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Great words: "Tchotchke Watch"

In honor of the Democratic National Convention (and presumably the Republican convention, as well), a number of National Journal's pricey, indispensable subscription resources for policy wonks and government geeks are available free for the duration. The "Convention Daily E-Mail Alert" features such amusing tidbits as "Tchotchke Watch," a daily inventory of buttons, bumper stickers, and other noteworthy convention memorabilia. (Bill Richardson's New Mexico Salsa, anyone?)

For the uninitiated, tchotchke (rhymes with Gotcha) is a Yiddish word generally defined as a trinket or knickknack and derived from a Polish word of similar meaning. It has a variety of spellings, from chachka to tsatske (the form enshrined in the Oxford English Dictionary), and is sometimes pronounced TZATS-ka). As Michael Quinion notes, among non-Jews in America, the word is often pronounced CHOCH-key and commonly refers to promotional items distributed at trade shows.

A more expansive set of meanings -- including several sexist usages disavowed by the editor -- appears in The New Joys of Yiddish. This "completely updated" version of Leo Rosten's 1968 lexicon explores the influence of Yiddish on American English "in the style and with the impudent imagery so characteristic of Jewish humor." Replete with folklore, cultural history, and commentary, The Joys of Yiddish is a treasure for word-lovers of all heritages and religious persuasions.

Regardless of pronunciation, "Tchotchke Watch" is an inspired rubric for the "promotional items" that pervade our quadrennial political "trade shows."

Keeping tabs on your kids with RFID

Silicon.com reported last week that an Osaka, Japan, elementary school plans to use RFID tags to keep track of its students. The tags will be attached to kids' clothes or backpacks, with readers to be installed in school gates and similar locations.

RFID, or radio frequency identification, is a technology that allows remote storage and retrieval of unique identifying data by means of radio signals. In principle, it is similar to bar coding, except it's not necessary for the tag containing the information to come into direct contact with the RFID reader -- or even to be nearby. The higher the radio frequency, the greater the range within which information can be transmitted and received between the reader and the tag. And the tag can be very small -- as small, in fact, as a grain of rice.

What a terrific way to make sure your children are safe. Right?

Maybe not.

RFID technology has been used for several years to identify and track cattle and other animals. It shows promise for many commerical applications -- such as supply chain management and theft prevention -- as well as healthcare applications ranging from use on patient ID bracelets to controlling pharmaceutical supplies to implanting electronic medical records beneath the skin of seriously ill patients to faciliate emergency care.

The RFID story that has perhaps generated the most ink to date is Walmart's announcement that it will require its 100 top suppliers to ship RFID-compliant goods by January 2005. The plan has aroused considerable controversy among privacy advocates and others who don't trust Walmart to disable the tags before consumers leave the store. Some believe that the potential for government surveillance and commercial data mining will be too tempting for the Department of Homeland Security and major corporations, respectively or collectively, to resist.

(One good resource for keeping abreast of RFID and its implications is the RFID Privacy Happenings blog, affiliated with the MIT Media Lab.)

Now, back to those Japanese schoolchildren -- and possibly your own.

The impetus for RFID-tagging children's garments and possessions was surely benign, meant to keep kids safe from kidnappers, pedophiles, or simply wandering astray. Think how much more good might be accomplished by expanding the concept. If elementary-school-age children are at risk, what about infants? We hear often enough about babies snatched from their strollers or kidnapped by non-custodial parents. Children are sometimes injured in family car accidents that prevent parents from providing medical histories. They may accidentally ingest poisonous substances, fall off bicycles, or experience severe allergic reactions.

Imagine! A rice-grain-sized RFID tag could be implanted into every child minutes after birth and updated with every vaccination, diagnosis, and developmental milestone. His or her safety and medical treatment could be infinitely improved for years, if not for life. The parental anxiety quotient could diminish before the mother even left the hospital.

Only the child's privacy would be placed at risk -- and possibly the family's. Depending upon the child's particular medical history, or where the parents take her, or what kind of teen-age pranks he eventually participates in, that RFID tag could compromise untold aspects of the child's future.

Do these speculations sound like science fiction or paranoid ravings? How many of us imagined five years ago that GPS-equipped rental cars would not only find us if the car broke down on a deserted road, but also be used to penalize drivers who violate the fine print in a rental contract and to mine data to be sold or otherwise used without our knowledge? How many of us predicted that drive-by downloads would infect our computers and steal our data while we innocently surfed the Web?

I don't mean to condemn the Osaka school officials' decision or to imply that the boundaries between privacy and security are always easy to define. But, for me, this story highlights the contradictory possibilities inherent in most digital technologies.

As a card-carrying technophile and a privacy advocate -- talk about contradictions! -- it takes stories like this to keep me aware that every new technology has a cost beyond dollars. And it's my responsibility as a consumer to weigh the privacy costs in each case and decide for myself.

(Photo credit: bastish.net)

Informaticon: The ATM revolutionby Ellen Florianfrom 50 Years of the Fortune 500

- The first ATM opened for business in Rockville Centre, Long Island, on September 2, 1969.
- There are now 371,000 ATMs around the world, one for each 284 American households.
- Nearly 11 billion ATM transactions are processed per year, dispensing some $670 billion in cash -- more than 4 times the amount dispensed in 1985.
- ATMs were expected to reduce the number of bank branches and human tellers, but there are now almost 75,000 bank branches in the US (up from about 58,000 in 1985) and 539,000 tellers (up from 484,000).
- Despite customer transaction fees, ATMs are generally loss leaders for large banks, to the tune of $250 per machine per month.
- 92% of respondents to a 2003 Visa survey now consider "convenient ATM access a critical factor in choosing a bank."
- Though customers were initially skeptical of ATMs, their convenience has changed consumption patterns by contributing to impulse purchasing and fostering the change from "face-to-face" business to "face-to-interface."
- The innovations that can be traced to ATMs (for good or for ill) include self-service, self-pay gas stations; do-it-yourself airline check-in kiosks; self-service supermarket check-out lanes; and automated phone menus.
- "The ATM also placed consumers firmly on the path of demanding ever more convenience and self-service (and industry, in turn, of pushing more automated service). Perhaps most important, it introduced ordinary consumers to technology in a direct manner for the first time, presaging PCs, cellular phones, and other conveniences we now can't live without."

Gmail must've been an English major

I recently subscribed to the free daily e-mail from Today in Literature, which specializes in "engaging stories about the great books, writers, and events in literary history." The e-mail comes to my Gmail address.

Today's issue highlights the anniversary of William Wordsworth's completion of "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, July 13, 1798."

Though I rarely notice the text ads that accompany Gmail's incoming messages, this morning I happened to glance at them. I found two ads for daffodils and one for tulips.

"Today in Literature" says not a word about daffodils. But Wordsworth himself famously does. I guess one day, when Gmail had nothing to do, it must have wandered lonely as a cloud right over to some of those gardening sites. Neat trick.

GetNetWise.org:Online security in plain English

Malware -- short for malicious software -- is proliferating at an alarming rate, putting your computer and the information on it at risk. This is particularly true if, like most people, you use Microsoft's Internet Explorer to access the Internet.

If, like most people's, your eyes glaze over at the mention of viruses, worms, Trojans, and other forms of spyware, you have plenty of company.

The bad news is, you can't just close your eyes and hope that these nasty bits of computer code will simply pass you by. The good news is GetNetWise.org, a plain-English website designed to keep you and your family "one click ahead" of online threats and predators.

GetNetWise is a coalition of "Internet industry corporations and public interest organizations," ranging from Microsoft and AOL to the Center for Democracy and Technology and the American Library Association. Given the sometimes divergent interests of the coalition members, the site does a remarkable, evenhanded job of explaining the threats that exist, introducing the tools to combat them, and pointing out sources of information and protective software.

GetNetWise.org addresses children's online safety, spam, hackers, viruses, spyware, and other invasions of privacy that may occur in the course of Internet browsing or transactions. The site is a model of best practices:

- Its privacy policy is clear and unintrustive.
- Interstitial pages warn users when they have clicked on a link that will take them off the GetNetWise site.
- The "one click away" theme is carried out with each link on the site. You are, in fact, one click away from the answer to each of your questions.
- The plain-English text is supplemented by short video presentations, available at dial-up and broadband speeds.
- Questions are directed to a human being with a first name, surname, and phone number.
- Downloadable buttons make it easy for site owners to demonstrate their support of the project.
- A monthly newsletter will provide updates to the site, with only an e-mail address required for double-opt-in registration.

There are three messages here:

First and foremost, if you know nothing about online safety, get thee to GetNetWise.org for a quick and painless tutorial.

Second, take the recommended steps to protect your system, your personal data, and your children -- even if you have to spend a bit of money.

Third, imagine how friendly the Internet would be if more sites adopted the standards in evidence at GetNetWise.org. That includes the sites of all members of the GetNetWise coalition.

Voice mail blues

Like everyone else, I have a long list of complaints about the automated voice menus that every business -- from my bank to my dermatologist -- seems determined to inflict on customers who phone. Lately, I find ambiguous voice-mail messages and incomplete voice-mail greetings are just as frustrating and time-consuming as those menus.

Take the experience I had this morning.

When I checked my phone messages, there was a voice mail from a software vendor:

"This is Matt at Anonymous Software. I'm calling to discuss your questions about our product. Please get back to me at 555-555-5555."

The software product is one I've been using for several months and like very much (hence the anonymity, at least for the moment.) In the past week or two, I have completed an extensive survey intended for customers willing to beta-test the product's next release. I've also had an e-mail correspondence with Anonymous's tech support team concerning a particular product feature. So I really didn't know why Matt was calling.

When I called the number I had copied from the message, I heard the following greeting:

"This is Kimberly Smith. I'm away from my desk at the moment. Please leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible."

Great. What company does Kimberly work for? Have I reached a wrong extension? A wrong number? A shared line?

I tried the number again. Same result.

Instead of leaving a message for an unknown recipient, I went to the Anonymous website, found their number, and phoned. Suffice it to say that I ended up in menu hell, with every choice leading either to (1) canned information or (2) a prompt to leave a message and have my call returned.

Defeated, I called Kimberly back, waited for the beep, explained the reason for my call, and left my number.

Kimberly, Anonymous, and I are all located in the same time zone. It's after 8:00 pm. I'm still waiting for a return call. And still wondering why, wherever she works, Kimberly doesn't mention the name of her organization in her voice-mail greeting.

Now that I think of it, it's only in the voice-mail greetings of very small businesses that you can count on hearing the company name. Small entrepreneurs know how important it is for clients (and potential clients) to know they have reached the right place.

In larger organizations, it's hit or miss. Changing people's phone greetings -- by voice-mail or in person -- can be a major challenge. As big a challenge as changing the entire culture of an organization to focus on the customer experience. A challenge some organizations shudder to embrace.

Nevertheless, it's surprising how few executives consider what it's like to phone their public numbers. Maybe they haven't tried it. Maybe they should.

Cool tools: American languages

How many American citiizens and residents speak languages other than English? Where do they live? Should your business or organization be speaking to them in their own languages?

An interactive statistical and graphic tool on the website of the Modern Language Association, lets you map the language communities of the United States, based on data collected during the 2000 census. A well-designed tutorial shows you how to locate speakers of 37 lanugages by state, county, city, or zip code. You can generate maps, tables, charts, and lists of language communities, including comparative data between or within states.

This data not only broadens our understanding of American subcultures and communities. It is also a source of practical guidance for marketers, businesspeople, local governments, and other providers of services in regions large and small. Thanks to the Librarians' Index to the Internet for highlighting this useful and fascinating resource.

Libraries and the Internet

I've been exploring online resources available to library card holders for my next LLRX.com Metaforix@Health columns. In response to a recent post on Amy Gahran's Contentious blog, I e-mailed some of my observations to Amy, who graciously published them.

Amy's original post addressed how libraries are adapting to the shifting habits and expectations of Information Age researchers. As a former librarian, I couldn't agree more with her main point. To retain their relevance and their funding, librarians must find new ways to make their services indispensable -- in particular, by providing gateways to the wealth of information on the deep web that Google doesn't reach.

For years, I've objected to the metaphor of the Internet as library. The contents of libraries, whether books or other media, are selected and vetted by highly trained information professionals and then organized according to a rational scheme to make them readily retrievable.

In contrast, the "contents" of the Internet may be posted by anyone. Their trustworthiness, accuracy, and currency vary widely. Ease of retrieval also varies widely, not only for the technological reasons Amy points to, but also because what comes back in response to your search query is often deliberately manipulated.

Common ways to manipulate online information retrieval include search engine optimization strategies, Google bombs, password-protected site access, and high subscription costs. You have only to visit a site like lii.org (Librarians' Index to the Internet) or the Internet Public Library to understand the difference between searching an online library and using even the most sophisticated search engine.

The issues Amy highlights -- in particular, key statistics from the EPIC study of student research habits -- are ignored at our peril. If we value what libraries stand for , it is in our collective interest to promote and support the evolving, increasingly digitalized role of publicly supported libraries.

Otherwise, we face the prospect of a growing chasm between information haves and have-nots. I don't think any of us wants that.

Follow-up: A Hacker's Tale

Earlier this week, I responded to a hacker's letter to NewsScan Daily. The subject was whether the penalties for computer crimes are disproportionately harsh.

In addition to the comment posted here by ex-hacker-not-cracker, you might like to read NewsScan Daily's published responses to maelstrom's memo , along with maelstrom's final word on the topic (well, final at least for now).

One especially interesting reminder from maelstrom to those respondents who lobbed personal attacks in his direction:

I just have one question for folks who believe I am the devil incarnate -- Do You Know Who I AM? For all you know, I could be a middle-aged housewife who just gets a kick egging people on! Or, perhaps I work for the federal government as an undercover hacker. Or, I'm just another wild-eyed kid with a chip on my shoulder.

Or a dog.