Technology in Transition

Sometimes I have a sense of nostalgia for the simplicity of the world I grew up in: a world of tangible "stuff." In other ways, I cannot imagine life without the technology we use every day. Living has become a very different experience in the time from 1993 to 2013. Probably the only thing I really miss is feeling a responsibility to protect and maintain my tangible possessions because they were limited, rare, and precious to me-- these days everything seems to be quick, easy, and cheap and as a result easily replaced.

Today we're talking about the tech of yester-year- all of the gadgets and tools we had to navigate us in the land of web 1.0 and part of 2.0. You know what I mean- the floppie disks, VCR's, Blockbuster, and blowing on your NES cartridges so your game would stop messing up. Thanks to continual innovation we have come to live with far better technologies, but there was a time when we absolutely relied on those simple technologies and considered them luxuries! It makes me wonder if movie nights have lost their splendor for kids of today? Do they get the same thrill and excitement scrolling through Netflix or Amazon Instant Video that I once got walking in to the local movie rental place- Questor Movies To Go? When choices were limited, they were more intentional somehow more special. Movie nights were a treat! Nowadays, it's as easy to do as turn on your television. At what point does our ease of access make us take for granted all that we have? It does seem like our "more, more, more" culture has taken off with the dawning of the digital age and with all the consumption of goods ometimes I have to wonder if we're better off for it?

Then, I see the devices our engineers and computer geeks are uniting to create and I see the possibilities that they open up for society. I have to acknowledge that the benefits of our future technology are worth every device and every development along the way. From the now obsolete technologies of the distant past we have come into a world of technological invention that seems straight out of a science fiction novel.

Computer Science... bringing us the reality of theatrical imagination.

In Pattie Maes's presentation on TEDTalk from 2009 a world of integrated technology becomes realized. Adopting the concept of a sixth sense, MIT student, Pranav Mistry worked to develop a prototype of a device (incidentally) called the SixthSense. The device was created by integrating a web camera, battery powered projection device, mirror, and Pranav's own cell phone which would enable him (or the user) to interact using digital technology with the physical environment.

Granted, many of the device uses described in detail were social or personal in nature (taking photos, checking the time, checking plane schedules), but there are also further applications for working with paper and productivity tools at the end of this TEDTalk presentation by Pranav himself. Devices like this one- if the physical logistics of it can ever be figured out to make them more manageable to wear and interact with- could absolutely change the way that we interact with our entire physical environment. The possibilities are limitless as long as individuals with imagination continue to develop the technology. I hope that we will hear more about this technology as there hasn't been much said since 09/10.

The SixthSense from the website

SixthSense is likened to the interface seen in Minority Report

The technology from SixthSense also got me to thinking about a more current and ever-evolving technological reality that we are facing: Google Glass. Seen below, "Glass," as it is known, is a very real technology that will become a part of our future is under heavy scrutiny at the moment by a range of people from authorities in the national and local government down to the individual users of the device. The device is already banned in several areas and the poor developers haven't even set a release date for the device yet! Glass is a technology that I am personally very excited about because it removes a level of complication from the SixthSense design (in my opinion) by putting the projection on the glass you are looking through. In this way, Glass seems a little more private than SixthSense (which was outwardly projected the images) and it also involves a less cumbersome device.

Glass is likened to Iron Man's Jarvis interface

Glass is really catching a lot of flack from the public, and in our age of "If you have an opinion, share it!" blogs- like the one providing the above picture, create open forums for its many criticisms. There are also (thankfully) individuals out there willing to sing the praises of this new leap into intuitive technology and beg the public to think about the future and the positive outcomes. What seems to be overlooked in the opinions of those attacking the device is the fact that with or without Glass, your privacy is still an issue, cinema piracy will still happen, and people are still going to have auto accidents related to distracting devices. It's just going to happen. Glass isn't so far removed from mobile phones and I personally believe it would be safer [It doesn't impede you vision, it's hands free, it's voice controlled].

 It seems that every time there is some tech advance, all the doomsday prophecies come creeping out of the cracks and the hoards of skeptics grab their pitchforks and curse the demon technology, but come on guys, really-- consider the positive possibilities (there are so many!). These technologies are just the next logical step in our quest for connecting all the data of the world around us- as Tim Berners, inventor of the world wide web, would have us do. These technologies bridge the gap between the digital data and the physical world in way that has never before been achieved. It quite literally brings the data and information necessary to enhance your personal knowledge directly to you- right before your very eyes.

Our time of knowledge at your fingertips is beginning to give way to the new possibilities for metadata access and it is exciting! It's not as if Glass users are never going to take them off. There is always a time and a place for its uses, like any technology. There are endless applications for these devices and no level of skepticism or fashion-policing is going to impede the progress of our technology. Once the naysayers really interact with the device, I can't imagine they will think it's junk- it's just an adjustment like any other. It wasn't so long ago that the concept of the internet was a "vague, but exciting," and it's time we open up to the new possibilities available to us.

Dewey or Don't We?

After working as an undergraduate in a college library for four years, I never could understand why when our whole library was organized by Library of Congress Classification, that our children's department was still organized using the Dewey Decimal Classification. The entire section was constantly a mess and student workers struggled with both remembering how they were suppose to shelve this select group of books and identifying them for routing when they were returned by patrons. I spent two solid weeks of one summer inventory reorganizing the entire section just to get everything placed in the correct order. I hated Dewey that summer. I hated him a lot.

After learning a little bit more about Dewey and the development of the system, I have to admit that the tension between us has eased, although I still dislike the system overall. From reading Weinberger's chapter "The Geography of Knowledge," I have learned that Dewey was a considerably eccentric man with a vision that for library organization that sincerely changed the way library systems were run before the turn of the 20th century. That being said, it is time that we move on from Dewey's system and move toward one that is more relevant and versatile for our Digital Age and exponentially growing wealth of information.

In the year 2010, over 300,000 books were published in the United States alone, just as eReaders were really coming into the public market with Barnes & Noble and Borders. Considering the growth of digitization technology and successful adoption of eReader technology and self-publishing software that number has had no alternative than to keep rising. In Dewey's day, so much of what we know about the world now was simply unimaginable and as such impossible to make space for in such a finite system. While Dewey loved his decimals, there is no way for the system to keep up with the rapid changes in all spheres of our fast-paced, technological society. For instance, in the fall of 2010, when I briefly worked for Barnes & Noble, entire sections of the carefully planned store system were entirely overhauled to make space for the new budding genre of teen book, "Paranormal Romance," a section of the store which took up nearly 1/3 of the entire "Teen" section (and is now the third genre listing of the teen favorites). There is simply no way to plan for the changes in popular culture using second order organization.

I'm not really sure what the future will hold for the organization of physical books. Stores and libraries utilize different systems, and it seems that the struggle to maintain organized stock is losing the battle against the desire to browse in book stores. I just remember everything shifting constantly between new displays, new end-caps, new tables, new promotions, new books... it was all constantly in motion. For libraries at least, I feel the influx of new materials is more calculated than on the selling floor, but between weeding out obsolete materials and trying to find places to fit new ones into the system the troubles will eventually have to be faced.

Whatever the next step may be, I do believe that the decision-making process should be conducted by a cross-sectional group representing a diverse group of library professionals. The group needs to attempt to formulate a plan or system that will work within the mindset of third order organization and be relevant for as long as possible. Whatever memory palace develops, I am sure it will be something we have not seen before.

Like European free book exchanges:

Maybe the future of libraries is breaking down the established idea of what a library is...

Maybe with all of the digital media and electronic resources, libraries will sustain as a source of person-person interaction and sharing of information between librarians and the public, more like the human library project...

Or, maybe we will come to rely more heavily on digital resources and adopt the concept of digital kiosks for patrons to utilize.

One thing is certain, we can all start copying off of Amazon's notes.

The Radical Encyclopedia

As a student, I have heard for years, "Don't use Wikipedia as a resource for your work," and spent much of my academic career completely believing that it was not a real resource and something that was not reputable. I'm sure others have heard all the same pleas and arguments against the website as anything more than "an unreliable overview" of a variety of topics.

But, in taking a closer look at Wikipedia, it's amazing to me to hear that a majority of people's arguments against the site are actually the exact opposite of what it's founder instills in the community that develops the site. The TEDTalks interview with founder, Jimmy Wales, was fascinating to me as an individual striving for unbiased material in this very opinionated digital world. Despite being encouraged to seek my information elsewhere, Wikipedia has always been a resource that I have used without question when I wanted to find information about broad topics or very popular ones.

As a resource, the website has been invaluable to me simply because of how easy it is to access the information. We don't have the dusty shelves of encyclopedias in our homes anymore because we have the internet (and everyone know you can find anything on the internet). But, finding anything also means either paying for a "reputable" service or trudging through useless websites until you find one that has valuable information on it- and even then, students are not able to reference most websites in academic writing.

I now, fully support the mission of the Wikipedia community. I greatly appreciate their collaborative approach to sharing knowledge and fully agree with their approach to neutrality in their content. I have seen first hand how they manage neutrality on pages containing controversial topics and I have learned a lot from such pages. While they shy away from labeling such work as "objective," for the reader it is objective. They tend to outline the different opinions regarding controversial topics and explain what the sides believe, why they believe it, and who "they" are without slanting the information in a biased way. As Wales points out in the interview, there is no "Truth" to behold on any topic, there are merely commonly held beliefs.

It does no one any good to only hear one side of a controversy from an individual impassioned by the topic. The only way to make independent choices is to be educated about topics and draw independent conclusions. Wales himself described in the interview how when inputting information on their topics they report information from reputable sources- effectively doing research for you in the same way that a traditional encyclopedia editor may have done in the past. The only difference is, the editors of Wikipedia work in a collaborative and dynamic way that allows the information to be regularly updated with new information that is relevant to our fast-paced culture.

In debating the relative importance of having a "radical encyclopedia" versus a "safe and stodgy" encyclopedia, the wording alone leads my to prefer the radical. The words "safe" and "stodgy" for me call up concepts of conservatism, censorship, and outdated information. When I seek information I personally don't want to be spoon-fed, sugar-coated morsels hand selected for me by people who purportedly know what is important about the topic. I want to see it all! Give me the gruesome details, the offensive alongside the reserved. Give me all the sides of the story and let me choose which side I am on.

There is a lot to be said for the quality of learning that can happen in an environment dedicated to collaborative learning and  the kind of "social cooperation" Wales described.

I have no idea what a radical library might be like, but I do suspect it is on our horizon. With the rapid adoption of digitizing software and the desire for many libraries to retain preserved copies of historical and limited books, I imagine that the radical library, like the radical encyclopedia will be digital. The development of software and distribution services for eReaders and digital books has been quite well received and I imagine with the benefits of digital text books and classroom materials that tools such as iTunes U will only continue to spread throughout society. In a world so focused on speed, functionality, and on-demand access, I would expect nothing less.

Digital Culture: the rise of third order organization

As an individual who is always focused on organization and de-cluttering my own home, there was a lot of content for me to relate to in the first chapter of David Weinberger's book Everything Is Miscellaneous. There does seem to be an obvious and natural tendency for human beings to work towards organization, order, and mostly control of their environments. This topic alone could launch me into numerous diatribes regarding the origination of religion and political structures, but I digress. 

This chapter focused primarily on the use of first order and second order organizational patterns and how in our radically developing digital world, these patterns will fall into obsolescence and give way to the more intuitive and "browsing friendly" use of third order organization. Weinberger described a future and (some specific examples of) the present use of user classification, categorization, and keyword applications that broaden our datum search-ability.

The issue of finding and accessing materials versus discovering new materials was a particularly relevant conundrum that I have seen and experienced both sides of. I have been a long-time user of the public library system and worked in a private college library. I have also been a long-time book buyer as well as a bookseller in a prominent chain. As a customer in both situations I have experienced both finding and discovering, but I have to admit that I have had the most success discovering in libraries. 

In retail stores the sales clerks are not always knowledgeable about the depth and breadth of certain topics whereas there are usually librarians who are. In stores the books left out on calculated end-caps and tables throughout the store are usually comprised of the overstock items that no one is buying or the brand new titles that are being continually shoved down your throat. While I approve of staying current in the literature world, sometimes you just want to read something less modern- something that possibly inspired the now-famous authors to create their life's work. While the categorization systems of libraries and stores are similar in many ways, the ability to perform keyword searches on library websites is particularly useful. Although, when I go looking for new materials I frequently circumvent both avenues and consult my peers or GoodReads to locate titles related to those that I favor. But, when I do go to the store, even when employees approach me to offer assistance I tell them, "I'm fine" and encourage them to move on to the next victim customer. Historically, I have not approved of the recommendations given to me by booksellers, but if I engage in a conversation with a librarian they are able to either identify an appropriate starting point for my browsing or locate one without too much difficulty.

Another way in which libraries and bookstores are competing to stay relevant in this digital age has been in embracing ebooks and social networks. Almost every institution has a Facebook page and a Twitter account which allows them to reach out to their patrons and extend information, recommendations, and invite them to participate in the local programming. I will be the first to admit that were I not following the local libraries I would have no idea what they were doing because I don't get to visit them often. Social networks, whether perceived to be "good" or "bad," allow us to connect with the world in a very convenient way and also share the information with others by "liking," "commenting," or "retweeting." Having an intuitive and adaptive web presence is immensely valuable to library systems because of how it allows them to reach out to the community and continue providing valuable programs and services. In my opinion, it's the best way for them to tread into this new digital age. 

IT, Libraries, and the "One"

After viewing this TED Talk video and furiously scrawling notes on what Mr. Kelly had to say, my first reaction is to acknowledge that his propositions about the ways in which the Internet and humanity interact are being validated more every day.

The position is validated by simply considering where my classmates are and what we are collectively doing right now. We each sit at a computer, separated by miles, sharing knowledge and information which we are then asked to reflect on with our own impressions- which are then forever associated with us and our presence online. We are re-posting this knowledge with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, GoodReads, Google+, various blogging sites, and undoubtedly other platforms I am overlooking. And every time we add this content- we share- the One is learning more about us.

Any of us using Facebook regularly see this truth all the time. The advertisements are tailored to our interests, friends are suggested to us based on mutual acquaintances, and it is practically impossible to visiting a website providing news stories, game website, or even our email accounts without the One asking "would you like to link your accounts, would you like to synchronize your contacts, would you like to view this logged in from Facebook"? Our physical presences are being represented digitally on a platform accessible to anyone, anywhere around the globe. Scary right? Pretty amazing too.

The issue of transparency versus privacy for personalization of our data is one of the issues that I think will be the most prominent deterrents for many of the current Internet users. (Pardon the broad generalization,) but older generations seem much less likely to volunteer transparency to their lives than the younger "digital" generations. My own mother refuses to use simple technologies like debit cards and she hated learning to use the computer at work. There just seems to be a greater reluctance or mistrust of the incomprehensible world wide web for that group. There are many in the generations before my own that do participate and develop a web presence successfully, but there are also many who struggle with being too transparent.

In the world of libraries and public access to materials, the change digital change-over is happening as well. When I lived in Chicago a few years ago I was thrilled to get myself to the public library and enjoy the splendor of the materials surrounding me. I had no sooner gotten my library card before I was given all of the options available to me. At the time I was an employee of Barnes & Noble and was giddy that I had one more way that I could try to sell eReaders to the public! "If you buy [device] you can use your Chicago Public Library account to RENT books!" Also available to me at the physical library location were 9 floors with computer labs for the public and wireless Internet access. Accounts are now manageable online, renewals, fines, inter-library loans, and for students almost an endless supply of online journals written on every topic under the sun.

Recently, a new acquaintance asked me about my program of study and when I told him library and information technology, he laughed and remarked about how it won't be long before we don't have public libraries any more. No sooner had the words escaped his mouth than my fiance (who is very tech savvy) swooped in and defended my studies by commenting on how despite the fact that we are moving into a more digital environment, libraries and public access are still going to be needed, be relevant, and need people to manage them. I agree with that statement. I do believe that the environment of the library is shifting to a more technological base rather than one which relies on aisles of dusty tomes, but the presence of libraries will always be valuable in society. Whether or not we have Google or databases like Academic Search Complete, users will not all have the base of knowledge necessary to navigate all of that data without the guiding hand of their local librarians. It's another question entirely to address whether or not they will need to physically visit the library to get help, as many libraries offer instant online reference librarians for questions and help with materials.

Regardless of the technology shift and the requisite adjustments we will all make, library and information science is an area that will always be both relevant and evolving.

 (I will still always prefer the tomes).