Blogging Section of SLA-IT

Anger Drives Innovation

I’m catching up on my podcasts (mostly because I had to take the train into the city today) and I got to listen to a great IT Conversation with Jeff Bonforte from Yahoo!.

Jeff starts out by telling us that anger is the most untapped emotion in start ups and innovation - and that’s unfortunate because he feels that it’s the most important emotion.  How does this apply to libraries?  Well I think that in our case the anger is coming from inside - librarians are becoming angry (look at the ILS market) and are trying to push innovation internally. 

Jeff thinks that rather than think about the application or features or cool technology aspects - we should be thinking about emotion.  He goes on to list 4 types of people:

1. The Lovers - these are the dorks, nerds and geeks - the technology lovers who see something new and say “ooo cool!” - a reaction that Jeff thinks is the wrong one to base a new innovation on
2. The Irrational - these are the angry, the insecure, the people who are looking for another alternative no matter what the cost.  The example of this is Skype.  Skype came along when everyone was out there screaming that they were pissed at their phone companies - so instead of yelling at the support people we’re yelling at our computer screens so people on the other end can hear us.
3. The Efficient - these are the money crunchers, the people who think rationally in terms of money and time.
4. The Comfortable - these are the people who will use the old way because it’s the way they know.  Jeff gave a great example of an aunt of his who is paying $800 for her trip through a travel agent even though it costs $173 online because it’s the way she’s most comfortable with.  These are the people who won’t change until we remove the old way.

I’m not sure where I fall in this spectrum - I’m sure we all have a bit of the comfortable in us - there are some things that we just love to do the way we do them.  I’m certainly among the angry (as I’ve made clear here many of times) but I’m also among the lovers.  I guess that this is a good thing for me because I can see things from different angles - or maybe I have blinders on when it comes to the things that make me comfortable - or angry.

Another great bit I picked up from Jeff’s talk is how to sell your innovation.  Don’t go out and say it’s a “peer to peer blah blah blah”.  Sell it the way you want your customers to tell their friends about it. And educate your consumer through experience with the product.  I think we see a lot of this with 2.0 tools.  The companies are clear on what they’re offering and they give you a way to demo the product.

This was a great (and short) podcast that was fun to listen to - so if you have 20 minutes, I recommend giving it a listen.

Facebook under investigation

According to Information Week:

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Monday that his office is investigating Facebook with regard to representations made by the social networking site about the measures it has taken to protect its users from sexual predators.

When I do presentations or workshops on social networking tools, I always get questions about safety.  Often the question is framed as "how do you know who these people really are?"  As in real life, we learn about people not only from what they say and do, but also from who they hang out with or know, what groups they're in, and what others say about them.  Doing this is something we learn...it is also something we need to teach young people in a way that they will understand (and be able to do).

Do I think that that everyone on Facebook is a saint?  No. 

Can Facebook do a better job of keeping predators out?  Hopefully.

Should we condemn the tool and stop using it because of Cuomo's actions?  No.

The Googlization of Everything

Siva Vaidhyanathan has started a new blog -- which will eventually spawn a book -- called The Googlization of Everything.  Siva,  a cultural historian and media scholar, is on the faculty of the Univ. of Virginia.  He already has a team blog called Sivacracy.Net, which is hosted by the Institute for the Future of the Book.  This new blog is also hosted by them and is a very new/different way in writing a book.

In talking about this new blog, Siva wrote:

This is the latest in a series of “open book” experiments hosted and guided by The Institute for the Future of the Book. The Institute has been supportive of my work for years – long before I became affiliated with it as a fellow and certainly long before we thought up this project together. As with the other projects by Ken Wark and Mitch Stephens, this one will depend on reader criticism and feedback to work right. So this is an appeal for help. If you know something about Google, hip me to it. If you have an observation about how it works or how it affects our lives, write to me about it.

On occasion, I will post an open question on this blog. Please answer it.

This will be an interesting use of blogging and hopefully will spark good conversations about Google.  If you are a Google fan or a Google critic, you might want to follow the conversation that develops in The Googlization of Everything.  (Add it to your RSS/blog reader.)

Todoist

For people who worry about losing a paper to-do list, aren't GTD cultists, and don't have to-do functionality built into their e-mail or calendaring programs, you might check out Todoist. Sign-up is free - you give your name, e-mail, pick a password and your time zone and your account is created. Premium accounts ($3/month) offer SSL for additional security, reminders via e-mail, Jabber, MSN or SMS and an improved label system.

Anyone else using Todoist? Or other to-do solutions?

  Less than a month after Blog Day, we have another Internet holiday -- OneWebDay -- on Sept. 22.  This mission of OneWebDay is  "to create, maintain, advance and promote a global day to celebrate online life."  It a time to celebrate "the Web and what it means to us as individuals, organizations, and communities."  There are celebrations in based cities around the world, with some celebrations happening virtually.

Although this may not be a holiday to you, take time on September 22 to think about how your life has changed because of the World Wide Web.  Then envision the impact it may have on you in the future. 

Or...wish people a Happy OneWebDay and start an interesting conversation!

Five uses of Flickr (or any photo sharing web site)

We think of sharing ordinary photos on a photo sharing web site, but what else can you do with them?

• Post screen shots of presentations. I can hear you say "why????"  For a conference where participants heavily use tagging and photo sharing, posting screen shots is a way of promoting your talk ahead of time.  You can also then refer to the screen shot in your blog, wiki, etc. and draw people to it that way. 
  

• Post information that you want people to review or comment on.  One person who has done this well is Michael Habib, who posted various version of this graphic in Flickr, with links to his blog post about them.  With the combination of the graphic and blog post, he was able to solicit input from people and refine his thinking.

• Post photos to use for instruction (formally or informally).  These may be screen shots or photos that you want to incorporate in a presentation or maybe you want to use a photo sharing site slide show as your presentation!

  By the way, one area being documented via photos are library signage.  Every sign provides a teachable moment.

• Store photos that you want to use on your organization's web site, then use a widget to display those photos. Flickr has badges that you can place on your web site that will use photos you've stored in Flickr.  (Likely other services has the same feature.)  This is a great way of making a site more dynamic.  [See photos from the SLA Annual Conference in Denver below as an example of what a widget can do.]

www.flickr.com More Flickr photos tagged with sla2007

• Search photos for ideas.  For example, are you considering remodeling your library?  Why not search the photos to see how other libraries are setup and to gather ideas (e.g., The Libraries and Librarians Pool)?  Since you can message people who post photos in the services, you can then ask questions to help clarify your thinking.

Don't have a photo sharing account?  Many are free and they are very easy to use.  Now that you know more about what you can do, why not give them a try?!

BTW -- If you can think of another use, please leave a comment and share it with all of us!

Google's user agreement problem

A few blogs and news sites have noted the hot water Google got itself into this past week when it changed its user agreement for  Google Docs and Spreadsheets.  The part of the user agreement that is causing problems says:

By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through Google services which are intended to be available to the members of the public, you grant Google a worldwide, nonexclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, adapt, modify, publish and distribute such content on Google services for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting Google services.

Google Australia has responded to concerns by saying:

We don't claim ownership or control over content in Google Docs & Spreadsheets, whether you're using it as an individual or through Google Apps.

Read in their entirety, our terms of service ensure that, for documents you expressly choose to share with others, we have the proper license to display those documents to the selected users and format documents properly for different displays. To be clear, Google will not use your documents beyond the scope that you and you alone control. Australians' work documents and (soccer-oriented spreadsheets) are not going to end up shared with anyone unless the user expressly wants them to be!

So what's the impact on those of us who are using Google Docs?  I think we should believe what Google Australia has said.  However, it is a reminder that we're using a service that we do not control.  With that in mind:

• Remember that you are storing information  on someone else's server/service.  Do not store proprietary or confidential information there, since the service is not under your control.
• Don't store anything there that could cause problems if released.
• Take time to read those user agreements.  If you don't like what it says, don't use the service.
• Find and use other services/methods for collaboration so that you are not totally reliant on Google (e.g., Zoho).

How to be an uber blogger (advice from a top blogger)

"Cory Doctorow, uber blogger from Boing Boing, SF [science fiction] writer and serf to the Magic Kingdom, describes how to create a blog that people read."

101 Tools to Convert Video, Music, Images, PDF and More

Thanks to Chadwick for sharing this link via Twitter.  These 101 tools will help you convert just about anything!  Definitely a page to bookmark.

The top 25 librarian bloggers

http://oedb.org/library/features/top-25-librarian-bloggers-by-the-numbers

A nice bunch of education people who think librarians are important have compiled a list of the top 25 librarian bloggers. Their algorithm is based on Google, Alexa, Technorati and Bloglines. Don't feel bad if you're not there, and maybe you'll find something you haven't been reading.

c.

Blogging Standards

Disclaimer: This is going to be a bit of a rant, but I'll try to control myself.

What I hate, hate, hate is searching for the RSS feed links on a really cool blog that I love so much that want I to add to my Google home page. I check the top, I scroll to the bottom, I look on the left and the right, I look for the nice, easy to see orange buttons that say RSS and I CAN'T FIND THEM.

This is infuriating.

So, I did a search, looking for blogging standards. I can't find any. Why can't they all just agree to put it in the same place? Make it aways orange? Why can't we all just get along?!?!?

Sorry. But we're librarians - can't we agree on something?

c.

31 Flavors - Things to Do With Flickr in Libraries

In the Library 2.0 network on Ning, P. F. Anderson posted briefly that she had written an article entitled "31 Flavors - Things to Do With Flickr in Libraries."  Yup...from Ning to Web Junction to hints about being more productive with Flickr.  And the suggestions are all good! 

Here's one of the tips:

Collect screenshots of error screens with notes for troubleshooting with system staff, and for staff training.

Read the complete article for the other 30 tips.

How big can Google get?

You may think you know Google, but I bet you'll learn something about the company's reach if you skim this article -- How big can Google get?: The search leader is spreading into everything from cell phones to television ads.