Gadget presentation intro slide from tomorrow’s event sponsored by the Pierce County Public Library. This presentation’s angle is on the 55+ set. And this is just one of the many presentations that will be held as a part of this event. It’ll be fun and you can come if you’ll be around!
If you’ll be in Vancouver, Washington at the OLA/WLA Joint Conference feel free to swing by the presentation I’m doing with my good buddy, Chris Peters (from TechSoup). We’re talking about trends in computing, deepening/impending ubiquity of said computing and what it all means, and might mean, for libraries. Cool stuff!
Truncated version of the presentation with notes is up on Slideshare here (What’s up with the pics not showing up on the first slide, Slideshare?):
Sure it was sunny and 70 in Seattle today, but I had a high old time indoors, configuring my new Chumby:
After spending a couple hours with this (literally) squeezable little computer, I am convinced that libraries could get some serious value from Chumby. A few of them, configured with promo jazzy promo material and carefully placed in public areas would have some real impact. Sure, you’d have to chain them down, but it would really get serious attention. I mean, these little things are COOL!
I’ll likely post more Chumby related things soon, but for now, check out this Animoto.com video and imagine what you could do with your own spiffy library promo video. Their videos play on Chumby or a web page, was free, required no coding on my end, used pictures from my flickr account and was up and running with about 30 mins of work and waiting. Pretty sweet, eh?:
My new Chumby just arrived today. It matches my new living room color scheme, but I digress… Oh, I just can’t wait to get home and play with it! It is basically a small wireless open source computer displays widgets, cams, pictures, RSS feeds and also has speakers to play web tunes (even works with another fave of mine, Pandora). I may use the countdown clock, the moon phase clock and of course, this is now my new alarm clock. So long bacteria laden hotel room alarm clocks. Hello bacteria laden Chumby! Ha ha!
The 2008 gadget of the year? Wonder if *you* will be asking for one as a gift at the end of the year? Hmmm…..
I try hard to keep work separate from this blog. Very rarely though, there is some spill over beyond me saying “I did this at work”. And now is one of those happy times. Actually, it’s more of a “I know these great folks from OCLC who shared a sneak peak and now I am allowed to share a bit of the juicy stuff as well”. At this point it is mostly informative and less participatory. And it is very beta. A test. What is it?
It is the WorldCat application for facebook! It is NOT listed in the application directory on Facebook so you have to receive an invite to get it. It may change, it may stick, it may not. Regradless, as a dutiful beta tester, I’ve included a couple of screen shots here for the curious. Click any image to got to it’s flickr page and be able to see it much larger:
Logged in view of the facebook WorldCat app:
If you get an invitation to beta test it will show up looking like this once you are logged in to facebook (I circled it in red so it would stand out):
When you click the invite, you get something like this explaining the app:
This bug has gone bye bye (I was an early beta tester, lol). You really likely won’t ever see this, but it was funny:
And again, a view logged in to the app. I know, I know, it gets cut off, but this time its bigger (Go away giant MONK ad!:):
I am very grateful to be looped into the testing and am also happy to share that I generously told:
“If you want to, you could blog it. But your readers will need an invite to get the app so that could create some overhead for you.”
Ok. I can handle that. I think. 
How about this, if you have a facebook account and want to give this a beta run, drop me a line. Email or on facebook is fine. Feel free to friend me on facebook while your at it. If possible, you will get an invite to test based on speed of response. I’ll pass the info along as quickly as possible given the holiday weekend. Assume though at this point that you’ll be put on a list of potential beta folks and that if you get an invite then you get to test. This is a very informal get the word out a little bit of community sharing, not an official work initiative by any means. I am doing this ’cause I like it and it is pretty darn neat in theory. Not really for work (though from work I know) Ahhh.. overhead reduced (and level of my tertiary involvement revealed).
Does the title of this post make anyone wonder about our information creation and consumption environment? Wouldn’t it be good to be able to have a WorldCat that would allow us to flip it and say “You got your facebook in my WorldCat?”
PS-If you look at the pics and ask yourself “Who is Bob Robertson Boyd?”, I would guess you might expect to ask yourself that question a bit more in the future. Bob works with a team of folks on “social stuff” at OCLC in Dublin, Ohio and does some fine work. And just to clarify, I work on the team at WebJunction in Seattle that works on “social stuff” and, as most of you know, WebJunction has some nifty connections to OCLC.
My friend and fellow practical library tech booster, Steve Campion, sent me this message on facebook today:
Hey Michael,
Is singing in your new job description? Someone suggested that either you or I need to sing this song at ALA Midwinter. I’m not going, so it might be up to you.
~Steve
His post says:
To the tune of “The Major-General’s Song”
With apologies to Gilbert & Sullivan… and you…I advocate creation of a social network library,
Dispense with thoughts a-plenty in my blog much like a diary,
And show how common MySpace is, it dominates the territ’ry
‘Cuz people like to share their lives; it’s really quite extraordin’ry.I upload pix of our events on a communal Flickr page,
And make it easy to YouTube; that latest clip is all the rage.
Encourage interaction for our young and old of any age,
Makes working here as fun as anything they do at Cam-ba-ridge.I recommend Delicious, Facebook, wikis, Ning, and R-S-S,
Use tag clouds, gaming, apps and widgets, and I twitter to excess.
It matters that our patrons are involved with our transparency.
I advocate creation of a social network library.
Well firstly, I wish you were going to be at Midwinter. Secondly, while I’d be willing to give this my best effort, you must know the outcome would likely be more in line with Homer Simpson’s performance cited below:
Homer: Well, here I am, right on time. I don’t see Barney “Let’s
crash the rocket into the White House and kill the President”
Gumble…
Assistant: Actually, he’s been here since sunrise.
[Barney works with a punching bag]
Barney: Hi Homer. Since they made me stop drinking, I’ve regained my
balance and diction! Observe: [does backflips] “I am the
very model of a modern major general, I’ve information
vegetable, animal, and mineral.”
Homer: Oh, that’s nothing. Watch this: [does cartwheels] “There
once was a man from Nantucket, Whose –” [smashes into a
wall]
*link to full episode script*
In related news, the new Futurama DVD was released today. W00t!
In completely unrelated news: Pretty song, pretty books, pretty people
Our Posse in the October Issue of School Library Journal. Well, teeny parts of our posse. Also, SLJ staff tells me: “we’re sending a special edition newsletter on 2.0, that includes this short piece”. The posse approves.
Original pic they so politely asked to use. Hi Rochelle!:
A blog post, an event page and a press release. Thanks Palo Alto! Or more accurately: Excellent advocacy work, Palo Alto! Sure, it’s my ugly mug up there, but the fact of the matter is they are bringing someone from outside into their community to help. Carefully selected bits of specialized knowledge and experience can be used to help inform decisions, facilitate brainstorming and can lend a hand to libraries trying to be transparent to the community they serve. Working hard to decide how to best implement what users/patrons really want is more important now than ever before and bringing in appropriate amounts and types of outside thought can significantly assists libraries in making important decisions about the technological directions they take.
So this is exceptionally commendable of Palo Alto (and really has almost nothing to do with me individually). Having said that, perhaps I should have highlighted someone else’s public library tech presentation to make this point? While not entirely common, there are other examples, and each make me equally happy and hopeful for that community and their library.
As far as Palo Alto goes, I really do hope lots of folks show up. It’ll be a great chance to cover some important issues, issue a challenge or two and get some back-and-forth going on things that are driving libraries (and society at large).
As further example, here is the text from the press release for the event:
10/25/2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE #10/25/07
Subject :
Library Technology Expert Michael Porter to Speak at Palo Alto City Hall
Contact :
Mary Minto, Division Manager, Library (650) 329-2517
Palo Alto, CA – Library technologist, Michael Porter, trainer and author, will share his expertise November 8 from 7–9 p.m. on how public libraries use new digital tools to build communities. His presentation, “Your Library’s Future Has Changed: Technology, Content and Community,” will include a look at the web sites of innovative libraries that are using social networking tools and creative implementation to provide access to information and create connections in their communities.
Michael Porter is Community Associate for WebJunction, an organization funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to assist libraries and cultural organizations in meeting their objectives through the effective use of web-based technologies. His professional focus is on technology, community, and training. He co-authors the “Internet Spotlight” column in Public Libraries magazine and is writing a book about effective electronic communities.
The talk will be hosted by the Palo Alto City Library, which is gearing up to develop a library technology plan by early 2008. This free program is sponsored by the Friends of the Palo Alto Library.
· Date and Time: Thursday, November 8, 2007, 7–9 p.m.
· Place: Council Chambers, City Hall, 250 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto
Visit the Library web site at www.cityofpaloalto.org/library for more information.”
Very nice! I look forward to seeing everyone in Palo Alto (and Sunnyvale and Santa Clara Co. too) later this week!
-Michael
Mmmm hmmmm….
Do a SWOT, y’all!
Tim?
