ask techman.

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Author: Brandt, D. Scott

T. F. from The University of Akron writes: What's the difference between Internet telephony, like Skype, and Internet phone service, like Vonage?

techman responds: Lets start with the similarities--they both use the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to transmit, well, voices over the Internet. The capability of being able to take a microphone input and transmit It over Internet lines has existed for a few years; I remember first trying it out in the mid-1990s.

But the difference is that Internet telephony basically allows the simple transmission of voice as a streaming media--it's a file being sent over the Internet, while Internet phone service utilizes traditional phone service and infrastructure. Internet phone service uses a gateway that connects to the "regular" telephone system. The Internet phone offers true phone functions and features, such as actually using a cell phone, having a phone number, enabling caller ID, and so on. See http://www.fcc.gov/voip for more info.

Also, as far as I know, Skype isn't sponsoring an Indy race car or a season of MTV's The Real World yet (it takes money to do that).

Paul O. asks: At the last Computers in Libraries conference, you mentioned that a student at Purdue asked why all books weren't electronic so they could be "played" like an audiobook … so, do you think e-books are really catching on?

techman responds: Well, I know some of the students at Purdue would prefer listening to e-books through their iPods. And I guess the state of Ohio thinks it's a big deal--witness its Ohio eBook Project, which launched in August (http://ohdbks.lib.overdrive.com). While it hasn't exactly converged the two mediums, it's interesting that the state offers access to both e-books and audiobooks.

Whether or not e-books will catch on (or morph into audiobooks) is yet to be seen. But it is an interesting time to be a librarian! Even ZDNet thinks libraries are starting to rock the boat in various technology areas--it notes efforts like DSpace, LOCKSS, and Google's library digitization project, which are helping to forge the library of tomorrow (http://news.zdnetcom/2100-9588_22-5817291.html).

Mike S. from Lake County, III., wants to know: Is your Google number the same as your Google Scholar number? How does that relate to your Flickr number?

techman responds: Are you asking if my numbers are the same? Actually, I'm not sure what the definition of each of those is, if real definitions even exist. Presumably, these numbers are supposed to give some raw indication of how prolific or popular you are?

But let's say the Google number is the number of pages retrieved when you search Google for a particular name. If I enter my name as I usually type it (D. Scott Brandt), my Google number is 877. However, if you wanted to distinguish what other people had to say about me as opposed to what I said on pages I created (presuming that this was some objective count of how often other people refer to or link to me), I think the number would be around 855. Is that a high number? Well, compare it to Roy Tennant's--his Google number would be close to 32,000 (minus a few of his own pages). Obviously, you'd have to know whether there is more than one person with a particular name (I think mine is pretty unique). Now, when you search on "techman," you'll get almost 38.000 hits, but, obviously, most of them are for somebody else.

The Google Scholar number (found by typing your name into http://scholar.google.com) would be different, as it points to "publications" by you. My Google Scholar number is around 50, and Roy's is approximately I 30. However, if you look at the first entry in my results page, you'll find that my highest Google Scholar Cited By number (sort of like doing a Cited search in ISI's Web of Science) is 40.

I'm not sure how that relates to your Flickr number (assuming that number indicates how many times your picture has been posted on Flickr). Finding your Flickr number is kind of an interesting problem in information science, because there is a lot less structure in naming Flickr photos! Thus, if you search for me by name (D. Scott Brandt), you'll get no responses. For Roy Tennant, you'll receive one. But search for "techman" and you'll find two photos, both of which are of me!

What are your Google, Google Scholar, Google Scholar Cited By, and Flickr numbers?

D. Scott Brandt, aka techman, will answer your letters about technology issues and problems here every month.

Send your lighthearted questions about using computers in libraries to asktechman@dscottbrandt.com.

(Please, no specific configuration or urgent tech support questions; there will be no individual e-mail replies.)

Always indicate whether we may print your name, organization, city, and slate with your letter. Scott will answer as many questions as he can in this space each month.

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By D. Scott Brandt