What would you classify this as? A video? A website? Music? In all honesty, I’m not sure any of these terms capture the breadth of the medium. As a side note, props to Google for  using this to promote Chrome. Shameless, but effective.

Edit: This is seriously pushing me to learn more JavaScript.

Did you hear? The web is dead.

For their September issue, Wired magazine wrote a great piece on the changing dynamics of web traffic. As it turns out, the web really isn’t going away, but Internet use has been shifting from browsers (i.e. Firefox, Internet Explorer) to mobile and specialized applications. This observation is an interesting one, because if it holds true then vendors might be able to monetize content again.

I’m not holding my breath. Still, it could present an opportunity for libraries. Here’s why.

Until recently, net usage implied a web-browser and some sort of computer. Web-applications were sometimes involved, but the common denominator was that everyone used a web-browser for delivery.  Data usually went through this common interface.

Enter mobile computing and a host of special programs.

I-Phones, Blackberrys and other comparable devices are more portable than laptop computers. The catch is they don’t work well for web browsing. To counter this, developers started creating specialized programs for them called “apps.” Moreover, other programs like Skype have taken off over the past few years without relying on the web. They just use the Internet instead of web-pages.

All of this highlights the trend that Wired spoke of earlier – a marketplace moving to local applications which don’t freely share data. And, it gets to the crux of my statement about monetizing content.

If information isn’t shared then it can be controlled.

If information can be controlled then the web will, obviously, become less open.

If the web is less open then that will make libraries more important.

Originally, libraries were formed to serve as single, centralized cost-saving repositories of information. Back in the early 1990′s the web started started supplementing (or supplanting) that role. If it turns out that resources stop being posted to the web in a free and accessible way… the beast will starve. Or at least become a lot weaker. Given this, it seems very feasible that Libraries could work with publishers to fit themselves into a new Internet.

I’m not sure all of this will happen, but I can see that media producers would prefer that Libraries make information available rather than the alternative. When something is posted via a web page that makes it hard to charge for.

Looks like the open access policy movement is pressing onward. This time to it’s first public university – Kansas. I’m a Mizzou alum, but I’ll deffinately say “rock chalk jayhawk” to that! Now I just gotta somehow convince people at Drury and Mizzou to do the same.

I have to hand it to MIT. After seeing how much electronic publications cost to libraries – especially in the sciences – and keeping in mind that they’re usually licensed out. And, keeping in mind that libraries often lose access to back-issue publications if their contract is not renewed. In addition to the fact that most publishing conglomerates are taking free items from Universities and selling them right back. I’ve gotta say:

How do you like them apples?!