When a free-on-HBO inaugural concert isn't (and then is)

Update 2:

I came home from the gym at 4:00 this afternoon and noticed the message indicator on my DVR was lit. The message: a notice that the inaugural concert would be live broadcast free on the local access channel 13 (so I missed it) and rebroadcast on the same channel at 6 this evening.

.....

So I called my cable provider (Mediacom) this morning -- the monopoly cable TV provider in much of Madison County Alabama outside the Huntsville city limits -- to ask if they would be allowing their customers access to the "free" HBO coverage of tomorrow's inaugural concert.

After 10 minutes on hold, the representative returned to apologetically inform me that only current HBO subscribers would be able to see the concert. In other words: no soup for you.

Both DirectTV and Dish (the two satellite providers that compete with Mediacom here) are trumpeting on their websites the fact that they are providing free HBO for the event (and more). If I want to make Mediacom pay, I'll have to switch to satellite and get AT&T to install DSL at my house (and then live with the thinner data pipe). Right now I'm tempted, despite the costs, hassles and lower-value internet connection. Not that it would get me access to the concert in time.

Aside: Yes, I know I can watch it streaming from HBO.com. I applaud HBO for providing that workaround for dealing with their less civic-minded local outlets. Of course, we might blame the inaugural committee for making this an exclusive deal with HBO (but then somebody's got to pay for all this celebratory activity).

But to return to my main line of rant: what's Mediacom's excuse? Lameness? A callous decision to try to make money by requiring an upgrade to subscription to get HBO access for the event?

I call it FAIL.

Update:

According to media reports, Mediacom will air the special free for folks in Des Moines Iowa and Valdosta, Georgia. What makes them more special than Madison County Alabama?

Digital Projects (ISAW Newsletter January 2008)

Since the ISAW Newsletter is only available online as a monolithic PDF, I thought I'd make the text of my contribution (about our "digital programs") available here in HTML form:

ISAW’s digital programs are fundamental to the Institute’s mission. Convinced that the transformation of the media and information landscape now underway offers scholars unparalleled opportunities to make new discoveries, collaborate with distant colleagues, engage public interests, and tackle previously intractable problems, we have committed ourselves to an ambitious slate of digital initiatives that extend far beyond the walls of the Institute. As the examples below illustrate, we emphasize the creation and delivery of core resources such as primary and secondary texts and images, as well as geographic and archaeological reference information. We seek to serve the entire field of ancient studies by working for the durability of digital publications–and the sustainability of the projects that create and maintain them–through promotion of standards, creation of reusable free software, use of open-access licenses, and decentralization of authorial, editorial, and peer-review activities.

In early 2008, ISAW became a partner in the Pleiades Project. Together with the Ancient World Mapping Center (AWMC), we are digitizing the most comprehensive register of geographical data for the ancient Greek and Roman world, collected by the American Philological Association’s Classical Atlas Project to support the preparation of the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World (R. Talbert, ed., Princeton 2000). All of the coordinates, historical names, and other information in this rich collection are being placed online so scholars, students, and enthusiasts worldwide can browse, search, and map it, as well as offer suggestions for updates and additions. The Pleiades effort has recently expanded with funding from a Transatlantic Digitization Grant, awarded to ISAW and King’s College London, by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the U.K. Joint Information Systems Committee. It supports the prototyping of mechanisms to tie Pleiades into important digital collections of epigraphic and papyrological texts from Egypt and coastal North Africa (see further: the Concordia Project and the Graph of Ancient World Data group). This effort will lay the foundation for extensive, automated cross-linking between Pleiades and other web-based scholarly resources for the entire Greek and Roman world. We are currently seeking funding for a second, two-year development period for Pleiades/Concordia that will accelerate the digitization of content and bring users together for a series of workshops to identify needed improvements to the system and to facilitate more effective collaboration.

Over the past year ISAW has also assumed a leadership role in a group of interrelated digital papyrology projects (see http://idp.atlantides.org). One of these, funded by a grant to Duke University from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, has successfully upgraded and effectively integrated two of the key digital resources for study of ancient documents on papyrus: the Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri (DDbDP) and the Heidelberger Gesamtverzeichnis der griechischen Papyrusurkunden Ägyptens (HGV). Both resources will soon be provided to users via a search and display environment prototyped by the digital libraries team at Columbia University. This system, dubbed the Papyrological Navigator, combines DDbDP and HGV content with images and database records drawn from the 22 museum and university papyrus collections that constitute the Advanced Papyrological Information System (APIS). It also links them to the extensive Trismegistos databases in Leuven. Under new funding provided to APIS by the NEH, work on this interface will move to the Digital Libraries team at NYU where, with collaboration from ISAW and APIS team members at Columbia, it will see extensive improvements. ISAW is currently working with partners to secure funding for a second major upgrade to the DDbDP and HGV: a collaborative, online editing environment that will speed the addition and revision of content by granting papyrologists worldwide direct authorial capabilities under a distributed system of editorial oversight.

A number of other exciting projects are in work for 2009 and beyond. We hope to expand the utility of Pleiades by linking it to a number of other systems and digital gazetteers under development at a variety of institutions around the world. Plans are being formulated for a collaborative digital encyclopedia of Coptic archaeology, an extensive database of digital images, an online calendar of museum exhibitions, a major book and journal digitization program, and a multi-institutional publication series comprising open-access primary texts and research data.

ISAW Newsletter (January 2008)

The January 2008 ISAW Newsletter has just been posted to the web (it's a 4.1MB PDF file incorporating the page formatting of the original print version).

Given that it's a monolithic PDF, I thought I'd provide a listing of contents here:

From the Director (Roger Bagnall)

• Introduction
  
• Faculty
• Physical Facilities
• Graduate Program
• Events
• Excavation

Academic Programs: Visiting Research Scholars, 2007-2008 (Anna Boozer)

• Anne Porter
• Giovanni Ruffini
• Kevin van Bladel

Exhibitions and Public Programs (Jennifer Y. Chi)

Library (Charles E. Jones)

Digital Programs (Tom Elliott)

• Text of Digital Programs portion
  

Hotel Pools Suitable for Lap Swim: Marriott Downtown Philadelphia

Most hotel swimming pools are too short for any sort of serious lap swimming. The pool at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown is an exception.

This past week I found the indoor 7th floor pool to be adequate and well maintained. Basically a lap pool (2 lanes wide) roughly 25 yards in length (North American winter short course), with a square lounge/play area off to one side. No lane ropes. Bottom lane marks, but none at ends. Ranging 3.5 - 4.5 feet deep. A newish looking vinyl liner. The water was clear, and tasted vaguely of salt (I guess they're using the new-fangled chemicals -- Ph was good). Open 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. I think. Changing rooms with showers adjacent, as well as a larger-than-average workout room with treadmills and so forth. Access with room cardkey.

Truncated Knowledge

Classic:

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Follow-up: Digital Epigraphy at APA/AIA

Just a quick note -- for the moment -- to follow up on Saturday morning's panel. What a blast! Thanks to everyone who attended and to our presenters. And thanks to Paul Iversen for doing all the grunt work of setting up the session, issuing the call, and marshaling the administrative details. Thanks also to ASGLE for sponsoring our session.

Unfortunately, two of our scheduled presenters weren't able to deliver their papers, but Marion and then Gabby and Ryan produced well-honed, timely and interesting presentations on topic maps for representing historical analysis involving inscriptions and preliminary work in 3D laser scanning of curse tablets (respectively). I hope we'll have their slides to post soon.

Then Paul and I invited our audience to come back after the scheduled break for an open-ended discussion on epigraphy and digital methodologies. We were surprised and delighted to have over 25 people return! A challenging and interesting range of questions, ideas and project reports ensued. I intend to blog about these soon -- especially the things we identified as needing further attention and follow-up -- over at Current Epigraphy.

Center of Digital Epigraphy (CoDE) website

So, I must have fallen asleep sometime between when CoDE (located at Brown University) was first announced and now, thus missing the launch of the CoDE website. Sorry!