Flickr Fail

New copyright statement in Flickr for “government work”

For a while now, photos posted on flickr by the White House have been licensed under a CC-BY license. While this was the most lenient of the CC licensing options it wasn’t exactly appropriate as these photos were technically in the public domain. Because of this, the attribution requirement of the CC license, although a great suggestion that everyone should follow, was technically adding a requirement that wasn’t allowed by law.

The only other option previously available was that of the Flickr Commons project “no known copyright restrictions”. Again, not appropriate as in this case we know that there can’t possibly be even the potential of a copyright claim by anyone. Again, close but technically not appropriately.

So, the folks at flickr have come up with a new designation: “United States Government Works”.

What does this mean? Well, if you click on the link you’ll be taken to the relevant page of copyright law giving you the relevant information. At that point you’re on your own. Thanks, I think.

Why doesn’t flickr just have a “public domain” option? That’s a completely different discussion which I’m not going to have here. Check out the flickr discussion and flickr’s official opinion on the matter if you’re interested.

Best Photos of 2008

I posted 7,393 photos to flickr in 2008. Here are the 46 I think are my best of the year.

Matt Smith is the new Dr. John Smith

Read the BBC Press Release. And, yes, I've actually seen a previous performance of his, but at first did not recognize the name.

Thing #10.5: statr for flickr

(If you're viewing this on the day it was posted it's not all that impressive since it's only got 24-hours worth of stats. Over time it'll get more interesting, promise.)

Thing #9: Compfight

Compfight is an indispensable tool for me, one I use almost daily. I'm constantly looking for a photo to illustrate a point. Wether it's for a blog post or a presentation, I love using photos to make a point. I'm also generally sure to use only Creative Commons (cc) licensed photos in my work. Not only does this ensure that I'm not going to be sued but it promotes CC and lets me turn my presentations into teaching moments about more than just the direct topic of the talk itself.

But why Compfight instead of the standard flickr search option? Check out these two screenshots showing search results for library:

Flickr

Compfight

Srs'ly? Can you no doubt the usefulness of Compfight. Same search, completely different screen full of results. I'm less concerned with the content of the results (though I think Compfight's better at that too) but more with how those results are presented. Compfight gives you screens full of images that you can look and and choose from. Flickr, you get  25 at a time with a lot of scrolling involved. Clicking on any one of these images takes you to the photo's page for further details and downloading.

Yea Compfight! My presentations are better because of you.

Thing #8: Billy's new bike

Billy's new bike Originally uploaded by Travelin' Librarian

I love flickr! I've currently got more than 21,000 photos in my account. Granted, this one I didn't take,it was sent to me by my dad. This is him with his new bike back in 1956. I've always been into photography (as my dad has) but I never took the time to learn all the picky details as a kid since it was such an expensive hobby. Film, equipment, development costs, it just wasn't gonna happen. Now, with digital and a $300 dollar camera I can take photos to my heart's content. I'm still working with (an advanced) point & shoot digital but it's got an 18x optical zoom and lots of options so it works well for me. One day I'll learn enough to move up to a digital SLR but then that whole "it's expensive" problem (lenses anyone?) comes into play. No matter what, here's my advice: take as many photos as you can and be sure to share them.

One of the coolest birthday presents I've ever received!

Flickr now allows embeddable slideshows

Just run a flickr slideshow and look for the "Share" link in the upper-right corner to get the embedding code. For example:

Smithsonian Joins the Flickr Commons

The Smithsonian Institution now has a flickr account similar to the one from the Library of Congress. Thanks to Roy Tennant for the pointer.

Portrait of Albert Einstein and Others (1879-1955), Physicist

Last Night's Storm

About five minutes after I recorded this the tornado siren went off.

Of Librarians, Photography, Copyright & Creative Commons

Before you read this post be sure you've read these other posts and I don't really feel like summarizing them, just responding to the issues at hand.

• 50 Reasons Not to Change
• Copyright Infringement and Creative Commons
• Creative Commons, Copyright and the Murky Middle
• Free Use Photos
• So What Are the Rules for Photographers?

I was going to post about this since I seem to be the "CC Guy" in the library world post-CIL2008 but then I decided not to as I'm not in the mood to write something worthy of what I have to say about it. Now, is looks like we will be discussing the issue on tonight's episode of Uncontrolled Vocabulary so I've decided to create this less-than-perfect response if for no other reason than to organizer my thought in preparation for tonight.

Resolved:

Whereas the original blogger of the image in question did not own the copyright on the image in the first place, they are just as "wrong" in republishing it on the Net as anyone involved.

Whereas the original blogger states "Please note that this image has a copyright, for non-commercial distribution with attribution" then displays the CC BY-NC-SA license, this wholly makes no sense. Either the image is under traditional copyright or it's under a CC license. You can't have it both ways.

Whereas Michael Casey followed the license as far as I can tell I consider him pretty much faultless in this situation.

Whereas the original blogger insists that you use her code to post that image anywhere else, that both a) does not jive with the CC license given and b) is not something most Web publishers will do since she could change the image to something else at any time and therefore that would display new, non-approved content on my site.

Whereas the original blogger is stating a copyright, and stating a CC license, and then stating that others must only post the image the way she wants, she is trying to have her cake and eat it too and that just won't work. Pick one. You can't have all three.

Whereas the original blogger issued a DMCA takedown notice to Yahoo! (owner of Flickr), I consider this to be a complete overreaction to the situation. She should have contacted Michael first and tried to work it out with him personally. I'm sure he would have been reasonable about it.

Whereas Yahoo! received the DMCA takedown notice they did the only thing that the law allowed them to do, and took the image out of Michael's account. Michael and I see this as completely unreasonable but I still find Yahoo! faultless since they had no choice under the DMCA. I hope that Yahoo! will restore the image pending their investigation.

Whereas Flickr does not allow for a public domain license, I agree that they should. Anyone know who to write to in encouragement of adding a PD license?

Whereas the new Free Use Photos Flickr group has been created, I believe this might only cause additional confusion and problems as most of those photos are in the "Free Use Photos" group yet still have a traditional full copyright listed for rights. In other words, we teach users to check the rights but now have to say "but as long as it's in this group, you're allowed to ignore the listed rights."

Whereas I was invited to participate in this group I have decided to respectfully declined. I am more than happy to let pretty much anyone use my photos as long as they give me credit. (In fact I've allowed several commercial organizations to use my photos without paying me.) My CC license allows for this just fine. I'm not willing to put my photos into the public domain at this point since then others could use my works without giving me credit.

Therefore I believe that the problem is not Creative Commons but a distinct lack of understanding of one or more of the parties. The solution is not to give up on CC as Michael has done, but further education.

flickrfs

This looks totally cool but I don't believe I've got the Linux chops yet to pull it off. Anyone else want to try first and report back?

Flickrfs is a virtual filesystem which mounts on your linux machine like any other partition. Once mounted, it retrieves information about your photos hosted on your flickr account, and shows them as files. You can now easily copy photos from your local machine to this mount, and it will automatically upload them to your flickr account. Similarly, you can copy the files from your mount to your local machine, and it will download your images from flickr.

via Lifehacker

Recent reuse of my photos

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.

Thing #10: Puzzled by Sushi?

Today's the day where I catch up, if not complete since I'm at CiL all next week, with our Learning 2.0 program. Thing #10 is image generators. I've got to say that I LOVE playing with image generators. I've got quite a list of these in my del.icio.us account. (Check 'em out.) So, having played with many of them in the past I tried to find a new one and, courtsey of fd's flickr toys, I've now used the Jigsaw generator. Here's the result:

Thing #6: New Trading Card

New Trading Card
Originally uploaded by Travelin' Librarian

Thing #6 has us playing with flickr mashup tools. I created a trading card for myself way back when but I never really like the photo so I've taken this opportunity to create a new one. Hope y'all like it.

Thing #5 : Blogging from flickr

Miles Davis
Originally uploaded by jazz matrix

Thing #5 of our Learning 2.0 series involves playing with and optionally signing up for a flickr account. Well, got the account already (approaching 15,000 photos) and I'm pretty familiar with how it works. The last item was to blog a photo from flickr. So, I poked through my recent flickr favorites and figured I share this classic photo of Miles Davis. (I'm a big Miles fan!)

#2000

I just realized that back on November 23rd, I posted my 2000th license plate photo to my flickr account. Here's that lucky plate:

Unintended Consequences of The Social Web

At the Nebraska Library Commission we have a flickr account to which we post photos of NE libraries, and NLC-related events. As we don't post daily, or even weekly some times, we're generally happy to find out that someone has added one of our photos to their favorites.

This morning one of our staff noticed that one of our library photos was added as a favorite by another flickr user. She clicked on the link for that user's photos and was presented with the "this account is not within your safe search settings, do you still wish to see the photos" page and she clicked ok. The photos were, as you may guess, rather pornographic. So, technically, there is a link on one of our pages in flickr to a page that would be considered rather inappropriate to many possibly even offensive.

In flickr one user can block another. By doing so, they can still see your photos but they are not allowed to add any of your photos as favorites thereby removing the link. We have since blocked this user but doing this raised some distinct and important issues in my mind. I asked that we discuss this and here's the two original responses I received from coworkers: (quoted with permission)

There is also the issue of people who don't understand the internet and don't understand that things like this can happen purely by accident, and that we (the NLC) did not have any control over this.  Some of these same people will simply see a state agency linking to a full-on porn site, and nothing else.  I'd hate to be the person who has to take that call.  Or who has to justify the expense to the auditors (NLC has paid for a pro account).

We all know that when people use the internet and tools like flickr, there is no guarantee that they won’t stumble on sites/pictures that are offensive.  But why would we leave a link in our NLC account that would directly lead viewers to something that most would probably agree to be inappropriate for a public forum?  If we want libraries to use Flickr and they see something like this and think it might happen to them and think there is no recourse, I am afraid they will be scared off. 
Social networking sites provide users with tools like privacy settings, blocking capabilities, etc.  so that they can use the services in a way that’s comfortable for them.  What’s wrong with using them?  If we don’t think that’s appropriate, why should we leave this link when there is something we can do about it.

Here is a list of my initial concerns and some additional questions that we're raised when we talked about it verbally:

• Since we're a government agency could this be considered censorship?
  
• If we block this one user, what's to stop up from blocking others and who gets to decide who's blocked and who isn't?
  
• Does allowing this link give any sort of validation to the content of the other user's account even if the system created the link and not us?
  
• Would a link to said content in a blog comment post be any different?
  
• In a Social Web world, do we need to allow for links that we wouldn't create ourselves? Should there be more latitude?
  
• Should these sorts of links be removed out of fear of those that control the money might react badly or should we take a chance and use it as a teaching opportunity?
  
• Does the appearance of the click-through warning page remove us from any perceived liability? Is the warning page irrelevant? What if the user following the link has turned off safe search in their account (as one co-worker had)? Does that change the situation?

Debate on my blog has been lively of late and I'd love to keep it going. So, library-land and other readers, what do you think? How would you handle this situation? Should we have handled it differently and not blocked the user. Please, let us know.

Longest flickr tag ever?

Flickr user, and librarian, ricklibrarian uses the tag zone1referencelibrariansvisitedthewheatonpubliclibraryonseptember6. I've got to say it's the longest one I've ever run across.

Pick a color, any color

Click on the image, log in to flickr, and leave a note. Feel free to pick the same color as someone else.

07-07-07

Did you take any photos today? If so, you have until 07/16 to submit them to the 07_07_07 flickr photo pool. All my photos from today can be found in my 7-7-7 set.

My 10,000th flickr image

More flickr reprints on the way

I got a request from the folks at Mouse House News to use some of my Disney photos from last August. (They weren't specific as to which ones.) With appropriate credit I've given them the permission they've requested. The results will be shared when they arrive.

*This

Here's a list of the social networks I'm actively participating in:

• Flickr
• YouTube
• SlideShare
• LibraryThing
• Twitter
• Blog
• del.icio.us
• Jaiku
• Tumblr
• Facebook
• Yelp

Then there's the ones I have accounts in but don't use all that much:

• 43Things
• BlipTV
• Google Video
• MySpace

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few too. Add the fact that in some of these services (Flickr, YouTube, blogging) I have access to multiple accounts, one personal, one work. (Blip.tv is only work right now. I don't have a personal account there.)

Here's the problem: when I find something interesting online or have something to say, how should I share it?

I've got four bookmarklets set up; BlogThis, TwitThis, TumblThis, and TwitThis, along with the Share+ button on the Facebook toolbar, which makes posting to those sites a simple process. But each one has a different audience (if any audience at all) with different levels of immediacy. (For example, if I post it to my blog, only my subscribers will read it but maybe not for a few hours or days. If I post it to Facebook, only my Facebook friends will see it albeit a bit quicker. If I put it out to Twitter, only my Twitter followers will see it but within minutes.) Additionally, Twitter posts need to be kept to 140 characters, my Tumblog can contain more but I usually don't, del.icio.us is for stuff I want to go back to later or share with my classes, and my blog is for more extensive writing even though I post short stuff there too.

Well I could, and do sometimes, post the same content, or various versions of the same content, to multiple services. For example, I put a link to my blog review of my new keyboard on Twitter. Why didn't I also share it on Facebook? I have no idea. It just didn't occur to me until I wrote the previous sentence.

I have a pseudo-solution and that's my Jaiku account. Jaiku allows me to pull in content from all of my other accounts that are outputting feeds. So, if you visit my Jaiku page or subscribe to my Jaiku feed, you'll get all of the content from almost every other service I post to. (There's no way to pull in Facebook info that I can find so there's one notable exception.) The trouble is, there's no one in my extended circle of friends using Jaiku with two notable exceptions (planetneutral and jessamyn) and they don't seem to be doing much with it anyway. So, is a "solution" really a solution if no one uses it? I don't think so.

So, how do you handle it? Do you just pick a favorite and stick to it? Do you clearly delineate in your own mind what goes where and not worry about who's at the receiving end? I'd really like to know.

NLC Vendor Day 2007

Yesterday several dozen librarians from throughout Nebraska joined NLC staff and about a dozen library vendors at the Cornhusker Marriott in Lincoln, NE for the second annual NLC Vendor Day.

Overall I'd say it was a success. All of the sessions were well attended and many great questions were asked of the vendors about their products. Both of my sessions, Second Life and Hot Topics in Technology" were also well attended.

More specifically to me, my use of YouTube as presentation platform seemed to go over very well. All of the feedback I received indicated that it worked well and gave everyone an idea of what it was like to be in Second Life without actually going there. (That, and I didn't use PowerPoint at all so that's a guaranteed plus.)

From the presenter's persepctive YouTube did leave a bit to be desired. Due to the fact that all YouTube video pages force you to scroll to see the whole video window and each time you move to the next video in a playlist you have to re-scroll, I decided to use the playlist that I embedded in my blog the previous day. This way I could scroll down once, click play, and let it run, pausing when I needed to address something specific. Unfortunately, I didn't test this plan fully in advance. It seems that embedded playlists will play the first four videos and then force you to click over to the YouTube site to play the rest. (For purposes of ad revenue I'm sure.) So, due to this I was back in YouTube, scrolling to align future videos on the screen. It wasn't a complete breakdown of the plan but it did catch me off guard, something I try to avoid during a presentation.

The only other comment I would make about this method of presenting is not to go over the 30 minute mark when showing video. I pretty much kept to exactly 30 but I started to get the feeling at the end that if I'd gone any longer I would have started to loose some of the attendees.

Overall I'd give the day a 9 out of 10 and my YouTube experiment an 8 out of 10. (My photos from the day can be found by clicking on the photo in this post.)

In-service Day

On Friday I was honored to attend and present at the Lincoln City Library's In-Service day. I haven't had a faster or more fun Arbor Day in my life. I was great to meet so many librarians from my new home town and to see how excited you were about all the new technologies I was presenting. At one point during my Flickr presentation someone asked for more specific examples of how to use Flickr in a library. Well, here's one. Use Flickr to post a slideshow of an event on the library's blog/Web site.

Embed Slideshow

And so it begins... again!

Now here's an amazing yet wonderful coincidence. Over the past month I've been re-watching the whole Babylon 5 series once again. (Last night I watched the episode in which we discover who Valen really was.) Not five minutes after finishing that episode I check my feeds and the Amazon.com blog informs me that Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, the first of a new series of direct-to-DVD movies is being released at the end of July. I'm so excited! Now I've got to get through the rest of the series, the movies, and Crusade in the next three months. (And yes, I just pre-ordered my copy.)

Being introduced

Being introduced
Originally uploaded by Travelin' Librarian.

I'm now giving my flickr session to Lincoln City librarians.

Michael going for a strike

Michael going for a strike
Originally uploaded by The Shifted Librarian.

I did get some strikes but I don't recall if this was one of them.

RE: Twitter

via Gaping Void

Flickrwhacking 2.0

Sometimes at conference the ridiculous becomes sublime, insane suggestions become ideas, and ideas become accepted by others. This is the shortened story of one of those ideas. (Sorry, you'll have to ask one of the responsible parties directly if you want the foll story.)

Many of us have heard of Googlewhacking, the game in which you need to search Google using two English, non-proper-name, words and retrieve only one result. (Trust me, it is not as easy as it sounds.) In that spirit, I came up with Flickrwhacking, the idea of searching Flickr for two English, non-proper-name, words and finding only one photo. For example, search Flickr for pony and monocle, and you'll have a Flickrwhack. (Flag on the play! I uploaded this photo so it doesn't count. That's cheating.)

In the spirit of my cheating I call this game Flickrwhacking 2.0 because there is already a Flickrwhack pool that you can find on Flickr. The trouble is, that game has you assigning a unique tag and if you're in control that's hardly as much fun.

So, I hereby declare the games open, and let the Flickrwhacking begin.

Note: I did my best and I can't find a previous mention online of the game in this form. If I am not the first to come up with this please let me know and I will correct the record. Thanks to Jason, David, Michelle, and Meredith for their input and inspiration.

CIL2007: Trends in Mobile Tools & Applications for Libraries

Megan Fox, Simmons College, (fox@simmons.edu) web.simmons.edu/~fox/mobile

• Patrons want and demand mobile on-demand services
• Mobile Market
• [I lost the stats I typed in...]
  
  
• Latest Devices
• iPods
• tablets
• PSP
• Blackberry
• m300 smart watch
  
  
• Treo
• Samsung B470
• Nokia N93
• HTC S710
• iPhone
• MyOrigo
• HTC Advantage and Shift
• Ultra Mobile PC - Q1 Ultra
• Mobile Web / Transcoded Web
• .mobi
• mobilelearn
• winksite
• volantis
• roundpoint
• mobiSiteGalore
• Freemont PL has a .mobi version
• zinadoo
• NYT
• National Weather Services
• Digg
• PubMed
• Hoovers
• Ball State University (Looks like Gopher)
• Mobile Optimized OPACs
• III AirPac
• LibraryThing
• Ready Reference On the Go
• Tucors
• handango
• dictionaries
• almanac
• Mobile Answers
• eBooks & eAudio
• Transcoding
• Optimizing for the mobile environment on the fly
• May remove content so somewhat controversial
• Blogger on the Go
• mobilicio.us
• Databases on the Run
• Factiva
• LexisNexis
• Mobilize your content
• via RSS then to SMS
• MobiFeeds
• xFruits
• feedbeep
• hubdog
• GoogleReader
• Text onto the iPod
  
  
• Mobile Search
• Google
• 4info
• Yahoo!
• AOLMobile
• Ask
• [Presented on this earlier in the conference]
  
  
• SMS for content
• GoogleSMS
• Yahoo
• AskMeNow
• Biblioteche di Roma (answer w/in 48 hours, ugh!)
  
  
• 411
• Meriam Webster
• Life's a Pitch - 1st chap via SMS
• Harper Teen
• Citysearch
  
  
• SMS for communication
• Simmons College Reference Services
• Altrama (SMS Virtual Reference)
• teleflip
• gizmoSMS
• MagicMessage
• MobileU
• AIRBaruch
• Class in Hand
  
  
• Text Feedback Link
• Feedback Meter Link
• Mobile audio & multimedia
• downloadable audio
• mobile tours - guide by cell
  
  
• instruction
• story hours
• video tours
• mobile tv
• mobile YouTube
• mobile Second Life
• Ball State University training videos & promotional videos
• Video downlaods
  
  
• Applications for staff
• Stats - bar code readers
• Sirsi PocketCirc
• Wireless Workstation
  
  
• What's Next?
• txt & video ads (you must approve & get a discount on your bill for viewing)
• MasterCard & Visa via your phone
• Hardware displays
• glasses
• eink/epaper
• project to wall
• ZenZui
• Microsoft Live Labs Deepfish
• Photo2Search
• Thrrum
• mobile visual interactions - qipit
• spoken interactions - GotVoice
• GPS Location Interaction
• [showing pics from my Library Signage flickr pool!]
  
  

CIL2007: Using Social Media for Community Engagement (Tuesday Keynote)

Andy Carvin, National Public Radio (www.andycarvin.com/complibraries.ppt)

• Head of NPR's Web 2.0 streategy
• Traditional Media Production
• publisher
• broadcaster
• billboard owner
• drag a sign from a plane
• hold up a sign at a sporting event
• Web 1.0
• read instead of produce
  
  
• HTML
• Programming
• Graphic design
• hosting ability
• promotion mechanisms
• Web 2.0
• new software makes content creation easy
• people focus on ideas and creativity rather than technical know-how
• "the read-write web"
• "we media"
• Social software and the democratization of content
• classblogmeister.com
• flickr.com
• epnweb.org
• blip.tv
• youtube.com
• common thread: online communities where people are actively encouraged to use and share each other's original content
• Content production: All the cool kids are doin' it
• [see notes from PEW keynote yesterday for stats]
• The Web 2.0 Universe
• geotags
• blogging
• aggregation
• podcasting
• folksonomies
• rating
• vlogging
• community discussions
• tagging
• IM
• SMS
  
  
• mashups
• RSS
• wikis
• citizen journalism
• online social networks
• Most famous examples: Blogs
• early days: online geeks have personal homepages
• blogging software made it easy for everyone
• fill-in-a-form publishing
• today: 60-100 million+ blogs online
• perception: a media-blogger war of attrition
• The media hates bloggers
• can't trust trust them to get it right
• have agendas/biases
• mob mentality
• don't respect journalists
• don't do hard news
• bloggers hat the media
• you can't trust old media
• claim their unbiaser
• dominated by soundbites
• don't respect the public's brains
• always pandering to lowest common denominator
• Today: Happy Internet, the war is over
• concerted attempts at finding understanding between the media and the blogosphere
• media/blog collaboration now more common
• greater emphasis on "networked journalism" (Jeff Jarvis)
  
  
• finding ways for the media to work with "the people formerly as the audience" (Jay Rosen)
• Why are media outlets embracing Web 2.0
• improving journalistic transparency
• creating a public dialogue
• tapping into public knowledge and creativity
• new collaborative opportunities with affiliates
• maybe it's profitable, too?
• Open piloting
• inviting the public to help create new broadcast programming
• sharing rough drafts of shows before they're ready for prime time
• a focus group, but everyone's welcome
• examples: Rough Cuts, Bryant Park
• Radio Open Source
• "a blog with a radio show"
• not about open source software
• opens editorial process to the public
• invites users to submit & debate program ideas
• users recommend guests & questions
• asks users to participate on-air
• Similar: TOTN, WHYS
• BBC Have Your Say
• centralized forum for discussion news
• only select stories covered
• two-tiered moderation
• users can rate each others' comments
• CNN iReport
• http://www.cnn.com/exchange/
• CNN citizen journalism project w/ blip.tv
• users submit photos, video for specific stories
• best clips included on air
• published early video from VT shootings
• "tell your friends, iReport for CNN"
• USA Today
• embedding social networking across the site
• note balkanized to a special section
• users can comment
• OhMyNews
• english.ohmynews.com
• Korean online news service
• dedicates 20% of its space to citizen journalism
• ones that submit consistently get paid
• Global Voices
• www.globalvoices.org
• bridge blogging
• Vote Guide
• Minnesote E-Debate
• NewAssignment.net
• So What Should You do?
• community blogs & discussions
• more...
• bathroom in South Africa photo

CIL2007: Gaming & Libraries: Engaging Strategies

Jenny Levine, ALA & Aaron Schmidt, North Plains Public Library

• http://theshiftedlibrarian.pbwiki.com/
• Numbers
• define gamer
• define gamer
• there are a lot of young gamers
• not just teenage boys in the basement along
• boomers 77 million
• avg 21-year-old = 5000 hours
• 33 avg age of gamer
• online gamers = largest percentage is middle-ages women
• Flickr photos of gamers
• Nintendo Wii
• gamers
• see themselves as a hero on a quest
• willing to experiment and keep trying
• willing to seek expertise & ask for help
• desire to collaborate
• learn from mistakes & adapt quickly
• thrive on fast decision making
• have an inherent distrust of bosses
• format agnostic
• don't want to be spoon-fed
• are used to creating content
• expect interaction, rewards, customization
• engaging strategies
• collection development
• Mario Brothers Memorial Library
• Gaming Target
• support materials/services
• gaming night for families
• www.ocls.info/gaming
• www.myspace.com/gamespryte
• reader's advisory
• what movies do you like
• what tv shows do you watch
• what games do you play
• 10 YA novels w/ gaming plots
• provide board games
• GeoCaching
• Open play
• kids bring in their own gaming equipment
• Support w/ a blog
• lots of comments
• free online games
• reunscape
• step mania
• 4 librarians
• good experience
• "Game Pods"
• Tournament Play
• Bibliographic Instruction
• Game creation
• Participation Gap
• lifelong learning
• potential gaming groups
• families
• DDR
• Mario Kart
• Wii Sports
  
  
• 20- and 30-somethings
• DDR
• Guitar Hero
• Halo
  
  
• middle-aged women
• DDR
  
  
• greatest generation men
• WWII games
• Nintendo DS handheld
• Built in Wireless
• Brain Age
• Communal Experience
• Further Reading

CIL2007: Setting up the New Stuff: Planning and Implementing Library 2.0

David Lee King, Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library

• Why, What, Who, how, and When
• Why should we set up new services
  
  
• example: library myspace set to private
• example: last updated six months ago
• example: flickr last uploaded to in 2005
• example: blog, about says "latest news", not updated since Jan 2005
• meet changing customer needs
• stay culturally relevant
• keep digital space up-to-date
• What services should you set up?
• lots to choose from
• think through goals
• what should the end result look like?
• Who does the work
• patrons
• staff
• How to make this happen
• admin and management
• staff time
• do we have
• the equipment
• willing participants
• can we make willing participants
• skilled staff
• when to roll it out
• like, yesterday
• seriously, some things don't take a lot of time
• blogs, flickr, youtube, IM
• 5 minutes, tops
• depends on you
  
  
• Content, container, and customer
• Content
• conversational tone
• create often
• reuse content...
• Inviting participation
• Just ask
• Paper Cuts blog: 52 Questions
  
  
• Container
• just the basics or fancy-schmancy?
• Customer
• contacts
• friending in different services
  
  
• comments
• answer them
• quickly
• default to "comments on"
• edit if needed
  
  
• creators
• decide about customer content
• actual content
• comments only
  
  
• who's in charge of content babysitting
• doesn't have to be the Webmaster
• Definitely not the admin
• some specifics
• Blogs
• mylibrary.blogspot.com or mylibrary.org/blog
• free or purchase
• what to name it
• default design or integrate
• reasons for the blog
• what's new at the library
• new books
• library news
• who's in charge
• who writes
• who answers questions
• Tricks
• make sure to link to your stuff
• catalog
• events
• flickr for images
• saves storage space
• reuse content
• pic in two places, more comments
• consider customer and staff training
• staff needs
• a little posting training
• writing for the web training
• basic HTML (imbedding images from flickr)
  
  
• Flickr
• MySpace
• decisions
• name/age/sex
• "you don't have to tell the truth"
• design/skin
• reason for the page
• make use of multimedia
• tricks
• musical artist account if you podcast
  
  
• reuse content
• customize additions
• catalog search box
  
  
• link to your content
• staff needs
• who's in charge
• who does comments
• who writes content
  
  
• YouTube
• decisions
• downloadable video?
• channel design
• reasons for the videos
• current what's up at the lib
• what's new/library update vids
• videos of events
• training
• new books
• youtube specific account stuff
• who's in charge
• what goes in profile
• tagging
• allow comments
• staff or customer content
• everything in blogs above...
• tricks
• channels: link to other relevant content
• provide link back to library page
• embed video on your Web site!
• staff needs
• training
• equipment
• Final thoughts
  
  
• Goals are good!
• Plan for participation
• You don't have to be an expert
  
  

CIL2007: Web 2.0 and What it Means to Libraries

Lee Rainie, Director, Pew Internet and American Life Project

• "I adore librarians"
• Ask a Ninja: What is Podcasting
• The Starting Point
• Tim O'Reilly & John Battelle
• The Web as platform
• netscape v google
• doubleclick v adsense
• akami v bittorrent
• harnesing collective intelligence
• data is the next "intel inside"
• software above the level of a single device
• rich user experiences
• Changes
• cashing - peer to peer
• britannice - wiki
• personal sites - blogging
• evite - upcoming.org
• doubleclick - adsense
• ofoto - flickr
• taxonomy - folksonomies
  
  
• etc
• Web 2.0 meme map
• 6 hallmarks of the Web 2.0 world that matter to libraries
• The Internet has become the computer
• # of computer users is indistinguishable from # of Internet users
• Broadband availability up
• Internet users # up
• wireless connectivity up
• people go online from more places
• # of people accessing internet from libraries has doubled in past 4 years
• broadband turns the internet into a destination
• broadband intensifies people's internet use and it becomes more serious
• broadband makes video a big part of the internet experience
• broadband make people's internet use more social
• Tens of millions of Americans, especially the young, are creating and sharing content online
• 55% of teens have profiles on social networking sites
• 20% of adults have profiles on social networking sites
• SN Profiles: Switchboards for social life
• Teen girls more likely to use all SN features
• 51% of young adults have uploaded photos / 37% of adults
  
  
• 39% of teens share their own creations / 22% of adults
• 33% of teens are tech support for their families & orgs / 13% of adults
• 25% of kids / 33% college students / 12% adults have blogs
• 27% of teens / 14% adults have their own Web site
• 26% teens / 9% adults have created mashups
• 19% teens / 9% adults have an avatar to interact with others
  
  
• 15% teens / 8% adults have created videos
• Even more internet users are accessing the content created by others
• Long Tail audience
• 46% of young users read blogs
• 44% of young adults seek info in wikipedia
• 14% of young users download podcasts
• many are sharing what they know and what they feel online and this is building conversations and communities
• 33% of young adults have rated a product, person, or service online
• 32% of young adults have tagged content
• 25% of YA have commented on videos, also blogs & photos
• tens of thousands are contributing their knowhow and processing power
• 40% of users participate in peer-to-peer
• grid computing
• open source movement
• online Americans are customizing their online experiences
• 40% of YA customize news and other information pages
• 50%+ of YA on specialty listservs
• 25%-33% of YA get RSS feeds
• 5 issues libraries and all online participants must struggle to address - Pam Berger - http://www.infosearcher.org/
• Navigation
• transitioning from linear format to nonlinear in format
• Context
• learning to see connections
• Focus
• practicing reflection & deep thinking
• Skepticism
• learning to evaluate information
• Ethical behavior
• understanding the rules of cyberspace
• The Machine is Using Us
  
  

Technorati Tags: cil2007

The Chief's Corner

The Lincoln, NE police chief has started a blog titled The Chief's Corner. There's only a few posts at this point but so far I'm very impressed. He's dealing with relevant local issues in an honest and human way. The post responding to recent newspaper editorials titled "That pesky Constitution" is definitely one to read.

Walt Disney's passport

l21269
Originally uploaded by Travelin' Librarian.

Yes folks, it's up for auction on eBay.

Package Tracking Widget

Here's a great new Vista sidebar widget that allows for near-real-time package tracking. This is even better than doing is via RSS. It's available from the Windows Live Gallery.

HD here I come

Yesterday I ordered my first HDTV. I'm a bit nervous that I'll need additional equipment to get this thing to work but according to the photos it has all the right low-tech connectors in the back to work with my current system. It's going to arrive while I'm at CIL so I'm sure that for the first time I'll be a little itchy to leave conference so I can get home and play with my new toy.

Permission Slips

Photo: Pesky Library

This is something that's got me totally riled. It's a complex situation but I'll boil it down to only the points necessary to understand the situation.

Student A's Junior Prom is this weekend and it is being held at A's school and is an official school event. A has invited Student B to the prom. B goes to a different school. A has a permission slip/agreement that says things like "I won't cause trouble at the event", "can be kicked out of the event for causing trouble" and other similar language. All of the rules mentioned are said to apply to both A and the guest, B. This permission slip/agreement has to be signed by A, A's parent, B, B's parent, and A's principal. So far I'm totally o.k. with this. Everyone involved should sign and yes, the principal has the right to bar his own students and outsiders from an official school event.

But here's the thing, the permission slip/agreement must also be signed by B's school principal. In other words, the principal of school B has veto power over something that student B is doing on their own time and has nothing to do with the school that this second principal is responsible for!

Let's take this out a step. If A wanted to invite someone from a school in another state (not unheard of) then the principal in the other state would have to sign the form. Why!? Student B's principal doesn't have to give permission for A to take B to a movie on a Saturday night, so why is this any different?

The bottom line: No principal should have the right to control what that student does, off school grounds and not on school time? That's between the student and their parent. (Any attempts to set me straight are asked for and welcome but will be met with strong debate.)

What are we twittering?

Twitterment is a new Twitter search engine. More interesting is the way in which you can search two different terms and get a comparrision of their use. Here's a sample of library vs. bookstore. Guess which one won.

Comic book art

This is most likely the most beautiful comic book cover I have ever seen. (The story's pretty good too.)

Visual joke

Caught this on YouTube. It's from an episode of Robot Chicken. The guy just stands there then asks "Do you get it?" Well, do ya punk?

Installing fonts in Vista

Well, here's something that hasn't changed in Vista. Get yourself to the "Add Fonts" dialog box and you'll see the exact some screen we've been looking at since Windows 3.1 (or maybe even earlier). The insanity of this is easily discovered when you attempt to browse for the file you dumped on your desktop. You do know the DOS path to your desktop, don't you? Come on Microsoft, why couldn't you bother to update this to use the same browsing interface the rest of the OS uses?

DMV, part one of n

I finally had the cash and the time to get out to the DMV this morning. In total I have to get the car inspected by a Sheriff's Deputy (to make sure it's not a stolen vehicle,) get a Nebraska title, register the car in Nebraska, and get a new driver's license. I didn't expect to get it all done today but...

The inspection was quick and easy. Basically, just a computerized VIN search which cost me $10. Then off to get a new title. Trouble is, my ex (we divorced in 2002) was still listed on the title. Why hadn't I fixed this before? No clue. It just hadn't dawned on me as something I needed to do. So I took all my paperwork including proof of the divorce over to the next window and I was told that wouldn't work. I needed something from the divorce decree that established she'd given up all rights to the car. Or, I could get her to sign a power of attorney for the car. Back home I went to look through my files.

I found an "Affidavit of gift of motor vehicle" in my divorce papers which to me, since it said "the transferor has transfered and conveyed to transferee, all of transferor's right, title and interest in and to the... motor vehicle." [emphasis added] Sounds good to me, but when I got back to the DMV I was informed that that would only save me some money on taxes or some such and "that may be the way they do it in Missouri [where the divorced occurred], but that won't work here."

So, I'm back to faxing the form to my ex (this isn't really a problem, it's just an annoying and delaying bureaucratic step in this whole process) so she can sign it, have it notarized, and fax it back to the DMV. I then get to go tomorrow and try to get my new title and registration.

New laptop bag

I've been wanting/needing a new laptop bag for a while and it finally arrived today. I've switched from a backpack to a messenger bag. Heck, I never used the left strap on the backpack anyway. This one holds my 17" laptop, folders, pens, notebooks, iPod, camera, and more. And I totally get some geek-cred for the embroidered Firefox logo.

Wired thinks it's tomorrow already.

Here's an article from Wired online published today but dated tomorrow.

When it comes to Vista, updated drivers are very important

I've seen the article Speed Up Windows Vista from ExtremeTech blogged about several other places so I wasn't going to mention it here. I did read it though and agree with the criticism regarding the section of the article dealing with Windows services. But the one thing that I got from the article was the importance of making sure your drivers are up to date; especially if you're upgrading from XP to Vista.

First a little background: In my workshop Tech Support on the Fly I talk about Windows update and the different categories of updates you'll find there. One category in XP is "optional hardware updates" and I stress that you should only install hardware (i.e. driver) updates when you're having trouble with said hardware or if the new driver gives you new features you want. This advice spawns from the times that I've had to rollback video drivers on computers where I can no longer see anything on the screen. That is not fun!

So when I upgraded my laptop to Vista I updated as many drivers as I could but was unable to find the updated driver for my video card. (As blogged earlier.) My laptop was running but it seemed a little more sluggish than I would like. I was poking around in the computer's properties last weekend and found something called the "System Rating".

The one pictured here is from my second office computer with known issues so don't worry too much about the low score. In the case of my laptop the score was 2.8 out of five. Looking for a little more detail I clicked on "Windows Experience Index" and found the detail and explanation I was looking for.

It turns out the the rating is based on the lowest score in five categories: Processor, Memory, Graphics, Gaming Graphics, and Primary Hard Disk. In my laptop's case, the graphics rating was 2.8. This may just have been the reason for the sluggish performance of my machine.

A commenter to this blog had recently pointed out where I could find the driver and a few days ago I download and installed the update. I then went to Windows update and noticed there was an "optional" update to my video driver so I took a chance and installed that next. After all the required reboots I went back to look at my computer's score. The score hadn't changed but it did inform me that it had "found new hardware" and needed to rerun the tests to recompute my score. I clicked OK and waited about five minutes. The score was updated to 3.8 and I was told that I could even comfortably run the Areo interface now.

I switched Aero on and started to play. My laptop is now back to the speed it was running at with XP. (Unfortunately, Second Life still won't run and my iTunes problems still exist but I've ruled out my video driver as the source of the problem.)

So, the bottom line, if you're running Vista, my current advice is to install those driver updates as soon as they become available. Might your system die as a result? Sure, but I'd say the benefits outweigh the very small risks in this situation.

flickrCC

I've posted about hoe how to search flickr for CC licensed photos before but here's another site that does it with a much slicker (slickr?) interface: flickrCC.

Contribution #1000

I missed highlighting this blog's 3000th post but I was watching for my 1000th contribution to the Hot Plates pool in flickr. Here is is: