Recently I had a chance to speak at one of our member institutions about collaborating with social tools. Slides from the talk are now available. Many of the staff spent their lunch break learning how social tools can be used to collaborate with others.

I could tell that many in the room were seeing these tools for the first time. I’m always amused by people’s reactions when they first learn about sites like Twitter and Second Life. It’s not easy to explain the concepts and usefulness in a short amount of time. By focusing on collaboration, however, I was able to give some quick examples of how tools like micro-blogs, wikis, and IM can be used.

OPLIN has a newish blog titled What Does This Mean to Me, Laura? The “Laura” is of course Laura Solomon.

I was recently invited to guest blog about Ultra Low-Cost PCs like the Asus Eee PC.  The post is up now.

Bruce Schneier recently posted a commentary on Wired titled I’ve Seen the Future, and It Has a Kill Switch.  Looks like everyone wants to be able to control everything.

OnStar will soon include the ability for the police to shut off your engine remotely. Buses are getting the same capability, in case terrorists want to re-enact the movie Speed. The Pentagon wants a kill switch installed on airplanes, and is worried about potential enemies installing kill switches on their own equipment.

Microsoft is doing some of the most creative thinking along these lines, with something it’s calling “Digital Manners Policies.” According to its patent application, DMP-enabled devices would accept broadcast “orders” limiting capabilities. Cellphones could be remotely set to vibrate mode in restaurants and concert halls, and be turned off on airplanes and in hospitals. Cameras could be prohibited from taking pictures in locker rooms and museums, and recording equipment could be disabled in theaters. Professors finally could prevent students from texting one another during class.

Somehow I knew Microsoft would be involved in this.  Read on for Bruce’s impressive rant against devices controlling devices.  I’m in 100% agreement with him on this issue.

Libraries might like the idea of being able to silence cellphones entering the building, but there are just too many ways that something like this can be abused.  At least give me the ability to reject these “orders” being sent to my gadgets.  You hear me, Microsoft?

Thanks to Laura Solomon for tweeting this.  Just say NO to DRM!

Last week I got to see Jay Pipes speak at a local PHP users group meeting. He did a 2-part talk on optimizing SQL (Join-Fu, as he calls it). I managed to keep up and follow part 1, but I have to admit that part 2 was largely over my head. Below are some of the key things I took away from Jay’s great presentation.

Vertical Partitioning

Partitioning vertically is a database optimizing technique where tables with many columns are split into multiple, smaller tables.  Without partitioning, even normalized tables may be a mix of frequently and infrequently accessed columns.  This makes it difficult to keep things loaded in memory and can affect overall performance.

By splitting the table in two, you can have a table of frequently accessed columns and a table of less frequently accessed columns.  The tables can be merged together dynamically when needed, but most of the time you will just need the table with the frequently accessed data.  This approach also gives you the option of using different table types (storage engines) for each of the tables.  Of course, it’s probably easiest to implement vertical partitioning at the beginning of your project instead of coming back and making changes to the database structure later.

Horizontal Partitioning

Partitioning horizontally is a similar concept except that the table is split by rows rather than columns.  This works well when certain rows are accessed more frequently than others.  Depending on the size of the database, having a table of more frequently accessed rows can really speed things up.

The events registration system I created at MPOW can potentially benefit from this.  We have over 10,000 registrations in the system, but most of those are for past events that we rarely need to access.  Having a table of 100-200 registrations for upcoming events and a separate table for the thousands of past event registrations would probably provide a noticeable performance increase.

Query Cache

MySQL has a query cache that it uses to increase performance.  If a particular query has already been run on the database, MySQL can return the cached result instead of having to parse it, optimize it, etc.  I was already familiar with the query cache and we use it MPOW.  However, I learned a couple of new tidbits from Jay:

• “Any modification to any table involved in the SELECT invalidates the stored result.”  I guess I already knew this.  What’s cool, however, is that partitioning your tables properly can reduce this.  Making a change to a table containing upcoming event registrations would not affect the cache for the table containing past event registrations.
• Don’t use InnoDB tables when there are more than 5000 rows and you’re doing full table scans.  It’s slooooow.  Use MyISAM table types instead.
• If you are doing a SELECT on tables that change frequently, there is no point in storing the result in cache because it will soon be invalid.  Use SELECT SQL_NO_CACHE to prevent MySQL from storing highly dynamic results and filling up the cache.
• MEMORY table types are fast and good for data that can be thrown away or re-computed again.

ANSI vs. Theta Coding Style

Jay put two different versions of a SELECT statement up on the screen and asked the group which style they used.  One style used INNER JOINs (ANSI style) and the other used WHERE and AND clauses (Theta style or comma style).  I think most of the room (including me) raised our hands for the latter.  Jay made some good points about ANSI being easier to read and more portable.  I need to force myself to try ANSI and get used to it.  Theta style, however, is very natural for me and I suspect it will be hard for me to change.

The slides from Jay’s talk (including part 2) are up on his website.

I’ve previously mentioned my preference for content management systems over traditional websites.  We use Drupal at MPOW and it allows almost everyone in our office to easily contribute to our site.

Drupal is also becoming a popular choice for libraries and now the New York Public Library is joining the party.  Josh Greenberg recently posted on NYPL Labs that they are in the process of moving their site to Drupal.  It’s not only an informative post about Drupal, but also a cool look at the process that NYPL is going through to rebuild their site in a CMS.  Looks like it will be a good fit for them.

I gotta say that having a “behind the scenes” blog is an awesome idea.  It can give the public more of a connection to the library while also keeping the rest of the staff informed.

A group of people in New Mexico claim that they are “allergic” to WiFi signals. They are trying to get WiFi removed from all public buildings and guess where they are starting? Libraries.

So that’s why people aren’t going libraries! They don’t get headaches from trying to figure out our catalogs or navigate our poorly designed sites. It’s the free WiFi! Maybe libraries should pass out tin-foil hats. Or would that just amplify the signal?

As crazy as this sounds, there are many people who claim to be electro-sensitive. My question for this group is why focus on WiFi? There have been tons of other signals bombarding us for decades. And if there really is something in the 2.4GHz range that affects people, why should this be treated differently than any other allergen? Should we remove all other sources of pollen and dander in cities? Seriously, many people suffer from and have to manage their allergies. Why would a WiFi allergy be any different?

Before these people start attacking libraries for providing a free, needed service, they should check their own neighborhood. I bet a few of their neighbors are leaking some sickening WiFi from their homes.

Google recently unveiled Google Doctype. It’s an online encyclopedia for web developers. Many aspect of development are covered such as CSS, Javascript, security, and performance.

Google Doctype is basically like Wikipedia for web development. Anyone with a Google account can add content. So the site will get better as more people contribute. I’ve spent some time browsing around the resource, but of course since this is from Google you can search as well.

My only issue so far with the site is that I haven’t found any RSS feeds for different sections. It would be nice to be able to subscribe to updates and changes, but this is a beta release so maybe that will be available down the road.

The Free Software Foundation has an ongoing campaign against Digital Rights Management. They promote their cause over at defectivebydesign.org and I think it’s generally a good site to learn about DRM and how it is restricting digital freedoms. Recently, the group held a protest at the Boston Public Library where they demanded that libraries drop DRM from their digital content. They are also going beyond Boston and pushing an open letter to libraries to remove DRM.

Now I dislike DRM just as much as the next person. In fact, I probably dislike it more than most people. I understand that it makes content unnecessarily difficult to access and leaves out people without access to certain software or hardware. But the sad truth is that libraries don’t really have much choice. DRM is put in place by the vendors and if libraries boycotted those companies they wouldn’t have much digital content to offer their users.

We’ve seen the retail sector start to move away from DRM with vendors offering unprotected music and such. We are also starting to see library vendors offer DRM-free content. So we are hopefully seeing the beginnings of a trend away from locked-down content. There’s still a long way to go and it’s not going to happen over night. Baby steps.

So while I appreciate all that the Free Software Foundation does, demanding that libraries drop DRM now is just not feasible. Our users want popular, digital content and libraries need to provide it if they want to stay relevant. Should users complain to libraries about DRM? Sure. Should libraries complain to their vendors about it? Definitely. Boycotting digital content, however, is just not an option.

Last night I had an opportunity to speak at a CO-ASIS&T event at Columbus Metropolitan Library. I spent the hour sharing some tips and tricks for getting better results from Google.

You can find the slides on Google Docs. Thanks to everyone for the great questions and discussion! I hope to make it back to Columbus for some more CO-ASIS&T programs.

At the Computers in Libraries Conference, I got a chance to hear Ellyssa Kroski speak about the open source Drupal content management system and how libraries are using it. Her slides (with audio!) are below. It’s a great resource with examples, modules, and links for libraries using or thinking of using Drupal. SWON Libraries even gets a mention on slide 58!

Last week Ohio Library Council’s IT Division held its annual bootcamp. I spent the afternoon talking about gadgets in libraries. Slides from my talk are now available.

Today I’m presenting in the Open Source track at Computers in Libraries 2008. The slides are available to view or print on Google Docs. I discuss the ways that libraries are giving back to the open source community.

Update: The slides can also be found on SlideShare.

E201 - Innovation Starts with “I”

Helene Blowers, Director, Digital Strategy
Columbus Metropolitan Library

Tony Tallent, Director of Youth & Outreach Services
Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County (PLCMC)

Are you the jelly, the sandwich, or the cellophane?

Talking about ingredients today

• Process improvement
• Thinking outside the box

Innovation is and intersections of ideas

• It is about doing new things
• Putting it into action

Book: The Seeds of Innovation by Elaine Dundon

What do your want? What do you need?

• Efficiency
• Evolutionary
• Revolutionary

Innovation is about doing new things and making them fresh

4 components of “I”

• creativity
• strategy
• implementation
• profitability

I am an innovator

• I have ideas
• I have done my homework
• I’ll do the initial legwork
• I am capable of more that my job description
• I am a leader, too
• I take risks with you
• I offer you a framework
• I put resources behind my expectations
• I create growth opportunities
• I SUPPORT your work
• I celebrate your success
• I take risks with you

Know your ingredients… then blend well.

Plant seeds – sprinkling your organization with ideas

• you may create some wild success

Strategy = change agent

• propose
• plan
• implement

Make it believable

• Mission
• Vision
• Values
• Tell a story about how someone’s life will be changed by this

Create alliances

• get people on your side

Test drive your ideas

• prototype it
• Can’t just say “it’s really cool”
• Give it a test run
• your branches are test labs

Don’t ask for permission – ask for support

Never sell your ideas on paper

• sell your vision personally

What does innovation or wild success look like to you?

• happiness
• crazy
• magic
• panic?
• NOT business as usual

If your not having failures, you’re not being innovative enough

7 habits of highly innovative people

1. Persistence
2. Remove self-limiting inhibitions
3. Take risks, make mistakes
4. Escape
5. Write things down
6. Find patterns & create connections
7. Stay curious

Darlene Fichter
Data Librarian
University of Saskatchewan

Frank Cervone
Director - Library, Information, and Media Studies
Chicago State University

Firefox: www.SafeCache.com (defends against cache-based tracking)

Firefox: www.SafeHistory.com (protects history privacy)

Firefox: FoxMarks (auto syncs bookmarks)

Firefox: FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extenstion)

• sync/backup extensions and settings between computers

meebome.com

• embed a chat window on your website

LinkBun.ch

• put multiple links into one small link

www.docsyncer.com

• automatically finds and syncs your docs to Google Docs
• Windows, Mac, and Linux?
• syncs *everything*

www.twhirl.org

• desktop client for twitter

polldaddy.com

• fast/easy way to put an opinion poll on your website

www.VisCheck.com/vischeck

• simulation of human vision
• online service or downloadable
• check for color blindess

www.Feng-GUI.com

• automatic alternative to eye-tracking
• creates heatmaps

Browsershots.com

• create screenshots in different browsers

Flickr.com/badge.gne

• create a widget of photos to put on your web page
• Libraries need to be more visual

www.photoshop.com/express

• free, online version of PhotoShop
• Tutorial on YouTube

AddThis.com

• Put bookmark buttons on your web pages
• Give you statistics

Google Gadgets

• http://urltea.com/32m0

www.altavista.com/help/free/free_searchbox_transl

Google Translate

ProcessTamer

• www.majorgeeks.com/Process_Tamer_d4651.html
• Give priority to applications running on your PC

www.mogware.com/FileHamster

• real-time backup of files on your hard drive
• automatic incremental backups

Syncback Freeware

• www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html
• backup all files with a single click

LinkExtractor

Moving large files

• mailbigfile.com
• zUpload.com
• pando
• yousendit
• MediaFire

recaptcha.net

anaonymouse.org

• private surfing
• check if something is accessible from outside your IP range

Prism

• labs.mozilla.com/2007/10/prism/
• run web applications as if they are desktop apps

More places

• widgetbox.com
• Google Gadgets

Will be available on slideshare

lolinator.com