Information Online 2007

The kids start a new school on Wednesday, so I won’t be flying across the continent to attend the Information Online 2007 conference, which runs from Tuesday 30 January to Thursday 1 February.

Instead, I’m looking at the Conference Planner and picking my ideal program.

Like everyone, I like to think of myself as open to new ideas. The papers I found most interesting, however, were those by people I already know. Maybe I’m just interested in the same things as them, or just maybe a personal connection is a BIG influence when choosing papers to attend. Does this mean that if you want to get lots of people to your presentaion next year you should try and hang out with as many people as possible during the cocktail party this year? Only if they like you and remember you, I guess.

Papers which I’m particularly missing are:

• A5: Learning 2.0 Christine Mackenzie, Yarra Plenty Regional Library - because I’d like to compare her experiences with what we did with the MULTA project.
• B6: Why Once is Never Enough: A Case Study of Iterative Usability Testing of a Library’s Online Services Cathy Slaven, Queensland University of Technology - because I heard her speaking at a QULOC seminar about designing web pages for small screens where she was incredibly focussed and clear. She seems to have a thoroughness and methodicalness about her work that someone who can sometimes be a bit eager and slapdash can learn from.
• A8: Blogs, Wikis and Reference Services: Surveying the Australian Library Landscape Kate Watson, University of Sunshine Coast & Chelsea Harper, Central Queensland University. Been looking forward to this one ever since I read about it on LINT.
• All three papers in “Tools of the Trade II ” A11 , A12 and A13, and C12: Using Macromedia Captivate to Create Online Tutorials Sevilay Esat & Lyn Christie, University of NSW. They’re on at the same time, but I’ll be non-attending them simultaneously.

I’m also not meeting up with the rest of the LINT crew, most of whom will be in Sydney at the time. So I won’t be wearing something lint covered so they can identify me, won’t be going out for drinks and won’t be finally meeting the bunch whose ideas I’ve enjoyed so much in the last six months. I’ve previously met CW, Peta and Bronwyn, and will meet up with Fiona next month. Michelle, and the testosterone-y ones - snail, Morgan and Corey - I’m yet to meet. But I’m sure those who are there will blog long and hard about the conference on LINT. (Or enjoy themselves so much that they forget all about blogging the conference - either option sounds good to me)

Informaton Online 2007 has a conference blog, but for some reason it has no RSS feed, only a link to an online form with 11 separate boxes to fill in for an email update. Hmmmmm…I’d leave them a comment about it, but they are not enabled. Hmmmmm….