if:book is pointing to a student design that combines the basic concept of Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader and the iPhone’s touch screen technology. This design is the first e-book reader that I can unequivocally say I would buy.
if:book is reporting that Penguin is going to launch another experimental writing project (last year it was a wiki novel). I’ve signed up to be alerted about it, and will report what I find.
And, ALA Tech Source is reporting that HarperCollins is starting a new marketing experiment in which they will make ebooks available for free for a limited period of time, supposedly because they “found some positive correlation between offering free online access to the complete books for a limited time and increased sales of the selected titles.”
I’m not holding my breath, but it is nice to see publishers trying some new models that utilize the advantages of technology, instead of fighting to make old copyright laws and old marketing strategies fit new modes of discourse.
While there were posts all over the place a couple of weeks ago about Harvard’s decision to go open access with its faculty publications (and here and here and here) there weres also a lot of posts about danah boyd’s decision to boycott closed journals (and here). Which got me to thinking: who’s danah boyd? Turns out, she’s a total smarty pants that I should have read a long time ago. She has written several articles on social networks, particularly in relation to teens and young people. As you might have guessed, you can read many of her articles on her website. And check out here blog here.
No new posts over the past two weeks as I’ve been working on a site redesign. Behold the glory! Not only is there a new make over, but the scope of the blog is expanding as well I’ll now be using this as a place to post about things I’m reading and writing in addition to posts about technology and librarianship. You can read stories that I’ve written here. (notice the Short Stories tab above) You can also read chapters from the first draft of a novel I’m working on here. (notice the Novel Project tab above) I’ll be making periodic posts here about the project, as sort of a work journal. I also welcome any and all feedback. So, thanks for reading, and as always, let me know what you think.
The last thing on the list of 23 things is to summarize our experience with the activity. Overall, I think this is a very effective method for learning new technologies, and something that any library should consider. I was already familiar with many of the technologies here, but it still provides the opportunity to learn something new about them, and to learn from the discovery of others. It would be great to have different levels of 23 things, perhaps Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced, as a way to continue the process, and to reach users of differing technical experiences.
Certainly one of the biggest challenges for me was making the time to participate. We all have so much going on that it’s easy to push something like this to the back burner. Even though everyone at the library was very supportive of the project, it’s always hard to juggle something like this amidst other deadlines and obligations. And, so, while I finished, I feel like I could have done more to participate in the communal aspects of the project, such as attending more of the drop-in sessions that were held for people to work on it. But, that’s one of the things I am taking away from this project–that it is important enough to explore new technologies and teh ways they are being used that I need to make time for it each week. One of the exercises I enjoyed the most was looking through SEOmoz’s list of 100 best 2.0 apps to find one to write about. It is a list I will return to.
In short, I want to thank our Technology Department for all the hard work that went into this project. I think it was a great experience, and I would certainly welcome the opportunity to participate in any future iterations of the project.
For this exercise we were supposed to show someone else how to use one of the technologies we covered in 23 Things. I convinced my girlfriend, Kelly, to pick something from the list that she was interested in. She picked Rollyo, and it literally took less than 5 minutes to explain it to her, get her up and running, and to talk about some ways it might be useful. This made me realize that, often, that’s all it takes to get someone excited about a new tool or technology. I have had similar experiences with faculty workshops, and with RefWorks workshops for undergrads: once they see the technology in action (what it can do, how easy it is) and once they talk a little about how it can be used, they get excited about it.
For this exercise, we were to explore web-based productivity applications. I had already used Google Docs before, so I experimentd with Zoho. Zoho is more robust thatn Google Docs, incorporating not only a spreadsheet and word processing element, but also presentation and project planing apps. The word processing app also has more of the features that you would find in desktop apps like Word or OpenOffice Writer.
While I liked that Zoho was trying to do more, I ended up not liking it as well as Google Docs. There were cool features in Zoho, (such as the ability to post a document to your blog) but I couldnt’ get it to work with my Wordpress blog. Likewise, I imported a PowerPoint file into the presentation app, and it had trouble with character rendering and slide styles. The collaboration tools are also not as advanced as they are in Google Docs –no simultaneous chat, no instant refresh on spreadsheets. One major advantage of Zoho, however, is the ability to work on documents offline. For now, though, when I need to do collaborative document creation, I think I’ll stick with Google Docs.
For this exercise, we had to browse through SEOmoz’s Web 2.0 awards winners and find something we liked. One of the apps that I liked was Confab. It is a service that lets you keep track of the conferences you are attending or interested in, and link up with other people who are attending that conference. You can register for a free account and create profile that you can make as detailed as you want. Then you can browse through conferences by category. I looked through the library conferences, which is a subcategory of education. There is a search box, but I searched for both American Library Association and ALA, and got no results each time. But, I was able to find the listing for ALA Annual by browsing for it.
Once you find a conference you are interested in, you can denote whether you are attending it, speaking at it, or just watching it. You can add sessions and speakers, and see who else has linked to the conference. There are links to the conference websites, as well as links to mapping featueres like Mapquest and Google Maps.
Over all, it seems like a handy way to keep track of conference info. Right now, usership seems a little sparse (there were only 2 other people listed as attending ALA this June) and it would be nice if there was some way that the sessions could be automatically populated rather than mannually entered. Since all the information is stored online and computer access can sometimes be hard to get at conferences, it would also be great if you could get SMS alerts with news or reminders about upcoming sessions. But perhaps as more people start using, these will be features added in further iterations.
For this assignment, we were to explore the world of podcasts. I started listening to podcasts about 2 years ago as a way to keep up on radio shows I like, but couldn’t always be in front of the radio to listen to. I loved that I could just download the latest version of Democracy Now or This American Life, put it on my ipod, and listen to it in the car, at the gym, or while I was making dinner. For this assignment, I explored Podcast Alley in search of some new library themed podcasts, and found Library Geeks, which I’ve now subscribed to. One of my favorite video podcasts is CommandN.
For Thing # 14, we were supposed to explore Technorati. I have mixed feelings about Technorati. I know it’s supposed to be the go-to place for blog related anything, but I have to admit I rarely use it. I think it’s difficult to find things that I’m looking for. For instance, I searched the blog directory for “books,” which, in theory, should give me blogs that are primarily about books. However, the first result (ranked according to “relevance”) was the huffingtonpost.com. A great blog to be sure, but it’s about politics, not books. In fact, there weren’t even any good book blogs in the first page of results. I’ve found that just using google (or google blog search) is much more likely to return relevant results. The search “blogs about books” in google turned up my favorite book blog, Jessica Crispin’s Blog of a Bookslut, as the second result.
But, having looked at Technorati again for this assignment, I do feel like I need to give it another solid try. I actually think that browsing, rather than searching, might be the best way to find material. At the very least, I want to look through the Top 100 to see what all is there. By the way, how in the world did LOL Cats get to be number 10?
