barcamp

Unconference and barcamp in Perth

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I’m again helping to organise (unorganise? disorganise ?) the Western Australian Library Unconference. This year the theme is Library 2.0 and beyond: getting our hands dirty . More information at the unconference wiki and the post I just made at librariesinteract.info, but the basic details are:

DATE: Friday 22 August 2008
TIME: 9:30am – 5pm
VENUE: State Library of Western Australia

REGISTRATION: Opens 1 July 2008

BarCamp Perth 2.0 Badges Uploaded to Flickr on April 23, 2008 by CannedTuna

I find the idea behind unconferences so empowering – if you turn up, then YOU are the right person. In a twitterish conversation a couple of weeks ago, a librarian was asking what techniques others used to fit in at non-library unconferences like barcamps. My suggestion was to jump right in with both feet and offer to present. The whole point is that it is about passion and what interests you – if not enough people are interested, then your session won’t go ahead – nothing lost. If enough people are interested, then you get to share and learn – lots gained.

I’m very sad that I won’t be able to make it to Perth Barcamp 2.0 the weekend after next. I had a ball at the last one and learned so much. I loved the different perspectives, and the fact that there were really quite a lot of librarians and educators there. They even have badges this year. Already people are offering sessions on presentation skills, twitter and Tiddlywiki…as well as some more techie sessions that I would happily sit in on to learn something new.

Hope to see lots of great blogging so I know just what I missed.

Details:

DATE: Saturday 10 May 2008
TIME: 9am – 5pm

PLACE: Central TAFE, 140 Royal St, East Perth

REGISTRATION: Add your name to the wiki

Webjam Perth

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Great night. Professional, fun, great learning experience, real social networking.

Everyone had 3 minutes to present an idea. Topics were:

  • Self coded email client
  • Co-working space at the Silicon Beach House
  • Self coded photosharing site
  • Selected sites displayed on the mobile web – or why you should write a mobile specific site
  • An SMS information support system to help farmers use water more efficiently
  • How to optimise a site that suddenly gets more than 2 million hits in a couple of days (cache, cache, cache)
  • Using vectors to display True Type fonts on web pages
  • A node linked resume
  • LOLcode
  • Why get a web planner?
  • Web 3.0 – NOT. How to build a badly designed webpage from scratch.
  • How a web hussy uses web tools
  • ICCARUS – Spatial representation of nodes and interlinking in the social networking on Scouta

Voting via sending SMS of the speaker’s number. Cute animation showed the number of votes, but not who for, in the break before the winner was announced. It had the feel of an open mic comedy gig, but without the heckling.

Richard Giles and Simon Wittber from Scouta got the most votes, with their ICCARUS presentation. The video of it is here: Webjam/Perth: ICCARUS . Nick Cowie was second with what was described as “web-sledging” – where he chose the websites of people in the room and showed how they looked on a mobile device. Gary Barber, came third. He felt sick of the Web 2.0 look of his blog, so redesigned it as we watched – complete with non-scrapable text, flashing icons, music playing, tables everywhere etc.

The Co-Pilot filmed the event and will upload the other clips of each presentation to viddler soon.

Here’s what the best dressed were wearing. Mosaic of the geek shirts at Webjam Perth 15 Aug 2007. It’s clearer on flickr.

1. Maybe if this shirt is witty enough someone will finally love me, 2. Do not want!, 3. in case of emergency BREAK DANCE, 4. Webjam, 5. ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US, 6. port80, 7. Myles made these, 8. /everybody stand back/ I know regular expressions, 9. Eraser, 10. STFU I M 133t h4x0r, 11. Roses are…, 12. Librarian: The Original Seach Engine

Librarians2.0 on the loose: a free unoffical unconference for Western Australian libraryland

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UPDATE: Group stuff up 🙁 … Of course we noticed after we’d sent it that we’d used the “brarian” word when we meant to include the whole of WA Libraryland and Library Lovers and the little old lady who wandered off the street, and anyone interested in libraries. We’ve altered the name of the event to “Library2.0 on the Loose“, and are suitably mortified.

………………..

We have a wiki and we have details and it’s all set to roll. Come and play. Here’s our announcement.

LIBRARIANS 2.0 ON THE LOOSE: A FREE UNOFFICIAL UNCONFERENCE

Feel passionate or curious about new library approaches, want to share it with a group of like minded librarians? Come to participate in discussion and presentations about new definitions of content, new definitions of library collections and new ways that we can get out of our buildings to serve our customers where they are.

DATE: Friday 3 August

TIME: 9:30am – 5pm

WHERE: State Library of Western Australia, Great Southern Room 4th Floor

AFTERWARD: 6pm – late , Annalakshmi on the Swan, 1st Floor – Western Pavilion, Barracks Square (Between Jetty No. 4 & No. 5), Perth

An unconference works on the principle that whoever turns up is the right person and whatever you discuss is the right thing. People prepare topics, but sessions are decided on the day. Everyone is expected to participate by either presenting, joining in the discussion or doing another job.

TO GET INVOLVED:

1. Go to the registration site.

2. Then, go to the “ What is happening on the day page of the wiki and edit it to suggest a topic for discussion, volunteer to give a presentation or do a job.

The event is FREE, but you MUST REGISTER. Tea. coffee, bikkies and a pizza lunch are all provided. You will need to pay for dinner. This unconference is supported by the State Library of Western Australia, Murdoch University Library, Curtin University Library and ALIA West, but is facilitated by an independent group of volunteers.

For more details, visit the UnconfWALib web page, or contact Kathryn Greenhill k.greenhill@murdoch.edu.au, or Hoi Ng on HNg@vicpark.wa.gov.au, or Sue Cook on suecook@csiro.au or Con Wiebrands on c.wiebrands@curtin.edu.au

Perth barcamp 2007 – Pocasting discussion – Trevor Bennett

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  • Australia one of first countries to engage with podcasting due to Radio National using it early.
  • Copyright – Educational institutions can retain and link to podcasts via CAL license
  • Flexilecture Radio mike.
  • Podcasting is a Push technology
  • Can timeshift to where you want it to be, as opposed to streaming.
  • Consumption in the car
  • Audio books
  • Podcasting as a way of marketing yourself as an “expert”
  • Costs of podcasting – charged for download and upload. So if you get popular it can cost you
  • Podcasting not just audio. Can podcast excel spreadsheet
  • Podcast – file on RSS …podcast is not a term for a MP3 file
  • Audio podcast, video podcast, advanced podcast, chaptered podcast
  • Profcast on a mac. Talk over slide presentation and create a very small file
  • Standards – audio – save all as MP3, video – m4v (can shrink down on an ipod) ,
  • Zamzar converts file formats for free
  • Ipods have square screens
  • Keynote and Profcast for Mac
  • Garage band – if editing, drag the cuts away using non-destructive editing

Perth barcamp 2007 – Problems with the mobile web – Nick Cowie

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Presentation slides are here Problems with the mobile web

  • More internet phones sold than laptops
  • Limit 1 – small screen on mobile
  • Limit 2 – Interface of phone. Mouse and keyboard equivalent are a numberpad
  • There are many different mobile web browsers.
  • You should you build a separate web site for a mobile browser.
  • Mobile users don’t want a complex experience – they want a brief, quick user experience…don’t want fancy graphics, just want core info.
  • Touch screen vs. small keyboard.
  • iPhone uses a different protocol to what is in Australia (??)
  • Mindset of website design = presume interface used is a desktop.
  • Workflow, mundane tasks – mobile devices are best for this. Phone numbers, opening hours. Very directed info.
  • So – don’t squish all the info from website into the mobile website version. Pare it down.
  • Dec 2006 – $100 for 1 G of traffic, 3 months later $50…now if you have the right plan with 3 then you can get $30 1G.
  • Custom aps for mobile interfaces eg. google maps.
  • Opera one of best mobile browsers for mobile – can conver java to links.

Perth barcamp 2007 – WordPress loop – Gary Barber

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Gary Barber is the Man with no blog and his slides are on slideshare, Doin’ da Loop with da WordPrez

  • He promised not to be too technical
  • Was going to do it all in lolcat speak
  • Presuming know plugins, widgets, can alter source code of WP blog, know what php is, not happy coding, not pulled template apart
  • What is the loop
    • Core of WordPress
    • PHP code distributed thoughout the system
    • Lets you display comments, posts, rest of blog
    • Loop is the single central control point
    • index.php
    • remove index.php – goes back to default theme. Remove default theme after that, then deadibones.

    How does the Loop works:

    • in index.php – middle bit btw header and end
    • 1. If have posts
    • 2. Gets the posts plus post meta data
    • 3. Gets it in the right format
    • 4. Does it over and over.

    Looking at default template

    • If want to make changes to happen after every post – then put it just after the <div> and before the <endwhile>
    • Look at where you add title and permalink

    Then in template div class align..

  • The loop is all through wordpress
  • Archive, comments
  • What can you do with the loop?
    • Customise the loop -display excerpt only
    • Customise CSS for different dates, times, catergories, authors, days of the week (Eg. Things written Tuesday have a blue background)
    • Change home page to static one
    • Can place items between blog posts – put it before the end while

    Before start hacking the code

    • Backup
    • Check to see whether there is a plugin or widget that does the same thing