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Google Announces Settlement with Publishers

Google just announced that they have reached a settlement on a three-year-old class action suit filed by the The Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers, and other independent authors and publishers. I haven't had a chance to read through all the details, but Google is calling it a "groundbreaking settlement." Jessamyn West (librarian, consultant, metafilter.com moderator, library hero, etc...) has compiled a short list of resources and Dan Cohen (Director, Center for History and New Media) offered up some first impressions. Expect more here on the subject in the near future.

Virtually Attending Conferences on a Recession-Weary Budget

A couple days ago, I wrote about how I was following my colleagues at conferences via Twitter and FriendFeed. It's not only entertaining to read folks' tweets about the conference, but I also gleaned some of the better soundbites and take-away points without having to sit in a hotel conference room all day.

Today I wanted to follow-up with some additional resources that I've tracked down to help keep pace with the conversations happening at these conferences. Here are just a few:

O'Reilly's Web2.0Expo: looked like a three-day party here in NYC in September, but there's a goldmine of presentation videos and slides archived on their site.

Internet Librarian 2008: was all the way across the country in Monterey, CA, but the conference wiki provides access to speaker files, and other resources in a section titled "Tracking the Conference."

LITA 2008: put a small army of bloggers to work reviewing sessions at their annual forum. The result? Depending on how quickly you read, an entire three-day conference can be consumed in a little more than an hour.

I know that conferences are more than 50% about networking and getting some face-time with our peers and mentors. That's a given. But the simple fact is that until we've perfected the technology to accurately simulate the conference experience virtually, we're going to have to pick-and-choose which events get the best bang for our buck.

Monterey and Cleveland via Twitter and FriendFeed

I didn't make the trip to Internet Librarian 2008. While recent cold snap in NYC and a seeming exodus of so many of my online librarian friends to Monterey are making me wish I was in California, I'm living vicariously through Twitter and FriendFeed. Mind you, not all of the conversation is going to be the erudite, on-topic discussion you'd be getting if you were actually there to add your voice to the conversation. You'll be treated to comments about people's happy hour spots, dinner choices, and the usual Twitter static, but there's plenty to take away from the rest. Head to the conference in your browser by pointing it to the FriendFeed room or at Twitter.

But don't stop there! Several librarians (at least one from NY that I know of) are tweeting from the Public Library Association Boot Camp in Cleveland. Follow them here. Any other conferences we should be following right now? Share in the comments below. 

1-2-3-4! Must-Listen Podcasts for Tech-Curious/Savvy Librarians

I was sitting in a meeting a few weeks ago, and a colleague mentioned his jam-packed schedule. He talked about that 30-minute commute as the only time when he could actually focus on reading an article or catching up on a podcast. For me, podcasts are both a source of entertainment and information -- and sometimes both. While the average person supposedly watches upwards of 20 hours of television each week, I get pretty close to clocking that much time with my podcasts. With that in mind, I wanted to single out a couple that I think are particularly useful for those of us trying to make sense of new technologies in the context of our libraries and the patrons/students/communities we serve. Each of these podcasts is accessible enough to be a useful introduction to a lot of issues while also being sufficiently rigorous enough to promote interesting conversation.

Digital Campus: released bi-weekly, this podcast is a project of the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. The show features "discussion of how digital media and technology are affecting learning, teaching, and scholarship at colleges, universities, libraries, and museums." It's first on this list, because it's consistently solid.

TechTherapy: Produced by the Chronicle of Higher Education's Scott Carlson with tech consultant Warren Arborgast, TechTherapy covers technology triumphs and tribulations on college campuses. Recent episodes have covered technology costs, green IT, hiring a CIO, and more.

First Monday: First Monday Podcast, a project of one of the first peer-reviewed journals on the internet, celebrated its one-year anniversary recently. FM Podcast takes a monthly swing at "feature stories on all aspects of the Internet examining the trends and standards, technical issues, educational uses and political and social implications of the Internet." More than just a mouthpiece for the authors published in each issue, FM Podcast benefits from hosts Joy Austria's and AJ Hannah's keen awareness of the issues and ability to engage their guests on a critical level.

MediaBerkman: A project of Berkman Center for Internet and Sociey at Harvard Law School, this podcast features "conversations with and talks by leading cyber-scholars, entrepreneurs, activists, and policymakers as they explore topics such as the factors that influence knowledge creation and dissemination in the digital age; the character of power as the worlds of governance, business, citizenship and the media meet the internet; and the opportunities, role and limitations of new technologies in learning." This is a recent addition to my playlist, and it looks like the feed has been a little slow over the summer. Catch up on back episodes while we wait for new installments.

Any others I'm missing? Leave links in the comments.

Wednesday Workhack: Lose the Memory Stick

The memory stick was an invaluable addition to peripheral marketplace that made it possible for us to forget about floppy discs and forgo burning a CD of that presentation for the big meeting. Cheap memory and the need for every accessory to "say something about who I am" has led to the creation of cute and not-so-cute memory stick iterations that are limited only by the imaginations of folks looking to cash in.

But what happens when you lose the memory stick? When you drop it on the sidewalk and accidentally step on it ?(I've done this) When you accidentally use it to stir your coffee on one of "those" mornings? (I have not done this). Depending on the kind of information you keep on it, the memory stick is a liability -- and it's a pain to carry around. There are a number of ways to untether yourself from the memory stick and more efficiently manage your information. Today we'll look at a couple.

Dropbox, a relatively new service that is still in beta, offers convenient cross-platform, cross-computer file-syncing with a relatively low barrier of entry. Just download the desktop application to the machines you want to use Dropbox with and add files to your Dropbox folder. When you make changes to the files in the Dropbox folder, they are instantly updated on other machines. While the files and folders are accessible to only you, Dropbox also has a public folder that allows you to share files with friends via unique URLS. Additionally, you can share complete folders with other Dropbox users. The best part, in my opinion, is that Dropbox allows you to access your files via the web in addition to the local desktop application. You can also use the web interface to recover files that you deleted on local machines. Watch all the bells and whistles in this short video. Because Dropbox is in beta still, you need an invite to join. If you're interested, email me, and I'll share one of my invites.

The Dropbox model seems to be a value-added approach to the fairly robust file-hosting services that have sprouted up everywhere in the last couple of years. These services allow you to upload files from your local computer and download them from the web on any other computer using a unique URL assigned to the resource. Many of them offer both free option (with a limit to the file size and number of files you may upload) as well as a premium service that affords space for bigger files, more files, and faster upload and download speeds. Some of the most popular are Mediafire, Rapidshare, Badongo, and zSHARE-- and I'm sure a couple more came on the scene as I'm typing this. Need a powerpoint on a regular basis and you don't want to keep emailing it to yourself? Upload it to Mediafire and download it anytime and anywhere you need to access it.