Archive for April 2008

In response to the new WebShare initiative which is offering free access to the complete online Encyclopaedia Britannica to bloggers and Web publishers, I had a chance to ask Jorge Cauz, President of Encyclopaedia Britannica, a few questions about the program.

Ellyssa: The WebShare initiative comes fast on the heels of Wikipedia’s 10 millionth entry, was this new program a response to the growing popularity of the free online encyclopedia?

Jorge Cauz: No, we’ve been in business for almost two and one half centuries and have been publishing on the Web for almost 15 years. We develop new plans, products, and features based on what our customers want, our judgments about where they are headed, what technology is available, and what makes sense for us to fulfill our mission, which is to be the preferred resource for people seeking and sharing learning, knowledge and understanding. Britannica does best when people are engaged with our work and use it in discussions on issues that concern them. Today, the people who are publishing on the Web are helping to shape and drive those discussions as never before, and we want to see our products and valuable knowledge in their hands. It’s good business for us to do this, and it’s good for web publishers to have access to our products. That’s what the WebShare program is about.

Ellyssa: Why did Britannica make the decision to focus on “Web publishers” to receive free access?

Jorge Cauz: The Internet is increasingly the place where public discourse and discussion happens today, and the people who write and publish there are an important force in driving public conversations. Since Britannica has a great deal to offer in the way of context and background for these discussions, we want to make our work easily accessible to the people who can make good use of it in their own work and by doing so let the world know what kind of accurate, trustworthy and up-to-date information Britannica has.

Ellyssa: Does this include professional journalists and writers for major publications such as The New York Times, or just bloggers and citizen journalists?

Jorge Cauz: Yes, we’ve generally given free subscriptions to mainstream journalists who want them. That’s been true for some years.

Ellyssa: The Britannica WebShare program is offering quite a collection of widgets for blogs and websites offering non-account holders access to subject-focused encyclopedia articles, as well as a daily tweet from Twitter - are there any additional plans in the works to incorporate other social tools or emerging technologies?

Jorge Cauz: We do have a lot of plans already in the works, though nothing that we are ready to announce just yet. But please stay in touch with us or come visit us to our site(s) over the coming weeks and months. We’ll have plenty of innovative features!

Ellyssa: WebShare is opening up access to a lot of Britannica’s content, could this be a first step in making this a free resource, open to everyone, at some point in the future?

Jorge Cauz: No, we are not planning for that.

Mike Eisenberg writes about The Parallel Information Universe: What’s out there and what it means for libraries in the May 1, 2008 issue of Library Journal. In his article, Eisenberg discusses several different 2.0 technology types and conducts a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis for each, as well as provides some advice for taking those next steps.

“The major lesson for librarians from all this is that “it’s an information world out there!” More and more, it’s not about the technology; it’s about information—finding, using, creating, combining, sharing, and evaluating it. There is an underlying information base to every aspect of life and a need for information institutions in society—that is, libraries. Libraries must continue to play our traditional role, but we also need to assume responsibility for being the information institutions in our communities and organizations.”

The U.K.’s Guardian, in association with the Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc), has published a special supplement titled Libraries Unleashed featuring 18 articles on libraries and technology. They have categorized the articles into the following topic areas:

• Colleges, universities and the digital challenge
• Learning spaces
• Library 2.0
• New business models
• Digitisation
• The new user
• Librarians

The London Journal of The New York Times covers the controversy having to do with the British Library’s new generation of researchers, and the philosophical debate over who should be allowed access to the national library. Four years ago the esteemed library opened its reading rooms to anyone with “a relevant research need” - including undergraduate students. These new researchers chat with one another, listen to iPods, log onto Facebook, and answer their cell phones, much to the dismay of the Library’s traditional researchers.

“The library has changed and evolved, and people use it in different ways,” said the spokeswoman, who asked that, in accordance with library policy, her name not be used. “They have a different way of doing their research. They are using their computers and checking things on the Web, not just taking notes on notepads.”

Will the Library of Congress experience the same culture clash between this new more “interactive” generation of library users and traditional researchers? They announced last week that they are now opening their main reading room to researchers age 16 and older.

This chart from Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, written by analysts at Forrester, illustrates some interesting trends dealing with who people put their trust in when it comes to information about products and services. The data shows that people trust friends as information sources above traditional media and expert opinions. Experts are relied upon only slightly more (3% more) than the reviews of strangers on websites. Josh Bernoff gives some suggestions about what this might mean for your brand in his post Data chart of the week: who do people trust?, including a tip that there might already be reviews of your organization on websites such as Yelp and the Consumerist.

This trend of placing trust in one’s peers over industry experts is echoed by the Edelman Trust Barometer 2008:

“In Brazil, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the United States, “a person like me” is considered the most credible source of information about a company.”

The Spring 2008 edition of the Top 100 Tools for Learning has been published by Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies (C4LPT). Earlier this year, they gathered the top 10 tools used by 155 learning professionals to compile this massive list. Their analysis and individual lists are also linked within the document. Here are their top 10 tools:

1. del.icio.us
2. Firefox
3. Google Reader
4. Skype
5. Google Search
6. Wordpress
7. PowerPoint
8. GMail
9. Audacity
10. Blogger

What are your top 10 tools? List them in the comments!

I just finished reading Jenny Levine’s excellent Library Technology Report - Gaming & Libraries Update: Broadening the Intersections. It’s chock-full of interesting case studies of real library implementations of gaming programs as well as recommended resources. The report covers tabletop (board) games, big games such as LARPing (Live Action Role-Playing), as well as video games. Readers can pick up plenty of game recommendations throughout, but I will be checking further into some of the board games suggested at the end as I noticed a couple of my favorites were listed including Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride.

Computerworld presents ten tips and tricks for making use of text messaging, which can be used for brief messages of up to 160 characters, on your cell phone. They suggest the following tasks to get you up and running with SMS (short message service) technology:

1. Remember your appointments and schedule new ones
2. Track packages, calories and cash
3. Compose text messages with your voice
4. Get driving directions
5. Search Google From the Road
6. Keep tabs on flights …
7. … and keep tabs on friends
8. Transfer files to your phone
9. Send text messages from your PC
10. Archive your messages

The nearly 3,000 members of the Library 2.0 community on Ning will be familiar with the online service which allows users to create their own social networks without technical know-how. Educause has created another of its 7 Things guides which provides a quick overview of the Ning technology by addressing the following questions:

1. What is it?
2. Who’s doing it?
3. How does it work?
4. Why is it significant?
5. What are the downsides?
6. Where is it going?
7. What are the implications for teaching and learning?

Over 1.9 million votes were cast to choose this year’s Webware 100 award winners. The top 10 best Web 2.0 applications have been selected in 10 different categories including:

• Audio
• Browsing
• Commerce & Events
• Communication
• Productivity
• Publishing & Photography
• Search & Reference
• Social
• Utility & Security
• Video

via Micro Persuasion

The Common Craft folks have done it again; simplified a complex technology through a paperworks video. This time it’s podcasting that is explained in plain english.

Ryan Deschamps, at The Other Librarian, blogs about Sustainability and Libraries: Is Anyone Challenging Our Assumptions about Digitization? He talks about taking a look at the TBL - triple bottom line - with regard to libraries which involves looking at economic, environmental and social criteria for measuring success. To be leaders in this area, Ryan suggests that libraries need:

• Research
• Benchmarks
• Innovation
• Partnerships

C|Net reports that Encyclopaedia Britannica has launched a new initiative called Britannica WebShare which allows free access to the complete online encyclopedia to those who publish regularly on the Web, such as bloggers. Those interested can apply for access through a short form on their website. Here is the program description from Britannica:

“A special program for web publishers, including bloggers, webmasters, and anyone who writes for the Internet. You get complimentary access to the Encyclopaedia Britannica online and, if you like, an easy way to give your readers background of the topics you write about with links to complete Britannica articles…This program is intended for people who publish with some regularity on the Internet, be they bloggers, webmasters, or writers. We reserve the right to deny participation to anyone who in our judgment doesn’t qualify.”

The New York Times covers local public libraries which are offering downloadable e-books, audiobooks, and video to patrons in their article What’s New at the E-Library. Area libraries are contracting with services such as Overdrive, Recorded Books, and TumbleBooks to offer these new services. And over 100 of these libraries subscribe to a service called Next Reads which sends personalized book recommendations to patrons’ email inboxes.

“Technology is not something we’re afraid of, it’s something we’ve embraced and our patrons have embraced,” Ms. Lapsley said. “Technology is a steppingstone — we don’t know what else is coming down the pike, but we do know that everything we use will allow us to build on that technology and have our patrons build on that knowledge.”

Today’s Telegraph out of the U.K. reports that ‘Nerdic’ has become the fastest growing language in Europe. Geek-speak terms and phrases such as Google, mashups, and RickRolling, have been widely adopted throughout the Continent.

“Ulric Jerome, the managing director of pixmania.com, said: “Technology has infiltrated our lives in many ways and at such a pace it is natural that it has developed a language of its own.

“It’s exciting to see Nerdic bringing Europe together, and by recognising Nerdic as an official language the UK will continue to help unite technology fans across Europe.”"