Media
The very
finest and most dreadful slingers of info
April 30, 2003
|
C O V E R F
E A T U R E
|
|
Indy Pick
Best Geek
With the Internet boom over and the techno-gold rush turned to mud,
it's more important than ever to remember the revolutionary power and
potential of the Internet: as a tool for access, sharing and
collaboration.
 |
Paul Jones
|
No one in the Triangle is more devoted to mining that potential than
Internet pioneer Paul Jones, director of ibiblio.org, an internationally
renowned digital library and conservancy. The UNC-based project hosts
sites from all over the world on everything from music to the Free
Software movement to poetry to science. It's home to local collections
like Documenting the American South, and also hosts the Web streams for
college radio stations WXYC and WXDU, among others.
A professor in UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Information
and Library Science and the School of Journalism and Mass Communication,
Jones is connected to the original fiber of the Internet. SunSite, the
information server he built at UNC which later became ibiblio, was one
of the first essential nodes of the World Wide Web. You'd never guess
that this charming, easy going professor with long gray hair and
glasses, who rambles when he talks and has a goofy laugh, has been such
a powerful presence in online culture since its inception.
Jones leaves the door open for his students and brings
speakers to the campus to speak on pressing issues of technology and
culture, such as Creative Commons founder Glenn Otis Brown. He's also
been a critical member of the Triangle Internet Workers group, which
helps under-employed techies to network. He's an Open Source guru and
advocate for civil liberties and the public domain--with an MFA in
poetry to boot.
More Cover Features in This Issue:
RECENTLY:
|
|
