Monday, January 25, 2010

links, notes

Top Digital Trends for 2010
via Stephen's Lighthouse by stephen on 12/13/09
In dmb Digital Media Buzz:
1. Facebook replaces personal email
2. 3. Mobile commerce - The promise that has never delivered, yet
4. Fewer registrations — one sign-in fits all

Ten Predictions For The E-Reader/E-Book Market In 2010 “1. E Ink will lose its claim to near-100% market share for e-reader displays
2. Dual-screen mobile phones and netbooks will eat into e-reader demand
3. Apps will make non-reading devices more e-book-friendly
4. eReaders will get apps, too
6. B&N will steal market share from Amazon and Sony
7. E-book content sales will top $500 million in the U.S… Considering the growth rate of e-book trade sales (up 176% year-to-date), we think it’s reasonable to project overall e-book revenue will top $500 million in the U.S. in 2010
8. E-textbooks will become more accessible, but sales will be modest
9. Magazine and newspaper publishers will launch their own apps and devices
10. China, India, Brazil, and the EU will propel global growth, but the U.S. will still be the biggest market."


Professional/Scholarly ebooks account for more than 3 times the rest of the US ebook market combined
via No Shelf Required by spolanka on 11/25/09 (humph - last year it was romance readers - although they still seem to be the most vocal)


The Top 10 Mobile Applications of 2012
via iLibrarian by Ellyssa on 11/21/09

Money Transfer
Location-Based Services
Mobile Search
Mobile Browsing
Mobile Health Monitoring
Mobile Payments
Near Field Communications (NFC)
Mobile Advertising
Mobile Instant Messaging
Mobile Music


Does Technology Make You Anti-Social?
via Stephen's Lighthouse by stephen on 11/20/09
NO!
Tech Geek Myth Busted: Top Ten Ways Technology Boosts Your Social Life
Quoting a Pew study, and yes, maybe I am a little defensive. "In 2006, a popular study by experts at Duke University and the University of Arizona concluded new technologies have been making loners of us since 1985. Earlier this month, this theory was challenged and perhaps debunked. New technologies actually increase our social interactions, not our isolation, the Pew Internet and American Life Project found."
10. There’s been no significant jump in the number of truly isolated Americans. 9. Web users are more likely to seek counsel outside their own family. 8. Many 18-22-year-olds use social networking to keep in contact with nearly all of their key contacts. 7. Internet users like clubs. 6. Technology users have more “core” friends in their discussion networks. 5. Web users leave their rooms. 4. Cell phone and web users make better neighbors. 3. Technology users seek conversation outside their marriage.2. Sharing those family vacation photos online might make you more politically open minded.1. Bloggers have more racially diverse friends.
Anyway, it makes sense that when it is easier to stay in touch . . . you do.

Yup, more linkage and notes

CNN Tech Predictions
via Stephen's Lighthouse by stephen on 12/22/09

Real-time
Sparked by Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed, the real-time trend has been to the latter part of 2009 what "Web 2.0" was to 2007. The term represents the growing demand for immediacy in our interactions. Immediacy is compelling, engaging, highly addictive ... it's a sense of living in the now.

Why wait until you get home to post a restaurant review, asks consumer trends tracker Trendwatching, when scores of iPhone apps let you post feedback as soon as you finish dessert? Why wonder about the name of that song, when humming into your phone handset will garner an instant answer from Midomi?

Location, location, location
What's clear is that location is not about any singular service; rather, it's a new layer of the Web. Soon, our whereabouts may optionally be appended to every Tweet, blog comment, photo or video we post. (all the better to make sure the review of the coffeehouse is your coffeehouse with that name, not one in alabama)

Augmented reality
Enabled by GPS, mapping data from the likes of Google and the accelerometer technology in modern phones, AR involves overlaying data on your environment; imagine walking around a city and seeing it come to life with reviews of the restaurants you walk past and Wikipedia entries about the sights you see.

Cloud computing
Cloud computing was very much a buzzword of 2009, but there's no doubt this transition will continue. The trend, in which data and applications cease to reside on our desktops and instead exist on servers elsewhere ("the cloud"), makes our data accessible from anywhere and enables collaboration with distributed teams.

Internet TV and movies
Is 2010 the year the majority of our television starts coming to us via the Internet? There's certainly more activity here than at any other time: Among the early-adopter set, Hulu, Boxee, Apple TV and Netflix's Roku box lead the field.

Convergence conundrum
Who wants to carry an extra device?

Mobile payments

Fame abundance, privacy scarcity
Warhol was right: Fame is now abundant. Social media has birthed a galaxy of stars in thousands of niches: We're all reality stars now, on Facebook, Twitter and all the myriad online outlets where we hone our personal brands.
We're seeing the ongoing voluntary erosion of privacy through public sharing on Facebook and Twitter, the rise of location-based services and the inclusion of video cameras in a growing array of devices.



Libraries are all about the sharing
via Stephen's Lighthouse by stephen on 12/20/09
Sharing... Responding ... Engaging
Libraries have been about sharing things like books and collections and sharing knowledge like answering questions forever. Is sharing muttating? How do we adapt to remain what we are?I love the conclusion: "Everyone who Shares is an Influencer". Therefore librarians are influential.


Two Great SlideShares
via Stephen's Lighthouse by stephen on 12/20/09

communication, conversation, participation = community

Put it out there
Encourage response
Feedback

Still notetaking and linking

Most Popular Free iPhone Apps (and Posts) of 2009
via iLibrarian by Ellyssa on 12/23/09
based on lifehacker posts. library-related highlights here:
Stanza Turns Your iPhone into a Kindle, Kindle App Counters


CardStar Creates Scanner-Friendly Bonus Cards on iPhones
Lifehacker readers hate a bulging wallet, which is presumably why CardStar (iTunes link) resonated. The free app replaces keychain tags and wallet-cluttering bonus/discount/rewards/"shopper's club" cards with scanner-friendly barcodes that live on your iPhone. Users report mixed results in the App Store, but if it does the trick in place of your rewards card, it could be worth the download.

Dragon Dictation Does Voice-to-Text Transcription on Your iPhone


Gale databases iPhone application: another brick in the wall of the EBSCO vs. Gale debate
via Librarian in Black Blog – Sarah Houghton-Jan by Sarah on
Gale has announced a new iPhone application to help people use library resources. Building off of the AccessMyLibrary identity that Gale has promoted publicly,the application does two things:
detects physical library branches within a 10-mile radius of the user on demand
and uses a web product to connect people to the Gale online resources that their local libraries subscribe to.
The app is downloadable from accessmylibrary.com or from the iTunes store.

(beats EBSCO mobile all to heck, don't it?)


Statistics: Who Reads e-books in the U.S.?
via Stephen's Lighthouse by stephen on 12/23/09

Among the 2.1 million US adults who own electronic book readers, 56.3% are men and 43.7% are women. In addition, adults age 35-54 are the “sweet spot” for this product and are 20% more likely than average to own an electronic book reader.
E-book owners are 116% more likely than average to be heavy Internet users. Moreover, they are 199% more likely to have accessed the Internet using a Wi-Fi or wireless connection outside the home and 154% more likely to have accessed the Internet using a cell phone or other mobile device.


ReadWriteWeb's 2010 Predictions
via Stephen's Lighthouse by stephen on 12/23/09
There will be a breakthrough consumer application for Internet of Things - involving the iPhone, RFID tags and a major consumer product such as books or groceries.

A price war will erupt in the e-book market and Amazon.com will offer the lowest prices, leading to it gaining a dominant position in the market with its Kindle E-book Reader.

Google will partner with a large PC manufacturer from Asia, which will launch an inexpensive netbook powered by Chrome OS in the U.S. market. It will become a hot consumer item among school kids and university students.

2. Facebook will open aggregate-user-profile and social-graph data for outside analysis.
3. Some serious user interface innovations will blow our minds.
4. Data portability will become more real, standard, expected and viable.
5. A new social network will rise to join the big ones. It may offer the privacy that Facebook is moving away from; it may be mobile and location-centric; it may focus on personal content recommendations.

4. Cloud computing heats up. AWS, Google, Microsoft and others begin price wars to compete for customers.
5. The iPhone still rules and grabs more mobile market share than ever before.
6. Meanwhile, Android becomes the number two mobile platform by year-end.
7. iPhone app backlash begins. There are too many worthless apps and no decent way to find the good ones. Then Apple surprises us with a brand-new feature that improves greatly upon their "genius" offering to help us find new and useful apps via iTunes.

Facebook will become the Borg. Its number of users will continue to climb until the network is as ubiquitous as Google and lay people confuse Facebook with "the Internet." They'll make more money and control more data than ever before.
4. iPhone's exclusivity with AT&T will come to a breaking point and we'll see network-agnostic iPhones.
5. On the bright side, 2010 will signal the death of the login. Third-party authentications will become the norm, and user data will be entrusted to a discrete handful of online properties

The browser really will be the new OS.

3. Consumer-based social networks will make big efforts to gain wider access to the enterprise, as more companies seek to open up to the social Web. The information architecture of social networks will change to accommodate the greater degrees of control that the enterprise requires. This will bring on the rise of "social middleware" - services that act as a layer between social networks and the enterprise.
4. A new breed of social networks will emerge that act as one-stop shops for applications and services. These will look more like marketplaces than social hubs for conversations around the proverbial virtual water cooler. SaaS leaders will face off for this growing market.
5. iPhone, Android or the Blackberry? I expect the Android to be the talk of the enterprise, especially if the Google Phone does make it to market. Such a phone would eliminate carrier costs and break down walled gardens that have limited application development

5. iPhones and other smartphones become the purchasing tool of choice

Social analytics features explode onto the scene in 2010. Twitter opens Pro accounts, including analytics and an API to access them. Google strikes a deal to integrate Twitter analytics with its Google Analytics product.

and more linkage and notes

Looks like the 'ol blog will a linkage and note-taking venue for a little bit. Hang with us


Digital Trends for 2010
via Stephen's Lighthouse by stephen on 1/6/10
end of the intranet . . . as we know it (my library goes Sharepoint! The New Interface: Mobile, mobile, mobile, iPhone Kllers : Android + google,

(my observation: Kindle vs. Sony vs. Android vs. iphone for ebooks)


Harlequin Reaches nearly 3 Million Free Books Downloaded in 2009
via Smart Bitches, Trashy Books by SB Sarah on 1/3/10



Top 10 Social Networking Tools and Trends for Libraries from 2009 and for 2010
via Stephen's Lighthouse by stephen on 1/3/10
An increase in the use of mobile applications for library services. This includes things such as text messaging but also the development of library web pages on .mobi domains for use on mobile devices and maybe even libraries creating iphone applications for their libraries

2. Even more ebook readers and the popularity of the ones that already

An increase in the amount and usage of Google Applications such as Google Wave and other similar applications.

6. Library websites will become more socialized and customized. Patrons will be able to interact more directly with the library’s website.

9. More libraries will offer social networking classes to their patrons.
10. Social networking in libraries will be viewed more as a must and as a way to save money than as a fun thing to play with or to use to market the library."


Does Droid?
via @ the Library by Woeful on 12/22/09
It’s entitled Droid + Barcode App + Google Books . My cellphone contract is just about up and I’ve been considering an iPhone, or a Blackberry, but the fact that the new Droid can scan an ISBN and then do a full-text keyword search within the book is astounding! Indeed, these days (or the days soon to come anyway) it may just be the “killer app” for librarians.


How Twitter Conquered the World in 2009
via iLibrarian by Ellyssa on 12/26/09
Surprisingly though, Twitter has proven to be resilient enough to withstand all that. When it went down, people would joke about it with nervous Fail Whale cracks on FriendFeedFriendFeed. When it came back up, everyone would start tweeting like nothing ever happened. And although these frequent downtimes continued for over a year, somewhere in the middle of 2009, Twitter finally found its balance. The users? Well, they’re still tweeting like nothing ever happened.

64% of tweets come from users 25-54 55 and older? 20%

(insert here story of little old lady in paris rocking the apps)

It’s Everywhere!
Furthermore, Twitter became a great way to run charity events, break news, promote your work and connect with your fans. Events like Michael Jackson’smichael jackson death were followed on Twitter first, and major media outlets second, simply because Twitter’s tiny chunks of information travel faster than professionally written news stories. And when the Iran election results started a wave of riots across the country and protests worldwide, Twitter was the glue that held bits and pieces of the story together.
(insert Haiti contributions)

The Growth Suddenly Stops
During the summer of 2009, problems began to pile up again. Twitter (along with several other services) were more or less permanently blocked in China. More importantly, they stopped growing in the US. After their amazingly fast growth during 2008 and the first half of 2009, we assumed it was an anomaly. But it wasn’t. According to Compete, Twitter’s traffic has flatlined, and co-founder Evan Williams eventually admitted that their US traffic had stalled. And in the world of web startups, once you stop growing, the cheers and confetti soon get replaced by mockery and, ultimately, oblivion

Twitter will morph-continues to overcome obstacles

More Random linkage

Working on a mondo presentation. Here are links to things we'll be discussing in the presentation. I hope.


2010 Horizon Report
via iLibrarian by Ellyssa on 1/17/10
profiles six new and emerging technologies which will impact education over the coming years.


10 Technologies That Will Rock 2010
via iLibrarian by Ellyssa on 1/4/10
The Tablet: It’s the most anticipated product of the year. The mythical tablet computer (which everyone seems to be working on). There are beautiful Android tablets, concept tablets, and, of course, the one tablet which could define the category, the Apple Tablet. Or iSlate or whatever it’s called. If Steve Jobs is not working on a tablet, he’d better come up with one because anything else will be a huge disappointment.Why do we need yet another computer in between a laptop and an iPhone? We won’t really know until we have it. But the answer lies in the fact that increasingly the Web is all you need.

Geo: The combination of GPS chips in mobile phones, social networks, and increasingly innovative mobile apps means that geolocation is increasingly becoming a necessary feature for any killer app.

Chrome OS: In November, Google gave the world a sneak peek at its Chrome operating system, which is expected to be released later this year. The Chrome OS is Google’s most direct attack on Windows

Mobile Video: With video cameras integrated into the latest iPhone 3GS and other Web phones, live video streaming apps are becoming more commonplace—both streaming from phones and to them. Not just 3G but 4G!

Mobile Transactions: As mobile phones become full-fledged computers, they can be used for mobile commerce also. One area poised to take off in 2010 are mobile payments and transactions. Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s latest startup Square turns the iPhone into a credit card reader. Verifone has its competing product, as does Mophie. The idea is that any mobile phone can become a point of sale, and those mobile transactions can tie into back-end accounting, CRM, and other enterprise systems.

Android: + Google

10 Ways Social Media Will Change In 2010
via iLibrarian by Ellyssa on 1/2/10
Social Media Innovation Will No Longer Be Limited By Technology
With Web technology maturing and the near-elimination of previous barriers such as closed platforms and discrete logins, companies will now look to innovate the way they use existing technology, rather than focus on technology enhancements themselves. We will see a move to leverage existing assets -- content and capabilities -- in new ways, turning information to wisdom and insight to action. Whereas once user research required focus groups and usability tests, companies will utilize the Web's capabilities to achieve the same.

Mobile Will Take Center Stage
Worldwide, the iPhone alone accounts for about 33% of mobile web traffic and IDC predicts the number of mobile web users will hit one billion by 2010. As the technological barriers come down, people will increasingly use their phones on-the-go to access social networks, search, read content and find location-based information. Our phones will be used as a central hub and beacon -- enabling a slew of new capabilities and experiences

Enterprises Will Shape the Next Generation of What We've Called "Social Media"
With a reported average of 25% increase in funds allocation toward social media activities, in 2010 we will see a surge in adoption of social media across product, services and solutions companies.
Having the need and the funds, enterprises will determine the next generation of social experiences. They will push enhancements that meet their needs, specifically around monitoring, automation, alignment with the sales cycle and integration with existing systems, expanding social "media" to encompass the ecosystem of social computing across solutions, and making them actionable for the company.

Finally: Real, Cool and Very Bizarre Online-Offline Integration
Virtual worlds, games and avatars were just the beginning of the online-offline integration. In 2010 we'll see a greater push on this front as distance and physical walls will matter even less. Augmented reality -- already integrated into Yelp's latest geo-tagging enabled application -- will allow users to find relevant information and people depending on their location; Twitter360 will help people find each other, connect and see updates by location all while on the go through their mobile device. People will be able to scan products on shelves but process the sale online; you'll never need to ask for a business card again at events -- and you may actually get promotions and discounts that match your interests.

Many "Old" Skills Will Be Needed Again
An economic downturn coupled with the surge of social media eliminated many traditional marketing and PR roles. But this year, we'll see the return of professionals to the field.

Women Will Rule Social Media
2009 revealed the growing role women play online. Women make 75% of all buying decisions for the home, and 85% of all consumer purchases. Social networks have at least 50% female members, and it is women ages 35-55 who make up the fastest-growing population on Facebook -- not the expected Gen-Y population as previously anticipated. Previously limited by organizational hierarchies and job demands, women today are free to create, express and promote themselves using social media channels. Innately excelling at communication, relationship building and multi-level attention, women will take the reins on their careers and network becoming both a sought-after consumer segment as well as driving business strategies for social-media-connected companies.

Social Media Will Move Into New Domains
Social media as we knew it even 6 months ago has changed. By this time next year, it will have become fully integrated into everything we do online and offline. By the end of this year we'll see a move toward greater control over content and companies will fight over social media land grabs in preparation for the future.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Best of the Best Books 2009

More Best Lists-- Featuring the Best of the Bestvia RA for All by Becky on 12/21/09

"The Book Beast has compiled a list of all of the magazine and newspaper best books of the year lists and has created this aggreagted list of the best of the best. Page two has the honorable mention list."

Book Beast goes through all the "best of" lists from sources like The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, The Economist, and other heavy-hitters to discover just who came out on top.

All annotations are from the Book Beast list

Top 5 Fiction

1. Wolf HallBy Hilary Mantel
The Booker Prize-winning novel was a critical favorite with its historical plot centered on Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII.

2. A Gate at the StairsBy Lorrie Moore
After nearly a decade of silence, Moore’s triumphant return was a smashing success among old and new fans alike.

3. Love and SummerBy William Trevor
From the acclaimed Irish short-story master, a crisp novel of church and family in postwar Ireland.

4. Too Much HappinessBy Alice Munro
No surprise that the latest collection of short stories from “Canada’s Chekhov” made the best of the year.

5. In Other Rooms, Other WondersBy Daniyal Mueenuddin
The only debut in the top five, Mueenuddin’s stunning collection of short stories set in Pakistan made him the literary darling of the foreign-policy set.

Top 5 Nonfiction Books of the Year
1. Lit: A MemoirBy Mary Karr
The bestselling memoirist returned this year with her devastatingly honest account of struggles with marriage, motherhood, and alcoholism.

2. Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the WorldBy Liaquat Ahmed
In a year when finance dominated the headlines, it’s no surprise that this account of central bankers in the 1920s trying to stave off disaster was a favorite.

3. Strength in What RemainsBy Tracy Kidder
An inspiring and moving story of a young man who escaped war in Burundi and found his way to Columbia, medical school, and U.S. citizenship.

4. The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With the PresidentBy Taylor Branch
This massive, exhaustive account of the Clinton years through the president and Taylor’s recollections made a big splash with revelations about Boris Yeltsin’s drunken behavior.

5. The Good SoldiersBy David FinkelAn embedded reporter’s vivid account of a battalion of American troops fighting in the Iraq surge, and one destined to be a classic of the genre

Random Linkage

These links brought up great info that we'll be looking at in the next few posts. Feel free to read ahead!



SOURCES
Top 10 Social Networking Tools and Trends for Libraries from 2009 and for 2010
via Stephen's Lighthouse by stephen on 1/3/10

Social Media and Libraries - 2 for you
via Stephen's Lighthouse by stephen on 1/3/10

The Real Time Web: Impact on Searchers
via Stephen's Lighthouse by test.user on 12/28/09

2009 As Seen Through Twitter Hashtags
via iLibrarian by Ellyssa on 12/27/09

The 10 best new Firefox add-ons of 2009
via iLibrarian by Ellyssa on 12/27/09

How Twitter Conquered the World in 2009
via iLibrarian by Ellyssa on 12/26/09

Gale databases iPhone application: another brick in the wall of the EBSCO vs. Gale debate
via Librarian in Black Blog – Sarah Houghton-Jan by Sarah on 12/21/09

iPhone book search app + Sarah’s wish for the new year
via Librarian in Black Blog – Sarah Houghton-Jan by Sarah on 12/23/09

Statistics: Who Reads e-books in the U.S.?
via Stephen's Lighthouse by stephen on 12/23/09

ReadWriteWeb's 2010 Predictions
via Stephen's Lighthouse by stephen on 12/23/09

More Best Lists-- Featuring the Best of the Best
via RA for All by Becky on 12/21/09

Libraries are all about the sharing
via Stephen's Lighthouse by stephen on 12/20/09

Two Great SlideShares
via Stephen's Lighthouse by stephen on 12/20/09