Emerging Technologies Committee @ FPL

Emancipation Proclamation

Those who keep the library chained to Microsoft's Internet Explorer may have to rethink their resistance to change as Firefox 3 begins to spread. The software is available for downloads to developers only at this time, but by the time the consumer version becomes available, the library needs to fairly compare Firefox with Explorer and have the freedom to give the nod to the browser that is best for library patrons.

Happy Belated Birthday XML

Ten years ago, XML (Extensible Markup Language) made its first apperance and I agree with Stephen Abrams of SirsiDynix that "the invention of XML was one of the most transformational events in the history of the electronic world." As soon as the library learns how to use this language, our web presence could take a couple of quantum leaps. What is so neat about XML for libraries is that it allows the sharing of structured data across different information systems, e.g. between web site and  catalog!

Is WiFi spreading or not?

I'm sad to note that an effort to start citywide WiFi is coming to an end. Fortunately, Starbucks--which has a presence in just about every city--is starting a free WiFi service.

For the library, emulating the concept of limiting WiFi access to two hours daily to card holders is worth consideration.

Fiddle with Google

the folks at Google continuously work on upgrades of all aspects of their product, and they offer us a chance to try out some different ways of searching. Joining this experiment is easy, as is reading an opinion about this initiative.

The State of ICT

As I have noted before, the United States continues to lag in the diffusion of Information and Communication Technology, a situation illustrated by UNCTAD's latest report. On the one hand, the report's statistics may strike some as shocking, but on the other hand, they put the ICT state of affairs at FPL into perspective. In other words, I think, all things considered, we're using Information and Communication Technology quite well.

Freudian Slip

What is it about Facebook? Italics are mine:

"Liad Agmon, CEO of Delver, says that the site connects information about a user's social network with Web search results, "so you are searching the Web through the prism of your social graph." He explains that a person begins a search at Delver by typing in her name. Delver then crawls social-networking websites for widely available data about the user--such as a public LinkedIn profile--and builds a network of associated institutions and individuals based on that information. When the user enters a search query, results related to, produced by, or tagged by members of her social network are given priority. Lower down are results from people implicitly connected to the user, such as those relating to friends of friends, or people who attended the same college as the user. Finally, there may be some general results from the Web at the bottom. The consequence, says Agmon, is that each user gets a different set of results from a given query, and a set quite different from those delivered by Google."

I find the concept described in this story, published in MIT's Technology Review, highly suspect as the search results seem to be guided by the user's view of the world. This is akin to a reader asking for a book recommendation limited to books her friends have already read.

Small and Nimble

At the January 22 meeting of the ETC we decided to make same changes.

• In order to improve the quality and speed of our output, the number of cooks has been reduced to:
  • Maureen Gebelein
  • Andrea Taylor
  • Janine Jacobs
  • Mark Masterson
  • Sandy Lamoureux
  • Ed Maurer, Chair
• Our list of items has been updated. It can be viewed at this location: S:\Common\ETC\ETC.xls. New items on this list include:
  • Calendar with booking/reservation capabilities
  • ILL online via OCLC
  • Library blogs for the public
  • Fax machine for public use
• Progress reports will appear here.

This blog is recommended reading for all and sundry interested in emerging technologies that may affect the Fullerton Public Library.

Wireless on a Roll

Two developments to watch this week that are way more fun than the vagaries of the stock markets:

• Thursday’s FCC 700MHz Auction 73 involves the frequencies freed up when TV goes all digital in 2009. Amongst the over 200 bidders are the usual telecom suspects as well as Google, and as soon as this spectrum has found new owners, the race will be on to create entirely new and comprehensive WiFi networks. If Google gets into this business, I bet they will apply their standard business model and provide access for free so that they can offer additional gazillions of eyeballs to their advertisers.
• The evolutionary path of cellphones clearly--IMHO--leads toward a device that accomplishes what today's laptop does. For that, the screen, among other things, has got to get larger as in this device:
  

Analog TV will follow the dinosaur in 2009 to be followed by an exciting new WiFi whose nature we can only imagine, but I speculate that it will have a huge and rapid impact on the way people deal with information and documents.

TV/Computer Convergence

But wait --there's more!

Plenty more in the form of Apple TV and all that means. Rather than regurgitating what I read in Bits, read the post.

TV/Computer Convergence Hic Et Nunc

During November 2007, 138 million people, or about three-quarters of Internet users in the US, watched on average 3 hours and 15 minutes of online video states Miguel Helft in Bits, the New York Times' technology blog. The participation in streaming videos is the highest in France according to a survey conducted in April 2007 by ComScore: “With almost 8 out of 10 people initiating a stream in France, video streaming is clearly mainstream, with a user base that is comparable to search, email and shopping,” stated Delphine Gatignol, business development manager for comScore France.  “What is particularly striking is that French Internet users tend to spend a greater proportion of their total time online viewing streaming video compared to the other countries examined in the study.” This embrace of streaming video may be influenced by the generally better broadband speeds in France.

Clearly hoping to cash in on the trend toward streaming video--a.k.a. Internet TV--is the new KoldCast TV to be launched in Irvine this month. In an article in the Irvine World News Brian Samuels, one of the bright young folks at the nascent network, says that "a lot of my friends have no cable box. They just watch TV on the Internet." This seems to be particularly so as the younger generation is too busy to have time for 'long' feature presentations--they prefer short clips. Another Samuels statement caught my eye: "Dowloads are all but dead, they're a diminishing business model. There's no reason to buy them. Why store it if you can stream it?" We'll see how this works out, but something is definitely going on here; just look at the growing list of Internet TV offerings.

What's missing is an ALA channel with news about authors, books and library happenings. We could add the ALA channel to our web site to make things a bit livelier. Of course, FPL could produce video clips and post them on YouTube, Google's ubiquitous online video property, and embed them on the web site.