My friend Alex Rivera just called me, and while we were catching up she told me that she just saw an article in the Atlantic Monthly that made her think of me. It was called “Is Google Making us Stupid?“
I said, “Oh yeah I saw that a few weeks ago, but…” and then we both started laughing…
I said, “Do you know what I am about to say?” and she said, “Yeah, you aren’t ready to talk about it because you just skimmed it”
hehehhehehehhehehehhe!
Yvonne Mery and I will be presenting on Friday April 4th in Irvine California at the California Association of Research Libraries. We will be presenting with a wonderful colleague from UC Irvine, Pauline Manaka. We are presenting a shortened version of “Can Libraries be sold as soap?” Our interactive workshop that focuses on social marketing campaigns and its transferability to libraries.
Jonathan will be presenting with other awesome colleagues, Alex Hodges and Patricia West, on Tuesday, April 8th at Computers in Libraries in Arlington, Virginia. Jonathan and company will be talking about the amazing work done marketing IM service at American University Library. Finally our wonderful friend and co-author Nancy Dowd of The “M” Word is also presenting at Computers in Libraries. Nancy will be talking about how to survive tech exhaustion and instead find the best uses Web 2.0 technology in libraries.
…well not really, but there is potential an e-reader could one day. Personally, I don’t think Amazon’s Kindle will be the device to bring us into the next century. I haven’t played with it, but have been combing the tech blogs reading reviews and watching videos because I’ve been waiting for a viable e-reader to come out and Sony’s clunky reader, wrapped in digital rights management, was nothing that interested me.
The Kindle seems like it is actually really cool, but I don’t think that the interface is there yet. The e-paper display is awesome (no eye strain, long battery life) but that is part of the problem, the refresh rate is so bad you can’t create complex interactions/interfaces with it. What is real inciting is free wireless data.
Personally I think the real test of whether of not this will become a revolutionary device will be if Amazon opens it up. If some enterprising individual (read hacker) figures out how to make it so I can share the free wireless connection with my laptop, this will become strapped to my hip for life, and who knows I might actually read a book on it.
