just wanted to thank you for everything you've done this year and for getting a fantastic profile for the Users and Innovation Community and Programme. I'm now on holiday until the new year, for those that follow me on Twitter and Flickr etc, you'll see where :-)

Just one quick reminder that he closure meeting for the programme is at the end of January - details and registration here

Best wishes

Lawrie

WHAT: Library Technology Working Group (LIB.TWG) [LAUNCH EVENT]
WHEN: Friday December 05, 2008 from 12-1pm ET (9-10am Pacific / SL time)
WHERE: Second Life http://slurl.com/secondlife/Smithers%20Bluff/35/205/89

OVERVIEW:

The Library Technology Working Group (LIB.TWG) is responsible for defining,
implementing, evolving and maintaining applications and open standards related
to the provision of library services associated with Immersive Education.

In the age of Immersive Education libraries are challenged to provide resources
and personalized research and learning services that transcend physical space.
Scholarly communication that once depended on printed books and journals is now
network disseminated and enriched with the spectrum of multimedia—moving and
still photo/video images, sound, animation, immersive 3D and virtual reality,
simulation, executable code, large data sets—as well as interactive
communication among reviewers and readers. Pedagogy that was predominantly an
independent and competitive process for students outside class now makes greater
use of collaboration, cooperation, and group study.

In addition to a changed learning and research environment, librarians face
continually changing sources for the digital literature and other assets they
acquire and make available, and continually changing tools for scholars to
locate and use these resources. Management of the library enterprise is
characterized by more complex and intense communication among librarians, and
the delivery of library services is distinguished by the need for direct,
personalized advice on what is available and instruction on how to use it.

Although library practice has been deeply technological for thirty years or
more, and a cornerstone of research and course delivery, it is now constrained
by the traditions of physical services in real buildings. Similarly, working
relations among library staff and with consortial partners depend on traditional
modes of email, telephone and process control systems. Certainly, ample
opportunity exists to enable vastly greater efficiencies in communication
through the use of virtual reality meetings and consultations.

The Library Technology Working Group is chartered to project library services
beyond the limits of the brick and mortar physical plant through the application
of interactive 3D graphics and animation, open video game and simulation
technology, virtual reality, voice over IP, web cams and other rich digital
media. These technologies can be leveraged today toward the creation of virtual
collaborative study spaces, virtual information literacy programs, virtual
research and course consultations, virtual interlibrary document management, and
virtual service delivery to name just a few possibilities.

Visit http://ImmersiveEducation.org/events/ on the day of this event for
meeting materials (such as images and videos) and additional details

http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&ti

Venue: the Hatton in London (http://www.etcvenues.co.uk/attachments/published/158/Hatton%20Travel%20Directions.pdf) please plan to be there for registration at 10:00, and we aim to finish no later than 4:30. 

It concludes:

• Social networking features are perceivedas primarily for pleasure rather than for work
• Content is still king: to be a truly useful research tool, students and lecturers need to know that a resource has been created for them and has scholarly merit, and reliable and relevant content
• Wikipedia was singled out by both FE and HE interviewees as being particularly unreliable, and yet highly popular
• The features most associated with a Web 2.0 approach (rate, comment, upload, blog and send to friend) were commonly described with reference to social networking or e-commerce sites and were largely considered non-academic and therefore inappropriate for the Pre-Raphaelite online resource.

Lawrie

So what's my problem?  Why are these interesting and useful posts not appearing in the tag cloud - in-fact without naming and shaming why does almost every tag cloud link take me to a completely irrelevant place that as no recent posts, and is of no discernable use to the community. Is there a special algorithm that is needed to generate a tag cloud that is so unrepresentative of this community? Or is it that only a few people know how to manipulate the cloud?

So (and it's really not my place to ask, but I'm going to ) what do we as a community want as a navigational tool at the top of this page - tag cloud that only goes to one place? A tag cloud that represents the posts that have been made? or something else? Post your comments below and tell me.