NEW YORK

Internet Archive plans to put NASA images online for all

NASA's images from the Apollo moon landings, the Voyager planetary flybys and the many space shuttle missions will be accessible through a central, searchable Web site under a partnership between the space agency and the nonprofit Internet Archive.

The archive will spend millions of dollars to consolidate images that are already in digital form and to convert those that are not.

"The big payoff on this will be getting the terrific materials that are basically in the space centers up and available on the Internet," said Brewster Kahle, the archive's founder and digital librarian. "They are still images, different forms of film and videotapes over the years. The idea is to get it all online."

Well, not all. Kahle said the archive won't be able to digitize everything NASA has ever produced but will try to capture the images of broadest interest to historians, scholars, students, filmmakers and space enthusiasts.

Besides images, the archive also may include audio files, printed documents, computer presentations and other material deemed historically significant.

The Internet Archive is bearing all of the costs, and Kahle said fundraising has just started. The five-year agreement is non-exclusive, meaning NASA is free to make similar deals with others to further digitize its collections.

JAPAN

Official says nation will work to find Internet replacement

TOKYO — Japan plans to start research on networking technology that could one day replace the Internet amid its growing quality and security problems, according to the nation's communications ministry.

U.S. and European researchers already have started similar efforts to rebuild the underlying architecture of the Internet.

Yoshihiro Onishi, assistant director at the Japanese communications ministry, said Japan must follow suit to stay competitive.

Post-Internet network technology is expected to become imperative by 2020, he said.

"The Internet is reaching its limit," he said. "We feel this research for the technology is definitely needed."

When researchers largely knew one another, the Internet's early architects kept the shared network open and flexible — qualities that proved key to its rapid growth. But that later allowed spammers and hackers to roam freely.

The network's designers also assumed that computers would be in fixed locations and always connected, creating headaches as laptops and other mobile devices proliferated.

Many scientists are starting to believe a totally new network is needed. It could run parallel with the Internet or eventually replace it, or parts of the research could go into a major overhaul of the existing architecture.

Researchers may also seek a network that consumes lower levels of energy.

CALIFORNIA

Service to let musicians, fans stay in touch with messages

SAN JOSE — Being a groupie can be as easy as picking up the phone.

"I love you, Tyrese!" a female caller shouts in a message to the R&B singer.

"Yo, Rihanna, I just wanted to say thank you for the good work. I love ya," a male caller from Conyers, Ga., tells the pop star.

With Web sites, blogs, social networks and text-messaging services, musicians have plenty of ways to connect with fans.

SayNow is adding to the mix an older form of communication — voice messages.

SayNow's service, slated to formally launch this month, will let celebrities receive voice messages and send ones en masse to those who have subscribed to be a part of their fan community.

Each celebrity will get a phone number that fans can call to either record a message or listen to one left by the artist.

The service is free; SayNow is relying on advertising for revenue.

SayNow, a startup based in Palo Alto, says it has signed more than 870,000 fans and secured $7.5 million in venture funding. The voice-messaging service is also available for use by other groups.

"It's a very hot idea right now — social marketing using the cell phone," said Jupiter Research analyst Julie Ask.

— From wire reports