Last night, during the taping of episode 35 of Uncontrolled Vocabulary, Michael Sauers discussed his unhappiness with libraries that introduce additional barriers to internet access for non-residents. First-time caller David Rothman encapsulated those thoughts with the terms “media equity” and “library reciprocity.” After the show was finished taping, he implored Michael to write further about it. And Michael has obliged.
Thanks to David for joining the conversation last night and to Michael for keeping it going on his blog.
In August of 2005, I introduced the first Carnival of the Infosciences. In November of 2006, I passed administrative responsibility to my good friend Chadwick over at InfoSciPhi. And now, the time has come to find a new manager for the Carnival.
Do you have what it takes to be the Carnival administrator? Chadwick seeks “someone with the vision and time to develop it’s scope and direction.” Are you that person? Drop Chadwick a line at infosciphi at gmail dot com.
I’ve seen many variations on the Learning 2.0 - 23 Things theme, but I’ve been particularly impressed with Project Play, which comes from a collaboration of three library systems in Wisconsin. The author of much of the learning content, Beth Carpenter, does an outstanding job explaining the technologies. She definitely gets it. And I say that not just because she linked to Uncontrolled Vocabulary in her fantastic lesson on podcasts. Well, OK, that’s at least partially why.
And since you’re here, let me point you in the direction of Uncontrolled Vocabulary #34. You’ll find some interesting conversations about, amongst other things, the librarian who called police to report a child pornography consumer and was subsequently fired, the drug testing of library job applicants and the SWIFT platform that’s being tested for Computers in Libraries.
Immediately after the recording of episode 33 of Uncontrolled Vocabulary (another great one, by the way), a few members of the panel were interviewed by Stephen Kellat about their reasons for being involved in podcasting. That impromptu interview is now available as part of LISTen episode 13.
Information Today has posted the final program (.pdf) for Computers in Libraries 2008. I took the opportunity to determine my tentative schedule and post it up on the CiL2008 wiki. I don’t have any definite meal plans at this point, so if you’re interested in sharing a meal (or coffee or whatever), drop me a line.
I spent a substantial portion of Saturday (the part where I wasn’t shoveling) updating the Podcasting 101 wiki. I’d created it a few years ago to serve as a basic presentation template, so I wouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel every time someone requested a talk about podcasting. It hadn’t been touched in almost two years and, let me tell you, much has changed in the podcasting arena.
In updating links, I discovered the trend is not positive for the average podcast consumer. Many of the compelling applications, search tools and recommendation engines developed in the swell of enthusiasm for podcasting have either disappeared, moved a different direction or moved into the enterprise app business, leaving people like me with far fewer options for discovering the rich content available in podcasts. The redirections taken by both Loomia and Podzinger are particularly striking.
Much of the momentum has moved into videocasting. Blinkx seems to have dropped any efforts at indexing audio content. It’s a logical move forward, but people thought radio would die with the advent of television and it never happened. I feel the same way about audio podcasting. There will continue to be a market for it and money to be made for someone with the right approach to making it stupid-easy for newcomers to get involved (and the wits to take on Apple).
Fortunately, there have been positive developments in podcasting, including, most notably for me, the introduction of TalkShoe, the platform that makes Uncontrolled Vocabulary possible. Although not without its share of issues, TalkShoe makes it pretty easy for the average webizen to put together and record (and distribute via podcast) a live interactive audio program.
Anyway, the wiki page has been updated sufficiently that I’m no longer embarassed by its outdatedness.
Andrea Mercado points us in the direction of Books for Ears, a site devoted to audio book reviews. This is something I’ve always felt there was a need for and even considered doing something about, when I was more of an audio book consumer. (I can no longer handle the sustained consumption of complex texts. Or so I’m told.)
But I’d always imagined it as an audio program, a natural interlude in the book listener’s audio stream. So Jeanne, when you decide to go that route, let’s talk.
And while you’re here, I may as well point you in the direction of Uncontrolled Vocabulary #32, entitled “Cranky people make good audio.” The discussion really gets going when we turn to the topic of sex offenders and Internet predators. Enjoy!
Scanning my feeds today, I came across the opening salvo in ITI’s Computers in Libraries blogging effort. Although I did email Don Hawkins to get my green ribbon, that wasn’t what struck me about the post. It was this: “The tag for all blog posts and Flickr photos will be CIL2008.”
Why? Because three years ago, I did a whole lot of blabbing on the topic of consensual tagging at CiL. I proposed a few different tag options and the one respondent and I agreed on cil2005.
To be honest, I hadn’t thought much of it since, but now I wonder: Is that really the origin of what has become the official tag? Probably not. It’s a pretty obvious choice and, for all I know, there were probably others talking about it earlier. But I like to think I contributed to a still-growing phenomenon.
A search of Flickr shows 226 pictures tagged cil2005. By the following year, ITI was on board. This resulted in 626 photos tagged cil2006 on Flickr. And in 2007, a stunning 1,418 photos were tagged on Flickr with cil2007.
Granted, this speaks to the growth of Flickr as well as consensual tagging, but I think the value of an agreed-upon tag has been demonstrated. When I was unable to attend last year, the easy access to hundreds of photos from the conference was my connection to the event.
And I’ve already subscribed to the Technorati search results feed for cil2008, so I can see who’s as excited as I am.
That’s what I always imagined my final post on this blog would be titled. But I should have recognized that others would get there first: Closed Stacks
Honestly, I’m still trying to figure out what the authors of the blog meant to imply by choosing that name.
Hey, while you’re here, why not check out episode 31 of Uncontrolled Vocabulary? Good discussions this week about the perturbing situations in Boston, Memphis, Wisconsin and on LITA-L.
