Tame the Web: Trends & Tech Presentation at PLA for SJSU SLIS « Tame The Web

Posted on April 20, 2012 by infophile

Trends & Tech Presentation at PLA for SJSU SLIS

via Trends & Tech Presentation at PLA for SJSU SLIS « Tame The Web.

Sound bytes: Don’t let technology “freak you out” and “become more comfortable with chaos.” Technology = connecting to users. Extend the mission of the library.

Discusses emerging technology trends such as mobile, augmented reality, geo-social (location-based), creation and fabrication spaces (making stories and printing things) and learning 2.0.

Really good, timely presentation applicable to public libraries from one of my favourite blogging librarians.

YouTube Link

GTA Technology Topics, Tips and Tricks: Last GTA 4T Email & 3D Printing

Posted on April 15, 2012 by infophile

This will be the last GTA Technology Topics, Tips and Tricks post on The Modern MLIS, as my placement as Graduate Technical Assistant at the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alberta is finished.

I think its fitting the last GTA 4T email focus on what’s on the horizon technology-wise. It seems some new technology is announced on a daily, so I am only going to focus on one – 3D printing! For a good report reviewing technologies on the horizon and in the next 3 to 5 years, I suggest looking at the 2012 Horizon Report from EDUCAUSE.

3D printing has fascinated me since I saw a post on Mashable in January stating that Pirate Bay Wants You to Download Physical Objects Now. I had no clue what the headline meant but reading a bit further I realized that 3D printing using lasers was moving out of the realm of fiction into fact and even into mainstream adoption. Although I’m not going to advocate one download anything from PB, what was interesting about what PB was discussing was that they were creating a new category of object called “physibles” where the user can download a blueprint for printing a 3D object. This brought all kinds of questions to my mind. Will 3D objects be copyrighted or considered of intellectual property value? Should printable 3D objects have no copyright? Because if a 3D blueprint is created in the first place then the intent would be to print a 3D object. Like, am I going to get sued for printing a patented car part! There are all sorts of implications for this new technology and I look forward to participating in the discussion. Links to further your 3D printing knowledge are provided below.

Here is a great paper discussing why 3D Printing Will Change the World.

Woman Gets Jawbone Made by 3D Printer from Mashable

Smithsonian to 3D Print Copies of Priceless Artifacts from Mashable. Smithsonian Creator’s Project – Will 2012 Be The Year 3D Printing Goes Mainstream.

The Fayetteville Free Library Fabrication Lab: Will Fabrication Labs Make Libraries Useful Again from Gizmodo and 3D Printing: Coming to a Library Near Youfrom SmartPlanet

Autodesk Wants to Bring 3D Printing to Everyone With an iPad from Mashable

3D Printing from Explaining The Future – Very tech speak!

Libraries and 3D Printing video from CES 2012. Refers to libraries as “hacker spaces” and “maker spaces.”

Shapeways – Ideas Made Real with 3D Printing – commercial website.

My personal favourite – Choc Edge 3D Chocolate Printer – world’s first chocolate printer. 🙂

Maybe “Libraries of the Future” will involve having 3D printer “maker spaces.” Discuss.

GTA Technology Topics, Tips and Tricks: Links to Tools & Resources

Posted on April 4, 2012 by infophile

Here are some lovely links to a variety of tools and resources!

6 Powerful Web Tools For Getting Unusual Things Done, From Audio Editing To File Conversion from Fast Company

11 Web-Based Polling and Survey Tools from Free Technology for Teachers

A search engine for art: Art.sy (currently in beta). More about this project from Mashable.

EDUCAUSE has links to hundreds of informational resources browsable by topic (e.g. information systems and services, libraries and technology, teaching and learning, etc.) or resource type (i.e. presentations, blogs, podcasts, publications).

Added Bonus Link: NYPL Movie-Style Promotional Suspense Trailer. Awesome!

GTA Technology Topics, Tips and Tricks: Mixed Links on Visual/Digital Resources & Services

Posted on March 27, 2012 by infophile

The Pottermore Shop is open for purchase of Harry Potter eBooks. Unfortunately it looks like the eBooks are not available in Canada yet but the digital audio books are. The eBooks are DRM free. For more details see this announcement from Publisher’s Weekly. Checkouts from OverDrive start Thursday (?US only).

I ran across the Ogilvy Notes from SXSW 2012. These graphics are pretty cool and visually summarize a wide range of topics such as Digital Debauchery with Anthony Bourdain, Surviving Technology and Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think. Communication using visual imagery always seems to have more of an impact and is very effective for technology related topics.

Continuing with the visual imagery theme, here is a post investigating the 20 Great Ways Libraries are Using Pinterest.

Cowbird (“A Witness to Life”) is a sophisticated story telling web service for real life events. From ReadWriteWeb – How Cowbird Transforms Storytelling on the Web.

The Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory Digital Archive goes live with help from Google (PCMage article). Also, from earlier this month the Albert Einstein Archives Online is now available.

A post from SU Information Space commenting on why LIS students should care about the Digital Public Library of America project.

A new Timeline tool is now available for everyone that pulls in media from different sources such as YouTube, Twitter, flickr, etc. Here is a post from Mashable highlighting this new tool.

Did you know there are over 100 different tools and resources available about infographics and data visualization? Here is the list.

7 Essential Elements to an Awesome Library Website slideshow

GTA Technology Topics, Tips and Tricks: Online Privacy

Posted on March 21, 2012 by infophile

I’ve seen the commentary on online privacy intensify the past few months. Facebook routinely changes its privacy policy it seems and Google has moved to one privacy policy for all of its applications. I think its good we hear about the privacy infractions by companies in the news, such as when the Sony database was hacked into and personal data was stolen from users. It really concerns me though about all the intrusions and privacy breaches that are not disclosed. Organizations need to start being more accountable for the client data they are charged with protecting and we need to start expecting more from the organizations we provide our personal information to. Users need to arm themselves to protect their information and identity, so its important to create awareness and give users tools to protect themselves. In that spirit here are some useful and informative links on online privacy.

The Sad State of Social Media Privacy Article & Infographic from Marketing Tech Blog/MDG Advertising.com

2012 Pew Internet report on Search Engine Use. Relates to personalized search being an invasion of privacy.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation proposed in 2010 a Bill of Privacy Rights for Social Network Users. They again built on this theme by creating A Mobile User Privacy Bill of Rights earlier this month.

Here’s a wiki on How to Manage Facebook Privacy Options

The iLibrarian has a great post on this very topic which I am including below:

Online Privacy: 5 Recent Stories

Social media and online privacy are always a concern, but more so in recent times with variable and ever-changing privacy policies. Here are five stories from the last couple of weeks covering online privacy:

Are You In Control of Your Social Media Privacy? [INFOGRAPHIC]
Stephanie Buck at Mashable blogs about a recent infographic titled Social Media Management: Protect Your Privacy created by ZoneAlarm, based on a 2012 study by Pew

Do You Value Your Internet Privacy?
Alicia Eler at ReadWriteWeb takes a look at a recent study released by the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) in which researchers investigated whether or not customers of online services would pay a mark-up to an online service provider who protected their information better.

Social Media Privacy: 3 Questions to Ask Before Authorizing Third-Party Apps
Jamie Beckland at Mashable talks about how best to insure your privacy on social sites and whether it’s a good idea to authorize outside apps to access your information.

Internet privacy a growing concern, Pew finds
Benny Evangelista, SFGate dicusses privacy with regard to search engines and whether or not people’s search histories are being tracked.

How Do We Explain Patron Privacy in a World of Target Markets?
Laura Crossett writes an insightful article about privacy and library patrons.

11 Web-based Polling and Survey Tools

Posted on March 2, 2012 by infophile

Free Technology for Teachers: 11 Web-based Polling and Survey Tools.

GTA Technology Topics, Tips and Tricks: Timeline Tools

Posted on February 27, 2012 by infophile

I was asked whether I knew of any good timeline maker tools and I actually have never used one before. I did some investigating into what is available and am passing along the tools I found.

This article by makeuseof looks at two easy to use tools Tiki-Toki and Dipity.

Tiki-Toki – Looks impressive but basic/free account has restrictions.

Dipity – More basic than Tiki-Toki but may not work well for print purposes. Looks great for web purposes and sharing.

TimeRime – Create, view, share and compare timelines. Basic account probably has some restrictions.

TimeGlider – This one looks more advanced and again may not work well for print purposes. Application moving away from Flash and will use a Javascript plugin. Complicated installation.

Timeline – This one is cross platform, free and open source. Requires installation. May be the best to use for print purposes. Mac OSX users may have to install from the command line.

Another option is to install a PowerPoint plugin from Office Timeline. This looks like the best option for print purposes.