Well, I’m an admitted fanboy, but holy christ on a pogostick, Apple has pulled one out this time.
The iPhone is far, far more than anyone expected.
I, like everyone else, will have to wait until June, but I want!
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Second Life goes GPL
Linden Labs, the proprietors of the MMORPG Second Life have done what many thought impossible: they’ve released the code for Second Life via GPL.
This is beyond huge. I have difficulty explaining exactly what sort of watershed moment on the ‘net this is, frankly. Second Life was the first online environment where there were clear property rights….what you create, in game, is yours, and is treated more or less like physical property. This allowed the residents of Second Life to create a vibrant economy that paralleled the real world, instead of being solely virtual like so many other MMORPG’s (WoW, etc).
This release now allows anyone to set up a Second Life server, giving avatars options as to where to set up camp. It sets up a situation of unlimited emigration/immigration in-world, and the ability to hop from “state” to “state”. I can see a natural evolution now of different Second Life states that appeal to different user groups (instead of the current “areas” in the single state) which will allow for much more customization and play from the residents.
I wish I had more time to play around in SL. I’ve got an avatar that lives there, but just don’t have the time to devote that I’d like to fully explore the SL world. It’s an amazing place, though, and this move could very well make it the defacto next stage towards the metaverse.
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New bloginess
After being informed that my current theme is causing no end of errors for reasons unknown, I’m going to be playing with my themes for a day or so. Just to let everyone know, so you don’t think you’ve ended up in the wrong place if it looks a bit funky.
Also, I’m up for suggestions if anyone has a favorite they’d like to see used.
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Five Things
A bit late to the party, but Iris tagged me, so here they are:
Five things you probably don’t know about me
- I was once so ill as a child that my parents were told by doctors that I was going to die. I got better.
- I have held many really interesting jobs, including: pathogenic microbiology technician, Cave guide at a KY State Park, and Assistant web designer way back in 1996.
- I can juggle flaming torches…3 of them, but at one point could do 5.
- I love professional wrestling, especially Lucha Libre and Puroresu. There’s a mythology there that’s missing in our time.
- I’m incapable of being grossed out…blood, guts, gore, nothing really gets to me. This is true for both movies and real life. I’ve performed first aid on a motorcycle slide victim (missing most of the skin on his left side), been the first responder to a traffic fatality, and examined a medical cadaver. I don’t have a problem with vasovagal syncope.
Not sure if any of them will take me up on it, but I’ll tag Justin, Jason, and Eprahs.
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Holiday picture 2006
Here’s my favorite pic of myself from holidays 2006…its just happy!
I was lounging about today, idly thinking about folksonomies (hey..it could happen) and I had what I consider a somewhat interesting idea. Are there any existing sites that allow for tagging in multiple languages? I suppose that del.icio.us does by default for language that use the Roman alphabet, but what about systems that use a non-roman…does flickr or technorati allow for Chinese or Japanese kanji? Or for Farsi?
For any system where this were the case, and there was an enormous database of folksonomic data to mine, and the folksonomies were in some way descriptive (it’s possible to have non-descriptive folksonomies…some people actually leverage del.icio.us by using specifically non-descriptive tags in order to pull very specific things from the organization)…well, if you were describing things in the world…would you be able to data mine such a folksonomy as a translation engine?
You would imagine that on flickr, a picture of a red ball might be tagged “red” and “Ball” by multiple languages. By doing some basic statistical work on the data, I think you could come up with a pretty good translation engine.
Anyone out there see that this couldn’t/wouldn’t work? Would this be better than traditional translation engines…I don’t know. It leverages the wisdom of crowds in an interesting new way, though.
Today I’m heading out for the holidays, to be gone from MPOW until Jan 2nd. We’ll be traveling a bit (but not too much) and I’m looking forward to some honest relaxation.
When I return, I’ll officially be the Head of Library Systems, and a whole new universe begins. I’m already starting to see the edges of that world, with my to-do list growing minute by minute. But I’m excited, and we’ll see how well it goes. But for now, off to holiday, and presents, and good food, and family, and rest.
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Writing projects
Well, now that both contracts are signed, I can talk a bit about my next two writing projects.
First up, I’ve agreed to write an article for Library Journal. The topic? A new reference/instruction project here at UTC involving podcasts and iPod rentals. We’ve got grand plans that we hope to put into practice over the course of 2007 that involve video and audio production and leverage our new website (just launched today!). We’re looking for integration and experimentation from our reference/instruction team, and I have faith they’ll come up with uses that I can’t now imagine. But for LJ, I’m going to write up the entire planning process, from grant writing to how we’ll handle the various challenges involved in a project of this scope.
Second…I’m currently under contract to write a book for Linworth Publishing, tentatively titled Biblioblogging (almost certainly that will change), along with my partner in crime Karen Coombs. I plan on blogging portions of the work, research, and process involved in this writing as well.
These two things, along with the new job…well, let’s just say that 2007 is promising to be interesting if nothing else.
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Library Conference Wiki
Just to confirm a possible need: I’ve spent all day today trying to gather information on library conferences that might be of interest to me over the next year. This is surprisingly hard to do, especially when you don’t know what you’re looking for…google is amazing for search but terrible for browse, which is what I want to do. Entering something like “library conferences” is obviously useless, and I haven’t had any luck finding a good listing of stuff that librarians might be interested in attending. The ALA has a page, but that only lists ALA conferences (naturally). There’s a decent list over at Douglas Hasty’s page from Florida International University, but it only lists the biggies…no love for some of the small national conferences, and certainly nothing on local ones.
So, having found an information need, I seek to fill it. If I were to set up a wiki installation for this purpose, draft some basic organizational rules….would you use it? Would anyone out there help me seed the thing with information and links to the conferences that might otherwise go unnoticed?
Thoughts? I could have a wiki running within the week, I think. Would this help anyone plan the upcoming year’s travels?
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What do I need to know?
I call upon the wisdom of crowds: I will be moving into my new Head of Library Information Technology position in the new year. What information sources must I now attach myself to in order to fully embrace and excel at this job? I’m thinking:
- Listservs?
- Conferences?
- Blogs?
- Publications?
Lay the world of Info Tech management on me, and tell me where I should be participating and consuming!