Jenny Levine: Blogging

"Glenn recaps his Google analysis (which was very well done). What I would like to see is a Google product that combined external search (what they currently do), search of the corporate LAN, and desktop search. Put one keyword in and get multiple folders of results -- Web pages and images (they can leave out groups and especially that sub-par open directory project -- I would substitute K-Logs and Wiki-Wiki)." [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

Another "me, too" post on my part. As I continue investigating portal solutions for SLS, it's become painfully clear that no one product is going to do everything I want and/or need it to do. So now I'm approaching this as a puzzle for which I have to find the right pieces, figure out how they go together, and make them into a coherent whole. All for a price a Library System can afford, without exorbitant consulting fees because dammit Jim, we're not programmers. If the Google product described above was available, I would have given it serious consideration as one piece of the puzzle. And while I don't feel the need to include Wikis at this point, I desperately want to figure out how to add K-logging to the equation.

I think I got Paul hooked.

Chris Pirillo has posted a Blogger's Manifesto, which I'm sure he worked on with his wife, Gretchen. Both blogs (actually, all of Chris' sites, too) make great reads, so I highly recommend them. They're in my RSS feed, but I should really have them listed in my blogiography, too. Time to change that. Eventually I'll list everything I subscribe to so you can play along at home.

Here's a good offset to the rotten NBC coverage of the Olympics - it's the CSMonitor's Winter Olympics 2002 blog! I want to read all of the links about last night's figure skating controversy since the rest of the coverage I've seen this morning has been sparse at best.

I haven't visited Kottke in a few days (bad Jenny!), so I'm overwhelmed by new things to read and play with from his site. A sampling:

Developing a personal schema/taxonomy - me, too!
Line from an upcoming dot com movie starring Tom Cruise: You had me at "Hello, world." (I know, I know, you're not laughing because it's not that funny, but this *killed* at lunch the other day. Killed!)
James Gleick's forthcoming book
The Nutshell toolbar - I'm installing this at work and at home
Why I read Kottke

Zhikr.org is too interesting for me to write a one-sentence summary. Looks like good stuff on the Net Generation and on Islam. Must read tonight. [via Kottke.org]

"Here's an aha! (A mind bomb(?), at least for me!) Dane Carlson has figured out a way to find (with Google) sites that offer RSS feeds. As I understand it these are the sites that Radio users can add to their news aggregator. I'll be experimenting with this." [Steve Pilgrim's Radio Weblog]

See what I mean about Google? And BTW, if you're a Radio newbie like me, Steve's blog is must-see reading because he's asking all of the questions I haven't had time to ask. More importantly, he's getting answers.

A Matter of Trust: "Blogging should be mandatory for every CEO. Screw insider trading disclosure, open up the walls that shrould Fortune's top 500 in secrecy. For never again will I trust the words of an analyst, accountant or spokeperson. if it doesn't come from the horses mouth, it just doesn't cut the mustard." [CurryDotCom]

For those of you non-librarians out there - and actually for you librarians, too - here's the thing. You do trust libraries, even if you haven't used one in a while. Librarians have a built-in trust with the public because of the great service we provide (I'm talking customer service here), the great service we provide (I'm talking housing, organizing, and disseminating information here), and the great service we provide (I'm talking the consistency day in and day out - we're still here, what about all of the .coms that were going to replace us?).

If you go to the Librarians' Index to the Internet, you inherently know you can trust what they present to you. Actually, don't go there, and just think about what the title tells you. You can't count on companies, politicians, or the media anymore, but you can still count on us. Just try and find someone who has never once used a library as a child, a student, a parent, a person. Go on. I dare you.

So if you haven't used a library in a while, come on back. You'll be surprised what we have to offer (still). And librarians, let's build on that trust that's been sitting in the back seat and continue asserting ourselves in our domain - information. We need to get our message out to the masses that we're still here - better than every, thank you very much - and you can still trust us.

Doc says: Passing notes in the class of life
Just one more answer to the "What are blogs for?" question. [Doc Searls Weblog]

Paul, you install the Radio software on one machine where you have broadband access, either at home or at work. As long as you can get to the machine's IP address, you can set up Radio to access it remotely, including the news aggregator. I have Radio running on my home machine because my ISP is AT&T Broadband, and then I access it from work over the Web. That's how I was able to show you everything on Friday at ICC.

And yes, the news aggregator is just too damn cool! Keep the questions coming!

Okay, it's time for me to start figuring out how to send an end-of-the-day email to a list of subscribers so you don't have to keep visiting my site every day if you don't want to. I know I could create a list at Yahoo Groups or Topica, or I could use something like NotifyList, but I'm really looking to automate this process. I think Dave has automated this, but I don't know how. Maybe it's something in Manila and/or Frontier, but most likely it's something he's programmed. Dave, what's your secret?

So does anyone have any advice for the best route here?

"Lawrence wrote a howto for moving content from Blogger and Movable Type into Radio 8. This is still a new art, so if you're not an early adopter, let other people pave the path for you. A few have already made it across." [via Scripting News]

So Lori, if you decide to give Radio a try, you wouldn't lose all of your previous posts. Good to know!

Web Journals by Pros Are a Font of Insight "Tech 'bloggers' (that's really what they call themselves) are most often industry pros who keep their Weblog as a hobby-something to do at 2:40 a.m. While some of the sites offer straight tech news, most are sprinkled with a lot of personality, authoritative firsthand information, and fresh insights. With so many tech magazines out of business (we're not naming names), these e-newsletters, once solely for tech heads, are becoming mandatory information sources for the mainstream." [at Fortune, via Scripting News]

This is what I was trying to say on the ILA RTSF list last week. I don't really read tech magazines anymore, and while I have a core set of mailing lists to which I'm subscribed, I get most of my news, tech tips, and insights from blogs now.

This is part of a larger phenomenon I've noticed in my life that I plan to write an essay about soon.

The top 25 meme producers are as follows... "The traditional assessment of the dissemination of information assumes that people fall into adopter categories. These classes of innovativeness have become popular parts of our vernacular: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards.... I've started using another measure in its place, the number of memes originating with an individual. Instead of biasing originality on consistency, this value relates the propensity of an individual to find and curate powerful ideas." [at Overstated, via Scripting News]

So then what is the Tipping Point for memes on the Net? This list is a who's who of online connectors and mavens. Blake, I'll get back to you about the Shift list, but maybe this is another way of looking at it. Who are the top meme producers in libraryland, and how different is the list between print meme producers and online meme producers? Do the memes cross media and if so, how long does it take?

Buzz Bruggeman: Blog Rot! or How Not To Play in the NBA.... [via Doc Searls]"One of the incidental benefits of pitching software to smart people is that you have to elevate your game!"

I'm adding this phrase to my canon. At SLS, I think of myself as an "idea" person or Malcolm Gladwell's "information maven." When I get one of my "big ideas," folks roll their eyes but they listen because I'm "elevating my game."

"I read about a dozen different blogs a day, and do so 2-3 times a day depending on how the spirit moves me.... Now for the bad news, some of these really smart people and great writers fall victim to 'Blog Rot', which I define as not staying in the game and offering up great stuff on a daily basis. Perhaps they have day jobs, but if they want to play in the 'NBA' or National Bloggers Association, Blog Rot can't be part of their game."

Sure blog rot is bad, but anyone who posts daily can't possibly "elevate their game" every day. Nobody can be "on" 24/7. There will be days when I do other things and the blog is third or fourth on my list (at best). Them's the breaks, and I do have a life after all. Buzz, do you pitch software at that elevation every day, or just when you're selling?

Buzz would probably enjoy Dan Pink's Just One Thing blog - a "mini-me-zine" of just one thing each day. [also via Doc Searls]

And BTW, the Duke Blue Devils are NOT America's team. :-)

Okay, here's what happened. Yesterday I was listed in the What's New list for the Librarians' Index to the Internet. Normally I get around 150 hits a day, but yesterday it jumped to around 1900, most of which probably came from the LII. Now that's the power of librarians!

Can't... stop... blogging.... But I r-e-a-l-l-y have to go now. I hope these links tide you over, because I probably won't be able to blog anything until Saturday.

Blogging is very addictive. When I did the LSdJ, I used to be able to comfortably take off a day or a week and not worry about what I was missing. Maybe that's partially due to the explosion of content since those early days, but I'm really going to miss my Radio News Aggregator tonight and tomorrow. Sniff, sniff. I'll be back soon, little guy.

Okay, must go halfway across the State now. Have a good one.

Second Meryl link of note: Making the Move to Movable Type. Here she dissects the MT blogging software, which I was two seconds away from trying to install when I decided to try Radio first. Looking at her Software Reviews, you'll be pleasantly surprised to see a review of - you guessed it - Radio! These two reviews will provide an excellent starting point for the ILA RTSF meeting at the end of the month. Now all we need is a comparable review of GreyMatter and Blogger (Lite and Pro). Anybody know of one? Anybody have a third-party review of other blogging software?

For those of you using the Movable Type blogging software, Meryl shows you how to make it available for PDA readers.

Whoo-hoo! I've got email to the blog working. I don't think I'll use this very often for the blog itself, but it does open up possibilities for my own knowledge management situation. I could post important emails that I want access to from anywhere in a special "category" that isn't public. I think. Alan Reiter sees potential for wireless posting to blogs via email rather than the Web once we have access to high-bandwidth cellular networks.

Project Weblogs. "My class and I spent yesterday morning creating 18 project weblogs. The students are in the process of creating their navigation links that correspond to the chapters of their projects." [in WeblogsInEducation, via CurryDotCom]

How cool is this - blogging a project on Chopin! I'll tell you... these kids today.... When I was a kid, we had to actually type our papers on a typewriter, and we walked ten miles through the snow to hand them in, and it was uphill, too. Both ways.

K-Logs in action. Looks like Paolo is building feed directories and key word aggregators for his employees at eVectors who are using Radio. Nice. Notice the use of category-based publishing with Radio that enables users to create project or customer specific knowledge streams. Also note the "lighter side feed" for employees to have a little fun. As a new employee it would take all of a couple of hours to find, read, and subscribe to the category specific K-Logs that related to the projects I would be working on. No time spent casting about looking for information, points of view, documents, e-mails, etc on those projects. Wow! Real ROI out of the box. I should probably do some calculations on this. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

This is exactly what I want to do at SLS and then broaden to the other 11 Illinois Library Systems and the Illinois State Library. Dave, how much is a Radio site license for the State of Illinois? :-)

Snowdeal.org is exploring John Robb's ideas about k-logging (knowledge management blogging) and personal brands. In my organization, most people don't care about branding themselves or being leaders, but I think blogging librarians are good evidence of this trend in our field. We know how to niche and despite the refusal of others to recognize it, we use humor and some good names to shape the thoughts we express and the information we share. Examples: The Rogue Librarian, The Laughing Librarian, Librarian.net, New Breed Librarian. All have been successful at infusing their blogs with their personalities, thus becoming a brand online, even if that wasn't their intent. [original link via John Robb]

Cool - I used YACCS to set up comments on my site. Disadvantages: it uses Javascript, so if you have that disabled, you won't be able to post comments, and it launches in a pop-up window. Advantages: I don't have to learn programming, you get to sound off on my ideas, and it's free. I think it's a decent trade-off, at least for now. Nice service, Hossein!

Here's my addition to the Blogsticker collection: