Google Calendar Part 8 of CPD23

Part 8 of CPD 23 looked at Google Calendar. Google Calender would be used to create events and make them freely available on your blog etc.

Face-to-face networks and professional organisations part 7

Well I didn't get around to writting part 7 of the CPD, which looked professional organisations. With a link to Real life networking for #cpd23, looking at past library events. It also looked at paid for organisations to join such as CILIP amongst other. It also looked at Informal organisations such as Lisnpn amongst others.

Facebook group for librarians

(Found via here). Brian Kelly blog post pointed out that Aaron Tay has created a facebook page for librarians called Library Related People Facebook group. I had heard of Aaron previously via his blog and the recently deceased Ning site for Library 2.0, in which he was a prominant member of the community.
Seems the site as growing, and as Brian says in the article:-

Will be more to do with the extent of Aaron’s professional network and his esteem in the library community.

Anyhow, its certainly worth a visit and good on you Aaron for creating it.

International Group Xmas Quiz 2010 at Cilip

For those in London Cilip is having a International Group Xmas Quiz 2010, on the 8th December, from 6pm. The Cilip blog says of the event:-

This is an 'international' quiz, preceded and followed by festive refreshments and networking. We are looking for teams of 4 -6 people. Prizes will be awarded to the best teams.

A voluntary Quiz entry fee of £5 per person will be gratefully received - to go entirely to ILIG's Emergency Fund.

Please note that, unlike our usual Informals, Quiz places are limited.

Sounds a good event for networking.

LISNPN London meetup 01.10.10

As I can't make the New Professionals Information Day, i'm going to the meet up after at the College arms. I tried to get a friend I worked with previously at a public library, and she was worried that the event is all about talking about libraries. My email response?

yup. we just talk about our collections and shushing policies.

I think I put her off. Anyway, many others going tomorrow?

Facebook film

As many of you may know, on 15 of October, 2010 the film The social network is released. Based on the excellent The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal, the film looks at the early life of facebook and Mark Zuckberg's company and falling out with friends in Harvard over the company. I'm really looking forward to it. I might even put it on my facebook page.

Reuters article on the social web and how universities are integrating them

(Found via here). Reuters has an article entitled Schools, tech comPanies tailor social sites for students. The article says:-

Colleges and universities across the United States are going beyond simply creating websites and pages on Facebook for students to "friend" or "fan." They are working with technology companies to build their own social networks and integrate them into campus life to boost admissions and retain students.

Obviously, somethig that could be transfered to a library environment. So, perhaps you could use it for patrons to sponsor books (to increase money's for the library).

Foursquare for libraries.....

I had heard some months ago about Foursquare from an old colleague of mine. Wikipedia describes the service as:-

Foursquare is a location-based social networking website, software for mobile devices, and game. Users "check-in" at venues using text messaging or a device specific application. They are then awarded points and sometimes "badges."

You earn points for finding new places, tagging them and describing them. And if your the first there you can become mayor and win other titles.

Anyway, I like Helene Blowers feel that :-

It's been awhile since I've seen a new social technology emerge on scene that looked like it had that "explosion potential". The last real time for me was Twitter

David King also has an interesting article on the use of Foursquare for libraries. Below are 5 ingenious idea's he has thought up:-

1.Add your library as a place, or edit the entry if someone else has already added it. You can enter your street address (Google map is included, phone number, and your library’s Twitter name.

2.Add tags relevant to the library. For example, I have added the tags library, books, music, movies, and wifi to my library’s Foursquare entry. If you are in the area (Foursquare is a location-based service, so it knows where you are) and search for wifi – guess who’s at the top of the list? Yep – the library.

3.Add Tips and To Do lists. When you check in to a place, you have the option to add tips of things you can do there, and you can create To-Do lists of things you want to do there. For libraries, both are helpful – it’s a way to broadcast your services to Foursquare players. To Do lists are handy, because you can make the list and other players can add those To Do list items to their lists, too. When they do something on those lists, they gain points. Think of it as a fun way to get people doing stuff at your library! Just think – someone could gain points by getting a library card – how cool is that?

4.Add your big events. Then, you can have an event check-in with prizes for the first person who checks in, etc.

5.Shout outs. These are a type of status update, and can be sent to Twitter and Facebook. So do stuff, then shout out that you’ve done them.

I reckon these are pretty great idea's. I think I might just give them a try for my library.

Free film on Piracy

I discovered a free documentary called Steal this film. The film deals with Bit torrent technology. The film talks to such people as the piratebay founders, mininova founders, the electronic frontier foundation. They talk to Howard Rheingold, Siva Vaidhyanathan and Yochai Benkler.
The film looks at how the MPAA tried to bring down Piratebay in 2006 and failed. That trying to stop torrent technology is like one person said 'trying to stop someone pissing out the swimming pool.'
he film looks at the power of the network and history of the network. One thing, the sound is not brilliant and a few years old (2006).

Mash oop north......lunch and other points of interest

Apart from listening to talks in the morning, I was also interested in what else I would learn. Firstly I used twitter a hell of a lot, and could see its advantages in this environment (ie an unconference). I also used the the mashlib hashtag. I was pointed in the direction of many exciting things (see here).

I also did not go and to the mash up in the proceeding rooms, in which case I could have learnt more. I was also not very forward on my networking either. Though I was glad I spoke with Dave Pattern to say thanks for the day

I did enjoy the plentiful supply of food though. I also lived off coffee for the day.

I also forgot to mention that were some pre lighning talks based on Mike Reed's 'Runaround'. These area's included the Semantic Web, Information Literacy, Mobile devices, social networking and discussed by some of the experts there. Everytime runaround was said, you had to move and go to another area (if you wished).

Affections and families....the social networking way

I was speaking to a blogging friend the other, who has taken on another blogger for his blog (I am not going to reveal the blog). Anyhow, I occasionally Digg. In passing he told me his daughter sometimes enters his stories on digg, because its his new job. How social networking sweet? How these digital natives show affection can be quite endearing?

More facebook......

Bought via Tom Coates, an interesting articles about facebook in CNN. Although others have written about the rise of facebook in more detail, its worth looking at. Seems that facebooks newsfeeds appears on every Facebook member's home page, displaying recent Facebook activities of a member's friends..
Seems facebook is taking over by the look of CNN article.

Article on university library

There's a nice article called SOU's Hannon Library gains Web networking savvy
in which the library's information literacy coordinator (Dale Vidmar) has set up social networking sites (bebo, facebook, myspace) saying "I think people appreciate that the library is not this formal imposing place," said Vidmar. "It has personality." Thank god that will never happen in the uk ;)

The week that was.........

Another week and another three blogs to add.
1.Having discussed Revish before, its seems it will be rolling out on march the 30th. Revish is different to other social cataloguing sites, in that its more about book reviews. Looking forward to it.
2. Still enjoying the social networking site for library 2.0 on ning. I've recently joined the librarian blogger for ning. check it.
3. Rachel Singer Gordon, over on Liminal Librarian asks what other 5 (non) library blogs they read. People have time to read non-library blogs?

Library 2.0 on Ning

Bill Drew has created a Ning social website for library 2.0 enthusiasts. Ning is described as :-
Ning is an online platform for creating social websites and social networks. The websites running on its service are built in standard PHP and the platform itself is built in Java.
Its a great idea by Bill and worth joining. Here's mine.

Social networking? Or will my users be bothered?

After watching the rise of digg and technorati and all the site's that require feedback, it seems sad when some people try this and its not as successful as it wished. For example, over on Ubiquitous Librarian blog, he was discussing how he set up an internal wiki, which just has not taken off. The problem is not usually the technology or the training that scare's people, its they don't always see its relevance or even worst, there suffering burnout from having too many social cataloguing sites...... I'm really a fan boy of the social networks sites, but people are really finding it hard to keep up with this stuff.......oh, well another rant from me, but I do hope that Brian does get the wiki up and running, sounds a great project.