I read about this presentation a while ago – I think it was mentioned on Library Stuff – and I remember wishing I lived closer to NYC. Well it looks like the talk can be seen and/or heard online. I don't have time to watch now … but you can!
What I Learned Today…
Web 2.0 and programming tips from a library technology enthusiast, What I Learned Today… covers blogs, rss, wikis and more as they relate to libraries.
Monthly Archives: December 2005
Wikipedia adding protection
As of today (or maybe it will be next Monday) Wikipedia will no longer allow anonymous users to create pages:
Wales plans to bar anonymous users from creating new articles; only registered members will be able to do so. That change will go into effect Monday, he said, adding that anonymous users will still be able to edit existing entries.
The article on ZDNet (Growing pains for Wikipedia) was published today – so I'm not sure what Monday they're talking about.
This change was brought on by a few highly publicized errors in the Wikipedia:
First, in a Nov. 29 op-ed piece in USA Today, a former administrative assistant to Robert Kennedy [John Seigenthaler] lambasted the free online reference work for an article that suggested he may have been involved in the assassinations of both Robert F. Kennedy and John F. Kennedy.
Then, on Dec. 1, a new flurry of attention came when former MTV VJ and podcasting pioneer Adam Curry was accused of anonymously editing out references to other people's seminal podcasting work in an article about the hot new digital medium.
While I don't disagree with this move to only allow registered users to create pages, I do think the complainants are being a little silly … especially since anyone can edit the encyclopedia … meaning they could go in and fix their own pages. In fact that's what Seigenthaler ended up doing.
Let's hope this doesn't change the Wikipedia too much!
No more days off
Geeze! I took one day off from monitoring my Bloglines subscriptions and now I have over 550 new posts to read … I guess that means no more days off for me. Watch here for a bunch of updates – unless it was 550 boring posts.
WordPress
I spent yesterday helping my husband install & customize WordPress. I plan on switching to that myself, but I haven't had time yet (although I did purchase the domain). Anyway … it was a very easy install and customizing the templates hasn't been t0o difficult either. I do have one gripe … it's this new trend towards using CSS for layout … which I'll admit I have no experience with.
It seems to me that using CSS for layout is what has led to this trend of fixed width pages … and I'm really not a fan of that at all. So while I was editing the templates last night for my husband's new blog (I'll give you a link when it's all done) I found myself stripping out id & class tags and adding a table around the pages to make things expand to the entire screen … to some this may seem like sacrilege, but to me it just makes sense. Who knows maybe down the road I'll change my mind, but right now I'm going to stick to a combo of tables & CSS to create my layouts.
See inside books
No, I'm not talking about Google Book Search. I just stumbled upon this nifty little page on the San Jose State University site called Literary Locales.
Part atlas, part scrapbook, part bibliography, “Literary Locales” is a collection of links to pictorial Web sites related to the lives and works of writers.
I clicked on a few pictures like Robin Hood's Major Oak which led me to the BBC's Inside the Major Oak page.
And the discussion continues
Are you keeping with the Bill-of-Rights discussion?
And now John has replied again.
The thing I love about this back and forth is that there is no bashing going on … these two are using their blogs to have a professional discussion … a discussion they could have on the phone … but if they did it that way we'd never have had a chance to read it … or comment on it … don't you love this new trend?
John makes lots of great points in his response … the one I liked the best is:
Telling an organization to entrust it's livelihood to you without allowing them to look under the hood is not right. Even philosophically, it does't jive with the idea of web 2.0.
it just sums up everything he's been trying to say all along … and the one thing I have been complaining about for the last 5 years. Why do I have to depend on people who know nothing of my organization to fix and enhance our catalog? Why do I have to spend hours on the phone with someone who obviously has a very minimal knowledge of HTML explaining to them that they have an extra tag that is messing up my layout … why can't I go in there and remove the darn tag? — sorry just ranting about a reoccurring problem we're having.
John also says:
In my opinion, the debate over how much we've been paying vendors is not important to this discussion and is probably counterproductive.
Yes, but the amount we're paying does have something to do with it. We're shelling out money for products we're not 100% satisfied with and we keep shelling it out because changing means learning a new system and dealing with new problems … what ever happened to you “you get what you pay for”? In an age where open-source technologies (that are as good if not better than the proprietary packages) are being churned out by the second, ILS vendors can't afford to charge what they're charging for what they're offering … it just won't fly for long … which is what I think John was saying:
What vendors need to be asking themselves is, 'If we don't change, will we still be in business?' I see rough times ahead for vendors as the gravy train comes screeching to a halt.
Well that's it for my 2 cents on the subject … I'm off to see what others are saying.
Map Mashups
I've written about Google Maps Mania in the past. Today I found a nifty little site (with a cute interface) that finds the cheapest gas near you – Map Gase Prices.com. I don't know where it's getting it's data … but it didn't find my cheapest gas station ($2.14) but it may find one you didn't know about near you.
Library Technology Advocate???
Are you kidding me? That's how Michael Gorman is introduced in a snippet on the InfoToday Blog (ironic?) entitled Libraries in a Perilous Era. Apparently the ALA president feels that libraries are facing “gigantic issues”:
The emphasis on quick search and the retrieval of nuggets of information defies the thoughtful process of the scholarly tradition and libraries' role in preserving and providing access to the human record of recorded knowledge, he said.With the emphasis on quick search, Gorman said, “We've gone from cataloging to this sort of reduction of full texts . . . and a new age of amateurism [blogs] . . . and a belief in the great myth that everything is available on the Internet and everyone can find what they want.”
When I read what this man has to say I feel like I'm reading something my grandfather would write … something backwards and the exact opposite of what a “technology advocate” would think.
Times are changing and if libraries don't change with them then there won't be libraries anymore. We can't stay the still while the world around us is changing. Gorman is right about one thing … people want instant results (quick search and nuggets) … and if we as library professionals don't do everything we can to help people find the right information quickly, we're going to lose our patrons.
As far as the comment on amateurism … well I'll redirect you to Bill Drew's post on the subject.
The ball is back in John's court
Talis has a reply to John's reply to their reply to the ILS Customer Bill-of-Rights … get that? As Richard from Talis puts it:
Anyway, I'm now going to make life even more complex by responding to Joh's response to my response to his Bill-of-rights.
I'm not going to comment too much … because I forsee a much more detailed reply/comment coming from John … basically I have to say that I wish our vendor was reading and replying to these comments … the fact that Talis is doing this much is amazing (and should be expected of all ILS vendors) and has given them a big plus in my book …
