I'm @ SMUG

I'm currently showing some SMUG librarians how to blog.

I’ve been pirated!

I have a bunch of ego searches set up for things like my name and links back to this blog. One of those searches is for my name on Twitter. Last week, this result appeared:

“ Interesting” I thought, especially since there was no e-book version of that title I was aware of. So, I clicked the link and found this:

Turns out someone took the time to completely scan and create a PDF of my 2006 book. The site shown above is like a torrent tracker in that it doesn’t host the files, just points to them. According to the site they will remove any pointers at the request of a copyright holder. So, I of course downloaded each of the three copies it pointed to. (Hey, it’s my book, I’m not breaking the law by doing so am I?)

Turns out all three copies are the same, just hosted on different servers. And, I must admit, it’s a really good electronic copy too. Here’s a screenshot of the cover…

…of the copyright page. (Nothing like being a little ironic.)

Looking at the document’s properties I must also say that the quality of the metadata in this file is much better than most PDFs I’ve ever downloaded. (Did they really have to create the file using a Mac? ;-)

Since this first find, I’ve seen two other Tweets pointing to the downloadable version of my book and in all three cases I’ve replied to the tweets and received no responses back.

I’ve has mixed feelings this whole thing. On the one hand, they’re giving away my content for free without my permission. On the other, someone thought my book was worthy of the time and effort it must have taken to scan and convert 289 pages of content. Really, how many other “librarian” titles have you seen pirated? (Then again you may notice that I’m not giving out the URL to the download sites either.)

So, in the end I guess I’m not all that upset. It’s actually kind of flattering. I’m also starting to wonder how I can leverage this into sales of the second edition that I’ll be starting work on hopefully soon. In the end, given how I get most of my TV these days, to complain would be mighty hypocritical of me at least.

Hot Brazilian Librarians

I’m going through the e-mail that I put off dealing with ‘till after CIL2009 and here’s an interesting one I found. Turns out one biblio-blogger held an “open election” for the hottest librarians in Brazil. There’s a ladies list and a gentleman list. The pages of course aren’t in English bit I’m sure you can find a way to translate the pages.

Peter Orszag on Blogging

RE: Against the Machine by Lee Siegel

Back in June 2007 I wrote a response/review of Andrew Keen's The Cult of the Amateur, a book that wasn't exactly pro-Internet/Web 2.0. However, I'm a firm believer that it helps to make your case if you're familiar with the counter arguments. Though it cam out a few months ago, I finally found the time to get through a similar title, Against the Machine by Lee Siegel.

I can say that this book isn't nearly as outrageous and reactionary as Keen's book was. Most of the arguments Siegel presents are rational and make sense even if you don't agree with him. For most of the book I wasn't finding anything that upset me enough to actually write this post. Then I got to page 143:

A twenty-four-year-old names Ryan Jordan was caught masquerading on Wikipedia as a tenured professor of religion. He used the pseudonym Essjay and aroused suspicion when readers began to wonder why a professor of religion was meticulously revision the encyclopedia's article on pop star Justin Timberlake. By then, Jordan has created or edited hundreds of articles. He has even been made an "administrator" and was part of Wikipedia's trusted inner circle of editors.

Wikipedia calls these instances of untruth "vandalism," as if the encyclopedia were experiencing an onslaught of invaders from beyond its boundaries. But the "vandals" are part of the Wikipedia enterprise, just as Jordan was. They've been invited to participate in its creation just like every other "Wikipedian."

Here's my problem with this, and with every other accounting of the events he's talking about: no one has indicated that anything Essjay contributed was actually wrong. I'm not necessarily defending Essjay's misrepresentations of his qualifications but that's not the point. If what he wrote was correct, what's the problem?

As for what Essjay did write, wrong or not, that's not the definition of wiki vandalism. To be considered vandalism, there needs to be intent. If Essjay was intentionally contributing bad/wrong information, the fine. But what he did wasn't vandalism, this is vandalism.

My other major point of disagreement comes when Me. Siegel talkax about the "open secrets" of the new Web. On page 158 lists "Open Secret Number One":

Bloggers' ability to revise or erase their writing without leaving any trace of the original post is the very antithesis of their claims of freedom and access and choice. The freedom and access and choice are theirs, not their readers'.

This is hardly an open secret because it just plain isn't true. Someone has forgotten about the Google and this thing called the cache. Oh, and there's the Wayback Machine too. Every time someone changes their blog significantly, say deleting a post they later regret, someone always seems to find the original and makes a bigger stink over the fact that the change/deletion was made than of the original content itself. (Anyone recall the story of all of Violet Blue's content being deleted from Boing Boing?)

So anyway, that's my two cents on this title.

We're in The Consumerist

Mary had a run-in with a Circuit City liquidator over the weekend and I sent the story into The Consumerist. They printed it and added some commentary.

So anyway....

Next week at the Nebraska Library Association conference I'll officially become the Information Technology and Access Round Table (ITART) vice-chair/chair-elect. (Vice chair for 2008-9, chair and therefore NLA board member for 2009-10.) So, for those looking for different blog content you might want to check out the ITART blog. I'm attempting to write one short post every day I'm in the office, mostly on tech tips and tricks. Other bloggers will be joining me in the forthcoming months and a redesign of the blog is also in the works.

Merlin Mann on How To Blog

How To Blog

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: advice)

Find your voice, speak intelligently to the people you respect, and get better. This presentation covers everything I know about producing the kind of work that I enjoy and that I strive to make. NB: I'll eventually replace this upload with an annotated version, so apologies in advance if comments and what have you disappear later. SlideShare Link

Complaint stops live blogging

Ever live blog an event? If so, check out this story from Lakewood, WA:

Lakewood City Councilman Walter Neary operates a blog with community information and his commentary on events and issues.

But his blogging live during a June 2 council meeting drew criticism. Some people at the public comment period complained about the Clover Park School District's choice of superintendent.

Neary's post about their concerns was on the Internet before the meeting ended, including his questioning the depth of their involvement in schools.

When someone complained that he should be paying attention instead of typing on his laptop, Neary agreed not to blog until after meetings.

Here's my question: if he'd just been taking notes and then posted them after the meeting would that be OK? I'd think so. In other words, I think people were upset he was live blogging. If the blog post was accurate, and the article doesn't say it wasn't, then I'd take that as proof he was paying attention.

Bilingual blogging?

I receive this question from a reader last week and haven't found anyone who can help her out yet. If you can, please post a comment which she'll be checking periodically.

I'm wondering if in your research you'd seen any successful implementations of a bilingual blog as I'd be interested in talking with the writers about best practices/issues that arise. We're talking about blogs for our clients here in my department (4700 staff) but any communication (even within the library 20 people) that's on our intranet or internet site needs to be bilingual.

Some words on me:
I've never written a blog, though I've been reading them through my aggregator for years. I'm new to Libraries (although my MLIS is 10 years old) and new to my position here at Justice Canada. Previously I worked for the National Archives of Canada in a position far removed from public service.

Cheers,
Jennifer Svarckopf
Manager, Systems and Technical Serives | Gestionnaire, Systèmes et services techniques
Department of Justice Canada | Ministère de la Justice Canada
Departmental Library | Bibliothèque ministérielle

The latest blog numbers from Technorati

Ok, I should have posted this a few weeks ago but I've been busy. (Can you tell I'm link dumping today?)

According to Technorati, 175,000 new blogs are born every day. Bloggers post 18 new updates every second.

via Poynterevolution

Pingie

I'm testing pingie. If it works, I'll be receiving an SMS message about this post shortly.

Unshelved, Creative Commons, and blog editing

I'm wondering about what's up with the guys over at Unshelved regarding Creative Commons. I wasn't going to blog about his until something happened. Here's the story:

Yesterday there was a post on the Unshelved blog in which Bill talked about giving permission to use Unshelved strips to promote your library. Great idea I thought. This morning I went to re-read that post and something seemed different. I though he'd listed some specific things you needed to do in order to use their comics which sounded a lot like a NC-BY-ND CC license and that they were aware of this so don't e-mail them about it. But today here's what I read:

..So here's our offer. We've got over two thousand strips about libraries and the things they go on there. Please use them to promote your library, school, or other reading-friendly cause. If you have questions about usage, or if you need a high-resolution version suitable for printing, just mail us.

Wait, where's the specifics? Where's the mention of Creative Commons? I did have a rough night's sleep last night. Did I dream it? Seems not. Here's what I found via the Google cache:

...So here's our offer. We've got over two thousand strips about libraries and the things they go on there. If you'd like to use some of them for noncommercial purposes, please do. Just use them intact, without alteration, attribute them to us, and show our URL and the correct copyright. If you have questions about usage, or if you need a high-resolution version, just mail us.

...P.S. To forestall a gazillion emails I will say that I am well aware of Creative Commons, and we are thinking (read: arguing) about it.

So, what's my point? There are two actually. First, guys, please make the plunge into the world of Creative Commons. My guess is that one of you likes the idea and the other doesn't. How about blogging about the pros and cons and get some outside opinions from the library world. Heck, many of us are reposting your strips on our blogs anyway. How about making it officially allowable and support the CC movement at the same time.

Second, as I warn my students in my blogging workshops, if you have second thoughts about something you wrote in a blog post, don't go back and remove it like it never happened. Write a follow-up post and clarify your position. Otherwise someone's going to notice and point it out since nothing on the Net ever actually gets deleted.

Tips for Conference Bloggers

I printed this out a while ago and just found it again in a pile on my desk. In preparation for the upcoming spring conferences I feel this is something that everyone planning on conference blogging should read. (Also, it's a great excuse to play with embedding documents via my Scribd account.)

Two great quotes

From We're All Journalists Now: The Transformation of the Press and Reshaping of the Law in the Internet Age by Scott Gant.

"The Web makes it possible for citizens to think in public together. That is not a fad. That is the underlying reality of the news industry for the next 30 to 50 years."
— Lew Friedland, University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Journalism

"We must no longer accept uncritically the idea that professional journalists can be anointed with special perks and protections denied to others engaging in essentially the same activities"
— Scott Gant

CoverItNow.com

CoverItNow is a platform for live-blogging events. Here is a test. I'm live-blogging my last hour in the office today.

Blogging in Kearney

Hello from Kearney, NE. I'm currently having my students write their first blog post. This afternoon we'll be editing Wikipedia and creating our own wikis.