The Foreign Service Journal, September 2011

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 1 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 15 Democratic Republic of the Congo, receive more attention for forced labor. Senator Jim Webb, D-Va., who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, is also critical of the TIP ranking system. Cit- ing concerns from State Department personnel and foreign officials who felt their countries had been wrongly eval- uated, the senator offered the example of Nigeria, which received a Tier 1 ranking for its efforts at improvement even as Japan and Singapore remained in Tier 2. In his view, such inconsis- tencies result from ranking countries against the progress made in the past year, rather than against a consistent measurable standard, and mischarac- terize the comparative urgency of traf- ficking between countries. On July 13, Sen. Webb introduced a bill to create a clear, quantifiable stan- dard by ranking countries against a sin- gle scale, eliminating the Special Watch List category, and rating coun- tries as either in or not in compliance. He stressed the importance of an ap- proach that strengthens anti-trafficking efforts without compromising diplo- matic relationships. — Asa Maclay Horner, Editorial Intern C Y B E R N O T E S WWW.AFSA.ORG When contacting an advertiser, kindly mention the Foreign Service Journal. AFSA Insurance Plans hirshorn.com/afsa AFSA FAD afsa.org/CFCFAD.cfm AFSPA Afspa.org AKA Hotel Residences stay-aka.com Bryan Schwartz Law www.bryanschwartz.com Clements International clements.com NPCA www.paececorpsconnect.org SDFCU sdfcu.org WJD wjdpm.com Scroll down & click on AFSA Marketplace Site of the Month: www.gutenberg.org Invented on July 4, 1971, electronic books celebrate their 40th anniversary this year. So does the first and largest single collection of free e-books on the Web, Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org). In an effort to “change the world,” founder Michael Hart developed the site in 1971 to make literature free and accessible to all. Hart typed and circulated the first text himself, the Declaration of Independence , and continues to lead the proj- ect, but the organization now draws on the talents of thousands of volunteers. In the spirit of its 15th-century namesake, the Gutenberg press, which drasti- cally reduced the cost of printing books and thereby paved the way for their mass distribution, this digital library now contains more than 36,000 free e-books, with more added every day. All are available for download to your personal computer, Kindle, iPad, iPhone, Android or other portable device, in ePub, Kindle, HTML and simple text formats. Project Gutenberg’s contents encompass texts ranging from fiction to analytic reports to sheet music, and much more, written in languages from around the globe. Most are the reincarnations of out-of-print publications whose copyright dates have expired in the United States. However, as the site cautions, restrictions may apply in other countries, so readers outside the U.S. should check the copy- right laws of their countries before downloading or redistributing materials. Meanwhile, the market for commercial e-books continues to grow exponentially. Writing in the May 19 edition of the New York Times , Claire Cain Miller and Julie Bosman reported that Amazon.com customers now buy more e-books than print editions. To be sure, e-books currently account for only about 14 percent of all general consumer fiction and nonfiction books sold, according to Forrester Research. But James L. McQuivey, a digital media analyst at Forrester, says “e-book reading is a big deal, and it’s going to continue to be even bigger.” —Steven Alan Honley, Editor