On the pro-suspension side, a reader at the University of Michigan writes:As a regular reader of your blog (i.e. at break time, I go straight to it to read the latest), I think that you should either put it on hiatus, change the focus, or have a big, permanent, honking disclaimer, as another correspondent said. I don’t think it’s just a matter of hyperlegalism (although that is a problem these days). If I followed the Handyman’s Helper blog and later learned that Handy Hal was a consultant for Home Depot and hadn’t clearly revealed it, I’d be a bit ticked off, even if I hadn’t set foot in Home Depot.If you continue to blog and do any less than announce your consultant status in every column, many liberals will use that to try to discredit you and National Review, as they (wrongly) tried with Maggie Gallagher after Armstrong Williams was (rightly) dropped by Tribune Media Services. Whether you get paid by the Giuliani campaign or not is irrelevant. Serving as an advocate gives you just as much of an interest in a campaign as if you got paid. And even with disclaimers, they will likely accuse NRO of being a web informercial for Republicans. No matter what political issue you write about, there will be a suspicion, however unfair, that your writing is colored by your work for Giuliani.David’s Bookshelf is a good potential blog topic during the campaign. (Full disclosure: I’m a librarian.)
Paul Streby on 26 Oct 07The practice of using a social network to establish and enhance relationships based on some common ground-shared interests, related skills, or a common geographic location-is as old as human societies, but social networking has flourished due to the ease of connecting on the Web. This OCLC membership report explores this web of social participation and cooperation on the Internet and how it may impact the library's role, including: The use of social networking, social media, commercial and library services on the WebHow and what users and librarians share on the Web and their attitudes toward related privacy issuesOpinions on privacy onlineLibraries' current and future roles in social networking The report is based on a survey (by Harris Interactive on behalf of OCLC) of the general public from six countries-Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States-and of library directors from the U.S. The research provides insights into the values and social-networking habits of library users. Social networking was also discussed at the OCLC Symposium "Who's Watching YOUR Space?" at ALA Midwinter 2007, while property law and privacy rights were discussed at the OCLC Symposium: "Is the Library Open?" at ALA Annual 2007.
