Good Morning

Image of the Canadian Library of Parliament from 1877. The picture looks more like the outside of a gothic castle than a library to me.

Good Morning

Yesterday was a day for lawyers and accountants. A day which I wish would have magically and permanently disappeared. There is nothing like getting up to go to see a lawyer early in the morning, then going and spending an afternoon with an accountant to try and solve a financial fiasco. It is a blessing that day is over.

I read some more of Wikinomics which is turning out to be a very entertaining and informative book.

I also rejoined Technorati. My anger is now over against Technorati. I realized that I probably should not have gone on a favoriting binge. It is like the endless clicking on Entrecard which I still can't get to work in my browser at home. Technorati is basically a way to get more traffic on a blog and be recognized.

Afternoon Thoughts

I got a chance to go to the library this afternoon and return some books. I also got a chance to spend a little time on the library computers. It wasn't that exciting this afternoon.

Daily Thoughts

I have been reading a bit more of MBA In A Day. We have a new director at our library. She has a Masters in Administration. I am trying to figure out what exactly goes into the masters degree. Most librarians don't have administrative training. They tend to have a masters in library science. This creates a kind of odd distinction in our library. Understanding the strategies being used to change where I work should be quite helpful.

One of the books I requested has come in, The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie. I am looking forward to reading this. I haven't read any books by him yet. Many of his books were banned in Muslim countries for their content. He is supposed to write in the style of magical realism.

I had a chance to read the latest New York Times Book Review and look throught the various bestseller lists. I put a few more books on hold, America's Hidden History by Kenneth C. Davis, and American Nerd: The Story of My People by Benjamin Nugent. The title American Nerd has a very nice ring to it. It is very attention getting. That is why I became interested in the book almost immediately. Plus, I secretly harbor ambitions to nerdom, I am one of those outliers on the borders.

Reaper's Gale by Steven Erikson is in the catalog. There is a record but there are no copies attached to the record. This means I will eventually be able to put the book on hold. These things always are a matter of patience.

I also put Little Brother a new book by Cory Doctorow on hold. Cory Doctorow can be pretty radical sometimes. I am looking forward to reading something a bit different in this title. It is a young adult title.

For those of you who like pictures, I was looking at Pulp Gallery today, it has thousands of images of old pulp fiction covers. It can be quite intriguing. Spicey Adventure, Famous Detective, The Shadow, The Spider, Argosy, Doc Savage and many other covers are shown there. It really gives a sense of nostalgia for yesteryear.
http://picasaweb.google.com/pulpgallery

My Technorati favorites came back. My fans are back. Technorati is working again. It took about eight days. They were polite and fixed the problem.

Morning Thoughts

I have started reading MBA In A Day by Steven Stralser, Ph.D.. It really can't teach you how to be an MBA in a day. I've figured this out. It appears to be an outline of all the different mangement functions which an MBA might do in an organization. The descriptions are brief and to the point. I have been able to follow the writing pretty closely.

I sometimes like to read the Avon Romance Blog. I think Avon Romance as a company is quite innovative. They are on Entrecard. There is no other publisher trying out Entrecard. I think they can often be more savvy than other publishers concerning what people want to read. They are also doing a much better job with the concept of social networking than many other publishers if you look at their blog closely. Romance is after all the most popular fiction genre.

I was looking at a title on their blog, One Foot In The Grave, it looks quite interesting. http://avonromanceblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/one-foot-in-grave.html I think they are doing a really good design with the way they present their blog. The blog also feeds into the authors website which is just as interesting to look at. http://www.jeanienefrost.com/ I may suggest the title for purchase.

On another note, I have been having some trouble with Technorati. About six days ago, I lost all my fans. I also could not add or look at my favorites. They gave me back my fans. I have twenty seven of them right now. However, they have not restarted the favorite function for me. It has been six days. They claim that it is due to technical difficulties. I have been thinking about whether or not to end my service with them or switch to another service. My rating is still going up. I am not worried if they ask me to leave, my service has been effectively terminated.
http://support.technorati.com/discussions/topic/3590?replies=11

Morning Thoughts, Thumbnail, Social Networks

This is the new thumbnail I am using for websites like Technorati, Blogcatalog, and Fuelmyblog.

I started reading John Ghazvinian, Untapped, The Scramble for Africa's Oil. I found the listing fo this book when I was looking at the blog, The Thin Red Line. I am past the first fifty pages already, so I will definitely finish reading this book and review it.

I even sent an email to him requesting he put up a Youtube video. There are a lot of authors who use Youtube to promote their books.

Hello, John Ghazvinian,
I am reading your book Untapped The Scramble For Africa's Oil. I was hoping there was a Youtube video of you talking about the book, about two minutes would be fine. It is a short way to promote your book. There are actually a lot of interviews of authors on Youtube. I know it sounds like an odd idea, but it makes it easier for me to review a book on my website. I am blogging anonymously, well sort of anonymously.

Regards,

Book Calendar
http://www.bookcalendar.blogspot.com/

I am beginning to think that in the not too distant future every author, editor, and publisher will have to have a social media kit for the web. It will consist of an image representing the author in multiple sizes, 125 pixel by 125 pixel, 50 pixel by 50 pixel, and 400 pixel by 400 pixel. I think most authors have this. This image will be used to post on sites like Technorati

In addition to this the author or editor will be expected to create either a short talk of about two minutes on the book they are editing or writing, or a brief reading which they did at a store or other venue. Usually, this will be posted as a video on Youtube. It can't be can too long because then the author would be giving away too much. It would be nice if every recent book I read had a short video clip about it.

One of the things I did tonight is go on Technorati and add some blogs to my favorites. Many of these blogs were already in my blogroll on the side of the page. I Technorati favorited Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 Blog and The OUP (Oxford University Press) Blog. Now I have both of these blogs linked in more than one place. This creates a kind of network of shared places.

I have done this with some other blogs, I have The Thin Red Line as one of my Entrecard favorites, in my Blogroll, and as a "friend" in Blogcatalog. I think this has helped turn some blogs that share social networking sites into regular readers. There is a web of linkages between the different social network sites where you begin to recognize and read blogs which belong to more than one social networking site.

Some blogs purposefully join you in belonging to more than one social networking community because they like the content of your blog. While I was using Entrecard, the Inkweaver Review asked me to do a link exchange with their site. I did this and now we share use of Entrecard and links between our sites. I hope this helps to build regular readers.

Thoughts for the Day

I have been at jury duty all day today. It has been an educational experience I will never forget. During the breaks I have been reading Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save The World by Gary Hirshberg. Gary Hirshberg is currently the CE-Yo of Stonybrook Farms. It is a very interesting book. There are some very interesting things about the book which are not immediately obvious. Gary Hirshberg was a member of the New Alchemy Institute, one of the founding people who work on industrial ecology.

The New Alchemy Institute was a radical scientific community that worked on advanced ecological research covering things like hydroponics, aquaculture, and bioshelters. They built several closed ecosystem homes. Their experiment ran from 1971 to 1991. http://www.vsb.cape.com/~nature/greencenter/newalchemy.html

He does not mention some of the other members of the New Alchemy Instite like Dr. John Todd who helped found the discipline of industrial ecology. Dr. John Todd is considered the father of Living Machines a technology which uses plants to purify polluted water. His website is Ocean Arks International http://www.oceanarks.org/. Dr. John Todd also designs artificial wetlands for sewage treatment.

Also as I am reading the book, I found out that Group Danone has a 75% interest in Stonyfield Yogurt, the company which Gary Hirshberg runs. This is quite interesting. Group Danone helped found Grameen Danone the first social business according to Muhammad Yunus in the book, Creating A World Without Poverty.

There is also mention of Paul Hawken who works for the Rocky Mountain Institute. A lot of this book is about Industrial Ecology, or redesigning business along environmental lines to increase energy efficiency, use lean manufacturing and refurbishing techniques, introduce alternative energy, improve packaging design, and reduce pollution. It is not advertised as such, but this book describes this process quite well.

I will be taking notes on it. A lot of the upbeat message is couched in laymans terms to make the agenda of industrial ecology easier to follow.

I was looking at Entrecard, I noticed that a number of websites were coming from Technorati. Although, I did not have a favorites button until yesterday, I was being mentioned there. Technorati is one of the largest social networking sites on the web.

I also added a button from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. This organization helps people online with legal issues. They have a legal advice guide for bloggers. Cory Doctorow one of the editors for Boing! Boing! started his career at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. They are instrumental in protecting privacy and free speech on the internet. http://w2.eff.org/bloggers/

I have been very busy today, so I haven't had a whole lot of extra time to look at the internet.