Visual Data - Gapminder

I learn best with visual data. I first discovered Gapminder a couple of years ago in Google Labs. I love playing with this tool and recently discovered that one can subscribe to Gapcasts and put them on your blog, iPod, etc. I'll embed one below.

While on the reference desk, I have recommended this tool to students working with human development statistics with very positive results. If you know of other good visual tools please post a comment.

Senators Support Open-Access Measure

From the Chronicle's Wired Campus article, October 2007The Senate passed HR 3043. The measure included language requiring all researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health to submit their final manuscripts to a free online archive:

The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, that the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.

The Open-Access Movement is important to all and I believe it's a movement in which librarians should be major advocates. How might we go about furthering this movement within our institutions? What about open-access of all scholarly research?

Google Apps for Higher Education

I can not understand why colleges and universities choose anything else over Google Apps. Why?! Many academic institutions are looking for ways to save money, and not only would the savings be significant, but by switching to Google Apps they would be upgrading. And many students, faculty, and staff at academic institutions already use Google Apps, and then when we are forced to use inferior products (Outlook?!), it can be quite frustrating.
I've been told it's because of Google's data mining practices. I wonder how valid that argument is? And shouldn't the fact that Google's security is far beyond what most institutions can provide be worth the data mining? I think if students, faculty and staff were asked which they would prefer, they would choose Google Apps over other products, especially if they were given a 30 day trial and then could decide. What do you think?
Take a look at the 2-min. introductory video tour and then you will want to watch the comprehensive 12-min. presentation on Google Apps.
And below is a 4-min. video by Arizona State Unversity on their experience w/Google Apps:

Or Has Google Blown It With Android?

Google's got it wrong with Android Despite the hype, it's a bad move, says David L Margulis

I like to read both sides. This article makes some good points, but I have a hard time believing that Google didn't think through these issues before releasing Android.

What do you think? Is Android going to revolutionize mobile computing or did Google just make one of its biggest mistakes ever?

Why Google's Android Is So Important And Could Change The Future Of Mobile Computing

If mobile computing interests you (especially the future of mobile computing, which many believe is the future of computing), you should read this informative article just published in Slate Magazine. The title is "Yes, Google Is Trying To Take Over the World. Next step: Take out Ma Bell." written by Tim Wu. The article explains why it's not the mobile OS of Microsoft or Symbian that are the real obstacles to Google's largest plans. Rather as Wu states:

Google's truest and most formidable foes are much older and more powerful. Today we call them Verizon and AT&T, but their real name is the Bell system. Their ideology, which today governs the cell phone world, is called "Vailism," and it can be traced back to 1907 and the origins of AT&T's domination of American telephony. The Bells' philosophy, as promulgated by AT&T's greatest president, Theodore Vail, is based on closed systems, centralized power, and as much control as possible over every part of the network. Vailism is the antithesis, in short, of everything Google stands for. It is this—conquering the business culture of the telephone, as opposed to the computer—that is Google's great challenge.

Towards the end of the article - "Google believes that the ideology of openness must win out, and that the Bell system will collapse under its own contradictions." And the article's last sentence "Provided Google continues to have the nerve and resources, we'll likely remember the Android announcement as the beginning of a long, drawn-out battle for ideological supremacy in the world of wireless."

I do feel just a tad bit nervous about whether Google has taken on more than it can handle with this.

More on Relevance-Academic Libraries/Librarians

Two articles -
This first article is titled The Blended Librarian: A Blueprint for Redefining the Teaching and Learning Role of Academic Librarians
by Stephen J. Bell and John Shank C&RL News, July/August 2004
Vol. 65, No. 7
The second article "A Strategy for Academic Libraries in the First Quarter of the 21st Century" (click pdf link at top) by David W. Lewis, College & Research Libraries 68(5)(September 2007): 418-434.

It's important that academic librarians begin discussing and acting upon what these authors have researched. I'm feeling an urgency about this. I have proposed a meeting to discuss these articles with the library director and librarians at my university. I'll write more about this after the meeting.

Google's Android Demo

Sergey Brin and Steve Horowitz discuss the availability of the SDK (software development kit), that it will be open source in the future, and demo applications on the Android platform.

(The best parts start after the first 3 minutes.)



What are the implications for higher education? What is shown in this demo is just the beginning, wait until the developers get hold of this! (And there should be no lack of developers with $10 million being offered.)

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)

At exactly 3:00 A.M. PST, my XO laptop was purchased. Here is a picture of it on the production line (I'm pretty sure one of those is mine!). I wanted to be the first one so I started calling at 2:58, but didn't get through my first attempt. Oh well. They are hoping (but not guaranteeing) they will arrive before Christmas).
OLPC Give One Get One
One Laptop Per Child Foundation
How might this change our world? Implications for higher education?

Want to know more? Check out this four min. video review by David Pogue of the New York Times