November 4th, 2009
Mixed reality seeks to smoothly link physical and digital environments. Using special hardware and software, it’s becoming more and more mainstream.
An environment that combines elements of both virtual reality and the real world could lead to never having to leave the library to attend a meeting. It could mean a whole new way to give presentations. It could be a whole new way to interact with patrons.
Cool fact from this 4Cast:
A practical example of mixed reality is the yellow down marker you’ve seen during football games since about 1998. That yellow line helps us follow the game and has won several Emmy Awards for technical achievement.
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October 28th, 2009
You’ve probably already heard the big tech news this week from the big vendors, such as the release of Windows 7, IE 8, and Droid.
With that in mind, and nothing else to report, we have compiled some fun examples of how Halloween has creeped its way into social media.
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October 21st, 2009
You tweet. You blog. You’re on MySpace and Facebook. You’re LinkedIn and you IM with your patrons. But what kind of impact is social media making for your library? There is an argument for calculating return on investment (ROI), but can we really justify the time we spend staying connected all of the time? What should we measure? What kind of numbers would mean your social presence is successful?
There may be pressure to prove ROI, yet libraries still struggle with how to measure exactly how social media is helping library staff members meet organizational objectives and goals.
You are the community hub. People love you. So why should you have to prove your worth?
Want some tips for great ROI? Here are some basic rules of the road.
The “Storytelling & Social Media: Return on Investment (ROI)” webinar from TechSoup Global & NTEN “will show how you can effectively use ROI processes, techniques, and formulas to help your organization make better social media strategy decisions and demonstrate impact.” Also covered is “where to incorporate qualitative information and an introduction to a small tool set of analytics, mostly free, that can help you capture, analyze, and interpret data.”
While lengthy and a bit slow to start, this webinar is a good one if you are just getting a feel for ROI. You will need both the audio and PowerPoint to this presentation.
While we want to know if time spent in social media is valuable, many organizations just aren’t tracking ROI. Are you?
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October 14th, 2009
What’s on the horizon for human/computer interaction? Are mice and keyboards a thing of the past? Future computer use may be more about touch than hitting keys and clicking mice.
One possibility for more intuitive interaction is to use the 10/GUI multi-touch pad instead of using a keyboard or mouse. It sits on your desk in front of 
your monitor. So rather than have one cursor on the screen, you potentially have ten (one for each finger). To “click” you apply pressure from one or many of your fingers. From resizing and rearranging windows to opening programs, one touch does it all.
The Microsoft solutions revolve around the multi-touch mouse, with which you can touch, flick and pinch your windows instead of clicking on them, and the elusive Microsoft Surface, that blurs the line between what’s virtual and what’s real.
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