We (that is, academia) have a very certain idea that new things (such as The Internet) might best be handled at arms length. After all, these are passing fads. Message boards, MyFace, YouTube. We'll just wait till they blow over.
The trouble is that the very system that ensures us some sense of academic freedom, also makes us very much like concrete waiting to dry.
Then there are people like Paul Jones. For those of you who have yet to experience the "Paul Jones" effect, well, you're in for a treat. Here is a man with a degree in computer science who knew he wanted an academic life, a desire that then lead him to an MFA in poetry. Along the way he established the first SunSITE, and evolved that into ibilio.org, one of the more uniquely library-esque web sites.
With any luck, Paul will be visiting our humble abode next year to talk about the modern library and the post-modern idea of sharing and storing.
For you see, we have a very real issue.
What exactly do we do about all the past research we have accumulated? We are all very happy about new online journals (like ojrrp.org), but what about all the past information awaiting conversion into knowledge? Ah, there's the rub.
We have many. many ideas of how we might talk large publishing houses out of their stranglehold on this information, including (gasp!) appealing to Congress to "do something". But the bottom line is, no access = no knowledge creation = no progress. Imagine, dear researcher, being informed by your campus library that, despite incessant tuition increases and minimal support from your state government, we'll just have to live without access to ABI Inform (or whatever your favorite database might be). Imagine trying to recruit faculty to a university without such access.
We can talk all we wish about being a Top Ten This or a Top Ten That, but without access to the information accumulated by past researchers, exactly how are we to come up with the new ideas (A+B=C)?
Sigh.
Friday, February 23, 2007
We (that is, academia) have a very certain idea that new things (such as The Internet) might best be handled at arms length. After all, these are passing fads. Message boards, MyFace, YouTube. We'll just wait till they blow over.
The trouble is that the very system that ensures us some sense of academic freedom, also makes us very much like concrete waiting to dry.
Then there are people like Paul Jones. For those of you who have yet to experience the "Paul Jones" effect, well, you're in for a treat. Here is a man with a degree in computer science who knew he wanted an academic life, a desire that then lead him to an MFA in poetry. Along the way he established the first SunSITE, and evolved that into ibilio.org, one of the more uniquely library-esque web sites.
With any luck, Paul will be visiting our humble abode next year to talk about the modern library and the post-modern idea of sharing and storing.
For you see, we have a very real issue.
What exactly do we do about all the past research we have accumulated? We are all very happy about new online journals (like ojrrp.org), but what about all the past information awaiting conversion into knowledge? Ah, there's the rub.
We have many. many ideas of how we might talk large publishing houses out of their stranglehold on this information, including (gasp!) appealing to Congress to "do something". But the bottom line is, no access = no knowledge creation = no progress. Imagine, dear researcher, being informed by your campus library that, despite incessant tuition increases and minimal support from your state government, we'll just have to live without access to ABI Inform (or whatever your favorite database might be). Imagine trying to recruit faculty to a university without such access.
We can talk all we wish about being a Top Ten This or a Top Ten That, but without access to the information accumulated by past researchers, exactly how are we to come up with the new ideas (A+B=C)?
Sigh.
The trouble is that the very system that ensures us some sense of academic freedom, also makes us very much like concrete waiting to dry.
Then there are people like Paul Jones. For those of you who have yet to experience the "Paul Jones" effect, well, you're in for a treat. Here is a man with a degree in computer science who knew he wanted an academic life, a desire that then lead him to an MFA in poetry. Along the way he established the first SunSITE, and evolved that into ibilio.org, one of the more uniquely library-esque web sites.
With any luck, Paul will be visiting our humble abode next year to talk about the modern library and the post-modern idea of sharing and storing.
For you see, we have a very real issue.
What exactly do we do about all the past research we have accumulated? We are all very happy about new online journals (like ojrrp.org), but what about all the past information awaiting conversion into knowledge? Ah, there's the rub.
We have many. many ideas of how we might talk large publishing houses out of their stranglehold on this information, including (gasp!) appealing to Congress to "do something". But the bottom line is, no access = no knowledge creation = no progress. Imagine, dear researcher, being informed by your campus library that, despite incessant tuition increases and minimal support from your state government, we'll just have to live without access to ABI Inform (or whatever your favorite database might be). Imagine trying to recruit faculty to a university without such access.
We can talk all we wish about being a Top Ten This or a Top Ten That, but without access to the information accumulated by past researchers, exactly how are we to come up with the new ideas (A+B=C)?
Sigh.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Just finished reading Wilson's piece in Telephony, "Consumers Take Control" (okay, okay, it was published three months ago -- la-de-da). The tough part for me is a. keeping up, b. peering ahead. Yes, that's actually two things; they are connected.
IPTV presents some very interesting challenges to traditional site building. That is, looking at the situation now, not having video on your site is, well, like not having sound in your movie. So, the logical extension of that is that, just as "talkies" eliminated silent film, will IPTV eliminate the need for HTML sites (and Flashed out sites as well). What a IPTV site might look like would be a series of videos. Hell, maybe that's what blogs will be: a daily video diary. "Hello again. It's Thursday and class was kinda a bore, mainly because of the subject. I mean, who cares about sports online, when what I need is online sports."
As I evolve out of advertising and more into Web Land, I wonder if Wilson is right in assuming advertisers will chase product placement as their only platform of the future. What if it's just nuggling up to a very hot video? If so, someone in the agency of the future will be tasked with tracking the "hot spots" online and quickly, within seconds, looking for a "deal" for a tag. Actually, that may be many persons doing that, backed by a split-second creative crew tagging in a just-shot video of Dial Soap behind some mud wrestlng Oscar moment caught on video and posted to the almost instantly massive hit zone. All of this in real time. No infinitely long creative sessions. Create it now or die.
What would have sounded silly yesterday, now sounds pretty likely today. It'll happen later this afternoon, for sure.
IPTV presents some very interesting challenges to traditional site building. That is, looking at the situation now, not having video on your site is, well, like not having sound in your movie. So, the logical extension of that is that, just as "talkies" eliminated silent film, will IPTV eliminate the need for HTML sites (and Flashed out sites as well). What a IPTV site might look like would be a series of videos. Hell, maybe that's what blogs will be: a daily video diary. "Hello again. It's Thursday and class was kinda a bore, mainly because of the subject. I mean, who cares about sports online, when what I need is online sports."
As I evolve out of advertising and more into Web Land, I wonder if Wilson is right in assuming advertisers will chase product placement as their only platform of the future. What if it's just nuggling up to a very hot video? If so, someone in the agency of the future will be tasked with tracking the "hot spots" online and quickly, within seconds, looking for a "deal" for a tag. Actually, that may be many persons doing that, backed by a split-second creative crew tagging in a just-shot video of Dial Soap behind some mud wrestlng Oscar moment caught on video and posted to the almost instantly massive hit zone. All of this in real time. No infinitely long creative sessions. Create it now or die.
What would have sounded silly yesterday, now sounds pretty likely today. It'll happen later this afternoon, for sure.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
The Land Grant promise to rural communities.
The people of the State of Kansas gave Kansas State University the land it now resides upon, the promise was we, as an acdemic community, would give back to the people our help and assistance. This, and all my work with communities, is part of my effort to meet my obligation. I want, more than anything else, to help rural communities, like Junction City, Plainville, Phillipsburg and Liberal to cross the technology bridge by working with them in constructing and maintain web sites. The key, for me, at least, is that these sites can be self-sustained by the community without the use of some special proprietary (and expensive!) software that ties the community into a never-ending fee-for-service arrangement. These sites should be theirs to own, change, and update.
As part of that, I work with students and community leaders in getting sites up and running and then training the "local experts" to use these non-database sites to promote, highlight, and serve their communities. It's a simple idea, just as HTML is a simple idea. We make these things complicated, perhaps, when a simple, less-expensive solution is at hand.
As part of that, I work with students and community leaders in getting sites up and running and then training the "local experts" to use these non-database sites to promote, highlight, and serve their communities. It's a simple idea, just as HTML is a simple idea. We make these things complicated, perhaps, when a simple, less-expensive solution is at hand.
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