Stephen's Lighthouse: December 2006 Archives

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December 29, 2006

2066 Forecast

Yes, that says 2066 in the headline and not 2006. They've also got a 2026 forecast too.

Who? Why the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) of course, It's the 60th anniversary of their founding.

It is quilte fun - speculative in an inventive kind of way. I liked the look back at 1946 too, and its sense of optimism.

Here's the release:

"Setting the standard for 60 years

2006 marks the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the Economist Intelligence Unit. To celebrate our birthday, we have produced a report that appraises the crucial global developments which have taken place over the past sixty years, and then speculates on what lies in store for business and economies over the next 60 years.

Celebrating 60 years…with a glimpse of the future. [PDF 3.24 MB]

Our specially commissioned report provides:

- A look back at some of the Economist Intelligence Unit's past triumphs, including a prescient report on Iraq market entry strategies (published in 1961 but surely still of use today) and an analysis of the market for frogs legs in France.
- An assessment of the fierce rivalry between the Economist Intelligence Unit and its sister organisation, The Economist, both on and off the cricket pitch.
- A review of the key developments which have shaped the world and business in the past 60 years, from the expanding output to expanding waistlines.
- An informed look ahead to 2026, including the likely impact of an ageing population in the developed world and the expected course of globalisation.
- A somewhat more speculative look at 2066, suggesting a list of potential new countries and global companies, and wondering how the world will cope with rising sea levels, nuclear proliferation, and average London house prices reaching five million pounds.

Find out more about the Economist Intelligence Unit at 60."

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)

December 28, 2006

Experts on What's Ahead

The LA Times (December 28, 2006) has a good article interviewing six great thinkers on what's ahead in technology. You can read it here.

What will they think of next?
Napster in 1999. MySpace in 2004. YouTube in 2006. Experts from the tech community look ahead to the innovations that will change how we work, play and communicate in 2007.

The seven are: STEVE BALLMER; NED SHERMAN; RAFAT ALI; KEVIN WERBACH; CHRIS ANDERSON; HANK BARRY; JOHN BROCKMAN

STEVE BALLMER (CEO of Microsoft Corp.)

"You'll be back in control" except he talks about DRM and a single electronic identity.

NED SHERMAN (CEO and publisher of digitalmediawire.com)

"Where virtual meets real life" and talks about Second Life and potnetial for training and education.

RAFAT ALI (editor of paidContent.org)

"Breakout acts" and the potential for break out performers to emerge in the virtual world.

KEVIN WERBACH (assistant professor of legal studies and business ethics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the organizer of the Supernova technology conference (supernova2007.com))

"Video Napster" and the potential for exponential growth curve for the Internet as a video platform for longer form movies and TV shows.

CHRIS ANDERSON (editor in chief of Wired magazine)

"Gaming as communication" YouTube ads and the merging bbridge between games, TV and the web.

HANK BARRY (was chief executive of Napster)

'Memory to go" and the virtualization of all technoology and software. Beyond the USB memory stick...

JOHN BROCKMAN (publisher and editor of Edge (edge.org))

"All computing, all the time" and ubiquitous WiFI computing and nanotechnology. "Synthetic Biology pioneer George Church of Harvard University expects $3,000 personal genomics kits in stores." "Rod Brooks, director of MIT's computer lab, is looking at new Web services aimed at the baby boomer age group, who realize that, in terms of IT use, they've been passed by, missing out on IM, text-messaging, MySpace, etc. "

Lots to noodle on here.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 3:08 PM | Comments (0)

Gartner's 2007 Predictions

Gartner Highlights Key Predictions for IT Organizations in 2007 and Beyond

STAMFORD, Conn., December 13, 2006 — Gartner, Inc. released today 10 key predictions that showcase the trends and events that will change the nature of business and IT in 2007 and beyond.

These predictions are for general technology areas rather than specific to industries or roles within an organization. The predictions are intended to compel high-tech companies and IT professionals within enterprises to action and position themselves to take advantage of the coming changes, and not be damaged by them.

“Selected from across our research areas as the most compelling and critical predictions, the trends and topics they address this year indicate that priorities, markets, cultures and technologies are all rapidly changing,” said Daryl Plummer, managing vice president and Gartner Fellow. “These changes will require that IT and business change their approach to delivering and quantifying value. IT professionals must examine these predictions for opportunities to increase their support of consumer-driven requirements and their ability to help the business deliver stronger services to those customers.”

This year’s predictions include:

Through 2009, market share for the top 10 IT outsourcers will decline to 40.0% (from 43.5% now), equaling a revenue shift of $5.4 billion. As market share declines, some key outsourcing vendors will cease to exist in their current named form. The reduced number of large contracts, increased amount of competition and reduction in contract sizes have placed great pressure on outsourcers, which will have to "sink or swim" based on support for selective outsourcing and disciplined multisourcing competencies.

Only one Asia/Pacific-based service provider will make the global top 20 through 2010. The number of global players in consulting that come from Asia is relatively small. This will limit the ability of the Asian juggernaut to grow revenue streams rapidly and become global leaders.

Blogging and community contributors will peak in the first half of 2007. Given the trend in the average life span of a blogger and the current growth rate of blogs, there are already more than 200 million ex-bloggers. Consequently, the peak number of bloggers will be around 100 million at some point in the first half of 2007.

By 2009, corporate social responsibility (CSR) will be a higher board- and executive-level priority than regulatory compliance. Regulation has become a key issue for government and the corporate world, with the aim of ensuring more-responsible behavior. However, the need for companies to be socially responsible to their employees, customers and shareholders is growing as well. The future will see corporate boards and executives make this social dynamic a more-critical priority.

By the end of 2007, 75% of enterprises will be infected with undetected, financially motivated, targeted malware that evaded their traditional perimeter and host defenses. The threat environment is changing — financially motivated, targeted attacks are increasing, and automated malware-generation kits allow simple creation of thousands of variants quickly — but our security processes and technologies haven't kept up.

Vista will be the last major release of Microsoft Windows. The next generation of operating environments will be more modular and will be updated incrementally. The era of monolithic deployments of software releases is nearing an end. Microsoft will be a visible player in this movement, and the result will be more-flexible updates to Windows and a new focus on quality overall.

By 2010, the average total cost of ownership (TCO) of new PCs will fall by 50%. The growing importance and focus on manageability, automation and reliability will provide a welcome means of differentiating PCs in a market that is increasingly commoditized. Many of the manageability and support tools will be broadly available across multiple vendors. However, vendors that can leverage these tools further and can graduate from claims of "goodness" to concrete examples of cost savings will have a market advantage.

By 2010, 60% of the worldwide cellular population will be "trackable" via an emerging "follow-me Internet." Local regulations have arisen to protect users' privacy, but growing demands for national safety and civil protection are relaxing some of the initial privacy limitations. Marketing incentives will also push users to forgo privacy concerns, and many other scenarios will enable outsiders to track their users.

Through 2011, enterprises will waste $100 billion buying the wrong networking technologies and services. Enterprises are missing out on opportunities to build a network that would put them at a competitive advantage. Instead, they follow outdated design practices and collectively will waste at least $100 billion in the next five years.

By 2008, nearly 50% of data centers worldwide will lack the necessary power and cooling capacity to support high-density equipment. With higher densities of processors proliferating, problems in this area continue to grow. Although the power and cooling challenge of high-density computer equipment will persist in the short term, a convergence of innovative technologies will begin to mitigate the problem by 2010.

These 10 key trends are part of a series of "Gartner Predicts" research, which also includes top predictions for specific roles across the eight Gartner for IT Leaders programs and for key vertical industries. The entire series of “Gartner Predicts” research includes nearly 50 reports that discuss the major trends that will affect IT users, high-tech and telecom companies and most industries in 2007 and beyond. Each year, Gartner analysts in every research area converge to identify, debate and develop these trends to help companies with their tactical IT planning and investment decisions in the short term and their overall IT strategy in the long term. The Gartner Predicts 2007 Special Reports series are available on Gartner’s Web site at www.gartner.com.

More information on these top predictions for general technology areas is available in the Gartner Special Report “Gartner's Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users, 2007 and Beyond” at http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=498768&subref=simplesearch. The top predictions for IT leaders can be found at http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=498769&subref=simplesearch. The top predictions for key industries can be found at http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=498770&subref=simplesearch.

Posted by stephen at 2:58 PM | Comments (0)

K-12 Usability Study

This is unique and rare. SirsiDynix and Kent State University are releasing our K-12 usability study from 2006.

The “Report on the Usability and Effectiveness of SirsiDynix SchoolRooms for K-12 Students” was undertaken by Kent State University School of Library and Information Science and the Information Architecture/Knowledge Management Program (IAKM). Greg Byerley at Kent State was the investigator and we partners with Terry Fredericka and the amazing InfOhio team.

I have been quoting this study often in presentations. Now we have a distributable document to support those presentations. It is important to note that SirsiDynix has not edited the content of this report. We simply made it easier to read with this new design.

We will be publishing this in book format, and it will be available in limited quantities later in January. We will have some of the books at ALA Midwinter in our booth.

I encourage you to share these links with folks wo care about making library and learning stuff work for those folks in K-12. This is unique research since it used real students in real situations (with parental consent). I find the eye tracking results fascinating. I doubt there is such extensive, current research available anywhere for you to read. (If anyone knows of any other public K-12 studies, let us know).

The PDF of the report (in color) is at: http://www.schoolrooms.net/Pdfs/UsabilityStudy_KentState.pdf and it also linked to off the SchoolRooms Web site (http://www.schoolrooms.net). The new 24-page SchoolRooms Magazine can also be found linked off the homepage or directly at: http://www.schoolrooms.net/Pdfs/SchoolRooms_LR.pdf

We hope to release a few more of our internal studies on usability this year. I hope this results in a better understanding of user behaviors and, ultimately, better library websites and products.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:20 AM | Comments (0)

December 27, 2006

Whoop Whoop

Well, my wife gave me an iPod Video for Christmas. Yay!

I have now loaded most of my favourite CD's and have 800 songs and comedy routines on it.

I bought one song from iTunes just to make sure it was working.

I have also downloaded 15 SirsiDynix Institute sessions for free from iTunes and have subscribed to them as a feed. I've added a few more library podcast feeds too.

I have to put a video or two on now.

Cool,

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:55 AM | Comments (0)

Libraries Are Social Institutions

Mashable's Social Networking Awards for 2006 are here.

The are 12 categories and make a nice list of things to play with to see what might be useful metaphors for library style social relevance. Also, it's not a bad taxonomy of the range of social networking applications out there. I wouldn't have put 'books' into niche applications, I am pretty biased that this is mainstream but maybe because Amazon social recommmendations are so 'old' it's just considered old hat.

Social Networking Awards - The Top Social Networks of 2006

1. Mainstream and Large Scale Networks
2. Widgets and Add-Ons
3. Social News and Social Bookmarking
4. Sports and Fitness
5. Photo Sharing
6. Video Sharing
7. Startpages
8. Places and Events
9. Music
10. Social Shopping
11. Mobile
12. Niche and Miscellaneous Social Networks

Some sites to play with. No stress. No schedule. Just play.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:42 AM | Comments (0)

December 25, 2006

Merry Christmas!

Peace on Earth.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:06 AM | Comments (1)

December 24, 2006

US News & World Report

OK, gotta love the endorsement from US News & World Report,
Librarian is one of the best careers for 2007 here.

"Forget about that image of librarian as a mousy bookworm. Librarians these days must be high-tech information sleuths, helping researchers plumb the oceans of information available in books and digital records. It's an underrated career. Most librarians love helping patrons dig up information and, in the process, learning new things. Librarians may also go on shopping sprees, deciding which books and online resources to buy. They even get to put on performances, like children's puppet shows, and run other programs, like book discussion groups for elders. On top of it all, librarians' work hours are reasonable, and the work environment, needless to say, is placid."

Read it here.

Worked for me!

Stephen (MLS)

Posted by stephen at 10:33 PM | Comments (1)

5 Things Meme

Sylvie at Rambleonsylvie tagged me to write 5 things you don't know about me.

I've seen a few of these memes out there and this is the first time I've been tagged. Thanks Sylvie. Is it the fellow Canadian thing? Anyway, it's the year-end silly season so why not?

1- My favourite singer right now is Eminem but I still love Streisand and Diana Ross. How's that for weird?

2- My undergrad degree is in Anthropology (social and physical), primatology, archaeology and ethnography. I did a lot on tool using behaviours in primates and amazingly it still informs interface design and the like. I have been pee'd on by Cercopithecus neglectus (the endangered De Brazza Monkey from the Congo) who was, I believe, sick of me observing his every behaviour.

3- I love to make stained glass pieces. I do little ones (suncatchers) and big windows and lampshades. I've taken courses in big windows using lead, the Tiffany copper foil method, French embossing and etching, etc. If I can ever find the time I want to learn glass blowing, molding and other glass techniques. I have a close friend who makes amazing pieces this way. I have every book and DVD ever done by Dale Chihuly and I go out of my way to see his exhibitions. I also have taken courses in flower arranging (especially Ikebana) which I find relaxing. It's a different commitment to something so beautiful but temporary.

4- I am a long term cancer survivor. It will be ten years in Dec. 2007 since a posse of doctors removed 10 inches of non-Hodgkins Lymphoma from my spine and rib cage. My tattoo was part of this. There are also, apparently, naked medical videos of me on the web (likely behind some insecure firewall and password), showing the entire operation. As usual, I was an early adopter at the front of the e-content movement, this time for streaming media on the web!

5- Despite outward appearances, I am pretty insecure and give speeches and write often to challenge myself to do things that scare me. I recommend this. Whenever I've hit a major challenge I have found that externalizing it works for me (my cancer diary on the web was great therapy).

Actually it's hard to think of five things! I feel so uninteresting.

OK - I get to tag people now, so I tag . . . Janice Lachance at SLA's InfoX, Jane Dysart and Infobuzzz, Amanda at Blogwithoutalibrary, Andrew Pace at Hectic Pace, and Randy at podbaydoor.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 9:53 PM | Comments (1)

December 23, 2006

Mouse Rage

Thanks to Cabot for pointing me to this study.

Poor website design may have negative effects on users' nervous system

"According to a report published by the Social Issues Research Centre and commissioned by Rackspace Managed Hosting, there are five key IT flaws in the way websites are designed and hosted that may lead to harmful health effects."

The Top 5 website failures that lead to Mouse Rage:
- Slow to load pages
- Confusing / difficult to navigate layouts
- Excessive pop-ups
- Unnecessary advertising
- Site unavailability

The first signs of Mouse Rage:
- Heart rate quickens
- Increased sweating
- Furious clicking of the mouse
- Simultaneous clicking and cursing the screen
- Bashing the mouse

Read the full article or link to more about the report here.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:50 PM | Comments (0)

Library Videos Blog

OMG why didn't someone think of this before!?

From Nancy Dowd, the librarian who blogs on The M Word, about library marketing ideas, comes Library Videos: the best videos about libraries on the web. "Looking to find the best videos about libraries on the web? They are here. Submit your favorite or rate ours!" the rating system is very cute - she'll rate the video as one through five 'books'.

This blog will feature all the great library themed videos I come across. I'm always looking for new content so feel free to share your favorites as well! If you want some marketing ideas visit my other blog, The M Word.

I'm hungry for videos so it's added to my feeds.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:21 PM | Comments (1)

December 20, 2006

2007 Web Predictions

Here are The Read/Write Web’s predictions for 2007 and the web. There’s a lot more at their posting but it’s an very interesting list. This would make a great “So what do these predictions mean for our library plans in 2007” brown bagger or conference debate.

- RSS will go mainstream in a big way next year.
- Structured data will be a big trend next year.
- Widgets exploded in 2006 but will continue rising in 2007.
- Web Office applications will continue to ramp up.
- The consumerization of the enterprise trend will start to infiltrate corporate IT.
- Rich Internet Apps will be a major force in 2007.
- Google in particular will continue to push the boundaries of browser-based apps.
- Semantic Web products will come of age in 2007.
- Amazon Web Services were a surprise hit in 2006 - and expect more big things from Amazon next year.
- Expect some shakeups in the online advertising market next year.
- There's a real need for a better, more robust online ad model. It may emerge in 2007.
- 2007 will be about Search 2.0 and the rise of the vertical search engines.
- Microsoft's Windows Live services will gain real momentum next year.
- Google may come out with some form of GoogleOS.
- Open Source Desktops will continue to gain momentum in '07.
- Browser War II. In 2007 expect the competition between IE7 and Firefox (plus Flock, Opera and Maxthon) to be intense.
- Speaking of browsers, 2007 will see an increase in WebKits.
- Internet-based TV will ramp up in 2007.
- Mass adoption of IPTV technology in 2007 and Bittorrent will be an important part of the online video landscape too.
- So 2007 will undoubtedly be a good year for P2P. Bittorrent will probably continue to be embedded in many new apps in '07.
- Second Life will become an important platform for marketing, promotion, and of course social networking. In short, virtual worlds will become an integral part of the real world in 2007.
- Virtual Money: PayPal showed the way, and we're seeing more of it now – Second Life LindeX, Microsoft points etc.
- The online real estate market will grow rapidly in '07.
- The search for disruptive business models will continue.
- While social networks dominated 2006, could social networks prove to be anti-social?
- International Web will finally start to get its due in mainstream media
- OLPC: One Laptop Per Child will create good buzz and may increase the adoption of thin-client like computers.
- Broadband continues to grow.
- VoIP space will really hot up.
- Mobile Web may be the big story of 2007.
- Also watch for an emerging Webphone market.

There is loads more detail in the original posting.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 6:43 AM | Comments (0)

Search Success in Special Libraries

Again, we don't see enough research on the search needs and success of 'professionals' and this is of great interest to special libraries. Convera commissioned a report and they're providing the insights at no charge. This is a bespoke online survey of 1,000 U.S. "professionals" in publishing, advertising, marketing, healthcare, finance and government. It focused on work-related search behaviour and success. Here's the release:

Professionals Reveal Their Search Failures, Successes

Professionals have a strange relationship with search engines. They use them for work and even find them to be an overall aid. But would they rely on search engines the way a surgeon would rely on a life-saving medical tool? Not likely.

A new survey of more than 1,000 professionals by Convera examines this question further, revealing the challenges that stand between search queries and relevant answers. For example:

- Only 21 percent of professionals feel that their search query is always understood.

- Just one in 10 professionals always finds exactly what he or she is looking for on the first attempt.

- About 70 percent admit getting sidetracked during the search process and end up on sites they didn’t expect to visit and are not relevant to their work.

- When searches do not return precise information, more than half of professionals believe the information they’re seeking exists, but they do not have the skills to find it.

- One third of professionals will make decisions without all the facts they need after a series of search attempts fails to help them.

These are just a few of the key survey findings. Get the full report, for free, THE SEARCH FOR PROFESSIONAL SEARCH - A Convera® Survey, 2006.

At 7 pages it's a quick read and should be of interest to every library sector.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 6:18 AM | Comments (0)

MIT Usability Study

MIT is sharing their usability report on their libraries' online tools.

"Executive Summary:

The SFX/Verde Group was authorized to complete a user needs assessment in the form of a
Photo Diary Study with MIT students in the spring of 2006. The goal of the study was to
inform the MIT Libraries of online tool improvements that should be implemented to meet
our most pressing user needs. Sixteen graduate students and sixteen undergraduate
students participated in offering a fascinating glimpse into the information-seeking aspects
of their academic lives.

The team categorized user behaviors into goals and tasks and then analyzed the 277 goals
and tasks and the 507 methods shared with us by the students in the study. The study
yielded the following priorities for the Libraries’ online tools:
• Make discovery easier and more effective
• Incorporate trusted networks in finding tools
• Continue to put links to the Libraries’ services and resources where the users are

The study also showed that the students used a variety of highly successful strategies for
performing quick lookups of information and finding specific known items. Finally, while
the assessment focused on aspects of the students’ work related to online tools, it also
yielded rich information that could be useful in improving other aspects of the Libraries’
services."

The report draws three key conclusions:

1. Make Discovery and Search Easier and More Effective
2. Incorporate Trusted Networks in Finding Tools
3. Continue Put Links to the Libraries Where the Users Are

There are too few decent usability studies out there (as evidenced by the small bibliography) in the academic space so kudos to MIT for sharing.

You can download the 39 page report PDF here.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 6:07 AM | Comments (0)

Disruptive Innovation

I am reminded by Tom Hoffman that good definitions help to focus thought and discussion:

"A disruptive technology or disruptive innovation is a technological innovation, product, or service that eventually overturns the existing dominant technology or product in the market. Disruptive innovations can be broadly classified into lower-end and new-market disruptive innovations. A new-market disruptive innovation is often aimed at non-consumption, whereas a lower-end disruptive innovation is aimed at mainstream customers who were ignored by established companies. Sometimes, a disruptive technology comes to dominate an existing market by either filling a role in a new market that the older technology could not fill (as more expensive, lower capacity but smaller-sized hard disks did for newly developed notebook computers in the 1980s) or by successively moving up-market through performance improvements until finally displacing the market incumbents (as digital photography has begun to replace film photography).

By contrast, “sustaining technology or innovation” improves product performance of established products. Sustaining technologies are often incremental however they can also be radical or discontinuous."

This is from Wikipedia here.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 6:03 AM | Comments (0)

December 19, 2006

Military Librarians Workshop

I had the great opportunity to speak again to a large group of military librarians. This time it was to the SLA Militiary Librarians Workshop 50th edition in San Antonio.

The topic was The Social Web 2.0. The PPT is here.

There were some pretty heartfelt stories (and innovations) about supporting soldiers at this time. Amazing work being done here.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 1:27 PM | Comments (0)

Centennial College

I gave an endnote presentation for the Centennial College (Toronto) staff day. They are part of the innovative Bibliocentre. The topic as the social web and education. Here's the PPT.

Again, it's great to be home and seeing local friends and colleagues.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 1:24 PM | Comments (1)

HALINET Presentation

The HALINET consortium (Southern Ontario...) had a great staff day. I gave the keynote and here's the PPT.

It was great to be home and speaking.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 1:16 PM | Comments (0)

December 18, 2006

Google Top Searches for 2006

Google Zeitgeist 2006 is live.

Top terms for 2006 were:

1. bebo
2. myspace
3. world cup
4. metacafe
5. radioblog
6. wikipedia
7. video
8. rebelde
9. mininova
10. wiki

Now isn't it interesting that Bebo beats MySpace?

Google News - Top Searches in 2006

1. paris hilton
2. orlando bloom
3. cancer
4. podcasting
5. hurricane katrina
6. bankruptcy
7. martina hingis
8. autism
9. 2006 nfl draft
10. celebrity big brother 2006

They've clearly edited out the porn and gambling terms! The above are based on global results so it shows some interesting global issues rather than local or national issues. The other lists are just as engaging (if you're a year end list freak like me).

Oh, and would someone please tell Paris Hilton that her 15 minutes are up.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 11:13 PM | Comments (1)

Top 10 Bling Technologies for 2007

Popular Mechanics has made this list of the top ten technolgies that people will be talking about in 2007. I hadn't heard some of these terms so it was an interesting read. I wonder how many will actually reach the public consciousness? Here they are:

1. Bendable Concrete
2. PRAM (Phase-Change Random Access Memory)
3. Printed Solar Panels
4. Passport Hacking
5. Vehicle Infrastructure Integration
6. Body Area Network
7. Plasma Arc Gasification
8. VoN (Video on the Net)
9. Smart Pills
10. Data Cloud

Either way they're interesting concepts to casually name-drop over the turkey and Manischewitz to freak out the 'rents at your holiday dinners. Putting the fun into dysfunctional family time.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 11:01 PM | Comments (0)

Making GovDocs Fun

Check out this posting here from Alaska.

Daniel Cornwall, Government Publications/Technical Services Librarian at the Alaska State Library has created two YouTube videos that have humour and fun while showing the diversty of information available in government depository collections.

Best Titles Ever! The Video - 13 titles from FGI's Best Titles Ever page set to electronic music.

Documents on Parade: Criminal Edition - Web sites and Dept of Justice documents set to music familiar to boomers.

He also shares his list of production resources. Handy.

Check it out.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 10:53 PM | Comments (1)

December 17, 2006

A Christmas Poem

Someone shared this with me and I thought it was timely in this holiday season to remember others in lands far away. As you can see form this blog I travel a lot, and it's a rare flight where I don't see soldiers young and old on the plane, in airports, and just around. I even flew once with the 24 soldiers who had just graduated from bomb and mine disposal school - an amazing, and highly confident (!) group of volunteers!

A Christmas Poem

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light, I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest, my daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white, transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe, Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep, secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem, so I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near, but I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear, and I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night, a lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old, perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled, standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear, "Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve, you should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift, Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts.
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light then he sighed and he said "Its really all right, I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line that separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me, I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at Vimy on a day in December," Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ', and now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while, but my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got a nice smile.

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag, the red, and the white ... the Canadian flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone, away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet; I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another, or lay down my life for my sister of brother.

Who stand at the front against any and all, to ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright, your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least, "Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done, for being away from your wife daughters or sons."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret, "Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone, to stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead, to know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust, that we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our Canadian and US and others Service men and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities. Let's try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us.

Have a great spiritual season.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 10:33 AM | Comments (1)

The 2007 Cel Phone

Here are Roman Polzs' of Agere Systems predictions for what the cel phone will look like in 2007:

1. CD-Quality Music Will Be The Killer Cell Phone Application
2. Mobile TV Use on Cell Phones Will Grow, but Not as Fast as CD-Quality Music
3. The Earliest and Most Frequent Users of Mobile TV Will be People Riding Trains To and From Work
4. Digital Cameras on Cell Phones Will Have Less Customer Adoption Compared with Music
5. The Entry-Level Cell Phone Market Will Be the Sweet Spot for CD-Quality Music Applications
6. India Will be the Fastest Growing Cell Phone Market for the Next Several Years
7. Simultaneous Cell Phone Applications Will Be Crucial; Those Who Don't Offer Them Will Lose Out to Those Who Do
8. More Feature-Rich Cell Phones Will Be Key in Enabling Wireless Service Providers to Boost Their Average Revenues Per User
9. 3G Cell Phones Will Not Be All About Merely Enabling the Connected Lifestyle, but Rather Perfecting the Connected Lifestyle
10. More Collaborations Will Be Necessary to Survive and Thrive in the Cell Phone Market

More detail here.

2007 is a tipping point year in the US and Canadian markets. The infrastructure will start catching up quickly to that in Asia and Europe. The market is primed and ready for more content and services. There will be decisions aplenty and if you thought you got a lot of telemarketing calls and pop up ads from your service providers before...just wait! The form factor of the devices has been tested and launched in smaller markets so adoption rates will be speedy. There are enormous implications here for libraries if digital phones of many types becomes the dominant device. Think XML and smaller screens. Think ADA compliance. Think graphic/photo, video, gaming and audiobook content growth. Think short term disposable phone blogs. Think text messaging services for reference and holds/overdues. Think music collections. Think browseless internet applications through the phone. Opportunity knocks. Information at the point of need.

I'd add one other prediction - these changes will comprise of mosaic of adoption styles, behaviours, and devices for quite some years and especially in the 18, 19 and 20-somethings. We haven't even seen the component phones rise yet (spectacle screens, tiny hearing aid size head sets, ring size handsets, shareable gaming tools, ...)

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 10:10 AM | Comments (0)

Too Funny

Jessica points to the weblog that tracks journalism errors, Regret the Error, which has posted what they consider to be the best errors of the year. They receive awards called The Crunks.

Always fun to see history's first draft is fallible.

Love 'em.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 9:55 AM | Comments (0)

You and TIME

Time magazine has named "YOU" as the TIME Person of the Year. The article is interesting in that it 'gets' the role user generated content is playing in today's world. It also gives a strong tip of the hat to Web 2.0 and the transformational effect unbounded conversations, content in context, opinions, tags, RSS, blogs and the rest are playing in this emerging world. For example:

"It's not even the overhyped dotcom Web of the late 1990s. The new Web is a very different thing. It's a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web 2.0, as if it were a new version of some old software. But it's really a revolution."

"Sure, it's a mistake to romanticize all this any more than is strictly necessary. Web 2.0 harnesses the stupidity of crowds as well as its wisdom. Some of the comments on YouTube make you weep for the future of humanity just for the spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and the naked hatred.

But that's what makes all this interesting. Web 2.0 is a massive social experiment, and like any experiment worth trying, it could fail. There's no road map for how an organism that's not a bacterium lives and works together on this planet in numbers in excess of 6 billion. But 2006 gave us some ideas."

There's the usual references to the web celebs of the moment, YouTube, Second Life, Wikipedia and MySpace. All three parts are interesting in that TIME sort of way.

What's the library angle? We've been talking user-centered development for decades. Now the world is catching up and we need to invent and create faster.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 9:45 AM | Comments (2)

Bestsellers

I missed this little piece of data from last spring but I find it pretty interesting. It's a nice little factoid that you can pull out for all those holiday parties.

According to a study published by Lulu.com (a self-publishing site), the life-expectancy of a bestselling novel has been cut in half in the last decade. The Lulu.com study is reported here.

The study looked at the average number of weeks that a new No. 1 bestseller stayed on top of the hardback fiction section of the New York Times Bestseller List. Here are the results by decade:

Decade Average Number of Weeks to Stay on the No. 1 Spot

1960s 21.7 weeks
1970s 13.9 weeks
1980s 7.2 weeks
1990s 5.5 weeks
2000s (so far) 3.0 weeks

Decade Average Number of Novels To Hit the No. 1 Spot Per Year
1960s 2.8 titles
1970s 4.4 titles
1980s 7.6 titles
1990s 10.0 titles
2000s (so far) 18.2 titles

From here we find this little factoid too:

"According to recent statistics from R.R. Bowker, U.S. publishers released 113,589 new titles in 1995. In 2005, publishers cranked out 172,000 new titles—a 51.4% increase. Bottom line: more titles are competing for the same number of available slots."

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:31 AM | Comments (0)

Understanding Book Publishing

I am pointing to a good post at Walt at Random about the size of the book publishing sector in the US. It deserves wider reach.

Apparently publishing revenues might be larger than previously thought and its size may have been understated for many years as $23.7 billion but may really be $34.6 billion for 2005 and recently may be $51.9 billion! The US Census Bureau offers "the 2007 projection: $55.5 billion for somewhere between 3.1 and 3.2 billion books. With a projection of $53.7 billion for this year."

That's a BIG industry. Adn that's some big undercounting (ignoring non-APA members, alterntive press, eBooks, etc.). It's pretty basic to the knowledge-based economy. No doubt it's under stress from new technology but the hype about books and reading being in decline or dead is just that, uninformed hype. Even with restated numbers it's still a growing sector. The same applies to libraries.

As Walt notes (and I've been saying in speeches for quite a while), "People still read and buy print books: That’s a given. (If you disagree, you’re ignoring all available evidence.)"

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:19 AM | Comments (1)

Seasonal Post

This should not be funny and a real trip down memory lane but it is.

Pray for Coal: The 10 most dangerous play things of all time
By Paige Ferrari

I know that I have personally owned or played with at least 5 of the top 10.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:12 AM

December 16, 2006

Faith Collections

Here's a post appropriate for the season. Did you see USA Today this week. We can find market research anywhere.

Faith's Purchasing Power: In the beginning was the book

By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY 12/13/2006

Long before Christmas became a retail explosion, before Christian-related toys, doodads and décor became a $4.5 billion industry, faithful Protestants needed their Bibles.

"READING ABOUT RELIGION

When shoppers read books about religion, here's where they say they're most likely to get them:

A Christian bookstore: 15.9%
A general bookstore such as Barnes & Noble: 14.8%
Borrow from a friend or family: 12.2%
The public library: 9.2%
A church library: 5.6%
Other: 5.1%
Online retailer: such as Amazon.com: 4.4%"

Source: Baylor Religion Survey"

Happy holidays,

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:31 AM | Comments (0)

December 15, 2006

Networking for Introverts

We all know that introversion is not shyness. I have been an observer of introvert behaviours for any years. I find it fascinating - probably because I don't have an introverted bone in my body.

Anyway, if you know you're an introvert, perhaps the tips on this article will be useful.

Networking For Introverts

I am still looking for the article "Shutting up for Extroverts" although a Google search finds some interesting hits.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 4:26 PM | Comments (1)

Gartners Top 10 Predictions

Gartner, Inc. released 10 key predictions that it believes will change the nature of business and IT in 2007 and beyond. These annual forecasts are always interesting and thought-provoking.

This year’s predictions include:

1. Through 2009, market share for the top 10 IT outsourcers will decline to 40.0% (from 43.5% now), equaling a revenue shift of $5.4 billion.

2. Only one Asia/Pacific-based service provider will make the global top 20 through 2010.

3. Blogging and community contributors will peak in the first half of 2007. ...around 100 million at some point in the first half of 2007.

4. By 2009, corporate social responsibility (CSR) will be a higher board- and executive-level priority than regulatory compliance.

5. By the end of 2007, 75% of enterprises will be infected with undetected, financially motivated, targeted malware that evaded their traditional perimeter and host defenses.

6. Vistawill be the last major release of Microsoft Windows.

7. By 2010, the average total cost of ownership (TCO) of new PCs will fall by 50%.

8. By 2010, 60% of the worldwide cellular population will be "trackable" via an emerging "follow-me Internet."

9. Through 2011, enterprises will waste $100 billion buying the wrong networking technologies and services.

10. By 2008, nearly 50% of data centers worldwide will lack the necessary power and cooling capacity to support high-density equipment.

Read more here. There are more explanations in the release.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 7:30 AM | Comments (0)

An Amazing Prediction

OK, this prediction even scares me:

"As computing power continues to grow, it will be theoretically possible to record and store high-resolution video footage of every second of a human life on a device the size of a sugar cube within the next two decades."

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 7:28 AM | Comments (1)

December 14, 2006

The AOL Zeitgeist

Well, Yahoo! told us their top searches for 2006. AOL announced their's too. You can see the top 10 lists here.

I still think of AOL as the ultimate consumer space site. When I review these lists I am struck by how different consumer searches are versus the types of questions received in the average neighbourhood library. Libraries really do cover the long tail.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 11:26 AM | Comments (0)

2006 Web Trends

Alane at It's All Good points to this neat post from the Read/Write Web. It's another list! it's the Top Web Technology Trends from 2006.

What are the big trends?

1. The year of the Social Network
2. RSS goes mainstream
3. Web 2.0 got overhyped
4. Amazon came out with neat new technolgies
5. Google, MS, Yahoo, Apple and other bogco's went thrugh major changes
6. The Return of VC money
7. Localization matters
8. Consumerization of the enterprise
9. Wdigets are hot
10. Online video is hot
11. VOIP is getting hot
12. Online desktop/Web hybrids are emerging
13. Firefox energized the browser wars
14. Techcrunch has moved to the centre of 2.0 blog action
15. Ajax had strong growth this year.

Plus some smaller trends:

1. RSS filtering
2. Commodization of RSS Readers
3. The WebOS (virtual desktop)
4. Digital Reading market hotted up
5. The mobile Web had continued growth in 2006
6. e-learning had strong growth in 2006.
7. Hot competition between blog vendors
8. Portal plays are growing fast

A number I found most intersting is tha World Internet Penetration is 16% and growing - Asia in particular is ramping up fast! Also noteworthy is that 3/4 of traffic to top websites is international.

Yep, I do lvoe my year end lists.

Read the post for more.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)

Ten Biggest Mistakes in Web Design

Vincent Flanders has updated his calassic web pages that suck artilce with a neat list of here. It's called:

"Biggest Mistakes in Web Design 1995-2015"

1. Believing people care about you and your web site.

2. A man from Mars can’t figure out what your web site is about in less than four seconds.

3. Mystical belief in the power of Web Standards, Usability, and tableless CSS.

4. Using design elements that get in the way of your visitors.

5. Navigational failure.

6. Using Mystery Meat Navigation.

7. Thinking your web site is your marketing strategy.

8. Site lacks Heroin Content.

9. Forgetting the purpose of text.

10. Too much material on one page.

11. Confusing web design with a magic trick.

12. Misusing Flash.

13. Misunderstanding graphics.

14. AFFrontPage.

Read the article for the explanations.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 9:21 AM | Comments (0)

Facebook

Steven Bell points to an article in the Christian Science Monitor. It reports on efforts in academia to react, respond, or get involved with the social networking site phenomenon.

"Facebook: A campus fad becomes a campus fact: The social-networking website isn't growing like it once did, but only because almost every US student is already on it"

It shows that, after nearly four years, campuses are waking up to the fact that social networking sites are here to stay, and they have powerful impacts on campus life and politics. Another one ot review is Academici, a social site desigjned for academic R&D networks.

How many academic librarians have personal sites on Facebook? How many Facebook Groups are set up for libraries or research groups? I've asked this question a number of times in academic settings and have gotten a range of responses. I've met many academic librarians who have their own site and use it as a learning opportunity. Some expose it to other colleagues and even users. Generally there are fewer sites than in the user space. Some tell me they have a committee investigating it and they're visiting the site to see it or starting to formulate policies. (Why do we so often jump to policy before experience? Why do we lob off our own learning to another committee?) Some tell me that it's a fad and not worth the time. This is usually said by someone who hasn't used the service (yes, I ask, and sometimes their knowledge is second and third hand and they haven't taken a tour. ) so it's basically an uninformed opinion. Some point out the kids are leaving MySpace so they can ignore it. Unfortunately for that opinion, MySpace sign-ups are up to over 300,000/day after a small drop when the kids went to school in September and did more face-to-face networking. Kids also seem to migrate to Facebook and off MySpace as they pass through higher education, but not always.

It sure is a useful way to promote the information pros and librarians skills and competencies (and publications and websites) as individuals instead of just the collections, services, buildings and databases. The staff are one of the library's most important assets and, in my opinion, are underpromoted.

It's great to see some of the early experiments with Facebook, especially now that it allows groups as well as non-academic folks to participate. It reminds me of what was happening with MySpace in the public library space a year ago.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:57 AM | Comments (2)

Skype: The Other Penny Drops

SkypeOut calls will no longer be free within the US and Canada. Skype (owned by eBay) announced on Dec. 13th that there is now an annual fee to make calls from within the US and Canada to any mobile or land-line phone. Calls from PC to PC will remain free.

"Unlimited Calling gives you a full year of unlimited calls to anyone, on any phone, within the US and Canada for just $14.95. ($29.95 after January 31st 2007)." This is still cheaper than most phone plans but it's probably the thin edge of the wedge.

Many libraries use Skype to reduce their costs of calling for special research. I also know some libraries that bring in exciting story hours from afar using Skype. I doubt this is is enough of a cost to stop that but it cold be a barrier to some.

Then again, if they're charging, expectation go up regarding performance and support.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:47 AM | Comments (1)

December 13, 2006

OK - How exactly do they multitask?

The Kaiser Family Foundation has released another one of their excellent reports. This one is called:

"Media Multitasking Among American Youth: Prevalence, Predictors and Pairings" You can download the PDF of the full report or the key finding here.

Here are some highlights:

"When they are a young person’s primary activity, TV and videogames are the least multitasked media, while reading and computer activities such as instant messaging, computer games and looking at websites are the most multitasked."

"Most young people media multitask at least some of the time, but some don’t do so at all."

"Young people are most likely to use multiple media together when they’re instant messaging (74%), surfing the Internet (74%) or playing computer games (67%); they’re least likely to do so when watching TV (17% of the time)"

"Girls are more likely to media multitask than boys."

"Many teens use media while doing their homework, especially if they’re doing homework on the computer." (and what do they do while doing homework? Listening to music, instant messaging, watching TV, looking at websites, reading, e-mail, other computer activities, playing computer games/videogames.)

"Young people who are “heavy” media multitaskers consume nearly twice as much media as those who are “light” multitaskers."

This is interesting. Understanding multi-tasking might serve us well in designing products and services that integrate with homework and entertainment activities.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:34 AM | Comments (0)

Blurring the Real/Unreal Dichotomy

OK, a substantial number of people believe in ghosts, witches, magic, UFO's, Sasquatch, and more. Why do so many folks have trouble understanding the way people relate virtually in a semi-unreal environment that is actually quite real.

Darlene Fichter, at Blog on the Side, has a great posting here. It is called "Strong Ties: 43% of Internet users feel as "strongly" about virtual communities as real ones" She quotes The 2007 Digital Future Project which annually surveys more than 2,000 people across the USA about the impact of online technology on users and non-users.

The executive summary linked to above is quite worth the read (and it's only a dense 8 pages). Some highlights to me were:

"Americans on the Internet -- more than three-quarters of American are Internet users; 77.6
percent of Americans age 12 and older go online.

The Internet at home – more than two-thirds of Americans (68.1 percent) use the Internet at
home, a substantial increase from the 46.9 percent of users who reported home Internet use in 2000 (the first year of the Digital Future Project)."

Internet connections at home: modem use plummets -- Use of telephone modem to access the
Internet continues to decline. Last year, the number of Internet users who reported that they went online through a telephone modem dropped to less than a majority (45.6 percent) for the first time in the Digital Future Project. Use of telephone modem for access dropped again, to 37 percent of Internet users."

Men and women online -- For the first time the percentage of women going online was higher
than the number of men.

Electronic dropouts: why do users stop going online? -- The more than one-quarter of
Internet non-users who have previously gone online (27.2 percent) continue to report a variety of
reasons for not going online, but the attitudes have shifted considerably. In the current study, a much lower percentage of electronic dropouts report that the reason they stopped going is “no computer available” – a continuation of the decline that began in 2005 and by far the lowest level reported thus far in the Digital Future Project.

Among users age 17 and older, almost two-thirds of Internet users (65.8 percent) consider the
Internet to be a very important or extremely important source of information for them -- up from 56.3 percent in 2005.

Information on the Internet: is it reliable and accurate? -- The number of users who believe
that most or all of the information on the Internet is reliable and accurate grew sharply over 2005, reversing a three-year decline. Well over half of users (55.2 percent) say that most or all of the information online is reliable and accurate – up from 48.8 percent in 2005, but still below the peak in 2001 (55 percent).

Concerns about privacy when buying online -- All six years of the Digital Future Project have
shown that most respondents report some level of concern about the privacy of their personal
information -- such as name and address, phone number, and purchasing habits -- when or if they buy on the Internet. The intensity of that concern had been declining in the first four years of the study, and increased slightly in 2005. However, concern about the security of personal information again declined. Overall, the total percentage of respondents age 16 and over who report some concern about online personal information is very high; during the years this question was asked, between 88 and 94 percent of respondents report some concern. Among respondents age 16 and over, 86.8 percent express some level of concern about the privacy of their personal information when or if they buy online -- down from 89.5 percent in 2005.
The percentage who report the highest level of concern (very or extremely concerned) declined
to less than half of respondents (46.5 percent) -- down from almost two-thirds of respondents (65.8 percent) five years ago.

Do you use e-mail? -- About 90 percent of Internet users use e-mail -- statistically the same as
in 2005. Given that 77.6 percent of all Americans go online, and 89.8 percent of those users have email, this means that 69.7 percent of Americans now use e-mail.

A small but growing percentage of adults say that the children in their households spend too much time using the Internet -- a number that has grown in each of the three most recent years of the study. Almost 70 percent of adults (69.6 percent) say that the children in their households spend the right amount of time online, a number that declined modestly for three years in a row.

Schoolwork and the Internet: children’s views -- Children and adults continue to express
conflicting views about the importance of the Internet for schoolwork. Of Internet users age 18 and under, 80.5 percent say that going online is very important or extremely important -- slightly less than the 83.5 percent who reported the same responses in the previous study. However, almost three-quarters of adults (74.1 percent) say that since their household acquired the Internet, the grades of children in their households have stayed the same.

Does the Internet make workers more productive? -- The percentage of users who say the
Internet at work makes them more productive has continued to increase overall for all six years of this study.

Almost 70 percent of users who have access to the Internet at work (69.7 percent) say that by
going online at work their productivity has improved somewhat or a lot, an increase from 66.3 percent in 2005, 65.8 percent in 2003, 64.5 percent in 2002, 60.9 percent in 2001, and 56.7 percent in 2000.

While large numbers of respondents continue to report that they use the Internet for personal
reasons at work, only 1.5 percent of those who go online at their jobs say their productivity has
worsened because of Internet access at work."

The full report might be worth purchasing.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:08 AM | Comments (0)

Blurring the Real/Unreal Dichotomy

Darlene Fichter, at Blog on the Side, has a great posting here. It is called "Strong Ties: 43% of Internet users feel as "strongly" about virtual communities as real ones." She quotes The 2007 Digital Future Project which annually surveys more than 2,000 people across the USA about the impact of online technology on users and non-users.

The executive summary linked to above is quite worth the read (and it's only a dense 8 pages). Some highlights to me were:

"Americans on the Internet -- more than three-quarters of American are Internet users; 77.6 percent of Americans age 12 and older go online.

Men and women online -- For the first time the percentage of women going online was higher than the number of men.

Electronic dropouts: why do users stop going online? -- The more than one-quarter of Internet non-users who have previously gone online (27.2 percent) continue to report a variety of reasons for not going online, but the attitudes have shifted considerably. In the current study, a much lower percentage of electronic dropouts report that the reason they stopped going is “no computer available” – a continuation of the decline that began in 2005 and by far the lowest level reported thus far in the Digital Future Project.

Among users age 17 and older, almost two-thirds of Internet users (65.8 percent) consider the Internet to be a very important or extremely important source of information for them -- up from 56.3 percent in 2005.

Information on the Internet: is it reliable and accurate? -- The number of users who believe that most or all of the information on the Internet is reliable and accurate grew sharply over 2005, reversing a three-year decline. Well over half of users (55.2 percent) say that most or all of the information online is reliable and accurate – up from 48.8 percent in 2005, but still below the peak in 2001 (55 percent).

Concerns about privacy when buying online -- All six years of the Digital Future Project have shown that most respondents report some level of concern about the privacy of their personal information -- such as name and address, phone number, and purchasing habits -- when or if they buy on the Internet. The intensity of that concern had been declining in the first four years of the study, and increased slightly in 2005. However, concern about the security of personal information again declined. Overall, the total percentage of respondents age 16 and over who report some concern about online personal information is very high; during the years this question was asked, between 88 and 94 percent of respondents report some concern. Among respondents age 16 and over, 86.8 percent express some level of concern about the privacy of their personal information when or if they buy online -- down from 89.5 percent in 2005. The percentage who report the highest level of concern (very or extremely concerned) declined to less than half of respondents (46.5 percent) -- down from almost two-thirds of respondents (65.8 percent) five years ago.

Do you use e-mail? -- About 90 percent of Internet users use e-mail -- statistically the same as in 2005. Given that 77.6 percent of all Americans go online, and 89.8 percent of those users have email, this means that 69.7 percent of Americans now use e-mail.

Schoolwork and the Internet: children’s views -- Children and adults continue to express conflicting views about the importance of the Internet for schoolwork. Of Internet users age 18 and under, 80.5 percent say that going online is very important or extremely important -- slightly less than the 83.5 percent who reported the same responses in the previous study. However, almost three-quarters of adults (74.1 percent) say that since their household acquired the Internet, the grades of children in their households have stayed the same.

Does the Internet make workers more productive? -- The percentage of users who say the Internet at work makes them more productive has continued to increase overall for all six years of this study.

Almost 70 percent of users who have access to the Internet at work (69.7 percent) say that by going online at work their productivity has improved somewhat or a lot, an increase from 66.3 percent in 2005, 65.8 percent in 2003, 64.5 percent in 2002, 60.9 percent in 2001, and 56.7 percent in 2000.

While large numbers of respondents continue to report that they use the Internet for personal reasons at work, only 1.5 percent of those who go online at their jobs say their productivity has worsened because of Internet access at work."

The full report might be worth purchasing.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:08 AM | Comments (0)

Who's on first?

Well, a 9% drop in Yahoo! traffic allowed MySpace to take over the coveted number one position in search engine page views. Yahoo! is still number one in unique visitors.

Here's the top 5 according to unique visitors:

Yahoo!
Time Warner (AOL)
Microsoft (MSN)
Google
eBay
Fox Interactive / MySpace

Learn more here and here.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 7:47 AM | Comments (0)

December 12, 2006

SirsiDynix Institute LIVE in Seattle

Looking for something eductaional and fun to do at ALA Midwinter in Seattle next month? The SirsiDynix Institute will be doing a few special sessions in our booth theater. Here's the schedule:

Saturday, January 20, 2007

10:00-10:30am
Stephen Abram
Chief Strategist, SirsiDynix Institute
"The Social Library 2020: 2.0 in Action"

1:00-1:30pm
Kitty Pope, Executive Director of the Alliance Library System
Lori Bell, Director of Innovation of the Alliance Library System
“Alliance Library System Gets a Second Life”

3:30-4:00pm
Rachel Bridgewater
Reference Coordinator
Washington State University Vancouver Library
"Your FireFox can do that?”

Sunday, January 21, 2007
10:00-10:30am
Rachel Bridgewater
Reference Coordinator
Washington State University Vancouver Library
“A little help from your friends: Social bookmarking”

1:00-1:30pm
Stephen Abram
Chief Strategist, SirsiDynix Institute
"Next Generation Portals: The 2.0 End User Experience"

3:30-4:00pm
Kitty Pope, Executive Director of the Alliance Library System
Lori Bell, Director of Innovation of the Alliance Library System
“Alliance Library System Gets a Second Life”

We'll also be doing a number of TechTalks (more on that later). I hear there's going to be prizes too. Keep these events in mind when you're making your Seattle plans.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 10:33 PM | Comments (0)

Start Your Own Library TV Show

Hey you don't even need a video camera or camera phone to post to YouTube anymore.

YouTube started a new feature called Quick Capture that lets you to record a video directly to YouTube from a simple PC or laptop camera.

Turn it on, start talking and load. Amazing. It's simpler than ever to communicate with our users. Now what would be interesting...

Hmmmm....

Local seniors talking about their war experiences on Memorial or Remembrance Day?

Staff reviews of their favourite books - live and in person!

Kids chatting up what they found fun in story hour, pajama night, teddy bear day, or whatever

Directors making a pitch for money, special projects, a new building, or hey add the architect, or whomever makes it interesting.

Students endorsing the library as place to to be - Books, Magazines, PC's, Internet, Gaming nights, etc.

It may take some practice, but our imaginations are wonderful!

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 10:25 PM | Comments (0)

US Schools and Internet Access

There were two good posting with stats about US schools and Internet access penetration.

One is from Moving at the Speed of Creativity here and another is from Dangerously Irrelevant here.

Both note the recently released NCES Report, Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994-2005.

Here's some soundbites (useful charts are in the postings and the report):

1. Only 6% of US public school classrooms lack an Internet connection.

2. In 2005, 97 percent of public schools with Internet access used broadband connections to
access the Internet

3. Forty-five percent of public schools with Internet access used wireless connections in
2005

4. The ratio of sytudents to instructional computers in 2005 was 3.8 to 1.

5. Only 15% of schools had Internet access to the classroom.

6. About 10% of public schools reported that they lent laptops to students in 2005, about the same number as in 2002. IIn 2005, 18% of secondary schools were lending students laptops.

Since 1994, significant progress has been made in ensuring that the digital divide is bridged. Now we need to make sure that the tools are integrated into the curriculum and the student experience. The School Rooms initiative with InfOhio offers great promise. You can learn more here. (The new School Rooms Magazine is neat too. (here) (And yes SirsiDynix is heavily involved in this project but it's still very cool.)

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:19 AM | Comments (0)

How is traditional media doing?

Here's some interesting stats. I found them (and you can read more) on Richard Edelman's blog here.

"25% of American high school graduates do not read or watch any media on a daily basis."

"62% of Americans age 55-64 are reading newspapers in an average week. In 1999 it was 69%."

CNN's Headline News "has seen a 58% viewership increase during prime time in 2006 "

"The number of people watching network TV evening news is down from 60 million to 30 million in the past two decades, with viewers at an average age of 60."

That's a 50% drop in two decades! I guess PSA's on network TV are not the way to go for library promotion.

And, since library use across the US continues to increase (circulation, web hits, programs, etc), we better not look to traditional media for too many ideas for our next steps.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:09 AM | Comments (1)

December 11, 2006

Knox County Public Library opens Rooms

Congratulations to Knox County Public Library, who have made their new EPS/Rooms OPAC and web site available to their public. At present, KCPL links to the new site from their "old" site.

While a number of other public libraries have gone live on EPS/Rooms this year, Knox County is the first multi-branch urban library system to do so. You need to have a library card to get the full experience but check out the custom RSS feeds!

Cool,

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)

2006 Top Searches

Maybe it's just me, but my son and I love top 10 lists. Year end is a veritable gold mine of these lists in magazines and on the web.

The first one of the year is the Yahoo! Buzz list blog. See it directly here.

They've also included videos on Yahoo! Video, pictures from Flickr, and the best questions and answers on Yahoo! Answers.

I always wonder how web search lists compare to library questions. I'll bet there's a huge difference at the top but that the main subjects cluster about the same around the human condition - gossip, health, education, hobbies, current events, etc.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)

New Language Required

Check out this posting. Here's a clip:

"Does rewinding a movie have anything to do with winding a wristwatch?
Why is a screen saver called a screen saver?
Why do people talk about "dialing" a phone number?
How do you "load" a camera?
Why might you need white-out while typing?
Why would a needle scratch a record?"

OK, how does this apply to libraries?

Have most kids ever seen a book pocket?
Have most kids ever gotten their book stamped?
Does anyone ever see catalogues any more?
Does anyone ever touch a catalogue 'card'?
What's a record? (vinyl!)
What's the video in videogame?
Will we need to continue much longer to ask folks to rewind things when returning them?

I am sure you can think of more...

Hmmmm,.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)

Gaming Market Research

Folks are always interested in what's happening in the gaming industry and who plays games.

Thanks to Chad at Library Voice, here's a good, readble and visual resource:

Each year, the Electronic Software Association publishes a report detailing the “Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry". The 2006 report is available here (pdf), and other facts are available on their website.

Links to older reports from 2003-2005 can be found here.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 10:19 AM | Comments (0)

MySpace Pimping

I've been talking a lot lately with folks about using MySpace training in the library to teach information fliuency and internet safety skills. I know of a few libraries that have offered "Pimp Your MySpace" courses to attract teens into the library. While teaching stuff that excites them, clever asiudes on privacyt, appropriate use, etc are added. Courses entitled "MySpace and Teens" or "Internet Safety Skills" are for parents and definitely uncool to the target market.

Pick and learn a few MySpace tricks and set up a short course in your computer lab. Most folks are tiring of the standard look and feel and want to be individual and unique. How do you learn to pimp MySpace you ask?

Check out this blog posting: "BunnyHero Labs - The Massive MySpace Phenomenon You’ve Never Heard Of"

For more ideas, search Google for "myspace tips", "myspace backgrounds" or "myspace toolbox" , myspace tricks", or even "myspace how to". You'll find loads of free and fee resources and ideas.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 9:46 AM | Comments (0)

Teens and IM

From Gary's ResourceShelf, we get a link to this AP survey:

New AP-AOL Instant Messaging Trends Survey Finds Majority of Teens Send More Instant Messages Than Emails
"More Than Half of Adults Surveyed Log on to Instant Messaging Every Day"

DULLES, Va., December 07, 2006 - According to a new AP-AOL Instant Messaging Trends Survey, nearly three in four (72 percent) teens who use instant messaging (IM) say they send more IMs than emails, as do one in four (26 percent) adults. The survey, which examined instant messaging trends and usage habits among 1,513 IM users, further revealed that more than half of adults polled (54 percent) log on to send instant messages every day.

The survey also found that teens like to use instant messaging to share photos (56 percent), as well as share music and video files (33 percent). Meanwhile, adults are more likely than teens to engage in audio chat (19 percent vs. 15 percent) and video instant messaging (17 percent vs. 11 percent) with friends.

Instant messaging is a part of everyday life, especially among teens, who use IM to chat with friends, share experiences and stay in touch with family, said Marcien Jenckes, Vice President & General Manager, AIM & Social Networking, AOL. â€œThis survey found that people are using instant messaging to share photos, listen to online radio and get more done each day. It's clear that IM is helping people better manage their lives and their relationships.

Top-line survey findings among users of instant messaging include:

* Nearly one-third (30 percent) of teens say they can't imagine living without instant messaging. Teen girls are more likely than teen boys to feel this way (36 percent vs. 23 percent). Northeast teens (43 percent) are more likely than their cross-country counterparts to be just as attached to IM. Nearly one in five (17 percent) adults say they couldn't live without instant messaging.

* Multi-tasking while online is very popular, as IM users tend to engage in multiple online activities while sending instant messages. Checking email is the most popular activity among eight in ten adult and teen IM users. After email, adult IM users most often conduct online searches (53 percent), while teens say they like to research homework assignments online (63 percent).

* More than half (53 percent) of teen IM users have used instant messaging to get help with their homework. However, less than one in ten (9 percent) have communicated via IM with a teacher or tutor.

* Teens and adults under age 30 are most likely to log on to instant messaging at least several times a day (44 percent) as compared to all other age groups. Meanwhile, 40 percent of young adult IM users (ages 19-29) send 26 or more instant messages each day, significantly more than older adults.

* More than half of adult male IM users (51 percent) send instant messages to people they've never met in person, compared with 35 percent of females. Further, 56 percent of single adult IM users do the same, compared with just one-third of married adults. Thirty-nine percent of teens have sent an IM to someone they've never met in person.

* Single adults are more likely to log on to instant messaging at least once a day (64 percent) compared to married adults (49 percent).

* One in four (27 percent) adult IM users say they send instant messages at work. Among at-work IM users, 59 percent send at least six or more IMs each day. More than one in four (41 percent) say that instant messaging makes them more productive in the workplace."

More grist for the library mill. I recall seeing a 1956/57 article in the Wilson Library Bulletin advising libraries not to adopt telephone reference. From my travels this year, we seem to be split on piloting IM reference and resisting it. This seems to be a watershed issue in libraries and our relationship with our users.

Several folks have informed me that their library IM trial yielded poor results. I asked how they marketed and promoted the service. Asa rule, they hadn't done very much promotion at all. Some feared egtting too many questions (an odd irony). I know of one library that got amazing results just by getting every staff member to give the special group IM address on a bookmark to every teen who arrived in the library. The word of mouth marketing this generated worked very well. Now that the average IM user is 32, this kind of promotion could be done very effectively by circulation and information commons desks.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 9:36 AM

Mii on Wii

Wow. I haven't even played Wii yet and a colleague. Timothy Greig in NZ, has made a character for me.

You can see mine here. And it does look like me!

My friends Michael Stephens and Jenny Levine have gotten one too!

I'll have too learn to play. Getting better at Second Life comes first. The SirsiDynix Institute will run a program on Second Life Library 2.0 in 2007.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 9:25 AM | Comments (0)

Another cool mash-up

Check out this mashup. It's from The New York Times and it is a mashup of the best travel destinations for 2007. Map markers link to full stories in the Times travel section. Cool.

Now here's an idea. How about exporting the travel books from your OPAC and making a mashup with a map of the coverage of your collection? Maybe you can even link to placing a hold or borrowing a book in the OPAC? Another fun way to animate the collection.

The SirsiDynix Institute will offer a free program on Mashups in 2007.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 9:19 AM | Comments (0)

Three neat words / quotations

I heard a few neat things that I wrote down just because they appealed to me. So I won't forget them, here they are:

Preactive. I am as bad as the next geek in liking made up words (language should evolve). This one has roots in reactive and proactive. I think I'd define it as reacting the the future. If you see some big change heading at you, your profession or your enterprise, you should be preactive!

"Being Purple". I love this one. We often talk about avoiding black and white thinking and seeking shades of grey. This is more multi-dimensional. We can mix up lots of colours and purple is what we get. Not bad as a compromise metaphor and one of my favourite colours.

"Blooks" I hate this one. It's a bad mash-up and sounds awful. I don't know who coined it but it's supposed to mean books based on blogs or written by bloggers. Yeachhh. It's as ugly as bloogs - blogs about books.

Anyway, here's a handy phrase: "[insert your subject area/enterprise/whatever] progresses one funeral at a time". I heard a leader in our profession use this in reference to physics and astronomy but it seems pretty generalizable.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 9:09 AM | Comments (0)

Audiobooks

I picked up the Oct/Nov issue of AudioFile Magazine: The Magazine for people who love audiobooks in the airport lounge a few weeks ago. It was a pretty good read.

There were some interesting reports on the extent of the audiobook market in the US.

They reported from statistics from the APA 2006 Consumer survey. You can link to that here.

Preferred Audiobook format:

CD 50.4%
Cassette 27.6 %
Digital Download 7.1 %
Other 5.2 %

Audiobook Sources:

Library 51.8%
Purchase 26.2 %
Borrowed from friends 10.5%
Rental 3.3 %
Other 8.2 %

Note the favourable market position of libraries to build on in this space.

Their survey claims to show that 25% of Americans are listening to audiobooks. This is an industry association. the Audio Publishers Association, but it's still interesting.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 9:08 AM | Comments (4)

The Long Tail Visually

You gotta see the latest posting on Chris Anderson's (Author of The Long Tail) blog. It is a series of three great pictures (then, now and soon) representing the emerging view / vista / map of the web search environment. See them here.

You can see the role of library and other information and learning portals in this view. When you pull back from a great picture and view it from afar, you see things you don't see up close. Just like in an art gallery.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:34 AM | Comments (0)

December 7, 2006

Latest OneSource is Out

The latest SirsiDynix OneSource newsletter is out. My column this month is called "Reconstructing the Reference Team: 6 Ways to Sunday". Enjoy.

There ar ealso some articles on the SirsiDynix Superconference and the SirsiDynix Institute Executive Conference (all are welcome to these special conference in a conference).

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 5:09 PM | Comments (0)

December 5, 2006

The OPAC Sucks Discussion

"Lipstick on a pig."

"The OPAC sucks"

"My OPAC doesn't suck anymore!"

Posted by stephen at 12:42 PM | Comments (0)

December 4, 2006

K-12 Information Fluency Tricks

Here is my latest two columns for Multimedia and Internet@Schools. You can read it here.

The title is "Some Tricks to Build Information Fluency".

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 6:44 PM | Comments (0)

Bloglines

I've had a couple of conversations lately with people who visit this blog (and others) "regularly". They are just checking their bookmarks which is soooo last century! Many were unaware of the role that RSS aggregators play in making it MUCH easier to keep track of your favourite blogs.

I track over 500 blogs. And yes I know it is a sickness but it is also part of my job to know what is going on in all segments of the libraryland as well as innnovation, technology and a few hobbies. I know many of you have to track blogs as part of your work.

I use Bloglines. Make your life easier if you're not using an aggregator. Sign up for Bloglines. It is free. Download the simple "Sub With Bloglines" bookmarklet for MSIE or Firefox. It is then just sooooo easy to subscribe to a blog or any other RSS feed. YTo check that any of your favourite blogs that new stuff, you can tell right away and only click on those with new stuff. Such a productivity tool. I can follow my 500 blogs in 15 minuites twice a day!

I know there are other aggregators and everyone has their favourites. If you want to recommend another one, just send me a comment and I'll approve it as long as you don't put the URL in the subject line (looks too much like my Splog junk). However, right now I am too old and lazy to change (LOL).

I know to some of you this seems common knowledge but there's more library land folks heading up these learning curves every day. Those who've trod the path before need to share the tricks and tips.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 5:00 PM | Comments (8)

Academic Usability

Here's a great report from the UK. It has some interesting data and insights into the academic and scholarly mindsets of researchers and librarians.

Researchers and discovery services: Behaviour, perceptions and needs
A study commissioned by the Research Information Network
(November 2006)

You can download the PDF here.

Areas of Key Findings
1.3.1 General satisfaction with discovery services
1.3.2 Users cannot always access the resources they have discovered
1.3.3 Means and ends are not clearly delineated
1.3.4 One size doesnt fit all
1.3.5 There is a very long tail of discovery services used by researchers
1.3.6 Researchers use discovery services to find a wide range of resources:
1.3.7 Peers and networks of colleagues are extremely important
Research colleagues are one of the most important sources for virtually every type of enquiry.
1.3.8 Researchers see searching as an integral part of the research
process, and they tend to refine down from a large set of results
possibly over-constrained, initial search.
1.3.9 Researchers are concerned about irrelevant search results, but they are more concerned that they might miss important information
1.3.10 Push is popular but blogs hardly feature
1.3.11 Library support is largely via portals, rather than personal contact
1.3.12 Librarians and researchers are generally in agreement, but there are some important differences
1.3.13 Lack of formal training is not seen as a problem
1.3.14 Specific gaps in provision: A number of specific gaps were identified:
- Access to foreign language materials
- Chapters in multiple-authored books hard to locate
- Backfiles of journals online are too short
- Specialist search engines needed
- Researchers working on the intersection of fields and those in very new fields also felt the difficulty of searching multiple overlapping sources.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 4:38 PM | Comments (1)

The YouTube Library Commercial

Want to see what a viral commercial on YouTube looks like?

The Fulton County Public Library in Rochester, Indiana has one that's simple yet effective.

Check it out here.

Obviously FCPL has increased its cool quotient megafolds!

And just think how easy it is to post your video to a good streaming media server and then to have it appear on your library website... which might not have the needed infrastructure...! Hey 12-year-olds can do it!

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 4:30 PM | Comments (2)

Forbes on the Future of Books

The latest Forbes magazine is a special report on the Future of books. If your library doesn't subscribe, you can link to the article here.

Here are the section headings:

To me, books are... (Celebrity authors)

Dave Eggers' Small Notion

Giving It Away: I let readers download my books for free. It's a living.

The Networked Book: On the Internet, you can help write the book you're reading.

Harry Potter And The Ministry Of Fire: Thought book burnings were dead? Think again.

Stop Worrying About Copyrights: Electronic publishing isn't leading to the death of books.

What do you read the most?

Custom-Built Libraries

Publish And Perish

How The Internet Saved Literacy

The Secret Life Of An Online Book Reviewer

We Stole This Headline

2008's Hottest Book?

My Author, My Life

Video: The Future Of Publishing

It's a nice subway read...

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 4:21 PM | Comments (0)

Huntsville Madison Public Library

I had a great visit to Huntsville Madison Public library last week.

I talked about "21st Century Libraries are Different" and here's a link to the presentation.

You probably have no idea how stressful it is to speak in Huntsville, Alabama. You see this is the local libray for the SirsiDynix headquarters and a lot of my colleagues and their friends and families. They're also a great partner in taking in quite a few of our staff in to work there to see or remember what it's like in the real world of public libraries. (University of Alabama in Huntsville does this too.) For days afterwards I was hearing from folks who weren't there about how I did. I got a first hand look about how this city works. They heard about my presentation over dinner, at the BBQ, in the shopping mall, etc. Amazing! It's quite different from my hometown Toronto experience!

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 3:46 PM | Comments (0)

December 1, 2006

SLA Central Ohio Chapter

I had a nice trip to Columbus Ohio and spoke to the SLA Central Ohio Chapter. We talked about "Becoming Librarian 2.0".

You can find a link here.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 7:01 PM | Comments (0)

SLA Hawaii Chapter

I visited the SLA Hawaii Chapter at the University of Hawaii. Really friendly group and wonderful hosts. Hawaii was nice stop on the way home from Australia and New Zealand too.

We talked about Web 2.0: Becoming Library 2.0. Here's the link.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 6:58 PM | Comments (0)

Western Council of State Librarians

The 26 state librarians in the western U.S. met for a few days during the earthquake (a 6.7!) in Hawaii. I did an after dinner speech on "Becomiong Library 2.0: 5 Big Ideas."

The PPT is here.

Despite the bouncing land it was a nice trip.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 6:55 PM | Comments (0)

SLA Pacific North West Chapter

Here's a presentation called "Thinking Big: Becoming Librarian 2.0".

It was great to visiting with a bunch of SLA members in Seattle.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 6:53 PM | Comments (1)

eGlobal Symposium

I did a presentation at the eGlobal Symposium at the Univeristy of Huntsville in Alabama. It was new spin on my presentations and I focused on the Social Web 2.0. We followed the session with a nice dinner and cocktail hour.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 6:51 PM | Comments (0)

Yarra Plenty Library in Australia

Here's the presentation I did to launch Yarra Plenty's Learning 2.0 project. They will do a SirsiDynix Insitute presentation on this effort in the New Year. I am hearing that this is going very well and the transformational aspects of learning new technologies as a team is a lot of fun.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 6:48 PM | Comments (0)

Seattle Public Library Staff Day

I had the privilege to speak to every staff person at Seattle Public Library. What an amazing crew and what an amazing staff day event (They even had loads of PC games and more!).

I did the keynote on "Web 2.0 and Library 2.0: Libraries Reconnecting with Our Communities". The link is here.

I also spoke on "The Future User: Millennials and their Impact on Public Libraries" You can link to it here.

Thanks for inviting me.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 5:42 PM | Comments (0)

A big visit to Seattle

I had the opportunity to have dinner and speak to the searnior staff and Seattle Public Library and King County Library System Trustees and Foundations folks. Here's a link to this Executive Briefing.

This is a dynamic and committed crew of mostly volunteers. They are doing great work.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 5:39 PM | Comments (0)

WNYLRC Event

I also visited with the Western New York Library Resources Council conference in October. The topic was "Web 2.0: Becoming Library 2.0".

You can link to it here.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 5:37 PM | Comments (0)

SirsiDynix Institute 25 session

Here's a link to the presentation I did for the SirsiDynix Institute on "25 Technologues in 50 Minutes". Phew, that was a race for the deadline.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 5:35 PM | Comments (0)

San Jose State University Lazerow Lecture

I did an evening dinner speech for the annual Lazerow Lecture at San Jose State University School of Library and Information Studies on the topic of "Are Libraries Innovative Enough?"

Twas great fun and I even made university newspaper the next day. Cool.

Link to it here.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 5:32 PM | Comments (0)

December 29, 2006

2066 Forecast

December 28, 2006

Experts on What's Ahead

Gartner's 2007 Predictions

Top 101 Search Stories of 2006

K-12 Usability Study

December 27, 2006

Whoop Whoop

Libraries Are Social Institutions

December 25, 2006

Merry Christmas!

December 24, 2006

US News & World Report

5 Things Meme

December 23, 2006

Mouse Rage

Top 8 YouTube Videos

Library Videos Blog

December 20, 2006

2007 Web Predictions

Search Success in Special Libraries

MIT Usability Study

Disruptive Innovation

December 19, 2006

Military Librarians Workshop

Centennial College

HALINET Presentation

December 18, 2006

Google Top Searches for 2006

Top 10 Bling Technologies for 2007

Making GovDocs Fun

December 17, 2006

A Christmas Poem

The 2007 Cel Phone

Too Funny

You and TIME

Bestsellers

Understanding Book Publishing

Seasonal Post

December 16, 2006

Faith Collections

December 15, 2006

TOP 10 Library Stories of 2006

Networking for Introverts

Gartners Top 10 Predictions

An Amazing Prediction

December 14, 2006

The AOL Zeitgeist

2006 Web Trends

Ten Biggest Mistakes in Web Design

Facebook

Skype: The Other Penny Drops

December 13, 2006

OK - How exactly do they multitask?

Blurring the Real/Unreal Dichotomy

Blurring the Real/Unreal Dichotomy

Who's on first?

December 12, 2006

SirsiDynix Institute LIVE in Seattle

Start Your Own Library TV Show

US Schools and Internet Access

How is traditional media doing?

December 11, 2006

Knox County Public Library opens Rooms

2006 Top Searches

New Language Required

Gaming Market Research

MySpace Pimping

Teens and IM

Mii on Wii

Another cool mash-up

Three neat words / quotations

Audiobooks

The Long Tail Visually

December 7, 2006

Latest OneSource is Out

December 5, 2006

The OPAC Sucks Discussion

December 4, 2006