Author: griffey

Jason Griffey is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at NISO, where he works to identify new areas of the information ecosystem where standards expertise is useful and needed. Prior to joining NISO in 2019, Jason ran his own technology consulting company for libraries, has been both an Affiliate at metaLAB and a Fellow and Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and was an academic librarian in roles ranging from reference and instruction to Head of IT at the University of TN at Chattanooga.

Jason has written extensively on technology and libraries, including multiple books and a series of full-periodical issues on technology topics, most recently AI & Machine Learning in Libraries and Library Spaces and Smart Buildings: Technology, Metrics, and Iterative Design from 2018. His newest book, co-authored with Jeffery Pomerantz, will be published by MIT Press in 2024.

He has spoken internationally on topics such as artificial intelligence & machine learning, the future of technology and libraries, decentralization and the Blockchain, privacy, copyright, and intellectual property. A full list of his publications and presentations can be found on his CV.
He is one of eight winners of the Knight Foundation News Challenge for Libraries for the Measure the Future project (http://measurethefuture.net), an open hardware project designed to provide actionable use metrics for library spaces. He is also the creator and director of The LibraryBox Project (http://librarybox.us), an open source portable digital file distribution system.

Jason can be stalked obsessively online, and spends his free time with his daughter Eliza, reading, obsessing over gadgets, and preparing for the inevitable zombie uprising.

Categories
Digital Culture Personal

NOLA blogging

Found by Shel, a phenomenal blog detailing some of the street-level issues going on in NOLA:

The Interdictor

Sobering post from today:

In case anyone in national security is reading this, get the word to President Bush that we need the military in here NOW. The Active Duty Armed Forces. Mr. President, we are losing this city. I don’t care what you’re hearing on the news. The city is being lost. It is the law of the jungle down here. The command and control structure here is barely functioning. I’m not sure it’s anyone’s fault — I’m not sure it could be any other way at this point. We need the kind of logistical support and infrastructure only the Active Duty military can provide. The hospitals are in dire straights. The police barely have any capabilities at this point. The National Guard is doing their best, but the situation is not being contained. I’m here to help in anyway I can, but my capabilities are limited and dropping. Please get the military here to maintain order before this city is lost.

Wow. I’m just more and more shaken by the news coming from NOLA. So much suffering, and the real suffering hasn’t started yet. Right now, people are suffering from immediate loss…loss of home, loss of friends, loss of family. Later will come the real hardship: no job, no paycheck, no insurance. What do you do when not only is everyplace and everyone you know gone, but everything you know is gone. The whole city is gone. The people who are still in NOLA are the ones without cars, without resources to get out of the city in the first place. What can they possibly do after this?

Categories
Personal The Living Dead

Zombie flashmobs

Zombie Flashmob

These completely and utter fascinate me. So far there have been two three: the first in San Francisco, one in Austin, Texas that invaded an American Idol tryout, and now another in Vancouver. Basically, an online and SMS organized mob that dress as zombies and invade normal spaces, shuffling and moaning and generally weirding out the norms. This makes my general zombie fandom go apeshit. I sooooooo wanna dress up like a zombie and invade a mall with a group of other zombies.

Then again, if I saw a group of zombies shambling down the street at me, the one in front would be lucky if I didn’t put a cricket bat upside his head.

Categories
Books Digital Culture

Building on yesterday’s…

…post about D&D, here’s a page from Wizards of the Coast that has a TON of free PDFs of old D&D products. Tons of great reading here, and more adventures than you could shake a vorpal sword at:

Previous Edition Downloads

Categories
Books Digital Culture Personal

Afternoon Adventures With Dungeons & Dragons

Check it out…Wizards of the Coast, the current publishers of the venerable Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game have started a “roleplay in the library” system. Looks like they are using libraries as both publicity and marketing tools, while providing the library with a free copy of the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Game. I suppose they also hope that libraries will begin collecting more and more D&D products (the reason that a lot of libraries don’t already collect RPGs is that they walk…fast and often).

Blurb from the website:

The Afternoon Adventure with DUNGEONS & DRAGONS program will include everything librarians need to start regular gaming programs in their library with the original pen-and-paper roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D for short). Players assume the persona of fantasy characters and pursue magical adventures, confronting and solving problems using strategic thinking and teamwork.

For librarians interested:

To receive an Afternoon Adventure kit for your library, please call 1-800-613-3791, or send an e-mail with your name, address, the library you’re from, and how you found out about the program to: libraries@wizards.com. One kit per library please and quantities are limited.

As an old-school gamer, I’m all for this. I grew up cutting my teeth on the original D&D boxed editions (how I love thee, red box) and moved on to great games like Star Wars, Cyberpunk 2020, Shadowrun, Call of Cthulhu, and my all time fav, Paranoia. Getting more kids into RPGs is a good thing, as far as I can tell. Go librarians!

Categories
Personal

NOLA and Katrina

I’ve been sitting here all day, worrying about our favorite city: New Orleans. It looks seriously like Katrina could remove it from existance. Betsy and I were married in New Orleans, and we made it to Mardi Gras many, many times. We love NOLA…it’s not like any other US city. That is, it’s the most non-US of any US city…you feel like you’re in another country when you are there. The fact that this time tomorrow it could be underwater hurts me.

To give those of you some idea how serious this storm is, take a look at some of the National Weather Service advisory notes:

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS…PERHAPS LONGER. AT LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL…LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL. PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD
FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE…INCLUDING SOME WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY…A FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD…AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY
VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS…PETS…AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS…AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING…BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE KILLED.

HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS. Wow. Nearly everyone seems to be expecting this to be the largest natural distaster in US history.

Hopefully everyone has evacuated appropriately. This is not something to “wait out.” If someone out there finds a good blog/news site for updates, let me know.

EDIT: Here’s a couple of good webcams and local streaming stations for those following this:

http://www.portno.com/webcamnew_out.htm
http://www.wwltv.com/cgi-bin/bi/video/makeadplaylist.pl?title=beloint_wwltv&live=yes
http://www.dotd.louisiana.gov/press/traffic_cameras/cameras_no.asp?camera=Cam4

High Res satellite images from NOAA

Good blogging regarding the ‘cane from Weather Underground

Categories
Personal

Million Dollar Ideas

Occasionally, Betsy and I will be talking, and one or the other of us will come up with what we call “Million Dollar Ideas”: Some product or service that isn’t out, but should be, and would be remarkably profitable. These are always things that we are completely incapable of implementing, so of course nothing comes of these. I’d love to be able to patent some of them (and may do that some day) but for now, we just note them.

Here’s one from today: an additive for the water of swimming pools that would increase the UV resistance of the water, to aid in the protection from the sun. Even better if it would continue to protect even after you get out. Sunscreen that was added to the water, in other words. A MILLION DOLLARS, I tell you.

Categories
Digital Culture

Session 416

Check out the viral marketing for the new movie Serenity, based on the TV show Firefly by Joss Whedon:

Session 416 Exerpt 1
Session 416 Exerpt 2

Very nice stuff…rumor has it that it’s Whedon himself as the doctor in these clips.

Categories
Digital Culture

Touched by his noodly appendage

Flying Spaghetti Monster

One of my very favorite ‘net memes in a very long time, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is, according to wikipedia:

Flying Spaghetti Monsterism is a parody religion created to protest the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to allow intelligent design to be taught in science classes alongside evolution.

There’s been BoingBoing posts, a cute name for the faux-religion (Pastafarianism), and downloadable graphics suitable for card stickers/chrome fish-like ornaments.

A number of the digerati have put forward a 1 million dollar challenge to the creationists (up from the original $250,000):

We are willing to pay any individual *$250,000 if they can produce empirical evidence which proves that Jesus is not the son of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

This is why I love the Interweb.

Categories
Personal

Still in Indianapolis….

Things going well for me, although Betsy seems to be having quite the time of her weekend. 🙁 I’m sure she’ll catch everyone up on her blog later, so i won’t ruin the story.

Pics and such from the weekend upcoming.

Categories
Personal

GenCon

I’m heading out today for GenCon, the largest gaming convention in the world. Expect posts to be a little slow until next week.

Have a great weekend, everyone!