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This paper aims to describe the benefits of the Brave web browser and its native cryptocurrency, the Basic Attention Token (BAT), for use by library patrons to preserve privacy and as a potential fundraising platform for libraries.

The Brave browser and BAT are introduced, an analysis of trends in adoption of these technologies is discussed and an argument for libraries to adopt/promote these technologies is presented.

Libraries could support the online privacy of their patrons if they encourage them to adopt the Brave browser, which is designed with privacy and security in mind. Libraries could also benefit from participating in the Brave Rewards program, which allows Brave users to donate BAT, a cryptotoken that they earn by viewing Brave ads, which can be traded for cash.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is the first to discuss the applications of the Brave browser in libraries and the potentials of cryptocurrency adoption by libraries.

Lets start with the praise. In many ways this is an excellent book to give LIS professionals some essential background knowledge about the Net to help in using it and in advising others.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the disrupting usage and impacts of blockchains and cryptocurrencies and advocate their role as enablers of sustainable tourism development goals.

Literature on blockchains and cryptocurrencies is critically synthesized, debated and expanded to identify and discuss their implications toward sustainable tourism futures.

As a distributive digital ledger, blockchains have the potential to create a more inclusive tourism future to address debates around tourism as a vehicle for sustainable development that alludes to value accruing to only certain providers and consumers. Blockchains and their cryptocurrencies (as a financial transaction capability) elevate trust and relational capabilities in an expedited and holistic manner, democratize participation in economic systems and re-distribute power and economic relations amongst actors by influencing the way data (the currency of the digital economy and the lifeblood of tourism) is collected, stored, exchange, owned and traded for co-creating value.

The paper is conceptual and speculative by identifying ways in which blockchain and cryptocurrencies can support sustainable tourism development goals. Directions for future research are provided for further elaborating and collecting primary evidence on whether the premise and applications of these technologies can deliver the acclaimed sustainable impacts.

The paper contributes to the emerging but controversial literature about the trajectories between technology and sustainability by critically debating on how blockchains, through cryptocurrency economies, can be positioned to facilitate sustainable tourism futures.

本论文旨在讨论区块链和加密货币的使用和影响, 并且建议其对于可持续旅游发展目标的积极作用。

区块链和加密货币的文献得到批判式的综述, 作者对有些文献进行辩论, 有些学说进行延伸, 以确立和探究其对可持续旅游发展未来的作用深意。

区块链作为分布式电子账本技术, 有潜力创造一个更加融合的旅游未来, 以解决旅游作为媒介打造可持续发展的争论问题。区块链和加密货币（作为一种财务交易能力）通过以价值共创为前提, 影响数据（数字经济货币和旅游生命力）收集、储存、交换、所有、以及交易, 快速全面地提高了信任和关系能力, 使得经济系统参与更加民主化, 并且重新分配了各种角色中的权力和经济关系。

本论文是概念性文章, 主要通过指出区块链和加密货币如何支持可持续旅游发展目标的方式来进行讨论。未来研究可以深入探讨并且收集数据来验证是否这些科技的应用可以影响所谓的可持续发展。

本论文对这个前沿又充满争议的文献进行梳理和讨论, 指出了科技与可持续性之间的多种联系, 批判地综述了区块链如何通过加密货币经济能够帮助可持续旅游的未来。

加密货币, 电子付款, 破坏性创新, 分布式账本, 旅游业, 可持续发展

概念性论文

The number of internet consumers who adopt ad-blocking is increasing rapidly all over the world. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate this phenomenon by: assembling the existing considerations and key theoretical aspects of the determinants of online ad-blocking; and by exploring the consumers’ beliefs and sentiments toward online ads and expected outcomes of ad-blocking behavior.

Data consist of 4,093 consumers’ opinions in response to the news items about ad-blocking, published by a leading news and technology website in the period 2010–2016. The unstructured data are analyzed using probabilistic topic modeling and sentiment analysis.

Five main topics are identified, unveiling the hidden structure of consumers’ beliefs. A sentiment analysis profiling the clustered opinions reveals that the opinions that are focused on the behavioral characteristics of ads express the strongest negative sentiment, while the opinions centered on the possibility to subscribe to an ad-free fee-financed website are characterized on average by a positive sentiment.

The findings provide useful insights for practitioners to create/adopt more acceptable ads that translate into less ad-blocking and improved internet surfing experience. It brings insights on the question of whether ad-free subscription websites have or do not have the potential to become a viable business opportunity.

The research: improves the current understanding of the determinants of ad-blocking by introducing a conceptual framework and testing it empirically; makes use of consumer-generated data on the internet; and implements novel techniques from the data mining literature.

The present study demonstrates how browser plugins have been adopted by libraries in recent times to empower users in participatory academic and research activities. The study aims to present a brief synthesis of the practical use of browser plugins in libraries and their possible future use.

Web-based survey method was applied in the study to search and find browser plugins associated with academic library websites and to explore their area of application.

With the descriptive account of the implementation of plugins in academic libraries, supported by numerous examples, the study presents the pertinence of various approaches as appeared on library websites.

The present investigation is limited to the academic libraries only.

The good practices enumerated in the study will improve the understanding of the young library professionals about the practical usage of plugins and the steps to enhance accessibility to plugins.

With the aid of seed money from a federal grant, librarians at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU Boulder) developed an online statistical abstract called Colorado by the Numbers (CBN). The last print version of the Colorado Statistical Abstract was published in 1987. CBN provides updated socio‐economic data about the state and its counties on the Web. Librarians have gone beyond the acquisition and maintenance of traditional printed information sources to producing tailor made resources that meet the information needs of their local community. The CBN design and management model is discussed.

To review Peter Plantec's book Virtual Humans: A Build it Yourself Kit.

This book is meant to be read by one willing to actively engage with the technologies that Plantec introduces. While the technology that enables virtual agents is stable, many agents are annoyingly non‐humanlike in their interactions. Plantec encourages his readers to enter the world of virtual humans by providing the resources and coaching necessary to create a digital agent. He challenges the reader to throw off the notion that she is creating a technical implementation, a piece of software, and instead persuades her to approach the task as a scriptwriter would in creating a character.

Only through the application of artifice can developers hope to create deeply engaging virtual humans with recognizable, engaging personalities. But once people start to believe in their virtual companions, where might it lead them as a society?

Provides information about virtual humans.

The author listened to many major corporate players discuss the brave new world of brand conversations and content engagement at the 2011 CM (“Conversational Marketing”) Summit in New York. This paper aims to reveal his conclusion is that we have a lot of new lessons to learn about social media.

The author reports on eight conference presentations by leading marketers from Facebook, Twitter, PepsiCo, Sony, VISA and others.

The theme of scalable real time analysis of metrics and messages, and strategic implementation of user‐friendly and effective communication based on that endless river of data, ran through most of the comments made at the conference.

The social network business proposition can be driven by either of two approaches, hi‐tech artificial intelligence or the personal‐folksy local experience, each enriching the communication between marketer and consumer. Identify the conversation customers want to have and to support their interests so that companies can create an ad that is, more or less, a “content experience.”

The paper explains how, as companies race to keep pace with the meteoric rise of social networking as a central matrix for human communications, they are learning to master this new commercial universe.

This column explores issues regarding the exposure of online patron information, privacy and intellectual freedom. Several angles are explored and ways in which libraries can effectively respond to these issues are proposed.

This is a regular journal column.

There is a need for balance in our concerns over the use of technology and patron privacy and freedom. On the one hand, libraries have an obligation to maintain patron privacy to promote intellectual freedom. On the other hand, once reasonable steps are taken to protect patrons, an informed-consent approach seems to strike the right balance between protection from constraint and the freedom to research as a person sees fit.

The Internet is known as the “information highway” but is also an “Internet of Things” where smart devices are connected to one another either through centralized services or peer-to-peer networks. This growing phenomenon is a result as much of the desire to automate as it is the increased expectations for convenience and ease of use. Libraries need to be prepared to protect patrons from external threats to privacy as a response to this situation, as well as educate patrons on the risks associated with data aggregation and exposure through the use of online services.