3.07.2006

Do you want to orientate, organize, decide upon and analyze your information?


Question:
Do you want to orientate, organize, decide upon and analyze your information?
Chandler, a next-generation Personal Information Manager (PIM) integrating calendar, e-mail, contact management, task management, notes, and instant messaging: "What are the nouns, verbs and adjectives in Chandler? Items, Collections of Items, Kinds of Items, and Attributes of Items. What are they? How do they interact with each other? And how will you interact with them?"

Wolves or waifs?



Question:
What's cool?

Answer:
This is cool.

"Academic libraries are also creating a wide range of new professional assignments in such areas as systems, human resources, fundraising, publishing, instructional technology, facilities management, and other specialties that demand diverse educational backgrounds. Additionally, responsibilities formerly carried out by librarians are frequently transferred to support staff and student employees. There is also a new cohort of MLS librarians who have received their degrees through distance rather than residential programs."

Who's feeling ambiguous?










Google Search:
"Results 1 - 10 of about 557 for 'information ambiguity'. (0.50 seconds)"

Yahoo Results:
1 - 10 of about 309 for "information ambiguity" - 0.34 sec.

Who says Information Wants To Be Free?



Question:
Who says Information Wants To Be Free?

Asnwer:
Meredith does.
"If I won the lottery, I would travel all over, sharing my passion for technology in libraries with the world."

Who is Peter Suber?



Question:
Who is Peter Suber? Peter Suber: "I am a policy strategist for open access to scientific and scholarly research literature. Most of my work consists of research, writing, consulting, and advocacy. Most visibly, I am the Open Access Project Director at Public Knowledge, the author of the SPARC Open Access Newsletter, and the editor of the Open Access News blog."

What is information lit?




Emerald: Article Request:
"...Abstract:
Purpose –
To demonstrate existing definitional consensus on information literacy, and outline the main and unique areas of concern resulting from that consensus for libraries desiring to contribute to information literacy education.
Design/methodology/approach –
Leading attempts at defining information literacy are examined to demonstrate their lack of substantive definitional differences, and to establish parameters for the library’s participation in information literacy education.
Findings –
Examines the leading definitional contributions since the American Library Association’s 1989 seminal work on information literacy. Demonstrates the lack of substantive definitional differences between those and the ALA definition. Suggests librarians concentrate on the expectations deriving from such unanimity, and outlines those expectations.
Practical implications –
Clarity of definitions provides more stable atmosphere for practical initiatives, while controversies over definitions distract from action. By pointing out the fundamental agreements between seemingly competing definitions of information literacy, this article underscores the need for librarians to fully concentrate on ways to achieve information literacy. By specifying the library’s unique place in that process and outlining the concrete things it can do, the article also provides practical guidance for more focused activity on the part of the library in information literacy education.
Originality/value –
This article demonstrates a consistently overlooked definitional consensus on information literacy, and shows how the purported differences in definition actually represent delineations of steps and approaches that facilitate practical implementation. It also outlines the specific areas and activities that are legitimate responsibilities of the library in information literacy education, and notes areas outside..."

Are we past information literacy?




Question:
The ALA asks, "What is Information Literacy?"

Answer:
Their answer is, "Information Literacy is the set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information."

What information and for who?



Questions:
(Not mine)
Do Libraries Still Matter? A paper by seven librarians appointed by the president of the American Library Association (entitled Toward a Conceptual Foundation for a National Information Policy) said America must “reaffirm its mandate to its publicly supported libraries to seek out and deliver to all people the information they need or desire...All information must be available to all people in all formats purveyed through all communication channels and delivered at all levels of comprehension.” For good measure, the paper added: “All information means all information,” and “everyone means everyone.”


free_culture

How far open can you push?







Question:
How far open can you push?
Push to create OpenDocument standards: "With government records, reports and documents increasingly being created and stored in digital form, there is a software threat to electronic access to government information and archives.

The problem is that public information can be locked in proprietary software whose document formats become obsolete or cannot be read by people using software from another company.

To cope with the problem, 30 companies, trade groups, academic institutions and professional organizations are expected to announce on Friday the formation of the OpenDocument Format Alliance, which will promote the adoption of open technology standards by governments."

What is the State of Open Source Software in Higher Education?



Question:
What is the State of Open Source Software in Higher Education? Sheck, I didn't know we were that far along.

Source/site:
The State of Open Source Software
by Rob Abel, March 1, 2006

"...This report is the first of a series. It provides an overview of the use and attitudes toward open source software in higher education. Follow-up reports will provide details on best practices for implementing open source solutions..."

Who wants some bbq?




M-m-m good:
"Barbecue is an open-source, Java barcode library that provides the means to create barcodes for printing and display in Java applications. A number of barcode formats are supported and many more can be added via the flexible barcode API. Barcodes can be outputted to Graphics objects, or used as a Swing component, or written out as SVG. Please use the links on the left to find out more about Barbecue."

How do you achieve more?



Question:
How do you achieve more?

Comment that's a great idea:
"Less reading can help me apply more ideas."

How transparent are you?




Question:
How transparent are you? How easy is it for people to get help?

Site:
HKUL: Staff Directory: "Service Contact Point"


free_culture

Does everyone have metadata?




Question:
Does everyone have metadata?

Source:
"...I produce text-heavy pages — anathema in a point-and-click culture, I know, but those who want purty pitchers are welcome to go elsewhere....I design my pages with the most basic browsers in mind. Everything's standard HTML, and everything should be readable in Lynx, a text-only browser. (I try to keep blind and vision-impaired people in mind in every page I compose.) I want nothing to do with needless flash, animated GIFs, background music, frames that do nothing but clutter navigation, and so on."

Did you forget to put a coversheet on your TPS Report?




Question:
Did you forget to put a coversheet on your TPS Report?


Source:

JasperReports:
JasperReports is a powerful open source Java reporting tool that has the ability to deliver rich content onto the screen, to the printer or into PDF, HTML, XLS, CSV and XML files. "

How do you capitalize?



Question:
How do you capitalize your time?

Answer:
Find people and techniques who have already faced and solved your problem. (You're not that unique.)

Source:
"New TaskBlaze Freeware Update: Precise - Outlook Compatible Tracking beta 7.5"

What's a simulacrum?



Answer:
simulacrum \sim-yuh-LAY-kruhm; -LAK-ruhm\, noun;
plural simulacra \sim-yuh-LAY-kruh; -LAK-ruh\:
1. An image; a representation.
2. An insubstantial, superficial, or vague likeness or semblance."

I do a lot of simulacrum in my bog with my images from iblee.smugmug.com

Can the web be the next office?



Question:
Can the web be the next office?

Quote:
"Wikis: If you are working on an MBA and you do not leverage Wikipedia to do your research, you should... Project CoordinationThey all have different schedules and different classes. Yet they have no trouble working together. It isn’t rocket science. They use online project management tools such as Basecamp.com or Backpack.com."

How do you know when you're awesome?



Question:
How do you know when you're awesome?

Answer:
"More importantly, it's color-coded, since >>users don't read (and >>shouldn't have to!)."

What's better late than never?




Question:
What's better late than never?

Answer:
Switching to open source software.

Quote:
"And so the government should get a good return on the small amount of money it has spent on the Open Source Academy - especially if the OSA successfully builds a business case that shows local authorities how they can save money by moving off of their proprietary software packages."

Who should look at open source software?



Question:
Who should look at open source software?

Answer:
Everyone.
'Academy' builds business case for Linux in gov't - Public Sector - Breaking Business and Technology News at silicon.com: "Open source software is stable, secure, liked by users and can save the government money. ... An OSA spokesman said: 'The aim of the project is to promote the use of open source to the local government community.'"

What the heck is a Shibboleth Integration Project?



Question:
What the heck is a Shibboleth Integration Project?

Perhaps an answer:
"Shibboleth Overview:
The Shibboleth system provides a standards-based link between existing campus authentication systems and resource providers of all kinds. For example, when a student requests access to a protected video clip, her home organization (origin site) requests her to authenticate (if she has not done so already) and then passes on the information that she is enrolled in Biology 562 to the site housing the video. The provider (target site) uses the fact that she is enrolled in this course to determine her eligibility to access the video."

What is the Open Content Alliance?



Question:
What is the Open Content Alliance?

The Open Content Alliance (OCA) represents the collaborative efforts of a group of cultural, technology, nonprofit, and governmental organizations from around the world that will help build a permanent archive of multilingual digitized text and multimedia content. Content in the OCA archive will be accessible soon through this website and through Yahoo!

The OCA will encourage the greatest possible degree of access to and reuse of collections in the archive, while respecting the content owners and contributors. Contributors to the OCA must agree to the principles set forth in the Call for Participation."

Whta's a Nutch?



Question:
Whta's a Nutch? "Won't open source just make it easier for sites to manipulate rankings?

"...Search engines work hard to construct ranking algorithms that are immune to manipulation. Search engine optimizers still manage to reverse-engineer the ranking algorithms used by search engines, and improve the ranking of their pages. For example, many sites use link farms to manipulate search engines' link-based ranking algorithms, and search engines retaliate by improving their link-based algorithms to neutralize the effect of link farms.

With an open-source search engine, this will still happen, just out in the open. This is analagous to encryption and virus protection software. In the long term, making such algorithms open source makes them stronger, as more people can examine the source code to find flaws and suggest improvements. Thus we believe that an open source search engine has the potential to better resist manipulation of its rankings..."

GASP! Is there Open Source Search Engine?



Question:
Is there Open Source Search Engine?

Quote:
"Search is interesting again,' says Doug Cutting, a founder and core project manager at Nutch. Cutting, whose development chops were honed at Xerox (XRX) PARC, Excite and Apple (AAPL), is building Nutch (that's his toddler's all-purpose word for 'meal') with a small team of engineers based around the country. But Cutting says they hope that once Nutch is loosed on the world, tinkerers from Romania to China to Palo Alto will help build it into a robust platform, in the spirit of Linux or Apache (which has garnered more than 60 percent of the Web-server software market in just the last couple of years)."

What is your library?



Question:
What is your library?

Answer:
"MyLibrary is a collection of personal electronic services, developed by the Cornell University Library, that can be customized to reflect your own personal interests and research needs."

What do you mean there are open source search engines?



Question:
What do you mean there are open source search engines?

Answers:
Zebra:
"Start with some Danish developers curious about connecting information systems in line with open standards and skip to the last chapter, where they've become a hot little company supporting libraries across continents."

What did you call me?



Question:
What did you call me?

Quote:
"I'm not trying to eliminate the 'L' word and I don't ever see it completely going away. But that 'traditional' library image will continue to leave too many talented people earning traditionally low librarian salaries and with limited employment opportunities. Those who embrace the information umbrella will be able to go much further and do much more for the users who need their talent and commitment."

What do you mean I don't have options?


Question:
How do you push yourself to learn new things? How do you develop flow and fluency and confidence in your abilities? Learn that you have options.

Quote:
Dell Precision Workstations with Linux: "Dell PrecisionTM open-source n Series1 workstations deliver maximum workstation performance. Smart for businesses with proprietary software images or special Linux needs, these systems are available with factory installed Linux."


free_culture

What are great things about the library?



Question:
What are great things about the library?











Site:
http://www.library.cornell.edu/about/greatthings.html

3.05.2006

How do you create more time in a time-crunched world?




Question:
How do you create more time in a time-crunched world?

Answer:
Do less of the wrong things. That's takes practice and it's not something your taught. Think of it as: mastery.

Thoughts:
Sometimes I wonder why I think I don't have time to develop other skills faster. Since completely submerging myself into the world of information and finally realizing this is what I've looked for, for a very long time, I parardoxically ( ;) ) have put pressure on myself to get "2.0-ed"

So I need to learn how to code, navigate, tag, manage, link, write, think, organize, develop, track, define, all things www, internet, web, and electronic related because I've been disconnected from it for a long time. Daunting I tell ya. I barely get how to write basic html and here I am trying to figure out to convince people to go Open Source whenever possible and that we can just write our own code when we need it.

Even when I was connected way back in 1996, I never did more than customize Word. Ten years later I finally begin my education. And I want to run up Mt Kilimanjaro.

And I like it.

On another note: I train in Olympic style weightlifting Monday nights; Tuesday I practice Aikido and Wednesday I sit with the Empty Field Zen Group; Thursday is Aikido again; Friday I try to swim like a dolphin but it's more like a rock; Wednesday and Friday at 1:00 pm I do Ashtanga Yoga with my friend Renee or we walk; everyday I work at becoming more peaceful; work on my blog and running it on a tiddlywiki; I'm working towards squaring things away for library school; I'm developing my writing cuz I write like poohph; learning how to use OpenOffice, Gimp, portable apps, and a plethora of other open source software; really read all those books I've listed; be involved in this "UU" thing; develop my library leadership institute; switch to voip/sip/skype/openwengo; maximize the/my use of the technology I've bought.

Alos, read Mastery, ISBN: 0452267560; Total Immersion, ISBN: 0743253434; and ChiRunning, ISBN: 074325144X -which I'm aiming to read.



What is Happiness?



Question:
What is Happiness?

Answer:

Just a great series of articles on The Science of Happiness in the Jan 17 issue of Time. I remember a few periods in my life when I was not so happy. In fact from what I can tell, I may have been depressed. I think it strikes people particularly at certain ages and at certain times in their lives. I am blogging this series of articles by Time because this particular time in my life was only begining to get bright after I endured some oppresive darkness.

How positive and idealistic are you? Lots would be good. How much rationality and minimality do you apply to horrible events in your life? Too much is bad. If you're not recognizing the bad things in your life and only minimizing and rationalizing away your feelings you are carrying around depressive states. You must learn to be happy as you've learned to be depressed. Because we do a great job of opressing people in society, we don't always recognize happiness takes work.


Some articles you can read:
---
Get Happy. (Cover/Mind & Body: Happiness)
Time Jan 17, 2005 v165 i3 pA1

The New Science of Happiness: What makes the human heart sing? Researchers are taking a close look. What they've found may surprise you. (Cover/Mind & Body: Happiness/The Science)(Cover Story) Claudia Wallis.

Dancing to Evolution's Tune: The good news: we're born for fun. The bad news: it's not built to last. (Cover/Mind & Body: Happiness/Viewpoint) Robert Wright.

Can Sunny Thoughts Halt Cancer? (Cover/Mind & Body: Happiness/Health/Healing) David Bjerklie.

And One More For The Road. (Notebook)(NightRiders provides a service driving home the cars of drinkers)(Brief Article) Hope Reeves, Julie Rawe.

The Paths to Pleasure: We all know what it feels like: the delight in a mouthful of chocolate, the afterglow of a good workout. A look at two systems in the brain that, with the right natural or artificial stimulus, conjure these sensations. (Cover/Mind & Body: Happiness)(Brief Article) Kristina Dell.

Learning the Yoga Way of Laughter. (Cover/Mind & Body: Happiness/Laughter/Exercise) Alex Perry.

A Smile Doesn't Always Mean Happy. (Cover/Mind & Body: Happiness/Laughter/Expressions) Michael D. Lemonick.

How is your blog organized and what is this blog's focus?

{THIS IS THE FORMAT/GUIDELINES FOR MY POSTS}

POST TITLE [goes above, always a question] :
How is your blog organized and what is this blog's focus?
------
{Post Body, beginning elements bolded to enable reader to scan}



PICTURE [goes here]:
All posts will have a picture.

QUESTION [goes here]:
How is your blog organized and what is this blog's focus?
This blog will look at and work to understand information from the creation of information to the consumption of information.
All posts will use a question as the title and those questions will be repeated here.

SUMMARY/QUICK RESPONSE/COMMENT/ANSWER [goes here]:
All posts will have some type of input from me -whether that be just a remark like "IMHBCO, this is right."

QUOTE [goes here] :
All posts will most likely have a quote.

CITATION [goes here] :
All posts will most likely have a citation for the content those posts refer to.
Citations will follow this format:
*Title of material cited;
*And a way to get source material; Website URLS may be hyperlinked in the text or added at the end of the post; ISBN; ISSN; etc...

*The point is to clearly and quickly point to the source should you want to read that it. The citation should not be some convoluted, cryptic, dense piece of information you need a Ph.d to read.


TAGS[go here] :

What is a brilliant statement?



Question:
what is a brilliant statement?
Quote:
Articles: "There is also another, very human problem to overcome: that most people don't understand computers or software, but have memorized only the keystrokes and mouseclick patterns they need to get through the day, so the second they are given a new program they need to memorize a whole new set. This is not an OS-to-OS migration problem per se, but one that can crop up any time a new piece of software is introduced in a workplace environment. But then, because Dave and Mike aren't constantly running around fixing PCs, they have time to train people and answer users' questions, a luxury they would not have if they were fighting Windows problems all day long."

3.04.2006

Working too much, living too little?



Question:
Are you working too much and living too little?

Summary:
Don’t worry: if you live in the United States, you are working too much and living too little. I know most people are living to little because those same people are overworked doing jobs they don’t love. How can you be living well when you don’t have energy to even care about what unfolds in the daily world let alone your own life? What is the statistic about job satisfaction among American workers? Roughly, 90%+ would leave their jobs for another. Slow down now as you think about this question: when have you set as a directive in your life: I will learn to live well. Have you asked yourself, do I live well? What does it mean to live well? What can I do to help people I love to live better?

Consider this: most people think the other driver on the road is the idiot -that one driver who is always on the cellphone, not using a blinker, backing up without looking, making a dangerous turn, speeding, etc. But, they never stop to think, as a driver, they’ve done all those things -multiple times. And, those drivers also never stop to think just because they’ve driven for X number of years or never had an accident or never been pulled over that they drive supremely well. Yet, those drivers don’t take refresher classes, improvement classes, advanced driving classes, skill assessments, read books on driving improvement, attend lectures on the latest driving techniques, have someone evaluate their driving or ever revisit the skills they learned at 15.6 years of age to see how well they drive now.

What do they forget and perhaps have never learned: unless you actively work at being and becoming better at a task, you could do something for 40,000 years and not be doing any better than when you started doing that task. That by the way is a proper use of then and than -an egregious english grammar error I see more times than I care to count. Unless you think I possess a false hubris, don’t worry, I’m sure there is typo somewhere in my posts and some, verbosity. Mull those questions like veggies in crockpot awhile, while asking yourself: what did I do to improve the lives of others today?

For you are here with no other reason.

Are you medival?

Question:
Are you medival?

Example:

Don’t believe me? Just watch.

First, my roommate over the summer, Jeremy, shot video of of me with his Casio Exilim . Then I downloaded it to my laptop. (It’s a Dell; I don’t have much to say about their laptops and feel I’ve said enough already since I just admitted to using one.) Next, I converted it to an MPG-1 using FX Mpg Writer . This format is close to universal and smugmug requests you upload in this format. “Requests” is a nice way of saying they prefer to make things easy and converting it with FX was, easy. If you can’t see the video you need: 1) an updated version of Windows Media Player or an updated version of Quicktime. 2) You may need a browser upgrade. If you haven’t yet switched to Firefox, you must. Commence hacking the web after that. And with that said, I still occasionally access something using Internet Explorer -but not by choice.

Check me out; I’m medieval -not a lot of people can say that. I blog and I scythe.

http://iblee.smugmug.com/gallery/1088245

How can you "Hack FedEx Kinko's ExpressPay system SmartCard?"

Question:
How can you be sure to ensure you'e not exposed like you don't think you are/?

Source:

YouTube - Hack FedEx Kinko's ExpressPay system SmartCard: "The ExpressPay stored-value card system used by FedEx Kinko's is
vulnerable to attack. An attacker who gains the ability to alter the
data stored on the card can use FedEx Kinko's services fraudulently
and anonymously, and can even obtain cash from the store.
Added on March 03, 2006, 01:19 AM by xerohour"

3.01.2006

Who are your library users?



Question:
Who are your library users? How do you wake-up one day and don't have a job? Can you not see it coming? Are there indications that your life is changing and you're ignoring them? When was the last time you went to the Dentist?

Quote:
" ...If you're a part of the computing or Internet-related industries, you probably already know that college students are one of the most computer literate and Internet active segments of society. ... The campus is clearly the hub of student computing. The study examines what resources are made available to students and what influence colleges and universities have on student preferences. The study represents the first, independent measurement of students' awareness of specific www sites (both of general interest and sites targeted to them)... "
Student Monitor



How do re-create yourself?



Question:
How do re-create yourself? First realize succeeding in your profession is being able to ride the rising tide; this is not being a bobbing cork on the open ocean; this is being a surfer -if you get knocked down ride that turn out and then get back up for the next wave.

Quote:
Libraries begin uncertain new chapter: "With internet companies such as Google becoming more involved in digitising content, what role does the public library have in today's web-driven society?"

How do you move to make things work?



Question:
How do you move content between offline formats to online formats to hybridized formats? Look for examples.

Quote:
MIT OpenCourseWare | OCW Home:
"Welcome to MIT's OpenCourseWare:
a free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners around the world. OCW supports MIT's mission to advance knowledge and education, and serve the world in the 21st century. It is true to MIT's values of excellence, innovation, and leadership.
MIT OCW:

* Is a publication of MIT course materials
* Does not require any registration
* Is not a degree-granting or certificate-granting activity
* Does not provide access to MIT faculty


What can you do with open source software?




Question:
How do you ensure transparency? Start projects in Open source software. Use movements that show and uncover your thinking. Ask yourself, "how will this be perceived?" The hard and stiff will fail; the soft and supple shall prevail as it's said in the Tao Teh Ching.

Quoted source:
Open Workbench - Open Source Project Management and Project Scheduling for Windows - Comparing Open Workbench and Microsoft Project

What's your manifesto?



Quote:

FreeCulture.org: Manifesto: "The mission of the Free Culture movement is to build a bottom-up, participatory structure to society and culture, rather than a top-down, closed, proprietary structure."

How do you take something common like a URL and make it unique?



Question:
How do you take something common like a URL and make it unique? Wake-up call for all.

Quote:
Quick Online Tips: Decoding the domain name del.icio.us: "del.icio.us has become the most popular social bookmarks manager in recent times. Many surfers are drawn to curiosity by the peculiar domain name del.icio.us. It was an ingenious way to register a domain name. I mean it is much better than getting delicious.com or delicious.net etc. A domain search reveals there are many such names and many more subject to domain name availability."