Posting #5
I’m definitely intrigued by the cloud and the effect it will have on libraries. Ellyssa Kroski makes some excellent points on its benefits and drawbacks in her presentation on Libraries and Cloud Computing (http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/2010/libraries-and-cloud-computing/). She starts big, discussing all possible uses in a library, but then scales it down. There is no need for libraries to put everything on it, especially when drawbacks like privacy and reliability are so prevalent. I definitely agree that starting small is key. The ability to save money on hardware and servers is wonderful for libraries, especially in these trying economic times. I also love the idea of not needing to purchase upgrades to software applications. The ability to save files to a place other than a computer (which can be destroyed) would also give librarians piece of mind. Most importantly, this is where technology is heading. Social networking sites, online e-mail applications and even versions of Adobe Photoshop Express are on the cloud. Lots of libraries are already using these things, but many are not. The cloud (and the things it offers) will only get better and better. Libraries should not be left behind!

Posting #4

The idea of a Semantic Web sounds good to me in theory – who doesn’t want search engines to understand what we are really looking for? However, I cannot imagine the amount of time it would take to implement. Adding metadata to individual web pages would take a lot of time, but distinguishing which webpages should be a part of the Semantic Web adds a whole new level to the job. Adding metadata to every webpage of the millions on the Web would be impossible, as well as unnecessary, given that not all webpages contain trustworthy information. As others have said, it is definitely difficult to know what Web 3.0 will actually hold. The idea of a 3D web is interesting to me, though. Like Lisa, I too would prefer to visit museums and countries in person. However, I can’t help but think of how cool it would be for schoolchildren (or why not library patrons?) to be able to “visit” museums or countries for school projects, fun, etc. My concern with all talk of Web 3.0 is the effect it will have on our health. Most of us spend too much time in front of our computers as it is, and I am afraid that people will eventually never leave their chairs.

I am also very excited about HTML5 after reading Hunt’s article. It seems to be so much more intuitive and logical than XHTML – it really seems to have designers in mind. I came across a beautiful e-book that Google built in HTML5 at http://www.20thingsilearned.com/home. An article about it is here: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-gadgeteer/html5-enables-interactive-ebook-games-and-more/4148?tag=mantle_skin;content. Of course, technologies like Javascript are also needed to build something like this, but it is proof that HTML5 is a powerful tool.

Here’s a link to my Exercise 8. I felt like I had so much more freedom to do what I wanted!

http://ka-graphicdesign.com/lis753/exercise08

Hi everyone! Just wanted to share my Exercise 7: http://ka-graphicdesign.com/lis753/exercise07.html