Infopeople posted all their handouts at http://infopeople.org/cla/2008 where there were handy mini-lectures on CSS web design, Jing, Flickr vs. Picasa and how to create an avatar. There were a few new websites I wasn't aware of. One workshop introduced a new term to me called Microblogging - a fancy term for sites like twitter, jaiku, plurk, pownce, present.ly, yammer which are short one line blog sites that tell people where you are and what you're up to. It could be handy for an in/out board type service. There was discussion of blogs and wikis. One free online wiki site is wetpaint.com. I also went to a workshop on virtual reference for libraries using instant messaging sites like meebo, qwidget, plugoo. There was dicussion of the paid reference sites like Live Person and Tutor.com. There was also the SecondLife site which really is more useful to academic libraries rather than public libraries.
Free Audiobooks
I went to a workshop that discussed how libraries could implement low budget audiobooks as there are a number of free audiobook sites but the selection is limited to mainly classics which are public domain material and sound quality may not be good. Project Gutenberg has the best index of the free audiobooks. I went to a podcasting class by San Diego County Public Library and the best recorder for podcasting was the Samson H4 Zoom portable recorder.
Privacy
I attended several workshops about privacy concerns, one by Eli Edwards about Privacy Concerns of Social Networking where she brought up interesting controversies liked the Linked In site which is like a Myspace for business people where the site tells you and your business contacts if you've changed jobs, who has looked you up, etc. She also mentioned how teenagers are less concerned with privacy yet are shocked when their parents, teachers, employeers look up their info on MySpace. She talked about how Facebook had partnered with Beacon and for a time was tracking people's online shopping habits with cookies and notifying their Facebook friends what they had been looking at online. People couldn't turn off the notifications and had to send in signed written letter to cancel their Facebook accounts.
Patron Data
Another privacy workshop I went to dealt with the privacy of patron information and how San Francisco Public Library went through a long audit process and adopted a privacy policy. They brought up some interesting points on how long a library should retain patron data and the privacy of Internet search history. They pointed out how Google was able to predict a flu outbreak faster than the CDC based on search activity.
Master Speakers
Attended 3 master speakers sessions and the most interesting and informative was by Daniel Pink author of Johnny Bunko and A Whole New Mind. He discussed the reasons why jobs were being outsourced and succintly attributed it to 3 A's: Asia, Automation, and Abundance. He went on to predict that the jobs of future would involve Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning. The other 2 speaker sessions included the husband & wife writer team Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman who were entertaining but not really teaching anything. The 3rd speaker I saw was actress Adrienne Barbeau who again was entertaining but I didn't learn anything new other than her life story.
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