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Twittering

· ostephens

I’ve started experimenting with Twitter – for those who don’t know this is a ‘micro-blogging‘ tool which essentially asks you to answer the question ‘What are you doing?’ in 140 characters or less.
Although initially this may seem like a trivial or pointless exercise, there is something intriguing and immediate about the format. It allows you to share minutiae which can give insight without being overly intrusive.

To give a personal example (which I used to try to persuade my Mum that Twitter wasn’t a complete waste of space), my brother and his family live in the US – how nice would it be for my parents to get updates about the activities of their grandchildren like ‘B riding a bike for the first time’, ‘Zs first day at school’ etc.?

Twitter can be updated from the web, IM clients, by SMS, and via a number of applications built to help Twitter (e.g. Twitterrific, Twitteroo). There is an API if you want to develop your own applications.
You should be able to see my ‘Twitters’ in the lefthand column of this blog (those reading from a feed will need to click through of course).
Twitter only really comes into its own once you are ‘following’ people – that is, you get their Twitter updates (again, lots of options how you get these, I’m currently using Flock’s People sidebar), and hopefully have people following you. In this way you can form a community with others – you can also limit who can follow your Twits if you want. You can ‘reply’ to other people’s Twitters by putting @username in your Twitter, and this can lead to something approximating to a Twitter conversation (worth noting that this goes against the ‘10 commandments of Twitter‘ – although I prefer the ‘Are you a Twitter Twit or a Twerp‘ approach to this issue.)

Those of you who are Facebook users may see the parallel between Twitter and the Facebook ‘status’ – which serves not a dissimilar service. So, I (along with others) wanted to update both my Twitter and Facebook status simultaneously. The most straightforward is to install the Twitter app in Facebook (remembering to click the ‘Want Twitter to update your Facebook status?’ link which is large and obvious, but I inexpicably missed it when I first installed the app). Once this is installed, when you Twitter, each Twitter will automatically appear as your Facebook status, prepended with ‘is twittering:’.

However, the way I first came across was to allow the RSS feed of your Facebook status to update your Twitter using Twitterfeed, a web app which allows you to update Twitter via any RSS feed. This works in the other direction, meaning that when you update your Facebook status, it updates your Twitter – and Twitterfeed allows you define any pre-pended text to your Twitter per RSS feed.

What I actually wanted was to allow Twitter to update Facebook AND Facebook to update Twitter. So I setup both the above methods. Unfortunately overnight I discovered a problem, which was that because the Twitter app in Facebook pre-pends the status with ‘Is twittering:’ I found that the following happened:

  • I update Twitter with ‘back at work’
  • Fb is updated ‘is twittering: back at work’
  • Twitter is updated ‘is twittering: back at work’
  • Fb is updated ‘is twittering: is twittering: back at work’

and so on, until by the morning my Fb status said ‘is twittering: is twittering: is twittering: is twittering’ until it ran out of room! Although this was a good advertisement for Twitter, it wasn’t exactly what I wanted.

Someone suggested to me that you need to decide your ‘authoritative’ source for Twitter, but sometimes I’m working in Facebook and sometimes Twitter.
For the moment, I decided to stick to Facebook to Twitter updates using Twitterfeed. The reason for this is that I’m also using Twitterfeed to acheive a couple of other things. Firstly I’ve setup Twitterfeed to moniter the RSS feed from this blog – and when I post to it, it updates my Twitter with ‘Is blogging: ‘ and the title of the post.

Secondly, I wanted to be able to update my Twitter feed from my work calendar (afterall, what better source of information about what I’m doing at any particular time?). Unfortunately this proved a bit of a tortuous to setup – I managed it as follows (there may be better ways):

  1. Set my Exchange-backed Outlook calendar to sychronise with a ‘ScheduleWorld’ calendar, and set the ScheduleWorld calendar to sychronise with my Google Calendar – I got this from  the Internet Duct Tape blog.
  2. Created a Yahoo Pipe to take a iCal feed from Google Calendar, and output events happening either up to an hour before or up to an hour after the current time (I’ve published this as Google Calendar iCal feed filter public version)
  3. Subscribed Twitterfeed to the RSS output of this Pipe

I have to admit that it seems slightly flaky, and I’m not sure if this is Twitterfeed (which is a free service, and so comes with no guarantees), the Yahoo Pipe (either the service, or my setup), or something else.

So, for the moment, I’m leaving it there – I’ll see how both Twitter and FB develop over the year – who knows, by 2009 I might not be using either…

Blogged with Flock

zotero and google tools [Zotero Documentation]

· ostephens

zotero and google tools [Zotero Documentation] A great demonstration of how Zotero can work together with Google Scholar/Books/Docs – Zotero keeps developing – see this announcement on the collaboration between Zotero and the Internet Archive for example. I’ve been impressed by Zotero – it’s got some stiff competition from EndNote, RefMan, CrossRef, etc. and it would be nice to see it break through in 2008 – I think that if the Zotero server is released, with the ability to run a institutional version, then it stands a real chance of getting some traction with whole institutions rather than just individuals…

Blogged with Flock

Saad Eskander, Director of Iraq’s National Library

· ostephens

From November 2006 to July 2007 Saad Eskander wrote a diary which was published in various places, including the British Library’s website. Although the diary finishes with him feeling he has exploited the situation his staff are in, and ’emotionally blackmailed’ the readers, I do not think that the latter is true in any way.

The diary makes difficult reading. Although there are many descriptions of the difficulties, the one that stayed with me after reading the diary was the following short passage:

“A stray bullet smashed a small window at the Acquisition Department. The Head of the Department had to clean her desk and chair from broken glasses before she could begin her work.”

The way the stray bullet is treated here – not an issue apart from the mess caused, reflects for me the bravery of staff working under these conditions.

Saad Eskander was recently awarded the Scone Foundation’s Archivist of the Year

I haven’t had a chance to listen to this interview from Radio 4 yet… BBC – Radio 4 – Taking a Stand – 8 January 2008 – this is available for the next week

Blogged with Flock

Kindle Surprise

· ostephens

Having said that I was going to try to post more regularly, I immediately disappear for two and a half weeks. This was for the best of reasons – the birth of our first child. So I’m now easing myself back into work, and thought a short post might be in order.

Obviously there has been huge coverage of the new ebook reader from Amazon, but a couple of things in particular caught my eye.

 

Firstly, Richard Wallis at Panlibus wonders "how long before the first librarian is presented with one along with the request to check out the library’s copy of Harry Potter on to it?". As I note in my comment to this post, a review on Amazon already mentions the inability to read ebooks from the library as a ‘bad’ point (in a very positive review)

 

"I expected to be able to download ebooks from my local library (for free) and read them on my Kindle"

 

Secondly, Karen Schneider posts Kindle doesn’t light my fire. What is interesting about this post is what is missing. Karen complains about several things relating to the Kindle, but the reading experience isn’t one of them. Once you stop complaining about how rubbish the reader is, and start complaining about cost of content, and how you get stuff on the device, then isn’t this a huge leap forward?

 

I agree with Karen that at first look there are some oddities – charging for reading blogs? Who’d pay to read this rubbish? (But of course, you are – reading this has cost you a minute slice of your monthly/annual broadband charge or equivalent)

 

I’m not convinced that Amazon is onto a winner charging for accessing content rather than for using the data connection, but it’s interesting to see a different approach, and for books and similar content I can see some potential here – it’s as you creep into other areas of functionality such as reading blogs, or looking up stuff on wikipedia that the model looks slightly weaker.

Despite Karen’s criticisms, I’d leap at the chance to try one. Slightly ironically considering this is an e-book reader, I’m more interested in reading the paper on it than I am books – if I could get my daily paper (yes, ok, I admit it’s the Guardian) then I’d save huge amounts of paper (anyone done an analysis of ecofriendliness of the Kindle vs a daily paper yet?) – I’d want to be able to do the crossword as well I guess.

I read another comment (can’t track it down now) noting that unlike the situation with music, where existing CD collections could be converted for use with the iPod (and other players), this isn’t true with an ebook reader. Although this is true, it is probably also the case that you re-read less than you re-listen (or atleast, this is true for me).

Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian, has talked about the ‘iPod’ moment for newspapers, and although this may not be it (based on the pictures, the Kindle is no looker), it feels closer. Even if the Kindle is not the iPod for ebooks, I hope that it gets a UK release (unlike the Sony Libre), and I get to play with one soon.

Kindle Surprise

· ostephens

Having said that I was going to try to post more regularly, I immediately disappear for two and a half weeks. This was for the best of reasons – the birth of our first child. So I’m now easing myself back into work, and thought a short post might be in order.

Obviously there has been huge coverage of the new ebook reader from Amazon, but a couple of things in particular caught my eye.

 

Firstly, Richard Wallis at Panlibus wonders "how long before the first librarian is presented with one along with the request to check out the library’s copy of Harry Potter on to it?". As I note in my comment to this post, a review on Amazon already mentions the inability to read ebooks from the library as a ‘bad’ point (in a very positive review)

 

"I expected to be able to download ebooks from my local library (for free) and read them on my Kindle"

 

Secondly, Karen Schneider posts Kindle doesn’t light my fire. What is interesting about this post is what is missing. Karen complains about several things relating to the Kindle, but the reading experience isn’t one of them. Once you stop complaining about how rubbish the reader is, and start complaining about cost of content, and how you get stuff on the device, then isn’t this a huge leap forward?

 

I agree with Karen that at first look there are some oddities – charging for reading blogs? Who’d pay to read this rubbish? (But of course, you are – reading this has cost you a minute slice of your monthly/annual broadband charge or equivalent)

 

I’m not convinced that Amazon is onto a winner charging for accessing content rather than for using the data connection, but it’s interesting to see a different approach, and for books and similar content I can see some potential here – it’s as you creep into other areas of functionality such as reading blogs, or looking up stuff on wikipedia that the model looks slightly weaker.

Despite Karen’s criticisms, I’d leap at the chance to try one. Slightly ironically considering this is an e-book reader, I’m more interested in reading the paper on it than I am books – if I could get my daily paper (yes, ok, I admit it’s the Guardian) then I’d save huge amounts of paper (anyone done an analysis of ecofriendliness of the Kindle vs a daily paper yet?) – I’d want to be able to do the crossword as well I guess.

I read another comment (can’t track it down now) noting that unlike the situation with music, where existing CD collections could be converted for use with the iPod (and other players), this isn’t true with an ebook reader. Although this is true, it is probably also the case that you re-read less than you re-listen (or atleast, this is true for me).

Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian, has talked about the ‘iPod’ moment for newspapers, and although this may not be it (based on the pictures, the Kindle is no looker), it feels closer. Even if the Kindle is not the iPod for ebooks, I hope that it gets a UK release (unlike the Sony Libre), and I get to play with one soon.

The Semantic Web and Libraries

· ostephens

This talk by Richard Wallis from Talis. Talis are basing their approach on the Talis ‘Platform’ which they describe as a Semantic platform – this talk is meant (I think) to say something about what they mean when they talk about a semantic platform.

Richard starts by covering the development of the ‘library catalogue’ – from hand written cards, to the latest iteration of the Talis online catalogue. Now covering the different approaches to ‘union’ interfaces – z39.50 vs physical union of records.

Now, demonstrating problems with searching for ‘paris hilton’ when you want the hotel – if you use Trip Advisor it’s great, because the context is explicit, but if you use Google, then you get a lot on the person. He does another example with Ford Prefect using Google and ebay. To some extent this is true, but in both cases Google managed to return Hotel, and the car respectively in second place on the search – so actually this suggests that Google does a pretty good job. I’ not necessarily saying you get ‘better results’ from Google – but it shows that Google does a pretty good job – although it doesn’t know what you want, where there are two meanings the 1st and 2nd hit in these scenarios exemplify the two meanings.

Richard is just playing the video of the sketch about the first IT professional – to everyones amusement.

Anyway, Richard is arguing that Trip Advisor and eBay work better for the examples above because they have good metadata. I’m not sure about this – they have context as well, so at least it isn’t just about the metadata – if Trip Advisor ‘catalogued’ celebrities as well as hotels, then would it have been any better than Google? I’d guess not on a ‘all fields’ search. To take a slightly contrary example, if you search for ‘Ford Prefect’ on Amazon then you might well be looking for the Hitchhikers Guide books – but what you get is manuals for the car.

So – Richard’s point is that libraries have standardised metadata – so we should be able to exploit this.

Moving onto a different tack, Richard is describing the drop in cost of both storage and computing power. You can now buy a laptop for under £250 (http://www.asuslaptop.co.uk/products.php?cat=53)  (I so want one)

So – the Talis Platform – big data store – about bringing data into a single store – but more than that. However, difficult to describe as it has no user interface – Richard says it’s like trying to describe a new petrol – he can say it’s better, but how to show it? Talis have now started to build interfaces on top of the Platform (for those who are interested, it’s an RDF store) – I’ve seen a few demos yesterday and today of products built on the platform, and there is an online demo of their ‘Engage’ product built on the platform – this is for community information. The point Richard makes is most of the power of the product comes from the Platform – the interface is quite a thin layer over the top…

So – starting to talk about the ‘semantic web’ – what are semantics?

Semantics (Greek sēmantikós, giving signs, significant, seebma symptomatic meaning, from sema (σήμα), sign) refers to aspects of meaning, as expressed in language (from Wikipedia)

The Semantic web is about being able to express meaning relating to content in a machine-readable way, so software can start to link content together based on meaning. At the moment there is some semantic meaning in links – and this is one of the things that Google exploits – the wording I use in the text of the link gives some meaning to what I link to (which is why I try to avoid using links like this)

The Platform is structured in a way that can start to exploit the semantics implicit in metadata – and obviously specifically library metadata (although not exclusively, as the Engage product show, you can apply it to other non-library metadata just as easily)

Once you have metadata in a semantic format, then you can start layering different interfaces on top. If you have a standardise the representation of the metadata – then anyone can layer tools over the top (an example is the Relation Browser)

I think what I need is an introduction to some of the ‘under the bonnet’ stuff – I understand the concepts of the semantic web, and I kind of know what RDF is, but my knowledge tails off shortly after this (I know that RDF triples exist, but not why they help) – what I need is RDF for Dummies or something.

EPrints v3 preview

· ostephens

At a session today about the new version of the EPrints software – due for launch at the end of January 2007 (in San Antonio). We’ve been using EPrints at RHUL for 2 years as part of the SHERPA-LEAP project. We currently use EPrints v2, which is hosted for us by UCL.

We are currently looking for a piece of repository software which can be used for institutional research output (which is how we currently use EPrints v2), but also for materials related to teaching and learning – so we are interested in a product that can cope with the following:

Research papers
Theses
Digitised readings (course based reading specifically)
Digital Images
Digital Video
Digital Audio

The software needs to support workflow, and copyright/IPR issues. It needs to act as a digital library, an open access research repository, and a respository for learning material (underlying our Moodle VLE).

Since getting to the meeting, I’ve already been challenged as to why we want to implement a single repository in this way – why not plugin to web based services such as YouTube or Flickr etc.

This challenge reminds me a bit of a posting on eFoundations recently that considered Flickr and pondered what a Web 2.0 repository would look like – and surely YouTube and Flickr are examples of Web 2.0 respoitories?

Les Carr is emphasising that EPrints in not just an upgrade, but a complete redevelopment of the systm – with more functionaliyt, more flexibility, more interoperatility, and a move to put current ‘admin’ functions into the hands of ‘users’.

Some immediately noticeable facilities with v3 (we are now into the demo), is the links to Atom and RSS (1.0 and 2.0) feeds. The front-end looks pretty much like v2 – which is a bit of a shame, as the basic interface has always felt a bit clunky to me (apologies for this, but looks like it was designed by programmers, not designers). I guess this is something we can configure – and probably would need to put some effort into making it look nicer). Interestingly, appartently they did get a UI specialist to look at the interface (although not clear if this was just for the deposit interface)

The currently supported ‘browse by subject’ and ‘browse by year’ are still there – and probably we could do with investing in adding some extra views (e.g. by course)

Anyway, a few features:

  • Atom and RSS feeds for whole respository, and for every search run
  • A nifty preview for images and pdfs when rolling over thumbnails
  • A ‘request a copy’ function – which allows a searcher to request a copy of an item which isn’t available in full-text. This triggers an email to the owner of the item, and they can approve, or deny, the request. This could be used when you can’t make an item openly available, but can supply copies on request from individuals.
  • Re-ordering search results
  • Export results in various formats – (ascii, BibTeX, EndNote, etc. etc.) (results in these output formats are URL addressable – so could build an interface on this by the sound of it). This is probably actually a bit more interesting than it sounds – it looks like this function gives the ability to view the results in various different interfaces – so, this is possibly (or actually?) the place where you have an API into the search interface – because you can address them in URLs which incorporate the search, and you can view the output in xml or other formats (e.g. Google Maps.

The Registered Users interface has changed quite a bit – with a ‘Manage Deposits’ function, to allow users to manage all their deposits, see which ones are under review, which ones are live, etc. The list of items shown can be filtered and configured by the user. Also new is a History of changes made to an item – which again can be filtered to changes made by a particular user etc.

There is a much wider range of default item types now supported (partly to demonstrate that EPrints is about more than textual content).

The deposit function seems much leaner than in v2. A clear 5 step workflow. Some nice things – like applying a license to the file from a drop down list. Also, you can adjust or add new workflows – this needs a bit more exploration to see how flexible it is.

A nice ‘auto-complete’ feature when filling in author names – taking information from the current authors entered in the repository. Really nice feature when filling in Journal or Publication title – uses Romeo as the authority source, so you can see immediately what status the journal is (Green, Gold, Grey etc.). The authority can be locally held in a file, so can use local sources. The authority files is very nice, but needs a bit more thought – Libraries have been handling this type of question for ages, and I’d like to compare how EPrints authorities works in comparison to some decent library implementations)

Some nice import functions – if you import a CrossRef DOI then metadata completed automatically.

Things that I didn’t see, that I would have liked to see (not to say they aren’t in there, but needs investigation):
Versioning
Technical metadata (and automatic extraction of this on file upload)
Ability to push items to workflow on specific triggers
More flexible and definable workflows – currently ‘workflow’ in eprints essentially defines how screens are presented in the ‘deposit of an eprint’ workflow
Notifications based on specific triggers
Ability to limit access to objects based on attributes related to a user (must be authenticated, must be a member of x institution, must be enrolled on x course)

Overall, there are some really nice features in EPrints v3, and much to be impressed by. Unfortunately, I think it is still very much aimed at ‘research output’, and I’m looking for something that is more engaged with ‘institutional respository’ in a broader sense. However, the development team are definitely interested in talking more about this, and I will do my best to involve them as we work towards selecting a product at RHUL.