SpaceTime - 3D Search

Have you seen the demo of Spacetime?
It has a lot of the look and feel of the 3D features of the Apple Leopard operating system.

Web 2.0 Mashups: Making the Web Your Own

Here is a second post about a presentation at the annual summer CARL North IT workshop, "Mashup the Library."

Presenter Raymond Yee, UC Berkeley School of Information professor, teaches a course on “Mixing and Re-mixing Information.” He has also written a book on “Web 2.0 Mashups: Making the Web Your Own.” He showed us the first example of a mash-up: a mix of Craig’s List of hosing rentals and Google Maps, thus creating a powerful way to house-hunt by using housingmaps.com. Google could have squawked, but instead it released an API that formalizes how to use Google Maps for mashing.

See Ray's wiki for more on his presentation and book at Mashupthelibrary20080725.

Another example is the Library Lookup Project by John Udell. He created a Bookmarklet in Java script, which uses the standard ISBN number to mash AMAZON and Public Libraries (OCLC). Be sure to spend time looking at the many examples of Library Lookup Projects!

A third example is Geotagging with Flickr.com and Google Maps greasemonkey script.
Yahoo! Pipes – visual programming. This was used to mash NYTimes.com World Section with Google Maps. There is a mini tutorial on the Yahoo! Pipes site, but it might be blocked at your worksite -- go to a library to check it out.

Zotero.com is an extension of Firefox. It does bibliographic citation. Zotero could be a mashup program because it can grab bibliographic metadata from Amazon.com

So many web 2.0 tools -- so much to learn! Enjoy.

Build Your Own Horizon Report - Rachel Smith

"Mashup the Library" was the theme of the annual CARL North IT Summer Workshop, which was held on June 25, 2008 in the new library on the Santa Clara University campus.

This post includes my notes from Keynote Speaker Rachel Smith, Vice President of New Media Consortium. Photo is of CARL North IT co-President Sheila Cunningham and Rachel Smith. Rachel set the stage for her presentation on new technology trends when she used a scrolling presentation by Vuvox collage rather than a traditional PowerPoint Presentation to walk the audience through her overview of the 5th annual Horizon Report. This is the time of year when NMC puts out a “call to scholarship” around topics in the Horizon Report. The technology forecast is written for higher education in general, not a specific group within academia. NOTE: August is an excellent time for academic librarians to contribute to the effort. In fact, in addition to regularly contributing to it, academic libraries should make it a point to acquire a copy of the report each year. It would be a good report for the library to promote to its faculty and add a cover commentary on how the library is using or would use new technology.

The Horizon report has three (3) horizons: 1-2 years, 3-4 years, and 5+ years. Each section focuses on two technologies. The Report represents an effort to capitalize on research done by a few people and to distribute the information to many. It is not predictive. It is a forecast.

This year, there is also a section on metatrends – trends that appeared in multiple years of the Horizon Report. An example of this is Gaming. Three years ago, Gaming was featured in the 5th year. Then, Second Life and World of Warcraft became big so Gaming became a topic called Virtual Worlds. Gaming became big but in an unanticipated way.

Here's how the technologies are selected. The Horizon Report has a 40-member International Advisory Board representing about eight countries. There are no face-to-face meetings, just a wiki. Each year, members start with all possible technologies (about 100) and then each member votes for their top 10 technologies and assigns each a horizon (1, 2, or 3). This reduces the list to 12 topics, and then each is written up. The write-up includes how the technology is or would be used in higher education. There are four topics per horizon. Next, members of EduCause and NMC are invited to give examples. One example Rachel cited was from a South Carolina private university, Abilene Christian University, which gave each student a choice of an iPhone or iPod Touch at the beginning of the Fall semester. All class content and other content were on these mobile devices. At ACU, faculty wrote a horizon report version for their own university.

What was forecast in the 2008 Horizon Report?
YR 1-2:
· Grassroots video (video clips like YouTube, which are easy to capture, edit, and share.)
· Collaboration web (i.e., NING or pageflakes)

YR 3-4:
· Mobile Broadband (like iPhone and iPod Touch). Big shift in downloading via wireless LANS. Broadband and mobile are almost everywhere. See ACU vision film. Other examples are PhoneGuide in museums and video direct to the web.
· Data Mashups – see TED video with Hans Rosling, where he debunks 3rd world myths about poverty by “mashing” statistics – combining two or more data bases to make visual representations of the information. See also annual video mashup contest at the University of Pennsylvania. It is very inventive and creative. Songs or broadcasts are mashed up with videos. See “Info Commons @ U of Penn” music video, “Weigle Info Commons”.

YR 5+:
· Collective intelligence: implicit and explicit. Amazon book recommendations is an example of an implicit collective intelligence. Wikipedia, reCaptcha, and Flickr the Commons (public photo collection) are examples of explicit collective intelligence. So is museum tagging – see http://www.steve.museums/.
· Social Operating Systems: the next generation of social networking. An example cited is xobni which is useful for MS Outlook.

Build your own Horizon! There are a number of regional Horizon Reports planned, such as one from Australia. One group wants to do one specifically for K-12. NOTE: Librarians should contribute to it up front each year, add examples, and also promote and discuss it on campus. The next Horizon Report will be released in January 2009 at the ELI Conference (EDUCAUSE) in Philadelphia, PA.

U-VERSE @ home

I've had AT&T U-Verse at work for months, ever since I moved my office into the AT&T Executive Briefing Center. Most mornings, I turn on the flat screen monitor and hunt for new HDTV channels that are on at 7am. My favorite channel so far is National Parks. Love it!

Now, U-Verse is available in my neighborhood so we ordered it for the home. All was "magically" installed when I was out of town. Here is an animoto of the installation. [note: the free animoto is not as good as it used to be because if you want "DVD quality" you need to pay for it. The digital photos are really very good -- the animoto video takes them down in quality!]

AT&T U-Verse has an agreement with FLICKR, so I can show my FLICKR photos on any of my Televisions. I keep discovering new features. I also have wireless Internet throughout my house, so the family no longer has to compete for the DSL line. :)

If you have never heard of this great IP-based video/TV service, see the U-Verse demo and see if the service is available in your neigborhood. It is being pushed out little by little, and it took me by surprise by how soon it was available on my street. Enjoy.

Event Keeper - Calendar Maker for Libraries

A discussion on web4libs listserv on calendars alerted me to Event Keeper. The website states: "Create an instantly updatable, searchable events calendar for the public with no Webmaster experience or technical knowledge necessary!" On the right side of the page is a column called "Spotlight on:" followed by three public institutions and accompanying icons - libraries, schools, cities and towns. The "Libraries" link includes library features for Event Keeper, library testimonials, and a sampling of libraries that use it. At the very bottom is a link for a complete list of services and prices.

Lively and Vivaty - Two New Virtual Worlds

In virtual world news, Google has launced a web-based virtual world called Lively . While this is not yet a competitor to Second Life, it looks like Vivaty is in Beta test on AIM and Facebook. Stay tuned!

diigo.com - research and communicating

Check out this video tutorial on diigo.com and how it can be used to bookmark, highlight, and annotate web pages. This social networking research tool would be good for group projects.

Desktop Widgets

While catching up on e-mail, I came across a notice about three desktop widgets from eSchoolNews: Top News, Funding News, and Technology News. Each were customizable by color and size (if your institution's filter doesn't block the operation like mine did!)

I looked up the definition of "widget" in Wikipedia and found more than I wanted, so narrowed it down to "desktop widgets" and read that "widgets are interactive virtual tools that provide single-purpose services such as showing the user the latest news, the current weather, the time, a calendar, a dictionary, a map program, a calculator, desktop notes (looks like post-it notes), photo viewers, or even a language translator, among other things." A month or so ago at work, my IT Department pushed a handy YellowPages.com widget to all employees' desktops.

North Plains Public Library Director Aaron Schmidt's March 2008 Multimedia and Internet @ Schools article on "Widgets and Widgetry" covers this topic well and provides tons of examples. He concludes by saying that the widgets discussed in his article can be big timesavers while adding fun and dynamic information. The article recommends Widgipedia and Widgetbox for more widgets.

Mobile Device - READIUS by Polymer Vision

Tom Kaun writes a blog called Continuing Education. He added a videoclip about a cool tool called Polymer Vision, a thin retractable screen or rollable display technology not offered yet in America. Whether or not we will ever see it, check out the clip.

iSkills by ETS

ETS (Educational Testing Service) had a corner booth at the American Library Association exhibits. The ICT Literacy assessment of student information and communications technology skills is ready for prime time! We've heard about it being tested for several years. The product name is iSkills. Check it out -- take the iSkills tour.

Looks like the time is right for academic and high school librarians to position this as a measurement. Strong library programs are a solution for preparing students for 21st Century learning and careers, and iSkills looks like a well-considered and tested way to assess academic gaps or shortcomings.

Open Gaming at ALA Conference 2008

Several years ago, Sacramento Public Library began enticing teens to the library with pizza and eGaming. Librarian-in-Black Sarah Houghton-Jans mentioned at LITA's annual "Top Tech Trends" panel that the San Jose Public Library sees 40+ eGamers at a time. That is a lot!

Games and eGaming in public libraries has caught on. ALA offered a Friday evening "Open Gaming" event at its annual conference and devoted an Exhibits section to Gaming. At the Friday party, I munched popcorn, watched teams of virtual bowlers (bowling with a white Nintendo wii wand that looks like a TV channel changer), and I jumped in to race three others. I'm not much of a Mario racer, but it was a fun evening.

eGames are growing way beyond young guys because programs like Dance, Dance, Revolution (DDR), WiiFit, Wii golf and bowling, and such have been discovered by fitness clubs like my local YMCA, retirement and convalescent homes, after school programs, and others.

ALA featured non-electronic games too, including a variety of board games from Out of the Box Publishing. At "Open Gaming" night, teams of librarians were at board games like "10 Days in the USA" or "10 Days in Europe" -- I'm sure there was lots of conversation about places and past trips.

See also: Gaming @ Your Library activities during National Library Week in April 2008.

LITA Top Technology Trends - 2008 ALA Panel

Each year at the American Library Association conference, the Library Information and Technology Association (LITA) Division holds a Top Tech Trends panel. On 6/29/2008, the huge room was standing room only. There was a 10-person panel that included Karen Coyle-consultant, Eric Morgan-University of Notre Dame, JohnBlyberg-CT, Merrian-VT, Roy Tennant-OCLC, Clifford Lynch-CNI, Karen Schneider-FL, Marshall ?, Karen Coons-U of TX Library, Sarah Houghton-San Jose Public Library. Two speakers -- Sarah and Karen -- participated via videoconference.

Here are their Top Technology TRENDS:
1. Open Source systems. ILS was dead, but being re-discussed. OPAL system for K12 library automation market in NY. Much more action on the Public Library front, but will appear in academic libraries soon. There is a move to service rather than resources. Savvy companies will respond to the demand for open source library systems. The open source trend is good, but beware—read vendor descriptions carefully. - Marshall
2. Broadband – never enough and libraries are always playing catch up. It should be better. It is not necessarily a “free market” but a carefully orchestrated agenda” according to Coons.
3. Small print periodical market – If they move it online, they are going to an “open access” model. – Coons
4. Multimedia/Gaming – there are often 40+ people at a time in the library playing games. – Sarah.
5. Huge trend in upgrading rather than better using bandwidth (QoS) – Sarah
6. Sustainability of new and beautiful tools – how many abandoned blogs? – Sarah.
7. Virtual organizations – roots in collaboration across an organization. Now collaborative synch and non synch. “Beyond being there” by the National Science Foundation – telepresence technology. Expectation that travel will be more difficult. Telepresence needs to be better done/used because of the new demand.- Clifford
8. Net neutrality – censoring component (watch!) – Clifford
9. Remote storage/network-based storage/cloud storage – implications for insurance, privacy – Clifford
10. Move by some libraries and cultural heritage institutions to put their collections in places other than their physical locations – like Flickr. – Clifford.
11. Three Ages: Age of experimentation, Age of Game-changing surprises (Google digitizing all library collections), Age of re-tooling for constant change. DATA (get good at taking out data for ILS, ELM for our next system and for analyzing data)/People (individuals must take responsibility for learning)/Systems (take control with open source or turn over control to someone else) – Roy
12. Archiving blogs as historical artifacts.
13. Electricity – look at the amount used by Google and its impact on being “green.” -John.
14. Semantic web – smart index refers from your search and helps refine your search or find other items you may like. – John
15. Converged media hubs – portable devices – highly specialized, brings in RSS feeds. Dramatically changing the way users look at libraries. Users heavily customize their information. – John
16. Mobile devices are becoming more the norm, not computers. How to get libraries’ information onto the mobile devices? - Eric
17. Enterprise systems – Clifford
18. Libraries need to allow users to use content in other ways – for example tag, delete, compare & contrast, verbs, etc. – Eric
19. Handheld devices – want to do catalog search while in the stacks. Need equal capability in stacks and at home!
20. Increased user-to-user interaction.

What types of skills are needed? If you were looking to hire someone, what would you look for in your candidates?
- Thinking systematically and also creatively (art and science thinking)
- Patient (diplomatic, social skills) yet intolerant and not simply accepting stuff.
- People who are impatient with mediocrity.

Lots to think about. Wonder what will be on LITA's Top Tech Trends list in 2009?