Is pinning illegal?

Should we be concerned about copyright?  Remember Napster?  Copying music is illegal and not only did the company get prosecuted, but also some of the young people who had download music.  So is Pinterest the new Napster?  According to  Photographer Kirsten Kowalski, writing on her website, she tells us that she has removed all content from her Pinterest account.

Kristen points out that "Federal copyright laws give the author of any copyrighted work (which includes photographs and copyright attaches automatically as soon as the work is created) the sole and exclusive right to publish and reproduce such work."

What what about "Fair Use"?  According to Cornell's Law Information site a copyrighted work can be reproduced if you are using it as part of a critique, commentary, news reporting, scholarly work, or for teaching.  So as long as you are not using someone's images / photographs for commercial purposes or using a substantial amount of the work.


Ellen Brundige writes on HubPages  that "Thousands of Pinterest members are breaking copyright and causing headaches for artists, photographers, and bloggers. Many image owners don't mind at all, and are happy for the publicity! But for many photographers and artists, the problems caused by these copyright violations outweigh the benefits."

Is it time to revisit copyright law? In 1998 the copyright extension act (CTEA) of 1998, revisited copyright law, which resulted in an additional 20 years.  Materials that have a copyright prior to 1978 are protected for a total of 95 years from their inception.

So if anything copyright protections may get even more stringent, and even though Pinterest is beautiful and appeals to anyone who is even a tiny bit visual, we must all pin carefully and with a grain of caution.  I think humans express and absorb information visually and Pinterest allows us a visual platform to share and  collaborate visual information like very few other social platforms.  It would be quite sad to see it have to go.

Your Love, Life and Goals in three minutes

One important piece of advice we hear again and again, is that when you’re looking for work, network, network, network!  And one of the tools for networking is to have different versions of your elevator speech ready for all occasions.

So here are some quick pointers:

Make a list of 10 things you feel are important that you want to convey about yourself.  Laura Katen mentions things like what you have achieve, goals, work and service accomplished for places you have worked and volunteered in.

Strike through anything that seems repetitious and craft what's left to sound not only informative but interesting as well.  As your list shapes up, make sure it addresses "Who I Am,”

• “What I Do,” 
• “How I Do It,” 
• “Why I Do It,” and 
• “Who I Do It For

Once you have about two sentences (for a short elevator ride) of talking points, make sure your most important items are first, in case the ride gets interrupted.  And add an interesting fact to hook your listener at the beginning of your brief talk so that they want to hear more.

Both Ms. Katen and the Peace corps orientation handbook also suggest that practicing your speech is crucial.

The Peace corps orientation handbook also suggest the following when meeting a new person (probably not in an elevator, unless your being introduced):

• Shake hands firmly.
• Make eye contact.
• Use the person’s name.
• Respect personal space.
• Be confident, friendly, and enthusiastic.Goals
• Ask thoughtful questions.  If you know something about a professor’s research, ask about it!
• Follow up with people after the event / meet

References

Katen, L. (2011, October 13). Perfect pitch: How to nail your elevator speech. The Daily Muse, Retrieved from http://www.thedailymuse.com/job-search/perfect-pitch/

Peace corps fellows orientation handbook . (2010). Paper presented at University of Arizona – graduate college peace corps fellows/ usa. doi: 8/17/2010 url: http://goo.gl/pIhsi

New Info-blogs areas

Library Careers

Information Literacy

Mobile and the Future

These are three areas of interest, and they are related, since the future of libraries and technology has a close bearing on our future librarian careers and the ability of  patrons to learn information literacy.

Is AI going Away?

AI (App Inventor) is not going away, but is's future is not as of yet crystal clear.  The product will be transitioned to a non-profit and will become open sourced.  For details on the saga check out the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

A Good Tutorial for working with App Inventor from Sajdutt

http://www.appinventorblocks.com/home a great site that explains the set up and several applications using good and easy to follow visuals.

App Inventor and the Java Bridge

There seems to be software that relates Java to the code in App Inventor to help developers in App Inventor make the connection and be able to cross over to the more detailed and customizable environment of Android Development.

JAVA bridge resource links:

About the Bridge

To get started with the Bridge, download the sample project from the
App-Inventor-for-Android project at code.google.com<http://code.google.com/p/app-inventor-for-android/source/browse/trunk/>.

You can download the project source code with svn (subversion):  Connect to a directory where you typically keep Java projects and issue the command:

svn co
http://app-inventor-for-android.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/samples/Brid...

This should create a BridgeToJava folder on your computer, with all the files required to build the app.
[still trying to figure out how to do this...]

More links that may help with the svn mystery...

How to use Subversion with Eclipse.
and
SVN Howto

Next steps: Android development Platform

After taking a few preliminary steps using App Inventor (which is a lot of fun), I next wanted to try the Android Development Platform.

I found an Android for Dummies that had a step by step recipe type instructions. But Eclipse and the Android STK had changed so it was difficult to understand the instructions.

I next tried Hello Android by Ed Burnett, and although the format does not give you complete step by step setup instructions it gives one a clear orientation and the information that is required to connect the Java STK, with Android and Eclipse componets.

There are also good instructions at the Android Developers Website.

The components you need are:

•  First make sure you have JAVA installed on your computer.  To get a current copy, go to the ORACLE website.
• You will also need an editor of some kind the oldest and most used by people in the field is ECLIPSE, and you should dowload this as well.
• And the third piece is the Android STK.

To make sure it all talks to each other I ran the most basic of programs:  HelloWorld on the Android emulator (very much like the emulator in App Inventor).

Yeii! it Worked!  Now the real fun can begin.