Unit 14 Cloud computing, Muddiest points

Muddiest Point: What is a 'mashup' platform mentioned in cloud computing.

1. Galen Gruman-Clould computing. this is over my head, reminds of the Jetsons (TV carton of a family in the future). Interesting, you can rent space as you need it and don't need hardware/software!

2. Youtube- I could understand this. Online services from any place, using the Web 2.0. Sharing documents in real time, like wikipedia? When mentioned the small notebooks, that didn't need loading software, I thought of the new Acer I just bought. It's great, wireless, I can work anywhere there's a connection!

3. Future of Libraries- They must reinvent themselves to survive. Come full circle from information being scarce to being free & available. (But to those not connected, it's still scarce.) Great identification of trends. I like the one that I think is currently happening, a library as a center of culture, not just of information. Where people come together to learn about each other. we've got to enjoy the journey and evolve or we will cease to exist.

Unit 13 no place to hide

Typing in the web address was so simple, don't know why I did not think of it sooner. Anyway. This was an interesting and disturbing read. Our lives will never be the same because of 9-11. However, how do we strike a balance between protecting ourselves and protecting our freedoms? "Freedom is a dual edged sword". Excess either way brings problems. Think of the fact that it appears that plans for what happened on 911 were found on the laptop of a 'terrorist', but nothing was done with this information. I don't know if it was true, but consider that it was true, who dropped the ball, who can we blame. Because that's a favorite, must blame someone.

And this do not even speak to the massive number of aliens, legal and not in the country and the world. Do they have less rights as non-citizens? I am considering reading the rest of the book.

Unit 13 Security & Privacy

1-The video No Place to hide is not operational.
2-Interesting paper with lots of websites to link to for further information.
3-This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Viacom International Inc.

Jeffrey Rosen-Is Privacy Dead?
Presents some interesting points on US & UK views of surveillance; believes these can be reconciled.
Facebook: Scary what facebook can do with material once posted. "Big Brother" & "1984" rolled into one.
Jonathan Zittrain-The Future of the Internet
Fascinating, humorous, and serious look at where the Internet is going. We probably need to have someone help get rid of the hackers, spammers, virus/worm writers that destroy sites and steal data. While trying to cultivate creativity, what can be done to protect form those who want to use the Internet to destroy.

Comments and Muddiest Points Unit 12

Comments:
Very interesting readings, understandable and found very useful information.

Muddiest Points:
Really didn't find any.

Unit 12 Social Software (11/25)

This week's readings were quite interesting. I particularly liked the article on weblog and social tags. It seems to me that now that I've had a little experience with blogging,(I did not have a blog nor followed any prior to this class),and finding info on the web, I believe I understand these articles better. I am a slow learner and need to re-read things a couple of times.

Weblogs:their use and application in science and technology libraries:
-presents a brief history of the development of blogs and provides resources for further reading.
-Great definition of a blog "...a Web site resembling a personal journal that is updated with individual entries or postings..."
-very useful feature of blogging software: the facility to automatically archive entries and allow for searching, browsing and reviewing of stories and postings.
-discusses blog use in literature search, its applications in science and technology librarianship (where blogging software is a great tool for those working on projects)
-defines RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds; Use of these in libraries, gives example of LISFeeds as a site that collects library-related RSS news feeds.
-Talks about reference and student blogs.
-Agree with the conclusion: "...The challenge for librarians is to become familiar with the weblog and its potential, and explore new ways to further its development and application in science and technology librarianship."

Using a wiki to manage a library instruction program (LIP):Sharing knowledge to better serve patrons:
-Had never heard of nor used a wiki before.
-Great tool to manage work in an LIP.
-Anyone can create a wiki.
-The name is particularly appropriate.
-Can use wiki to:
=share knowledge; use as centralized resource collaboration tool, streamlining work flow and allowing quick update of outdated info.

Creating the academic library folksonomy:Put social tagging to work at your institution:
-Social tagging is new; allows the creation of bookmarks/tags for Web sites and saves them online. (sounds a little like adding sites to 'favorites' websites)
-del.icio.us allows sharing of tags. (visited site, found great info on writing on line, editing photos)
-Librarians can identify the best Web resources in various subject areas and then tag them for patrons' use.

Jimmy Wales:"How a ragtag band created Wikipedia"
-Great story, ensure every person on the planet is given access to human knowledge.
-Ideal becoming reality.
-Neutral point of view; no biases.

Muddiest Point Unit 11

Scholarly publishing as a specific circumscribed example of scholarly communication?

Comments on Readings

Interesting readings; some easier to read than others.

Unit 11 Readings

Digital Libraries:
-Searchingdigital libraries is problematic.
-Searching thrawted by scholarly information contained in 'information silos'.
-Difference between providing access to discrete sets of digital collections & providing digital library services. (because looking for particular digital collection?)
-Ultimate goal is to provide problem free access.
-Federal support was important to evolution of digital library technology.
-Large number of ejournals now available.

Dewey Meets Turing
-Digital Library Initiation brought together librarians and computer scientists.
-Computer scientists saw an exciting way to conduct research and impact daily society in working on digital library projects.
-Librarians saw an opportunity for increased funding.
-Advent of Web frought confusion as consumers also became producers of information.
-Increased costs of ejournals forced academic libraries to concel subscriptions.
-Online publishing was good for self publishing but looked upon warily by academic world.
-Although access to information is containedwithin a technical infrastructure, core elements of librarianship remain constant.
-Hubs of core collecitons will require librarian sstewardship.

Institutional Repositories:Essential Infrastructure for Scholarship in the Digital Age
-Somewhat interesting but long and occasionally dense article on institutional repositories (IR).
-IR allow universities to apply leverage to accelerate changes in scholarship and scholarly communication.
-This was made possible by decrease in online storage costs, and the open archives medadata harvesting protocol.
-MIT and Hewlett Packard partnered to develop an institutional repository system which is now a model for other universities.
-An IR should not olnly contain its members works and make these available but also needs to preserve them.
-Scholarly publishing while different form scholarly communication, is a specific circumscribed example of scholarly communication.
-The effective operation of web sites chould be in the hands of professionals who are conversant with software complexity, secruity risks, backup requirements and other issues.
-Author lists cautions about IR.
IR's can serve as propellers of change for institutions of higher education.

http://www.pitt.edu/~eam99/

Here is Assignment 6.

Unit 10 Readings

Some were interesting, one was very dense.

Web Search Engines: Part 1
-Amazing amount of data being searched.
-Interesting that there's a politeness delay among machines.
-Speed of retrieval is unbelievable but having initiated searches & found relevant data am grateful for its existence.
-Ironic use of the world "crawl" which to me means to move slowly while in reality these 'crawls' are done, dare say at the speed of light.
-Agree wholeheartedly that:
"...Engineering a web-scale crawler is not for the unskilled or fainthearted..." So English & History majors need not apply.

Web Search Engines: Part 2
-?"... An inverted file is a concatenation of the posting lists for each distinct term..."
-# of machines & documents is astounding.
-?"... PageRank computation is an eigenvector calculation on the page-page link connectivity matrix..."
-Would say interesting article, not "fascinating".

Current Developments:
-Dense article.
-Assumption of "... high level of familiarity with how the protocol works..." indicates I probably won't understand it.

The Deep Web:Surfacing Hidden Value:
-Nice image of the Deep Web as an ocean
-Similar to today's knowledge of the ocean, only limited exploration of the deepest part because need special equipment (directed query) to withstand the water's pressure.
-Not aware of NorthernLight and Fast as search engines; nor there were search engines and search directories.
-Excellent statement: "...Discovery comes form looking at the world in new ways and with new tools..."
-Pure scientific statement: "...It has been said that what cannot be seen cannot be defined, and what is not defined cannot be understood..." or seeing is believing.
-Largest % of deep sites by subject areas with the Humanities leading with 13.5%, followed by News,Media with 12.2%.

Assignment 6 Web Page

This is by far the most difficult assignment yet. I have finally figured out how to write and get a web page to appear! Now the trick is to put it all together; at least I can say I tried. Creating the language is worse than Greek to me, no disrespect intended; it just looks like a lot of 'math equations' and it makes my head 'feel like it's going to blow up' to quote a fellow classmate.

Assignment 6

This assignment is proving to be difficult. I don't enjoy writing programs, I understand the need to be familiar with the technology however, once out in the real world, I will definity hire a webmaster.

Unit 9: XML

After printing these readings out, I can tell they are technical documents aimed at helping with the next assignment. I don't do well with technical documents. I think I will take a look at the tutorials mentioned in the "A survey of XML standards". There may have been other tutorials assigned previously; however I do not retain a lot, particularly technical information. So I will look at other referenced material like Doug Tidwell's Introdiction to XML" before I start the other materials.

Comment on articles for unit 8

I think I said this before, that these were interesting and should prove useful when working on the web page creation page. I am not a technical person; I start to "freak out" when I see 'machine language' and numbers. But the article on HTML was well described and spoke of the the challenge Georgia State University took in correcting its web site.

Beyond HTML

This was interesting article. It describes the experience of Georgia State University in correcting and coordinating its website. The original site had virtually no security, was not well organized, a lot of the pages were very different from each other, both visually and in content and staff experience with web page design ran the gamut from no experience at all to a lot of experience. To solve the problem a web development librarian (I didn't know there was such a thing) was hired and his first act was to implement security. The article goes on to describe the action steps taken to coordinate and implement a Content Management System that proved flexible, used current software and accomodated continual growth as well as allowed for customizing or tagging. It's main strength was that it allowed anyone to build a basic guide based on content as defined by the organization.

Muddiest point

I was confused thinking this would be covered in the mandatory visit to campus during Oct.30-Nov.2. I don;t know why.

I find the technical portion difficult. It's a very foreign language, but the tutorials are interesting and should prove useful when completing assignment 6.

Unit 8 Readings

This unit on HTML & Web Authoring Software was interesting, and technical so I don't have much to say. The cheatsheet will come in handy with creating my own web page. In fact this entire reading will be helpful for the next assignment.

For some reason I thought this was gong to be covered during the mandatory visit to campus. I must have confused it.

Somehow I missed the article "Beyond HTML..." and had a lot of trouble accessing it thru the library. The on line librarian was a life saver. I realized I had not signed on and that was why I could not access the article. Will be adding another post on the article. It looks complicated, with machine language in it.

Muddiest poiont about Khoa

While there is a notation about the url there is no explication on actually how to get the url. It's the one that pops up when you complete the assignment. I tried counting the other 'shelves' to find the number, that did not work. Only when I clicked on my shelf did I see the number at the end that when inserted into the url (at the end) provided by the TA did I go to the shelf. Maybe this is because I don't create or write programs. Unfortunately, I need virtually step by step instructions when it comes to creating files on the computer.

khoa assignment

Url:

http://pitt4.opacwc.liblime.com/cgi-bin/koha/opac-shelves.pl?viewshelf=40

Koha assignment

While the assignment took a bit of time to complete (problems encountered with not being able to access Khoa) and then finding books, then going to and adding and adding; the biggest problem is there is no instruction on how to post an url for the bookshelf.

Yaris

Yaris

SMART CAR

Smart Car

Small Cars

Small Cars

Pacer

Pacer

mini cooper

Mini Cooper

Jing Assignment

This is an interesting assignment but not very clear. The point must be to capture a video and some images and annotate them. However, the sound did not work in my video, although the mic said it was on.

I chose to import pictures of small cars. I may buy a Smart Car, I saw them throughout England, Ireland, Germany and Austria. It's a neat car, smaller than a Mini Cooper but taller at the same time. I tried to annotate the pictures, but gave up. Maybe next time.

Smart Car

The Smart Car

Muddiest Points Unit 7 Internet & WWW Technologies

Integrated Library Systems - do what?
Wikepedia defined it for me, but not sure where the problem is.

Intersection of ILS and Web/Internet: not clear what's the problem. Why need new systems?

Internet and WWW Technologies

How Internet Infrastructure Works:
-Good explanation of how the Internet works.
-Gives definitions of terms, words I've seen before but didn't really know what they meant. ie URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
-Provides links for further information within the article and at the end.
-Basically, the Internet is a Network of Networks, which no one owns, but just about everyone uses.
-Its name comes from the idea of interconnected networks, "a global collection of networks".
-A non-profit group, The Internet Society, oversees the formation of policies and protocols that define how we use and interact with the Internet. (how to contact them?)
-Most amazing is that information, lots of information, is sent around the world in seconds.

Dismantling Integrated Library Systems:
-Difficult to read, assumes familiarity with ILS.
-Change is making librarians seek ways to make their systems more interoperable, but not clear to me with whom or what?
-Would be helpful to define ILS and give examples of challenges faced.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page:Inside the Google Machine:
-Great video, fascinating.
-Graphic representation of the world and how information shoots around the world is amazing!
-Seems to be great place to work with benefits (food, do your own laundry [engineers very involved in work, probably also sleep there] bring pet to work)
-Encourage employees to work on special interests/projects; these have turned out to be profitable.
-Honesty, integrity, simple; no flashy show, pretentiousness.
-How can I get a job there!

Muddiest Points Zotero CiteuLike

This was an interesting assignment, but frustrating at the same time. I seemed to click buttons on "instinct", rather than really knowing what to do. The tutorials were not working for me. Thanks to Tamoul who explained how to add the "bib" extension to the files in Zotero. Thank you, Thank you.

I work on computers but in a narrow scope; here I learned to search, add and then import/export my 'library'. The use of 'import/export' terms seems strange; it has a business connotation to me, ie, import/export business, but probably makes sense because of the actions involved.

Bibliographic collection Assign 3

Here's the site to view my collection:

www.citeulike.org/user/emc2malta

Readings Unit 6

I. Wikipedia:

A. Local Area Network - a computer network covering a small geographic area that has a much higher data-transfer rate. Worker OK but too many systems were sold by vendors with incompatible computer hardware.
B. Computer Network - a group of interconnected computers that can be classified to the hardware technology used to connect the individual devices in the network. There are different networks: Personal Area Network, Local Area Network, Computer Area Network, Metropolitan Area Network, Wide Area Network, Global Area Network (in development), Internetwork.
C. Basic Hardware Components - lots of information about what's used to interconnect network nodes. (more than I need to know)

II. Coyle K. Management of RFID in Libraries

-Can't ignore technology
-Not one but many different
-Different amounts of information can be contained in the tags used.
-Tags are cost saving as will be reused several times.
-Tags used for security
-May need different RFID's to fit different articles, books, magazines, Cd's/DVDs.

III. Videos

Common types of computer networks - short, interesting.

Multimedia Representation & Storage - Unit 5 Readings

Data Compression - Wikipedia:
-Process of making information take up less space.
-On the positive space it is useful by reducing the the use of space.
-On the negative side, when the compressed data is 'decompressed', some data may be lost.
-Two compressions described:
Lossless compression looks at eliminating repeated values to sent data concisely; this is reversible so original data can be retrieved.
Lossy data compression works on perception, can a part of something be eliminated but will the whole still be perceived? Here some data will be lost.

Data Compression Basics:
-Although states is not technical, is very technical, giving many examples.
-Advantage of data compression=lets you store more in the same space and transfer info in less time or with less bandwidth.
-Presented in 3 parts:
Part 1 describes the types of lossless data compression algorithms & techniques used to improve performance.
Part 2 describes techniques used in lossy compression (where data obtained after decompression is not necessarily identical to the original) and techniques adapted to improve lossless compression.
Part 3 describes how the concepts and techniques from the first two parts can be applied to video compression.

Imaging Pittsburgh:
This is an interesting article on the collaborative use of technology to provide access to both researchers and the general public to a website, created by three entities, showcasing photographic collections depicting the growth of Pittsburgh during the 19th and early 20th century. Through these images of Pittsburgh's people, neighborhoods, buildings, you can see the social, cultural and physical changes the city underwent. It's a good example of the work involved in preservation, not only of cost but of the choices faced by the group members regarding which images to display. It considers the matter of copyright and provides a link to the home website of each of the groups for further exploration.

YouTube and Libraries:
-As a visual tool for enhancing the services a library offers, it uses two of our sense, hearing and seeing to provide information. As a visual learner this appeals to me and I suspect will appeal to others as well. It can be used to reach a large number with a small amount of effort. That said, someone must decide what to include, when, where, how to film and then upload to the site. Supposedly it's biggest advantage is the ability to upload videos in any format. I haven't visited the site myself but plan to do so soon.

Correction to URL

To view photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30490782@N03/
Hopefully this will work.

Flickr Assignment

url to view: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30490782@NO3/
The tumbnail is 'fuzzy' to say the least and the screen image I couldn't figure out how to save. I will play with this again and try to upload better images!

Database, Metadata & Dublin Core Data Model

Database:

-Structured collection of data
-Relies on database management system 'DBMS' to organize, retrieve stored data.
-First developed in '60s. I didn't know this, thought it was earlier, but don't know why I thought this.
-Different structures to 'hold' data:
hierarchial, network, relational
-Technical term definitions related to the design of databases. More than I needed.
-Application, to me the most important topic, is discussed at the end.
-Preferred method os storage for many applications. I believe the system I use at work is mainly a database.

Metadata:

-Information about information?
-It's all one can say about any 'information object'.
-3 features of all information objects:
Content: what the object contains, what's it all about; intrinsic to the object.
Context: who, what, why, where, how aspects of the object's creation; extrinsic
Structure: the formal set of assumptions among individual info object & can be intrinsic or extrinsic.
-Information on types, functions, attributes and characteristics.

Dublin Core Data Model:

-Despite reading several times, did not understand this article.
-Believe it's a huge 'database' to be set up internationally to provide access to information.

Computer Hardware, Moore's Law & the Computer Museum

Computer Hardware

-Gives a lot of useful definitions, some I knew, others not.
-Increases my knowledge of computers, and their components

Moore's Law:

Amazing growth of technology. I have an Osborne computer somewhere. Looking at it and the PC I work on, the difference is more than night and day. So what happens when the limit is reached? Maybe, by then we will communicate via microchips in our wrists.

Computer Museum

I thought there was one in DC but of course it makes sense there is more than one. There is a lot of information and exhibits to see. I will consider dropping by when in CA.

Discussion - Digitization

I believe digitization is worth it. It preserves articles (scrolls, manuscripts, and rare books) for the future and provides access, usually 24/7 to anyone who has a computer. that said, I know that libraries are on a budget, budgets in several communities have recently decreased . Perhaps a partnership with private companies would be useful. A tax break or credit may be an incentive for large companies to come forth and fund digitization projects. This would entail political activity to lobby for this. It is a problem that is faced by all levels of our society. Dwindling monetary resources have to be allocated, which projects to fund then becomes the issue.

As to the comment that the world view will be dominated by the US view, I think this has been said of just about every aspect of American life, sports, the movie industry, fashion, values, food, etc. If no editorializing occurs, this is not a problem. We don't comment on the worth or value of the contents of a book. The idea is to preserve the contents and make them accessible to everyone.

Readings week 3

Introduction to Linux:

-It's free, had a lot of users and many documents to support it.
-It runs on virtually all machines.
-It can be tailored to any use or application.
-I had heard about it, but didn't really know what it was.

What is Mac OS X?

-Information on Apple's operating system.
-It uses technologies from many sources to create a uniform effect.
-It's applications are well integrated.
-I found this article to be very technical, jargon was explained but it had more information that I probably would never use.

An Update on the Windows Roadmap - Supersite Blog

-The introduction of Windows Vista versus Windows 7.
-This showcases that Windows has a captive audience who have no choice but to buy the upgrades as they come out.
-There is quite a bit of back and forth discussion between participants with a lot of programming experience.

Readings for Sept. 2

2004 Information Format Trends: Content, not Containers:

-Realization that content is no longer format dependent.
-Accessiblity 24/7 of materials on-line.
-Search engines provide wider variety of information sources.
-Example: MSL (Mass School of Law) had problems getting their library accreditated, not enough books, even though Westlaw and other on-line legal sources were available.

Information Literary & Information Technology LIteracy:

-It is not enough to know there are various software and hardware packages available, one must know how to use them.
-The future is now; computers are everywhere and part of our lives; I work on one all day, uploading and moving information so I shouldn't have been surprised, but it did that being connected is important.
-Personal experience for me-setting up this blog and trying to get comments in on time.

Lied Library @ four years:

-An example of creative cooperation, organization and planning.
-Glitches were anticipated and quickly resolved.
-Planning for future expansion a part of the original design.
-Knowledge of the staff in learning software, hardware requirements.
-Exciting to see what others have put in place.

Hope this works

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