In roughly a decade or so, we've gone from the Internet just entering the general public's consciousness to being ubiquitous and something most of us pretty much take for granted.
We expect wireless Internet connections for our laptops every where we go, we post to Twitter and receive Facebook updates on our mobile phones, we order everything online from airline tickets to "new to us" goods on E-bay to prints of our digital photos. The Internet has finally caused time and space to have no meaning in terms of how we communicate in a way that no other previous communication media could.
But, although it seems incredibly unlikely right now, the Internet isn't necessarily as secure nor as stable as we may think.
Here is a list of 10 Ways the Internet (As We Know It) Will Could Die
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Sunday, April 27
10 Ways The Internet (As We Know It) Will Die
by
Jason
on Sun 27 Apr 2008 11:50 PM CST
Sunday, April 20
Ten Common Misconceptions To Social Media Adoption (And How You Can Respond)
by
Jason
on Sun 20 Apr 2008 03:35 PM CST
Some of these suggestions could be very useful in a library setting if you're trying to encourage movement towards more technology-based solutions and are feeling resistance from colleagues and/or management.
Ten Common Objections to Social Media Adoption and How You Can Respond - ReadWriteWeb (PS - I've had this link kicking around for a LONG time and suspect I initially got it from someone else's blog. So if it was you that posted this, apologies for not giving proper credit.) Saturday, April 19
Americans (and certain Canadian library bloggers) Love Lists
by
Jason
on Sat 19 Apr 2008 07:59 AM CST
Tuesday, April 15
Randomness from the ALA e-newsletter and elsewhere
by
Jason
on Tue 15 Apr 2008 07:00 PM CST
I may have mentioned before that the person I'm replacing at work is a member of ALA and, since he had his subscription to their e-mail newsletter, "American Libraries Direct", coming to his work e-mail address, it's been forwarded to me for the past year.
I don't get to look at every issue but have been very impressed with the ones I have read. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's one of my favourite e-newsletters that I've ever subscribed to happened to have land in my in-box - a nice mix of topics, a section specifically for library-related technology news, a very intuitive layout, nice use of photos. I'm trying to minimize the number of association memberships I buy (currently, only CLA and Sask Library Association) but might have to consider an ALA membership just to get this newsletter when I move on. (Hmm, how does this auto forward feature work in Outlook again?  )I glanced through a couple of the most recent issues and here are some things I came across (as well as a few other articles/stories/posts I have come across that make a good fit for a "housecleaning" post like this one)... "10 Great Libraries" - chosen by Nancy Pearl of Librarian Action Hero figure fame. "20 Things To Watch" (PDF) - Stephen Abram in prognosticator mode. (On that note, I still have a $75 CLA gift certificate from getting runner-up in their student essay contest last year. I have to use it by the end of this month and Stephen Abram's book is one thing I'm looking at. Any other suggestions?) "Amazon's Cookie Tax" - does Amazon charge different prices based on the previous buying history attached to your membership? MetaFilter discussion covers "From Static to Dynamic" - a science library makes the long overdue move from static HTML pages to a dynamic CMS. Here's the blow-by-blow of the process, the hurdles and the outcome. "Visting the Most Modern Library in the World" - the Shifted Librarian visits a library in Holland someone jokingly calls "an IKEAbrary" in the comments (and they mean it in a good way.) "You Call It Being A Professional, We Call It Being An Asshat" - a fairly opinionated discussion (no, really? With a title like that?) about the librarian vs. paraprofessional issue and what to call each other (apparently "asshat".) Saturday, April 12
Free-Range Parenting (aka "Parents These Days!")
by
Jason
on Sat 12 Apr 2008 06:57 PM CST
Shea's on a mommy board (er, an online message board for moms if that's not clear) where they're currently having a discussion about "free range parenting".
This is the idea that you should allow your children lots of freedom to explore, learn and become self-reliant (ie. presumably the way that many of us grew up.) From the MetaFilter thread I link to below... There was a really amazing article out of England about a year ago about the distances youths travel. Basically, the grandfather would walk several Km to his favorite fishing hole as a child, and he never fell in, never drowned, never died, never got raped or molested. Then the father (the author of the article) as a child would routinely travel several hundred yards away from home as a young child to visit his favorite swimming hole, alone, or with friends...and he was always fine, and that was the 60's/70's. Now this guy has a kid, and that kid isn't allowed outside of his yard, and the author basically just discussed the affects of quashing the exploratory and independent side of young boys. As evidenced by the story above, many parents today are a lot more protective, hovering over their children, fearful that a pedophile lurked around every corner or that children were fragile little creatures who can't cross the street by themselves, let alone go down the block to the playground to hang out with friends unsupervised ("Hey kids, time for a PLAY DATE!"  ) On the mommy board, someone linked to an article that's causing an uproar in the States, written by a mom who let her nine year old find her own way home on the subway. I can't link to the discussion on the mommy board because it's members-only (er, which probably is more proof about the paranoia of new parents these days. When I was a kid, the Internet was about openness, dammit! Of course, ironically, being closed does allow people to be more open - the recent discussion about the mommy's sex lives post-pregnancy was very revealing. Also very disturbing since we know a few of the posters to the board in real life. Oh, and apparently half the new dads in Regina are on the verge of divorce from the sounds of it!) Anyhow, I logged in to good ol' Metafilter to find that the discussion was raging there too. So if you're interested in the topic, have a peek. Here's a bonus list... TEN THINGS I DID (OR WAS ALLOWED TO DO) AS A KID WHICH I'M NOT SURE IF I'LL LET PACE DO OR NOT 1. Drove vehicles on the farm and back roads without adult accompaniment or supervision. (Shea was instructed to tell the cops that she stole the vehicle if she was in an accident so her parents would still have insurance!  )2. Got left in the toy area of the department stores in Regina while my parents shopped. Often got "lost" when I got bored and went looking for them. 3. Left home at 9am on a summer day. Wandered all over town with friends doing whatever we wanted to do. Made it home by sun down at 10pm. 4. Rode my bike to a nearby lake (is 10km nearby? When you're a kid it is) on a semi-busy highway (especially in summer). Didn't wear a helmet (or knee pads or elbow pads.) The bike had no light. No bell. And very crappy brakes. 5. Rode a small motorcycle to a nearby friend's farm, traveling on a gravel road and crossing one highway (this is Shea's contribution to the list) 6. Swam in a dugout. ("A characteristic feature of the Saskatchewan farming landscape is the dugout, a large excavation designed to catch the spring runoff from the fields.") 7. Ate dirt. And small rocks. And grass. And leaves. And random berries off random bushes and trees. And probably worms. 8. Walked to school in -40 weather ("uphill both ways" - oh wait, that's our parents' tall tale, not ours.) Went outside at recess and played for fifteen minutes. When school was over, stayed outside playing some more. 9. Talked to strangers. Occasionally got in their cars and/or went in their houses and/or took food or other pro-offered items from them. 10 Ran with scissors (okay, I don't remember doing this for sure but I'm fairly certain I must have at some point.) In conclusion, here's an article on "The Over-Parenting Crisis" and a TED talk on "5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kid Do" (Ever notice that my posts have a lot more "meat" on the weekends? Funny how that is...) Thursday, April 10
10 Things Every Adult Should Know
by
Jason
on Thu 10 Apr 2008 09:36 PM CST
So I've had this list of "10 Things Every Adult Should Know" kicking around for a few weeks, never sure when to post it. I really like a lot of what the guy says...
8. You have no right to be proud, unless you did it yourself. That goes for anything from racial pride to patriotism. Your race, gender and nationality are fucking accidents of birth. Being proud of something you got stuck with when mamma squeezed you out is stupid. You have a right to be proud of your own personal accomplishments, and perhaps those of your children (if you were actually a good parent, and your kids didn't succeed by sheer bloody-mindedness alone). That's it. Your parents fucked, Mom got knocked up, and ~9 months later, there you were. Race, gender and nationality handed to you out of some cosmic lottery machine. Fuck your white pride, black pride, national pride, and all the horseshit that goes along with it. ...but the obsession with anal sex (two of the ten items, three if you count the one about "if you have sex, you will get pregnant" as some sort of subtle pro-anal message, are about bum sex) sort of takes away the impact of the foul-mouthed but otherwise accurate points in the other 7/10 of the list. (via Reddit though I've long since lost the link to the thread with comments.) Wednesday, April 2
Top Five Reasons Why "The Customer Is Always Right" Is Wrong
by
Jason
on Wed 02 Apr 2008 07:39 PM CST
Part of the reason that some librarians prefer to call patrons "customers" is that they believe in ideas such as "the customer is always right". But here's a good list of Five Reasons Why “The Customer is Always Right” is Wrong.
We run more than 3 million people through our books every month. One or two of those people are going to be unreasonable, demanding jerks. When it’s a choice between supporting your employees, who work with you every day and make your product what it is, or some irate jerk who demands a free ticket to Paris because you ran out of peanuts, whose side are you going to be on? |
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