[This is a post from my personal blog but thought it would fit here as well]: 

Speaking of having online tools and services (thanks, Barbara!) that make your research life easier, Lifehacker has an awesome post titled “Top Ten Underhyped Webapps” that includes a service called Qipit–yes, Lifehacker pointed to another 9 that are quite great, but in a library setting Qipit comes in double handy.

Picture yourself in a library and you want to have a digital copy of a microfilm/fiche page(s), print article, or similar item when none are possible. But you have your digital camera or camera phone with you so all you have to do is take a picture of the page in question and text/e-mail it to Qipit.

According Qipit all you have to do is “Send the picture from your phone or via email to copy@qipit.com. You’ll receive a link to the online digital copy of your document. Free!”

I’m thinking primarily of some of our microfilm/fiche readers that don’t have printers or any kind of digital output (GIF or JPEG), but I can see other instances where this type of online tool can certainly be helpful.

This is a great video by Howard Rheingold, author of Smart Mobs: the next social revolution, explaining his use of social media, how social networks have evolved, and his take on "Participatory Media" and its three recognizable characteristics. 

It's like explaining how the web evolved to the 2.0 bit. Good stuff!

I’ve been playing with Jing since if first came out several months ago. To say that it’s easy to use is overstating the fact: make a screencast video, narrate it (if you want), and have it saved/played on the web via a link that you send to whomever; the video/screenshot is hosted by Screencast.com. You can even save your screen shots to Flickr.

This nifty tool came in handy when I was answering one of our e-mail reference questions. A student wanted to know how to access our PsychINFO database. Rather than explaining in great detail how to go about it, I simply wrote down a few instructions (you know, just in case this student is not a visual learner), fired up Jing and quickly made a screencast of the process. After doing that (it took no more than a few minutes) I also sent the link to my narration & video showing the student how to go about doing the search.

Jing is from the folks at TechSmith, the same ones who make Camtasia. Jing requires Microsoft .NET framework 3.0 to work. Jing has few whistles, but for what it does, it does beautifully and simply. You can get tips & tricks and ongoing developments at the Jing Project blog. By all means, give Jing a try. It is indeed a neat idea.

Well, after percolating and flinging about ideas as to what I learned at Pegasus, I suppose I should explain what I thought Pegasus was going to be like. See, I had this notion that Pegasus–and this was my first impression–was all about corporate thinking, maximizing profit, enhancing the profit machinery to produce faster; managerial best practices, keeping the employee performing at optimal levels, etcetera, etcetera. I mean, what would you think when you read sentences like this:

• Learn from accomplished leaders who understand the formidable capacity of purposeful networks
• Practice using systems thinking tools and models to make sense of dynamic complexity
• Build momentum for your own initiatives by connecting with a community of passionate change agents

What the hell does all that mean? You see my point? Even after perusing the programs I still didn’t get it. So the day before the conference I attended the “Building the Conference Community” session, expecting the onslaught of the corporate-group think that global companies like IBM, Starbucks, Boeing and others like them use to reach global influence. After the first two minutes into it I changed my mind.

The most prevalent factor about this conference was about the power of words, of conversation, about how we relate to others, be they family, coworkers, or complete strangers. And it’s not the casual, day-to-day “Hey, what’s going on?” type of conversation–we don’t really expect an honest answer for that one, nor are we expected to respond to it but in a like manner–but really, honestly, openly, talking to another human being. And not just conversing, but listening too. Revolutionary? Not really. Astounding? Nope. Scary? You better believe it!

But in the context of this conference this scary aspect was quite liberating because we had to be vulnerable enough to be open to an exchange of ideas, aspirations, dreams, and personal philosophies with complete strangers. This is part of the psychological “safe” space that Meyerson covered in her presentation; of allowing for the flow of honest dialogue and feedback without the fear of psychological reprisal. The cool part was that this “power” of conversation was intuitively understood by pretty much everyone that attended.

So that was the underlying theme for this conference. And after hearing speakers like Van Jones, Peter Senge, Debra Meyerson, and others, it was easy to envision and experience a different kind of relational plateau–a way to interact with others that allowed you to first think about how you are contributing to society. In other words, what is your societal impact? How are your actions contributing to a positive or negative work/family environment? What is your psychological footprint in how you relate to others? What are you doing to relate to others in a caring, open manner? …do you see where this is going? It’s simple personal dynamics that is heady stuff nonetheless. But this conference encouraged that kind of thinking and those kinds of conversations.

So what’s Pegasus to me now? Well, I can tell you about it, but you’d really have to listen :-)

SPLAT folks are ready and able to answer your techie questions at ILA! Stop by the west entrance of the Nampa Convention Center and get a load of Wii, eAudiobooks, MP3 players and other 2.0 tools AND get your questions answered--or just come by and say hello and play Wii with us! It's fun, it's exciting, it's SPLAT at ILA this Thursday and Friday!