Meredith's questionaire

Meredith Farkas has a questionaire over on her blog. Its an update of one she had done previously on the biblioblogosphere in 2005. Its only 30 questions and really quick and easy. Funnily enough it might be used on some of my dissertation. Thanks to Walt for pointing me to this on his blog.

The history of tagging

Stephen's lighthouse has an interesting blog on the history of tagging . Well worth a look. Anyhow, I gotta pack.

55 articles for bloggers

Via lisnews, a list of 55 articles for better blogging. A really should read list (if you have the time). I'll unfortunately be in Germany with my girlfriend to see her parents and go to the beer festival. Nice.

Global services.......Whats the impact on booksellers and book swap sites?

Global services, have gone on a major increase on the 14th of may of this year. The impact of this is being felt within the book swapping industries (bookmooch, swapsimple & swapthing to name a few. This has meant that many users in America are finding it hard to be able to send out books. I reckon this might seriously affect the business model on these companies.

The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet Is Killing Our Culture and assualting our economy response

Having written previously about acquiring a copy of Andrew Keen's new book The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet Is Killing Our Culture and assualting our economy, it seems he's not really enamoured himself to many people. First up, Michael Sauers of travellin librarian fame (and the writer of the wonderful Blogging and RSS: A Librarian's Guide informed me that he had read it. He also gave me a link to his review of it, which was an interesting read. I'm still looking forward to getting it though, as it'll assist with the dissertation.

Jared Diamond's 'Guns, Germs & Steel'

I recently went to Borders and got a copy of Guns, Germs & Steel by Jared Diamond. Now, I had heard of this previously, and especially last year when the The Ubiquitous Librarian was discussing it.
Well, its an interesting read so far. It discusses why certain regions in the world advanced and others didn't. If your looking for a book that looks at history, geology, biology, this book ticks every box.

Clay Shirky at Supernova video

Clay Shirky has a great video presentation from his speech at Supernova. He discusses the impact of 'love' when we share our resources on perl problems, linux and the London 7/7. It is so worth a look, as librarians (or whatever) satisfaction is increased when we work as a team and to help others.(This article is linked via Peter Morville's blog).

New book on the way

Seeing I have started my dissertation on blogging (and it going very well, thanks very much), I have needed to find some anti-bloggers or at least anti-social networks. So whilst reading Information world review, I noted Andrew Keen's new book The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet Is Killing Our Culture and assualting our economy. Looks a fun read from the usual web 2.0 love in. If I hear one more feature has been added to facebook I might just scream.

What I have learnt as a blogger

Having reached 1 year and promised to write about my experiences as a blogger over that period I thought I would do that now as I've been relatively quite lately (I blame my dissertation).
1. The first thing I learnt in this year is to read before you speak. Having read Rebecca Blood's book, it gave me a basic idea and history of the subject. After that I needed to gain some people I enjoyed reading. Bloglines has really helped.
2. Always answer comments. Obvious. But many people do not. Its polite and keeps the conversation going.
3. Try and keep your post regular, but only if have something to talk about. Also, look at other blogs and extend or trim your your remit. Although my blog started off as predominantly as a predominantly library 2.0, but the remit has changed to looking at my job and dissertation.

This is just part of a series of short idea. My next post will be how to gain users to your site. This is no that i'm oh so popular, just some idea's I have learnt from other blogs and bloggers.

a quick thanks

To Sarah Houghton (aka Librarian in black) for point out my questionaire. Ning I thought might have helped, but Sarah's comments meant I got some feedback on the questinaire itself already from New Zealand.