Daily Thoughts 01/03/2012
This morning, I took a few minutes to look at Facebook and Twitter.
I spent a few minutes looking at http://www.everylibrary.org which is a group that helps with ballot initiatives for libraries.
I have been following the budget. Some of it is rather interesting if at times at confusing. First there is talk about cutting the library budget, then there is talk about auditing the library, then there is talk about reforming the library, now there is talk about doing a special commission on the library.
Mount Vernon Council Reaches Budget Deal.
http://www.lohud.com/article/20130103/NEWS02/301030037/Mount-Vernon-council-reaches-budget-deal
The idea of creating a commission in February is a little perplexing to me.
Mount Vernon City Council Adopts 2013 Budget Vows Reform Process
It is interesting that there is a discussion of reform at the library.
I read some more of How to Create a Mind by Ray Kurzweil. Ray Kurzweil mentioned something about collaborative intelligence; it reminded me of something I learned about at the Big Data Business Meetup in New York. http://www.technologyreview.com/news/429118/artificial-intelligence-powered-by-many-humans/ Artificial Intelligence Powered by Many Humans. Another example of this is Crowdsourcing Big Data http://istc-bigdata.org/index.php/crowdsourcing-big-data/
What is happening in Big Data is truly fascinating. The crowd sourcing part is not a new idea, Google uses a system called EWOQ where it cleans and rates it searches with quality raters. http://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-does-google-use-quality-raters/37413/
I find this kind of thing very interesting.
One particular idea that comes up occasionally when I think of big data is a system for identifying books which a person might like based on what they have read previously using very big data sets.
I joined the NYC Data Business Meetups and am going regularly but still have not figured out why. Big data seems to crop up regularly lately in my readings. http://www.meetup.com/NYC-Data-Business-Meetup/
I am not quite sure where I fit in all of this. I am not a data scientist or a developer. It is more of being an interested bystander.
Web Bits
Beyond the Headlines: E-books in Libraries of the Future
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2013/beyond-the-headlines-e-books-in-libraries-of-the-future/
Five Ways to Make Your Social Media Better Right Now
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2013/five-ways-to-make-your-social-media-better-right-now/
What the DPLA Can Mean for Librraies
http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2013/01/opinion/what-the-dpla-can-mean-for-libraries/
Harvard's Alternative to Google Books Universities Launch A Digital Public Library
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/dplaalpha/2013/01/03/press-harvards-alternative-to-google-books-universities-launch-a-digital-public-library/
Ebooks, Human Rights, and Social Justice
http://informationactivist.com/2012/04/09/ebooks-human-rights-and-social-justice/
There is another side to this. Although, there is some focus on the public domain, there really has not been a solid educational initiative to bring classic out of copyright e-books to the classroom. This needs to be done on a national scale.
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