Advantages to podcasting

What are some advantages to an audio podcast over text-based presentation?

This post is in response to the above question, which was posed by the professor, Anselm Spoerri, in the course podcast here. My response, summarized after the jump, is available here.

What I see as the major advantages of the podcast are getting access to users who can feel overwhelmed by overly hyperlinked and visually "noisy" web presentation. These types of sites are common, and can often turn readers off. Another possible advantage (not mentioned in my response) is accessing users who are quite mobile, and like to have access to internet content while not necessarily being tethered to a device that can display web content. For example, commuters who hate morning radio would perhaps prefer this style of delivery.

If you can't tell (based on this rather lengthy explanation of my response) I am a very visual person, and express myself much better and more thoroughly though writing. I also prefer to digest information through reading and exploring web content myself, rather than having it explained aurally.

I suppose I would be remiss if, after my espousal of the importance of hyperlinking to content, I did not include the appropriate links here. The Sirsi/Dynix podcast can be found here (or the direct feed), and, for a good example of visual "noise," maybe you should check out this good reason to stay away from certain blogs. Continue reading...

My first audio story

This ended up being a pretty weak story, mostly because I was testing out the software and trying out the editing. I don't want to ruin the ending, but lets just say it involves me as a child and a bicycle.

Here it is.
Continue reading...

2009 Shovers & Makers (nominate your bad self!)

Congratulations to me! I have been awarded an honorary student Shover & Maker award from the Library Society of the World.

From the About page:

No one knows what you have been doing all year as well as you do. No one knows what motivates you, what your professional passions are, why you work so hard on behalf of your patrons, clients or co-workers. So only you really know why you are a winner. Please write a quick profile of why you are a winner this year, and it will get published on this site.

So anyway, I won, but so did you. And you. Let everyone know at http://www.shoversandmakers.net/ Continue reading...

The long tail, vol. 2

How do libraries/Librarians fill roles as New Producers, New Markets, and New Tastemakers?

I think this goes back to something that I mentioned last week when we posted about the Long Tail. As we didn't exactly read up on these specific concepts, I'm just fudging here, but based on the simple names, I think I can guess well enough.

New producers? As I have mentioned, librarians have been fulfilling this role by making new content out of what already exists. They take books, provide access to and information about them and produce an environment which cherishes reading. These days, it goes much further than books, and the Long Tail becomes evident in that context. Audio, video, digital content (we all know how much librarians love wikis) all of these are beginning to be collected and disseminated through the library in ways that are beneficial to users, and expansive in terms of simply looking beyond the New York Times Bestsellers List, or even Technorati.

New markets? Libraries have long been an alternative "market" if you want to conceive of it in that way. It is less a market, and more of a marketplace. Instead of peddling wares, libraries and the people who inhabit them come together to make a space that is much greater than the sum or cash value of its parts. Free (and, yes, sometimes illegal) sharing of content and ideas is the principle upon which new markets are being founded everyday. Clay Shirky recently pointed out that we don't know exactly how things are going to shake out, but certainly the mode of information sharing and community participation is active (and completely legitimate) in the library.

New tastemakers? Readers' advisory, reference service, blogs and now Twitter are all ways that libraries have and continue to provide information to users about what is the latest and greatest, or simply unheard of as yet. I guess what I'm saying here is: grow on, Long Tail, we'll keep up. Continue reading...

Blog Analytics

I have been complaining lately via Twitter (not our class account but rather on @danhooker) about how Internet Explorer bothers me. Not only because I am a big proponent of open-source software and open access, but just in general. I have done simple web design in the past and had to battle making ridiculous changes to my CSS just to get an OK render on IE. What a pleasant surprise to me that the visitors to my blog thus far (that's you) are almost exclusively Firefox users!

The big blue you see there are Firefox users, and the tiny green speck is the Internet Explorer use. Now, I am not blaming anyone for using IE if they do... it is admittedly quite difficult to get away from when you are Windows user (though now there is word of being able to get rid of it in Windows 7, whee!). I simply think it is a positive thing if so many web readers are using Firefox.

As for connection speed, a majority were Cable internet, but I had a rather large number of "Unknown" speeds. I'm not quite sure what to make of that. Dial-up didn't even register as any visits, so I guess that's progress. Continue reading...

My ed-experience

Falling into coming to school in Vancouver for me was primarily motivated first by place, then by price, then by sheer luck I think. I came from the University of Wisconsin, where, as you may know, there is a library school and one that is looked fairly well upon (or so I hear). I had a job, I had friends there, so in many ways it would have been ideal, but I guess I was just ready to leave. Madison is a wonderful community and I secretly hope to make it back one day, but at the time of the decision, I'm sure now that it was the right thing to leave.

You can see the pictures that I uploaded to describe my "ed experience" here. The whole class project group is here. I first entertained the notion of coming to Vancouver for graduate school because I had heard such good things about living in the Pacific Northwest. Then I saw the tuition rates. A calendar year at SLAIS runs me $7,200 CAD. All UBC graduate students are required to maintain a year-round relationship with the school, so that price is for 2 normal semesters, and both summer terms regardless of whether I enroll in classes.

To compare, fall and spring semesters at UW-Madison are $5,600 USD, plus $4,100 for summer (if I chose to enroll). That is a total of $15,300 for the year. More than double! I couldn't believe it, and started working immediately on my application.

I always have to temper my enthusiasm with the fact that the cost of living in Vancouver is much higher than in the States (though perhaps not New York City, as those of you living there may attest) so that evens things out a bit. But either way, that turned my Pacific living dream into a reality.

So what else can I say about my education experience here? It is a time of political struggle at SLAIS, but that makes it a good time to be around in many ways. We are currently conducting a series of interviews for the school director positions (the candidates are currently confidential) as well as for two open faculty positions. It has been very interesting to be in on the process of selecting a new figurehead for the school... for example, I am personally very interested in technology so it was hard for me to like (though I did end up liking) one candidate whose research interests were of a more humanist bent. I have a background in the Humanities, but I'm not sure that's where the field of LIS needs to be heading.

Along those lines, I have been talking with several of my peers about desiring more technology oriented classes in the SLAIS curriculum. There are some, though none along the lines of web development and design, which I am personally interested in as it applies to our field. They are offering a social media course next fall which I am happy about, but I'll have already been in this one. I know there are options outside of SLAIS for courses such as these, but that is difficult and there has been little outreach between departments so far in my experience.

This is not to say I am unhappy here. Overall, my experience in the classes I have taken have all been very positive, and though there is some want for a larger, stable faculty, the base faculty here now is solid and they have all been very warm and welcoming of new students, and, now that I am one, of continuing students as well.

Well. I think I've said enough. There is more of course, but I will spare you. If you're interested in talking more just let me know. I could go on, I am sure. Continue reading...

pbwiki v. wetpaint

The battle of the free wiki programs. The first thing to notice about Wetpaint as opposed to PBWiki is the coding. Wetpaint's design is filled to the brim with cutting edge web stuff like floating toolbars for page editing, collapsible everything and transparency a-go-go. PBWiki keeps it a little simpler in this regard, and I can't quite decide which I prefer. Being a web design fan myself, I can appreciate the effort which it must have required to develop Wetpaint's functionality, but it seems perhaps that the money spent on design has to be made up by advertisements or membership fees.

This is, of course, not exactly an unfamiliar model for web applications, but coming from using PBWiki which has run both membership-free and ad-free since I have used it, it does take a little getting used to. I find that I use wikis the most for group planning or project development. In that context, having ads run on the sidebar is pretty unappetizing.

That being said, watching the CommonCraft video on WetPaint provides a different perspective on how Wetpaint is trying to develop its user base. These are not supposed to be wikis for a group of students planning out a project. Wetpaint is catering toward the book and fan club users, seeking to find a home on the web. This sense is heightened by the easy addition of page "modules" and "widgets" that connect your Wetpaint wiki to other web services like YouTube or iMeem. It also breaks some of the contextual barriers around the presence of ads. I am more comfortable seeing ads on Amazon Recommends, than I am on Google Docs.

In this course, we are already used to PBWiki, and it seems to serve the purpose of planning out the course quite well. The traditional WYSIWYG editor of the PBWiki pages is familiar, and with no ads lurking around it feels more like a learning space than Wetpaint.

Given my usual desires for a wiki, I think I'll stick by PBWiki (as long as they keep it free, anyway). But, given the enhanced functionality of Wetpaint, it certainly would be something to consider for other users. Continue reading...

The long tail

Is the library world as a whole set to benefit from the Long Tail?

The long tail is a concept that makes a lot of sense in my mind, but it also seems to me that libraries have been invested in the concept of the long tail forever. Though there are indeed the constraints of "physical space" on a public library's collection (collection development is necessarily driven by local interest), the core service of readers' advisory is, as I see it, the same thing as Amazon's "Customers also bought these..."

Though we as consumers have a traditional "hit-based" economic model ingrained into our conception of the market, I see the library as already enacting a long tail model in that it strives to provide free services, both "hit-based" (popular fiction, perhaps?) and marginal (manga, maybe?), in order to achieve the kind of model that Anderson is so adamant about supporting.

Parts of Anderson's article are indeed prescient in ways that can, however, have an additional effect on the library. He paraphrases Danny Stein at one point who argues music may move away from an ownership model completely. "With ubiquitous broadband, both wired and wireless, more consumers will turn to the celestial jukebox of music services that offer every track ever made, playable on demand." We can see this happening already with services like Pandora and, even more customizable, Spotify. Where Pandora chooses music for you based on things you say you like, Spotify lets you choose exactly what you want, when you want it.

Imagine a public library service that could offer the same thing? Or something like Netflix's "Watch Instantly"? Or an academic library that could produce articles or chapters of books "on-demand" for students and faculty, if the market dictated to academic publishers in the same way that the music market has to its own powers that be.

As the market changes for consumers, so the advantages for libraries will increase. Loosening up the requirements on republishing or making music or print material available to the public is where I see the long tail's continued advantage for libraries. And while we wait for the market to catch up, we can all still checkout our favorite DVDs at the local public branch. Continue reading...

Productivity through Google Docs

I had hardly any experience with Google Docs until about a month ago when I was working on a project with a partner as part of a course. Aside from having convienient online storage, there isn't much to be noted about cloud applications until you need to work collaboratively across a group.

Once you have that need, however, it is incredible the ease with which you can collaborate and produce a cohesive project among more than one person. Emailing a .doc file, tracking changes, and getting headaches are things that spawn a disjointed and often noticeably splintered project. Given the ability to look at the same document at the same time is something that greatly improves this process, but it doesn't seem to be something that we are used to doing, and that makes it difficult to explain.

In my mind, it takes a good experience with a Google Doc project in order to add it to the list of things that actually increase your productivity, instead of staying on the other popular list: those things that seem like they might help but really just aren't worth it in the end (cheap shot, sorry).

Can I foresee any issues between Google Docs and faculty on a campus? I guess I could, though once it was explained, I can't come up with a valid reason against it. Obviously it increases the availability of student assignments on the web, though if the assignment was designed to be completed by a group, I don't see any ethical issues with that at all. An individual who was misusing the online availability of the document by sharing it inappropriately with other peers may present a problem, but I don't see this as a large enough issue to reduce adoption of Google Docs (or any online office suite) on campus. Continue reading...

the great class tag

Putting our whole class together and having us tag 10 websites that best described what we were like as individuals turned out to be an interesting sport. First of all, I found it difficult to express who "I am" through a series of websites. I think, however, that once I caught onto isolating particular things about myself, I was able to find resources that adequetly expressed those certain facets. If you are curious, here is my list (Turns out there's twelve on there, so pick your own top ten, I guess).

Scanning over the class list, I can see that now the list contains things other than what may have been chosen as personal description. Gmail, perhaps, is not particularly illuminating. However, looking a bit more closely reveals gems such as KOHLER faucets and Trendy Togs. I find that bookmarks like these really can speak on someone's behalf.

There didn't turn out to be much overlap, unfortunately, between how class members defined themselves in bookmarks. But this I suppose has less to do with the fact that we have nothing in common than with the fact that the internet is a large and wild place. There are of course many different web sites out there with similar content. What is revealing about this process, I thought, was the amount of introspection it takes to figure out which one you choose.

I would like this exercise as a sort of icebreaker. Even though now it seems that most members of this particular course have a certain rapport, given the opportunity again, I think it would be a great way to begin a course like this, or any social media project for that matter.

To butcher Aldous Huxley: there is only one corner of the internet you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self. Continue reading...