that let you bet on outcomes and see what the community as a whole thinks will happen. Gambling laws mean you can’t necessarily win money, but many sites offer prizes, points and other perks. Not to mention the fact that you can take your newfound knowledge to the real stock market.

1. Websites

Urladex takes advantage of Alexa data and allows you to predict the popularity of websites. This will be of interest to you if you follow Alexa or think you know web sites well in general. If a site increases in rank, it will increase in value. So go out and find the next big site and make some money! Play money, that is.

2. Blogs

Blogs are becoming ever so popular nowadays. Their traffic can rival some of the best news sites on the web. If you want to make predictions on weblogs, then Blogshares is sure to please. Recent upgrades to the site and the servers provide you with an even better experience.

3. Videos

VideoIPO takes Internet videos and puts them head to head. Your goal in this game is to find the best videos on the Internet before others do. If you do this correctly, you are rewarded with play money.

4. Technology

For high tech geeks everywhere, Yahoo gives us the Buzz Game. Think of it as a stock market for technology. In this game you can buy and sell shares of popular tech products and services and see if you can make the best predictions to come out on top.

5. Movies

The Hollywood Stock Exchange is just the ticket for all you movie and entertainment fanatics. You can bet on actors, movies and more. Feel free to give Transformers some love, and Paris Hilton the cold shoulder.

6. Stocks

If you are interested in some serious stock market action, then this Investopedia Simulator is for you. It’s as close to real life as you can get without risking real money. You can get data for all US stocks that is only 20 minutes behind. A great tool for the future investor in you.

Also in this category: PredictWallStreet. As the name implies, this allows you to make predictions on US stock markets. Your ability to correctly determine if a particular market will go up or down will determine your ranking and score within the game.

7. Sports

Wagerline allows you to predict scores of sports events and make bets on those events. Sports betting for fun, essentially.

Also great for sports fans: PicksPal. This site provides most of the functions that you would see in a regular sports betting site. It’s completely free and most major sports are included.

8. Media

MediaPredict allows you to make predictions on many forms of media. From bands to movies and beyond, you can make bets on the whole media landscape.

9. Amazon Items

Smarkets takes items from Amazon and allows you to predict their popularity. The worth of each product on the site is determined by its Amazon rank. We’re getting a few errors today, but it was previously pretty slick.

10. Video Games

Pushing current technology to the bleeding edge and spurring on new technological advances, the simExchange gives you the opportunity to make predictions on video game industry.

11. Words

Trendio is a prediction market that allows you to trade words based on their popularity in search engines. Your gains and losses depend on the popularity of the word . “iPhone” should be your first purchase, although you may already be too late!

Free Bonuses!

Foresight Exchange is a prediction market that allows you to predict all kinds of outcomes: it’s not focused like other sites, and it acts in a similar fashion to a stock exchange.

Inkling takes on various speculative topics. There is not really a specified topic, but the standout feature is that you can also create your own games to play with friends, coworkers, and others. In essence, it’s a “build you own prediction market” tool.

Are there any we missed? Add them in the comments. (more…)

Recommended: Piczo Stuff at Mashcodes!

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