I don't have much else to add to this except to echo Ryan's thoughts. Pardon the pun, but this rolls into one "device" much of what I talk about in my presentations - constant information feeds (RSS style), The Heavenly Jukebox, mobile labs (OQO + VKB + roll up monitor), etc.

Notice, though, that Ryan doesn't mention libraries anywhere in his speculations. And why should he? Have we proven ourselves yet that we're ready for this brave new world of digital content, delivery, and preservation? We need to make sure we stay in the dissemination and distribution loop so that we can serve patrons (like Ryan) with these types of devices.

As a whiplash turn to make the point, witness the lack of understanding about the role librarians can and will play in a society drowning in information. Even Tom Peters doesn't get it:

"Round two of the revolution is underway. We have a term for job positions occupied by travel agents, stockbrokers, bank tellers, librarians, receptionists, reservationists, and many customer-service oriented jobs--Toast! Not crunchy, cooked-just-right toast. We are talking about burned to the crisp and then left on the counter for three days toast. The kind of toast that leaves a thin layer of toast sweat on the counter. Toast that’s only palatable if you soak it in milk for an hour, plug your nose and swallow." [People & Places that Rock, link courtesy of Simon Chamberlain]

[The Shifted Librarian]

Hey, I did leave libraries out of that. Libraries are going to be more important than ever, and I can forsee users being able to access them and get information from them without stepping through the doors. How?

1. Wireless access. I go to the site for my local library, login, and fill in a questionairre about the information that I am looking for. They are probably using a finely tuned Library AIMbot (LAB) for this part of the interview. Once that is complete, I'll start getting basic data fed to my system, most likely a synopsis of the information via a custom RSS feed that the library runs to my account. If I need more information, I can tune the results I want by weighting the articles that I am sent (1-10 scale, 10 being the best).
2. Walking through the door. I walk in, and get greeted by a live human, or use a research kiosk where I enter keywords and phrases, author names, etc, all in an effort to get as much information as possible. While I should be able to do this from the net as well, the AIMbot insures that I am getting as specific with my search as possible, and actually conducts an interview, as opposed to just googling for results. I can then go and sit down at a display equipped table (which they should all be), and sift through the data, looking through the data and sorting it according it's usefulness to me.
3. Phone. VoiceML combined with your AIMbot above would make for a wonderful combination, assuming that the system can handle a wide variety of accents and impediments in the users speech. Since you would log on over the phone for any inquiries beyond the basics (Hours, events schedule) the system could then email or again RSS feed you abstracts of your own results. This would be great for people on the go who need to learn about a specific topic quickly.
   Scenario: A Real Estate Agent (RA) is in a new town, and wants to check his library to see if there are any EPA superfund sites in the area, or if there has been any heavy industry that may have contaminated the soil.
   
   RA:  I need to do some research on Townsville.
   LAB: What do you need to know?
   RA: Is there any history of contamination, chemical spills, or heavy industry polluting in the area, or any nearby superfund sites?
   LAB: Is there a time frame you want me to look within?
   RA: Anything at all please.
   LAB: Let me check, (Search parameters: Townsville, contamination, superfund, EPA [this gets thrown in because of the context], pollution, chemical spills)
   LAB: Looking. (10 second pause)
   LAB: Still looking.
   RA: Can you email me the results?
   LAB: Certainly, please confirm your email address. You are REA@famousagency.com?
   RA: Correct.
   LAB: I will send you the results within the next hour. Thank you for your patronage!
4. Lastly, there is the issue of having books available electronically. This is a hot button issue in publishing with authors, publishers, and and users all having differing opinions. I'm not going to get into that here, but I would love to be able to read all the books I own anytime, any where, ina any format I choose. I would love to be able to download books I own to the device of my choice. Lastly, I dream that one day, I will subscribe to a magazine and get a special annual archive edition that has all the articles of the year (as well as some bonus material) in a format that I can store, search, and index locally, obviating the need for me to keep huge stacks of paper. Simply load the contents onto a server in my home, and it gets indexed, noted and kept for as long as I please.

Now, as to Tom Peters, he's out of his head. Librarians play a vital role, as do all of the above people he's mentioned as the front line between users and the information they want. While their postions can be automated, and portions of what they do will likely be automated, there should always be a human on the end of the line for someone to talk to. Computers can't give you a discount of you've been getting horrible service from a company, or make the judgement call to cancel a late fee because your child just broke her arm and you haven't been able to make it into the store to return a film.

It appears that his point is more to the idea that a database can do what humans used to (pushing bits of data about)  far more efficiently. But who is going to write that database, and maintain it? A DBA? Which is just basically a librarian who moves bits not books.

9:20:13 AM    

Very cool. While AI bots for chat have been around for a while, this onw puts a flash based face on the bot, and has a decent form of voice synthesis going on. If the tech is compact enough, run it on your Pocket PC or Clie. Now you've got a wireless stream for data that you can hit for answers, as well as get information from all in real time, and by listening.

I imagine you could have different vocies/faces for differing situations, so that you can then have emergency alerts sound different from an email notification.    

Bot Mots.

Lori found some interesting chat mates:

"Meet Julia, the bot, at http://www.verbots.com. She is an interactive virtual personality and she can answer what the meaning of life is, why the sky is blue, and if she does not know the answer, she brings up the term in a google search which appears on the screen. I brought Julia up this evening and had both children (Katie, 9 and Patrick 6) at my shoulder wanting to ask her questions.  Verbot came out with a public library bot at the Computers in Libraries conference, but the link which was sent to me does not work. http://www.talkie.com is very interesting too. My kids really liked Barkie, the 'talkie' at www.pets911.com, a talking puppy."

Unfortunately, the kids were already asleep when I got home tonight or I would have gotten their reactions, too.

[The Shifted Librarian]

This would also make an excellent replacement for/supplement to a chatbot/AIMbot on a site, providing a more human tone to the information that it has to give.

8:25:58 AM    

I'm fighting off another cold (and losing), I have two job related interviews in the next three days, and  I've been letting a few things percolate in the old brain-pan in the meantime.

There has been a bunch of news lately, one item of which interests me quite a bit - a crossover that has not yet been considered, I think. Methanol fuel cells just got approved for use in electronics that passengers carry in airplanes. Robots are getting more and more complex all the time, and soon will be at the point where your robot serves as your own personal baggage handler, seeking you out at the baggage claim and towing your gear for you. Path navigation could be as simple as incorporating the AI schemes from existing video games, with some additional real world programming. Have a kiosk at the airports that the robots can slip in and out of in order to refuel, charging the costs to the owners credit cards or providing fuel as a part of lease, similar to the minutes on a cell phone. Go over, pay extra.

Since we don't want the robot to be a single purpose item, it can also serve as a part of your PAN, allowing you to synch all your data in and out of your systems, as well as playing back messages, and shooting video. Imagine a tripod that is programmed not only to follow you, but to make sure that you are in frame as well.

Why limit the market though? Why not sell a basic version of the robot, stripped down for kids, and let users load as much (or as little) onto it as they like? Navigation and path-finding is similar be it in a busy airport or in a school, so why not let one program handle both. Kids are already starting to use rolling backpacks to carry all their school books, so the luggage handling abilities would be welcome here too. The unit could house a cell-phone as well, so that the kids can call in to their parents, or it can alert the police if the kid hits the panic button.

Now you have the must have executive item, something that tracks you and your gear, as well as the kids market. Allow for wireless file sharing, and now you've got a great mobile system that goes with you and hauls all your kit.  

6:08:04 PM    

This is huge.

Flash Player for Palm.

Phillip Torrone noticed that Sony has listed the Flash 5 Player as software included with their new Clie.
You can visit the Sony site here.
[via FlashEnabled]
[mesh on MX]

While just having a flash player on a Palm device is pretty cool, this is even better, given the wireless capabilities that the PEGNX70V has going for it. Now, I can forsee not only a digital dash, but a first gen personal assistant, living on a server that updates you wirelessly over the network.

While I admit that "Clippy" comes to mind when I think of a personal assistant, I am thinking more along the lines of the Higgins product I keep going on about. So how does Higgins help you while you are on the road? Since you can't get updates, it would work as an overlay to your existing datebook, reading and writing to the data, and synching when you are in range.  

Seperately, you could have PC games that allow you to play while away from your machine, as well as playing mini games against others while you are both on your Palms. This is nothing new in terms of gaming, only in terms of platform.  

9:41:42 AM