Reflections on Class (October 4)

Started class with discussion of our two page quick responses which centered on piracy and its affect on the music industry. Very interesting discussion with many different opinions, however, after the class the consensus seemed to be that piracy was a known fact and not likely to change. Instead, industries in danger of losing money to increased piracy such as the music, film, and book publishing industries, should instead focus on making their products easy to access and download and as cheap as possible so that customers won't mind paying for their products. Another idea is that they should make their products free and instead make profits through such means as advertising.
For example, we again discussed the company Pandora, which makes its money either through subscriptions or advertisements. What makes Pandora so special is that it attempts to attune itself to the user's tastes. We also discussed the government is having a hard time deciding how much to charge these new radio companies for song rights because they are so different than all previously known radio companies.
Also discussed how, due to the internet, most people don't even own what they buy any more. Instead, they lease it. Because of that when is it all right to do what is called jail breaking, where you break the encryptions on what you buy? Technically, jail breaking is illegal, but is it really fair, especially due to the prices that you are paying for what you are leasing. At $1.29 a song, shouldn't you be able to do whatever you want with that song as long as you aren't making a profit on it? There doesn't seem to be any sure answers to any of these questions.
All I can agree on right now is that libraries have to become active participants in their communities because the world is rapidly changing and if libraries don't change they are going to be left behind in the wake of technological advancement.
Also practiced our classification skills. We split into groups and each group received an envelope, picture of Bob Barker, two pennies, three paper clips, a nerf dart, sugar packet, and a golf pencil. My group chose to classify these things using a hierarchal system. Initially, we grouped our objects under the heading Things Found In  Desk, we then subcategorized our objects further using the subheadings, Office Supplies, Entertainment, Food, and Money. We then further subcategorized the objects to more readily specify the objects in our care. Each group chose to classify their objects differently, and it was interesting to see the variety of ways in which the same objects can be classified.
Highlight of the class Big Bang reference Penny, Penny, Penny!