SHUSH!

A while back I posted on the limited shelflife of most blogs, this one included.  There was a brief upsurge in posts around the same time, although not connected to mine.  However, nothing much has gone on here for a while now so is this blog dead?  Is the possible decline of Shush! also symptomatic of the decline in popularity of blogs more generally?  It might also reflect a decline in language use.  A blog has the space for whole paragraphs and this has given way, in my opinion, to status posts on Facebook and Bebo, etc where this has a limited field to post to, and this has started to give way to Twitter tweets where the room given to expression is even smaller.  The next iteration of technology will only have enough space to put a couple of words on so we can all return to the language of the dawn of man and “Ug Ug hu” each other.

A possible problem with Web 2.0 things or Web3.0 (or Web 42.3, etc) is that they are very interesting and vibrant for a short period of time before they slump into the list of forgotten or failed ideas; so investing time and people power into them might not be best use of resources.  Incidentally why has the phraseology jumped straight from 2.0 to 3.0 hasn’t there been any minor changes along the way?  What happened to Web 2.1 or Web 2.2?

I understand fully the irony of saying something negative about Web2.0 via a Blog but even so I would once again ask is the Blog dead or dying or merely sleeping?

Is it worth having a blog?  There it is, I’ve said it, out in the open for all to see or ignore.  This blog seems to have run its course, so I’m wondering what the average shelf-life is before the bloggers get fed up and move onto more interesting things?

The early days of emptying the entire thought content of your brain soon drift into the occasional blog on some random stuff you’ve found and this leads onto the slow decline where no thoughts are being posted at all. A short mayfly existence for most blogs and does that really matter?  We can’t all be the modern equivalent of Samuel Pepys and most Blogs like this one try and narrow down the scope so much as to become stale and dull.

Is this the end of Shush?  Will anyone notice?  Is Blogging a passing fad for most people?

I think you should speak your brain and let us know, but only because I have a passing interest.  If no-one else posts that’s okay as well because it means I have the last word!!! 

Try leaving Facebook and you’ll find that they wouldn’t be very keen on you clearing all your personal data off the site.  The more information they have about users the better the marketing information they can sell on to companies.  If you’re a Facebook member look at the group “How to permanently delete your facebook account”, if not (or if you’re interested) there is an interesting article from the International Herald Tribune on the subject here:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/11/business/11facebook.php 

For good advice on how to keep your personal data private visit http://www.stop-idfraud.co.uk/ This week is National Identity Fraud Prevention Week but the advice from the website is valid throughout the year!

And Does It Matter?

A report on the 11th September in the Times Online queried the amount of control over your personal data that Facebook, MySpace, etc have. 

We all have the opportunity to put our information on these types of sites and if we choose to we can reveal the town we live in, date of birth, political preference, religious preference, sexual preference, moods (emotes and ‘update your status’), what films we like, who our friends are, etc.  According to http://www.albumoftheday.com/facebook/ the link can be made from Facebook to amongst others the US CIA (hello to you by the way  if you’re watching) who I am sure are very interested in the fact that I’m a Chelsea supporter and didn’t like Harry Potter films much.

Is this privacy scare yet another reason to read the small print? Maybe, however for most of us, for most things it’s too late as we have already signed up for Tesco (or Sainsbury, or BP, or Debenhams, etc) loyalty cards and so they can tell at what times we shop, and what we prefer to buy and what ‘offers’ we are suckered into.  We have already as a society allowed the proliferation of CCTV and surveillance equipment so our whereabouts can be tracked if required by the authorities.  We all buy things online using our credit card numbers (card company advice for using credit/debit cards in restaurants is to prevent possible fraud never let your card out of sight!), we mostly allow cookies to be placed onto our computers (because its just less of a faff to do so).  There are lots of ways that we have given away personal data about ourselves, the best we can do is to weigh up the consequences of each action before we sign up for things.

I’ve already used my cards online, I have various ‘loyalty’ cards, live in a town chock a block full of CCTV, have to clear out a huge cookie folder regularly, filled in shopper surveys, entered online competitions, and probably made many more mistakes with my personal information so because I’ve signed up Mr Facebook will learn the fact that on a particular day I’m ticked off is just one of a long line of bits of privacy given away.  I haven’t signed up for giving away my DNA for a national ID database and won’t do either but I might have left it too late to do much about the rest. 

In the UK the Data Protection Act attempts to ensure that your personal information is handled properly (by UK companies) including the right to correct incorrect information that a company holds about you, and to stop unrequested marketing - however once you’ve told one company about your personal data there is a possibility that you’ve told lots (you might notice a box to tick that says something like ‘I agree to allow other companies trusted by Shark, Ferret and Weasel to have access to my data’) - don’t just tick these boxes as a matter of routine, always read the small print.

Information on the UK Data Protection Act can be found at:

http://www.ico.gov.uk/

The Act itself is at: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1998/19980029.htm

In my humble opinion archives are great places. Where else can you pick up interesting details (or maybe something a bit odd!) such as in the U.S. National Archive where you can see details of how Elvis invited himself to the White House to meet Nixon?

Or for example the National Archives in the UK which can provide you with information on the prosecution of Penguin Books over the publication of Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

When you get a chance have a look at either of these web pages from National Archives (or other web pages of archives) to see what there is I’d advise that it would be well worth a look!

• Happy
• Birthday
• PowerPoint
• 20
• years
• old
• this
• month

How many of us have suffered virtual death by PowerPoint?  A series of bullet points that may or may not be connected but which connections we have forgotten as soon as the slides are switched off?  It really is a good idea to know your topic before presenting to others and to provide your audience with at least a framework within your handout for them to know what the …. it all meant.  I am as guilty as the next person for going bulletpoint mad but what I should remember is PowerPoint is meant to be a final presentation of end ideas and not the total package - without the ideas to back up the slides the presentation is virtually meaningless. 

For example Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address would look a bit sparse as a typical PowerPoint see a version of it created by Peter Norvig at:   http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/index.htm 

and then compare it with the original at the bottom of last slide as ’speaker notes’ or those provided by the US Library of Congress site at: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/

Summary

• Robert Gaskin - invented by
• 20 years old this month
• very handy shortcut to demonstrate core ideas
• sometimes (Often?) misused
• Happy Birthday PowerPoint

http://www.breathingearth.net/ This site displays a map of the world and shows a continuous simulation of carbon dioxide emissions as well as birth and death rates for each country.  How useful or interesting is it?  Judge for yourself!

No, not some cheesy dating agency or a poorly spelt vending machine for carnivores.  Instead Meet-O-Matic looks to be an interesting tool where you can simply use it to set up and arrange meetings and its absolutely free.

This overcomes the problem of some of your invitees having one type of diary software and some having others.

They define its use in the following: “You work with Meet-O-Matic by 1] selecting possible (’suggested’) dates for meetings, then 2] sending email which directs prospective participants to a custom meeting-response-form on the Web, and then 3] monitoring progress as response forms are filled in and constraints are resolved.”

I’ve had various invites to meetings using this system and it has so far worked well, so worth a look.  http://www.meetomatic.com/tour.php

Using data from local authorities combined with maps provided by Ordnance Survey this site allows the user to report, view, or discuss local problems like graffiti, fly tipping, broken paving slabs, or street lighting.  There is no guarantee that the Council will take any notice of the reports of local problems using the system but it provides another direct way of telling them that the problems exist!

It is currently run as a Beta site and can be viewed at: http://www.neighbourhoodfixit.com/  

The creators of this site also developed http://www.theyworkforyou.com/ which amongst other things allows the user to check the voting record of their local MPs and how much they’ve claimed in a year for their expenses, as well as providing an easier way of contacting your local MP.

The William Morris Gallery and Museum is under threat of closure.  It is the only museum in the world devoted to his life and contains samples of many of his designs, textiles, papers, etc.  As well as containing works by prominent Pre-Raphaelites such as Burne-Jones and Rossetti. 

The Friends of the William Morris Gallery are asking for your support in trying to save this cultural treasure house.  If you could sign the online petition that would be very helpful it’s at: http://www.keepourmuseumsopen.org.uk/

I know it’s late in the day to want to change the Blog name but is Shush (with or without exclamation mark) really reflective of this building’s personality and the helpful natures of the staff?   At the moment in the terms used in the movies “It’s quiet, maybe too quiet” (hopefully this won’t now lead to an arrow winging its way towards me or someone taking a knife to my throat!).  With most of the students away there isn’t that background noise that makes this place feel more alive (I’m assuming that this holds true for Avenue Campus as well?).  Alright occasionally there might be some selfish bod making a racket in the silent study area (or right outside my office!) but isn’t that preferable to the silence?  The name ‘Shush’ is not reflective of what goes on here and perpetuates an unhelpful stereotype of librarians as pedantic silence obsessed (insert word here!).

All that said I reserve the right to get grumpy when the students come back and start using the lobby outside my office as a surrogate phone box!  But until then anyone else feel strongly about changing the name?!

This website gives you a clue to how much of carbon footprint is being created by you when you expend fossil fuels (it should probably be regarded as being more interesting than accurate).  What is then done with the information you’ve generated is entirely up to you (maybe turn the central heating down a degree or two and save a few quid as well).  Not totally sure how I can relate it to the remit of this Blog except to point out that even Librarians and Records Managers have to be able to breathe!

  http://www.resurgence.org/carboncalculator/ 

Privacy International have recently rated the UK as one of the leading surveillance societies in the world.  They have claimed that our individual liberties have become so eroded as to put us in the bottom five on a par with counties such as Russia and China.  See http://www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd%5b347%5d=x-347-545269 

It’s a fact of life to be constantly spied on now that even advertisers mention the fact to sell their products (Peugeot).

Henry Porter lists some of the liberties we have lost in an article originally in the Independent 19 October 2006  entitled ‘The Limits of Liberty: We’re all Suspects Now’ (a google search will find it).

Creditible though it might seem for people to struggle in to work despite having colds, flu, viruses, etc have you ever considered that you may be doing more harm than good?  How effective are you?  How many people have you passed your lurgy onto, some of whom might be more likely to suffer worse symptoms of any bug?  How damaging is it to your own health? 

Turning up to work whilst ill has been given the tag of ‘Presenteeism’.  If you come in to work and colleagues can see you are ill, then your problem is recognised although you aren’t doing much to make anybody any healthier.  If you stay at home colleagues are not able to judge if you’re ill or if you are swinging the lead instead (a prime case of absenteeism) - no amount of gory details or coughing down the phone will be enough to convince some that you aren’t in fact going to spend the day sitting in the garden with a nice book and a pint.

The European Foundation for the the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions highlights work pressure as being a major contributory factor. http://www.eurofound.eu.int/ewco/2003/12/NL0312NU02.htm 

This is NOT a suggestion that we should all throw a ’sicky’ at the drop of a hat - absenteeism (time off sick for no legitimate reason) is a greater problem. Sometimes pressure of work really might make it impossible to stay at home even if you’re feeling rotten but staying away from work is, I think, certainly something to consider in some detail when you wake up one morning with a streaming nose, a hacking cough, swollen tonsils and a dodgy belly!  

The issues around working whilst ill were first highlighted for me by an article in Information Overload, a newsletter produced by an Australian recruitment firm specialising in Library and Records Management staff (Information Enterprises Australia Pty Ltd) - Issue 10 from June 2003 is the relevant one.

http://www.iea.com.au/E-Zine_Archives.htm

Finally for all of you who can remember the 1970s you might remember the phrase “Course you can Malcolm” in response to his snotty “I carnd go-din to wort with a nodes like dis” (or something similar).  I think he should have stuck to his guns, stayed in bed and recovered instead! - no amount of Vicks Sinex will cure a really bad cold instantly or stop you from spreading it around.  Some stills from the ads can be seen at: http://www.nigelplaskitt.com/vicks.htm