August 27, 2007
The Broadband Divide
The Pew Internet and American Life Project August report on "Why It Will Be Hard to Close the Broadband Divide," suggests that when you look at the data on Americans without broadband at home, it will take time to get these holdouts off the digital sidelines.
Every six months, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) releases its rankings of per capita broadband adoption rates. Every six months, the United States sees its ranking uncomfortably in the middle of the pack.
According to the Pew Internet Project’s February 2007 survey, 47% of American adults have broadband at home, nearly double the 24% penetration level of three years earlier. 
With home broadband penetration poised to surpass 50% this year, it will have taken 9 years from the time the service became widely available for home high-speed to reach half the population. To put this in context, it took 10 years for the compact disc player to reach 50% of
consumers, 15 years for cell phones, and 18 years for color TV. Each of those technologies, like broadband, represented an upgrade from a good or service with which most consumers had experience.
Non-internet users
Non-internet users as a group are disproportionately old and poor. The median age of non-internet users is 59, and 25% report having household incomes under $20,000 per year. It is not, however, simply a question of money or age. Non-internet users do not have very positive attitudes about information technology. Many report worries about information overload and few link information technology to greater control over their lives. Moreover, non-internet users are apt to see the online environment as a dangerous place – that is, a place with inappropriate or irrelevant content. Given that these non-users are people with worries about information technology and not a lot of extra disposable income, luring them online won’t be an easy task.
August 18, 2007
Internet Addiction More Serious Than OCD
According to researchers at Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine, 10 percent of Internet surfers are afflicted with "Internet addiction disorder," which can lead to other disorders.
Dr. Pinhas Dannon will present new research findings on Internet addiction at the National Gambling Council’s meeting in Las Vegas this November. He believes that in order to better diagnose and treat Internet addiction, it should be grouped with other extreme addictive disorders such as gambling, sex addiction, and kleptomania. Internet addiction is currently considered by mental health professionals as an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
According to Dr Dannon, "two groups are at greatest risk from Internet addiction disorder. The first are teenagers. But more surprisingly, the second are women and men in their mid-50s suffering from the loneliness of an "empty nest." The symptoms of Internet addiction in both groups are vague and are often difficult to diagnose. Sufferers may experience loss of sleep, anxiety when not online, isolation from family and peer groups, loss of work, and periods of deep depression." It is his belief that Internet addiction is not manifesting itself as an ‘urge’ but more like a deep ‘craving.’ And that clinicians need to make a change in the way we classify Internet addiction, so it can be properly treated.
A recent article by Dr Dannon in Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology
United Press International Press Release
Psychosocial Parameters of Internet Addiction
from State University of NY at Albany
PubMed Search on Internet Addiction
Paper: Internet Addiction Disorder: Causes, Symptoms,and Consequences
Pathological Computer Game Use
Jerald Block, MD
Description and History of Internet Addiction at Wikipedia
August 14, 2007
Shifting Internet Landscape
According to a new study released yesterday, content is now king. Online Publishers Association (OPA) found that the time Internet users spend viewing online content is up 37% from four years ago.Internet users spend almost half their time online reading and watching content, in contrast to the time spent searching for information, communicating with others and buying products.
The study analyzes four years of data compiled in the association's Internet Activity Index (IAI), a monthly measure of online e-commerce, communications, search and content activity done by Nielsen/NetRatings. It shows that while users in 2003 spent 46% of their time online communicating, they now spend 47% of their time viewing content. The share of time spent using e-mail or instant messaging tools has dropped 28% over the last four years, while the time spent on e-commerce activities is down 5% over the same period. Users spend about 5% of their time online searching for data.
According to the president of the OPA, "the IAI has identified a very significant and sustained trend in where consumers are spending their online time. The index indicates that, over the last four years, the primary role of the Internet has shifted from communications to content."
The growing popularity of social networking sites with a heavy focus on content is helping to drive the shift toward spending more time with content. According to publishers group, other factors behind the changes include the following:
* A faster Internet.
* The increased popularity of online video.
* Improvements in search tools, which helps users find content more easily.
* The large increase of the amount of content on the Web.
* The increased use of instant messaging, which reduces the time spent on communication activities.
The IAI measures Web sites that account for more than 90% of active Web users and 55% of total usage time. The monthly survey excludes .gov and .edu sites as well as pornographic sites.
View the Internet Activity Index
August 13, 2007
RFID-based Drug Tracking System
IBM is launching an electronic tracking system that will follow medications through the supply chain until they reach consumers. The system employs radio-frequency identification, or RFID tags, which are already used to track packages of drugs, especially ones popular with counterfeiters.
The system helps drug companies create electronic certificates of authenticity for medications - down to the individual bottle - as they move from manufacturers and distributors to pharmacies and hospitals. While there is no guarantee that RFID tags will get rid of all counterfeits, it will make it substantially more difficult.
Drug companies' prior attempts at fighting fakes - such as holograms, watermarks and the like - were often reproduced within months, to the point where even their brand managers could not tell the difference between the counterfeit and the real thing.
The IBM tracking system called "ePedigree" is useful not just for battling fakes but it also useful for keeping track of expiration dates, batch numbers in case a drug is recalled.
According to DTechEx, RFID can help with a wide variety of problems in healthcare and cite that 10% of patients suffer an "adverse event"; 50% of patients take their medication incorrectly and up to 15% of hospital assets by value are lost or stolen every year.
RFID tags are being used in Europe and the British National Health Service (NHS) have used RFID to tag medical instruments in hospitals.
Some history on IBM RFID system
August 01, 2007
NY Public Library Printing Free Books On Demand
Gutenburg would be impressed! The New York Public Library has just installed a book-on-demand machine and they will print any of over 200,000 public domain titles from the Open Content Alliance free of charge for any patron.
It is called the Espresso Book Machine™ (“the EBM”) will be available at the New York Public Library’s Science, Industry, and Business Library in Manhattan.
Unlike existing print on demand technology, EBM’s are fully integrated, automatic machines that require minimal human intervention. They do not require a factory setting and are small enough to fit in a retail store or small library room. While traditional factory based print on demand machines usually cost over $1,000,000 per unit, the EBM is priced to be affordable for retailers and libraries. The direct-to-consumer model of the EBM eliminates shipping and warehousing costs for books (thereby also eliminating returns and pulping of unsold books) and allows simultaneous global availability of millions of new and backlist titles in all categories and languages. These savings permit potentially lower prices to consumers and libraries, and greater royalties and profits to authors and publishers. Also, titles will never have to go out of print again.
According to its creator, Jason Epstein of On Demand Books "printed books are one of history’s greatest and most enduring inventions, and after centuries, their form needs no improvement.What does need to change is the outdated way that books reach readers."