tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66536072024-03-18T22:41:35.481-04:00Connie CrosbyBlog by Canadian Law Librarian / Info Diva / ConsultantConnie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.comBlogger995125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-88749436074491742172014-10-14T17:15:00.001-04:002014-10-14T17:17:14.287-04:00Knowledge Management Practice in Organizations: My Chapters Now AvailableEarlier this year I was very pleased to contribute to the book <a href="http://www.igi-global.com/book/knowledge-management-practice-organizations/90644" target="_blank">Knowledge Management Practice in Organizations: The View from the Inside</a>, edited by Ulla de Stricker and published by IGI Global.<br />
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The official description from the website:<br />
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Knowledge management can be a powerful tool if successfully implemented into an organizational structure. Uncovering the latest methods, tools, trends, and strategies in organizational knowledge management should be a priority for individuals working in a variety of industries. </blockquote>
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<b>Knowledge Management Practice in Organizations: The View from Inside</b> brings together industry experts to discuss the realities of knowledge management work in organizations. Examining the challenges associated with operational knowledge management, this work provides insight into the day-to-day practice of knowledge management in real-life settings. Organizational leaders and professionals, librarians, students, and researchers will find this publication to be an essential tool in understanding knowledge management implementation.</blockquote>
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I am pleased to announce my two chapters are now available for free download:<br />
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<li><a href="http://bit.ly/Crosby-KMchapter4" target="_blank">Chapter 4: Communities in the Workplace (by Connie Crosby)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/Crosby-KMchapter5" target="_blank">Chapter 5: Getting Started with Social Media for Knowledge Management (by Connie Crosby)</a></li>
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Just click to open the PDF. If you have any difficulties, please do let me know. This should be on my corporate website but I appear to have broken something (yikes!)<br />
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If you do access these chapters, I would love to hear what you think! Please leave a comment on this blog post or email me <a href="mailto:connie@crosbygroup.ca">connie@crosbygroup.ca</a>.<br />
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<br />Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-79714196452467169562013-11-14T01:12:00.000-05:002013-11-14T18:14:07.646-05:00Email Policies - Some Resources<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I think a lot about governance in projects I work on: who is going to do what, who is going to oversee it, and how things will be maintained. A big piece of the picture are policies, guidelines and procedures. Without this type of documentation, employees in an organization do not have guidance on how things should function.<br />
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In the past, teams would have worked together to learn from each other how things should work; however, we don't typically have the luxury of working with the same two people over many years to have the luxury of leaving everything unwritten. We need to be able to understand how our work fits into the bigger structure of the whole (big?) organization.<br />
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The other day I had a great question from a friend: Did I have any resources for writing an email policy? Where would I start in writing a policy about email retention?<br />
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I did my typical look through my go-to resources, and didn't find anything. So, I took a bigger look around. What I found was pretty helpful, so I thought I would post it here for for my own benefit and that of anyone else also looking.<br />
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<a href="http://www.aiim.org/" target="_blank">AIIM </a>seems to have some things that might be helpful:<br />
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<li>This article is essentially things to look at when compiling an email policy: <a href="http://www.aiim.org/Research-and-Publications/Research/eBooks/Content-Records-Management/8-Things-to-Remember-When-Implementing-an-E-Mail-Policy">http://www.aiim.org/Research-and-Publications/Research/eBooks/Content-Records-Management/8-Things-to-Remember-When-Implementing-an-E-Mail-Policy</a></li>
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<li>Some overview discussion of the issues: <a href="http://www.aiim.org/community/wiki/view/Email-Management">http://www.aiim.org/community/wiki/view/Email-Management</a></li>
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<li>Lots of standards and best practices listed here: <a href="http://www.aiim.org/Community/Wiki/view/AIIM-Best-Practice---Email-Management-Maturity-Matrix">http://www.aiim.org/Community/Wiki/view/AIIM-Best-Practice---Email-Management-Maturity-Matrix</a></li>
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<li>Finally, I had this "Email Charter" in my Delicious bookmarks (not from AIIM) which may prove to provide some additional inspiration: <a href="http://emailcharter.org/">http://emailcharter.org/</a></li>
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And related:<br />
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<li>Best practices for email management<br /><a href="http://www.aiim.org/community/wiki/view/Best-Practices-for-Email-Management">http://www.aiim.org/community/wiki/view/Best-Practices-for-Email-Management</a></li>
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Finally, if you are looking for helpful examples of policies, Google "<a href="https://www.google.ca/search?q=email+model+policy&oq=email+model+policy" target="_blank">email model policy</a>". I was going to post some good examples here, but no doubt that is something which will change over time so perhaps best for us to look as needed.<br />
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Do you have any favourite email policy resources? Or tips on what to include in a policy? </div>
Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-30349001188138653502013-08-23T15:01:00.001-04:002013-08-23T15:01:47.980-04:00Announcing Social Media Engagement Certificate at University of Toronto - On-line Courses Start Sept. 9thI have more project news to share:<br />
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I am excited to announce a new <a href="http://www.institute.ischool.utoronto.ca/SOC.MED.Cert.asp" target="_blank">Social Media Engagement certificate</a> through the <a href="http://www.institute.ischool.utoronto.ca/" target="_blank">iSchool Institute</a> at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto that <a href="http://ca.linkedin.com/in/danielplee" target="_blank">Daniel Lee </a>and I will be teaching starting in September! </div>
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Please check out the details below and on the iSchool Institute website. I encourage you to sign up or pass along this info to anyone you think might be interested.</div>
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The certificate is made up of two 7-week courses taught on-line:</div>
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<li><a href="http://www.institute.ischool.utoronto.ca/socialmedia.WEB.asp" target="_blank">Social Media Planning for Organizations</a></li>
<li>Social Media Tools and Tactics (description to be posted)</li>
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The courses can be taken individually or can be taken together for a University of Toronto-backed certificate. To obtain the certificate, there is also an assignment (details below). </div>
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People have been asking us about how the course will be delivered, so I though it would be helpful to explain our vision for this program. Daniel and I have been working hard all summer putting the content together:</div>
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Content</h3>
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<b><i>Social Media Planning for Organizations</i></b> - we will be following a "Social Media Strategy" framework delving into the following aspects:</div>
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<li>Learning</li>
<li>Listening / monitoring</li>
<li>Engagement</li>
<li>Measurement</li>
<li>Development of organizational capabilities</li>
<li>Objectives and prioritization</li>
<li>Governance - including who will do what as well as establishing policies</li>
<li>Defining tools and tactics</li>
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The one-day course we taught in person followed a similar format; however, we have expanded the material and will have time to go more in-depth on each of the topics. </div>
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<b><i>Social Media Tools and Tactics</i></b> - we will be looking at the "ecosystem" of social media, working with popular representative tools, and looking at the tactical side of working with social media. The focus will be on social media for organizations, but welcome discussion about personal use as well. </div>
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Format </h3>
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Each course runs over a 7 week period. Each week there will be about 3 hours of work (content and homework), for a total of 21 hours. The courses will be taught primarily from Wikispaces, a wiki platform which we have set up for private discussion. We will have videos to introduce content, there will be readings, homework assignments, and discussion topics for class participants. We will be supplementing these with video conferencing sessions, likely using Google Hangout. Daniel and I are also planning to have online "office hours" to answer questions from participants. For the Social Media Tools and Tactics course, class participants will also be trying out social media tools each week. </div>
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The plan is for us to alternate the courses so that people can take them in either order. </div>
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Participation</h3>
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While the courses will largely be done on participants' own time, there will be weekly discussion questions on the wiki and video conferencing sessions. The more someone participates in these activities, the more they will be likely to learn. There will be a lot to discuss! We hope these interactive activities will allow us to explore the specific needs of the group.</div>
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Our goal with the variety of formats, content and engagement with the course will make this course engaging for all adult learning styles. </div>
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Certification Assignment</h3>
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To obtain certification, a participant will need to complete both courses plus successfully complete an assignment. The assignment will have a practical outcome: it will be an initial draft report for a social media pilot project. We know from participants in our past courses that these assignment reports have been useful in getting their organizations started toward a thoughtful, well-planned approach to social media. </div>
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For more info</h3>
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Here are the links you need for more info:</div>
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<li><a href="http://www.institute.ischool.utoronto.ca/socialmedia.WEB.asp" target="_blank">Social Media Planning for Organizations - info & course registration</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.institute.ischool.utoronto.ca/SOC.MED.Cert.asp" target="_blank">Social Media Engagement Certificate</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.institute.ischool.utoronto.ca/" target="_blank">iSchool Institute, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto</a></li>
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Questions? Please feel free to <a href="mailto:conniecrosby@gmail.com" target="_blank">email me</a> or the iSchool Institute.</div>
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Please pass this information along to your co-workers, friends and family. We would love to see a good turnout in our first course to get the ball rolling! </div>
Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-57824363831666305912013-08-18T17:43:00.000-04:002013-08-18T17:43:10.155-04:00Bringing Knowledge Management Benefits to Smaller Law Firms and Law DepartmentsKnowledge Management has been around in larger law firms now for more than 15 years. Long enough to have evolved, matured, and brought the bigger firms numerous benefits. As these efforts have touched so many departments inside the individual firms, the idea is also now slowly catching on in other firms and law departments.<h3>
<br />What is Knowledge Management?</h3>
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<br />It is one of those amorphous management terms that covers a range of concepts. At the heart of it is sharing the knowledge and work products accumulated by members of an organization so that people are not re-inventing the wheel, and instead building on each others' efforts and learning. </div>
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This is not a new idea to any law firm. Here are some examples of basic KM at work:</div>
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<li>individual partners--and sometimes groups of partners--keep a list of template documents such as key agreements at hand so they do not have to figure out new wording each time clients need one</li>
<li>lawyers collect research memoranda together on the network so that they can see if something has already been done before starting new work</li>
<li>students and associates work with mentors to learn the ropes of the various practice areas</li>
<li>members of practice groups meet on a semi-regular basis to share what they are doing either formally or informally so that they can learn from one another and perhaps even coordinate efforts.</li>
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Bring in someone with experience and understanding in this area, and more benefits can be uncovered and developed, such as:</div>
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<li>more precedent documents can be collected, reviewed, and put into formats for better re-use, with clauses available for the different circumstances</li>
<li>agreements can be pulled into templates and automated so that the lawyer or staff member only needs to fill out a quick form to generate a draft of the agreement for review</li>
<li>work processes can be streamlined into a more efficient workflows with steps tracked and reminders sent as needed</li>
<li>key tips, checklists, explanations and sample documents can be set up to appear as searchers look for certain words or terms on the network</li>
<li>key learnings uncovered by senior partners and practice groups can be incorporated into professional development programming for students and associates</li>
<li>work can be better tracked so that the law firm has a sense of how long it takes to complete certain pieces of work so they can better estimate the cost to do the work--especially useful if clients are asking for alternative fee arrangements</li>
<li>practice groups can be formed and coordinated to attract clients from a new market.</li>
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For an additional list of how KM is manifested in law firms, I encourage you to read Ted Tjaden's 2009 article <a href="http://www.legalresearchandwriting.ca/images/7faces.PDF" target="_blank">The 7 Faces of Legal Knowledge Management</a> [pdf] which he has generously shared with us from his <a href="http://www.legalresearchandwriting.ca/" target="_blank">Legal Research and Writing </a>website. I would argue that KM has expanded out to encompass additional roles since this article was put together, but it gives a well-rounded view. </div>
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<br />KM for smaller firms and law departments</h3>
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<br />Not so long ago I was getting approached by smaller firms to give an idea of how to bring them benefit of KM. I was disappointed to find the cost of consulting on full strategy, plan and implementation made helping these firms get started prohibitive before even taking into consideration software changes or purchases. </div>
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I then approached my fellow Knowledge Management consultant <a href="http://missingpuzzlepiececonsulting.ca/about" target="_blank">Stephanie Barnes of Missing Puzzle Piece Consulting</a> to help put together a more accessible alternative: a KM assessment and coaching service. Stephanie has been helping professional organizations successfully implement KM for more than 20 years, and one of the most passionate leaders I know in this area. I have been very privileged to work with her. </div>
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We call the new service <a href="http://lawfirmkm.com/" target="_blank">Law Firm KM</a> --- you can check out our website <a href="http://lawfirmkm.com/">lawfirmkm.com</a>. </div>
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We spent a significant amount of time looking at all aspects of Knowledge Management, and developing a comprehensive set of questions to help firms and corporate counsel determine where they currently sit on a knowledge maturity scale. The questions help them determine priorities, and we then put together a list of manageable next steps. We essentially did the thinking up front so that, after the assessment, firms can jump into the action instead of spending too much time on working through theory and strategy.</div>
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We tested out the concept over a number of months and had favourable feedback. We modified things as we went into each test using the feedback we received, and I am excited to say we have put together a very helpful service. </div>
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We are now just getting the ball rolling on this initiative. Since Stephanie is currently in demand working on projects across Canada and internationally, I encourage you to get in touch sooner rather than later if you are interested and would like to schedule some time with us. </div>
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An assessment takes a day spent with selected members of your firm or department, and we get a report back to you quickly. Coaching for implementing the next steps is optional. The coaching is especially helpful for anyone new to KM who would like some advice on getting started or working through more advanced projects. </div>
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<br />More about KM</h3>
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<br />If you are interested in learning more about Knowledge Management, I encourage you to follow along over on our <a href="http://lawfirmkm.com/category/blog/" target="_blank">Law Firm KM blog</a>. I have also put together <a href="http://lawfirmkm.com/surrounded-by-favourite-km-blogs/" target="_blank">a list of "must-read" KM blogs</a>. I encourage you to leave a note if you find the list useful. You are also invited to post your questions in the comments. </div>
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What about you--can you think of other ways to bring the benefit of Knowledge Management to smaller law firms and corporate law departments? Please share in the comments! </div>
Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-55428900738962044742013-07-20T01:41:00.001-04:002013-07-20T01:41:11.795-04:00On Finding HomeMany people know I recently walked the traditional pilgrimage <a href="http://www.caminodesantiago.me/" target="_blank">Camino de Santiago de Compostela </a>(also known as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_of_St._James" target="_blank">The Way of Saint James</a>) with my colleague and friend Joan. We walked the popular Camino Frances route from St. Jean Pied de Port in France, through the Pyrenees mountains and across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela. We walked about 25 km a day over 6 weeks for a total of 780 kms (about 500 miles).<br />
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One of the many reasons I went was to get away from the online world and to quieten my mind. I spend so much of my usual day in a constant race to keep up with email, writing, blogging and reading, and find these get out of balance with the work I love--client work and volunteer committee work--as well as my personal life. </div>
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My walking was, for the most part, meditative. I was not seeking specific answers or trying to resolve any great problems in my life. And yet I was surprised to find many answers. I was also surprised by the sense of community we developed along the way--the Camino life was far more social than I had expected, and we made many friends along the way. </div>
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During one of our dinners the conversation turned to relationships with our parents. One of our dinner companions was a psychoanalyst so this in itself was not surprising. I gained a number of interesting personal insights during our discussion.</div>
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Of them, the most powerful was probably the discussion about the idea of home. I long have had a specific idea of what home is to me--connected with a specific person in my life, as opposed to a city or house. This was likely developed from moving periodically with my <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_family" target="_blank">nuclear family</a> through the years and not feeling completely connected with a specific place.</div>
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But what I learned during the conversation was that the ideal really is to develop a sense of home within oneself. I like this concept very much--it means I am not reliant on things (I do not like seeing myself attached to things) and it means, while I can connect and rely on other people, I am not reliant on them to make me feel at home or within my comfort zone. I can create that myself wherever I am. </div>
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While on the road I also happened to read Pico Iyer's book about the Dalai Lama's journey, <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2084522.The_Open_Road" target="_blank">The Open Road</a>. Is it a coincidence, then, that I came across this TEDTalks video published this week, featuring Pico Iyer discussing the concept of home? </div>
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I especially like that he talks about standing still and stepping outside of one's life. I feel very much that is what I was doing while walking the Camino. I do not think it a coincidence I found this video--it is just another instance of the Camino at work in the life of a humble pilgrim.<br />
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Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-15858899123692875262013-01-12T21:22:00.001-05:002013-01-12T21:23:31.531-05:00David Weinberger on the Nature of Knowledge: A Viewing GuideThe following keynote by <a href="http://www.evident.com/" target="_blank">David Weinberger</a> was presented at <a href="http://www.kmworld.com/conference/2012/">KMWorld 2012</a> conference held November 2012 in Washington, DC.<br />
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Thanks to the folks at <a href="http://www.infotoday.com/" target="_blank">Information Today</a> for sharing this video (and the other videos) so that we all have the opportunity to benefit from them.<br />
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About the speaker</h2>
David Weinberger is a fellow and senior researcher at <a href="http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society</a>. He is also Co-Director of the Harvard Library Innovation Lab. In and of itself, this is pretty awesome in my estimation.<br />
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I first came to know him as one of the authors of <a href="http://cluetrain.com/" target="_blank">The Cluetrain Manifesto</a> which pre-dated the social web. When I first read this I didn't know he had a law and library connection. Since then he has authored some prominent publications as well as numerous articles in popular publications such as <i>The New York Times</i>, <i>Harvard Business Review</i>, <i>USA Today</i>, <i>The Guardian</i> and <i>Wired</i>.<br />
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<li><a href="http://www.smallpieces.com/index.php" target="_blank">Small Pieces Loosely Joined</a> (Perseus Books, 2002)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.everythingismiscellaneous.com/" target="_blank">Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder </a>(Times Books, 2007)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.toobigtoknow.com/" target="_blank">Too Big to Know</a> (Basic Books, 2012)</li>
</ul>
<br />
Home page: <a href="http://www.evident.com/">http://www.evident.com/</a><br />
Blog: <a href="http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/">http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/</a><br />
Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/dweinberger" target="_blank">@dweinberger</a><br />
Google+: <a href="https://plus.google.com/117217807403956460587" target="_blank">David Weinberger</a><br />
<br />
<h2>
The Knowledge Hierarchy</h2>
In the video above, Weinberger starts by discussing the class Knowledge Pyramid, known by various names such as the DIKW Hierarchy (for <b><u>d</u></b>ata, <b><u>i</u></b>nformation, <b><u>k</u></b>nowledge, <b><u>w</u></b>isdom), the Wisdom Pyramid and others.<br />
<br />
I couldn't find an uncopyrighted image that I liked, so I created one (below). Feel free to steal this:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQqn1u1S4OEy5pe0FULsCqSc28o1GyysEuwXzxkMrOaCHUMHfucTg8iaAtWvKZwvV5el8k5_Yb14DG7_7Z-vUaWcuXyzjdbBn0YA5fEULf8WzXYP-2f74Ul9zt8wru8a_t0-MBtw/s1600/image-knowledge+hierarchy.001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Knowledge Hierarchy: data, information, knowledge, wisdom" border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQqn1u1S4OEy5pe0FULsCqSc28o1GyysEuwXzxkMrOaCHUMHfucTg8iaAtWvKZwvV5el8k5_Yb14DG7_7Z-vUaWcuXyzjdbBn0YA5fEULf8WzXYP-2f74Ul9zt8wru8a_t0-MBtw/s400/image-knowledge+hierarchy.001.jpg" title="Knowledge Hierarchy" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<h2>
Viewing Questions</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Here are some questions to guide your viewing. Answer these based on the thinking David Weinberger discusses in his keynote talk (the video above):</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
<ol>
<li>What are the four traditional properties of knowledge?</li>
<li>Our traditional idea of knowledge and the pyramid of knowledge (knowledge hierarchy) is based on what medium?</li>
<li>What are the properties of the new knowledge networks?</li>
<li>What website from Cornell University Library does he mention used for quickly releasing papers/studies without peer review?</li>
<li>What is distinct about the new networks that we did not have in the past?</li>
<li>What website does he mention that places the names (identifiers) of animals and plants into a range of taxonomies?</li>
<li>What four lessons from science does he identify for knowledge networks?</li>
<li>What two websites does he identify that allo developers to learn from one another?</li>
<li>What three lessons from developers does he identify for knowledge networks?</li>
<li>How does the Internet affect learning?</li>
<li>Have a look at the Library of Congress photostream on Flickr: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/</a>. They initiated <a href="http://www.flickr.com/commons" target="_blank">The Commons</a> movement to release images no longer under copyright. According to Weinberger, why did the LOC release the photos in the first place?</li>
<li>What does he say are the benefits of "messiness"?</li>
<li>What is an echo chamber? What is the problem with echo chambers? (Some people in social media call this the "fish bowl")</li>
<li>What is <a href="http://www.reddit.com/" target="_blank">Reddit</a>?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigKoLUGRPAz4VEjKB6PrqxVWKvDS9YQW36xZmUrl50Eb4a80_5tRehoN51bUUKb8_nlH0XebeVbWquu8RqWkZXWoKNky850S6DhhYyqJeVwWpL4lqtwgDRkr8IAOfmBbeyM7jXVQ/s1600/Screen+shot+2013-01-12+at+9.19.19+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigKoLUGRPAz4VEjKB6PrqxVWKvDS9YQW36xZmUrl50Eb4a80_5tRehoN51bUUKb8_nlH0XebeVbWquu8RqWkZXWoKNky850S6DhhYyqJeVwWpL4lqtwgDRkr8IAOfmBbeyM7jXVQ/s1600/Screen+shot+2013-01-12+at+9.19.19+PM.png" /></a></div>
</li>
<li>How can we make rooms "smarter"?</li>
<li>Weinberger claims our educational institutions fell over "at the touch of a hyperlink." What does he mean by this?</li>
<li>What are properties of networks/the Internet, that he says are also now properties of knowledge?</li>
<li>What does Weinberger say we all have in common?</li>
</ol>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<br />Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-48746393874481700552013-01-12T20:23:00.003-05:002013-01-12T20:27:32.372-05:00A New Year, a New AttitudeHi folks! I hope 2013 is treating you well so far. It has already been quite interesting for me.<br />
<br />
I should mention that 2012 was a bit slow on the consulting side, so I jumped head first into teaching. I became parttime professor at Durham College in their new <a href="http://www.durhamcollege.ca/programs/legal-research-and-information-management-graduate-certificate" target="_blank">Legal Research and Information Management</a> program. The first cohort are fantastic, the folks at Durham have been fantastic, and the learning curve has been steep! But, I made it through the first semester teaching the communication course.<br />
<br />
This semester I am teaching the knowledge management and social media course, almost completely online. This course is also an option for DC's <a href="http://www.durhamcollege.ca/programs/mediation-alternative-dispute-resolution" target="_blank">Mediation - Alternative Dispute Resolution</a> program. Most of the content will be in a private space, but I may from time to time share some of what I am posting publicly in case you are interested. We are still settling into our platforms, but at some point I hope to share what I decided to use and how it works.<br />
<br />
The next post is a "viewing guide" for a very interesting lecture by David Weinberger. I decided to share this because I was planning on posting the video here anyway, and thought others might find the guilde helpful. I'd love your feedback.<br />
<br />
Happy 2013! Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-34604170748347012862012-10-14T13:04:00.000-04:002012-10-14T13:15:24.791-04:00Inspiration on a SundayGetting back to blogging has been on my mind a lot lately. It is finally taking this melancholy weekend to get me back to actually committing words to the blog again. I am sitting in one of my favourite Irish pubs over a cup of coffee and a Sunday cooked breakfast. This is quite fitting, I think.<br />
<br />
This morning the Toronto social media/PR community got word that our friend Michael O'Connor Clarke has died, succumbing to an aggressive cancer that was first diagnosed earlier this summer. Others have waxed more eloquently on their blogs about Michael while he was still with us, but I could not find the words at the time. Now all my thoughts and words seem to come flooding out at once.<br />
<br />
Michael was an Irishman with a quick wit and a big heart.
Our first direct encounter over four years ago is recorded for posterity on YouTube, when he put me on the spot at a Third Tuesday meetup (<a href="http://propr.ca/2008/freshbooks-execs-listen-and-respond-to-customers/">the third video in this blog post</a>). I knew who he was, but I don't think we had actually spoken before. Funny how the Internet can capture random moments like this.<br />
<br />
We were the same age, and both shared a love of music. We would sometimes talk back-and-forth about bands we loved via Facebook. I suspect if we had been on the same side of the ocean 25 years ago we would have been good friends back then.<br />
<br />
He was in hospital since June. When cancer and treatments left him without his physical voice, he was still able to reach out and participate in the online community via Twitter. It was a real pleasure to be able to still joke around with him when it was not possible to visit him in person. His whole family who were geographically dispersed (siblings, cousins, father) soon were online giving him words of love and encouragement. We so rarely see such private, intimate moments in others' lives. And yet for Michael--who was such a part of this online community--it was appropriate. I thank them for being so open, and letting the rest of us participate and provide moral support.<br />
<br />
Unlike many of the people in Toronto, I never worked with Michael or was mentored by him. But still, I can already see that his absence will be leaving a big hole in our lives. He was ever present online with some words of wisdom or a joke. You may have even seen a meme or two that he originated. He was a real "do-er," quick to jump in to help organize events such as the HoHoTO fundraiser. It will be strange to participate in events like Mesh and PodCamp Toronto without him.<br />
<br />
I am at the age now where so many people in my circle of family and friends are struggling with cancer and other ailments such as dementia. Michael's passing really brings home the message that we cannot take each other for granted.<br />
<br />
As happens when we lose someone we care about, so many thoughts come to my mind as I realize once again how short life really is. Michael has inspired these musings:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Appreciate our loved ones. We do not know how much time we have together. Spend time together. Tell them you love them.</li>
<li>Don't wait to do the things you want to do in this life. Don't wait for retirement. Get out there and live your dreams! What is at the top of your bucket list?</li>
<li>Take a chance. Find a way to live your life to its fullest. </li>
<li>Live passionately. We are only here for a short time--make it count.</li>
<li>Take life with a sense of humour. This makes any pain easier to bear. </li>
<li>We must help and support each other. A touch of kindness goes a long way.</li>
<li>Don't be afraid to be yourself and show your personality. </li>
</ul>
<div>
<br />
This song goes out to Michael. You were a flame that burned bright, extinguished all too soon. Rest in peace, my friend. My heart goes out to his family--my condolences at this difficult time.<br />
<br /></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/y44UVAy2jgk?list=UU0YjP1dWiz1Q0sLhdks3irA&hl=en_US" width="640"></iframe>
</div>
Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-78864602325658200582012-03-05T07:00:00.003-05:002012-03-05T08:03:53.540-05:00Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner on Privacy and Electronic Health Records<i>On Friday, March 2, 2012, Dr. Ann Cavoukian, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, gave a well-attended talk for healthcare professionals and organizations at the Toronto Board of Trade entitled "Embedding Privacy in the Design of Electronic Health Records - Yes, You Can". Note: these are my selected notes from this session; any inaccuracies or omissions are my own. I welcome your comments and follow-up thoughts!</i><br />
<br />
Electronic health records (EHRs)<br />
<br />
“<a href="http://privacybydesign.ca/" target="_blank">Privacy by Design</a>” (PbD) = embedding privacy into the architecture of services and records management<br />
<br />
Dr. Cavoukian does not necessarily favour privacy over healthcare; she has had multiple neurosurgeries and knows what it is like to be in emergency needing immediate healthcare and not worrying about privacy. The most important thing is the right healthcare service at the right time. However, you can embed a cloak of security around this. <br />
<br />
<b>Privacy = Control</b><br />
<br />
People want to feel they are in control of their health information. If you keep the user in mind, it is giving them freedom to control their information that is important. Germans have a concept called “informational self-determination” and they have some of the strongest controls. After loss of control with the Third Reich, Germans are very protective of the control over their own information. Privacy is absolutely essential to freedom and society.<br />
<br />
"Give me Real Privacy now, not privacy theatre" - See: <a href="http://realprivacy.ca/">RealPrivacy.ca</a><br />
<br />
She is releasing a paper she co-authored with Canada Health Infoway: <a href="http://www.ipc.on.ca/english/Resources/News-Releases/News-Releases-Summary/?id=1170" target="_blank">Embedding Privacy into the Design of EHRs to Enable Multiple Functionalities - Win/Win </a>(March 2, 2012):<br />
<br />
• It is not privacy or EHRs; it is both<br />
• If you are not interested in privacy, you have no business being in health; you have to have privacy top of mind; it can’t be something you get to “eventually”; it is way too late if you look at it at the end<br />
• Privacy has to be an integral component in all that you do; do not take a silo'ed approach. If you do, you will fail and have a privacy breach.<br />
• Privacy by Design means taking an holistic approach. If you are in HR or e-health businesses, this is what you have to do.<br />
<br />
<b>Legislation - PHIPA </b><br />
<br />
<i><a href="http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_04p03_e.htm" target="_blank">Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004</a></i> (Ontario)<br />
• Was used as a framework for the United States' <a href="http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/index.html" target="_blank">HIPAA</a> legislation<br />
• Came into effect November 1, 2004<br />
• Not the only driving principle but is paramount and drives the privacy activities in this area<br />
• It is a consent-based statute but can sometimes rely on implied consent<br />
<br />
Everything is moving to the cloud, and there is so much extreme sensitivity around personal health – we need to feel trust in the systems we are building.<br />
<br />
<b>“Give me electronic health records now”</b><br />
<br />
She has been ranting for years: “Give me electronic health records now”<br />
• reduces delays in healthcare: she has first-hand experience with a painful12 hour delay of surgery because records not accessible.<br />
• She is a real advocate in favour of e-health records<br />
• Design of systems is critical – maximize the privacy with strong encryption, strong audit logs that set alarms when unauthorized access help to alleviate concerns, but there will still be concerns<br />
<br />
<b>Portable devices </b><br />
<br />
• Have expanded dramatically<br />
• We live on our mobile devices<br />
• Some of the orders she has had to give have been around the transfer of data to mobile devices that are unprotected<br />
• In our zeal for electronic, we are not taking the necessary precautions that we should be<br />
• There are problems with paper-based records also, but portable devices present a unique set of problems<br />
<br />
One of the most vulnerable times is when records are being transferred from paper to electronic records<br />
• See paper: <a href="http://www.ipc.on.ca/images/Resources/phipa-toolforphysicians.pdf" target="_blank">A Practical Tool for Physicians Transitioning to Electronic Records</a> [pdf - May 21, 2009]<br />
<br />
<b>Beware of unintended consequences</b><br />
<br />
• See U.S. report - Dr. Larry Ponemon's “<a href="http://www2.idexpertscorp.com/resources/healthcare/healthcare-articles-whitepapers/ponemon-benchmark-study-on-patient-data-security-practices/?utm_source=Ponemon%2BRedirect&utm_medium=Online&utm_campaign=Ponemon%2BRedirect/" target="_blank">Benchmark Study on Patient Privacy and Data Security</a>”<br />
o Almost all practitioners in the U.S. have had data breaches in the past year – lost or stolen records<br />
o Increased from the year before<br />
o 81% of healthcare services used mobile devices, most not secured (no encryption, etc.)<br />
• if you don’t make privacy a priority, it will come back to bite you<br />
• unfortunately it also comes back to bite the patients – patients now not seeking treatment because they don’t want their conditions known – they go to great lengths to conceal information; they may also falsify information<br />
• also creates loss of trust on the part of patients<br />
• will have to consider privacy at the front end from the senior management level<br />
<br />
<b>Cost of data breaches</b><br />
<br />
• U.S. - Cost of data breach $202 per record on average; in U.S. between 2006 and 2007, 1.5 million data breaches<br />
• In Canada - $100 - $200 cost of data breach per individual<br />
• December 2009 in Durham – nurse lost a USB key, unencrypted – she did not follow protocol - $40 million law suit currently in the discovery stage – was not in compliance with PHIPA<br />
• Numerous fines in the U.S. by Health and Human Services<br />
• She is more concerned about the affect on patients<br />
<br />
She is dismayed by the approach of having privacy seen as some soft policy looked at the end. <br />
<br />
<b>Privacy by Design</b><br />
<br />
Adoption of <a href="http://www.privacyconference2011.org/htmls/adoptedResolutions/2010_Jerusalem/2010_J5.pdf" target="_blank">“Privacy by Design” Resolution</a> [pdf]<br />
• Passed in Jerusalem, December 2010<br />
<br />
7 principles of Privacy by Design<br />
<br />
<ol><li>Proactive, not reactive</li>
<li>Privacy is the default setting</li>
<li>Privacy embedded into design</li>
<li>Full functionality: positive sum, not zero sum</li>
<li>End-to-end security; full lifecycle protection</li>
<li>Visibility and transparency; keep it open</li>
<li>Respect to user privacy; keep it user-centric</li>
</ol><br />
She believes in a win-win solution where we can have both openness and privacy. It’s very difficult, but “you can do this.” Need to have it security from the time of taking in the information to the time of destruction of the information. <br />
<br />
You have to have senior privacy people as part of your senior executive team. When the top gets to the privacy message, then the messaging flows through the entire organization.<br />
<br />
Consent is fundamental to privacy. PHIPA is a consent-based statute. Consent can be implied at times; you don’t want your time with your doctor “whittled away” by spending time talking about privacy. Implied consent within your immediate healthcare circle. The moment you step out of that circle, you need explicit consent.<br />
<br />
PbD - Privacy by Design<br />
<br />
• use the information de-identified for research<br />
o the privacy resides in the identifiability of the data <br />
o build de-identification processes into the system<br />
• the benefits of “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_data" target="_blank">big data</a>” are enormous but we need privacy to go with it – “We can’t have big data without big privacy.”<br />
• Paper with <a href="http://ehip.blogs.com/about.html" target="_blank">Dr. Khaled El Emam</a>, Canadian Research Chair in Electronic Health Information - The <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1744038" target="_blank">Case for De-identifying Personal Health Information</a><br />
• Re-identification is very very difficult to do – do not avoid de-identification with the reasoning that someone can re-identify – <a href="http://www.ehealthinformation.ca/knowledgebase/category/14/0/10/PARAT-Tool-Demos/" target="_blank">Dr. Khaled El Emam’s tool</a> can help with de-identification<br />
<br />
<b>Trends</b><br />
<br />
• Her concern is with the healthcare providers who think that her information (as a patient) is their information. The healthcare provider has custody of the data but it does not belong to them – belongs to the patient.<br />
<br />
• What about the patient? Different efforts with EHRs leaves the patient out of the equation <br />
o Need to do more to empower patients, especially those who have chronic conditions<br />
o Need to put the information into the patients’ hands, not just the healthcare provider<br />
o She goes to great lengths to get copies of all her own records and she likes to manage those herself <br />
- If you have multiple healthcare practitioners, it is hard for one to know what the other is doing<br />
<br />
• Moving away from a central model of healthcare systems – just not working – regionalization instead<br />
o Locally: Connect GTA – health information to be shared across the continuum of care to be shared within the GTA<br />
o Within Toronto the hospitals are not all connected although there are successful models outside Toronto<br />
o It is a challenging task – “We can get people onto the moon, surely we can connect these systems.” “The hospitals aren’t that far from each other.” “The challenge is well worth it.”<br />
<br />
<b>Outsourcing data work</b><br />
<br />
• you remain accountable just as if you handle the information<br />
• outsourcing to the US: the <i>USA PATRIOT Act</i> is a red herring – there are so many legal instruments in place before the <i>USA PATRIOT Act</i><br />
• Privacy by Design sets a higher bar - you still need to talk with the patients and put privacy in place – you will be in compliance with any law around the world if you are on the cloud<br />
<br />
<b>Development of big databases and registries</b><br />
<br />
• E.g. Diabetes Registry<br />
• Consent is becoming a big issue <br />
• you have to factor in consent, but debatable how you do it<br />
• opt-out is the easiest to set up, but the problem is communicating the opt-out option with the public <br />
• things that are very sensitive should not rely on the average person to be scouring the newspapers etc. to see their opt-out options – that is not on their radar, they are not thinking about that – there has to be an understanding of how data can be accessed – education of the public around this is very low<br />
• there is an arrogance of the administrators of these systems (“it is for research”); the patients’ interests are secondary – need to challenge this attitude<br />
• there are ways to use data and retain privacy e.g. ICES uses unique identifiers on the data that are meaningless outside of the system.<br />
<br />
<b>Conclusions</b><br />
• Make privacy a priority<br />
• We can manage the privacy risks of EHRs – “we have to”<br />
• If risks are not successfully managed – this will set trust in the system back too far<br />
• Much easier and cost-effective to build privacy in at the front end – “do yourself a favour if you are in this area, do it at the front end”<br />
• Do not take a silo'ed approach to privacy <br />
• If you leave it to the end, you will do “privacy by disaster”<br />
<br />
See also: my<a href="http://www.slaw.ca/2012/03/05/ontarios-information-and-privacy-commissioner-on-electronic-health-records/" target="_blank"> blog post on Slaw.ca which discusses the report released on Friday</a>Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-34185371824867671222012-03-04T20:07:00.000-05:002012-03-04T20:07:11.384-05:00Back to Reality: What I've Been Up ToWow--I can't believe it has been almost three months since I last blogged here! I guess that is a sign I have been busy. Still, I feel I should be sharing more. Here are a few highlights on what I have been up to lately:<br />
<br />
<b>Recent talks</b><br />
<br />
In January I gave a talk about social media to lawyers at a conference put on by <a href="http://thecommonsinstitute.com/">The Commons Institute</a>. My slides are below:<br />
<br />
<div id="__ss_11210877" style="width: 425px;"><strong style="display: block; margin: 12px 0 4px;"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/conniecrosby/building-your-practice-profile-through-social-media" target="_blank" title="Building Your Practice Profile Through Social Media ">Building Your Practice Profile Through Social Media </a></strong> <iframe frameborder="0" height="355" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/11210877?rel=0" width="425"></iframe> <br />
<div style="padding: 5px 0 12px;">View more presentations from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/conniecrosby" target="_blank">Connie Crosby</a> </div></div><br />
At the beginning of February I gave a talk to the <a href="http://www.iaap-toronto.org/">Toronto chapter of the International Association of Administrative Professionals</a> on building an effective social network. My slides are below (I was trying out a slightly different format with these):<br />
<br />
<div id="__ss_11508081" style="width: 425px;"><strong style="display: block; margin: 12px 0 4px;"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/conniecrosby/building-an-effective-social-network" target="_blank" title="Building an Effective Social Network">Building an Effective Social Network</a></strong> <iframe frameborder="0" height="355" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/11508081?rel=0" width="425"></iframe> <br />
<div style="padding: 5px 0 12px;">View more presentations from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/conniecrosby" target="_blank">Connie Crosby</a> </div></div><br />
I have also been giving private talks lately to various organizations and a range of professional audiences. If you are looking for someone to help explain social media and related topics geared specifically for your audience, and want someone who has a broader perspective than public relations, do get in touch with me. <br />
<br />
<b>PodCamp Toronto 2012</b><br />
<br />
After the talk to IAAP, a good part of my February was spent helping to organize this year's <a href="http://2012.podcamptoronto.com/">PodCamp Toronto</a>, held last weekend at Ryerson University's Rogers Communication Centre. This is definitely a labour of love since all organizers are volunteers putting in hundreds of hours between December and February to pull this social media "unconference" together. We had over 1100 registrants this year and over 70 sessions throughout the weekend. This was my fifth year organizing, and so rewarding! It is great fun to set the infrastructure in place and see the social media community take over sharing knowledge, content and enthusiasm for the weekend. I love seeing all the tweets via Twitter, slide decks from presentations, photos and blog posts that are gradually emerging from the weekend. To find them, search for the tag PCTO2012 (#pcto2012 on Twitter).<br />
<br />
In the meantime I myself haven't stopped learning! I even managed to attend a few sessions at PodCamp this year. I am processing all that I have heard. At some point I will be sharing what I have learned, trends I am seeing, and possibly notes I took along the way. I have some notes I took Friday from a talk by the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner Dr. Ann Cavoukian which I should be posting tomorrow, and there should be a related post on Slaw.ca in the morning.<br />
<br />
<b>On Slaw.ca</b><br />
<br />
Speaking of which, in case you have missed them, I have still been fairly consistent with my blogging at Slaw.ca. Here are some of my recent posts you might want to check out if you haven't already:<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://www.slaw.ca/2011/12/19/improving-your-law-firm-blog-content/" target="_blank">Improving your law firm blog content </a>(December 19, 2011)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.slaw.ca/2012/01/02/a-cyber-security-strategy-for-global-civil-society/" target="_blank">A cyber security strategy for global civil society?</a> (January 2, 2012)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.slaw.ca/2012/01/16/should-there-be-parttime-law-school-in-canada/" target="_blank">Should there be parttime law school in Canada?</a> (January 16, 2012)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.slaw.ca/2012/02/06/firm-takes-fresh-approach-with-website/" target="_blank">Firm takes fresh approach with website</a> (February 6, 2012)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.slaw.ca/2012/02/13/secs-social-media-fraud-warnings/" target="_blank">SEC's social media fraud warnings</a> (February 13, 2012)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.slaw.ca/2012/02/27/new-social-media-darling-pinterest-and-copyright-law/" target="_blank">New social media darling Pinterest and copyright law</a> (February 27, 2012)</li>
</ul><div>What have you been up to lately? Any interesting projects in the works? </div>Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-53925843827233909822011-12-19T21:29:00.004-05:002011-12-20T12:18:30.313-05:00Info Tech Start-ups Featured at SLA Toronto EventA few weeks ago I attended <a href="http://toronto.sla.org/" target="_blank">SLA Toronto</a>'s event <a href="http://toronto.sla.org/events/start-it-up" target="_blank">Start It Up!</a> The event was hosted by <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/helen-kula/5/506/aab" target="_blank">Helen Kula</a> at the <a href="http://www.marsdd.com/" target="_blank">MaRS Discovery District</a> where she works as a Senior Information Specialist in the Market Intelligence group. Four local vendors presented their technologies, all in the area of information aggregation.<br />
<br />
I was excited to attend because as someone who works and plays in the areas of social media, information management and knowledge management, I am always looking for useful new tools to use in my work. We live in exciting times when someone in his or her basement can quickly become the founder of the next Amazon, Twitter or Facebook. But it's not an easy road to getting there, and those startups that truly have valuable ideas need our support if they are going to be viable.<br />
<br />
The notes below are based on notes I sent out via Twitter during the event. No doubt there are inaccuracies and omissions as a result; I welcome corrections and additions.<br />
<div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p1"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Trendspottr -<a href="http://trendspottr.com/" target="_blank"> http://trendspottr.com/</a> - <a href="http://twitter.com/trendspottr" target="_blank">@trendspottr</a></span></b></div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p3"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2rTGfgJd7Xmu-oFQeWjW-BoUUw1vfzYwFA6tFWfSf7lBv3DdN7iG3e24OrJJFUds28P9go3XnakEhFWTzSbg30oM5XyZe2m7C4DIFyD2Ylw7Ilxo3RyoEY7ttGJoaQZ3EUTNBzQ/s1600/trendspottr.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2rTGfgJd7Xmu-oFQeWjW-BoUUw1vfzYwFA6tFWfSf7lBv3DdN7iG3e24OrJJFUds28P9go3XnakEhFWTzSbg30oM5XyZe2m7C4DIFyD2Ylw7Ilxo3RyoEY7ttGJoaQZ3EUTNBzQ/s200/trendspottr.png" width="200" /></a></div>First up was Mark from Trendspottr. Trendspottr is a free web-based service that identifies and predicts trends from real-time data. Some of the largest media companies in the world are using it, for example: the BBC, The Guardian, BBC Today, Yahoo News and Canada's <a href="http://www.postmedia.com/" target="_blank">Post Media</a>. Also some of the biggest PR agencies in the world are using it to identify trends. <a href="http://klout.com/" target="_blank">Klout</a> is using also using it internally, sees the value of it.</div><div class="p5"><br />
</div><div class="p3">Mark explained to use that the "half-life" of content is now about 3 hours. It will soon be down to minutes. Value dissipates quickly. The focus of Trendspotter is to find data very early on, hours before general awareness. They are now trying to predict trends and outcomes, getting ahead of the info curve.</div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p3">Trendspotter has a <a href="http://trendspottr.com/bookmarklet.php" target="_blank">bookmarklet</a> that allows you to start a search to see what is trending on any topic.</div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p3">In December it will be integrated with social media "dashboard" tool <a href="http://hootsuite.com/" target="_blank">Hootsuite</a>. They will soon also be releasing Trendspottr Newsroom and Trendspottr Pro (with notifications and analysis). Trendspottr is also working on time-based influencer analysis.</div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p3"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">BuzzData - <a href="http://buzzdata.com/">buzzdata.com</a> - <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/BuzzData"><span class="s1">@BuzzData</span></a> </span></b></div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p3"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqp6IdPg1qWRqsTXxw1-tKjgik-FKxFYKmqYNNpGxdnogMxGfHOjVcCxF9eZdrXPXpY513fxUqIhZkGCpLljTWe4XzHjPTvnoTly4kDSvNf0rs3tS8lduv2XqyQCjawyiySJ7cVQ/s1600/BuzzData.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqp6IdPg1qWRqsTXxw1-tKjgik-FKxFYKmqYNNpGxdnogMxGfHOjVcCxF9eZdrXPXpY513fxUqIhZkGCpLljTWe4XzHjPTvnoTly4kDSvNf0rs3tS8lduv2XqyQCjawyiySJ7cVQ/s200/BuzzData.png" width="154" /></a></div>Next up was <a href="https://twitter.com/nickedouard" target="_blank">Nick Edouard</a> of BuzzData<span class="s1">, a tool for</span> data sharing and collaboration. Data sets loaded onto <span class="s1">BuzzData</span> are given their own URL and tools for sharing or working with privately.<br />
<br />
Some of the features making BuzzData unique:</div><div class="p3"><br />
<ul><li>You can choose your license for making data sets available publicly, for example making them available under Creative Commons.</li>
<li>BuzzData helps to encourage community around the data, encouraging the community to work with, manipulate, and link to the data.</li>
<li>You can add context to data including visuals, graphs, images.</li>
<li>Versioning of data. Excel doesn't allow for this kind of data trail. </li>
<li>Site has ability to flag content as being inappropriate.</li>
</ul></div><div class="p4">BuzzData is a platform. Edouard says "let's build an ecosystem of apps around it," which goes along with the general philosphy of BuzzData: "Good stuff happens when data is shared." It seems to me this is a lot of what we hear reporter/author <a href="http://www.buzzmachine.com/" target="_blank">Jeff Jarvis</a> saying as well. </div><div class="p4"><br />
Still in public beta, <span class="s1">BuzzData</span> is being used by newspapers, news agencies, governments, cities, not-for-profits, NGOs and more.</div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p3">Edouard explained that most people's experience with open data was version 1.0. We now need to take it a step further, curating the data and building engagement around it. </div><div class="p5"><br />
</div><div class="p3"><br />
</div><div class="p3"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">ConnectedN - <a href="http://www.connectedn.com/">http://www.connectedn.com/</a> - <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/getconnectedn"><span class="s1">@getconnectedn</span></a></span></b></div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p3"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj75tTCwYNErhcd8Z3K9zXAKs3gssNkk9gtqVxQxYyhmj1JkoyOyZva8u_qQdEF8_gjiEVVSvk2QI49DtHHhuNWA30I5fT9dVH8F2ttJEKbEC1qaSpL_XJIqVQUZw_NqdBJbCZx_w/s1600/ConnectedN+-+B2B+Marketing+Platform+%257C+Home.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj75tTCwYNErhcd8Z3K9zXAKs3gssNkk9gtqVxQxYyhmj1JkoyOyZva8u_qQdEF8_gjiEVVSvk2QI49DtHHhuNWA30I5fT9dVH8F2ttJEKbEC1qaSpL_XJIqVQUZw_NqdBJbCZx_w/s200/ConnectedN+-+B2B+Marketing+Platform+%257C+Home.png" width="200" /></a></div>How do you get experts to comment on something relevant and turn it into content for clients? That is the goal of ConnectedN. </div><div class="p5"><br />
</div><div class="p3">How does it work? ConnectedN delivers targeted information to the experts inside an organization (also for knowledge management and marketing teams). It allows them to easily add comments and then publish this out to blogs, a newsletter, Twitter, LinkedIn and other sources on the Internet. </div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p3">This allows you to easily designate one person inside your organization to spend an hour a week or five minutes a day participating in content creation. </div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p3">If you have a strong KM or marketing team trying to drive customer engagement, this makes it a lot easier. </div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p3">Currently ConnectedN is available as a paid, customized service, but will soon be launching a self-serve, lower price point service.<br />
<br />
</div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p3"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Sciencescape - coming soon to: <span class="s1"><a href="http://www.sciencescape.net/" target="_blank">http://www.sciencescape.net</a> </span></span></b></div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p3">Next up: Sam from Sciencescape with a new product launched that same day.</div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p3">Sciencescape maps out scientific publications/articles from <a href="http://pubmed.gov/" target="_blank">PubMed</a>, and includes news feeds, filters, timelines and article-level metrics.</div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p3">To date Sciencescape has been mapping out current publications. They will be relying on users to map out historic articles. According to Sam, Sciencescape gets better the more it is used: as comments are added in, researchers around "bleeding edge" areas can be identified. </div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p3">Once available to the public (soon!), there will be flagging methods in Sciencescape to help police contributions. </div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p3">It is not yet ready, but in a few days we should be able to go to <a href="http://www.sciencescape.net/" target="_blank"><span class="s1">http://www.sciencescape.net/</span></a> and sign up for beta passwords.<br />
<br />
</div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p3"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Eqentia - <a href="http://www.eqentia.com/">http://www.eqentia.com/</a> - <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/eqentia"><span class="s1">@eqentia</span></a> </span></b></div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p3"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyYe_2swdh_Qj_y1lP2-KUE-ufmNhLN3NsIRM2YHggWCucMiGCqOPixOi2QpjSC6G66BiBsoMUJQILWRE7MTLym7SFG-WwA2RzSVWpVq_ObtWbFD5k-xbio9FfxY_h94xVOutcag/s1600/Eqentia+Content+Curation%252C+Monitoring%252C+Aggregation+and+Re-publishing+for+the+Enterprise.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyYe_2swdh_Qj_y1lP2-KUE-ufmNhLN3NsIRM2YHggWCucMiGCqOPixOi2QpjSC6G66BiBsoMUJQILWRE7MTLym7SFG-WwA2RzSVWpVq_ObtWbFD5k-xbio9FfxY_h94xVOutcag/s200/Eqentia+Content+Curation%252C+Monitoring%252C+Aggregation+and+Re-publishing+for+the+Enterprise.png" width="161" /></a></div>Next up at SLA Toronto start-up night: <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/wmougayar" target="_blank"><span class="s1">William Mougayar</span></a> of Eqentia - a news/social media content curation platform. I was already familiar with Eqentia, having worked with Mougayar previously to put a sample site together (more on that below). </div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p3">Eqentia allows organizations or internal departments to put content out to internal or external clients/customers. Content can be automated, curated, or manually gathered.</div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p3">Eqentia looks for relevancy rather than popularity; it index 120,000 articles per day using semantic search. It looks for relevancy first, then popularity.</div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p3">It essentially allows you to become the publisher - content comes in, is filtered according to rules you set, and the good content comes out. Your content can be branded, integrated with any site, even delivered via email.</div><div class="p5"><br />
</div><div class="p3">Eqentia acts as an all-in-one comprehensive platform allowing for content harvesting, filtering, aggregation, curation, branding, newsletter managemeent, semantic searching, publishing and more. The content integrates well with social media; it has "on ramps" and "off ramps" bringing content in, pushing content out.</div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p3">They already have a range of customers. Mougayar said he is talking to a few law firms currently because of mix of internal and external content. </div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p3">Mougayar showed a sample Eqentia site at <a href="http://www.librariesfuture.com/" target="_blank"><span class="s1">http://www.librariesfuture.com/</span></a> that was created with my help. (It needs work and, yes, it is heavy with posts from my friend <a href="http://stephenslighthouse.com/" target="_blank">Stephen Abram</a>). </div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p6"><span class="s4">ITWorld Canada also has an Eqentia site <span class="s1"><a href="http://www.itworldcanadacurated.com/" target="_blank">http://www.itworldcanadacurated.com/</a>. </span></span><br />
<span class="s4"><span class="s1"><br />
</span></span><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Wrapping it all up</span></b><br />
<br />
I personally find the subject of tech startups to be fascinating, and love to see us give support to these local companies, especially in terms of being beta testers, providing feedback, and giving them potential new business.<br />
<br />
During the Eqentia presentation, I was asked how I got involved with the project. Long story short: I had attended a few <a href="http://www.meetup.com/Toronto-Semantic-Web-Meetup-Group/" target="_blank">Toronto Semantic Web Meetup Group</a> meetings organized by William Mougayar in an attempt to get my head around the semantic web. He is extremely humble, not talking about his own semantic tool at the meetings. As I started to get to know him, I started to ask about his company. Finally one day he invited me to see it in action. I was hooked!<br />
<br />
He then asked if I would like to curate a site. Of course! Unfortunately it has been a busy year and I haven't spent the time on it that I would like (which is why I've never written it up here previously). But I hope you will take a look. If you would like an introduction to the folks at Eqentia, let me know. I have no financial arrangements with them--I am just an enthusiastic fan-girl who likes to be the first to try things out.</div><div class="p4"><br />
Everyone seemed to quite enjoy the tech start-up evening. I hope SLA Toronto makes this an annual event! Toronto is a real hot-bed for tech start-up companies, many of them working in areas that should be of interest to special librarians, information managers, and knowledge management directors. </div>Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-24539865866147029302011-11-15T10:53:00.001-05:002011-11-15T10:59:50.997-05:00Why Occupy Toronto?I have been trying to get my head around the "Occupy" movement, particularly in Canada. It seems to me there are a lot of points of contention and pain in other countries, but wonder what we have to complain about in Canada that would move people to these extreme measures. I'm also not sure I completely "get" this movement since there are not specific demands or direction. On the other hand, I defend their right to peaceful assembly and protest. <br />
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I was in New York last week and walked past the Occupy Wall Street encampment. I was surprised at how small a geographic space it takes up (no bigger than Toronto's, albeit a lot more densely populated). I was also surprised at how organized they appeared to be, obviously quite self-contained in the space they are occupying. <br />
<br />
Last night my fellow<a href="http://www.slaw.ca/author/redeye/" target="_blank"> Slaw law blogger</a> <a href="http://www.omarha-redeye.com/" target="_blank">Omar Ha-Redeye</a> appeared on TV Ontario's current affairs talk show <a href="http://theagenda.tvo.org/" target="_blank">The Agenda</a> with Steve Paikin supporting the <a href="http://occupyto.org/" target="_blank">Occupy Toronto</a> movement. It is a thought-provoking exchange and helped clarify things for me. Here's that discussion--<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IetQdHUTvAw?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br />
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As I have been writing this, word comes via Twitter that the people at Occupy Toronto have been served eviction notices by the city. Everything is peaceful so far, but the city (and the world) will be watching.Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-62607919501980069952011-11-13T17:01:00.000-05:002011-11-13T17:01:34.869-05:00My Top 5 Tips for Businesses Using Social MediaOn Friday <a href="https://plus.google.com/106637908507121678036/posts">Phil Ridout</a> put out the following question to some people in his Google Plus network:<br />
<div><b></b><br />
<blockquote><b>Social media in business setting - top tips please!</b><br />
I've been asked to make a presentation in 10 days time about using Social Media in a Business Setting. I've a bunch of ideas and stuff of my own but what better way to demonstrate the power of social networking than by asking people in my network for their top tips. So, what are your top 5 tips for businesses using Social Media please.</blockquote>I quite like the list I came up with, so decided to share with you here. This has been derived from a lot of reading, course work learning and hard-won real world experience. I believe all these points apply whether your project is inward facing or outward facing.<br />
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<b>My top 5:</b><br />
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</div><div>1. Start small with a "quick win" project, especially with a small group (e.g. pilot project, proof of concept) and then slowly work into larger, strategic projects from there.<br />
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2. Don't build an "empty disco" - seed any new tool with content and invite a few people in to share specific contributions to get the ball rolling. If the dance floor is empty, no one is going to want to be the first to dance.<br />
<br />
</div><div>3. Solicit early adopter(s) to be champion(s) of the project. Give them support, including special training in the project's technology. Keep them in the loop so they can accurately sell/evangelize to others inside the organization.<br />
<br />
</div><div>4. To sell it to the executives, the initiative needs to tie back to the organization's or department's business goals. Don't just start using a tool because everyone else is doing it. (Hint: "It will improve collaboration" rarely ties back to business goals and is usually not a selling point.)<br />
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</div><div>5. If the small project doesn't work, kill it quickly and move on to another "quick win." </div><div><br />
</div><div>What do you think of these tips? What are your top 5 tips for businesses using social media?</div>Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-11566226688158674002011-11-10T15:33:00.000-05:002011-11-10T15:33:14.933-05:00Are You Using Plaxo? How to Delete Your AccountA discussion on one of my listservs about Plaxo got me thinking about why I had signed up for it, and why I still had an account. It was many years ago that I signed on (probably when it was first launched). I signed on to see what it is about, but rarely went back. Few of my contacts were there, and those were mostly contacts I have connection with on other sites. So, I decided to delete my account and document the process for everyone.<br />
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Do you use Plaxo? I am curious to know what value you are getting from it. Why do you use it?<br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">How to delete your Plaxo account</span></b><br />
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1. Go to the Plaxo site http://www.plaxo.com and click on the "sign in" button.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrl7cpnGTfEPV1jFztfcOiwsj4K4wAVQwM0crmG1F2EI7Vp2HIPzBVYVwz7zMRI5KONBUxVEEbXzIRs2siBJjZ-0kkFuzyF_X06z-4X4V843tpY4MNH2aWK-9N6u4VcCfxeuWWcw/s1600/Plaxo+-+your+address+book+for+life-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrl7cpnGTfEPV1jFztfcOiwsj4K4wAVQwM0crmG1F2EI7Vp2HIPzBVYVwz7zMRI5KONBUxVEEbXzIRs2siBJjZ-0kkFuzyF_X06z-4X4V843tpY4MNH2aWK-9N6u4VcCfxeuWWcw/s400/Plaxo+-+your+address+book+for+life-1.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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2. Sign in. If you don't remember your password, ask for a password reminder. Hopefully you remember the email address you used to sign up!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXQzJlHvmV3unEnAktN_MZJxeZ-Sko4LpJTUEP_cJrGXE-EtBZgwxxqddIadpCi5-XFS4cl1aQlNU3AdrjWwfIOtCgLV43JTPbGy8Box4oHPb_zTBg-ubm3xGWbudtXshN4lV2Gw/s1600/Plaxo+-+your+address+book+for+life-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXQzJlHvmV3unEnAktN_MZJxeZ-Sko4LpJTUEP_cJrGXE-EtBZgwxxqddIadpCi5-XFS4cl1aQlNU3AdrjWwfIOtCgLV43JTPbGy8Box4oHPb_zTBg-ubm3xGWbudtXshN4lV2Gw/s400/Plaxo+-+your+address+book+for+life-2.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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3. Once you successfully sign in, click on the drop down menu under your name. Then click on "Settings".<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoknYFim3u7ZdrOX7TgT0ixPnMrMY0EOsLFPRJ6GAz_0ChqTTWI92QFtL9UzqTWc5fpRf3WTToq1N-YYyWXkt7o6jruXoJS60o1ZBfbwbSUJIibo37iwx42JsgOAQ-tIpiQtg0LA/s1600/Plaxo-3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoknYFim3u7ZdrOX7TgT0ixPnMrMY0EOsLFPRJ6GAz_0ChqTTWI92QFtL9UzqTWc5fpRf3WTToq1N-YYyWXkt7o6jruXoJS60o1ZBfbwbSUJIibo37iwx42JsgOAQ-tIpiQtg0LA/s400/Plaxo-3.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<br />
4. On the first screen under "Account info" find the line that says "If you no longer want to use Plaxo, you can delete your account." Click on the words "delete your account" (in blue).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ6tkfXcADb1gyoT7vq34xeSHfFiEiq6oE1u8HcF8Yh_m0IRgtwamIjeI4AuXaxN_d2NAu3Gc4KeY75rGMDLdRxRYytvcaYodKIJN3-FOGWKHdMs6j8CFJFegsz4boiUuhiZnhpg/s1600/Plaxo+-+Settings-4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ6tkfXcADb1gyoT7vq34xeSHfFiEiq6oE1u8HcF8Yh_m0IRgtwamIjeI4AuXaxN_d2NAu3Gc4KeY75rGMDLdRxRYytvcaYodKIJN3-FOGWKHdMs6j8CFJFegsz4boiUuhiZnhpg/s400/Plaxo+-+Settings-4.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<br />
5. Plaxo will ask you to confirm the deletion. Note that this deletion (and the deletion of all your contacts) will be permanent. It asks you to review what will be deleted. If you prefer, there is a way to download your content from the very first screen (under "Sync and Back Up" in the menu at the top). I didn't bother with that since I did not have much content or many contacts.<br />
<br />
Plaxo also asks for your reasons for leaving, and what they could have done better to keep you to stay.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc6ESGcsrD0LTzHiIpbPwnmWUx8ezujQrQS6o2z6RQ-dwtCj3m9DbDe0x_PLkxV8oMAdtbqOcK9Y-qGXnG5Vl5XiOnIi9CAw8pv6sYCjJfR1Ybyn2-hCoGPeWON2f-YfPwWjP0Fg/s1600/Plaxo+%25C2%25BB+Permanently+Delete+Your+Plaxo+Account+-+5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc6ESGcsrD0LTzHiIpbPwnmWUx8ezujQrQS6o2z6RQ-dwtCj3m9DbDe0x_PLkxV8oMAdtbqOcK9Y-qGXnG5Vl5XiOnIi9CAw8pv6sYCjJfR1Ybyn2-hCoGPeWON2f-YfPwWjP0Fg/s400/Plaxo+%25C2%25BB+Permanently+Delete+Your+Plaxo+Account+-+5.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />
6. Click on the blue "Delete account" button (above) and voila! your account has been permanently deleted.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5V50ISZ1DRULgTr2sf8HFBiW_na2g8JubtEW-JliJerHNNJkQ1isfNaote2KX0aAZaKIJOkqvpWoMLVwlNjweAg4iQ2XvaMgO8M2HBousyMt7bwZnZi0avP99YmxEWbnSa7TvjA/s1600/Plaxo+%25C2%25BB+Your+Plaxo+Account+Has+Been+Permanently+Deleted+-+6.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5V50ISZ1DRULgTr2sf8HFBiW_na2g8JubtEW-JliJerHNNJkQ1isfNaote2KX0aAZaKIJOkqvpWoMLVwlNjweAg4iQ2XvaMgO8M2HBousyMt7bwZnZi0avP99YmxEWbnSa7TvjA/s400/Plaxo+%25C2%25BB+Your+Plaxo+Account+Has+Been+Permanently+Deleted+-+6.png" width="400" /></a></div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></b>Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-20532181549485901632011-08-08T21:40:00.002-04:002011-08-08T21:46:25.720-04:00Blogger Monday: When should you back up your blog content?Last week I wrote my <a href="http://conniecrosby.blogspot.com/2001/08/blogger-monday-kickstarting-old-blog.html">"Blogger Monday" blog post</a> Sunday night and used the option to schedule it to post on the Monday. I went to sleep, content in having a new blog post under my belt. I have been on Blogger, Google's blogging platform, before it was even owned by Google. Yes, more than seven years. I have always composed my messages directly into the blog, hit "publish" and never had a problem. Until last week.<br />
<br />
The next day I went about my day, and it wasn't until late morning that I thought to check in to the blog. Much to my surprise, the new blog post was not there! I went into the dashboard on the back end. Perhaps I had done something wrong? With the WordPress blogging platform, for example, if you leave the category "uncategorized" checked off, the post does not appear publicly. No, nothing there. I checked draft posts, I checked scheduled posts, and I checked all posts. Nothing. I tried searching the posts from the back end, again nothing. I spent a couple of stressed hours. I remembered largely what I had written, but who wants to spend another hour rewriting a blog post?<br />
<br />
I checked Google's help forum and discovered a few others had experienced the same problem recently, but no one was offering answers as to why and how to recover. I vented a bit on Twitter, and got a bit of sympathy but again no real answers.<br />
<br />
And then I got a message from educator extraordinaire, <a href="http://twitter.com/windsordi">Diane B<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">é</span>dard</a>:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMZ14cIdOQ0sjGW6MUG7dFJAFUjpXsHts3WGzPKqwCnWgyLKALLv7O-0z_4eP7ZOFEDnWDuOzEPPDli-ladEYvLC7vIdSKk4-dKy8nVKC9fvZbp1bS15zfv4xxTmPyKcuqEvi6iw/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-08-08+at+9.01.50+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMZ14cIdOQ0sjGW6MUG7dFJAFUjpXsHts3WGzPKqwCnWgyLKALLv7O-0z_4eP7ZOFEDnWDuOzEPPDli-ladEYvLC7vIdSKk4-dKy8nVKC9fvZbp1bS15zfv4xxTmPyKcuqEvi6iw/s400/Screen+shot+2011-08-08+at+9.01.50+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<br />
Backup? Ummm...hrm. I had never thought to back up an individual blog post. I always thought once it was accepted as post I would be safe. Apparently not! My first reaction was to say "I could never write off-line and then post to a blog! Blogging directly into the blog platform is part of my creative process!". I have to admit to being a bit huffy about it. And then I realized that (as is always the case) Di was right.<br />
<br />
<b>Backing up individual blog posts</b><br />
<br />
So, my compromise is to write directly in the blog platform, but then to copy down the content at least until the post goes up publicly. That way I always have my last post at least in draft "just in case." I am getting used to this new addition to the workflow, but here is what I do:<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul><li>Go to the HTML editor for the blog post and copy all content (using "select all" in the browser). This way I capture all the HTML coding. </li>
<li>I then copy it into a text editor rather than Word so that extra Word code is not added to the document. And...save. </li>
<li>If I need to reinstate the blog post later, I would copy from the text editor document, and paste into the HTML editor screen.</li>
</ul><br />
<br />
So how did I get the post back last Monday? After putting it aside for a couple of hours, I came up with an idea: what about my browser history, was there a link there? I went in, and was very fortunate to somehow (mysteriously) be able to pull open the blog post. It appeared to somehow still be in Blogger, albeit lost. I copied from the HTML editor and then went to the blog in a fresh screen, started a new blog post, and pasted the copied text back into the HTML editor. I was extremely lucky all of this actually worked.<br />
<br />
<b>Backing up all archived blog content (i.e. exporting)</b><br />
<br />
In addition to backing up individual posts, what else should you do to back up your blog content? It is a good idea to periodically back up your content in case the site goes down or disappears.<br />
<br />
WordPress, for example, has an "Export" feature currently under "Tools":<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-pa7MWTuvqXXlBJLWP5Sy91oB3H347dKy4FM77bLRyJJDrTIHDbS28IsEqBTydCnq84xg2eBgSoohw0fMgA-lZ0afgOf6sTxn4Xa3sJR2xiJj40bvwrsLXSCx_4DqfxDYqnH2IQ/s1600/Export+%25E2%2580%25B9+Slaw+%25E2%2580%2594+WordPress.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-pa7MWTuvqXXlBJLWP5Sy91oB3H347dKy4FM77bLRyJJDrTIHDbS28IsEqBTydCnq84xg2eBgSoohw0fMgA-lZ0afgOf6sTxn4Xa3sJR2xiJj40bvwrsLXSCx_4DqfxDYqnH2IQ/s400/Export+%25E2%2580%25B9+Slaw+%25E2%2580%2594+WordPress.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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Blogger has an "Export content" feature under "Settings" and "Basic":<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br />
</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKXIdm5qBMqDNV4bmOAh-fJiQTG2PmmCy6DccyjDisRC_AjYjaZJwEaVQzUS1pAmv-dU94bO7yDBDNH5WC-cuTMc7rXRPnWJstWFudSO7r9AjA7nmqhwh2j8hDkz6LKGAPapkHrg/s1600/Blogger%253A+Connie+Crosby+-+Basic+Settings.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKXIdm5qBMqDNV4bmOAh-fJiQTG2PmmCy6DccyjDisRC_AjYjaZJwEaVQzUS1pAmv-dU94bO7yDBDNH5WC-cuTMc7rXRPnWJstWFudSO7r9AjA7nmqhwh2j8hDkz6LKGAPapkHrg/s400/Blogger%253A+Connie+Crosby+-+Basic+Settings.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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<b>Other considerations in backing up blog content</b><br />
<br />
Other things to think about when determining how you are going to back up blog content:<br />
<ul><li>Think about the format you are exporting the content into. </li>
<li>What about the blog template, especially if you have customized it? On Blogger it doesn't hurt to grab the template HTML (copy from the Template > Edit Template page). In WordPress, keep track of the plugins you have added.</li>
<li>What about blogger profiles? And other pages added such as with WordPress?</li>
<li>Will the content you capture allow you to sufficiently replicate the blog later? Move to another platform?</li>
<li>Where will you store the backup versions of the site? Think about the measures you typically take to back up important content. You may wish to do the same with your blog content.</li>
<li>How often will you back up content? It is a good idea to stick to a regular schedule. Will you back it up daily, weekly or monthly?</li>
<li>Who will be in charge of backing up the site? Who will fill in if that person is away?</li>
</ul><div>I have to admit being a bit cavalier with my own blog, but after last week's incident am starting to realize how much personal equity I have built up in this blog and how I should be making a more concerted effort to back it up. And of course if you are administrating a blog for work or business purposes, you may have even more important reasons to back it up consistently.</div><div><br />
<b>When updating blog templates or layouts</b><br />
<br />
</div><div>Finally, it is a very good idea to have a separate development or test site for making changes to the blog template or plug-ins. Set up a copy of your blog at a separate URL to test out changes. That way if you mess something up, you haven't destroyed your good work on the main site. This is something I see others doing. In the past I would have just tweaked the template of this blog on the fly; however, especially with something like WordPress, code and plug-ins can interact in unexpected ways. As I start to think about changing the template to this blog, I am giving thought to setting up a separate test site so I can play around with options and not risk losing my hard work. </div>Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-46454808508913945222011-08-02T23:45:00.033-04:002011-08-03T02:13:18.724-04:00Innovative Ideas: Virtual Stores and the Possibility for Public LibrariesThis video depicts how Tesco have adapted their services for the South Korea market. One of their goals was to increase market share while not increasing number of stores. The solution? "Virtual" stores in subway stations. Have a look, this is pretty cool--<br />
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<object height="330" width="400"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fGaVFRzTTP4?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fGaVFRzTTP4?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="330" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object><br />
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Shoppers add items to their shopping carts by scanning <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code">QR codes</a> with their smart phones, and then the items purchased are delivered to their homes. This makes me wonder how public libraries might take advantage of something like this? Imagine browsing books while waiting for a train or bus and having them delivered to your ebook reader or home. Libraries have been exploring the various uses of QR codes. This use would certainly attract some attention to libraries, don't you think?<br />
<br />
Can you think of other uses of a virtual store like this? <br />
<i><br />
Hat tip to <a href="http://twitter.com/mrjcleaver">Martin Cleaver</a> for sharing this video.</i>Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-82103206109340639532011-08-01T14:48:00.001-04:002011-08-08T21:56:29.595-04:00Blogger Monday: Kickstarting an Old BlogI know I keep harping on about the things I learned at <a href="http://aallnet.org/">AALL 2011</a>, but there is indeed more. Last week I attended the blogger meetup hosted by the <a href="http://cssis.org/">CS-SIS</a> (Computing Services Special Interest Section). We were fortunate to have <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/meredith-lindemon/7/736/354">Meredith Lindemon</a>, owner and operator of Meredith Group, join us. Lindemon is a consultant who specializes in launching the web presence for organizations as well as business development.<br />
<br />
She sat with each of our tables and gave us individual advice about our blogs. I have to admit, I didn't expect to learn much since I have been blogging so long and even <a href="http://cssis.org/">written a successful book about blogging</a>. But I was pleasantly surprised! I explained to her that I have been blogging for over seven years, help other people to blog, and even consult in this area. But, I was struggling to keep content going on my own blog. I have been a stuck thinking about how I would like to change the look of this blog, and feel this has kept me a bit hung up on posting.<br />
<br />
She gave me three pieces of advice to get started again, some of which I apparently have been taking:<br />
<ol><li>Give up on the old blog and start fresh with a new one on a different topic.</li>
<li>Get into the habit of writing each day for just 20 minutes.</li>
<li>Pick a theme for each day of the week and write to that theme. For example, Mondays could be about law librarianship, Tuesdays could be interviews with mentors.</li>
</ol><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK53hyphenhyphens87wS4lRBTbNvBKw-2SPNdvNUxtl3L5XjOlTodTEidqUeMqwdoXRUsegrlRyDyeT0w-HLE3SstR5fc7HfILwTebgFQ_R1AyDQwKBvQ-1wyJa1VFAvw5zBwJ2if6vrtISjw/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-07-29+at+11.11.10+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK53hyphenhyphens87wS4lRBTbNvBKw-2SPNdvNUxtl3L5XjOlTodTEidqUeMqwdoXRUsegrlRyDyeT0w-HLE3SstR5fc7HfILwTebgFQ_R1AyDQwKBvQ-1wyJa1VFAvw5zBwJ2if6vrtISjw/s320/Screen+shot+2011-07-29+at+11.11.10+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>While I felt that the first suggestion to be sage advice, it is not good for me. My blog has been wide-ranging and has developed over time as I have developed my own interests. I want to keep blogging about what I am learning professionally, so don't see a need to start on a new topic or a new blog. That being said, at some point the look will get revamped.<br />
<div>But the other two pieces of advice hit the nail on the head, I think. Writing each day for 20 minutes is a low time commitment, and yet should get me back in the groove of blogging each day. I do a lot of writing throughout the day (Twitter, Facebook, email, blog comments, and of course client reports) so this should not be a stretch. </div><div><br />
</div><div>I am mulling over the idea of a theme for each day. Behind the scenes I have in the past put together series of blog topics only to feel less than inspired when it came time to write the full blog posts once I had completed the outlines. No doubt there are skeletal blog post remains littered all over the place. So, it will be important to pick themes I can sustain. No doubt the best plan of action will be to start with themes I am already addressing, and allow those to flourish. I am still giving some thought to this. </div><div><br />
</div><div>I do like the idea of making one day dedicated to the topic of blogging since I have written substantially in this area. Therefore, I am kicking off the themes with "Blogger Monday". What do you think? What sorts of topics would you like to see covered with respect to blogging?</div><div><br />
</div><div>And what about the other days of the week? What should I cover then? I have some ideas but haven't set fingers to keyboard yet, so there is still time to get your suggestions in. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Thank you so much for joining me in this journey to get this blog rolling again. I think it is about time! I really do hope you will consider participating and adding a comment or two to the blog. That would be some<b> real</b> encouragement!</div><div><br />
</div><div>Cheers,</div><div>Connie</div><div><br />
</div><div><i>Photo credit: based on <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/botheredbybees/1450784505/">"Kick Start" by BotheredByBees</a> made available for use and adaptation under Creative Commons.</i></div>Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-29477747626956089602011-07-29T15:15:00.002-04:002011-07-29T15:27:12.808-04:00What Are You Saying? - Communication and the Need to Speak the Same Language in the WorkplaceHaving just come back from the <a href="http://aallnet.org/">AALL 2011 conference</a>, I can't help but think about all the sessions that started off by defining the terminology and concepts being discussed. <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/kathiesullivan">Kathie Sullivan</a> and I did the same in our session on collaboration tools, explaining what sense of collaboration we were talking about.<br />
<br />
Here are a few things I have been thinking about lately with communication and learning to speak the same language in the workplace:<br />
<br />
<b>1. It is important for senior managers to get an accurate vision out to staff.</b><br />
<br />
This means a few things:<br />
<ul><li>Make sure everyone is using the terminology in the same way. There are different ways to collaborate; are you talking about the same thing? Are you talking just about co-ordinating with one another, or actually creating something together so that the individual contributions (and contributors) will not be distinguishable in the final work product?</li>
<li>How will this collaboration happen? Who will lead? What are the ground rules?</li>
<li>If you want to see something "innovative", what do you mean by "innovative"? </li>
<li>What is your risk tolerance and how open will this process be?</li>
</ul>All of these things need consideration before people magically work together to make your vision a reality.<br />
<br />
<b>2. It is important for senior managers to communicate the vision directly to staff. </b><br />
<br />
I see "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_whispers">broken telephone</a>" taking place inside organizations: with communication being handed down from VP or Managing Partner to CIO to Director to Manager to staff. By the time it is handed down through the ranks, and questions meant to clarify go back up through the chain of command, everyone has a different picture in mind and is doing something different. How inefficient!<br />
<br />
If holding a group meeting or a group call is too difficult, what about the senior officer with the vision putting the communication into a podcast episode for internal staff to listen to? Or have it video taped and post on your intranet or portal? And allow staff to submit questions in a way that everyone can see the answers to help with the understanding. Of course, ideally the senior person will speak to each individual on the project to ensure they are on side and on track. A periodic call around on important projects would be well worth the time spent.<br />
<br />
<b>3. If you are working on a project and are working from directions handed down through various chains of command, it is worth going directly to the source to ensure you understand what is being asked of you.</b><br />
<br />
This was a rule of thumb when I was a reference librarian: if instructions on complex research had been handed down via an assistant or a junior, it is possible something was inadvertently missed during the transmission. It was always better to go directly to the person giving the research request directly to ensure the work was being done correctly and in the most efficient way possible. It was also an opportunity to ask questions and clarify.<br />
<br />
<b>4. Keep in mind culture and cultural differences.</b><br />
<br />
If you are assigning work to someone or accepting work from someone with whom you are not familiar, keep in mind that the way in which you communicate may play a role at the outset. Emailing back and forth with people from different countries and of different cultures lately, I notice that in North America our communications tend to be direct and informal. Those in or from other countries may be less direct and more formal.<br />
<br />
Think about how your communication may be received by the other person. Will you be seen as too formal? Will you be seen as too kurt and therefore rude? Speaking first by telephone may help alleviate some of this tension.<br />
<br />
<b>5. Are you using bad email habits to communicate?</b><br />
<br />
Emailing in ineffective ways may mean that you are confusing others, and slowing down the process. Again, think about how you are communicating and what is most effective.<br />
<br />
I love reading tips from my friend <a href="http://brucemayhew.wordpress.com/">Bruce Mayhew</a> since he has some great advice on how to communicate with email. I highly recommend his <a href="http://brucemayhew.wordpress.com/category/email-etiquette/">Email Etiquette</a> blog posts. I have taken Bruce's email workshop and found it invaluable in communicating more effectively via email, and identified a few of my own bad habits of which I was previously unaware.<br />
<br />
<b>Your thoughts?</b><br />
<br />
What kinds of communication breakdowns have you seen within organizations or teams? What would you recommend as a remedy? I look forward to hearing your ideas!Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-7892792944050823142011-07-26T11:35:00.001-04:002011-08-01T17:35:40.825-04:00AALL 2011 - E-books and the Future of Legal Publishing<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><i>These are notes are from a panel discussion session with <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/scott-meiser-cpa-csam/5/9b6/3a5">Scott Meiser</a> of LexisNexis, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dan-bennett/0/294/954">Dan Bennett</a> of Thomson Reuters Professional, and <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/steven-sutton/2/b55/a7b">Steven W. Sutton </a>of YBP Library Services, A Baker & Taylor Company . The session was moderated by <a href="http://www.jmls.edu/directory/june_liebert.shtml">June Hsiao Liebert,</a> Coordinator, John Marshall Law School. Note: these are my selected notes from this session; any inaccuracies or omissions are my own. I welcome your comments and follow-up thoughts!</i></span><br />
<br />
This panel discussion was in a Q & A format, with questions from the audience at the end.<br />
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<b>What is the future of ebooks?</b><br />
<br />
Meiser of LexisNexis: People using ebooks in their personal life are expecting them in their professional life as well. There is a continued blurring of lines between online and paper content, also expectation of apps. Are of licensing will need to evolve, as will lending evolve.<br />
<br />
Bennett of Thomson Reuters: They have taken an app approach: current ebooks standards are not satisfactory for professional level content. Current standards for ebooks are from the consumer side. Professionals expect things like footnotes and tabular material (sometimes works, sometimes doesn't). The ebook readers don't understand their updates; consumer grade ereaders just don't support this. This will be messy; different readers support different things.<br />
<br />
Steven Sutton at YBP Library Services - Good future for ebooks based on current sales. Space is becoming an increasing issue. Also, patrons have changed; today's students expect access 24/7 and expect to have it on their computers.<br />
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Survey of audience: How many are academics who have bought standalone ebooks (as opposed to those accessible from databases)? - about 1/8 of the large audience.<br />
<br />
They have launched demand-driven or patron-driven acquisitions. A whole new service, a new way to buy ebooks - part of the collection development strategy.<br />
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<b>What kind of licensing models are you implementing; how are you implementing digital rights management?</b><br />
<br />
Meiser of LexisNexis: new ebooks start to look more like software than hard copy books. Start to look at unlimited access, pay-per-use, lending directly from the publisher. These are new options, and they will continue to explore. Customer demand will drive the model.<br />
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Bennett of Thomson Reuters: He agrees. There will need to be different types of models for different content. You initially come at this from a print model, but it is constrained in ways that do not exist with ebooks. They have heard there has to be an archival version of the content, you cannot "rip it back" in the future.<br />
<br />
They expect managing the rights "in the cloud" so you can see what you have access to.<br />
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Sutton of YBP: working with clients to understand the license agreements from their providers. They have to educate their customers on how to read the agreements so they can sign. They would ideally create one license agreement that would cover everything. Aggregators have the same problem - when you buy content from the aggregator, what are the implications of the agreement?<br />
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<b>What difficulties are there in converting a book to an ebook?</b><br />
<br />
Meiser of LexisNexis: The technology part is easy for them to do; it is the adoption and working with it by libraries that is going to be the difficult to part. What makes sense in what format, and what licensing model is going to be difficult for them to figure out. Consistency is going to cause difficulties for libraries.<br />
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Bennett of Thomson Reuters: Page numbers are incredibly important to people, and even when you have content that cites to paragraph or section numbers, you still get people quoting page numbers. There will be a period of transition when some clients will be looking at print, and some looking at ebooks.<br />
<br />
Sutton of YBP: They have to be better at describing the digital; the ebook may not be exactly the same as the print and need to be able determine and describe the differences. <br />
<br />
The challenge of the Expresso Book Machine was just getting the files. They have a whole new division internally to look at the files and make sure they are formatting correctly.<br />
<br />
<b>If you had a crystal ball, how long do you think your companies will continue to produce print?</b><br />
<br />
Meiser of LexisNexis: He doesn't think ebooks are going to be even half their business in the near future. He doesn't see print disappearing.<br />
<br />
Bennett of Thomson Reuters: High value books - there is a place for some of these in our world. There will be a "long long time" before the hard copy book disappears altogether.<br />
<br />
Sutton of YBP: Turn the question around; how are you going to satisfy patrons who want print when you have bought ebooks? You may want to print on demand, possibly just chapters as needed. There is a question coming up as to whether they can discount books if they buy the ebooks; this is a pressure they are getting.<br />
<br />
<b>What types of content do you plan to put into ebooks first?</b><br />
<br />
Meiser of LexisNexis: Customers expect all of their content to be online. The expect all of it to be available by first quarter of next year; 75% done by end of this year. Some of their books they can't afford to reprint in paper which they can put into ebook, so there should be more varied content.<br />
<br />
Bennett of Thomson Reuters: A lot of value to give books that attorneys use every day in a format they can use on their ipads. Textbooks - they are doing some casebooks already.<br />
<br />
Sutton of YBP: Encourages publishers to make their content either in digital format or at the same time as print. Customers want the option, they want no embargoes. Embargoes means libraries are forced to choose. Make titles available in a timely fashion as ebooks. (Show of hands: everyone in the audience agree).<br />
<br />
<b>What platform will your ebooks use?</b><br />
<br />
Meiser of LexisNexis: Are aiming to be device agnostic, publishing in both ePub and Mobi as long as both models are used. Readers don't have to learn a new platform. They expect there will be a faster evolution than they could ever support so they are not going to get into the eReader business.<br />
<br />
Bennett of Thomson Reuters: Didn't want to dumb their content down to consumer grade level. Delivering a number of platform features. Notes and annotations need to move to subsequent versions. Full text search - they have the full text search of Westlaw sitting on the iPad. They have their own platform that they can't deliver to the level they want to their own content.<br />
<br />
Sutton of YBP: They re-sell the ebooks as they are; they do not try to standardize. They try to help clients understand what they can do with the various platforms.<br />
<br />
<b>Q&A</b><br />
<br />
<b>Q: Have you started working with your authors to introduce multi-media components?</b><br />
<br />
Meiser: Yes, with their more tech-savvy authors who can see the need.<br />
<br />
Bennett: Thinks they will.<br />
<br />
<b>Q: Is there a reason why books themselves can't be multimedia apps?</b><br />
<br />
Meiser: need to look at whether it should be a book or an app<br />
<br />
Bennett: for the volume of titles they have Apple would not let them put out that many apps, but they have done it for Black's Law Dictionary.<br />
<br />
<b>Q: How soon will things no longer be out of print.</b><br />
<br />
Sutton: "About an hour." :) - Google is doing a lot of this.<br />
<br />
<b>Q: But what about out of print in the future? </b><br />
<br />
Sutton: In the print world, "out of print" meant the publisher felt there was not enough business to continue it.<br />
<br />
Bennett: There will be no incentive to throw it away, so it will not be a problem.<br />
<br />
<i>Blog post update August 1, 2011: The link to Dan Bennett's profile on LinkedIn has been corrected.</i>Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-52564110022537476852011-07-26T10:36:00.001-04:002011-07-26T10:37:04.842-04:00AALL 2011 - Coding Potpourri: A Survey of Programming Languages and Tools Used in Library Applications Today<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><i>These are notes are from a panel discussion session with <a href="http://bywatersolutions.com/about-us/">Nicole Engard</a>, Director of Open Source Education ByWater Solutions, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ted-lawless/5/b6/bb3">Ted Lawless</a>, Library Applications Developer at Brown University, <a href="http://www.jasoneiseman.com/blog/?page_id=2">Jason Eiseman</a>, Librarian for Emerging Technologies at Yale Law School Library, and Tom Boone, Reference Librarian, Loyola Law School. The session was moderated by <a href="http://law.missouri.edu/bassett/">Cynthia Bassett</a>, University of Missouri Law School Library. Note: these are my selected notes from this session; any inaccuracies or omissions are my own. I welcome your comments and follow-up thoughts!</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">The speakers gave us an introduction to each coding language, and we saw an example of each.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><b>Nicole Engard on MySQL</b></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">http://web2learning.net - presentation will be posted</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">MySQL = My Structured Query Language - relational database management system, usually accessed via a web interface. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Licensed under the GNU GPL, meaning it is Open Source and used in a lot of Open Source applications.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Who's using it:</span><br />
<ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Wordpress</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Drupal</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Wikipedia</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Facebook</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">YouTube</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Flickr</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Ebay</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Google (not searches)</span></li>
</ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Using the code for <a href="http://koha-community.org/about/">Koha</a>, she created a table and then inserted data into the table. It is not necessary to enter data into every field unless a required field. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">She then showed us how to query the table using the "SELECT" statement. Headings in query results can be created for combined fields with the "CONCAT" command. She showed us how to pull results from two different tables to give meaningful results. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">The most common use for reports is for end of month or end of year statistics, so date and time functions are used extensively in queries.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><b>Ted Lawless on Python</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">http://python.org</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">http://lawlesst.bitbucket.org/aall2011</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">a "power tool" that can do anything such as manipulating data, building websites and running libraries. The tools for this have become better over the years. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">"A little code can go a long way." -<a href="http://hellman.net/eric/"> Eric Hellman</a> at <a href="http://code4lib.org/conference/2011/">Code4Lib 2011</a> conference</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Librarians' work is data oriented. It needs to be harvested from various sources, repackaged, and used in our systems so that our users can learn from it. We use tools such as Excel and MARCEdit; using Python is taking it to the next level; flexible and can be adapted quickly.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Getting started: </span><br />
<ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">start with a real problem</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">get an overview of Python with <a href="http://niche-canada.org/programming-historian">The Programming Historian</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">a computer</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">a good text editor e.g. jEdit, Notepad++</span></li>
</ul><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Data types - identifies and classifies types of data</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Reads data from spreadsheets - .CSV files (his example was showing reading a Bluebook citation from a table)</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">He showed us querying a file, searching for records via Z39.50, creating MARC records, building reports from the ILS, and harvesting data from websites not already in a .CSV file or in MySQL.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">More advanced: for reporting, they had a script that ran every night to pull ILS data, used MySQL to put it onto a little website. Built with a Python tool called <a href="https://www.djangoproject.com/">django</a> for building websites.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><b>Jason Eiseman on HTML5</b></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">One of the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html-design-principles/">design principles of HTML5</a> is to support existing content </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Some history</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">HTML 4.01 - 1999</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">XHTML 1.0 - 2002</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">XHTML 2.0 - 2006</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Web Forms 2.0 - 2004 < focused on advanced web applications</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">2008 - HTML5 standard started</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">2012 - expected to be a candidate recommendation</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">2022 - expected to be finished</span></span><br />
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</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">All standard browsers support HTML5 today; Apples, iPhones and Androids also support it; however the only browser currently supporting all of the elements is Opera.</span></span><br />
<ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">HTML5 uses semantic tags to structure an HTML document;</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">good for accessibility for working with screen readers. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">a lot more support for additional microformats</span></li>
</ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">He showed us some of the graphical changes allowed by HTML5 and some new form elements that look the same on the computer but look better with a mobile interface. http://www.jasoneiseman.com/aall11/forms.html shows all of the forms available.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Last year he used Javascript to draw on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canvas_element">Canvas </a>to map out carrels in their library. He thinks they will be able to use graphics, Canvas and Javascript to create interactive overlays. See http://www.jasoneiseman.com/aall11/canvas.html and http://paperjs.org/ for examples.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Audio, similar. See http://www.jasoneiseman.com/aall11/audio.html for example. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">HTML5 can delivery functionality to off-web applications (i.e. when not connected to the Internet).</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">For more reading:</span></span></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.abookapart.com/products/html5-for-web-designers">HTML5 for Web Designers</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> from A Book Apart</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://diveintohtml5.org/">Dive Into HTML5</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> by Mark Pilgrim</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.html5rocks.com/">HTML5 Rocks</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">http://www.slideshare.net/jeiseman</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">http://jasoneiseman.com/aall11.zip (all files from this presentation)</span></li>
</ul></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><b>Tom Boone on CSS: Cascading Style Sheets</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">http://www.slideshare.net/tomboone</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Without CSS, content is not unreadable. Tom showed us the Amazon.com, New York Times and Facebook websites without CSS - largely unusable to the human eye.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Cascading Style Sheets </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Cascading - the cascading feature has changed in the way it works over time</span></div><div><ol><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">browser style sheet (default styles)</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">site style sheet(s) - overrides the browser defaults - this is what web designers work on</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">user style sheet(s) - not used very often; users can overwrite styles e.g. he has a style that hides the comments on news websites</span></span></li>
</ol><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Style </span></span></div></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">font size, type, colour, format (bold, italic, upper case)</span></span></li>
</ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Sheets</span></span></div></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">linked - applies to more than one page - make the change once and it shows up in many places</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">embedded - embedded but appears in the head portion of the web page - has a CSS rule defined in the head. </span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">inline - property directly embedded into the page - almost impossible to override, so avoid</span></span></li>
</ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">CSS Syntax (see also: http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_syntax.asp )</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">p </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">{color: red;}</span></span></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">p</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> = selector - <br />
paragraph tag - everything within the paragraph tag will show up red. Could be<br />
</span></span></span><br />
<li></li><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
etc.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">{color: red;}</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> = the declaration</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">can be more specific using classes, IDs and descendant selectors</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">e.g. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">p.summary</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">{color: red;}</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> - </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">only applies to paragraph tags that have been given a summary class</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Class and ID work very similarly, however ID can appear only once on a page; a class can appear many times.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-size: small; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">p#summary </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-size: small; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">{color: red;}</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> - an paragraph with an ID of summary</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: small; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: small; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Descendent selectors - a more hierarchical rule</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: small; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-size: small; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">ul li </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">{color: red;}</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> < white space - any descendent of a list will get the red</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Classes/IDs can be combined with descendant selectors to create increasingly complex rules.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">New developments:</span></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Adaptive Web Design</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">CSS3</span></li>
</ul></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">For more reading:</span></span></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.w3schools.com/css/">http://www.w3schools.com/css/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596526870">CSS The Missing Manual</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596527334">CSS: The Definitive Guide</a></span></li>
<li>[a third book which I missed]</li>
</ul></div></div>Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-68290166168966111292011-07-25T15:34:00.000-04:002011-07-25T15:34:37.452-04:00AALL 2011 - To Recover or Not to Recover: Trends, Solutions, and Alternatives for Taming Online Research Costs<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><i>These are notes are from a panel discussion session with <a href="http://www.axelrothandassociates.com/joan_axelroth.html" style="color: #338888; text-decoration: none;">Joan Axelroth</a>, Axelroth & Associates, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/tony-licata/9/226/b44">Anthony A. Licata</a>, CFO of Dechert LLP and <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nuchine-nobari/9/822/ab0">Nuchine Nobari</a>, Library Director of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, LLP. The session was moderated by <a href="http://sarah%20mauldin%2C%20smith%2C%20gambrell%20%26%20russell%2C%20llp/">Sarah Mauldin</a>, Head Librarian of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP. Note: these are my selected notes from this session; any inaccuracies or omissions are my own. I welcome your comments and follow-up thoughts! </i></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><i><br />
</i></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">A panel discussion...</span></span><br />
<br />
<b>Is it ethical to charge clients for online research?</b><br />
<br />
Axelroth: ABA put together an opinion on charges other than professional fees - library, computer research, third party providers - should be treated differently. You can charge for computer services, paper, person running the searches, etc. You have to pass on any discounts received from third party providers.<br />
<br />
<b>Can firms add a mark up to online search charges?</b><br />
<br />
Axelroth: The fairness factor: is it fair to the firm's clients and the firm's attorneys. Are paid clients subsidizing non-paid clients? (Are you non-paid clients your larger clients who have negotiated this?) <br />
<br />
Licata: Dechert model - most libraries have fixed fee contracts with the large providers and pay a retail rate for other 10%. There is risk to chopping up a fixed fee contract - they create a usage model, put all the usage for a month in and then "chop it up". They also look for trends; e.g. February has fewer business days than March, so individual searches that month cost more so they make sure they take a loss on every search. They actually mailed cheques back to their clients because they were able to reduce their online costs. "Usage swings wildly" so they track it carefully.<br />
<br />
<b>What are the trends on recovering for services that firms pay a flat fee for, regardless of use?</b><br />
<br />
Axelroth: Percentage of recovery of costs by firms is going down. Indications show this is only going to come back a little. "Slicing and dicing is getting so complicated" partners are not understanding it and cannot explain it to their clients, so they are writing things off.<br />
<br />
Does your firm attempt to recover costs for other services (especially local pay per use services) e.g. BNA, Bloomberg Law, Casemaker, CCH Intelliconnect, Fastcase, Hein Online, Loislaw, PACER, RIA Checkpoint.<br />
<br />
Licata: They have tried to take the discussion away from the billing partner. They don't expect partners to; they ask the client finance person talk to the firm's finance person to walk through it. They make the attempt to pass savings along to clients. Clients are welcome to discuss deals up front, but they are not comfortable just billing full cost to clients.<br />
<br />
Nobari: it is sometimes comparing apples to oranges. Lawyers would only go to alternative sources if they are as sophisticated sources as Westlaw and Lexis. Her only success is Fastcase; it has fewer bells and whistles for just basic reading of cases. They used this to manage use of Westlaw and Lexis. Lawyers are more reluctant to use Bloomberg Law, so they had less success with this service.<br />
<br />
<b>What is the trend with regard to following up on online charges that are written off?</b><br />
<br />
Axelroth: 62% of firms track write-downs or write-offs of electronic research charges to see what can be billed back. The goal is to try to change lawyer habits. You need management to support this, and possible a reward/punishment system.<br />
<br />
Licata: library staff don't running around up front trying to figure it out; they put in a "fairly diligent budget process" a few years ago. If the lawyers don't put something on a client bill, it is put into that lawyer's departmental budgets. Budgets got a lot of attention; they looked at because there were other things they wanted to spend their budgets on.<br />
<br />
Nobari: spend 2 hours of staff time every week: letting the lawyers know if there is a better way of doing research because they may not know the most efficient way; they email aggressively to encourage lawyers to bill back to clients rather than charge back to office. They have decreased usage of Westlaw and Lexis by 20%. Start with your 20 least effective users and follow up with them.<br />
<br />
<b>What is your firm's average rate of recovery for Westlaw and Lexis research costs?</b><br />
<br />
Licata: they recover about 70% of their contract spending. It is a line item everyone understand. Clients don't necessarily understand why lawyers need to have legal research, they expect the lawyers to know. You need better communication with the clients showing value. Help put clients' focus on their overall value from the law firm's work.<br />
<br />
Nobari: they fall pretty much within the same ranges. They work with consultants to compare, and they are comparable to others.<br />
<br />
<b>What are the trends for using cost recovery tools like OneLog, Research Monitor, Lookup Precision?</b><br />
<br />
Licata: It gives them more data, but he's not sure it helps them recover more. He gives a qualitative "yes it does" because information helps you back up your argument when trying to change lawyer behaviour.<br />
<br />
Axelroth: using software for recovery is one reason, but you can use it for things like acquisitions decisions and others. Even if you are not charging back (rolling online charges into overhead), have attorneys input client matter number to get an idea of needs by individual clients. <a href="http://conniecrosby.blogspot.com/2011/07/pll-summit-greg-castanias-how.html">Greg Castanias gave an impassioned talk at the PLL Summit </a>asking us to put pressure on the vendors to give libraries what they need to get results.<br />
<br />
Nobari: a research tool to help you qualify and quantify are useful. Librarians are the ones who get calls when something is going wrong with the vendor databases. Make sure you are part of the conversation when your senior management want to change the research services the firm subscribes to.<br />
<br />
<b>Are clients pushing back against paying for online research resources?</b><br />
<br />
Yes.<br />
<br />
<b>What is the trends for firms no longer charging back?</b><br />
<br />
Licata: you need to understand what your base level of overhead is, and what $ is needed back to keep things going. Firms ultimately will not be recovering less, it will just be recovered in different ways. He thinks clients are asking the wrong questions. Clients who ask not to pay these fees are asking firms to be less transparent.<br />
<br />
Nobari: the lawyers' margins on specific work are so thin since they are now moving to flat fee and volume arrangements for clients.<br />
<br />
Axelroth: in response to Licata, says you can still track what research has been done for the client. You still want to track this internally. (Licata's response: he was not saying they would be less transparent, he was just looking from clients' viewpoint).<br />
<br />
<b>Q&A</b><br />
<br />
Audience comment: they blocked 1000 "mysterious" client numbers that did not get research billed back; also, she is seeing dramatic shifts of "new guard" products replacing use of "old guard" products by tracking usage.<br />
<br />
Licata: doing what they do depends on the firm culture.; they try to run their firm more like a business than a law firm.<br />
<br />
Licata: library costs are less predictable than other firm expenses such as leasing space costs. He puts the responsibility for recovery of costs on the shoulders of accounting departments, telling law firm CFOs with respect to working with libraries: "If you don't learn what they do and how they affect financial statements, how are you going to teach them about financial statements?"<br />
<br />
Q: fixed fees of attorney costs?<br />
<br />
Licata: varying levels of usage for all these tools. He encourages discussion around costs early. Sometimes it becomes a volume issue, so it depends on what the firm is doing.<br />
<br />
Q: looking at possibly rolling these expenses into overhead and want clients to know this is what they are being charged to. Thinking of rolling it into a "research charge" charged to all clients equally. Are there ethical concerns?<br />
<br />
Licata: being transparent is the right thing to do; however, client doing 15 real estate transactions is going to question 15 research charges. Law firms don't get all terms of arrangement into the agreements; don't have a handle on how we do research. Need more documentation in the arrangement letters.<br />
<br />
Q: Usefulness of the tracking services from the publishers?<br />
<br />
Nobari: Neither PowerInvoice from Lexis nor Quickview from Westlaw provide you with enough information to be used in negotiations later. They are not research tools.<br />
<br />
Q: if they role the cost of the two flat rater contracts together and bill clients back according to that, are there any ethical problems with this? They are not looking to make a profit.<br />
<br />
A: No ethical problem if you are not making a profit. It is an interesting idea.<br />
<br />
Nobari: get an opinion on ethics from a lawyer so that you do not get caught in the middle. Let the lawyers decide how much they want to bill the client.<br />
<br />
Comments: Do we add value to the firm when we follow up with lawyers about expenses being written off? You need to also look at actual recovery as well. She asks the lawyers "Was there a problem with the service? Did you not get the service you wanted?" The third party tools helps her see where someone needs more training.Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-93166289183920442011-07-25T11:52:00.000-04:002011-07-25T11:52:39.178-04:00AALL 2011 - Barbara Tillett and John Mark Ockerbloom on Authority Control Vocabularies and the Semantic Web<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><i>I am at the American Association of Law Libraries 2011 Conference in Philadelphia. These are notes are from talk by Dr. Barbara B. Tillett of the <a href="http://www.loc.gov/">Library of Congress</a> and <a href="http://everybodyslibraries.com/john-mark-ockerbloom/">John Mark Ockerboom</a> of the University of Pennsylvania</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><i>. Note: these are my selected notes from this session; any inaccuracies or omissions are my own.</i></span></span><br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Dr. Barbara B. Tillett, Library of Congress</span></b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://dbpedia.org/About">DBPedia</a> - example of a linked data, open data project<br />
<br />
<ul><li>Community effort to extract structured information from Wikipedia and to make this information available </li>
<li>covers 3 million things that are interconnected</li>
<li>meant as proof of concept/prototype, but fully working now</li>
<li>linking Wikipedia to lots of other content on the web (videos, websites, etc.)</li>
<li>libraries got involved in the linked data network with University of Sweden getting involved first</li>
<li>Library of Congress Subject Headings now linked</li>
<li>Virtual National Authority File also linked</li>
</ul><div>All our data can be freely accessible on the web, or available for a fee; now we can share in the cloud via the Internet. Data can come from publishers, data sources themselves, libraries, and from anyone else who wants to help describe the data</div><div><br />
</div><div>Bibliographic resources are available now, and vocabulary being added.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Three projects the Library of Congress is involved in:</div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div><b>1. VIAF (Virtual International Authority File)</b></div><div><br />
</div><div><a href="http://viaf.org/">http://viaf.org</a> </div><div><br />
</div><div>Objectives:</div><div><ul><li>facilitate exposure of authority data</li>
<li>reduces cataloguing costs</li>
<li>simplifies authority control (creation and maintenance) internationally</li>
</ul></div><div>From the VIAF website:</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"><blockquote>VIAF, implemented and hosted by <a href="http://www.oclc.org/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #c95000; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">OCLC</a>, is joint project of several national libraries plus selected regional and trans-national library agencies. The project's goal is to lower the cost and increase the utility of library authority files by matching and linking widely-used authority files and making that information available on the Web.</blockquote><div><br />
</div></span></div><div>e.g. if bibliographic data appears in Japanese script, VIAF could be used to show this to users in Latin script. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Originally thought national bibliographic agencies in each country should be responsible for the authors in their own countries; however, this is problematic because different countries have different cultural needs.</div><div><br />
</div><div>VIAF now has 18 participants with more adding on. There are 21 different authority files as some countries have different languages.</div><div><br />
</div><div>All of the terms in the VIAF data are represented by URIs and are linked data. VIAF itself is using unicode so they can handle any script characters. MARC 21, UNIMARC and RDF are all supported. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Usage of VIAF tripled last year.</div><div><br />
</div><div>They are mining data from bibliographic records to create a derived authority record. All of the data is normalized (diacritics and capitalization removed). Subjects are group, material types are turned into a code; publication date turned into a decade; co-author pulled out. Take the author record and attach derived authority data to it to created an enhanced authority record.</div><div><br />
</div><div>A lot of information can be derived from bibliographic records e.g. areas of interest of authors, for how long those people published, who they worked with, alternative names they published under, etc. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Tillett encourages us to use VIAF - "It's fun!" <a href="http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/viaf/">VIAF shows us</a> how we can more creatively (and graphically) represent data from our MARC records. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Next steps for VIAF</div><div><ul><li>better searching</li>
<li>more "Linked data"</li>
<li>Participants beyond libraries</li>
<ul><li>have Getty signed on</li>
<li>Rights management agencies, publishers</li>
<li>museums, archives</li>
<li>have been working with ISNI project to include their information</li>
</ul><li>want to add more name types (beyond personal and corporate names)</li>
<ul><li>geographic jurisdictions</li>
<li>family names</li>
<li>"uniform" work titles</li>
</ul></ul><div><b>2. SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System)</b></div></div><div><br />
</div><div><a href="http://id.loc.gov/">http://id.loc.gov/</a></div><div><br />
</div><div>Have put the Library of Congress Subject Headings into SKOS. You can search e.g. "animated films" pulls back three entries. You can suggest subject headings (under the "terminology" tab) to them, even if you are not a member. </div><div><br />
</div><div>You can go to the "aquabrowser" display that visually shows headings into graphical interface (with circles).</div><div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDF9o6GNxLQ5CBbtsnmTROGOhYIKnIPrSmCO-ZA5ScSq2Pft_t96qvXybrTYULjz0g2kcrBxPcAdUVSq-uboo04pGsWCBKHpmzkckkaIEmzPo-zw_M6y6BrqOO9YqiOnDhG9F94g/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-07-25+at+11.27.13+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDF9o6GNxLQ5CBbtsnmTROGOhYIKnIPrSmCO-ZA5ScSq2Pft_t96qvXybrTYULjz0g2kcrBxPcAdUVSq-uboo04pGsWCBKHpmzkckkaIEmzPo-zw_M6y6BrqOO9YqiOnDhG9F94g/s320/Screen+shot+2011-07-25+at+11.27.13+AM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div><b>3. RDA (Resource Description and Access)</b></div><div><br />
</div><div>RDA controlled vocabularies - currently free on the web at Open Metadata Registry (RDA element sets and RDA vocabularies available).</div><div><br />
</div><div>http://metadataregistry.org/schema/list.html</div><div><br />
</div><div>Metadata includes the URI for every one of the terms. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Originally created in English: also in German, and Spanish and French being added (French so that Canada could use it).</div><div><br />
</div><div>RDA Linked Data - all linked data can be displayed using linking URIs. Depending on the user's view, all of the linked data can be displayed in one particular language. </div><div><br />
</div><div>What is slowing them down: current ILSes (integrated library systems). "They are still working in 1970s technology mindsets. They do not take advantage of this."</div><div><br />
</div><div><b><br />
</b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">John Mark Ockerbloom, University of Pennsylvania Libraries</span></b></div><div><br />
</div><div>Increased use of linked open data will improve discovery significantly</div><div><br />
</div><div>Some definitions:</div><div><br />
</div><div>linked data: </div><div><ul><li>data that you put on the web that has resolvable, persistent URIs.</li>
<li>creates a web of data that machines can be used</li>
</ul></div><div><br />
</div><div>open data:</div><div><ul><li>data that welcomes reuse, with little or no restriction</li>
<li>may included linked data</li>
<li>people may reuse, remix, mash up data, and give results back to the community</li>
<li>if you open your data, make it easy to get in bulk</li>
</ul><div>E.g. showing us the <a href="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/sh85006453">LCSH record for Arbitration (International Law)</a></div></div><div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfFrZMY-whUvqwRflg6qgn7SF7ZJBSYdkJ9Mbkr5xJLdSvafdPDvAVeoPA_LCeRJFzHwP217tptQiJRjYZYgCwYVmwwql3Yg-Gev5vyTY01Cmi6NuzBBDzx4bdD1PC5768aVwgBw/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-07-25+at+11.25.56+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfFrZMY-whUvqwRflg6qgn7SF7ZJBSYdkJ9Mbkr5xJLdSvafdPDvAVeoPA_LCeRJFzHwP217tptQiJRjYZYgCwYVmwwql3Yg-Gev5vyTY01Cmi6NuzBBDzx4bdD1PC5768aVwgBw/s320/Screen+shot+2011-07-25+at+11.25.56+AM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>RDF: </div><div><ul><li>a coded format, easier for a machine to understand</li>
<li>once you have this information, you can do analysis</li>
</ul><div><br />
</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZiJNpud9AazwHdjPDuFULzohyphenhyphenAa4ThUapL4WH2Ai4HTIxFezuT8UrOmD39OusagPR_MHoT52BkX3tMgq_5Kq36BHyvbrmYdijXKrk7xlikNxgctm8U3fd79I1uNGz-kKxlsJ6ZA/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-07-25+at+11.28.39+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZiJNpud9AazwHdjPDuFULzohyphenhyphenAa4ThUapL4WH2Ai4HTIxFezuT8UrOmD39OusagPR_MHoT52BkX3tMgq_5Kq36BHyvbrmYdijXKrk7xlikNxgctm8U3fd79I1uNGz-kKxlsJ6ZA/s320/Screen+shot+2011-07-25+at+11.28.39+AM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>Penn Libraries were able to pull the Library of Congress Subject Headings to pull down data and apply to their catalog to improve the quality of their own data. Also, using linked data they can enhance the catalog so that researchers can find data e.g. movie<i> An Inconvenient Truth </i>was catalogued under "global warming" but not "climate change" so may not be found.</div><div><br />
</div><div>The Online Books Page - http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/</div><div><br />
</div><div>They have used these technologies to created listings of 1 million books freely available on the Internet, and to let people to easily search the subject categories. </div><div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGFVZKNWcolx5rFPOVvJOkO5I9izLsi1rOjBLc3PYE6pVOeSORNCcXoBiNz1f-zNkz-14IcUAqCbxxQMj2P-jUhekG8s7udYnyeu3Z4nAsRYUnG0HtKBC1MUjmKv_kwRcfoc9ZOw/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-07-25+at+11.35.31+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGFVZKNWcolx5rFPOVvJOkO5I9izLsi1rOjBLc3PYE6pVOeSORNCcXoBiNz1f-zNkz-14IcUAqCbxxQMj2P-jUhekG8s7udYnyeu3Z4nAsRYUnG0HtKBC1MUjmKv_kwRcfoc9ZOw/s320/Screen+shot+2011-07-25+at+11.35.31+AM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>He talked about libraries pulling data from external sources and combining it with what we have in our own collections. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Another example of a project using linked data: Cornell and others are building <a href="http://vivoweb.org/">VIVO</a> - a network showing university scholars and what they are doing (publishing, where their funding is coming from, who is collaborating with whom).</div><div><br />
</div><div>Getting started:</div><div><ul><li>Don't jump in the deep end right away. "Make good data" and then make it available in one of these systems. Adapt and improve your own data.</li>
<li>Consume and adapt others' data to create practical applications</li>
<li>collaborate with a growing community of collaborators</li>
<li><a href="http://everybodyslibraries.com/">everybodyslibraries.com</a></li>
</ul></div>Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-30435843673284401002011-07-23T16:47:00.000-04:002011-07-23T16:47:59.243-04:00PLL Summit - Larry Guthrie and Doug Malerba on Developing Collaborative Communities<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><i>One of three sessions in the PLL Summit Administration concurrent sessions track. These are notes are from talk by <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=12038611">Larry Guthrie</a> of </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;"><i>Covington & Burling LLP </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><i>and Doug Malerba of </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;"><i>McKenna Long and Aldridge</i> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><i>on developing collaborative communities. Note: these are my notes from this session; any inaccuracies or omissions are my own.</i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><i><br />
</i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><b>Larry Guthrie on Collaboration in Libraries</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><i><br />
</i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Larry Guthrie says that libraries are all about collaboration; collaboration has a positive tone today. There is an emphasis on building a team culture. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">6 types of collaboration by libraries</span></span><br />
<br />
<ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">historical perspective - libraries were originally a collaboration e.g. most monasteries created one place to hold all their books.</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">through inter-library loan - "the more we share, the more we have" - libraries by nature are collaborative, helping each other as well as those inside our own firms. </span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">in various locations - telecommuting, embedding librarians in branches, face-to-face meetings are preferred</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">using various communication techniques - social media (wikis, blogs, Twitter, etc.), Harvard's <a href="http://hbr.org/product/five-tips-for-better-virtual-meetings/an/U0803C-PDF-ENG">5 Tips for Better Virtual Meetings</a> (purchase required), communication across generations.</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">over various disciplines - with other fields and specific areas of interest - the public library can be the hub for a number of communities, can facilitate this with social networks. New book coming out: <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9401.html">Collaborative Governance</a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"> by John D. Donahue and Richard J. Zeckhauser.</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">for activism on behalf of librarianship - library associations are partnering with other organizations to advocate on various issues. Librarians need to work with other information professionals to lobby on behalf of libraries.</span></li>
</ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b>Doug Malerba on Virtual Teamwork: The Life of a Teleworking Law Librarian</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">He now teleworks exclusively from his home in Connecticut. Teleworking is common; most knowledge workers work from home one day a week. However, it is still fairly rare in law firms.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">In his case, his wife was given a job opportunity in Connecticut so they decided to move. He thought he would have to find a new job. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Advantages - worker</span></span></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">cost savings</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">decreased interruptions in work day</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">improved work/life balance</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">geographic freedom</span></li>
</ul><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Advantages - employer</span></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">cost savings (real estate, utilities)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">employee retention</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">increased productivity</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">decreased absenteeism - people can still often perform their duties even if they might not have been able to go into to work (sick, family member sick)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">business continuity </span></li>
</ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Advantages - society</span></span></div></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">cost savings (roads, infrastructure)</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">decreased traffic</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">lowered air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">energy security</span></span></li>
</ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">He had to determine which duties were tied to his physical location and could no longer be performed:</span></span></div></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">shelving</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">periodical binding</span></span></li>
</ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">However, is primary functions could be performed virtually</span></span></div></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">reference desk</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">working with government affairs group</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">subject alerts</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">ILL</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">document delivery</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">e-resources management</span></span></li>
</ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">He was able to do most of the work. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">His proposal to work virtually came at an opportune time: his firm was looking to reduce operating costs. Also management believed in telecommuting. He started by working 25 hours per week by telecommuting.</span></span></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">The started using "unified reference", that allows expanded reference services provided by the librarians across the firm's offices. He noticed that communication between librarians in different offices improved; there was increased awareness of librarians in other offices. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">During "snow-mageddon" requests from the attorneys continued to come in; he </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">was one of only a few librarians who was able to work meet the need.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">He has now regained his full-time status.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Telework challenges:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">It is essential the virtual employee create and retain a robust identity to be seen by other employees. It is essential to use all forms of communication in addition to email: voice, teleconferencing, etc. People need to see a living, breathing human being and a colleague.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Professional isolation is when an employee loses connection to the organization's employees and culture. This can lead to feeling less motivated.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Social isolation - working alone can be harder for some people.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Employee burn out is a risk - absence of distractions can be a double-edged sword if employees don't take breaks or establish boundaries. It is important that the employee "turn off." </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">When you work remotely, there is an expectation that you can handle basic computer trouble-shooting issues. Also need to maintain connection with those who can keep you running remotely.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Need support from management - need solid support, need to feel connected.</span></li>
</ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">He is now collaborating with Joelle Coachman on uses of social media. They are also looking at other new tools, such as reference monitoring.</span></span></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Many of us are already serving clients remotely; we can now take advantage of telecommunications.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Jack Niles - coined the phrase "telecommuting" - predicts this term will disappear as it becomes more common.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">A great compliment: one of his lawyers did not realize they no longer worked in the same office after a year of his telecommuting.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">People have to get over the psychological barriers - there is an idea that everyone working from home are in their pyjamas watching TV. Comment from a manager in the audience: if you have a diligent employee, there is no need to expect their attitude to change when they start to telecommute.</span></span></div>Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-23097574369645548152011-07-23T15:50:00.000-04:002011-07-23T15:50:27.883-04:00PLL Summit - Joelle Coachman - Resistance is Futile: Integrating New Technology into Your Library<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><i>One of three sessions in the PLL Summit Technology/Tech Services concurrent sessions track. These are notes are from talk by Joelle Coachman, E-Resources Librarian at McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP and owner of Info-2Go Legal Research Services,</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><i> on integrating new technology into your library. Note: these are my notes from this session; any inaccuracies or omissions are my own.</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Joelle Coachman gave a lively talk comparing the law librarian profession and law firms with Star Trek.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Note that different generations relate to different generations of Star Trek. Summer associates see William Shatner as the "<a href="http://www.priceline.com/">Priceline Negotiator</a>", not <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_T._Kirk">Captain James T. Kirk</a>. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsNLBpiUbrhFeS0PyC4oiWvL2yk4N__1vdMyQgWZiOQ6WnTZZ2pECa4qUhyphenhyphen4hJ0WH4i8cHfcpYWaVRxrPttmCOSGr31Izux-xIhDc8L6BaHZLYMhUtAplKUZUfbWVePmW6quq72Q/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-07-23+at+3.25.26+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsNLBpiUbrhFeS0PyC4oiWvL2yk4N__1vdMyQgWZiOQ6WnTZZ2pECa4qUhyphenhyphen4hJ0WH4i8cHfcpYWaVRxrPttmCOSGr31Izux-xIhDc8L6BaHZLYMhUtAplKUZUfbWVePmW6quq72Q/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-07-23+at+3.25.26+PM.png" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">As librarians we are "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_(Star_Trek)">Data</a>", the data gatherers. Focus is on the vertical engagement, delivery of information up to those we report to. She encourages us to work more in the horizontal, which is more challenging.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Social media is the "bad guy" in the room - you might miss key information if you are not searching in social media. Most of us see it as a research tool rather than an engagement tool. Most of us are private and do not want to share. It is the "monster" in the room; we don't view it favorably.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borg_(Star_Trek)">The Borg</a> - a lot like a social network - they have no thoughts of their own once assimilated. "Resistance is futile". It creates connection between people; be careful it does not become a negative for you. The way vendors are using data that is being collected. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">How can we take a Borg-like existence in social networks to instead becoming more engaging and in control? The information proliferated in social networks "is huge" and were "<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0796366/quotes?qt0542603">giving it all she's got,</a> Captain". If you are following blogs, you have to make it a daily habit. Make your social engagement, whatever avenue you choose, part of your daily habit.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Twitter is valuable, breaks news. But the trouble with Twitter is that it is prolific - too many tweets are not valuable. Engagement is different than anything else we have done as law librarians. She has been following others for a long time, but has only recently started talking with others on Twitter.</span><br />
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<ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">When you first set up your Twitter account, watch it for a while. It takes a while to fine-tune it specifically.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">You don't have to follow the world; it is your private domain; follow who you want.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> When you first start, know who you are following. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">If tweeting, keep in mind you cannot speak on behalf of your law firm. Keep in mind you are doing both personal and professional mixed together. Know your purpose and know what you want to say. She personally tweets about library and personal topics "all mixed together."</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">People often take key phrases from speakers and tweet them, and then have "little spurts" of discussions. Mark those tweets with tags. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">You need to know the language of the interest group you are speaking to. Use hashtags to connect with those and other interest groups. So often we keep what we do in the back as "housekeeping" but if you share with the larger world, they will gain respect for what we do. This is horizontal engagement.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Cultivate and share who you are. It gives you the opportunity to be individualistic.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Earn the right to tweet the link.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Organize your social house. She recommends using a third party dashboard such as Hootsuite to allow for following different channels of discussion from the broader community. Otherwise you have to actively build habits to go search certain hashtags. TweetCaster, Tweetdeck and others are available. </span></span></li>
</ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Other considerations:</span></span></div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Mobile devices help. If you are not mobile, you will have to work that into your engagement. You don't have to text message, but if you can get a device that allows you to follow conversations, it will help you be connected and be relevant in a fast-paced environment. </span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">LinkedIn - 2 billion people are using it; possibly 500 million are engaged day to day; it is growing and there is a definite change in the way people are using it. Use it for external sharing - how many people shared that you are going to be at this event today? Don't just share with your peers, but share with others you are connected with to show you are active professionally.</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">There is nothing wrong with asserting ourselves and talking about ourselves. </span></span></li>
</ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">LinkedIn tips:</span></span></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Maintain an updated profile - it is like keeping your resume up to date, but easier since they facilitate addition of information in a standard format. You never know what opportunities will come to you. </span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Use your custom URL</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Join or create groups; there is not harm, you can un-join if you do not like it. Get into a habit to go to the group every day or set up email notifications to send to you every day.</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">By working with LinkedIn, it will help you answer questions about it later. </span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Strategic linking: use the "share" button - share to LinkedIn articles you are reading. You never know who in your network will find it interesting as well. </span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Don't hesitate to ask for recommendations. Lawyers cannot always have recommendations because of bar association rules, but law librarians don't have these rules. Even if your firm doesn't post your bio, you should have a bio on LinkedIn. It gives her the opportunity to reach those who would not have found her through her firm.</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">When you are sharing articles and links, send via LinkedIn, even to people internally. She found over time that people in her firm started to re-share links around to their followers.</span></li>
</ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">"Make it so!" We can sit in the Captain's chair and drive the ship where we want it, contribute to the enterprise with "happy eyes" rather than fear and trepidation. </span></span></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">She was also asked about use of Facebook. She uses Facebook personally but not as much professionally. The training she does now has forked toward LinkedIn. She encourages law firm librarians to make it personal rather than professional. If businesses want to be found, they have to be there, but think about your focus. If you are not using LinkedIn as a professional, you need to question why. It is where the professionals are.</span></span></div>Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653607.post-80295821005182934792011-07-23T14:48:00.000-04:002011-07-23T14:48:31.380-04:00PLL Summit - David Curle on transformations in the legal publishing industry<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><i>One of three sessions in the PLL Summit Technology/Tech Services concurrent sessions track. These are notes are from talk by <a href="http://www.outsellinc.com/about_us/team/David_Curle">David Curle</a> of Outsell on transformations in the legal publishing industry. Note: these are my notes from this session; any inaccuracies or omissions are my own.</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">$15.5 billion - publishers in the legal, tax and regulatory industry worldwide</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">2008 was the first year they went into negative growth; came back slight in 2010; expect it to take another 3-4 years to get back to where they were pre-2008.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Three companies dominate the space: LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters and WoltersKluwer hold about 70% of the market place. BNA is next with about 2% market share. It has made it difficult for anyone else to break into the market because they keep getting "gobbled up" by one of the big players.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">It is difficult to describe the major players because depending on what part you see, you see something different. We tend to think of the "big three" as legal publishers; however, they serve a number of markets. Curle has broken the top three by type of legal information; about a third of their revenues is U.S. legal information. About a quarter is non-US legal. The rest are other areas such as corporate, government, academic, tax, governance and compliance areas. So only about $3.5 billion is generally derived from US law firms.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">How much revenue do law firms bring in? About $400 billion. The largest firm brings in about $2 billion. It is a very fragmented industry, making it difficult for providers who work for anything from $2 billion business all the way down to a solo practitioner. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">$40 billion - the 10% of law firm expenditures that firms see as needing to cut. Legal vendors looking to expand into this space, the "business of law" such as in the IT area such as servers hosted in firms, etc. Vendors are pretty entrenched in their existing legal information areas and need to look to these ways to expand.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">What do law firms do?</span></span><br />
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<ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Develop strategy</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Deliver legal services</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Run their businesses</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Market themselves</span></li>
</ul><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">He uses Thomson Reuters as a case study, but similar things happened in WoltersKluwer and LexisNexis</span></span><br />
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<ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Thomson Reuters' role, 1996 </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> > were not addressing these four areas</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Thomson Reuters' role, 2009 > expanding into these four areas</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Thomsone Reuters' role, 2011 > purchased services in these areas, now starting to compete with their own clients e.g. <a href="http://www.pangea3.com/">Pangea3</a>, a legal outsourcing area; Hildebrandt and others</span></li>
</ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">This transition is not unique; it is happening in other industries they are tracking. A business-to-business publisher has gone from publishing about marketing to actually doing marketing on their clients' behalf.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">See <a href="http://www.susskind.com/the_grid.html">Susskind's Grid</a>: Toward an uncomfortable quadrant - describes where technological change is most likely to take place. Acquisition of <a href="http://www.pangea3.com/">Pangea3</a> puts Thomson Reuters in the upper right quadrant - online legal services. It involves clients directly, and it is not just about technology; it is about law firms' proprietary skill. </span></span></div><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Questions from law firm and corporate libraries survey: How are law firms managing all of this change? Especially given the challenges they are already facing? How are law firm libraries different or similar to corporate libraries? </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">The responses showed that the corporate world felt the economic crisis faster than the law firms. Techniques for survival showed up later in law firm libraries. Part of strategy is comparing what you do versus what you do not do, and technology poses a number of these questions. Technology is front-and-center.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">In the area of vendor relations - what techniques are librarians using to evaluate products? Law firm libraries tend to rely heavily on information provided by the vendor. They look at the products themselves, look at demos, look at the contracts, and then get feedback from some other buyers. Law firm libraries do less than corporate libraries: putting out requests for proposals, developing requirements lists, comparing products. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">What can we expect from vendors and other players, and how will it affect law libraries?</span></span><br />
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<ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">A continuing divergence of products and sub-groups; more targeted products. Offerings may even be by size of firm. LexisNexis is putting a push on to get back to smaller firms and solo lawyers, for example.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">More niche players and disrupters - especially as legal information access becomes more open. New information companies can come along and make new products out of it. In the past the three big vendors had control of the information.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Law libraries need to invest in strategic planning and vendor portfolio management - what competencies and skills do library staff have that can serve the firms? Is there anything we need to give up doing? (He referred to Steven Lastres' comments in the <a href="http://conniecrosby.blogspot.com/2011/07/pll-summit-steven-lastres-julie-bozzell.html">KM session</a> earlier today).</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Move toward Susskind's upper quadrant - providing more services directly to clients, the same as legal information providers are trying to do - high value, client-proximate solutions. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Help to shake off the primary law mindset - most law graduates have a primary law mindset, jumping directly on Westlaw (or more likely Google) to pull up primary information. So much legal work is pulling up primary legal sources "in a hap-hazard way"; he sees this as a shame. What is being lost is the sense of context and legal doctrine they used to get from working with legal treatises. Small firms and non-lawyers will start to use more free and cheap legal services. Lawyers in big firms need to be able to use other higher-value sources.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">More collaboration and peer-to-peer for content creation - libraries need to help facilitate this. You get better information from getting people talking to each other than from experts (knowledge sharing among peers). Need to help corporate counsel and non-lawyers collaborating and help to create the legal information e.g. building code information. This should be part of knowledge management efforts.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Vendor relations needs to be about data: ROI, usage and pricing. Introduce more and more data into the evaluation and purchase of products. There is no trust that vendors are providing right and appropriate data; the law firm librarians need to introduce this as an idea.</span></li>
</ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">He doesn't have solutions, but hopes this talk helps us understand the dynamics going on with legal vendors.</span></span></div>Connie Crosbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049314387546446951noreply@blogger.com0