Updated

My blog, Into The Pages, linked here, has been updated recently with the addition of my most recent reads for anyone who is interested.

Chapter 13

A note about blogs. I know when I started this I gave a rough explanation of what a blog IS. This post is more about what I'm realizing blogs DO.

When written for a purpose, blogs are informative. The Wall Street Journal has a Law blog. A professional blog that talks about legal issues. I stumbled onto this through what the law blogger has been posting in regards to the J.K. Rolling vs. RDR Books copyright trial. This blogger is IN the courtroom, like a reporter. And he reports on what happened in his blog. Its instant news. I'm sure there were a lot of media outlets there, news reporters for tv and newspaper, and other internet news sites, but this person makes his living blogging. Its great. I think it gives a little bit of a personal spin, more so than a newspaper or tv news story.

My blog for PSH Admissions is written for a purpose, but since comments have been disabled, I'm not sure what people think of it. I can check to see how many hits I've gotten, and where the traffic came from (where the link was that they clicked on to arrive at my blog). I know I'm getting traffic, and thats a good thing. Its like me being able to talk to all the people interested in coming to penn state harrisburg, all at the same time, and when its convenient for them. Something that would not be possible without the internet, or a blog (or some other form of writing text and putting it on the web).

Chapter 12

Soo the court hearings between J.K. Rowling and RDR Books has started (yesterday actually). Mugglenet and The Leaky Cauldron both have news releases and links with up to date news regarding the trial.

From what I read yesterday, and in the months leading up to this, the case is really about authorship and copyright. Yesterday, in one of the articles, on Mugglenet (which I think was a link to the Wall Street Journal), JKR was quoted as saying (and i'm going to paraphrase here) that if RDR is permitted to publish their book, it will have a negative effect on authors and well-meaning fans. This relates to the post I did a while back about this case and authorship, because we were talking about authorship in class at the time. But not only is the idea of authorship at stake here, but copyright issues overall.

Right now, as JKR has also stated in those articles (you can read them, I just don't want to keep linking or quoting from the same page over and over again), that there are books in various languages that criticize or analyze harry potter, and those she's got no issue with. The ones I know of, and have probably mentioned are Mugglenet's What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7, The Great Snape Debate, and Who Killed Albus Dumbledore. But I'm sure there are tons more, there is even a book called Finding God In Harry Potter. So, as an author, to have allowed these books, it can be guessed that she isn't out to stop everyone and anyone from commenting or analyzing her work. Where she draws the line is directly using her work, practically word for word, without adding to it, or offering any kind of extra substance, and then selling it for profit. Personally, I don't think RDR Books or Steve Vander Ark have a leg to stand on. Without Harry Potter (without JKR) there would be no hp-lexicon.org (Harry Potter Lexicon website), therefore no print version of said website would have need to exist.

I can understand how a win for the publishing company would be a bad thing for authors and fans. Authors would have to guard their copyrights and not allow any kind of unauthorized use of them. That would mean no fan sites. No fan books. Probably no fan fiction. Suddenly the world where reading has become interactive and fun, there is the possibility that it could become quite lonely and boring. Websites like the 2 listed above have staffs that are fans first, and want to meet other fans, offer themselves as people for others to converse with about these books. They are respectful of the author, and in return have had many opportunities that most fans don't get - such as visiting movie sets, interviewing the author, book release information and the ability to host a live podcast at such releases or openings. And those that have the opportunity don't flaunt it, they share it with the rest of us who aren't as lucky. I listen to the podcasts associated with the sites linked above. They have more to lose as fans, and as fandom persons, than I do (personally, that is). Those websites wouldn't be able to exist, the podcasts might have to watch what they say, all that time put in would be wasted. This can't happen. I am fully behind J.K. Rolling and hope for a win, because I know, as well as she's stated, its not just a win for her, but for authors and fans everywhere.

Chapter 11

E-mail is how more people are communicating. More often people are choosing to write e-mails to family and friends rather than writing letters and mailing them. Not only does it save the cost of a stamp (which has been increasing at least once a year in recent years), but it saves time, e-mail is almost instant. If the recipient is in front of their computer when the email was sent, they will be able to recieve it immediately.

E-mail is not only used to communicate informally with family or friends, a lot of businesses are using e-mail as a primary form of communication. Websites such as Monster.com that allow users to upload a resume also allow users to respond to ads posted by employers. The most common contact information in those ads is an e-mail address and a phone number. More often than not, the ad requests that interested parties email their resume. Monster gives users the option to email directly from their website, or you can include a job reference number in an e-mail if the user chooses to send the message from their personal e-mail client (program).

Internally, companies use e-mail to communicate between departments and share information. They also use e-mail to communicate with outside companies.

Chapter 11

At the start of this blog I mentioned talking about books and writing on/for the web, and have spent some time talking about all different kinds of writing and communication on the web, and now I'm coming back to books.

The world wide web has made books more accessible. There are numerous websites that post books online in full text, most for free. An example is Page by Page Books.

There are also sites like Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble online that sell books and also offer a preview of most books, as well as customer ratings and reviews.

Libraries have more of a web presence now than they had before. People with a library card can log set up login information through their library's website and have access to their accounts to see what they have out, due dates, and if they have a balance. The other benefit of this is that users can search the library's catalog to see if their library has a certain book, which they can request (or be put on a waiting list if it is out). If the library is part of a system of libraries, such as the Dauphin County Library System, if your home branch doesn't have a book, it can be requested from another library and picked up at the branch of choice.

Lastly, and probably the greatest little-known resource for books, the swapping sites like Paperbackswap.com. People that would use a site like this are those that have a big collection of books that they want to get rid of or share with others, and at the same time, get books in return. The way this site, and others like it, work is simple. You create an account, follow the wizard to create the list of books you want to make available to swap (usually by entering the isbn). With this specific site, once you post 10 books, you get 2 free credits. Credits are used to "purchase" books from other users. You earn additional credits each time you send a book to someone who requests your listed book, once they mark it received, a credit gets added to your account. No actual money is exchanged, each person only pays the cost of postage, usually media rate. You spend credits by requesting books from others. Its a good way to keep your collection of books fresh, and maybe not spend as much.

Personally, if I'm not sure I'll like a book enough to want to keep it, I look for it on one of the swap sites I have an account with. I can spend a credit, read the book, if I like it, I'll keep it, if not, I can repost it and possibly earn a credit for something else. There will always be certain authors, certain books, that I will spend the money to buy new - and never get rid of.

Chapter 10

An interesting conversation arose in my English class this past tuesday. The following question was posed: How would it effect you personally if you woke up tomorrow and the internet no longer existed? How would it affect your community? How would it effect your profession? Now, take a minute to think of that before you read my response.

***

Ok, now, this is an expansion of the notes that I jotted down during class to add to the discussion. The first thing that popped into my mind was that scene from the IMAX 3D version of Order of the Phoenix where Ginny "reducto"'s the rows of prophecy balls and everything comes crashing down and little glass fragments are flying everywhere in 3 dimensional slow motion. Back in reality, my first thought is, I would be out of a job and have a degree that has become pointless, and I have been working for years toward a bachelors degree in a program that would no longer exist. I would have to start over in a completely different field.

Next I thought about school in general, mainly penn state. A lot of professors make use of Angel for communication, grade tracking, posting assignments, and even quizzes/exams. This would all be pen and paper again. Not that it was so long ago that I sat in a classroom and took a pen and paper test. I've just gotten used to the convenience.

On the topic of convenience.. its easy to shop, pay bills, get directions, and gather general information online. It's so simple to hit up google or mapquest rather than the way we used to do it prior to those sites. I have had hand-written directions to follow, I have spent hours in a library doing research, I have written checks to pay bills, and I still do the majority of my shopping in actual stores. It wasn't so long ago that we didn't have these conveniences, I personally have just adjusted too nicely to them.

Entertainment wasn't much of an issue for me, I do play games online, but I also read books (the printed paper kind with covers) and go out to movies. I listen to music, on the radio, actually since I've had to recover my hard drive I don't have much downloaded. Thats not to say that I don't enjoy playing games online, or downloading podcasts and music. But this is probably the only area of my life that wouldn't be completely affected by the internet disappearing.

Communication is another area that may get some taking used to in having to go back to the prior way (I hate the term "old way", I am not old.. just older.. and did things differently previously :) ). I had pen pals, I even wrote letters to friends that lived in the same city as me over the summer when we weren't in school. We also talked on the phone, but at 12 or 13, it was nice to get mail once in a while. Now, its very simple to write a quick email, chat with someone on aim or yahoo messenger, or meet tons of new people at any number of message boards or forums. I moved from philadelphia to harrisburg, so I use email and messengers to keep in touch with friends and family. But could do this over the phone or through a letter, but like I've said before, I've gotten all too used to the convenience of it all.

One of my classmates wrote a similar blog about using texting and ims to communicate, and he's absolutely right, there is no replacement for human contact. I'm not quite as bad as someone who sends and im or text to someone next to them. Although, I must confess, I have sent an im to someone I was on the phone with. But, what happened there was that we were chatting on aim, and the conversation got a little complicated so my friend called me. We stopped our aim conversation while we were on the phone, but I needed to send her a website addy that was relevant to our convo. It was easier to im it.

Any thoughts?

Chapter 9

Not much has caught my eye in the way of news about the ways that people are using the internet to communicate.

I am participating in a class wiki, where my part within my group is to talk about the same type of things. The evolution of writing on/for the internet. I just realized that I haven't talked about wikis yet.. so the subject of this post has been decided - the Wiki.

The definition of a wiki, as posted by the most popular wiki in the world - Wikipedia, is: software that allows users to easily create, edit, and link pages together. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites.

What this boils down to is, a web of information posted and edited and updated by users. Some wikis are specialized, such as The Penn State Wiki, and others are general like Wikipedia (which is more of an online, open source, encyclopedia).

There are pros and cons to wikis, the major pro is that information can be constantly updated and edited to make sure it is valid. Of course, there is some authentication process (some require a username/password combo to be able to update, others have admins fact check information before it officially gets posted). This also leads to the biggest con, wrong information getting out before someone fact checks it, or someone else comes along to correct it.

Overall, I believe wikis can be a good source of information. As with anything you read on the internet, it is always good to double check sources for validity.

Chapter 8

Digg.com is a type of ranking website for news stories from various other websites. I happen to stumble onto a function that digg.com offers where you can post stories that you "dugg" directly to your blog (as long as your blog was part of one of the services that they are able to post to). This is useful, because it allows digg.com members than have blogs to share certain stories with the viewers of their blogs with a simple click.

This is a lot easier than copying and pasting the entire article, or emailing several people, or even manually creating a link. Readers have the option to click to read the article, or not to.

Also, with this digg.com option, I could have written my entire post. All the text except "WooHoo!" was generated by Digg. All of the text, including the subject line, is able to be edited or added to.

Neato idea! :)

Deathly Hallows to be split into two films

It's official! The LA Times has confirmed that Deathly Hallows will be split into two films AND will be directed by OOTP and HBP director David Yates.Woohoo!

read more | digg story

Chapter 7

This week's post (ok last week's post that I forgot to make, but didn't have anything to say..) is about something we talked about in my English class. Copyright and Authorship on the web.

There is an on-going lawsuit between J.K. Rowling/Warner Brothers and RDR Books over the publication of an encyclopedia type book based on the Harry Potter Lexicon website written by the site's webmaster Steve Vander Ark.

Here is the article posted on the Leaky Cauldron about this issue.

I'll summarize it. The HP Lexicon is an online unofficial encyclopedia. It is well known in the Harry Potter fandom as one of the best places to find information about the HP books and other parts of the HP fandom. What I mean is, 99% of the information is pulled directly from the books and presented in an easily searchable way.

J.K. Rowling herself gave this website her "fansite award" for Steve Vander Ark's dedication.

Now, the webmaster wants to publish the Harry Potter Lexicon in print form. That is, publish an encyclopedia for the Harry Potter books. And, J.K. Rowling has responded. It has never been a secret, or a very well kept one anyway, that she plans to release her own encyclopedia. She mentioned it in an interview she did with PotterCast (Leaky's podcast), and I believe it was mentioned a while ago on a Biography interview show where they filmed her house and she showed some drawings and books and things. This material is what is mentioned in the PotterCast interview as 'some' things that would be in her "Scottish Book" (the attempt at hiding the intent to publish an encyclopedia).

So, part of the argument on the side of Steve's Lexicon is that there are other books published about the series with no lawsuits.

This is true, there are. But they don't reprint word for word the books in the series. The 2 that come to my mind are Mugglenet's What Will Happen In Harry Potter 7, which is an analysis of popular theories about things that may or may not happen in the 7th book, which was written even before the title of book 7 was released. If something from the book is mentioned, its quoted. Otherwise, its the 3 author's opinion as to the big questions of what would be in the last book. The other is called The Great Snape Debate, which is a 2 sided book, one side talks about the reasons that the character Severus Snape is "good", and if you flip it over and upside down, the other side the explanation and theory on why Snape is "bad". I have the mugglenet one, and only glanced at the Snape book. Neither one infringes on copyright because they don't pull text from the books for the majority of their book, and if they do use text, they quote it. I believe they have sources at the end as well.

So the question of copyright arises. J.K. Rowling wrote the books, therefore has full copyright of the characters, and the world that she created.

Steve Vander Ark compiled the Lexicon. Where he states he's not the author, and originally made a statement that he put his webpage online so that others wouldn't try to publish an unofficial encyclopedia because J.K. Rowling should be able to do that herself.

Now, i'm all for his website. You can tell he put a lot of time and effort into it, gathered other fans to help, and produced a great resource for Harry Potter fans. However I don't believe he should be able to publish a print version of his website. Why would someone pay for something they've been looking at for free for years? And something that isn't official, yet being passed off as the definitive Harry Potter encyclopedia.

There were also statements made by RDR Books and Vander Ark that fans would buy both. Um no. Personally, I would wait however long for the official J.K.R encyclopedia. She says she'll publish one, so she will when she's ready. I can wait.

I wouldn't buy the Lexicon book even if JKR never releases her own encyclopedia. I have seen the website, if I want to look something up, I'll go there. Or, I'll re-read the books. Or listen to the audio books. Or watch one of the movies. Or go to another site where the webmasters aren't trying to gain profit on something that isn't their's and that they wouldn't even have if the books had never been written.

I think, even if Vander Ark is able to publish his book (which I doubt.. but still, for arguement's sake), he'll lose money on it anyway. Especially after this lawsuit. It makes him look HORRIBLE! He makes the members of the fandom look bad. He makes webmasters who put up honest pages look bad. What fan would buy into something like that? Although it would be fun to see what he'd say should his book be published and then flop...

And I'll end my rant there...

Chapter 6

Google.

Google is amazing. One stop shopping for your research, entertainment, or educational needs.. and more.

I noticed something there today that I hadn't seen before, Google Scholar. Its a search engine that searches newspaper articles. It could have been there a while, I just never noticed it.

My favorite features, aside from the search, are Earth, Blogger, and Books.

The next time you're on google.com and you've got time, click the 'more' button and check some of those other things out. If you've got even more time, click that link and check out all of THOSE things that google has to offer.

I <3 Google!

Hmm.. never used that text heart thing before.. probably won't again.. :)

Chapter 5

Save The Internet

This is something interesting going on, a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would stop big providers (Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, etc) from trying to control the free flow of information on the internet.

In plain english, this bill will stop internet providers from creating "roadblocks" on the information superhighway. It will protect the freedoms that we sometimes take for granted when we go online - mainly that we will be able to look at the websites we want to, say what we want in our blogs (and have others be able to read them!), view streaming video put up by websites that we enjoy visiting, etc. Its like freedom of speech, and of the press, as it relates to the internet.

This reminds me of book banning, those in positions of power taking books away from the public without regard to each person's right to read whatever they want. A current example of an attempt at book banning is happening in Georgia right now, where a parent is attempting to have the Harry Potter books removed from shelves in all libraries (school AND public) because she feels they are anti-god, or anti-religious, or whatever. Its one thing for her to censor her children by not allowing them to read certain books, its a whole other thing for her to think she's got the right to go the great lengths to have those same books removed from public access.

If those who provide the internet access begin to control what information will be available for public view, we run into the same issue. One person, or a group of people, preventing the public to pick and choose which sites they visit based on their personal likes. As with the above example, in each household, if the person who controls the computer (ex. a parent) wants to keep certain people in the household (ex. children) from looking at certain sites that is just fine, and there are many ways to do that. However, I don't want anyone (comcast, verizon, etc) trying to tell me which sites I can access when I go surfing on the web. That is up to me.

Chapter 4

Now that I've talked about some of the technologies I use or have used to connect with others, let me related it all back to the 'enchanted bookshelf' that I call the internet. The vast, never ending, shelf of books and people who enjoy books, available all the time.

I have always enjoyed reading, and maybe had a friend or 2 that read as much as I do. The issue that would come up is that we didn't always read the same books or the same type of books. When I was younger, that wasn't much of an issue, but now it comes up a bit. I have one friend that reads a lot, and she reads a whole lot of different books that I'd never pick up.

This brings me back to the internet. But first, I need to explain something - it was Harry Potter that first lead me to the bookshelf. I hadn't purchased any of the books until after I had seen the first 3 movies. The first 1 had me hooked, but I waited. I hadn't READ any until I moved from philadelphia to harrisburg, by this time I had the first 6 books and plenty of time to read them. So I started with book 1 and read through 3, then I saw movie 4 at the IMAX (so awesome!), and then read books 4 through 6. I was hooked from book 1, paragraph 1. When I was out of books, and after I had talked to a friend of mine about all the books, I went to the internet to search.

I was not new to the internet, not by any means. But what I found 'out there' when I googled "Harry Potter" kind of floored me. As you may guess, I found A LOT! I looked through A LOT! Some was good, some not so much, books, movies, actors, directors, theories, etc, the list goes on, EVERYTHING related came up. (Google is a discussion for another time).

I have 2 main harry potter bookmarks, sites I go to at least 3 times a week. mugglenet.com and The Leaky Cauldron. These sites have news sections, image galleries, discussion boards, link library, downloads like wallpaper or buddy icons, just LOTS of stuff all in one place. They are both amazing sites with amazing webmasters.

These sites have affiliated podcasts (kinda like radio talk shows that you download). These are the greatest things EVER. People who record a show talking about Harry Potter - the books, the movies, prior to book 7 theories, news in the harry potter 'fandom', respond to listener email or voice mail, and lots of other stuff. They even went on tour and did live podcasts during the months just before the book 7 release. Both have extremely talented casts.

The idea of fandom isn't new to me, but just how vast Harry Potter's fandom is was just shocking. Its like Star Wars and Star Trek (I guess, i'm not into star wars or star trek). Conventions, fan sites, fan gatherings, etc.. its amazing. The internet makes this SO much easier! You can join a forum and discuss the books with people from other countries, or people right down the street. My next search, maybe for my next post, is to have some HP blogs to link to. I'm sure they are out there.

But its not just Harry Potter and fan sites. Libraries are making their catalogs available online, as well as a way to reserve or renew items. Library systems allow users to reserve a book from on branch and pick it up at another. PSU's University Library system makes the affiliated databases available as well as a catalog.

Sites like Amazon, and store chains that have websites, make purchasing books as easy as clicking.

Some books are available to read online.

Books are more available now than they have ever been before. As well as a meeting ground for people to talk about them.

Chapter 3

This is just a short little update with a link relative to the prior post. I was just talking about Facebook and how useful it is, and now Penn State has added a library application where you can search Penn State Libraries from facebook.

Here is the official news release that talks about the application. And here is the link to the application.

This is a pretty neat idea, of course if you're looking for a book or article, and you're already on campus, it would be kind of out of the way to log into facebook to search. On the other hand, if you're completely addicted to facebook and like to multitask, this is a perfect way to get some research done AND write on a friend's wall.

Chapter 2

I had a plan for this blog, to talk about communication on the internet in kind of an order, but since technology is ever-changing, and even though some things fade out, they are always relevant. Someone, somewhere is chatting in a chat room. So, my main topic for this post is a jump ahead of what I wanted to talk about, but its relevant to me right now.

Facebook.

Facebook is a networking site that is popular among college students. It used to be that only college students or alumni could sign up, but then high schools were able, and now I think everyone can use it. You set up a profile within your school's network. From there you can add friends, create or join groups, create or respond to events and event invites, there are tons of different applications you can put onto your profile page for other fun ways to interact with your facebook friends. Not to mention the message feature, the wall posting feature, and pictures, those are among the most common uses.

Why is that relevant now? Well, I hear other people, as well as myself, referring to facebook all the time. At club meetings, for example, lion ambassadors have a group on facebook and does my publicity committee . Blue and White Society created an Event on facebook to advertise, and there was some time used at the beginning of the meeting to get email addys so that the secretary could "friend" those not on her list already and invite them. Lion Ambassadors use the Event feature to advertise certain events as well.

Personally, I use it to keep in touch with friends, and keep up with my clubs and events, and share pictures. When I first joined I was pretty sure it would sit there mostly unvisited, like my MySpace profile which gets visitors every couple months, of course thats probably about how often I remember to put something in my blog there or put up some pictures. But I actually find myself using it, and not just sitting there playing some of the games or quizzes, but for useful posts on my club groups, or something. Friends from high school, or before that, have contacted me through facebook. Its one of those things that surprised me with how useful it really is.

Face to face communication is still important, although, its probably something that happens less often because of being able to cyber-socially-network with other people within in your college (or other any other network) online. The thing that I find funny about this is that everyone on my friends list is either related, goes to penn state and I have been in a club with them at some point in time, or is someone I went to school with at some point in time. These are people I actually know, and a good majority that I could find on campus if I had a question for them. But its easier for all involved to drop a message on the group wall, the friend's wall or inbox, to ask something. It takes me 5 minutes to do that, and they have the convenience of getting back to me when they log on. Because of class and work schedule (even though I work on campus) it would take me longer to actually track someone down. I think this is true for a lot of people who use facebook, their friends are their roomates, club members, friends from other campuses, other schools, relatives, old friends, people they actually know and not some random person who wants to be added because they "liked your profile" or some other such nonesense that happens on other network/profile type sites like Myspace.

Any facebookers out there? Anti-facebookers?

Chapter 1

This past week I got a message from a friend of mine that I met in 1994 or so, in one of the chat rooms I use to chat it. This is where I am going to start with how I use the internet to connect with people.

When my family first got on the internet, the first thing I did was look for chat rooms. I had pen pals, the pen and paper kind, but the internet was a new way to talk to people. This is before instant messages were big, chat rooms were the place to go. It was actually a pen pal that told me about Wrestlingman's Chatbox, which was a chat room on a website dedicated to wrestling. The beginning of my being able to chat with people from all over the world (as the group progressed, through different chat sites and chat areas - such as IRC (Internet Relay Chat), we had some people from Austrailia and Korea chatting with us) over a common interest.

This common ground, wrestling, was just the foundation for friendships that have lasted over years. I don't talk to those people every night anymore, we kind of grew apart years ago, but with instant messengers (a topic for another post) and email, I've stayed in touch with a few of the friends I made.

Chat rooms are still popular, even though I haven't been in one in a very long time. Sites like MSN and AOL have them, and a quick google search could find a couple thousand more.

Any chat experience you'd like to talk about?

Welcome to the Enchanted Bookshelf

In this first post, I'd like to expand a little on the description of this blog and give a bit more detail about the things I'll be talking about.

The World Wide Web is a huge place, with a bunch of things posted, interlinked together. Making it a great resource for people looking for just about anything OR looking to connect with other people. Blog sites, message boards, interactive websites, all of these things bring people from all over the world together over a common interest.

I am going to start with how I use the internet to connect with people with my interests. I'll be talking about websites related to books, authors and reading, but I'll also be talking about game sites, message board sites, other blogs, and various other ways that the Web helps us find information and connect with others.

I am open to discussion on how others use the Web, blogs, and other websites. I'd love to hear from anyone that stops by to read my rambles. :)