Tag: presentation

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Artificial Intelligence presentation Technology

Facial Recognition is Broken & Racist

A few months ago, I was asked to fill in and present at the virtual Computers in Libraries and Internet Librarian conference on the topic of Artificial Intelligence. The description for the presentation was already written and published, and I was asked whether I wanted to step in and create a presentation based around it. That description was:

Should face recognition change the way we interact with our customers? What if, for example, I can greet a person by using their last name as soon as he/she gets to the lobby because I have an iPad that will immediately show me the customer’s name, reservation, or even current fees? What near-future technologies will be enabled by AI, and which of them will be useful to libraries? Join us and learn how to make decisions about the good and bad aspects of AI technologies.

When I initially read this description, my first thought was “Say What?”. Given what we know about the realities of the racist and sexist inequities built into facial recognition, it seemed extremely odd to me to suggest libraries should be using it.

So, I decided to make that thought explicit, and the result is this presentation.

Below you’ll find video of my talk, as well as the PDF of my slides. If you’d like to download the slides, you can do so here.

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presentation Technology

Library Technology: Problems, Futures, and Directions

This is a keynote that I delivered at the MOBIUS Consortium conference in Columbia, Missouri on June 2, 2015. I talk about why library technology is terrible, why technology is a unique thing, the speed of change, what technological futures are near, and the broad strokes of how I think libraries need to respond in order to suck less at tech. It’s a fun time for everyone.

There’s one little technical glitch in the middle where Keynote decided to crash, but otherwise I’m pleased with the way this came together.

Just a few hours after I gave my presentation, in which I talk about the rise of voice interfaces to machine learning algorithms that act as personal assistants (a la Siri, Cortana and others), SoundHound drops this bombshell of a demo on the web:

That is ridiculous stuff, right there. But at least it shows I’m not wrong to be paying attention.

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ALA TechSource

Gadgets in the Library Workshop

On two days in May I will be doing a workshop for ALA Techsource called Gadgets in the Library: A Practical Guide to Personal Electronics for Librarians. If you or your library is interested in managing tablets, ereaders, or other gadgets for staff or patron use, and if you’re interested in hearing about where I think gadgets in libraries are going in the next 2-3 years, spend 3 hours with me. I’ll help you get comfortable with gadgets and try to give you options for how to deal with them.

When: May 10th and 24th from 2:30pm until 4pm Eastern time
Where: Online! Listen from your desk?
Who: You! Or if you’ve got a handful of people that are interested, get a discount with the group rate.
Why: Because you want help with managing personal electronics in the library
How: Register here.

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Digital Culture Gadgets

InFocus Mondopad from CES 2012

Some more video from CES 2012, this time a new presentation/smartboard from InFocus with some interesting features, the best of which didn’t make the video. I was told after I stopped filming that the software that drives it can use the Windows web tools/IIS to make the display publicly available to the web…so with just an IP address, you could share everything that was happening on the board to the world. That’s pretty cool!

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Personal presentation

I could go to Australia

I could do these dishes I could try
To do these dishes
I could decide to do these dishes
Time to decide

or i could go to Australia
And carry a bowie knife
and wear my hair like Hepburn parted on the side
and learn card tricks and physics and buy
everyone drinks and take boxing and try
eating things only with chopsticks and finally
be like a person I think you might like

I could do these dishes
I could try to do these dishes.
I could decide to do these dishes
I should decide to do these dishes
Time to DECIDE….

Fuck it
I’m gonna go to Australia

— Australia, by Amanda Fucking Palmer

I am completely thrilled to be able to announce that in February of 2012, I’ll be doing one of the keynotes for the Victorian Association for Library Automation (now more formally called VALA – Libraries, Technology and the Future Inc.) 2012 Conference. While “Victorian Association for Library Automation” sounds a bit like a group of steampunk library cosplayers, it is actually an incredibly forward-thinking organization that helps foster and understand the use of technology in libraries and other information professions.

So come February 6-9, 2012, I’ll be in Melbourne, Australia for the VALA 2012 conference. It will be my first time visiting that particular continent, and I can’t wait to meet with all the great Australian, New Zealand, and other librarians that will be attending.

Categories
Library Issues presentation

5 days, 3 states

In the next 5 days, I’m speaking for two different state conferences that someone out there in bloglandia might be interested in.

First, I’m heading out to Minneapolis, MN for Academic & Research Library Day. I’ll be presenting a keynote tomorrow morning entitled The Everywhere Patron, where I’ll be talking about the expectations of patrons vis a vis personal electronics and services. I’m really excited about the talk…if you’re going to be at ARLD please say hello!

After that, I head over to Stamford, CT for the Connecticut Library Association conference. There, I’ll be doing a presentation on eBooks, both in terms of content, containers, and the challenges for libraries during the transition to digital texts.

If you are at either presentation, come introduce yourself and say hi!

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Books Media presentation

COSLINE 2010 Ebooks Presentation

I had the pleasure of presenting on eBooks to the Council of State Library Agencies of the Northeast recently, and being on vacation this past week has made me later than I wanted at getting my slides online. I had a great time, met some really thoughtful and smart librarians…if this group is the leadership for public libraries in New England, they are in very capable hands.

Here are my slides, for what they are worth. I attempted to do an audio recording of my presentation, but jumping in and out of Keynote makes the timing on it all wonky. I’ll see if I can’t edit it together into something that makes some sense, but that may take some time. For now, here are the slides, sans voice:

COSLINE eBook Workshop

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Books Media Music Personal presentation Technology Video

MSU Libraries Emerging Technology Summit 2010

Here are my slides from the Mississippi State University Libraries Emerging Technologies Summit 2010. They very graciously asked me to keynote the Summit, and I’m hoping that the talk was thought provoking and helped kick off what looks to me a really great day of programming.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I’ll make sure to find the answer!

Mississippi State Emerging Technologies Summit 2010

Categories
mobile presentation

OLITA Digital Odyssey 2010

I had a fabulous time in Toronto with the Ontario Library Information Technology Association over the weekend at their 2010 Digital Odyssey event. In addition to getting to see old friends, I had the opportunity to meet some new ones, and generally meet some amazing librarians. I was really impressed with the quality of presentations that were done at Digital Odyssey.

Here is the keynote I gave on Friday morning…I hope that everyone enjoyed it! I’m working on getting audio of this put together, but it seems that Keynote isn’t happy with me again for some reason. I think I can fix this one, though, so look for audio/video over the next few days.

OLITA: Mobility & Post-mobility

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Personal

Blogging for Nonprofits and Libraries

On Thursday, August 6th, I’ll be taking part in a TechSoup webinar on Blogging for Nonprofits and Libraries, along with Allyson Kapin. It will be at 11AM Pacific/12PM Mountain/1PM Central/2PM Eastern in the US (adjust for your particular global timezone), and I hope that anyone who’s wondering how to get started blogging joins us for a fun discussion!

The webinar is free, and you can sign up here if you are interested.