As usual, The Shifted Librarian just Gets It. Here’s part of her expansion on my idea:

Or what about the library paying for a subscription to an online serial that makes it available to residents. Theoretically, a user with a valid library barcode would go to the library’s web site, enter the barcode, and be authenticated through to the full version. But what if that journal provided an RSS feed? Abstracts are available to everyone, but if your barcode number is entered in your aggregator, when you click through on a link, you see the full story. Think about what a great service this would be for medical libraries to provide to their physicians!

Or here’s another idea – what about an AP or Reuters made up of bloggers. Newspapers could subscribe to the service and pick up stories, and so could libraries. In a way, the concept isn’t that far removed from NewsIsFree, to which the library would then subscribe.

This last, of course, is why I’m so interested in authenticating aggregators (though I’m pained that Peggy didn’t mention my own Alma Mater, UPI). Where my thoughts differ from NewsIsFree is that I’m talking about actually generating new content — maybe targeted to a narrow audience, but maybe not — instead of repackaging what others have created.

Much as I enjoy writing this weblog, the question keeps coming up: “So, you making any money at this?” Well, no, and that’s not the point. But even if I wanted to, I don’t think the plumbing of the weblog universe would let me.

So, why not?

Many of you know that there is a growing class of weblogs that speak to each other through “news aggregators;” the one you’re reading right now is one of them. When I post an item here, some unknown number of other weblog authors read that item on a customized web page, from which they can post the item on their own weblog. It makes for a very fast and efficient way of disseminating news and opinion.

This strikes me — in theory, at least — as an excellent way for professional news gatherers to distribute information to paying clients. I know a ton of un- and semi-employed journos all over the world, and it would be an interesting exercise to get them filing real news for pay.

Here’s what would be required to make that work:

• a multiuser weblog that


• allows for content categorization and


• which generates material for a news aggregator that


• can be kept out of the public eye.

An electronic commerce addition might be interesting too, so that sites could subscribe on a monthly or annual basis, or that casual readers could see an abstract and pay on a per-story basis. Given the prior lack of success for micropayments, I wouldn’t expect anyone to rush to develop that last one. There are other ways outside the weblog mechanism to handle subscriptions, so this might be a blind alley.

But those first four points are a must. And while the most advanced weblog plumbing that I know of — Radio Userland, which I use for this weblog — can handle the first three, I know of no way to keep an aggregator restricted to only people who are authorized to see it.

(Tracking infringers down, of course, is a simple matter of using Google or Daypop. Can’t run, can’t hide in a digital world.)

So all you wizards: can this be done? Is next week too soon?

Story in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week about plans to build a bridge between the Italian mainland and the island of Sicily. It’s been talked about since roughly the third century (A.D.), but Italian officials say now that this is the time.

The suspension bridge will be two miles long — three times longer than the Golden Gate. It’ll cross one of the most active seismic faults in the world and will no doubt be worked on by contractors with ties to the Sicilian Mafia. Sounds like something you’ll want to be the first one to drive over, doesn’t it?

The cornerstone is to laid in 2004, with completion set for 2010 at a cost of 4.6 billion euros. You’ll pardon me if I don’t leave my car idling while I wait.

Astronomers say an asteroid moving at 10 kps came within 75,000 miles of the Earth last week. They didn’t see it until three days after it would have hit.

From CNN:

The destructive force might have been comparable to an asteroid or comet that exploded over Siberia in 1908, which flattened 77 square miles (200 square km) of trees, according to the NEO.

Wouldn’t that have ruined your day…

Tried Vanilla Coke tonight. Not bad, actually, but don’t be expecting Coca-Cola. It looks like Coke, and even has Coke’s slightly citrus smell. But it tastes like a pretty good cream soda. Which is good, since that’s what a vanilla soda is supposed to taste like.

From Ernie the Attorney. Personally, I don’t think the guy has a case. Everyone knows it’s the tenor players who get the chicks.

The record industry is calling the radio business corrupt. I myself am shocked, shocked to hear that. Could it be remotely possible that the real problem with record sales isn’t that people are stealing music but that, with the Communications Act of 1996, Congress and the last two presidential administrations broke the promotional mechanism that drove both industries?

This bad, apparently.

I’m still working on my full answer to this, but Walter Cronkite gets at least some of the answer right: if you’re going to call yourself a journo, be prepared to be held to those standards — not that that’s saying much these days.

Earthlink, the online service, has bought the PC manufacturer (well, assembler) PeoplePC. This is interesting for a bunch of reasons.

• They only paid $10 million (plus assuming $34 million in debt). Though I haven’t looked at any financials — what, you want me to do research at these prices? — that seems low for a company that had established itself as a national brand through some pretty good advertising.


• Why would an online service buy a hardware company? It surely isn’t because hardware has such terrific margins. Earthlink plainly wants to be a one-stop shopper for online access. Communications turns out to be the killer app after all. Getcher e-mail, web, access and smarter-than-the-average terminal all in one place.


• The next step, I bet, is for Earthlink to not sell the computers at all, but include the hardware in your monthly fee: $35 for dialup access, $60 for DSL access, $100 for DSL with hardware.


• When online services begin giving you the hardware, and the hardware becomes solely a communications device, Microsoft’s position on the desktop becomes tenuous indeed. Earthlink could use pretty much any OS it wants — even a custom one — if all they’re providing is a computer terminal.


• The last interesting point is that I learned about this story in The Hollywood Reporter. Interesting place for tech news, no?