DigitalKoans

The Art Institute of Chicago has developed the Digital Archive for Architecture (DAArch) to support the use of the Categories for the Description of Works of Art (CDWA) metadata schema in DSpace. The software runs under BSD/UNIX/Linux; is written in Java, JSP, PHP; utilizes PostgreSQL, and is under a BSD License.

The Wikimedia Commons, which started in September 2004, now contains over two million media files, and it is adding files at a rate of over 100,000 files per month. Works in Wikimedia Commons the are in the public domain or under a Creative Commons license (Attribution or Attribution-Share Alike) or a GNU Free Documentation License.

Jammie Thomas has filed a notice of appeal to the Capitol Records v. Jammie Thomas verdict based on the premise that the statutory damages awarded were excessively large and constitute punitive damages. Thomas would like to have a new trial or to have the damages to be adjusted to $151.20 from $222,000.

Here's an excerpt from the motion reported in "Appeal in RIAA Case to Focus on 'Unconstitutionally Excessive' Punishment":

"In the instant matter, defendant Thomas urges the Court to consider the statutory damages to be tantamount to an award of punitive damages, since it is based not upon plaintiffs' losses, but rather defendant's conduct," concludes the motion. "Whether the Court recognizes actual damages of zero dollars, $20 or whatever figure plaintiffs suggest is a fair measure of their actual damages for the 24 subject recordings, the ratio of actual damages to the award is not only astronomical, it is offensive to our Constitution and offensive generally."

Further coverage of the motion is available in "RIAA Says Thomas Shirking $222,000 Payoff" and "RIAA's $222,000 Defendant Asks for a New Trial."

Here's further commentary on the verdict:

• "Cornered Record Labels Turn Vicious—But to What Effect?"
• "Piracy Jury Not Chosen Fairly"
• "RIAA File-Sharing Verdict Delays Day of Reckoning on Downloading"
• "Rights and Wrongs in the Antipiracy Struggle"

Dr. Renu Khator, Provost and Senior Vice President at the University of South Florida has been named as the "sole finalist" being considered as University of Houston System Chancellor and University of Houston President.

Here's a list of her predecessors back to 1983.

• John Rudley, Interim President, 2007-present
• Jay Gogue, Chancellor/President from 2003-2007
• Arthur K. Smith, Chancellor/President from 1997-2003
• Glenn A. Goerke, President from 1995-97
• James H. Pickering, Acting President and President from 1992-95
• Marguerite Ross Barnett, President from 1990-92
• George W. Magner, Interim President, 1989-90
• Richard L. Van Horn, President from 1983-89

Co-Action Publishing has announced that, starting in January 2008, the Swedish Nutrition Foundation's Scandinavian Journal of Food & Nutrition will become an open access journal and be renamed Food & Nutrition Research. Co-Action Publishing also announced the launch in the first quarter of 2008 of a new open access journal, Ethics & Global Politics. Both journals will be under Creative Commons licenses.

DRAMA (Digital Repository Authorization Middleware Architecture) has released Muradora 1.0, a Fedora front-end that provides identity control (via Shibboleth), authorization (via XACML), and other functions. DRAMA is a sub-project of RAMP (Research Activityflow and Middleware Priorities Project). A Live DVD image simplifies installation.

Here’s an excerpt from the fedora-commons-users posting:

• "Out-of-the-box" or customized deployment options
• Intuitive access control editor allows end-users to specify their own access control criteria without editing any XML.
• Hierarchical enforcement of access control policies. Access control can be set at the collection level, object level or datastream level.
• Metadata input and validation for any well-formed metadata schema using XForms (a W3C standard). New metadata schemas can be supported via XForms scripts (no Muradora code modification required).
• Flexible and extensible architecture based on the well known Java Spring enterprise framework.
• Multiple deployments of Muradora (each customized for their own specific purpose) can talk to the one instance of Fedora.
• Freely available as open source software (Apache 2 license). All dependent software is also open source.

German publishers who want to retain control of their content have a new alternative to Google Book Search: Libreka, a full-text search engine that initially has about 8,000 books from publishers who opted-in for inclusion. Searchers retrieve book titles and cover images, but no content.

Source: "German Publishers Offer Alternative to Google Books." Deutsche Welle, 11 October 2007.

Here’s a list of a few Web/Web 2.0 resources and tools that developers may find useful.

• "20 Tools for Working with Fonts"
• "20+ Tools for Working with AJAX"
• "100 (Legal) Sources for Free Stock Images"
• "CSS Menu Generator"
• "CSS TOOLBOX: 20+ Tools for Working with CSS"
• "DOMAIN TOOLBOX: 30+ Places to Buy and Sell Domains"
• "HTML TOOLBOX: 30+ HTML Tools and Tutorials"
• "JAVASCRIPT TOOLBOX: 25+ Tools & Tutorials for JavaScript"
• "The PHP Toolbox: 20+ PHP Resources"
• "Tools to Compare Fonts Online"

Michael Hegg, a steelworker who served on the Capitol Records v. Jammie Thomas jury, has revealed what went on in the deliberations in "RIAA Juror: 'We Wanted to Send a Message'."

Here are more verdict reactions and follow-ups:

• "Capitol v. Thomas: The Key Appeal Issue"
• "Defendant Knocks Web Illiterate Juror in RIAA case"
• "For RIAA, a Black Eye Is a Deliberate Choice Opposed by Musicians"
• "Jammie Thomas: 'I'm No Puppet' for RIAA Foes"
• "On the $9,250 Song"
• "Podcast: The RIAA's Public Relations Problem"
• "RIAA Eyes Next Possible Targets: CD Burners, Radio Listeners"
• "RIAA Hits a Sour Note with Its File-Sharing Witch Hunt"
• "Update: Court Documents Now Available for RIAA Case against Minnesota Woman"