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Will Richardson on New Tools

More from the Librarians-better-get-it-before-our-users-pass-us-by Dept. Will Richardson writes three things schools should do to get on the social tools bandwagon and he speaks volumes to librarians as well – if we choose to listen. 1. Schools need to start blogging and inviting the community into conversations about what’s going on. We need to tell parents and students and community members that we will entertain and respond to any comment or idea they contribute provided they do so in a way that respects the civil exchange of ideas and the people involved. Libraries should too.. AADL anyone? 2. We need to […]

How will handhelds reshape our culture?

Here’s a review of a book about handhelds and Japan called Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life at WIRED: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,68537,00.html?tw=rss.TEK The Japanese word for cell phone — keitai, meaning “something you carry with you” — provides a hint about its role within Japanese culture. Over time, mobile devices in Japan have come to be perceived not so much as bundles of technical features, or tools for replicating PC functions from the road, but personal accessories that help users sustain constant social links with others. So it’s not about technology but about the social connection. What else might fall […]

Alexandrian Launches IM Reference

http://theloudlibrarian.net/2005/08/im-reference-is-here.html What a nice post that illustrates so much of what we must do to insure an effcetive rollout of such a service: “I updated our website, updated our blog, and began talking up the service with a few teens, who immediately indicated that it was really cool, and they would totally use it.” A PowerPoint is included as well.

TTW on the Flat World

Lots of synchronicity while on a short blogging break: 1. A hot post at Infomancy on Libraries in the Flat World. Read it! 2. I had a Skype/Jybe meeting with Anne Beaumont from the State Library of Victoria in Australia in preparation for a presentation I’ll be giving in September via the same tools. We went through a Powerpoint presentation, some Web sites and chatted as though we were in the same room. It was 6:30pm in Indiana on Wednesday and 9:30am on Thursday in Australia… I said: “The world is truly flat.” 3. UNT Cohort Joyce Valenza and I […]

On the Cusp of Change: A Global, Collaborative IT World

This is HOT: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&id=1244&specialId=38 Coming Soon…A Single, Global, Collaborative Virtual IT World (Phew!) “Something fundamentally big is happening that will profoundly affect the life of every person and every business over the next five to 15 years — the collapsing of everything into one single, global, ubiquitous, collaborative virtual IT world.” So said Hossein Eslambolchi, president of AT&T’s Global Networking Technology Services, at the recent Supernova conference co-sponsored by Wharton in San Francisco. The conference, now in its fourth year, explores the forces in technology that are driving computing from a centralized model to a decentralized one, from the center […]

Brain of the Blogger

http://eideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com/2005/03/brain-of-blogger.html Two researchers/doctors present this intriguing post. I’d like to see more ciations and links to studies, as one commentor states, but this should be filed under “Food for Thought.” 1. Blogs can promote critical and analytical thinking. 2. Blogging can be a powerful promoter of creative, intuitive, and associational thinking. 3. Blogs promote analogical thinking. 4. Blogging is a powerful medium for increasing access and exposure to quality information. 5. Blogging combines the best of solitary reflection and social interaction. I can attest to the fact that writing here has helped my thought processes.

PluggedIn: Portable media players may struggle to find market

“In many ways, I do view portable media players as a technology in search of a market,” said Van Baker, an analyst at industry research firm Gartner. “If I’m carrying music with me, chances are I want to carry something that’s a little smaller than a personal music player.” Informative piece on the next wave of media devices. It hints that Apple may be prepping a video iPod as well as highlighting the fact that we have all kinds of technology coming at us and folks are still trying to figure out what to do with it.

Wikis at Workshops

http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue42/web-focus/ Here’s a nice article by Brian Kelly, who I will be presenting with (along with Aaron) at Internet Librarian International in London in October. Take a look. Here’s Brian’s line up at ILI2005 as well. I’m fascinated by the use of wikis to document/report/collaborate on projects. Last June at UNT, we started a wiki for our two cohorts writing group papers and the amount of work that was done within the pages was incredible. At SJCPL, we are beginning to experiment with staff authored wiki pages as part of our presence. Take away: you might want to put wikis […]