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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: March 2006
WiFi Hotels
After our experiences in Washington at CIL a bunch of bloggers are wondering what next year will be like at a new hotel. Well Lifehacker has a post about the Best and worst hotels for WiFi. I haven’t read the reports yet, but I’m sure they’re handy.
Don’t miss the Carnival
It’s hosted at Open Stacks this week.
Another Tech Savvy Staff Tip
I was reflecting on what I learned last week at the conference and I thought I should share with you all one way that we’re trying to create Tech Savvy Staff – and it’s free!
We (meaning I) look for free webinars offered through places like OPAL, SirsiDynix and KM World and invite the entire staff to attend in our multi-purpose room. This room is wired to allow the sound from the computer to come through speakers in the ceiling and it had a large screen and projector. This way we can feel like we’re at a conference or official training session and we don’t have to pay a penny.
What ways are you training your staff? Or are there other places I should be looking for Webinars?
Us vs Them – Why??
It makes me sad. Well it makes me angry first, but then when that passes I’m sad. I was debating whether to say anything or not – considering how upset my last (seemingly innocent) post made people, but no one is in the library yet – so I only have you guys to share with.
Steven has a post on Library Stuff titled Back To Boolean? A Call to…Goodness Sake! – seemingly harmless title right? I just read through all of the comments on this post (which by the way are in reverse chronological order – if you’re like me and started reading at the top only to find you have no idea what people are talking about 
) and that’s what made me sad.
There is such a us versus them mentality when it comes to Library 2.0 topics. Sarah from LibrarianInBlack comments:
You have created an “us vs. them” where there is no us or them, just a bunch of library folks trying to make things better for our users. That’s what we’re all after.
and
You talk about “sides” to Library 2.0. There shouldn’t be sides. There are some great ideas in Library 2.0. Take what you can from it, but don’t unnecessarily turn it into a polarizing issue.
Now, I have no idea when this mentality started – or who might have started it – but the sentiment is what I want to get across. Why are we arguing? Why are we nitpicking? Like Meredith says:
I’m sick of bloggers attacking people over 1 little tiny word they said while ignoring their actual message.
It makes me wish that a name was never given to these ideas. Because like Amanda Etches-Johnson pointed out in her presentation at the DigiTech forum at CIL these ideas have been around for ages – I think the oldest quote she showed us was from 1995 (I may be wrong) – so all we’ve done is take these ideas, lump them together and give them a name and now we’re split down the middle.
Anyone here watch Gilmore Girls? (no I’m not going off topic – bear with me here) I feel like the townspeople when Like Luke & Lorelai broke up – some of us should be wearing blue ribbons and the rest pink ribbons – that way we know who’s on what side and we don’t have to talk to each other. Maybe that’s extreme, but it’s that same sort of frustration and fear of upsetting someone that makes me so upset (sad upset – not mad upset).
Postscript: Now – to the people who are upset with me (although that was not my intent) please be aware that my spam blocker stops all comments – it is not a reflection on my feelings about what you have to say – I will approve all comments in good time.
Another Online Word Processor
Unlike Writely or ZohoWriter, ajaxWrite does not allow for collaboration, but it does look just like Word. There is no online storage, but you can save the file to your computer as PDF, DOC, or other popular formats. You need Firefox 1.5 or higher to give this little tool a whirl.
Blogging a conference
This is the first year I was a blogger at CIL – it’s my first year as a blogger at all – what’s the point? Well I was reading everyone else’s summaries (now that mine are finished) and I saw this bullet point from Amanda Etches-Johnson and I just had to share it here because I agree 100%.
Blogging a conference makes the experience better. It just does. It certainly was a lot more work to summarize the sessions and add the linkage after the fact, but I'm glad I did it. It gave me a chance to check out the stuff the speakers pointed out as well as reflect upon what I'd heard. I feel like I really engaged with the content rather than having it simply wash over me. I hope you got something out of it too.
This really is true – every other year I come back to work and put my notes on our staff intranet – mostly bullet points and suggestions. This year I was able to write coherent summaries of each session and which got me thinking not only while I was listening, but while I was writing later on.
The conference in pictures
A lot of people have been adding their CIL pictures to Flickr – but only one has sketches from the sessions! Derik Badman sketched what he saw while in sessions and around the conference.
Very cool! And fun if you were in the same session because you know exactly what part he was sketching.
The Wikipedia/Britannica Debate
Back in December there was a lot of news coverage regarding an article in Nature magazine that stated that both Wikipedia and Britannica had a similar number of errors. Well Britannica has replied with a 20 page report (which I have not read all of – for reasons already stated – I’m way behind)
In its December 15, 2005, issue, the science journal Nature published an article that claimed to compare the accuracy of the online Encyclopædia Britannica with Wikipedia, the Internet database that allows anyone, regardless of knowledge or qualifications, to write and edit articles on any subject. Wikipedia had recently received attention for its alleged inaccuracies, but Nature’s article claimed to have found that “such high-profile examples [of major errors in Wikipedia] are the exception rather than the rule” and that “the difference in accuracy [between Britannica and Wikipedia] was not particularly great.”
I don’t know about you – but to me it sounds like Britannica is a little miffed. Apparently they called for Nature to pull the article and Nature has declined stating that “We reject those accusations, and are confident our comparison was fair.”
Technorati Tags: wikis, wikipedia, britannica
DigiTech Props
I mentioned that Darlene Fichter had great props for the DigiTech Forum – well Nancy Garmen from Info Today got a great picture. Make sure you check it out.
PS. I’m catching up on my reading so I’ll probably have more CIL summaries to share with you from the other bloggers.
