British politician Matthew Taylor has taken the "net-head" culture of task over its propensity to abuse politicians and make unreasonable demands of government. Bloggers in particular, he says, are responsible citizens regarding "all politicians as corrupt or "mendacious" by the media, which he described as 'a conspiracy to maintain the population in a perpetual state of self-righteous rage'".
Read more here.
November 17, 2006
November 04, 2006
Gadgets, Gadgets, Gadgets
The "Gadgets" presentation at Internet Librarian is something of an annual tradition. Here are the items the presenters found new and noteworthy for 2006:
It will be interesting to see which of these up-and-coming gadgets become standard-issue in a few years, and which will die on the vine.
- Aerocool Infinite Drive: Connects where your old 5.25 in. floppy drive used to be; this offers the ability to read 25 different memory card formats, 2 USB ports, and headphone and microphone jacks. $61.
- IBM speech-to-speech transmission program: This program was created for the U.S. military to provide real-time translation for hundreds of languages. Nowword yet on when it will be available for the public.
- Cell phone jammers: Interfere with the reception of cell phone calls. These are not legal in the U.S., but are available in the U.K. and Japan. $260.
- Aimulet LA Bamboo Audio Device: According to Treehugger.com: From Japan, a batteryless, light-activated handheld audio communication device with an outer shell made from molded bamboo. The device itself is designed to be held to your ear, like a cell phone. When you stand over special LED emitters in the ground, Aimulet LA receives the light signals via an array of spherical micro solar cells set into the bottom of the handset. It translates the signals into audio messages that are transmitted through a tiny speaker in the device." No price yet.
- Glow in the Duck: This is a rubber bathtub ducky that changes colors when it gets in water $12.95
- USB Datalink Transfer Cable: Allows you to transfer data between two computers. $19.95
- Printdreams Portable Printer: Hold it like a mouse, and it prints where you designate. $200.
- Flowbee Hair Cutting Machine: Attach this to your vacuum cleaner for a haircut in minutes. The clippings go right into the vacuum cleaner. I am not making this up. $59.95
- Palm Treo 700p 700w 680: These PDA models "combines a smarter phone with wireless email and messaging, built-in web browser, and rich media capabilities — all at blazing fast broadband-like speeds." (no price given)
- LCD Scrolling Badge: Employees can be walking advertisements by wearing these badges that hold up to 10 scrolling messages. $40.
- Omnidirectional Camera Smart Wheelchair: This wheelchair of the future offers lots of control because because it uses camera images to detects potential hazards that arise while in motion and decelerates or stops accordingly.
- Ttraveling LCD projector: will weigh less than 4lbs and offer "native XGA".
- Microsoft Zune: Microsoft's answer to the iPod will make its debut for the holiday season and cost about $250. Walking stereo speakers to go with it will set you back $26.99.
- iTTUSB: Convert your old 33 1/3's to CDs or MP3 by using this special turntable/USB device. $119. This is what my husband Bob is getting for Christmas!
- Kurzweil National Federation of the Blind Reader: A compact, handheld device that scans and reads materials to people with visual impairments, from books to address labels to ATM receipts and more. $3,495.
- Museo Silver Rag Paper: Very high-end paper for printing out digital photographs $52.00 for 25 sheets.
- Tandberg Video Conferencing: This Norwegian company offers a product that will allow you to hold a videoconference on your desktop computer. The company recently won a 21st Century Best Practices Award from the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) for "leadership in the field of distance learning."
- Mop Slippers. Mop your floors as you walk. $9.95.
- Cell Sticks: The next generation in rechargable batteries.
- Samsung 10-megapixel Cell Phone: Take really sharp photographs with your cell phone. This phone has the highest picture resolution ever and even exceeds the resolution of mid-end digital cameras.
- TV phone: Samsung is developing cell phone that can receive TV signals. So far, Samsung plans to sell this item in Korea, but has no immediate plans to make it available in the U.S.
- USB oil burner: For instant aromatherapy at home or at work, plug in a $19 oil burner into a USB port on your computer. Those who have tried it say it is very soothing.
- MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is partnering with the U.S. army to develop technologies that will allow soldiers to literally leap tall buildings in a single bound and instantly seal off battle wounds, among other projects. It may be a long time before this technology is available on the open market.
- USB heated gloves: Warm these special gloves using a computer USB port before you venture out into the cold. Only $22.95.
- Laptops without hard drives. Laptops that depend on flash-based storage to carry computer programs as well as documents are the wave of the future.
- Slingbox: According to Wikipedia, Slingbox is "a TV streaming device that enables consumers to remotely view their cable, satellite, or personal video recorder (PVR) programming from an Internet-enabled computer with a broadband Internet connection." At the conference I spoke to someone who said she had been watching TV on her laptop; perhaps this is what she used.
- Sanrio Actroid: The Japanese company that makes Hello Kitty also makes robots. The Actroid is a female-looking robot (a "fembot") that can be rented for $3500 for five days.
- iPod jacket: For $750, one can buy a jacket with an iPod integrated into it. It is not machine washable.
- Electrolux screen fridge: This very high-end ($9000) kitchen appliance is designed to be the center of your home. It has wireless touch screen that can connect with TV or the internet so that you can read e-mail or check the online weather report as you make your shopping list. Reportedly, this has been test-marketed in Europe but hasn't really caught on yet.
- Nokia open cell phone: A cell phone that folds like a traditional Japanese fan. These are available yet, due to problems with developing a functional display screen that will fold like a traditional Japanese fan.
It will be interesting to see which of these up-and-coming gadgets become standard-issue in a few years, and which will die on the vine.
Internet Librarian - Second Life
In the name of "going to where the users are," presenters at the Internet Librarian conference frequently mentioned the virtual world called Second Life. Users "play" in the Second Life environment, but it is not quite accurate to say that SL is a game, since there is no real goal. Rather, Second Life is an online world where people represented by cartoon-like figures called "avatars") can do many of the same things people do in real life, including shopping, gambling and having illicit encounters. Second Life even has its own form of currency (called Linden Dollars, after Linden, the company that created and runs Second Life). You can spend your real-life currency to buy Linden Dollars, then use Linden Dollars to buy items or even develop virtual "real estate".
Since its inception in April 2006, Second Life has grown from 180,000 participants to over a million. People from all over the world participate, and many describe it as "addicting." As it is described, SL sounds like a chance to take part in risky behaviors without consequences. Not only can one's avatar do things many wouldn't dare to do in real life, users can change their identities and avatars at will. So, their behaviors never catch up with them.
Users do have to have a high end computer system or else they are likely to be very frustrated, and their are fees for registration and participation.
Presenters encouraged librarians to volunteer to staff Info Island, a library-like space in the Second Life milieu. The Alliance Library System (which serves Southern and Western Illinois) has really gotten involved in Second Life. In a press release, they detail the many activities they plan to celebrate the official grand opening of Info Island; all of these events will take place in the virtual world. Librarians who are active in SL say that it gives them an opportunity to implement Library 2.0 concepts and to think through the role of the library in the both the virtual setting and the real world.
Since its inception in April 2006, Second Life has grown from 180,000 participants to over a million. People from all over the world participate, and many describe it as "addicting." As it is described, SL sounds like a chance to take part in risky behaviors without consequences. Not only can one's avatar do things many wouldn't dare to do in real life, users can change their identities and avatars at will. So, their behaviors never catch up with them.
Users do have to have a high end computer system or else they are likely to be very frustrated, and their are fees for registration and participation.
Presenters encouraged librarians to volunteer to staff Info Island, a library-like space in the Second Life milieu. The Alliance Library System (which serves Southern and Western Illinois) has really gotten involved in Second Life. In a press release, they detail the many activities they plan to celebrate the official grand opening of Info Island; all of these events will take place in the virtual world. Librarians who are active in SL say that it gives them an opportunity to implement Library 2.0 concepts and to think through the role of the library in the both the virtual setting and the real world.
Mashups
I attended a presentation with the intriguing title "What is a Mash-Up and Why Would I Want One?". In the web world, a mashup "is a website or web application that uses content from one or more sources to create a completely new service." (the term "mashup" derives from the recording industry, where a "mashup" is the combination of a vocal track with the instrumental track from another song).
Mashups rely on open APIs (which stands for "application program interface; according to Webopedia this is "a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. A good API makes it easier to develop a program by providing all the building blocks. A programmer puts the blocks together."). Mashups are still in their infancy, but as IBM says about its new Enterprise Mashup, "Today's playground is tomorrow's highrise."
Mashups are an essential part of Web 2.0 ("technologies that allow data to become independent of the person who produced it or the site it originated on. It deals with how information can be broken up into units that flow freely from one site to another, often in ways the producer did not foresee or intend," according to Robin Good of the Master New Media web site).
One example of a mashup is Amazon Light 4.0, which combines Amazon.com's data with Yahoo News and Google News (so you can find news articles that are relevant to books). You can even use Amazon Light 4.0 to find out if a local library has a given book (many libraries are included, including some rather obscure ones, but WNPL is not. It is unclear how a library gets included).
Many current mashups combine Google Maps with something else. Housing Maps is an example; it allows you to combine apartment rental information from Craig's List with Google Maps to find out where the apartments you are interested in are in relation to each other.
Meebo allows you to "instant message from anywhere" by logging onto AOL, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, Jabber (used by services including Google Talk) but eliminating the need for an instant-messaging client on the user's computer. This might be a tool to consider for instant messaging at the reference desk.
At this point, I think I'd rather use others' mashups than think up my own, but this does sound like a trend to watch.
Mashups rely on open APIs (which stands for "application program interface; according to Webopedia this is "a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. A good API makes it easier to develop a program by providing all the building blocks. A programmer puts the blocks together."). Mashups are still in their infancy, but as IBM says about its new Enterprise Mashup, "Today's playground is tomorrow's highrise."
Mashups are an essential part of Web 2.0 ("technologies that allow data to become independent of the person who produced it or the site it originated on. It deals with how information can be broken up into units that flow freely from one site to another, often in ways the producer did not foresee or intend," according to Robin Good of the Master New Media web site).
One example of a mashup is Amazon Light 4.0, which combines Amazon.com's data with Yahoo News and Google News (so you can find news articles that are relevant to books). You can even use Amazon Light 4.0 to find out if a local library has a given book (many libraries are included, including some rather obscure ones, but WNPL is not. It is unclear how a library gets included).
Many current mashups combine Google Maps with something else. Housing Maps is an example; it allows you to combine apartment rental information from Craig's List with Google Maps to find out where the apartments you are interested in are in relation to each other.
Meebo allows you to "instant message from anywhere" by logging onto AOL, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, Jabber (used by services including Google Talk) but eliminating the need for an instant-messaging client on the user's computer. This might be a tool to consider for instant messaging at the reference desk.
At this point, I think I'd rather use others' mashups than think up my own, but this does sound like a trend to watch.
Technological Competencies
Everyone in the organization--from the part-time shelvers to the full-time managers-- benefits from technological conpetence. Usually, a competence-based approach to tech training involves creating a list of desired skills ("competencies") on which employees can either rate themselves or have another (a peer or supervisor) rate them.
Important benefits of taking a competency-based approach to technological training for all staff members include:
Various styles of checklists were discussed. At Warren-Newport, we have created such checklists. I think the difference here is the emphasis on extending the competency-based approach to all staff members, even those who do not routinely deal with technology in their jobs. It is an important tenet of "Library 2.0" that all staff must be technologically empowered, or, to put it another way, if the patrons are likely to ask about a particular technology, all staff must know about it.
Important benefits of taking a competency-based approach to technological training for all staff members include:
- More accurate job descriptions
- More accurate performance evaluations
- Reveal the need for additional staff training
- Addresses feelings of inequality among staff members
- Helps staff adjust to and handle change
Various styles of checklists were discussed. At Warren-Newport, we have created such checklists. I think the difference here is the emphasis on extending the competency-based approach to all staff members, even those who do not routinely deal with technology in their jobs. It is an important tenet of "Library 2.0" that all staff must be technologically empowered, or, to put it another way, if the patrons are likely to ask about a particular technology, all staff must know about it.
November 03, 2006
Internet Librarian part. 2 -- Online Outreach
Sarah Houghton aka "The Librarian in Black" (literally, every time I saw her, she was wearing all black)offered the following twenty tips for library online outreach (I believe that she was the one who said that it's the height of arrogance for librarians to expect patrons to actually walk through their doors. Or, something like that). I've marked the suggestions I found especially intriguing with an asterisk (*):
- Make sure that the library's web site is findable in the major search engines, and the minor ones, too.
- *Make sure the that the library's web site is listed in the major online library directories, such as Libdex, and Libraries411.
- Make sure the library's web site is represented in WikiMapia, a new wiki whose goal it is "to describe the entire earth".
- *Make sure that there is an article about the library in Wikipedia. If you don't like what it says, edit it.
- *List library programs and events on event sites like upcoming.org, artsopolis, and Craigslist Chicago
- Make sure local government, school and community websites link to the library's web site.
- Monitor local blogs and tech interest group message board for postings about the library.
- *Set up a library profile in MySpace and FaceBook.
- Offer reference service via instant messaging.
- *If the library offers free WiFi (as WNPL does), make sure that it is listed in online directories of free WiFi services.
- Monitor local "social review" sites (like Yelp in the San Francisco area) to find out what people are saying about the library (and, to communicate with users through them).
- Make sure that the library is listed in geographic search engines like Geody.
- Make sure that the library's holdings in WorldCat are up-to-date.
- Make sure that the library is finable through Google Local.
- Involve staff in virtual worlds such as Second Life.
- Make the library newsletter available via e-mail and/or RSS feed.
- List library staff as experts in expert finding tools
- Make your web site's audio and video content findable (I'm not sure what I meant by this in my notes)
- Start a library blog
- Subcribe to RSS feeds
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