here’s the final thing
http://kastleracing.com/recipebox/

#6 No surprise here reading that Opera mobile is the reason for the explosion of mobile internet use. I’ve used it on my blackberry for several years now and it is by far the EASIEST browser I’ve found. Things just display right. It knows what I’m trying to look at, and zoom on, and click on. It makes sense to hear that relatively little data is transferred though, since the bookmarks seem to save each page. Effectively you can load 4 commonly read sites above ground, and switch between them while on the train with no service. I certainly see mobile and cloud computing as the biggest advances and the direction of MY internet life.
Cloud computing, however, has it down sides which seem to be regularly glossed over. At work, we’ve used a remote server setup for the past 10 years. Each PC in the office only has to connect to the LAN or a user connects to the server through the internet. Keystrokes are sent, graphics are returned. Hardware requirements are low and you don’t have to worry about an employee losing a laptop full of irreplaceable data. We do regular backups and have never had a server meltdown, but will inevitably hit the wall and have to get new servers again in a few years. I read an article in a business magazine (bad library student, I forgot which one) emphasizing the lack of control you have once you’re in the cloud. The host will upgrade the software when the new one come available with no regard for your work flow, learning curve or opinion. A feature you used in the old version might be gone. Programs may stop being compatible and no longer share data the way they did in an old version. (when your mdb database is suddenly converted to sql overnight) And let us not forget that sometimes, not matter how hard you try, you cannot connect to the internet. (usually for me in an emergency when I need to contact a person whose paper business card I trashed months prior when they were added to my address book) For the personal user, it’s a pretty great thing. I can have a place to store pictures of my kid and never have to panic when my 7 year old laptop crashes. For an organization, the impact of upgrades, changes in formats, and connectivity to your data must be balanced with hardware savings and peace of mind of offsite storage.

#5 The idea of ‘raw data’ being shared by the creators and discoverers, available for others to dissect and organize excites me. It makes perfect sense that people do and should share relational data, whether they know its significance or not. I’m still stuck on the format. That’s always been the problem with raw data. Without a context, without a mission statement or explanation or hypothesis of what the data is or where it came from, data can be twisted and misinterpreted and ruined. The idea of ‘raw data’ is so romantic, but without a wider organization and structure or a way to standardize the format how can it really be used? Sites like dbpedia and openstreetmap.org are good starts, but how do we get libraries to open themselves up?
On the knitting site ravelry.com I recently came across a great feature. For patterns that are taken from print books, there is an embedded link to the worldcat record for that book. What a relief to see a link to Worldcat instead of amazon!
I understand the problems with opening library catalogs to general Google searches: MARC21 format instead of XML, network security, proprietary software, a lack of understanding and empathy on both sides of the IT/librarian fence. I don’t understand why featured items and genre’s can’t be shared though. Elmhurst PL should come up in the google search of ‘cookbooks 60126’. They have cookbooks, right? You don’t have to go to Barnes and Noble or Amazon to see a book.
I agree that more data should be shared and that the relational data of my mundane everyday is the key to someone else’s research study or grant request, or civil survey of public needs. I’m afraid that it will continue to be a slow road for the mass participation and understanding that is needed to really get us to Web 3.0.

When I read a little about adaptive technology for the blind earlier in the semester, I was intrigued. How did I get through library school without access for the disabled coming up? When my library director and aunt who works with special needs students didn’t know much about braille output, I knew I had a topic.

http://kastleracing.com/753/IssueReport.html

http://kastleracing.com/753/excercise05.html