I’ve spent the last 24 hours in Atlanta, GA at DragonCon. I thought I would share with you the single picture that is the essense of all things DragonCon:
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Author: griffey
Jason Griffey is the Executive Director of the Open Science Hardware Foundation. Prior to joining OSHF, he was the Director of Strategic Initiatives at NISO, where he worked to identify new areas of the information ecosystem where standards expertise was 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 Library IT and a tenured professor 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 a chapter in Library 2035 - Imagining the Next Generation of Libraries by Rowman & Littlefield. His latest full-length work Standards - Essential Knowledge, co-authored with Jeffery Pomerantz, was published by MIT Press in March 2025.
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.
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And once more, I’m off
This time to DragonCon, in Atlanta, GA. I’m gonna go get my geek on, play some games, run some tournaments, grab some schwag, sell some cards. More as I’m there and when I return.
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Valleyschwag 4
More Valleyschwag! This month wasn’t as good as last month, but the shirt is nice. I’m not sure wtf the mini beach chair is good for…holding my cell phone? The stickers are interesting, as always, and I got a bottle opener. But it does seem a bit small, comparatively…of course, Valleyschwag is undergoing some serious growing pains. I’m willing to give them a few months to work it out.
I’m also not sold on Perplexcity…I’m a gamer, and love games of all sorts, but I’m just not sure how to take such a massively distributed puzzle. Seems like more work than fun to me.
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I am not a terrorist
Read the story. Buy the shirt. This is getting utterly ridiculous.
Reminds me of the printable felony I produced for BoingBoing awhile back. I will definitely be buying one of these.
…it is stranger than you can imagine. And this is never more true than on this wacky series of tubes we call the Interweb.
Exhibit One: I give you….Otherkin.
Otherkin is a subculture made up of people who describe themselves as being non-human or having a connection to a mythical archetype in some way, usually believing themselves to be mythological or legendary creatures. The word is a neologism primarily used by members of that subculture, and is somewhat fluid in definition, and in its broadest sense includes those who consider themselves to be animals, aliens, extradimensional beings, and any other non-human entities.
These are people who believe that they are dragons, werewolves, and elves.
Yes, really.
No, I’m not joking.
You want even wackier? Ok…you asked for it: Otakin!
A sort of crossbreed between fans of anime and otherkin, Otakin believe that they are actually the reincarnation of an anime (or occasionally game) character and that the worlds depicted in popular animes such as evangelion and games like final fantasy exist in another dimension. Unlike their otherkin counterparts, otakin are relatively rare and tend to limit their activities to obscure message boards and livejournal communities. >>from the Urban Dictionary
Otakin (sometimes Otakukin) believe that they have the souls of fictional characters, usually from Japanese anime. Let me say this again, slowly: They believe that they contain within them the souls of cartoon characters.
*boggle*
The obvious question seems to be: Why those particular sets of things? That is, why is there a group of people who believe they have within them the soul of elves, but not, oh…trolls? Or Goblins? Why are Otakin just anime based, and there’s no one running around believing they are the “reincarnated” soul of Woody Woodpecker? I’m not saying this is any more rational than believing, oh…that there’s an invisible man in the sky who watches everything I do…but on the “weird” meter, this one goes to 11.
Oh, and just for you, dear readers…one last special site that involves both dragons AND invisible men in the sky.
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Zuca
While this blog isn’t a gadget-blog, I wanted to sing the praises of a recent purchase that might come in handy for both the gamers and librarians (and gaming librarians) who might read this.
At the Origins Game Fair this year I purchased a Zuca. What’s a Zuca? It’s a rolling bag of many things…
This is the best rolling bag I’ve ever seen. It has great organization inside, with pockets and a large open area for books/computer/folders/body parts…whatever you need to haul around. The thing feels indestructible, has inline skate wheels with frictionless bearings and will go anywhere and has a nearly zero turn radius. The frame allows you to use it as a seat or table for those crowded airports or in the library, and since it’s aluminum it doesn’t actually add much weight to the product. It’s still very carryable when needed. It also comes in about a million colors/styles.
The only complaint I have about the bag is that it connects to the frame at all of the sides, but not the top, so when you use the handy mesh hammock in the inside top of the bag to hold change and such, it pulls the top down when you roll the bag. It’s a terribly minor thing in an otherwise remarkably well-designed product, and doesn’t effect the use of the bag at all. There was some issue with it fitting in a few of the overheads of the smaller airplanes I was on this summer, but in every case there was a solution (once it was checked by the crew, and once I stowed it under the empty seat beside me). It fit in the larger planes just fine.
For those of us who carry a lot of books and electronics when travelling (and who doesn’t anymore…) this is a really well made solution. If you see me at a convention, I’ll probably be wheeling this along behind me.
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Hot Library Action
From The Nonist, some Hot Library Smut:
Yesterday I came across a truly gorgeous book of photographs by Candida Höfer titled, Libraries, a title which pretty much says it all, because that is just exactly what it is, one rich, sumptuous, photo of a library interior after another. It’s like porn for book nerds. Seriously. They are gorgeous photos, nearly all without visitors and just begging to be entered. (ha. sorry.)
And boy are they some pretty pics:
If you want your very own library porn, you can order it from the publisher.
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Sweet mother of jeebus!
I have no words.
It’s like some demented genius said “Now if only there was a foodstuff that was both easily portable and contained bacon and Tang…”
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Day of the Dead
photo credit : Scott Beale / Laughing Squid @ laughingsquid.com.
Yet another zombie mob scene in San Fransisco this past week.
Is it a coincidence that I’m blogging this today, on the first day of classes? 😉
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WPOpac
Wow…I’m a little late to the party, but this has such potential I thought I needed to blog it. Casey Bisson has done some amazing integration work to combine his OPAC with a WordPress blog. I’m still playing with features, but it seems like an amazing tool for refining search. Plus, it’s just a mind-freakingly difficult thing to pull off…most OPAC’s don’t play well with others. I’m completely impressed that it even works…this is like convincing Microsoft Word to integrate with iTunes. Huge props to Corey for making this work.