Greg Newby's Personal Homepage

(Greg's academic page)


FCC Issues

What could be more important than who decides what we care about? Ok, maybe food, clothing, shelter and basic education are more important -- but in the modern world, it's the media that tells us about what's going on in the world, and even how we feel about it!

Here are my notes from an FCC hearing on media consolidation from March 2003 in Durham, NC. To provide input to the FCC decision process (which is not covered much - if at all - by corporate media), visit their comment page.

Rulings made by the FCC and Librarian of Congress are very hurtful to small media such as college and community radio. For more information, visit Save Our Streams

Andes Mountain Traverse

You can read about my trip with NOLS to the Andes Mountains of Chile: the AMT 2001.

Academics: Where the money is

In March 2001, I did my own salary analysis. Bottom line: 10 years of experience as a college professor warrants a 18.2% cumulative raise, after adjusting for inflation.

Get Active

Speak out on the issue of your choice. Mine include:

Radio show

You can hear me weekly on Tuesday from 2:00 - 4:00 pm Eastern time on WXDU, Duke's community radio station at 88.7 FM, or via the Web. It's a standard rock-oriented show.

(In case you were wondering, WXYZ, UNC's station, only allows people who have paid the UNC student fees to be DJs.). I used to be very involved with a community radio station in Urbana, Illinois: WEFT. Support community media! Avoid corporate media!

Newby Censored!

On April 11, 2000, I was forced to remove materials from my class Web pages for INLS 183 relating to playing DVDs on Linux. I have written a press release and essay about this incident, along with some links to issues related to DVDs, here.

Note that it's UNC's legal counsel that has forced me to remove these materials, as a result of a complaint from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). The MPAA is suing several parties (NOT me, and NOT UNC) because they have figured out how to play DVD movies they legally buy on DVD players they legally buy without using software licensed by the MPAA's cronies, the DVD CCA.

The crux of the MPAA's argument is the new Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998. This federal legislation is being challenged in numerous court cases - among other things, the DMCA supersedes copyright law's notions of "fair use" (including basic things, such as your ability to use a copyrighted material you legally buy for its intended purpose), and provides ridiculous protection to anyone who uses an access control mechanism (including encryption) to prevent using their materials.

What do I do?

I joined the faculty at SILS in fall 1997. I'm involved in teaching courses in our undergraduate minor, as well as courses geared towards MS and PhD students. My research interests focus on text retrieval and information visualization, and I've been a participant in the Text REtrieval Conference ( TREC) for 5 years running.

Project Gutenberg

One of my favorite volunteer activities is my work as the director and chief executive, main FTP manager, mailing list maintainer and auxiliary tech guru for Project Gutenberg. This is a free collection of thousands of electronic texts, including most of the world's great literature.

Personal

On the personal side, I'm married to Ilana Kingsley who is a technical writer at IBM. She is also a great outdoorsperson, and has worked many summers over past years as a wilderness instructor at Voyageur Outward Bound School in Ely, Minnesota. Ilana has a freelance indexing company, too.

So, there you have it. Now you know almost everything there is to know about me, without taking a peek at my Vitae, which includes links to many papers and other activities.

You can send email, too. Try gbnewby@ils.unc.edu. My GPG key is available (binary).


Here's some funny stuff for people interested in literature. Read literature combined, a bunch of jokes that you only get if you've read the books involved.

For other recent immigrants, here's Tips for Northerners moving South


Quote on what the role of the information professional is in society:

"...we are members of a profession explicitly committed to intellectual freedom and the freedom of access to information. We have a special obligation to ensure the free flow of information and ideas to present and future generations." Libraries, An American Value, by the American Library Association.

Quote to think about

We can reasonably conclude that how we think is not just mildly interesting, not just a subject for intellectual debate, but a matter of life and death. If those in charge of our society--politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television--can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.
  -- Howard Zinn, "Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology."

General purpose guidelines:

"Whenever you are in doubt, apply the first test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be any use to him. Will he gain anything from it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? True development puts first those that society puts last." - Mahatma Gandhi

Most recently updated: October 2002