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Walking the wiki talk

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I’m beginning to think all this theory I’ve been spouting in the last few months might have a grain of practical application. The Library2.0 Orthodoxy that’s making more sense is “wikis are useful”.

The LINT mob use a wiki to track our procedures and history. I used a wiki to plan a long family holiday in September – it was great to click on the links for phone numbers of places we were staying. Both times I was very self-consciously “using a wiki”.

This evening, however, I wanted to keep a record of some email responses to a question I’ve asked on a google list. I want to analyse and re-packaged them into dot points. Without even thinking, and in the same way I would have once opened a WORD document….I reached for a wiki. I’ve installed TikiWiki because I know how to use it. I have gazed lovingly at drupal, but I’m just in no mood to learn again.

I didn’t use something like google documents and spreadsheets, because ultimately I want to have the summary somewhere that I can share with interested people.

Come to think of it….it would be a good 3-4 months since I’ve entered anything into a WORD document..apart from my paysheet at work. Same goes for Open Office Writer at home.

I am opening Notepad more often. I’ve finally learned that anything I want to cut and paste into WordPress should be pasted into some kind of text editor, before cutting it again and pasting into WordPress. Saves hours of searching for the one rogue tag that has turned my whole sidebar upsidedown.

It’s insidious and useful, this Web2.0.

Converging/diverging

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Just upgraded WordPress to 2.0.6, and this is a test post.

To add colour here’s a snippet that impressed me from Connie Crosby. It’s from her notes about attending a Toronto Wiki Tuesday. Sounded fun:

“Wikis are good for converging ideas; blogs are good for diverging ideas.”

Discuss.

(Just as well I did this, as I found out that I need to update my Permalinks after an upgrade….just like the instructions said)

Watch out! Reading books can kill you.

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….if they tell you how to kill yourself.

BACKGROUND

Australia’s Federal Attorney General is appealing a decision by the Office of Film and Literature Classification to allow the sale in Australia of Philip Nitshke‘s new book, the Peaceful Pill Handbook.

Dr Nitschke is a prominent voluntary euthanasia campaigner notorious for inventing the “suicide machine“. This includes software to ensure voluntary consent from a terminally ill patient and then allow self administered lethal injection. He has been working toward finding a “mix it yourself” cocktail of drugs to create a “peaceful pill”, which can be used to end life.

The book, which looks like it has very specific factual information about means of death, is being sold online through Exit International: a peaceful death is everyone’s right.

According to Exit,

In December 2006, the Office of Film and Literature Classification decided to provide The Peaceful Pill Handbook with a ‘Restricted Class 1’ Classification. This meant that althought the book was still a Prohibited Import and subject to seizure by Customs – the book could be published and distributed in Australia under strict controls.

The International Edition, which is for sale in US and Canada is in its third print run. He again works with Dr Fiona Stewart, who co-authored his earlier book: “Killing me softly” voluntary euthanasia and the road to the Peaceful Pill, available through Amazon.

MY DILEMMA

I’m a philosophy subject librarian in a university that teaches an Ethics program, so I’m asking myself whether I’d recommend it for our shelves. My cop-out answer is that like all purchases, I’d check with the course controller, and then if I was still unsure, I’d ask my supervisor. OK – but what do I REALLY think?

CON

Our university is full of people in a turbulent time of their lives. Young males have the highest rate of suicide, and they make up a high proportion of our students. I know that traditional Australian media usually don’t report suicides (murder/suicides excepted) in fear of copy cat deaths. Maybe a book like Nitschke’s could be used for murder as well as suicide?

PRO

I believe part of my job involves protecting the right of my readers to make up their own minds, by offering all sides of the story – even those I don’t agree with. People are scared of suicide to an extent that they possibly block out signs of likely self harm in others, and this book might create understanding. Nitschke has stated that his position has been influenced by Dr Peter Singer, and this would illustrate a practical extension of the arguments of someone who is required reading by our students.

My mind weighs on the side of the PROs and my gut on the side of the CONs. Given my doubt, I’d purchase the book…we’re not a public library and what else are university libraries for if not to provide greater understanding? (But I wonder how I’d feel if I found it on one of my boy’s bedroom floor?)

5 things.5 words.

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Tagged again. By name this time. Done it once. Should I play again? Why not? I’m mutating it. Under 5 words each point. And whole post, too.

Richard Wallis tagged me. He writes for Panlibus. His personal blog is new. Should be interesting.

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Here’s mine:

  1. Couldn’t tie shoelaces until 9.
  2. Ballet lessons 3 – 9 years.
  3. Quit law school. Disliked peers.
  4. Learning contact juggling. Hard.Fun.
  5. Attend Laughter Yoga Thursdays. Uplifting.
    That’s it. Tagging with mutated meme:

    1. Michelle M
    2. Fiona B
    3. Tom G
    4. Morgan W
    5. Ryan D

Getting Ready For Canberra

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If our kids tell you that they’ve been fed nothing but baked beans for too many dinners in the next few months…I’m afraid they’ll be telling the truth.

Their parents are preoccupied with the serious business of Getting Ready For Canberra.

The Co-Pilot flies over at Easter because his Fremantle-based choir, Voicemale, will be performing at the National Folk Festival. Their set is around the theme “A New Agenda”. They are thinking of their all-male blokey group singing “Sisters are Doing it for Themselves“. As I write this, there is the “thump, thump,thump” of someone keeping time upstairs as he arranges “Brass in Pocket“. So lots of singing and practice and co-ordination for him until April.

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Me..well, I’m busy making movies and taking snapshots in Second Life. I’ll be in Canberra for something else in early February. To calm my nerves and kill some time, I emailed Matthew Stuckings at the National Library to ask whether I could meet someone to chat about what we’ve been doing with the Australian Libraries Building in Second Life.

Well…they were interested, and now I’ll be giving a public talk about Second Life as part of their “Digital Culture” series, on Wednesday February 14th 12:30pm – 1:30pm in the Library Theatre.

If it was on any other topic, I’d be really daunted. I was daunted..but I decided to do it partly because it’s a really invigorating topic for me…and I know enough about it to talk for an hour (half an hour plus questions!)..and I’d love to see people’s faces as they experience SL for the first time. And… an hour after it was suggested to me, I read Ivan Chew’s post about “chickening out” of being on blogTV.SG.

In my talk, I’ll be pointing out that Second Life provides new chances to collaborate. It’s been illustrated by the four or five generous Second Life Librarians who have shared with me their power point slides they used for live presentations. If anyone reading this has any ideas of what I should include or what they think people would want to know, feel free to contact me.

I’m doing a practice run at MPOW on February 9th for WA academic librarians. I hope to do a live demo for both talks, but am getting together lots of movies and snapshots as backup for both. (Hence my new toy).

The talk is titled “Flying Librarians of Oz: What’s all the fuss about Second Life and what’s it got to do with libraries?“. More info on the NLA Events page. (Now, if I’ve used Cite Bite properly, that link should go to the page, then magically jump down to a yellow highlighted heading, “Digital Culture Talk.)

TODAY’S HIPPIE CARD: Content

It’s not an iPhone..but I like it

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OK..so I can’t have an iPhone until January 2008 here in Australia, but I can be happy with what my Co-Pilot brought back with the shopping today.

(Didya know the iPhone has no buttons at all…..?)

(And if you turn the screen sideways, the display changes to landscape….?)

(I’m happy with what I’ve got..I am…really..)

Anyhow..I sent him out to get one of these:

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Seagate 2.5GB pocket hard drive

Because I’d borrowed the 5GB version from a friend and I now need something bigger than my 2GB thumbdrive. I use my work laptop and home PC about 50/50 and keep backing one up to the other and driving myself mad trying to find files.

Anyhow..he told me that for about twice the price I could by one of these, like my friend’s one:

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Seagate 5GB pocket hard drive

But mentioned that for the same price I could get this:

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It’s a teeny weeny 60 GB hard disk. It’s powered from the USB port, so no chunky power adaptor to cart around…just something a little bigger than my PDA.

It’s mine now. I’m happy.

(Until the iPhone comes to me anyhow).

Gizmoes, gadgets and CES 2007

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Wondering why that portable hard drive you’ve been lusting after for the last 4 months is suddenly much cheaper? And why flash drives are suddenly dime a dozen?? And what’s with all those LCD TVs suddenly cheaper?……Maybe it’s just Christmas marketing..or maybe…

… because in the USA, the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show is happening.Bill Gates spoke today, Michael Dell (yes, THAT Dell) speaks Tuesday Jan 9th. It’s big.

It’s also where the new gadgets and gizmoes are given their first outing. The manufacturers know that once we see those babies, that technothing we’ve been drooling over for the last few month is going to look..well….so very ’06.

Not too much has caught my eye, but I’ve been mildly interested in the HP MediaSmart Server powered by WindowsHome Server.

The new OS version was developed to help consumers deal with managing media across multiple PCs and devices in the home, and will provide automagic backup functionality and remote access as well as central file storage and management.

And has Sony really added RSS to television?

If the happenings at CES is the type of thing you like to track, then it’s definitely worth subscribing to a feed for a search, like the technorati tag. CES.

Blah blah blah about Dewey?

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Via gapingvoid, I found Christian Long’s Future of Learning Manifesto :

Here’s a summary..

1. “Playing Small Does Not Serve the World.”
2. What Would Socrates Do?
3. Nobody Cares if You Walked Up Hill Both Ways Barefoot in the Snow.
4. Got Passion? If Not, I’ll Tell You What To Care About.
5. My Memory Is Only As Big As My Heart. Otherwise, I’ll Stick with Google
6. Look it Up or Die.
7. Collaboration Ain’t About Holding Hands. It’s about Going Cool Places Fast.
8. This Will Go Down on Your Permanent Record.
9. It Ain’t About the Technology. It’s About Being Inside the Story.
10. Nobody Knows the Answer. Get Comfy with the Questions.

Point 5 deserves full reproduction. Are we engaging via story…or blah blah blah about Dewey?

5. My Memory Is Only As Big As My Heart. Otherwise, I’ll Stick with Google.

I could memorize your facts, but I got Google for that.

Yeah, completely outsourced my entire “traditional fact memorization” protocol to this upstart search engine. Yeah, like a library, ‘cept that there ain’t no dust and much, much bigger. Yeah, it’s not perfect, but I’m not going on Jeopardy, either. Yeah, there isn’t a librarian holding my hand, but then again I need answers now. Not after a lecture on the Dewey Decimal thinga-ma-bob.

Sure, I’ll do that memorize thing for you. Just one catch. Tell me a story.

Seriously. Put away the chalk. Get out from behind the podium. Look me in the eyes. Reach deep into my gut. Massage my heart. Get the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up. Get me to tell the flavor of clouds. Tell me to close my eyes and go somewhere bold.

I’ll remember anything you tell me. Swear it.

TODAY’S HIPPIE CARD: I am heard

Hack, slash and….pray?…..

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While John Howard Yoder may have written the Politics of Jesus, his namesake and our Prime Minister, John Howard, is pushing for a more Christian society in Australia. Add to this a newly elected leader of the opposition who declares it to be his duty to bring his faith to politics, and we are ripe for revivalism, evangelism and fundamentalism.

I hope we never reach the extremism that could produce Left Behind: Eternal Forces..not the Left Behind book series…the PC game. Yep, that’s right, if you’re choosing games for your YA collection, you can now select one with an aim to hold hands and pray, build cafes and banks for your followers and generally smite the heck out of non-believers with “spirit balls” while you wait through seven years of plagues for Christ to return.

The Laughing Librarian has a link to this review from Beta Game Revolution, Left Behind: Eternal Forces. The review is a hoot, although may offend some Christians…it is witty and gives a thorough description of the game (it rated it an “F” by the way).

OPACS and user privacy.

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Here’s a button I’d like to see on our OPACs

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(Share my info)

Traditionally, we have been fierce custodians of our patron’s privacy, going to extreme and noble lengths to stop third parties from access to borrowing records and address details. We’ve assumed we’re doing the right thing on their behalf, but….have we actually asked them if they want this??

Now, I don’t want my personal details or record of borrowings and browsing made public. No way. But, then again, I wouldn’t be sharing half the information that people seem to be giving out willy nilly on networking sites like MySpace. People seem to be swappping privacy for connection or some service they want.

I would, however, be happy to have my borrowing patterns and searches shared anonymously, like on Amazon. I’d like to know what people who looked at record x eventually ended up borrowing. (This would be imperfect due to the possible time lag). I’d like to know that people who entered the same search as me also looked at these items during the same session.

MPOW has recently switched on a ratings function on our OPAC. I would be very happy to publically share my ratings with other users. If I was a student, I’d find it very useful if my lecturer publically shared their ratings on library items.

That brings me to another button I’d like to see:

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(Item discussion)

One which went to a live chat or forum for an item, then kept a record attached to the item record. (I know this is reality in some places).

I think we need to offer our users public profiles on our library web sites – not necessarily attached to their user details. We could link them, but allow our users to specify what is disclosed. Maybe they won’t want it, but right now we are assuming they won’t without even asking.

And..while I’m raving about OPACS…a question that has been bugging me. Why are we still talking about our OPAC and our library home page as totally different creatures? We know that they have different backends, but do they need to be so separated for our users? Most of the time it’s very obvious that you are in a different “place” when you search the catalogue. Can we make that more seamless for our users?

Maybe there are very good reasons why it is that way, but I don’t think of an Amazon search as a different place to the Amazon home page.I just go to Amazon. Granted, we offer a heck of a lot more than just book stock selection..but Amazon has some extras like their reviews, recommendations, user lists etc.

I think we need to keep discussing why our OPACS suck, but also start talking about whether our home pages suck.

TODAY’S HIPPIE CARD: Be still.