If I were Steve...

I found this course to be one of the most interesting one in the whole MLIS curriculum. For me, it was a very quick introduction to several technologies and related modes of communication which a librarian may use. I am now very comfortable with activities like blog writing and podcasting which until now, I regarded with a combination of awe and mystery. In isolation, I think, each one of these techniques are not very important and likely to be superseded by a better mousetrap next semester. However, the overall shift in paradigm (as far as libraries are concerned) which they represent is quite amazing. It will not surprise me at all if the content of the course is very different next semster from what it is today. If I were to teach this course, I will probably change the emphasis given to certain componets. For example, I found blogs and podcasting very interesting. On the other hand, I am not sure about the real purpose of twitter. But this is only a personal opinion. The course is great as is and leaves little to be desired.

My experience with Second Life

The experience of visiting Second life was very unusual. It was like nothing else I had experienced in my life. At first I visited a place where I met a lot of people. I then selected "education" and found myself in the Princeton University Campus. However, after walking about for a while, I was completely lost. I found myself in never never land with no human contact. Fortunately, there was a red arrow which navigated me back to civilization, but not before I had had two nasty falls in two lakes and had to rescue myself by flying onto a bridge. After returning to the campus, I entered a building (Dean's Office). I promptly walked out of the building and saw another student at the entrance. However, as soon as she noticed me, she broke into a sprint and was gone in no time. At the end of my visit to Princeton, I met two cute squirrels.

"Everything bad is good for you" and Libraries

If internet, television, blogging, gaming and everything else that is "bad" is actually good for you, libraries can use these media to bring their community of users together. Libraries, which, in every respect, are centers for communication and exchange of ideas, can, with the help of blogs, gaming and internet, serve as forums for the expression of thoughts and opinions. By introducing gaming, libraries can draw teenagers and serve as social meeting places.

It appears as though the author of "Everything bad is good for you" is trying to make his point by means of posing as a devils advocate. At first blush, the use of the internet and gaming seem unproductive. However, a closer examination brings forth their redeeming aspects. I get a sense that Johnson is not fully convinced (espcially in light of his previous work on the negative aspects of television, internet etc) of the absolute goodness of the internet, TV etc as media. However, this book tries to blunt the criticism by means of a contrapuntal argument.

Best practices for Screencasting

Screencasting is useful only for demonstrating computer applications or elaborating on a specific aspect of computer software. When making a screencast it is helpful to:
-manage time and be brief.
-keep in mind that spoken words are as important as display actions.
- make sure that the resolution is adequate and the screencast is clear
-make sure that the screencast is well-scripted for effective teaching/learning to take place.

Which Console for You?

With a teenager in our house, gaming is a very sensitive subject. While it can be a loads of fun, it can turn into an avenue to waste a lot of time in a completely unrewarding manner. A gaming system can be potetially used as a simulator that trains the user for real world situation such as flying a plane or driving a car, but the law of diminishing returns kicks in very quickly.

The biggest question to answer while choosing a gaming system is whether you want to opt for a dedicated system such as Nintendo, Wii PS3 or thier ilk or you want to go for a powerful PC with all the necessary bells and whistles. The advntage of a dedicated system is superior performance for the given task and availability of popular software specifically designed for a certain platform. The advantage of a gaming computer is better performance for a given price and ability to use the same system to run payrolls (or anything you may want to do with it) when not being used for playing games. Upgrade cost of a gaming computer is likely to be smaller than the cost associated with a dedicated gaming console.

As a dedicated system, I would prefer PS3. It has excellent graphics, a variety of games spanning different genres. The feature which I like the best is its ability to connect to internet to allow you to play multiplayer games with complete strangers. The system comes with a reasonably large hard drive which let it becom a part of a LAN.

Among PC games, my favorites are Flight Simulator, SimCity and Chess. These games go way beyond fine-tuning your motor skills; they actually make you think about the real world situations. Flight simulator teaches you a lot about flying planes without jeopardizing an actual plane or real living people. SimCity is a simulator for real world that trains you for decision making. Internet chess allows you to hone your skills by playing against people with different playing styles and temperaments.

Johnson and "Everthing Bad is Good..."

Johnson, in his book "Everything Bad is Good for you...", argues that ostensibly "bad" habits such as video gaming may actually be "good" for you. In corroboration, he asserts that TV shows are getting smarter and video games sharpen certain skills such as hand-eye-coordination and motor skills.

I find the whole argument rather specious. After all, if video gaming was such a useful skill, they would have taught it as a subject in schools. The problem is that the skills that your are taught by video games are not general enough to be useful in other walks of life. Moreover, TV shows and video games shorten your attention span and weaken your ability to think in abstract.

Typically, valuable skills are those which are sufficiently general to be useful to solve a broad class of problems. Therefore, video games may be challanging to master, they have a diminishing marginal utility in relation to the time spent.

Facebook demo

Here is a demo of "how to give a free gift on Facebook"

SNs and Libraries

Some people tend to think that social networking sites such as MySpace or FaceBook are not useful; there is nothing "educational" about SNS. However, if libraries (with their primary role as educators), get involved in SNs, it would be quite a different story. Libraries can glean through the profiles of its users and, based on what they see, they can select and disseminate educational materials that would help satisfy user needs.
Users may perceive the libraries using SNS as a part of their world, not as isolated repositories of knowledge.

Ning

One of the greatest advantages of Ning is that anyone can create his/here social networking website based on his/her interests, areas of expertise. A Ning can be created for a specific audience or special interest group. However, Ning has its drawbacks. It requires some knowledge of web programming and lacks the scope and scalability of services such as Facebook or MySpace.
I think that Ning can be used effectively in a work environment especially for global collaboration, group projects and discussions with colleagues and co-workers.

Facebook, MySpace

Facebook is a free-access social networking website. Facebook has a number of features for users which makes it “sticky”. Some of these features include the Wall, a space on every user's profile page where friends can post messages for the user, Pokes, which allows users to virtually "poke” each other, Status, which allows users to inform their friends of their whereabouts and Photos.
One of the most popular applications on Facebook is Photos which allows users to upload an unlimited number of pictures where users can upload albums and photos. Facebook allows users to upload an unlimited number of photos.
Facebook’s “Gifts” service allows users to send virtual gifts to their friends that appear on the recipient's profile. Gifts cost $1.00 each, and a personalized message can be attached to each gift. Facebook’s “Marketplace”, allows users to post free classifieds.
Like Facebook, MySpace is also a social networking service. It has many features that make it "sticky”. MySpace’s “Profiles” section displays Zodiac signs. MySpace allows users to upload pictures. MySpace also has blogging and instant messaging capabilities. “MySpace News” displays news from RSS feeds submitted by users.

A Demo of Mathematica

This is a demo of a Symbolic Programming Software called Mathematica

vodcasts

I liked all the vodcasts. Some of my favorites:

I love coffee. This one about "How to make great coffee" is delightful:
http://jfscils598f08.blogspot.com/2008/11/my-educational-video.html

The pictures are cute and colorful, the holiday theme is well chosen:
http://tascils598f08.blogspot.com/2008/11/my-monsters.html

You can watch "Chess trap" on blip.tv

Chess trap demo

This is a brief demo of the Guico Piano opening trap by Neil Chitrao

You can also watch this show on YouTube.

Aircraft at the Smithsonian

Here are some pictures of airplanes and spacecraft at the Smithsonian(Udvar-Hazy Center) during our last trip to Washington D.C. in April 2007.

Educational Video vs. Entertainment video

It seems that educational videos may be crushed under the huge demand for entertainment videos. Who does not enjoy sitting back and watching a funny video? The whole experience is therapeutic--it relaxes the mind, lifts the spirit and eases stress. Even dedicated students, who are so strongly aware of the benefits of learning or individuals who have allocated their personal time, energy for learning, are prone to distractions and are unable to resist the temptation of watching entertainment videos.

This being said, it should be noted that educational videos have their place in this world. They serve the important purpose of instructing/educating viewers and as such, cannot be dispensed with. Their audiences consist of students, researchers, parents, teachers and enthusiasts. High school students and their parents would find videos on the SAT and ACT testing very useful. History researchers and enthusiasts might choose to watch videos on the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. Teenagers would like instructional videos on avaition, cars or about whatever their interests may be. In spite of their instuctional focus, educational videos may not be necessarily boring. Everybody appreciates that a good educational videos, which combine fun and learning are valuable and indispensable.

Flickr pictures

The Flickr pictures show how similar and yet how diverse our interests/tastes are. It seems that we all enjoy travel and love our pets, books, computers and the beauty of Nature. It also seems to me that we are all good photographers. Being a diverse group, we have different interests--ethnic food, botany, cars etc.

Dolphin Story

Dolphins are truly wonderful. They are man's "friends in need". There have been several occasions when dolphins have come to the rescue of drowning children or adults or swimmers who had been nearly attacked by one of the most dangerous sharks--the Great White. Listen to

Anderson

Can Libraries as a whole effectively utilize long tail of our collection?

A long standing problem with the libraries has been that they were not particularly sensitive to the needs of individuals, as a consequence, they ended up catering to the demands of masses. There are two reasons why this happened - mechanisms for finding out what a large number of people want, on individual level, that is, were not in place. Secondly, in a scenario where the resources and choices are limited, it is most efficacious to include items with most mass appeal in the library's collection.

Is it worth it?

It most certainly is worth it. Libraries couldn't attempt to cater to all the literary and and recreational needs because they lacked resources and means for accurately assessing needs of their patrons.

What would we have to do?

We will have to device means to find out what our patrons really want. This can be accomplished by means of opinion polls, suggestion boxes or surveys. Once we know what is wanted, we can gather these materials and make them available to library patrons.

Text based Blogging vs. Podcasting

Text based blogging and Podcasting both have their pluses and minuses. Text based blogging may be the choice of those who prefer writing to speaking/making oral presentations. Similarly those who are comfortable speaking and finding writing tedious, would opt for podcasting.

Text-based blogging gives the individual a certain degree of flexibility: She/he can read blogs at her/his pace. Text-based blogging is as useful to the hearing-impaired as podcasting is to the visually imapaired. An important advantage of podcasting over text based blogging is that it permits multi-tasking: an individual can listen to a podcast while driving or while having breakfast.

scils598f08-edexperience

link to scils598f08-edexperience

link to my scils598f08-edexperience set

EdExperience Image

Librarians as New Producers, New Markets and New Tastemakers

Chris Anderson reflects on how the culture and economy are responding to changing environment. This is essentially an extension of his long tail argument. He suggests that economy is shifting from a limited number of mainstream products to a large number of “designer” products, sought by a relatively small group of people. He specifically identifies three processes:

• Democratization of products (as opposed to manufacture of products mandated by someone)
• Democratization of distribution (as opposed to a centralized distribution)
• Connection of Demand and Supply

This argument essentially shifts the focus of product design and specification from the manufacturer to the consumer. For example, in the old days, having an article published entailed a multi-stage process, requiring co-operation of many entities (publisher, printer, proof-reader etc.). Now, technological advances have empowered individuals to undertake such a task on their own. An individual can publish his thoughts using desk top publishing, a website or a wiki.

Librarians can further the cause of the democratization of distribution by helping to share resources like encyclopedias, DVDs and other materials.

Librarians are in the best position to judge the demands of their patrons and thus, they can let them dictate the materials that are acquired by the library.

Stats on Google Analytics

The most popular browser that people use when viewing my blog: Internet Explorer 7.0
The most used connection speed: Cable

Educational Expericence at SCILS

My educational experience at SCILS is perfect! Initially, I was a little worried because I had never taken an online course. I am an independent learner and the MLIS online program suits me well. It is simply wonderful and at times, incredible to imagine that a person can receive superior quality education from the comfort of her/his home. I love every aspect of the SCILS program--the flexibility, the instruction and the course material. Although I am not technically savvy, I am enjoying the Social software course very much and I find this week's Flickr assignment particularly delightful. All in all, online MLIS at SCILS has been a very exciting experience.

Long Tail and Library World

I find the Long Tail argument about libraries fascinating. Because of internet, it is no longer necessary to visit a library to read a book; it can be read on a laptop with a wireless connection, right in your home. This kind of an omnipresent library, addresses two somewhat unrelated issues pertaining to libraries in the internet age - firstly, the local book store or public library is just not big enough to carry all the books which patrons/buyers are likely to find interesting. A digital library doesn't have any such physical constraints. Secondly, in a situation where paper-and-ink books can exist only at one place at one time, all the people who are waiting for a book to become available have to wait patiently for their turn. Digital books don't have any such constraint. Thus, digital books can be at several places at same time. This characteristic of digital libraries removes the demand-and-supply restriction and books are able to reach the "long tail" of demand. These observations together, pretty much assure digital libraries' position as the killer-app of the library universe.

del.icio.us bookmarks

I think that using del.icio.us bookmarks for 'virtual introduction' is a great idea, especially for an online course. Looking at these bookmarks would help us get better acquainted and find out about the interests and hobbies of our classmates.

Wikispaces and PBwiki

Both Wikispaces and PBwikis are free for basic services. There are different plans available over and above. The charges for additional plans vary according to the features that have beeen selected. Wikispaces has ads on free wikis. PBwikis have no ads for educational/instructional wikis. PBwikis offer five presentation styles. Wikispaces offers some fixed themes that can be customized. In order to customize themes, some knowledge of HTML and CSS is required. There really is very little difference between PBwikis and Wikispaces as far as the editing features are concerned. Both the services offer text formatting, bullets, links and tables.

Google docs

Google Docs is a free, Web-based combination of a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a presentation application offered by Google. Google Docs combines the features of several services, typically offered by several applications.

GoogleDoc seems like a very interesting tool. However, it smacks of being too "Techie" and as a result, it may not be acceptable by everyone. Furthermore, it looks rather functional (read not sleek), which may very well raise some eyebrows. Since this type of a document does not look very scholarly, it may not be acceptable to some members of an online/ on-campus faculty.

GoogleDocs is a bona fide web application - it allows you to create presentation within the application itself. Moreover, it allows you to import documents created in variety of formats. By default, all the documents are saved on Google servers. GoogleDoc automatically saves open documents to prevent data loss. GoogleDocs also maintains revision history and allows the documents to be tagged and organized.

GoogleDoc allows users to collaborate on the creation and modification of a document. Documents can be opend and edited at the same time. As a result, GoogleDocs is useful in making presentations.

Documents and presentations can be created within the application itself, imported through the web interface, or sent via email. They can also be saved to the user's computer in a variety of formats. . Open documents are automatically saved to prevent data loss, and a revision history is automatically saved.

However, a major drawback of GoogleDoc is that it does not offer sophisticated security. Since multiple users are logged on to their Google Accounts and can access Google Docs without restriction (there is no password check), there is a threat to the privacy of important documents.

Brown and Duguid and Education

One of Brown and Duguid's principal observations is that technological advances will not create the revolution than so many information technologists have envisaged. In their perspective, information is meaningful only in a social context. For instance, in an internet chat-room, information exchanges are artificial since they are largely stripped of the social context. Distance learning may be a valid choice for the adult, independent learner. On the other hand, devoid of the social component, distance learning does not always make sense, especially for children. Developing interpersonal skills and becoming aware of their environment are part and parcel of the educational process of children.

Brown and Duguid do not suggest replacing the traditional educational system with a digital learning system, but rather, they visualize a hybrid system which is partially dependent on technology. The changes in education will be evolutionary rather than being revolutionary.

The book does not end with any definite answers or solutions. Instead, Brown and Duguid raise questions that pertain to the future world. In conclusion, the work leaves the reader to ponder over the question of how technological growth will be woven into the educational fabric.

ma.gnolia vs. del.icio.us

1. Ma.gnolia is visually more appealing (to me ) than Del.icio.us However, some people would prefer the simple,functional layout of Del.cio.us.

2. Ma.gnolia has advertisements (which might be distracting). There are no ads on Del.icio.us.

3. Unlike Del.icio.us, Ma.gnolia saves a snapshot of your web page. I don't know how useful this feature is.

librarything

LibraryThing is a social web catalog for storing and sharing personal library catalogs and book lists. LibraryThing was developed by Tim Spalding in 2005. LibraryThings has attracted thousands of users from all over the world who have cataloged millions of books on different subjects: cook books, classics, science etc. The sign-up is free and a user can register upto 200 books. LibraryThing allows its users to catalog personal books, keep reading lists, and meet other users who have similar tastes in books.

Bookstores such as Amazon as well as some individual libraries volunteer cataloging infomation ( MARC and Dublin core records) for some of the books that are to be included in LibraryThing.

Tracking code

RSS and Information Overload

RSS is a remarkable tool that creats some semblance of order in what internet has to offer. Rather than asking Google (or any other search engine, for that matter) an unstructured query, RSS allows you to tap into a feed focused on or around something that you find interesting. My expericence has been that it is easier to select interesting articles from RSS feed than to wade through several million web pages Google typically finds for any query.

Final Comments on "Feed"

"Feed" is a caricature of today's information driven society. The world depicted in "Feed" has some resemblence to today's world but IMHO, it is limited in extent to the semblence a political cartoon has to the real world. They both make the point by overblowing anamolies. I would conclude that the world depicted in "Feed" is "close" to real world and at the same time it is not.

It is hard to think of Google as The Big Brother. It is merely a commercial enterprise very sensitive to what people might find useful. Products like AdWords and AdSense parlay some sensible insights into what people may find useful into viable commercial products.

The most striking aspect of the society depicted in "Feed" is the dumbing down of masses caused by exposure to what media has to offer. "Feed" is a cautionary tale against falling in love with new media. Like all innovations from spinning jenny to atom bomb, innovations by themselves are neither good or bad, it is what people do with them makes them good or bad.

'New to me' social software site

Club Penguin is a social networking site for kids between the ages of 8 and 14 years.It was created in 2005 by two fathers in Canada.
One of biggest pluses of this site is its focus on safety. Whereas other social software sites for teens, encourage the sharing of personal inforamtion, Club Penguin forbids it. Many parents consider it as a safe place for their children.

Another interesting aspect of Club Penguin is that it generates its revenue exclusively from subscriptions. This means that there is no advertising on Club Penguin.

"New to Me" in a Library 2.0 site

Usually the tone of most articles and blogs about Library 2.0 is upbeat. I came across a weblog written by Steve Lawson, which takes an opposite stance on Library 2.0. This site presents a refreshing departure from the norm. Rather than going with the assenting multitude, this blog strikes a somewhat unusual dissenting note. Whether the arguments made here have a genuine merit is up to the reader to decide.

The issues on which Lawson takes Library 2.0 to task are:

Technology: There would be less emphasis on technology within the library blogosphere if the bloggers involved were more objective about technology.

Privacy: Library 2.0 may compromise privacy in a way that may not be universally acceptable.

Culture and Economics: Will every one be able to afford to spend the kind of money needed for implementing Library 2.0?

Security: Problems related to security may arise with the implentation of Library 2.0


Terminology: The danger behind Library 2.0 is that the message may be obsured by the terminology used. The terminology might be confusing and misleading.

Exasperation: Library 2.0 might turn people off. It might get in the way of people understanidng how to improve their library.

Google Reader vs. bloglines

Google Reader vs. bloglines

1. Easy set-up. If you have a Google Account the set-up is even easier. Use your username and passwork to log in.

2. On the home page, there is a welcome message and a short video on how to get started.

3. Adding a star adds the post to “Starred items” in the top-left corner of the page, analogous to Bloglines 'Saved items'. Google Reader allows you to click a link and share items to a public page that it creates for you.

Bloglines
1. Signing up is more long-winded.

2. There is no guidance on how to get started when you are on the home page. Only a tiny 'Add Blog or Feed' button appears on the top left corner of the page.

3. There are three buttons at the bottom of each post: Pin, Save and Email. “Pin” keeps a post marked as unread so that when you log in the next time this post is presented to you again. “Save” adds the post to your Saved list.

Google Reader

Feed

The novel Feed is a brilliant caricature of today's technologically driven society. It envisages a future world in which babies would have computers and TVs connected to their brain. Like all caricatures, it has more than a grain of truth to make the point.

A la Huxley (Brave New World), Anderson points out that technological progress is not an unadultrated bliss. On the one hand, technology builds on iteself; there is very little lateral technological development. In other words, most of the development takes place on the top of whatever has been developed earlier. Thus, technology represents the march of human progress.
On the other hand, not all the people react in a similar manner to the same innovations. For example, let us consider the internet,possibly the greatest innovation in human communication since telephone. It would take us only a few moments to notice that hundreds of innovative ways of abusing this medium have been deviced in a relatively short span of time.
Technology is neither good, nor bad. It is what people do with it. Unrestricted use of technology is likely to result in a kind of world where intellectual activity is traded for idle pursuits, just the kind of future that is described in Feed. However, it would be unwise to shun technology merely for its potential to be abused. If used wisely, technology our greatest tool.
In conclusion, Feed is a cautionary tale. It shows the possible pitfalls of becoming an unconditional technophile.

Brown and Duguid Reading

This is a Blog created by Kalyani Chitrao as a part of coursework for the course "Social Software".

Saturday, September 20, 2008
Brown and Duguid reading

Our reaction to anything new in our environment is that of suspicion and mistrust. This is basic human nature: we are afraid of the unknown and show reluctance in embracing change.
Before introducing new technology in libraries, librarians should be cognizant of our native unwillingness to deal with a new situation; there should perhaps be some tutorials and tools which would help users get comfortable with using new technology.
Posted by Kalyani Chitrao at 1:38 PM 1 comments
Labels: Message for librarians
Friday, September 19, 2008


Blogger vs. LiveJournal

Blogger

Posting in Blogger is easy. However, extra posting options are not clearly laid out.
Selecting 'edit' occasionally freezes the screen.
No voice or IM communication
Can upload images although it isn't very easy to do so.


LiveJournal

Posting is easy and there are scroll down menus for extra posting options.
Selecting 'edit' rarely freezes the screen.
It is easier to upload images and video
Has IM and voice communication.
Posted by Kalyani Chitrao at 1:26 PM 1 comments
Labels: Blogger vs. LiveJournal


Bartlesville Public Library

This blog for kids has fun ideas for Haloween and the Fall season. There is a yummy recipe for 'Pumpkin cookies' . Kids can wash the cookies down with 'Pumpkin punch' (recipe appears on the blog). The blog gives information about a website offering fun ideas for Fall--crafts, games, pumpkin carving etc.

Posted by Kalyani Chitrao at 1:26 PM 0 comments
Labels: Fun Stuff for Children

Posted by Kalyani Chitrao at 12:49 PM 0 comments
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About Me

I am a Library Science student at Department of Library and Information Sciences at Rutgers University.