Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore About Social Media…10.14.09

The WikiReader – “Wikipedia in Your Pocket”…10.13.09

Oct 13th, 2009 — “New WikiReader Device Puts Wikipedia in Your Pocket
WikiReader delivers the joy of information by offering three million Wikipedia articles in a simple $99 handheld device…”

NPR – COPE: Create Once, Publish Everywhere…10.13.09

This is an excerpt from a very insightful post on the Programmable Web blog titled “COPE: Create Once, Publish Everywhere“:

“The digital media world is in the process of dramatic change. For years, the Internet has been about web sites and browser-based experiences, and the systems that drove those sites generally matched those experiences. But now, the portable world is upon us and it is formidable. With the growing need and ability to be portable comes tremendous opportunity for content providers. But it also requires substantial changes to their thinking and their systems. It requires distribution platforms, API’s and other ways to get the content to where it needs to be. But having an API is not enough. In order for content providers to take full advantage of these new platforms, they will need to, first and foremost, embrace one simple philosophy: COPE (Create Once, Publish Everywhere)…”

[Click on image below for larger version]

NPR : Examples of COPE

View more presentations from danieljacobson.

7 Things You Should Know About Collaborative Annotation…10.13.09

The latest 7 Things from Educause examines collaborative annotation which lets users highlight specific content on a web page and add a note explaining their thoughts or pointing to additional resources.

A Social Media Strategy Framework…10.13.09

Here is an excerpt from the interesting Launch of Social Media Strategy Framework post by Ross Dawson [check out the complete post]

Today we launch our Social Media Strategy Framework. This provides guidance and a frame on how organizations can approach engaging with social media, following in the tradition of our highly popular frameworks such as Web 2.0 Framework, Future of the Media Lifecycle, and Influence Landscape.

RFID and Their Invisible Radio Fields or Immaterials…10.13.09

There are 4 billion RFID tags in the world. They may soon outnumber the people. Readers and tags are increasingly embedded in the things and environments in which we live. How do readers see tags? When we imagine RFID and their invisible radio fields, what should we see? Immaterials explains the experiments we have performed to see RFID as it sees itself.

Immaterials A new film by Timo Arnall for Touch and Jack Schulze for BERG

Posted using ShareThis

Retrevo Study Results – Tweeting for 35 & Under Crowd…10.13.09

Here is an excerpt from the new Retrevo study (read the whole posting to get an important perspective):

“…A recent Gadgetology study by consumer electronics shopping site, Retrevo.com went looking for answers on how much control social media has on peoples’ lives. We weren’t entirely surprised to learn how addictive social media has become especially among the 35 and younger crowd…according to Retrevo’s study, most people check Facebook and Twitter a couple of times a day. However, when we looked at the under 35 year olds we were concerned to see 27% of them checking Facebook more than 10 times a day…

We asked our sample of gadget-savvy online individuals how much they used social media in various settings. Turns out there is a big difference between those 35 and younger and those older than 35. The older crowd indicated they spend a reasonable amount of time checking in on social media services while the younger set spends what seems like an awful lot of hours texting, and checking in with their social media sites everywhere they are whether it’s in the car, at work, on vacation, or even after sex…”

Columbus Metropolitan Library “Quick Access Kiosk”…10.13.09

Here is an excerpt from Helene Blowers’ post about the launch of “Quick Access Kiosks” at her library system:

“…This week, all of our branch locations will be coming up on the new Quick Access kiosk, which is designed to overlay on top of all our dedicated branch catalog PCs and centralize several key functions (library card sign-up, easy access to electronic resources, my account, etc) for our customers.

What I love about the kiosk is not only it’s design and strong alignment with our other marketing materials, but it’s also customized to deliver branch specific information (control by script that detects the IP range assigned to the location) to highlight upcoming programs and hours of operation. It also utilizes this script to display a friendly face from member that works in that branch…”

NEW – Solar-Powered E-Reader from LG Announced…10.12.09

Here is an excerpt from the LG press release LG Display Unveils “Solar Cell e-Book”:

“LG Display Co., Ltd. [NYSE:LPL, KRX:034220], a leading innovator of thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) technology, today unveiled an e-book that is equipped with in-house developed solar cell. The thin-film solar cell featured in the e-book measures 10 centimeters in width and length, it was developed to perfectly fit the 6-inch display panel for e-book currently mass produced by LG Display. The solar cell measures 0.7 millimeter in thickness and weighs a mere 20 grams, the less thickness of a credit card and the weight of a fountain pen.

The thin-film solar cell is produced by placing electrodes onto a glass or plastic substrate. Contrary to widely adopted crystalline solar cells that employ silicon wafers, the thin-film solar cell is generally light-weight and easily adjustable in size and form for applications such as e-books or mobile phones.

The current energy conversion efficiency rate of this product is approximately 9.6 percent. Exposure to sunlight for about four to five hours would extend the running time of the e-book’s battery by a day without the need for additional charging. This would allow longer outdoor use of the e-book and lessens worries about battery discharging…”

Dropbox…10.12.09

Dropbox (not to be confused with Al Gore’s infamous “lock box”) explains its product:

“Put your files into your Dropbox on one computer, and they’ll be instantly available on any of your other computers that you’ve installed Dropbox on (Windows, Mac, and Linux too!) Because a copy of your files are stored on Dropbox’s secure servers, you can also access them from any computer or mobile device using the Dropbox website.”

See the following good video for a better understanding of Dropbox which you can download FREE:

“I’ll Fight You For The Library” performed by Taylor Mali…10.11.09

A great rant I had not seen before:

“Managing tomorrow’s people: How the downturn will change the future of work”…10.11.09

Here is an excerpt of an overview of a recent and interesting downloadable report available from PriceWaterhouseCoopers titled “Managing tomorrow’s people: How the downturn will change the future of work” which is relevant to librarians and others:

“…In the report, PwC outlines three possible worlds or business models which co-exist in the future, illustrating three fictitious companies as they look back from 2020. Some common themes have emerged:

• Demands for greater transparency and social responsibility in business have been magnified by the crisis and combine with the call for environmental responsibility already present in the green agenda. This will impact many areas of people management, particularly in relation to how people are rewarded. This is express in the Green World scenario.

• Increased focus on hard people metrics to measure performance and productivity as companies look at a long-term reality of having to do more with less. The Blue World scenario imagines the performance and efficiency culture necessary for global companies (some larger than many individual countries) to succeed within a new order of economic superpowers.

• The opportunity for radical new ways of working will emerge in the Orange World scenario. PwC takes the concept of outsourcing and globalization of the workforce to an extreme portfolio working model where people organize their working lives like individual businesses in a highly networked world…”

HealthMash…10.11.09

“HealthMash™ combines sophisticated Web 2.0 universal search and discovery technology with Semantic Web Concepts in a simple yet highly informative user interface.

Our mission is to promote health and well being in the world by providing personally relevant information from trusted health sites on the Web.”

Web Evolution – Social Networking…10.11.09

“Feeds On Demand” to Your Mobile Device…10.10.09

From txtFeeder:

“txtFeeder is a free service that helps you avoid data charges.

Read the web on your phone through text messages!

Avoid data charges, start texting today!”

Library of Congress Digital Collections – 700 Terabytes of Data and Growing…10.10.09

Here is an excerpt from Voice of America report US Library of Congress’ Digital Collection One of World’s Largest:

“…So far, the library has a total of 700 terabytes of data. But because of copyright issues, only 200 of those are available on the Web.

“A terabyte is about 1,600 CDs or about 330 hours of TV or about 2,000 books and we have about 500 terabytes that we keep in our long term preservation systems,” she adds.

At the Library of Congress, the numbers can be mind-boggling. Experts estimate they have more than 120 million books, 36,000 feature films, hundreds of thousands of music sheets and recordings, and the large collections of manuscripts, Web sites, posters and photography. Yet only one percent of it has been digitized.

Thomas Youkel is the senior systems engineer.’We have a scan lab here that scans anywhere from four to six million items a year,’…While workers continue scanning and digitizing millions of items, they keep an eye on a migration plan, to move from obsolete technology to new technology – a never ending process.”

Demo of Preliminator…10.10.09

“The Printliminator bookmarklet lets you selectively remove any element from a web page to make it printer friendly in just a few simple clicks…”  See Demo Video:

Worldwide Rankings in the Publishing Industry…10.10.09

Thanks to Stephen’s Lighthouse for pointing to the following chart from Analyzing the Global Ranking of Publishers:

Contolled Vocabulary – One Thing Leads to Another…10.09.09

Thanks to Planet Cataloging for pointing out the Controlled Vocabulary website – “…a resource to help others learn how best to build controlled vocabulary lists, thesauri, and keyword hierarchies for describing images in databases…”

Laws of the Emerging Social Economy…10.09.09

Here is an interesting graphic from Twenty Two Power Laws of the Emerging Economy from ZDNet.

Cambridge Library Collection…10.09.09

Barnes and Nobel E-Reader Coming Soon…10.09.09

Mashable! reports:

“The Wall Street Journal is confirming that bookseller Barnes & Noble will shortly announce its own brand of digital book reader. The e-book device is slated to begin shipping as early as next month.

As the largest book retailer in the U.S., the company’s entrance into the digital eReader space could set off heated competition with Amazon’s Kindle, that just received a price cut and an international version.

The eReader will reportedly have a 6-inch E-Ink touchscreen with a virtual keyboard, contrasting it immediately with the Kindle’s physical buttons and QWERTY input system. Like the Kindle, though, Barnes & Noble’s device will connect wirelessly to download books from its online e-book store launched in July…”

How to Implement a “23 Things” Web/Library 2.0 Program at Your Library…10.08.09

“Dialog program supports unemployed librarians”…10.08.09

From Peter Scott’s Library Blog today:

“Dialog is coming to the aid of those information professionals who have lost their jobs in the economic downturn. The company is waiving standard Dialog start-up and service fees, offering free Dialindex and throwing in a 10% discount on Dialog usage to librarians and information professionals who have recently been laid off. The aim of the program is to help these professionals use Dialog’s powerful resources do their job search, retain and develop their search skills and even do some independent consulting while they look for full employment. Free access and discounts can be used for up to 12 months.”

New from Forrester Research: “The State Of US Workforce Technology Adoption”…10.08.09

Here is an interesting excerpt from The State Of US Workforce Technology Adoption:

“Did you know that among US information workers that:

35% use laptops and 76% use desktop computers?

Only 11% use smartphones?

57% are optimistic about technology, but 43% are pessimistic.

We know because we surveyed 2,001 US information workers that use computers in their jobs at firms with 100 or more employees…

• Most applications are not widely adopted. Email, word processing, Web browsers, and spreadsheets are the top four applications. But even in those apps, the level of involvement or expertise varies widely — while 60% of employees use word processing daily, only 42% actually create documents. Most other applications are used by only a minority of iWorkers.

• There is pent up demand for smartphones. Only one in 10 information workers has a smartphone for work, but one in three agrees that they use a personal mobile phone for work purposes. Twenty-one percent of iWorkers would like to get email outside of work, and 15% would like email on a smartphone. Any way you slice it, this means that there is pent-up demand for smartphones at work.

• Collaboration tools are stalled out, leaving email to reign supreme.Collaboration tools are important for people on a team, particularly if that team is distributed across many locations. But the tools are not widely adopted. For example, only one in four iWorkers uses Web conferencing, and one in five uses team sites. That leaves email with 87% adoption as the default collaboration tool for most people.

• Gen Y employees are getting squashed at work. These younger workers behave very differently from others outside of work, but they are not so different in how they use technology in their jobs. Sixty percent of these 18- to 29-year-olds use social networking at home, but only 13% use it for work — the same percentage as Gen X employees ages 30 to 43…”

Australian Academic Library Starts Using QR Codes…10.08.09

Australia’s RMIT University libraries have begun using QR Codes:

“New to QR Codes?

QR codes are like barcodes – but better!

QR stands for ‘quick response’ and the codes are largely used to access online information quickly and easily from your mobile.

If your mobile phone has internet access, you should be able to take a photo of the code and immediately access the information on it. If the code is a web address, you’ll be taken straight to the website.

We are currently trialling the use of QR codes in the Library. Give it a try and let us know how this technology could help YOU.

To use QR codes you’ll probably need to download a reader onto your phone – this is quick and easy. Download Kaywa reader or Google ‘QR code reader’ and take your pick.

Here’s an example of a QR code. Unlock it and win!”

Library Search Trends…10.08.09

From Lorcan Dempsey’s post Discoverability…a report that’s worth a look:

Twitter and the Lone Wolf…10.08.09

Since inquiring minds want to know, my Twitter account is LoneWolfMLS.

“How to Search the Web Real-Time”…10.07.09

Interesting chart from ProductWise post How to Search the Web Real-Time:

Cloudboard from Google – Share Data Between Gmail and Other Google Apps…10.07.09

From Google:

“Google tests a service called Cloudboard, an online clipboard that should make it easy to copy data between Gmail, Google Docs and other Google services. The service is not publicly available yet, but there are many references to it.

An internal feedback form (update: Google disabled the form) describes Cloudboard as a ‘server-side clipboard for Google Apps’. Google provides an example of copying data from Google Spreadsheets to Google Docs: ‘if you copy a formatted cell range in Trix (cell border, colors, etc.) and then paste into Writely, it’s transformed into a comparably-styled HTML table.’

Google’s feedback form includes many other examples: pasting excerpts from Google Spreadsheets to Gmail, copying multiple images from Picasa Web Albums, copying YouTube videos, copying an event and pasting it into Google Docs or Gmail, pasting copied items from Google Image Search, copying maps into Google Docs etc…”