Lending Wifi Hotspots - Chicago and New York
Public libraries in Chicago and NYC are lending Wifi hotspots as an attempt to eliminate the digital divide. It will be interesting to see how heavily the program is used and what other public libraries will begin similar lending programs. You can read more about Chicago’s new program from the Chicago Sun Times and NYC’s program from cNet.
Knight Foundation Awards
This past September the Knight Foundation asked this question: “How might we leverage libraries as a platform to build more knowledgeable communities?” Projects were submitted by the end of that month, and the winners were announced at the beginning of this year. You can read about the 22 winning ideas in this press release. Many of the projects focus on turning existing types of physical data/items into usable digital collections.
The International Consumer Electronics Show
The international Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was held from Jan. 6-9 in Las Vegas. There were a multitude of products presented from self driving cars, to 3-D Printing, to Polaroid prints.
Self-destructing Book
This is basically what it sounds like. To increase publicity for the release of his new book, Private Vegas, James Patterson is giving away 1000 electronic copies - but the catch is that they disappear after 24 hours. Read about it from Jon Fingas at Engadget.
