Spotlight

No. 45

June 26, 2002

Technology:

askSam

I must admit that I have a soft spot for databases... It might be the anal-retentive part of my personality, but I like finding patterns and putting things in order, and so building databases is a less disturbing and more productive way of satisfying this craving for organization than eating M&Ms by color or keeping one's CDs in alphabetical order by artist's last name... ;-) As databases go, askSam is not as innovative as Scopeware or even QuickBase, but it is innovative enough and its other qualities: affordability, ease of use, and flexbility make it worth recommending in this newsletter

askSam's creators call it a "free form" database. What they mean by that (I think) is that the software is extremely flexible when it comes to designing a database and storing data in it. For example, one can start by entering the names of the fields in an empty database, or use the Automatic Field Recognition to quickly transform a document into a database record. For example, words like "To:", "From:", "Date:", and "Subject:", common in e-mail messages, will be automatically converted to database fields. askSam does not place rigid limits on the fields themselves, adjusting them as needed when they are being filled. (You wanted a memo field rather than a 255-character text field? No problem, just type your text and askSam will expand the field to fit your data.). Is also very pliable when it comes to types of data, accepting highly structured (e.g. address list), barely structured (e.g. e-mail messages), and unstructured data (e.g. Web pages, images).

The interface for data entry, searches, and reports looks and behaves like a standard word processor, making it extremely easy to learn and use. There is also a number of pre-defined database templates for quick customization. With the optional askSam Web Publisher it is very easy to make the database accessible through the Web. The cost: $149.95 for the standard version or $395 for the professional version (with full-text indexing). Substantial discounts are available for educational institutions. Web Publisher is priced at $1,495. The software is available for Windows only (all flavors).

askSam:

Adding/viewing data

Various data types

Conference:

CATaC '02

"The Net(s) of Power: Language, Culture and Technology"

International Conference on Cultural Attitudes towards Technology and Communication

Held July 12-15, 2002 in Montreal, Canada

This biennial conference series aims to provide an international forum for the presentation and discussion of cutting-edge research on how diverse cultural attitudes shape the implementation and use of information and communication technologies (ICT). "Cultural attitudes" here includes cultural values and communicative preferences that may be embedded in both the content and form of ICT - thus threatening to make ICT less the agent of a promised democratic global village and more an agent of cultural homogenisation and imperialism. The conference series brings together scholars from around the globe who provide diverse perspectives, both in terms of the specific culture(s) they highlight in their presentations and discussions, and in terms of the discipline(s) through which they approach the conference them

She said, he said:

"I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone." -- Jack Valenti in 1982.