Geek night......food for the brain

Tomorrow night I'm going to something called geek night. Its a bi-annual event me and some old friends do. It's usually based around food, wine and some new gadget (the kindle). Its quite a laugh really, as it feels a bit like our own homebrew club. No one has brought an Altair 8800 yet.

Nothing is the Future by Wayne Bivens-Tatum (Academic Librarian)

(Found via here). Wayne Bivens-Tatum, an academic librarian from Princeton has a post Nothing is the Future. The post looks at how the web 2.0/library 2.0 has become:-

The future of libraries is Second Life. Wait, I mean Facebook. Or maybe it's Twitter. It's librarians in pods. Etc.The beauty of talking about the future is that it never happens.

Wayne does have a point, but as someone has mentions in the comments Walt Crawford has discussed this previously in an insightful (and longer) piece.

I do think that Wayne has a point. But, recently I was talking to a former work colleague about whether web 2.0 or library 2.0 had changed anything in the workplace? He felt that it had, in that it had re-invigorate new staff and perhaps even teach some old staff some new tricks.

Repackaging the library may seem foolish to some, but I think we may all agree doing everything the same, everyday is dull and repetitive. Yeah, second life maybe not the future or blogging, but at least you may improve the service and your own skill set. As one predominant library 2.0 blogger has said on Talis recently said:-

Meredith Farkas, Author of the book “Social Software in Libraries”. A couple of years after publishing her book, Meredith has become a little jaded about the way libraries are using social software, with some libraries seeing it as a magic wand for community building and engaging with their users. This chimed well with the thoughts of the Gang, who were drawn to the conclusion that like most software, it is just a tool. How you use a tool to communicate with your users, is far more important than the tool itself.

Finally, I would say people today have adapted to the web 2.0 idea for career reasons just as much for helping users. In the world today our library careers are based on short-term contracts. What we learn and can transfer to similar roles are as important to us as ever. Without a new skill set to assist our resumes we are dead in the water.

Wolfram Alpha talk.......

I know the Wolfram Alpha talk has been a talking point on the blogosphere, but today there is a sneak preview. I am unable to see it as i am working, but I can't wait to see what they have to say.

Release of new blog called last 100

A recent blog has come to my attention called last100.
It describes itself as :-
last100 will provide news, reviews and industry analysis on products and services related to the digital lifestyle, with a particular emphasis on how the Internet is being used throughout the home. The site is edited by Steve O'Hear, a London-based consultant and journalist. Steve also writes a blog for ZDNet called The Social Web and wrote and directed the Silicon Valley documentary In Search of the Valley .

Where does the name last100 come from? It refers to what industry insiders call the "last 100 feet" problem, which is the gap between the typical home's computer and its living-room TV set. While the digital living room is a primary focus of last100, the site will also cover other areas of the digital lifestyle (VoIP, portable media, mobile web etc).

Mike Arrington over on techcrunch has also mentioned it. So for those diggital native, its worth a look.

Shelfari gets amazon investment

Nice to see the first web 2.0 company, Amazon has invested a minimum of $1 million in the company. I've spoken many times about shelfari (1, 2, 3), so hopefully Jeff Bezos can teach them a thing or to on being a web 2.0 company.

Streamburst release of In search of the valley

Streamburst has just released In Search of the Valley on there website I hear.. Streamburst describes themselves as:-
Streamburst is an innovative and forward thinking company supplying services and infrastructure for the delivery of Television and Film Productions over the Internet.
Streamburst has sole focus on Download to Own content, no VOD (Video On Demand) or near-VOD services are planned at this time.
International Distributors, Production Companies and Website Operators can benefit hugely from the unique features that Streamburst offer:
New highly effective piracy deterrent methods that do not alienate or drive customers to piracy Content Delivery in Multiple Formats Servicing Multiple Devices
Brand / Market Specific Content Delivery,High Quality, Fully Managed and Professional Service.

Obviously i've discussed the film previously (here and here. Previously the film had been on DVD sales at $18 (with coupon, $20 without). So the new format sysatem, is a great breakthrough.
The release of the film has hit both Digg and techcrunch. Its also been entered onto the internet movie database. Good publicity if you can get it I say.
I really must recommend the film as I both worked on it in a minor degree and its what I consider I write about. Meeting such web 2.0 and open source luminaries as Tim O'reilly, Brian Behlendorf and Marc Canter (who has a wonderful voice. I mean he loves the sound of it). This film is well worth a look. And hell, there's extra's with it to, and at $8.

Wikipedia update part 1

Follwing up (a few days behind I know), on the demise of wikipedia, it seems I was a bit early in putting them in the dead pool.
When listening to libvibes on the 15th of february, 2007, it pointed to the following article from Lunch over IP blog. The author points out that:-
Let's start by saying that the most-digged story on this (by several thousand people) was by a blogger that was not at the conference. Laurent Haug, the producer of LIFT, has already made clear that Devouard did not say that Wikipedia is going to shut down, nor used the word "disappear" during her speech.
Oh well. Sorry about that.