Video Highlights from CIL2009

IL2009

Will you be there?

"Find Out at I L 2009" from Kaygraphic on Vimeo.

Imagining a Smithsonian Commons

I’m back from Computers in Libraries 2009 and I’ve got a lot to share. The first is Wednesday’s keynote talk from Michael Edson, Director of Web and New Media Strategy at the Smithsonian Institution. It was streamed live online (a first for CIL) and was recorded. Listen to him and then go read all the books he mentions in his talk. (I’ve read all but one of them and I’m on the list at LCL for it now.)

Online TV Shows by Ustream

He also put up a text version of his presentation in SlideShare. I've embedded it here for you.

CIL 2009 Michael Edson (text version)

View more documents from edsonm.

He also put up a text version of his presentation in SlideShare. I've embedded it here for you.

CIL 2009 Michael Edson (text version)

View more documents from edsonm.

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.

Library Camp Nebraska is today!

If you’re not attending you can follow along in the FriendFeed room or, in testing out something new… right here. Library Camp is scheduled to run from 9am-4pm CST. If you'd like to leave a comment just create a FriendFeed account if you don't already have one, log in, and click the appropriate Comment link.

There's Still Room for You @ Library Camp

There are still plenty of seats available in Library Camp Nebraska one week from today. Sign up now! It’s totally free and totally fun!

Potential topics to be discussed currently include:

• The Social Web in the library
• Cheap and free tech tools
• Copyright & Creative Commons
• Public programs
• High Tech / High Touch: are they mutually exlusive?
• Get your free Web presence (for libraries that don't have one already)
• Privacy in a Social Web world
• Wildly impractical, expensive ideas for your library
• Alternative searching techniques (or, what's new & cool in the world of searching??)
• Ideas for library marketing on the cheap
• Ideas for new granting agencies/funding sources and/or grant success stories
• Demythologizing the "information wants to be free" (while information may want to be free, it aint cheap to provide it...)
• Community Outreach
• Mentoring
• Instruction
• Expanding the role of the library on campus (PR/marketing/collaboration)
• Exploring the future of library workers: What's the greatest need in Nebraska?...support for Master's level v. pre-professional training?

Full details @ http://librarycampnebraska.pbwiki.com/

Reflections on Internet Librarian 2008

I've now been home from IL2008 for about four days and I'm finally caught up with everything. Well, everything except for the much-needed blog post about the trip. I didn't blog much while there, but I did Twitter a bunch. So, as a result, here's the one long blog post about the experience this time around. So, in no particular order:

Michael's engaged?

No, I'm not engaged. At least, not officially. For those of you that have been wondering here's the story: My girlfriend Mary jokes with me that she's "too old" to call me her "boyfriend" so when she introduces me she calls me her fiance. I have absolutely no problem with this at all. Eventually, we do plan on getting married but we figure we should at least live in the same state first. (She's still in Colorado for reasons I won't be getting into but it looks like she should be in Nebraska no later than this coming summer.)

During my Creative Commons presentation last Monday I, for a reason completely unknown to me, instead of saying what I usually say, "Mary, my girlfriend does the cataloging for this project," I instead said, "Mary, my fiance does the cataloging for this project." Honestly, I didn't even think about it, it just happened.

Well, Iris and Cindi were in the audience and immediately did a double-take. Cindi then got on the Twitter. Here's the result. (Read from the bottom up.) All happening while I'm still on stage completely unaware of what I'd done. While answering questions after my presentation someone cam up to me, put his hand on my shoulder and said, "I just wanted to let you know you're the talk of Twitter right now." "For what?" I asked. "For announcing your engagement. Congratulations!" I paused and then started laughing.

So, that's basically the story. I ended up explaining it to many people the rest of the conference and had people I didn't know congratulating me on my engagement the rest of the week. Christa and I even ended up working the story into our Twitter presentation on Wednesday.

Moderating the Social Web track

At CIL2008 I had my speakers write their bios as haikus. This time, LOLCats. You can view them on SlideShare. 'Nuff said.

FriendFeed & SlideShare

Due to changes in how Twitter worked I ended up having to pretty much move the tracking of the tweets from the conference to a FriendFeed room. Overall I think it was a success. Any future tweets labeled with the #il2008 hashtag will appear there but the individual twitter accounts that were there during the conference will no longer appear since future content will be irrelevant.

While at the conference I created a SlideShare event to group the presentations. No, I'm not trying to replace the collecting of presentations on the conference site, I just thought it would be fun to play with. Folks have added some presentations and I've added a few others that I found.

BTW: There's already a FriendFeed room and SlideShare event for CIL2009.

Two links from Liz Lawley's presentation

During Liz's presentation she mentioned my Library Signage flickr group and I mentioned the AirPower wiki. You now have links to those resources.

Small groups & conversations

In the past I've done the huge groups of people taking over a restaurant thing and have enjoyed it. However, this time I thought the group just just getting a little too big. So, despite doing that one (as the previously linked photo shows) I instead decided to try to stick to groups of six or less. Generally this was a success and I think I had a better conference because of it. I was actually able to talk with people for long periods of time instead of shouting toward people for short periods of time. During one conversation topics ranged from changes at OCLC to saving civilization as we know it via libraries. Now that's good conference conversation. Yes, karaoke looks like it was a lot of fun but I think I got more out of keeping it small.

Thank you note

During Colleen and Rudy's presentation I was handed this note. Wow! I never did get you name but thank you very much. You don't know how much us presenters wonder some times just how much of an impact we're making and something like this can make someone's conference. It made mine.

Lunch with my publisher

On Tuesday I had lunch with Charles Harmon of Neal-Schuman, Inc. and received some great news: there will be a UK edition of Searching 2.0. Also, since returning I've received the author queries (notes from the copy editor asking for clarifications,) and have returned most of them to her. Just two more chapters to accept/edit the edits and then it'll be off to layout and typesetting. At this point it's scheduled to be released in February 2009.

On the sofa

Tuesday evening I was interview by the Shanachies on their sofa before 400+ people. I has happy to finally have this opportunity but I was not prepared for it. (All the other interviewees were given advance warning.) In the end I was a little too pessimistic when asked about the future of libraries. I'd like to take this opportunity to clarify what I said.

First of all, I don't like predicting the future so I always freeze a little when asked to do so. Second, I don't think libraries are ever going to disappear. Change, yes. but not go away all together. However, with the economy heading in the direction it is right now I think we may need to take a second look at much of what we're doing right now and regroup to defend ourselves against the cuts that are sure to come. Grand ideas are good and needed but we must not forget the small/rural libraries that are already under-funded if we are to survive. I just don't want us to loose sight of reality when dreaming the big dreams. The next few years will be tough ones for libraries and we shouldn't forget that.

Suggestions for future conferences

You probably don't know this but moderators get to have lunch with conference chair Jane Dysart on the day they're moderating. The topics of discussion is usually what we think of the conference this time around, what speakers have done great and should be invited back, and who, maybe, should not. She also wants to know what we think should be dine differently in the future. I had two suggestions.

First, schedule a live recording of Uncontrolled Vocabulary as an actual conference event. Set up a table and some microphones and do it live a la a live recording of TWiT or Diggnation. Maybe even take questions and comments from the audience. I think it would be a blast.

Second, panels. On each day, in each track, have one of the sessions be a three- to four-person panel on a topic. The moderator would ask the questions and the panel can answer. Also, be sure to leave enough time for the audience to ask some questions and maybe have the panelists ask questions of each other. Be sure to not schedule panels in two tracks at the same time so someone could, should they choose to do so, just attend panel-based sessions all day.

Both ideas seemed to be liked by Jane. We'll see what happens at CIL2009.

CC needs 45 minutes

Speaking of ideas for Jane, I keep pushing her that I need a full 45-minute session to explain the importance of Creative Commons. Both my previous 15 minute cybertour and the 20 minutes I had this time around were well received but I didn't have enough time. Jane thinks that the session needs a "better title" than "Participating in the Creative Commons" before that will happen. Please post any and all suggestions in the comments. Better yet, e-mail Jane and let her know I deserve a full session. ;-)

Hey, that’s me

My photos from the conference have been posted to flickr. IMHO some of them were spectacular. Particularly this one and this one. While on the plane from Monterey to Denver I was sorting through them and heard from across the aisle "hey, that's me." I'll just add that as a result of that conversation us folks running Nebraska Learns 2.0 now know that we're not the only ones with particular problems.

Final thoughts

This conference was just as much fun, and as much work, as it has been in the past. However, I can see that my focus and what I'm trying to get out of conference is changing slightly. The smaller groups were definitely a plus. I'm also noticing that it seems like I'm moving from being there for myself to being there to help others get as much out of the conference as they can. Wether it's presenting, moderating, or meeting with new people and turning them into new friends and new colleagues.

I believe that each of us gets what we need out of a conference such as Internet Librarian. If you don't feel you did, think about what you did and didn't do while you were there and try a different way of looking at things and participating next time. Eventually you'll find your groove.

Announcing Library Camp Nebraska

Library Camp Nebraska
University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Wednesday 19 November 2008
Sponsored by
The Nebraska Library Commission and
the University of Nebraska - Lincoln Libraries

Library Camp Nebraska is the first of what we hope to be a series of unconferences throughout the state of Nebraska. So, just what is an unconference?

An unconference is the best part of a conference (conversing with your colleagues) stripped out and crammed into a fun and informative day-long event. Unconferences have no pre-selected presenters, just group discussions on the topics that you want to talk about with your colleagues. There are many different ways unconferences can be run. Library Camp Nebraska will be using the BarCamp model this time around.

Library Camp Nebraska will be held at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln Union on 19 November 2008. Participation will be limited to just the first 100 registrants and is open to anyone who is interested in dialogue and conversation about customer-friendly libraries, library 2.0 and how we can all improve our services and organizations to meet the needs of our communities. (There will be tech topics covered, but if you aren't a techie, come talk about something else.)

For more details and to register head over to the Library Camp Nebraska wiki at http://librarycampnebraska.pbwiki.com/. Please don’t wait until the last minute to register. Seating will be strictly limited to the first 100 registrants. No additional seats will be made available.

(Please feel free to forward to everyone.)

Impressions of ACURIL2008

I'll write a post about my whole Jamaican experience later this week. In the mean time, here's a video for your enjoyment.

ACURIL2008 Update

As to the hotel problem, we checked back last night and they said that the dinners had been cleared from our account. We'll double-check when we get the bill Saturday morning but it sounds like this problem has been cleared up. I don't remember if I said this before but as a result of all this we figured out that eating via room service is actually cheaper than the hotel restaurant (the one of the three that are actually open) or the buffet. Go figure.

Yesterday afternoon we went down to the local craft market in Montego Bay and had an interesting experience. It was fun and we were able to pick up some interesting souvenirs but almost every booth (hundreds of tiny ones) mostly all had the same stuff. (I kept expecting to see "made in China" on some of the crafts but was unable to find a single one.) Every seller wanted to make sure you stepped into their booth and bartering was expected. Once we learned to say "no thank you" directly, they would politely back off. Before we left I had a Brown Stew Fish lunch. (I need to find the recipe for Jamaican Brown Sauce). It wasn't exactly what I expected (photo below) but it was delicious.

Last night's "cultural event" was a lot of fun. The room and the busses that transported us were very hot but it was worth it for the entertainment. I'm uploading the next batch of 200+ photos now but here's just a few shots I got from last night's event.

My presentation on Creative Commons this morning went well. Since I had a lot more time than I did @ CIL, I was able to present the material in a less rushed manner and even had time to show the videos. (Everyone loves the Muppets.) Here's the presentation slides (sans video) if you're interested.

| View | Upload your own

Hello from Jamaica

It's the end of our third full day here in Montego Bay, Jamaica and overall things have been going well. Friday was a long day in getting here so we relaxed most of Saturday and experienced the resort water park. Yesterday was a trip out to hike up Dunn's River Falls and the opening ceremonies for the conference. (Hey Jane, we need to talk about how to open a conference ;-) Today, the first full day of the conference went well. Stephen Abram's keynote was as interesting as always. And yes, there is such a thing as "Jamaican time". Be sure to check out all the photos and videos in my ACURIL2008 flickr set.

As for the resort itself, well, the WiFi is great if a bit pricey at $11.95/24 hours. Check out these download and upload speeds:

Keeping that in mind, we ran into a bit of a problem with food arrangements this evening. When we checked in, we were told we were on the "Modified American Plan" which included breakfast and dinner, while we were responsible for paying for our own lunches. We were given ID cards that we were to use to "pay" for those respective meals. This worked until tonight. When we got to dinner tonight, the hostess saw our conference badges she asked if we were with the conference. When we answered yes we were informed that our plan covered breakfast and lunch. We showed her our cards to no avail. We paid for the buffet dinner and planned to speak with the registration desk.

When we got to the desk we ended up speaking with the woman who checked us in on Friday night and she did remember us. Well, we were in for a double-whammy. It was true that the plan for the conference attendees covers breakfast and lunch, but since we got a cheaper room outside of the official conference rate (cheaper) we weren't supposed to have any meals included at all. "It was our fault" the woman said. I looked back at her blankly and then she said "So, you're wondering what we're going to do about it?" Of course, that was exactly what I was wondering. There was a bit of back and forth and here's what I offered as a reasonable solution: You give us what we were told we'd have (free breakfast and dinner) for the past three days. (This works out to three breakfasts, and two dinners as we had one dinner at the opening night conference reception.) We'd understandably pay for the one room service and one lunch that we had on site. Then, starting tomorrow, we'd gladly pay for all of our meals as it should have been. Reasonable I think since it was admittedly their fault.

We ended up being told that she'd speak to her manager and we should check back with her tomorrow morning and we're now officially on the "European Plan". Oh, and during all this, she asked us if we'd put a $6 tip on our dinner bill as that had been already posted to our account. No, we didn't. We left a $2 tip in cash on the table. Yeah, I'm really liking how this place is run right now.

Thanks PALS!

Sorry for not posting this yesterday but I'd like to officially thank my hosts and all the attendees of the Prairie Area Library System's PALS Day this past Wednesday. The weather was perfect (sunny on the day I got to hike through the woods, and rainy while we had to be inside for the presentations) and I wish I could steal your park and its facilities and transport them to about 10 miles outside of Lincoln, NE. Everyone was wonderful to me and made me feel welcome. Feel free to invite me back any time.

ICIW2008: Closing thoughts

Well, the conference is over. Here's the thoughts I've been left with.

When military folks talk about "open source" they're not talking about "OpenSource" as we know it i.e. OpenSource software. What they mean is non-military sources i.e. the mainstream media. Once I came to this realization several things I'd head in the past two days had completely different meanings.

This was my first "academic conference" and it's not what I'm used to. What I'm used to us presentations about software, and events, and "here's what we did". At this conference it was 20 minute presentations of the research presented as papers in the conference proceedings. I understand that this is the standard for academic conferences but I'm just not used to it. That doesn't mean didn't enjoy the conference but it was a tad frustrating hearing "and you can read more about it in my paper" in most of the sessions.

Overall I enjoyed my time over the past two days. I thought I was going to be in over my head but surprisingly I wasn't. (Except for that last session.) It's always interesting to step out of your comfort zone and learn some new thing and new perspective.

Information Warfare and Security Conference

Today I'm attending day one of a two-day conference titled he 3rd International Conference on I-Warfare and Security on the University of Nebraska, Omaha campus. I'm very interested yet I'm sure I'm in over my head. There are folks from all over the worls here including major universities and a lot of Air Force personnel. Here's the sessions I plan on attending today:

• Outsourcing and the Insider Threat: An Increasing Security Risk
• Interactive Visualization of Fused Intrusion Detection Data
• Using Markov Models to Crack Passwords
• The Impacts of Vista and Federal Destop Core Configuration on Incident Response
• Understanding IRC Bot Behaviors in a Network-centric Attack Detection and Prevention
• Implementation of a Multilevel Wiki fro Cross-Domain Collaboraton
• Religion, Ideology and Information Warfare

I'll do my best to blog throughout the day but I'm not sure how much I'll be able to easily and clearly explain on the fly. However, here's the ironic thing: I got in for free. This was through someone at the Univeristy Library. However, it seems I didn't make it on to the ist of registered conference attendees. No problem, they took my name, said come back later as they'll make me a badge, handed me a conference packet, and told me to enjoy the conference. By thew way, did I mention this was a "security" conference? On another note, the WiFi here is working great and I'm doing all this on the Cloudbook.

How to create a Twitter conference feed

I'm not sure I want to make a habit of this but I've received another request to blog on a particular topic. I've been meaning to write this post for a while so I'll just look at this as the push that I needed to actually do it. ;-)

So, for three conferences now I've created a Twitter RSS feed for those who are not at the conference to read the posts of those that are. The method or system isn't perfect but I think I've got the major bugs worked out. So here's how you do it.

1. Create an account using the name of the conference and/or some abbreviation thereof. For example, the last one was "CIL2008". Be sure to use an e-mail address that you've not previously used to create a Twitter account. (Twitter only allows one account per e-mail address.) If you plan on doing this for another event in the future, I suggest using a throwaway e-mail service so you don't run out of e-mail accounts you actually use.
   
2. Write a tweet or two while logged in as that account telling people that there won't actually be any content here as no one will actually be tweeting under that username.
   
3. Write a tweet telling people that if they're attending the conference who to contact to be added as a friend. Early attempts had me telling people to direct message me or the conference account with the request but this proved unreliable for people with protected Twitter accounts. I suggest telling people to e-mail you directly with their request.
   
4. As people contact you, log into the conference account and follow that person. Follow anyone who says they'll be at the conference and will be Tweeting from the conference. (Following people who are not attending will just clutter the resulting feed with non-relevant information.)
   
5. People only need to follow the conference account if their tweets are protected. Otherwise, following the conference account is technically pointless since there won't be any actual tweets from that account. (You'll be busy tweeting from your personal account.)
   
6. Instruct those not attending to follow the RSS feed found at the bottom of the conference account's "With Others" page.

That's it. I hope I've explained it well enough for others to recreate what I've done for other events. Feel free to post requests for clarification in the comments below.

CiL2008 Slideshow

I took over 650 photos at CiL2008 and have uploaded them all to a flickr set. As it was to be expected, some where better than others. Here, IMHO, my 70 best.

Academically speaking

Yesterday I had the pleasure of giving two talks at the University of Nebraska Council of Libraries Spring Staff Development Meeting, Let's Get Social and Library 2.0. (The linked Library 2.0 presentation is a slightly older version than the one I gave yesterday but the differences are minor.) My presentations and points were, judging by the lunchtime and end-of-day comments, well received and it sounds like I've given the University of Nebraska librarians a lot to think about and discuss amongst themselves.

One interesting suggestion I heard about over lunch was that they hire a "librarian at large" who would not be tied to working in the library but would make themselves available all over the campus in a roaming manner; today in the student union, tomorrow in a dorm lobby, the next day in a popular eating establishment near campus with free WiFi, etc. I'd say this is a wonderful idea and even know someone locally who I think would be perfect for the position. If you follow through on this idea please let me know.

At one point during my Library 2.0 presentation one librarian who stated that he was a fan of Andrew Keene and was a self-described "elitist" do make the argument that in some cases we're dumbing things down to meet the needs of newer students. (Please keep in mind that I'm paraphrasing here but I believe I've got the gist of his statements right.) I don't want to continue the debate here but I do have two short follow-ups. One, I am rarely in support of bringing things to the lowest common denominator and you can ask several of my co-workers for confirmation of this. However, I don't believe that offering such things as IM-based reference (the topic I was addressing when the issue was raised) would be considered dumbing things down, merely opening an additional access point for a different type of library user. My second follow-up is to point those interested to this blog post in which I respond to the writing of Mr. Keene in some detail. (Also, I just found a blog post by Librarian In Black Sarah Houghton-Jan regarding her attending a recent symposium which included Mr. Keen.)

I'd also like to point out that I attended the other two talks of the day one on Mary Bolin's project with Open-Access Online Peer Reviewed Journal "Library Philosophy and Practice", and Paul Royster's Digital Commons project which is the university's institutional repository. I'd previously not known much about either of these topics but from what I can tell both of these projects should be considered as models for other institutions interested in pursuing either of these types of projects.

Unconferences Rock!

Two days ago I spent an amazing day in Manhattan, KS with about 99 of the most amazing professional colleagues at the Library Camp Kansas unconference. What's an unconference you ask, it's the best parts of the conference and nothing but. There are no presentations, there are no people spending a half-hour just talking about what they do at their library, just conversation, conversation, and more conversation. Topics were suggested by the attendees in advance but the first business of the day was to decide, on the spot, what we wanted to talk about. There were three sessions, morning, lunch, and afternoon and in each case there were 5-7 topics to pick from. As a topic suggester, I got to be the leader of the morning talk about "cheap and inexpensive tools" (unofficially known as "cheap & inexpensive with Michael") and the lunchtime discussion of Creative Commons. In the afternoon I participated in the discussion of "2.0" issues. For those that didn't attend, most of the notes from the sessions have been posted on the unconference's wiki I've already linked to. Photos from the event can be found in flickr of course. If you're looking for other blog posts and media from attendees search your favorite places for the tag "libcampks2008".

There is no real way to express how fun this was and how re-energizing the whole experience was for me. For my readers in Nebraska, keep an eye on the NLC blog as there's already a small group working on bringing such and unconference to the state in the Fall. Once it's announced sign up fast as space will be limited.

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.)

Integrating RSS Into Your Web Site

And here's the final bit, the slides for my RSS preconference @ Internet Librarian 2007.

| View | Upload your own

LBI @ IL2007

In case you missed "the Dutch boys'" presentation, here is my 10 edited version of the live portions of their presentation.

Second Life, Second Thoughts

Here's my Second Life presentation from Internet Librarian 2007.

| View | Upload your own

(I'm having a little trouble uploading my other two presentations to SlideShare at this time. I'll get them up as soon as I can.)

Participating in the Creative Commons

Here's the first of my two Cyber Tours from Internet Librarian 2007.

| View | Upload your own

The Sony Reader: eInk has arrived

Here's my second presentation from NLA/NEMA 2007. (I'm posting it early as I know what my post-presentation schedule is going to be and if I don't post it now, it might never show up.)

| View | Upload your own

What is Second Life?

Here's my Second Life presentation shown yesterday at the NLA/NEMA 2007 conference in Kearney, NE.

(Especially for those of you that attended and wished to actually see the videos that refused to play during my presentation.)

Interactive Conference Booth

In the Commission booth at the Nebraska Library Association conference this week there will be a lot going on. We'll have the laptops for e-mail checking and plenty of video games including DDR on the XBox 360, Guitar Hero II on the Playstation 2, and Wii Sports. (If you ask the right person, we might even hook up an Atari 2600 for some 8-bit old-skool gaming.) We'll also be running a series of library-related YouTube videos. Those of you who can't attend can view the videos here.

My SDLA2007 Keynote

In an effort to stop myself from making further changes to my presentation, here it is, my opening keynote presentation for the South Dakota Library Association 2007 conference to be presented this afternoon at 4pm CDT.

| View | Upload your own

No, don't hold back. Tell us what you really think.

The ALA wrap-up blog posts are starting to come in and of course I'm going to read KGS'. And, as usual, she's got a way with words. Here's the best part in all its poetic glory:

"Speaking of which… seeing the wireframes for the proposed ALA website and feeling underwhelmed. It’s not grotesquely ugly like the current site, but it’s a static organizational page about as inviting as a cold speculum. Where’s the engagement? Why are blogs squeezed way down on the right? Why does the “divisions” link exclude the Round Tables? I give it an “ix-nay,” and I’ll go into depth later."

CIL2007: Pre-conference Day

Not much to tell as I'm already as tired as if I'm on day four. My session went well but as usual I had too much material for the time allowed. I did do an audio recording of my session but I've not yet secured permission to distribute it. I'll work on that tomorrow.

I ended up trying both Wii bowling and Guitar Hero after Jenny and Aaron's session on gaming. There is video evidence of this but I have not yet secured a copy of said evidence. In the mean time, here's a video I too of David Lee King battling Aaron Schmidt in Guitar Hero. (I don't remember who won.)

I went out for dinner (sushi for me) with Louise, Jenny, Amanda and Aaron and most of us ended up meeting up with many others including Meridith and Jessamyn at the hotel bar.

Tomorrow, the sessions start. NO real plans just some intentions when it comes to attending particular sessions so you can be a surprised as I am when I post.

Update: Paying to speak

It turns out that Jane was not being asked to pay to speak. It was all a misunderstanding. However, I still agree with the underlying point of the story: don't charge your speakers to attend your conference.

Paying to speak

Jane has posted about Why I May Not Be Giving My Preconference at TLA and I can't agree with her more. I once pulled out of LITA National as I was not going to pay to present and others have blogged about this issue before. Jane, you have my full support.

Internet Librarian 2007: Call for Speakers

The Internet Librarian 2007: Call for Speakers is out. Do you have something to share? Submit a proposal today.

March of the Librarians

An altenative view of attending and ALA conference.

Thanks Rosario!