Nifty!
Zookoda is an email marketing application designed specifically for bloggers. Zookoda enables you to send a daily, weekly or monthly summary of your latest blog posts directly into your vistors inbox. Oh…did we mention – it's all FREE!
This might be handy for us at the library – we send out a monthly email newsletter and our blog content would be a good addition or a would be good as as second newsletter – hmm – I’ll need to think on this.
Okay I found out about this from Stephen Abram’s site (who read about it on Gizmodo) – Library 2.0 commentary aside – this is way cool & and a little funny.
Ipfini offers the ability to program your soda with up to 32 different combinations. The patent-pending bottle design has aroma, flavor and color buttons on the side. The bottle is filled with basic carbonated high-fructose water and the user hits additives to taste. For instance, press the cherry flavor button and add the lime smell. One can only assume you shake the bottle vigorously to mix and then hand it to an unsuspecting cow-orker and enjoy the show. After hearing it was programmable, the obvious questions arose: where are the caffeine buttons and will it run Linux?
OH MY GOODNESS!! This is just too much fun to pass up trying at least once!
There is a lively discussion going on over at Walt at Random – and I have to share my favorite response with you all. John Blyberg posted this “Let's just settle this the old fashion way once and for all. 
” How funny is that? You know I’ve heard the term Google fight before – and I thought I had seen the Google Fight site – but apparently I hadn’t.
A lot of you expressed an interest in our Intranet redesign project when I posted about it in January – well you can soon read about it in ONLINE magazine. Marydee actually mentions it in a post on her blog – it’s a tiny mention – but it’s there.
Now don’t start screaming – the title is Intranet 2.0: Fostering Collaboration with our Homegrown Intranet – and the 2.0 is there for 2 reasons. #1 it is actually the second version of our Intranet – #2 because we use a lot of Web 2.0 technologies (blogs, wikis, RSS, etc). I hope you all enjoy the read as much as we enjoyed doing the redesign.
At CIL last week one of the presenters (I can’t remember which) mentioned Second Life. Don’t know what that is? Well it’s a massively multi-player online role-playing game – but it’s not like the others. There are no adventures, there are no dragons to slay or ogres to fight – there is only a virtual life to live.
I was actually a member of the Second Life beta test back in 2003 (I think). My husband and I would sit for hours at our computers and play together. We built a house and made online friends – we even set up our own little store. Back then things were different though – back then we only had Second Life dollars to play with – not now apparenly people are playing with real money – up to $1000 a month in real money!
What does this have to do with libraries? I’m not sure – I guess we’re supposed to join in the fun and create a virtual library on Second Life in order to advertise ourselves – but $1000 a month is more than I think we need to spend.
Why are people spending so much? Apparently they are paying for virtual land. I’m not sure if they’re making money off of that land – but I only pay a little more than that for my actual mortgage!
What brought this up? Well I keep reading about how Linden Lab – the creators of Second Life have scored $11 million in funding – and I wanted to do a little research to find out why they were able to get funding for a game – and it looks like the reason is because of how much people are spending to play this game.
Okay I have a meeting in 6 minutes, so I have to type fast. Rory at Library Juice has an interesting post about Questioning the Techie Mission.
In short he sees that most librarian bloggers are fans of technology and talk about little else on their blogs – of course there is a lot more meat to the post – but like I said I’m on a time clock here.
It got me thinking – and I think the obvious reason for his observations is that the non-techie librarians don’t want to blog – because they’re not techie – so you get a one sided view of the field because of this. Hmmmm – Catch 22 is what I called it in my comment on his post.
Go read the whole thing to get a better feel for what he’s saying – I’m off to a meeting about Z39.50 – yipppeee! (note the sarcasm here)
A member of the Web4Lib list asked this question:
I and a colleague are interested in alternative web OPAC front end systems such as the aquabrowser (http://aquabrowser2.kcls.org/aquabrowser/ ). We’d like to write an article on the topic, exploring the pros and cons. So far, I know about Aquabrowser, endeca (http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/endeca/ ) and Casy Bissons Wpopac (which isn’t commercial, but I would still consider it a “competitor” of sorts). Does anyone know of any other products/competitors?
He is compiling a list on del.icio.us for those of us who want to see the options that are out there.
CIL Presentations are being posted all over the place. Be sure to check the official ITI page for a full listing.
Next week is National Library Week and at Jenkins we offer a week packed with CLE (Continuing Legal Education) classes – and one class by me on web design. This year we’re offering a Blog & RSS course for the first time – YIPPPEEE! But the real reason I’m sharing this with you all is that we just sent out an email to GPLLA (Greater Philadelphia Law Library Association) inviting members to join us in our Multi-Purpose room for Michael Stephen’s OPAL event.
OPAL is an international collaborative effort by libraries of all types to provide web-based programs and training for library users and library staff members. These live events are held in online rooms where participants can interact via voice-over-IP, text chatting, and synchronized browsing.
You are invited to join the staff at Jenkins and other members of GPLLA for an online technology program during National Library Week.
Ten Top Technologies for Librarians in 2006
April 6, 2006, Thursday – 3pm – 4pm (Multi-Purpose Room at Jenkins Law Library)
What trends should librarians be watching? What’s the next big thing? Join librarian and Tame the Web blogger Michael Stephens for a discussion of ten technologies to be aware of in 2006 and beyond. We’ll touch on user-centered planning, changes to integrated library systems, conversations, communities, and the Cluetrain.To RSVP, please reply to this message by April 5th.
For more information about OPAL (Online Programming for All Libraries) and upcoming events, check out their website http://www.opal-online.org/index.html
Wishing everyone a Happy National Library Week!
How cool is that!! What are you doing for National Library Week?
Paul Miller has posted a follow up to his presentation at CIL last week. He commented on our (the biblioblogosphere’s) doubts that vendors will ever live up to the dream he presented to us.
Change is hard. Change can hurt. Given where we are now, and where the wider world is going, change is essential. We need to work with libraries in order to ensure that they can project themselves and their services (both from the individual library and in various aggregate forms that will inevitably cross multiple vendors) outside their walls and beyond their web sites and into the lives of our users, whether actual or potential.
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Rather than assume that your vendor will never change, why not incentivise that change (by asking for APIs, web services, etc, again and again and again), assist that change (by showing them what’s possible, and by locating and supporting the free thinkers who do exist within your vendor), and even help to force that change (by writing appropriate clauses into your specifications for new system procurements, and meaning it)?
He calls for us to discuss possiblities in the TDN, he asks that we point our vendors there and have like minded librarians join in as well.
“Small voices loosely coupled can be incredibly powerful.” – what a nice quote.
