October 9, 2009

Briefly Noted for October 9, 2009

DSpace Reaches 700 Instances Worldwide — The DuraSpace blog is reporting that there are now more than 700 instances of DSpace. DuraSpace was founded earlier this year to support DSpace and Fedora, two leading open source digital repository packages.

Brewster Kahle Calls on Google to Abandon Private Settlement, Support Orphan Works Legislation — The Internet Archive’s Brewster Kahle has called on Google to give up its private settlement of the orphan works issue with the authors and publishers and instead throw its support behind orphan works legislation, which until recently was making its way through Congress. Responding to Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s comments that if opponents don’t like the terms of the Google Books settlement, they should “propose an alternative to solve the problem,” Kahle writes, “There is an alternative, and they know it — orphan works legislation….”

Amendment Would Kill NSF Funding for Political Science — An appropriations amendment proposed by Senator Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) would eliminate National Science Foundation support for political science. The National Humanities Alliance, the American Political Science Association, the National Coalition for History are urging members and friends to contact their representatives to ask them to vote against the amendment.

Google Apps Adoption: The Slow Track — A study by Forrester Research seems to suggest “a long road ahead” for Google Apps adoption in the enterprise market, according to the New York Times. The study showed only ten percent of workers using Microsoft Outlook would want to make the switch to Gmail or another web-based solution. The numbers are surely higher among students, but probably similar among college and university staff.

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