Archive for » November, 2008 «
Thing #13: What am I doing now?
I love Twitter but I’ll admit that I understand when people just don’t just get it. Honestly, it’s not all "I had waffles for breakfast" and "I love my new shoes." I’m not saying that that doesn’t happen but there’s more to it than that.
To demonstrate I took a screenshot of my most recent tweets. This wasn’t planned so I had no idea what was going to be there. (Click on the image to the right for the full size version.) Granted there’s a few comments on what’s happening me, and a few frivolous links (the plush bantha & playing Doom in your browser,) but much of it is participating in the conversation with my friends and colleagues, and the posting of links that might be of interest to my friends and colleagues.
Many times I use Twitter to post calls for comment or assistance. If I’m developing a new PowerPoint I’ll often post a draft online then solicit comment via Twitter. Within minutes I usually have a handful of responses from people I trust.
I’ve also set up my Twitter account to automatically post links to new blog posts and a few other resources that I regularly contribute to. (You need to use TwitterFeed to do this.) However I will mention that I’ve moved much of the actual conversation over to FriendFeed which is like twitter on steroids. (Maybe we’ll cover FriendFeed in the next version of the Nebraska Learns 2.0 program.)
What I can’t stress enough is the need to give Twitter more than 48 hours and to make sure you participate before you give up on it. At first glance it does seem useless but in the long run it does start to make sense.
Via BoingBoing
OCLC and CC
Almost every time I hear someone from OCLC speak in defense on their forthcoming Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat® Records they mention Creative Commons. Granted they insist that CC was something that "inspired" their license but they keep repeating the the new OCLC license is very similar to a CC BY-NC-SA license. On it’s face, this is true, but something has been bugging me about this comparison. Yesterday I thought I’d finally figured out what my problem was. Today this line of thought hasn’t changed so I share it with you now.
Let’s say I create something, a photo for example, and assign a CC BY-NC-SA license, that means that others are free to use my photo as long as they attribute me as the creator, use it non-commercially, and pass my license along on whatever they create using my photo. So far, so good. What this CC license does not allow me to do is to control how my photo is used beyond those three items. As long as they are following those three items, I do not have the right to say that I approve of a certain use and not approve of a different use. This is the right I am waiving by using this, or pretty much any other, CC license.
In fact, at least one of my photos has been used in a way that I wouldn’t necessarily have approved of. You can read the story in a post of mine from 7 November 2006 if you’re interested in the details. Basically, a photo of mine was used to illustrate a point that I completely disagreed with and was the opposite of the point I was trying to make by taking the photo in the first place. This is the risk I take by using a CC license and I have to live with that if I want people to use my work via this method.
OCLC on the other hand wants it both ways. They want to use a license that sounds a lot similar to CC BY-NC-SA but then adds the following:
4. Reasonable Use. Use must not discourage the contribution of bibliographic and holdings data to WorldCat or substantially replicate the function, purpose, and/or size of WorldCat.
So, what OCLC is saying is that you’re welcome to use "their" records (I’m not going to debate here wether these records are theirs or not, that’s a different discussion) as long as you attribute the source, use it non-commercially, pass the license along, and with their approval of your use.
That, my friends, is my problem with them mentioning CC in their defense of the new license. It’s a slap in the face of Creative Commons.
UPDATE 11/24/08:
After thinking about this some more I add the further thought. The new license is more like CC BY-NC-ND. In other words they’re by default, not allowing derivative works. Please OCLC, if you’re going to continue to associate your new license with CC, then associate it with the correct CC license.
Thing #12: A Thing about LibraryThing
I love LibraryThing. I’ve got more than 4100 books listed in my account. Granted, I’m a book collector so I already had a database of my collection so I just exported the ISBNs from that database and imported them into LibraryThing. That doesn’t mean that I’ve tagged every book, or that my whole collection is in there (that original import didn’t include any non-fiction) but it’s still a big help. Now I can access my collection on my cell phone to answer that age-old question: Do I already own this?
And, did you know that if you’ve published a book or two and someone has cataloged your titles in LibraryThing you can get your own LT Author page?
Besides Tim’s a great guy and I’ve met his rhino.
Reflections on Library Camp Nebraska 2008
Library Camp Nebraska was the first full event that I suggested, organized and implemented. It’s now the next day and I’m still exhausted. From the original idea after attending Library Camp Kansas back in March, through our event yesterday, there was a lot of planning and preparation to have yesterday go off as well as it did. Before I talk specifics I want to specifically thank Christa Burns, Diane Wells, Karin Dalziel, and Scott Childers for all their help throughout the process. I couldn’t have done it without you.
So, what happened at Library Camp? In a word, conversation. 51 librarians arrived about 9am for registration and refreshments. At 9:30 we all gathered in the main room to decide the day’s topics. These topics ranged from Using Web 2.0 for Marketing, Distance Education, Youth Services, Going Green, Social Bookmarking, OCLC, Privacy, Recruitment, Advocacy, Web Design, High Tech vs. High Touch, Cheap and Free Tools, and my personal favorite Wildly Impractical Expensive Ideas for your Library.
We ended up with three one-our sessions along with the impractical topic being the lunch-time topic. In each session the person who suggested the topic was assigned to be the conversation facilitator and asked that one person in each room also put their notes directly into the wiki. (Some rooms ended up having no one with a laptop so those notes should appear on the wiki in the next few days.) All of those notes can be read, and contributed to on the Notes from the day page.
As the event organizer I didn’t hide myself in any one room during each session. I wandered from room to room taking photos (check out the Flickr pool) and listening. I did contribute to a few topics but I didn’t want anyone to think I was in charge of anything. The point was to let the conversations go wherever they ended up going. As one person commented at the end of the day, that’s exactly what happened.
I did notice that the largest groups were around the two sessions on using Web 2.0 tools for marketing. The smallest sessions were the repeated High Tech vs. High Touch (the group in the morning version was much larger so maybe that one didn’t need to be repeated in the afternoon) and the privacy discussion. (I’ll also note that four of the five people in that room were NLC staff which I found interesting.)
The range of attendees were wonderful. From directors to front-line staff, academic to public to school librarians, someone one-month from their MLS to those that have been in the profession for decades. We even had one tech consultant from the Iowa state library spend the day with us and commenting that he was going to recommend doing this in his state.
I totally forgot to press the record button on the video camera for the opening session and therefor decided to eschew the video camera the rest of the day. The tripod however was put to great use for a group photo near the end of the day.
During the wrap-up session we discussed what happened during the day, should we do it again (a resounding "yes!") and what should be done differently. A few of us ever heard off the record comments that this was better than the annual state conference.
I’m officially declaring Library Camp Nebraska 2008 a success. The plan now is to do one out in the western end of the state involving folks from Wyoming and South Dakota too. Keep an eye out on the Commission blog for details to follow (hopefully) early next year.
Thanks again to all the attendees. You are what made it the success it was.
