Parallel Parking w/ Mr. Car

Copyright and the World's Most Popular Song

Woah! It looks like Happy Birthday might not actually be under copyright.

"Happy Birthday to You" is the best-known and most frequently sung song in the world. Many - including Justice Breyer in his dissent in Eldred v. Ashcroft - have portrayed it as an unoriginal work that is hardly worthy of copyright protection, but nonetheless remains under copyright. Yet close historical scrutiny reveals both of those assumptions to be false. The song that became "Happy Birthday to You," originally written with different lyrics as "Good Morning to All," was the product of intense creative labor, undertaken with copyright protection in mind. However, it is almost certainly no longer under copyright, due to a lack of evidence about who wrote the words; defective copyright notice; and a failure to file a proper renewal application.

SSRN-Copyright and the World's Most Popular Song by Robert Brauneis

Top 10 Jackie Chan Fight Scenes

(Contains some adult language)

Pink Martini

Last Friday night I got to see Pink Martini with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra Pop. Here's a sample if you're not familiar with their music.

Creepy Portal-esque video

via Geekologie

Doctorow & Scalzi are doin' it for the kids

UKULELE - BLITZKRIEG BOP

The next time I play this in Rock Band I might not be able to keep a straight face.

John Legend covering “Pride (In the Name of Love)”

On the 40th anniversary of MLK's assassination.

(via Whatever)

Obama on Countrywide Financial

We Think

I'm so going to use this the next time I do a Social Web presentation!

Doctor Who series 4 starts on 4/4!

I've got mixed feelings about the return of a certain character but
I'm willing to wait and see.

Top 10 Reasons to Watch Season 4 of Battlestar Galactica

Clinton pwned by girl in 3AM ad

It's Illegal To Say...

Better YouTube Firefox Extension

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 Exclusive Lifehacker Download: Better YouTube Firefox Extension

Twitter in Plain English

The folks at Common Craft have done it again.

Via Librarians Matter

What if Saul Bass had designed the credits for Star Wars?

The shiny guy, he always worries

Star Wars explained by a three year-old.

Ladies and Gentlemen...Will Ferrell and Dave Grohl

Contains some adult language

The Librarian Song

Hitler explains Second Life

dan le sac VS scroobius pip

"Thou Shalt always Kill"

Is Amazon.com spying on me?

This morning I watch three short videos on YouTube featuring ventriloquist Jeff Dunham. Several hours later I added a book to my Amazon.com wishlist and get the resulting 'here's what else you should buy" page. Oddly enough a Jeff Dunham DVD is one of the items suggested to me. Quick looks thorough my browser's history (shown below) Dunham only came up from YouTube and I'd not previously looked at any Dunham related items in Amazon.com. Coincidence? What do you think?

The highway of the future via Disney circa 1958

My favorite line: "A teletype panel shows up-to-the-minute traffic bulletins."

What if the Beatles had written Stairway to Heaven?

Doctor Who: Voyage of the Damned (trailer)

Can't wait!!!

Rock N' Roll Readers in the Library

Your Friday morning chant

Won't you blog this song?

Thanks Michael

Animal vs Buddy Rich

Overhead bins

"Sit down, grab a controller and stare at the screen 'till it hurts"

It's time for some video games!

Thanks Christa

Guitar Hero God

Someday, maybe, but I'm not holding my breath.

LBI @ IL2007

In case you missed "the Dutch boys'" presentation, here is my 10 edited version of the live portions of their presentation.

*This

Here's a list of the social networks I'm actively participating in:

• Flickr
• YouTube
• SlideShare
• LibraryThing
• Twitter
• Blog
• del.icio.us
• Jaiku
• Tumblr
• Facebook
• Yelp

Then there's the ones I have accounts in but don't use all that much:

• 43Things
• BlipTV
• Google Video
• MySpace

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few too. Add the fact that in some of these services (Flickr, YouTube, blogging) I have access to multiple accounts, one personal, one work. (Blip.tv is only work right now. I don't have a personal account there.)

Here's the problem: when I find something interesting online or have something to say, how should I share it?

I've got four bookmarklets set up; BlogThis, TwitThis, TumblThis, and TwitThis, along with the Share+ button on the Facebook toolbar, which makes posting to those sites a simple process. But each one has a different audience (if any audience at all) with different levels of immediacy. (For example, if I post it to my blog, only my subscribers will read it but maybe not for a few hours or days. If I post it to Facebook, only my Facebook friends will see it albeit a bit quicker. If I put it out to Twitter, only my Twitter followers will see it but within minutes.) Additionally, Twitter posts need to be kept to 140 characters, my Tumblog can contain more but I usually don't, del.icio.us is for stuff I want to go back to later or share with my classes, and my blog is for more extensive writing even though I post short stuff there too.

Well I could, and do sometimes, post the same content, or various versions of the same content, to multiple services. For example, I put a link to my blog review of my new keyboard on Twitter. Why didn't I also share it on Facebook? I have no idea. It just didn't occur to me until I wrote the previous sentence.

I have a pseudo-solution and that's my Jaiku account. Jaiku allows me to pull in content from all of my other accounts that are outputting feeds. So, if you visit my Jaiku page or subscribe to my Jaiku feed, you'll get all of the content from almost every other service I post to. (There's no way to pull in Facebook info that I can find so there's one notable exception.) The trouble is, there's no one in my extended circle of friends using Jaiku with two notable exceptions (planetneutral and jessamyn) and they don't seem to be doing much with it anyway. So, is a "solution" really a solution if no one uses it? I don't think so.

So, how do you handle it? Do you just pick a favorite and stick to it? Do you clearly delineate in your own mind what goes where and not worry about who's at the receiving end? I'd really like to know.

Classic early Muppets

NLC Vendor Day 2007

Yesterday several dozen librarians from throughout Nebraska joined NLC staff and about a dozen library vendors at the Cornhusker Marriott in Lincoln, NE for the second annual NLC Vendor Day.

Overall I'd say it was a success. All of the sessions were well attended and many great questions were asked of the vendors about their products. Both of my sessions, Second Life and Hot Topics in Technology" were also well attended.

More specifically to me, my use of YouTube as presentation platform seemed to go over very well. All of the feedback I received indicated that it worked well and gave everyone an idea of what it was like to be in Second Life without actually going there. (That, and I didn't use PowerPoint at all so that's a guaranteed plus.)

From the presenter's persepctive YouTube did leave a bit to be desired. Due to the fact that all YouTube video pages force you to scroll to see the whole video window and each time you move to the next video in a playlist you have to re-scroll, I decided to use the playlist that I embedded in my blog the previous day. This way I could scroll down once, click play, and let it run, pausing when I needed to address something specific. Unfortunately, I didn't test this plan fully in advance. It seems that embedded playlists will play the first four videos and then force you to click over to the YouTube site to play the rest. (For purposes of ad revenue I'm sure.) So, due to this I was back in YouTube, scrolling to align future videos on the screen. It wasn't a complete breakdown of the plan but it did catch me off guard, something I try to avoid during a presentation.

The only other comment I would make about this method of presenting is not to go over the 30 minute mark when showing video. I pretty much kept to exactly 30 but I started to get the feeling at the end that if I'd gone any longer I would have started to loose some of the attendees.

Overall I'd give the day a 9 out of 10 and my YouTube experiment an 8 out of 10. (My photos from the day can be found by clicking on the photo in this post.)

YouTube as Presentation

Tomorrow is the Nebraska Library Commission's Vendor Day and as part of the festivities I get 30 minutes to introduce Second Life. So, with the discovery of the video I posted earlier today I decided to take a different approach and assemble 30 minutes worth of YouTube videos and use them. (I'll most likely cut short the Vega song short as I'm using it more as an intro to the video on building her SL guitar.) I've still got handouts but I thought this would be an interesting experiment. The videos are presented for you below and I'll report back afterwards as to how the audience liked it.

Pulp Muppets

Second Life Introduction

Here's a great short video introducing Second Life. I think I'll use this one tomorrow. Listen for the line about linking from Second Life to an "old fashioned Web site".

Principles of economics, translated

Thanks to Darlene Fichter

CIL2007: Trends in Mobile Tools & Applications for Libraries

Megan Fox, Simmons College, (fox@simmons.edu) web.simmons.edu/~fox/mobile

• Patrons want and demand mobile on-demand services
• Mobile Market
• [I lost the stats I typed in...]
  
  
• Latest Devices
• iPods
• tablets
• PSP
• Blackberry
• m300 smart watch
  
  
• Treo
• Samsung B470
• Nokia N93
• HTC S710
• iPhone
• MyOrigo
• HTC Advantage and Shift
• Ultra Mobile PC - Q1 Ultra
• Mobile Web / Transcoded Web
• .mobi
• mobilelearn
• winksite
• volantis
• roundpoint
• mobiSiteGalore
• Freemont PL has a .mobi version
• zinadoo
• NYT
• National Weather Services
• Digg
• PubMed
• Hoovers
• Ball State University (Looks like Gopher)
• Mobile Optimized OPACs
• III AirPac
• LibraryThing
• Ready Reference On the Go
• Tucors
• handango
• dictionaries
• almanac
• Mobile Answers
• eBooks & eAudio
• Transcoding
• Optimizing for the mobile environment on the fly
• May remove content so somewhat controversial
• Blogger on the Go
• mobilicio.us
• Databases on the Run
• Factiva
• LexisNexis
• Mobilize your content
• via RSS then to SMS
• MobiFeeds
• xFruits
• feedbeep
• hubdog
• GoogleReader
• Text onto the iPod
  
  
• Mobile Search
• Google
• 4info
• Yahoo!
• AOLMobile
• Ask
• [Presented on this earlier in the conference]
  
  
• SMS for content
• GoogleSMS
• Yahoo
• AskMeNow
• Biblioteche di Roma (answer w/in 48 hours, ugh!)
  
  
• 411
• Meriam Webster
• Life's a Pitch - 1st chap via SMS
• Harper Teen
• Citysearch
  
  
• SMS for communication
• Simmons College Reference Services
• Altrama (SMS Virtual Reference)
• teleflip
• gizmoSMS
• MagicMessage
• MobileU
• AIRBaruch
• Class in Hand
  
  
• Text Feedback Link
• Feedback Meter Link
• Mobile audio & multimedia
• downloadable audio
• mobile tours - guide by cell
  
  
• instruction
• story hours
• video tours
• mobile tv
• mobile YouTube
• mobile Second Life
• Ball State University training videos & promotional videos
• Video downlaods
  
  
• Applications for staff
• Stats - bar code readers
• Sirsi PocketCirc
• Wireless Workstation
  
  
• What's Next?
• txt & video ads (you must approve & get a discount on your bill for viewing)
• MasterCard & Visa via your phone
• Hardware displays
• glasses
• eink/epaper
• project to wall
• ZenZui
• Microsoft Live Labs Deepfish
• Photo2Search
• Thrrum
• mobile visual interactions - qipit
• spoken interactions - GotVoice
• GPS Location Interaction
• [showing pics from my Library Signage flickr pool!]
  
  

CIL2007: Using Social Media for Community Engagement (Tuesday Keynote)

Andy Carvin, National Public Radio (www.andycarvin.com/complibraries.ppt)

• Head of NPR's Web 2.0 streategy
• Traditional Media Production
• publisher
• broadcaster
• billboard owner
• drag a sign from a plane
• hold up a sign at a sporting event
• Web 1.0
• read instead of produce
  
  
• HTML
• Programming
• Graphic design
• hosting ability
• promotion mechanisms
• Web 2.0
• new software makes content creation easy
• people focus on ideas and creativity rather than technical know-how
• "the read-write web"
• "we media"
• Social software and the democratization of content
• classblogmeister.com
• flickr.com
• epnweb.org
• blip.tv
• youtube.com
• common thread: online communities where people are actively encouraged to use and share each other's original content
• Content production: All the cool kids are doin' it
• [see notes from PEW keynote yesterday for stats]
• The Web 2.0 Universe
• geotags
• blogging
• aggregation
• podcasting
• folksonomies
• rating
• vlogging
• community discussions
• tagging
• IM
• SMS
  
  
• mashups
• RSS
• wikis
• citizen journalism
• online social networks
• Most famous examples: Blogs
• early days: online geeks have personal homepages
• blogging software made it easy for everyone
• fill-in-a-form publishing
• today: 60-100 million+ blogs online
• perception: a media-blogger war of attrition
• The media hates bloggers
• can't trust trust them to get it right
• have agendas/biases
• mob mentality
• don't respect journalists
• don't do hard news
• bloggers hat the media
• you can't trust old media
• claim their unbiaser
• dominated by soundbites
• don't respect the public's brains
• always pandering to lowest common denominator
• Today: Happy Internet, the war is over
• concerted attempts at finding understanding between the media and the blogosphere
• media/blog collaboration now more common
• greater emphasis on "networked journalism" (Jeff Jarvis)
  
  
• finding ways for the media to work with "the people formerly as the audience" (Jay Rosen)
• Why are media outlets embracing Web 2.0
• improving journalistic transparency
• creating a public dialogue
• tapping into public knowledge and creativity
• new collaborative opportunities with affiliates
• maybe it's profitable, too?
• Open piloting
• inviting the public to help create new broadcast programming
• sharing rough drafts of shows before they're ready for prime time
• a focus group, but everyone's welcome
• examples: Rough Cuts, Bryant Park
• Radio Open Source
• "a blog with a radio show"
• not about open source software
• opens editorial process to the public
• invites users to submit & debate program ideas
• users recommend guests & questions
• asks users to participate on-air
• Similar: TOTN, WHYS
• BBC Have Your Say
• centralized forum for discussion news
• only select stories covered
• two-tiered moderation
• users can rate each others' comments
• CNN iReport
• http://www.cnn.com/exchange/
• CNN citizen journalism project w/ blip.tv
• users submit photos, video for specific stories
• best clips included on air
• published early video from VT shootings
• "tell your friends, iReport for CNN"
• USA Today
• embedding social networking across the site
• note balkanized to a special section
• users can comment
• OhMyNews
• english.ohmynews.com
• Korean online news service
• dedicates 20% of its space to citizen journalism
• ones that submit consistently get paid
• Global Voices
• www.globalvoices.org
• bridge blogging
• Vote Guide
• Minnesote E-Debate
• NewAssignment.net
• So What Should You do?
• community blogs & discussions
• more...
• bathroom in South Africa photo

CIL2007: Millennials and the Library

Marshal Breeding, Vanderbilt Library

• Generations
• Silent Gen
• Baby boomers
• Gen X
• Millennials
• Millennial characteristics
• inate ability for tech
• frenetic multitasking
• comfortable w/ diverse types of digital media
• highly interactive style of working
• The Millennials are coming
• creative, organized, independent
• impatient, skeptical, sometime arrogant
• status and authority don't impress them
• Contrast of Generations charts
  
  
• approach to study and learning
• "they do it all while studying"
• 85% also listen to music
• also...
• tv
• movie
• im
• chat
• shaping collections for millennials
• content
• digital/immediate
• discovery
• more like the web
• access
• anytime/anywhere
• consistent with existing trends
• doesn't conflict w/ needs of library users from previous generations
• in tune w/ strategic direction most libraries have
• a matter of degree
• an urgent need
• boomers and genx are happier w/ traditional content & modes of service
• millennials will move on to non-library info if not satisfied
• a lot at stake
• content of collections
• Ms comfortable w/ content in diverse media
• multimedia
• graphics over text
• music & audio
• video
• Ms love to remix
• collection possibilities
• e-journals/e-books
• podcasts of lectures
• video libraries of stock footage
• news archives
• datasets: census/GIS
• access to collections
• best opportunity for impact
• building collections well underway but how best to provide access
• how to respond to their prefs
• immediate
• mobile
• flexible
• intuitive
  
  
• heightened user expectations
• expectations set by web
• sophisticated web skills
• low tolerance for clunky interface
• confident in their abilities
• problems with status quo
• doesn't meet expectations of current generation
• too many interfaces
• overly complex
• not always intuitive
  
  
• different locations for different types of information
• Best library OPAC: A Card Catalog card on the screen?
• Best we can do?
• Finding Time Magazine Video
• common tools for access to local collections
• library opacs
• links to aggregators/publishers
• cross linking via OpenURL
• journal finding aids
• metasearch engines
• all loosely coupled
• Metasearch
• inherently problematic
• not immediate
• relevancy ranking difficult
• lake of deep results
• interim solution
• Change Underway
• widespread dissatisfaction
  
  
• movement to break out of current mold
• decoupling of the front-end from the back-end
• working toward the next generation of interfaces
• redefinition of the library catalog
• more comprehensive information discovery environments
• better info delivery tools
• more powerful search capabilities
  
  
• more elegant presentation
• comprehensive search service
• more like OAI
• problems of scale diminished
• problems of cooperation exist
• web 2.0 a good start
• more social and collaborative
• tools and tech that foster collaboration
• blogs, wiki, tagging, social bookmarking, user rating, user reviews
• Supporting technologies
• web services
• XML APIs
• AJAX
• Microformats
• Opensearch vs SRU/SRW
• replacement OPACs
• endeca guided navigation
• aquabrowser
• common thread
• decoupled interface
• mass export of catalog data
• alternative search engine
• alternative interface
• expanded discovery and delivery tools
• ex libris primo
• encore from III
• common threads
• decoupled interface
• comprehensive indexes that span multiple resources
• alternative interface
• library developed solutions
• extensible catalog
• university of rochester
• http://www.extensiblecatalog.info/
• redefinition of library catalogs
• question traditional notions
• no longer enough to provide a catalog of just print
• digital resources can't be an afterthought
• multiple interfaces less tenable
• work toward equal footing for digital and print
• interface expectations
• millennials are used to the Web
• used to relevancy ranking
• must be fast
• rich visual information
• facted browsing
• navigational breadcrumbs
• ratings and rankings
• appropriate organizational structures
• LCSH v FAST
• Full MARC v Dublin Core
• OCLC perceptions: Where do your users start?
• Library Discovery Model
• Library as search destination
• non-library nterfaces
• web services are an essential enabling technology
• libraries lag behind in implementation of service oriented architecture
• global arena
• google, yahoo
• google scholar
• ask worldcat
• wikipedia
• google library print
• local v global
  
  
• how to lib collections relate to global realm
• will mass digitization replace local collections
• global arena excels at discovery
• local arena focuses on delivery
• multi-layered information discovery
• google v libraries
• unfounded concern
• google based on discovery
• libraries specialize in delivery

CIL2007: Setting up the New Stuff: Planning and Implementing Library 2.0

David Lee King, Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library

• Why, What, Who, how, and When
• Why should we set up new services
  
  
• example: library myspace set to private
• example: last updated six months ago
• example: flickr last uploaded to in 2005
• example: blog, about says "latest news", not updated since Jan 2005
• meet changing customer needs
• stay culturally relevant
• keep digital space up-to-date
• What services should you set up?
• lots to choose from
• think through goals
• what should the end result look like?
• Who does the work
• patrons
• staff
• How to make this happen
• admin and management
• staff time
• do we have
• the equipment
• willing participants
• can we make willing participants
• skilled staff
• when to roll it out
• like, yesterday
• seriously, some things don't take a lot of time
• blogs, flickr, youtube, IM
• 5 minutes, tops
• depends on you
  
  
• Content, container, and customer
• Content
• conversational tone
• create often
• reuse content...
• Inviting participation
• Just ask
• Paper Cuts blog: 52 Questions
  
  
• Container
• just the basics or fancy-schmancy?
• Customer
• contacts
• friending in different services
  
  
• comments
• answer them
• quickly
• default to "comments on"
• edit if needed
  
  
• creators
• decide about customer content
• actual content
• comments only
  
  
• who's in charge of content babysitting
• doesn't have to be the Webmaster
• Definitely not the admin
• some specifics
• Blogs
• mylibrary.blogspot.com or mylibrary.org/blog
• free or purchase
• what to name it
• default design or integrate
• reasons for the blog
• what's new at the library
• new books
• library news
• who's in charge
• who writes
• who answers questions
• Tricks
• make sure to link to your stuff
• catalog
• events
• flickr for images
• saves storage space
• reuse content
• pic in two places, more comments
• consider customer and staff training
• staff needs
• a little posting training
• writing for the web training
• basic HTML (imbedding images from flickr)
  
  
• Flickr
• MySpace
• decisions
• name/age/sex
• "you don't have to tell the truth"
• design/skin
• reason for the page
• make use of multimedia
• tricks
• musical artist account if you podcast
  
  
• reuse content
• customize additions
• catalog search box
  
  
• link to your content
• staff needs
• who's in charge
• who does comments
• who writes content
  
  
• YouTube
• decisions
• downloadable video?
• channel design
• reasons for the videos
• current what's up at the lib
• what's new/library update vids
• videos of events
• training
• new books
• youtube specific account stuff
• who's in charge
• what goes in profile
• tagging
• allow comments
• staff or customer content
• everything in blogs above...
• tricks
• channels: link to other relevant content
• provide link back to library page
• embed video on your Web site!
• staff needs
• training
• equipment
• Final thoughts
  
  
• Goals are good!
• Plan for participation
• You don't have to be an expert
  
  

CIL2007: Pre-conference Day

Not much to tell as I'm already as tired as if I'm on day four. My session went well but as usual I had too much material for the time allowed. I did do an audio recording of my session but I've not yet secured permission to distribute it. I'll work on that tomorrow.

I ended up trying both Wii bowling and Guitar Hero after Jenny and Aaron's session on gaming. There is video evidence of this but I have not yet secured a copy of said evidence. In the mean time, here's a video I too of David Lee King battling Aaron Schmidt in Guitar Hero. (I don't remember who won.)

I went out for dinner (sushi for me) with Louise, Jenny, Amanda and Aaron and most of us ended up meeting up with many others including Meridith and Jessamyn at the hotel bar.

Tomorrow, the sessions start. NO real plans just some intentions when it comes to attending particular sessions so you can be a surprised as I am when I post.

New meaning to the term "firewall"

Here's a video of some network monitoring software that takes your network traffic data and presents it as a videogame-esque battle between good and evil packets. This would make network traffic monitoring a much more interesting chore.

Via TechCrunch

Visual joke

Caught this on YouTube. It's from an episode of Robot Chicken. The guy just stands there then asks "Do you get it?" Well, do ya punk?

From a different perspective

I'm not sure if I've blogged about the Will it Blend videos before but I can't pass up this one.

Flash Mob in Victoria Station

via The Evening Standard:
"More than 4,000 clubbers danced through the rush hour at Victoria station in Britain's biggest flash mob stunt."

Your mission, should you accept it...

...is to use the library OPAC to find Time Magazine.

If you're caught, all knowledge of your mission will be denied.

Disney's Tower of Terror

Having done this ride twice this past August I was a bit skeptical when I was told that someone had accurately recreated it in the game Half Life 2. Well, they did and I'm amazed.