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Yuuguu is a free beta technology that allows users to collaborate despite distance. With it, you can share screens, remotely control another's desktop, IM, and utilize a low-cost teleconference feature. For those of you already familiar with the free beta version of Zoho's Meeting, Yuuguu is another technology that you should keep your eye on.
Stop by the ZDNET website to take a look at the CIO Web 2.0 collaboration video. The participants discuss several strategies on how Web 2.0 technologies can be utilized as collaborative tools within the enterprise. You can view the video here.
On his blog, John Blyberg posts on the concept of Library 2.0 and the role technology plays within it. While some may believe that Library 2.0 is all about technology, Blyberg argues it isn't. He believes that while the Internet was a prerequisite for the development of this concept, the idea still applies without it. With a new emphasis on collaboration and empowerment, we are witnessing a profound change in libraries as we know it.
For those of you unfamiliar with John, he is a self-described "library geek". One of his better known projects includes the social OPAC (SOPAC) he implemented at the Ann Arbor District Library. You can learn more about him from his LJ Movers and Shakers profile.
After hearing him speak in May, I've been "high" on Siva, who just joined the University of Virginia faculty (from NYU) and who has been appointed the first fellow of the Institute for the Future of the Book (IF:Book). He runs a group blog called Sivacracy that focuses on copyright, culture, free culture, democracy and more. IF:Book noted that:
Siva is one of just a handful of writers to have leveled a consistent and coherent critique of Google's expansionist policies, arguing not from the usual kneejerk copyright conservatism that has dominated the debate but from a broader cultural and historical perspective: what does it mean for one company to control so much of the world's knowledge?
Although he is not a technologist, he thinks about and write on topics that are important to us. If you've not heard of him, take a quick peek at his blog (which is not being hosted by IF:Book).
Jing is a new technology that allows people to create screen captures and videos to share with others via email, IM and blogs. This TechSmith project is being provided along with complimentary hosting on Screencast.com. Within the site's FAQ, you'll see that Jing is neither a product or beta technology. Rather, it's a concept delivered as project that seeks feedback from users. So while the technology and hosting are free for now, be prepared to pay for it later.
Due to a power outage in downtown San Francisco yesterday, many sites hosted by 365 Main, a 227,000 square-foot data center, were knocked off-line for a few hours. These sites included: Craigslist, GameSpot, Yelp, Technorati, TypePad and Netflix. You can read more about it in the CNET news article.
An article on the USA Today website takes a look at the wealth of free content that can be accessed at the library. While many may rely on search engines such as Google for quick factoids, people tend to head to the library when they are conducting in-depth research. With so much valuable content and resources being offered online for free, why aren't more people flocking to their library's website? Poor publicity. "The bottom line is people can't use what they don't know about. It's not just search. It's everything. Libraries need to do a better job of promoting themselves," says Gary Price, ResourceShelf editor and online information resources director at Ask.com.
A post on the Read/WriteWeb blog introduces a new tool that brings reputation, comment rating, and filtering to online social media. Created by Jitendra Gupta, SezWho rewards quality content contributors and helps readers find quality content. Contributing content to blogs, wikis and discussion boards helps you earn your online reputation. Readers are empowered because they get to vote on the quality of the contribution thereby affecting the contributor's score. You can access the SezWho FAQ here.
I came across an interesting website that will change the way people view their email. In 3D Mailbox, each email is represented by a 3D character that can walk, swim, and sun itself on a Miami beach. A bouncer checks incoming mail for spam. If the bouncer can't determine if an email is spam, it is sent to an ice rink to skate until you can review it. Mail that makes it past the bouncer takes a disinfecting shower and jumps into the pool to swim laps until you decide to read it. The characters representing deleted spam messages are fed to the sharks.
Robert Savage, the creator of the software, has addressed some of the negative reviews he has received. If you want to learn more about 3D Mail, I've included links to some snapshots and the introductory video.
A recent Times Online article states that staff at Oxford University are searching for photographic evidence of students who have broken rules on post-examination celebrations. Students who take part in these exuberant celebrations are finding themselves being pegged by hefty fines. Aside from academia, some employers find Facebook to be a useful tool in learning more about potential employees. According to an NBC news story, almost 35% of employers have eliminated a candidate from consideration because of information they have found online. You can view the video here.
mmm...ebooks aren't catching on? And why?
The survey shows that ebooks are now widely adopted, with 88 percent of libraries saying they own or subscribe to ebooks and nearly half saying they have access to more than 10,000. The survey was completed by 552 individual libraries, the majority of which (77 percent) are academic. Usage, however, is something else. Only six percent of respondents said ebook usage was excellent, compared to 22 percent who said usage was poor. Most students use ebooks via the library catalog, but “low use of the catalog” is not the issue. Instead, librarians said the major inhibitors to ebook use were “lack of awareness,” followed by difficulty in reading ebooks, difficult-to-use platforms, and lack of training.
Peter Brantley, Director of the Digital Library Federation, has written a very interesting post about library usage that includes text from Jerry McDonough of the University of Illinois' Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Looking at the information in the graphs presented (you'll have to go there to look), Brantley asks:
...if libraries had shareholders, would they, like newspapers, be in the midst of a gut-wrenching, brake-screeching exercise in redefinition?
There are many comments on his blog post. I don't see any that talk about how libraries are dealing with these statistics. If you have a story to tell about your library, you might want to add it to the comments there.
Ask.com is launching a new tool to allow people to search the Web anonymously. Expected to be deployed in the U.S. by the end of the year, AskEraser will allow users to set their privacy preferences so that the search engine does not keep track of their web search history. For those who are uninterested in anonymous searching, the site will store search information for 18 months but will disassociate the search history from the ip address. More details can be found on the CNET News Blog.
I just came across ZDNET's CIO Vision Series. Learn how today's chief information and technology officers are dealing with current technology challenges. If you don't have the time to sit through and watch the whole interview, the video shorts option allows you to view the highlights of each session.
A recent article in Network World describes the problems Duke University's network administrators thought they were having with the iPhone. It was reported that the iPhones flooded the access points with up to 18,000 address requests per second. Up to thirty access points were put out of a comission for a few minutes. "It may have something to do with the iPhone losing connectivity and trying to reconnect in a new location" says Kevin Miller, Duke's assistant director of communications infrastructure. Upon further investigation, the iPhone was no longer identified as a cause of these disruptions.
The computer virus turns 25 this month! Rich Skrenta created the first virus in 1982 while he was in ninth grade. Spread via floppy disk, Elk Cloner did little more than annoy users with its message:
It will get on all your disks
It will infiltrate your chips
Yes it's Cloner!...
You can read more about it at the following links:
Slashdot post
Wikipedia Elk Cloner entry
Skrentablog post (Rich Skrenta blogs about Cloner's creation)
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal celebrates the ten-year anniversary of the blog. Regarded by many as the first blogger, Jorn Barger decided to create a page that would provide commentary and links to sites that he found interesting. Ever since this 1997 creation, blogging has continued to revolutionize online communication.
A recent post on the LITA blog highlights an article that details a joint venture between Kirtas Technologies, BookSurge, and a group of university and public libraries. The Book Standard article describes how the participating libraries can digitize and sell copies of their rare books. The library would gain an additional revenue stream by selling copies of content that has either entered the public domain or is owned by the institution itself.
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