Technology

Online Northwest 2009 Keynote

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Keynote by Dr. BJ Fogg, from Stanford

Title: The New World of Persuasive Technology

Talking about technology and behavior change, especially online video
Computers and persuasion (captology, coined the term)

We can create machines that influence how people behave, changing human behavior

Europe and the US academics are working on persuasive technology

The web is a platform for persuasion:
Every website has a persuasive intent (key to teach our students)
All have a persuasive goal
You wouldn’t create a website unless you had a goal

Social networks are platforms for persuasion

Mobile phones will be platforms for persuasion

All about videos now. Bringing video into the context of your life.

Technology changes, but human psychology doesn’t change as quickly; it is stable.

How do you think clearly about behavior change?
Think about persuasion targets in professional life.
What behavior do you want people to do?

Fogg likes to do beneficial things with technology (therefore not in the school of business 🙂
Change the world in great ways.

3 core things that change human behavior: motivators, simplicity, and triggers

Target Behavior: Parting with your money (pledge money)
Question: When it comes to soliciting money, is personal video message better than generic email?
Email: 0% of people pledged
Video: 58% watched video, 82% of those pledged, overall 47% pledged

Why does this work? It is the experience that is persuasive–video.

Persuasion goes back a long way. (Fogg uses Wordle a lot 🙂
Goes back to Adam and Eve–what if there was facebook?

Facebook is #1 persuasive technology right now.
Did a class on Facebook
Student projects–making applications for Facebook
projects got 16 million users in 10 weeks
Secret: Think clearly & run many trials

Human Psychology:
What motivates people?
Humans are fairly predictable.
Motivators:
Pleasure and pain
Hope and fear
acceptance and rejection

Driver behind Facebook–social interaction, want social acceptance and avoid rejection

Mega-motivation: no, doesn’t get behavior change
Need more than just motivation to change behaviors

Other factors:
People need to be able to do what you ask them to do.
Easy to accomplish goals
Need motivation and ability
Simplicity is good. People don’t want to learn mostly.
People: Just give me a pill.
Make it simple and easy for people, if you want behavior change
Don’t require training

Simplicity has 6 elements:
Time
Money
Effort
Brain cycles
social deviance
non-routine

People are fine watching video; rather watch a video than read. Therefore instructional videos are great.
Demos

Humans are mostly lazy

Keypoint: reduce behavior to one choice, one step, one click.

People who like to think hard and challenge themselves are the outliers.

Add video to increase motivation for behavior change.

Either simplify or motivate in order to change the behavior if what you want to happen is not happening.

Must know which path when persuading people using technology. Code doesn’t adjust unlike people. Must think clearly about context when making videos and application.

6 Different flavors of web video (can find on the web)

Even when people have motivation and ability, you need to trigger the behavior.
Facebook has notifications, which is one reason why it is so successful

All 3 must be present at the same moment to have behavior happen (motivation, ability and trigger).

Focus on trigger and simplicity, usually have enough motivation.

Thoughts: Absolutely great speaker.

Take home message: Use more videos to trigger behaviors that you want.

Another Reason for IL Instruction and Why Open Source Rocks

/ dwakimoto

Happy Monday. Wow, it is back to work time again. But never fear, faithful reader, I have some news and tidbits that should make sliding back into work mode a little more palatable.

First up, check out this article about how more information leads to less knowledge. So the basic thrust of the argument is that now, with people literally swimming in information via the web, we still have people that remain willfully ignorant of various concepts and that we are devolving to argue facts instead of the meaning behind the facts. I love the term “agnotology,” coined by Robert Proctor, a historian of science at Stanford. Agnotology is “the study of culturally constructed ignorance.”

Now if anything cried out the need for information literacy instruction, the fact that agnotology has now been coined cries out loud and clear. Information literacy is the key to creating knowledge out of the morass of information that is omnipresent in our lives.

This could make you feel a little overwhelmed by the herculean task that faces those of us in the information sciences professions, especially those who teach information literacy. But I say, what an opportunity to teach and yes, another point to make the case for our relevancy in society. But if you are still feeling a little overwhelmed about all the work there is to be done, check out this article from WebWorker Daily about marking the end of your work day in order to accomplish more and actually stop working at a reasonable time. Though not all of us work at home each day, these are still great tips for any of us who are tempted to work 24/7. It’s not healthy to work that much and it is great to have some ritual that lets your mind and body know that it is really time to quit work. Besides which, most everything can wait until morning. As one of my friend’s boss says, “Failure to plan on your part, does not constitute an emergency on my part.” So back away from the computer and go for a walk.

Raise your hand if you are interested in design? Interested in art? Really, you’re not? Well, then skip this paragraph and move on. For those interested in how art, and more specifically colors, affect our emotions and productivity, check out this New York Times article, Reinvent Wheel? Blue Room. Defusing a Bomb? Red Room. It basically delves into the interesting and sometimes odd research area of how color affects emotions and reactions. So if red increases accuracy and blue increases creativity, maybe I should have a maroon office so I get the best of both worlds. Just kidding.

Luckily, the title of the above article leads into this next bit of information. Or mainly, leads to my rant about silos of information in libraries and everyone trying to reinvent the wheel. Why this small rant? I got this article in my RSS feed this morning on open source solutions for libraries. That didn’t make me annoyed; as everyone knows I fully support open source solutions for libraries, especially with the outrageous costs of some vendor products. I even think LibLime is wonderful, although it is not responsible for the invention of Koha, it is now a vendor and support provider for Koha and some it developers now work on Koha, though.

My big gripe is that, in this age of shrinking budgets and staffing levels, multiple libraries are trying to reinvent the wheel. Why? Why can’t librarians just all work together on the same platform and pool their collective intelligences? It frustrates me to no end that everyone is trying to work on the same problem in their little silos instead of looking around to see if anyone else has already invented the wheel.

Take Koha for example. It was developed in New Zealand and implemented in 1999-2000. It has been through multiple versions, and is a stable, open-source, fully-featured ILS system. It can be scaled to any sized library, can be used in consortia, and actually looks great. So why are other libraries insisting on homegrown systems when they could be helping to make Koha better? There is even support for this open source system, note the reference to LibLime above.

Let’s all stop re-inventing the same wheel. Or in other words, instead of everyone storming off to Mount Doom on their own, why doesn’t someone text Frodo and Sam first to see if the mission has been accomplished? Then we can all get back to improving and collaborating existing systems, have that all elusive goal of interoperability, and get back to helping our patrons make sense of the latest information that has blasted them on the web.

That’s all I’m really saying.

See you later in the week.

Value of College and other Fun Discussions

/ dwakimoto

So it’s a rainy Friday in the Bay Area. On the one hand, that is a very good thing because we need the rain, on the other hand, it’s not because I’m still battling a cold and it just makes me want to crawl back into bed and go to sleep. But faithful readers, it will take more than a cold to keep the Waki Librarian from sharing some goodies to make your Friday a little brighter.

First up, Photoshop tutorial. The 60 most wanted Photoshop tutorials to be exact. I’ve managed to keep Photoshop off the blog, but now must share my unending love affair with this program. I love Photoshop–it is fabulous and I know you can find free photo editing software too, which rocks, but my heart belongs to Photoshop. And now with these wonderful, free tutorials on Photoshop, I will never be able to put down my Wacom tablet and pen as I test out more interesting fire effects and painting effects.

What does this have to do with libraries? Well, I’m sure we all know of a few libraries, organizations and/or logos in need of an update or two. Now with Photoshop you can make fabulous graphics or just clean up some photos taken at your last library event. Yes, Photoshop is super-powerful and has a pretty steep learning curve, but if you like design (even a little bit) you will be so glad you learned it.

Moving on now to something that I think is right on point to our continuing discussions of libraries, education, technology and fun is this article called, “Rethink the Value of College”. It is a timely piece about how much a college education is worth in this time of economic uncertainty. It also asks the question: what is the best way to prepare young people for the changes ahead and the fact that most will have multiple careers and jobs. College is still valuable, but it must be re-evaluated and re-engineered to fit today’s paradigm. Coming to college without adequate preparedness hurts everyone and leaving college with staggering amounts of student loan debt hurts many students. We seriously need a holistic re-evaluation and re-alignment of how we educate and prepare people in our colleges and universities.

Now, of course, I can’t leave you on such a gloomy thought on a Friday. So here is one of my absolutely favorite photography blogs A Walk through Durham Township, Pennsylvania. While Kathleen Connally is somewhat uneven in her execution of her photographs, the majority are absolutely beautiful and make even this sun loving California girl think snow looks pretty. Two of my favorites are titled “My Dream Studio” and “Mr. Darcy (A Baby Pygmy Goat).” And did I mention you can RSS it?

Have a wonderful weekend. I’ll see you next week.

Sunday Fun

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I’m at work today. I figured why not make a blog post today as I have seriously lapsed and not done a book review this week. I’m sorry, faithful readers, but I just couldn’t tape any reviews this morning before going to work. I promise to do another book review this coming weekend.

So, like I was saying, I’m at work and it is quiet as it is Super Bowl Sunday and all. So to celebrate, here is a Sunday edition of random fun.

First up is Tyealyzer. I think this is so fun. You just type in a blog’s URL and it will tell you what personality type is evidenced by the blog’s writing style. The Waki Librarian is an ISTP. Or as Typealyzer says, The Mechanics. Apparently that means my blog is independent, a quick thinker and problem solver who likes risks. Hmm… While that isn’t the result of the last Myers-Briggs test I took, I think it sums up this blog very well. This blog is all about problem solving, do it yourself tips and tricks. So have some fun and enter your favorite blogs into the Typealyzer.

Speaking of tips and tricks, it just wouldn’t be a post without mention of Lifehacker. In honor of it’s birthday, Lifehacker has put together a post of Lifehacker’s best posts 2005-2009. This is a really good look at where we’ve been and where we are going technology-wise. So have some fun with it.

Oh, and what has got to be the coolest thing to play with, only tangentially related to libraries, is this tour of Stephen King’s office. Yes, you can take a virtual tour of King’s office, with more on the way later this year. It if fantastic, especially if you like Stephen King’s novels and other writings. It is an interactive tour, so get ready to pick up the Wizard’s glass, see props from various movies and get attacked by Ben. Really, this is awesome. I can’t wait to explore it some more.

Last but certainly not least, here is SpeedCrunch, a calculator program that runs on just about any platform and machine. It’s way more powerful than the puny calculator that comes standard with Windows and helpful for those times when you just don’t have a scientific calculator handy.

Enjoy the day and I’ll see you again soon.

More Tips about Resolutions, Research and Book Accumulation

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Yes, I know, it is another post that is just a hodge-podge of information and articles. But, as always, I will attempt to make these seemingly random topics come together in a coherent fashion. After all, what are librarians good at doing if not collecting information, analyzing it and making sense of it all?

First up is this wonderful photography resource. Photography research is one of the most useful things I learned in library school. And now the Library of Congress has made photography research easier with there Researcher’s Toolbox. Check it out and be amazed at all the different photographic processes and information that can be gleaned from photographs.

Now, there are a lot of photographs of people online that you can find via Flickr, Google Image Search, etc. But that’s not all, you can also find a lot of personal information on just about everyone on the Internet too. Lifehacker’s article on data privacy is so relevant in today’s hyperlinked world. I’m always amazed how much you can find out on the Internet and how little people think about data privacy.

And finally, maybe, these will be the last articles about keeping New Year’s Resolutions: Lifehacker’s article on avoiding common mistakes and the Top Ten Tools for Sticking to your New Year’s Resolutions because you know I can never pass up a good list.

Lastly, here is an entire part of a wiki on how to stop accumulating books. Handy if you are moving, but really, who wants to stop accumulating books. I mean like Michel de Montaigne said, “When I am attached by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.” I have no problem with book accumulation, but I’m sure others do. My easy fix, other than patronizing your local library (which you should be doing anyway) is to buy another bookshelf–easy to find and IKEA has pretty, inexpensive ones in tons of colors.

See? Once again the Waki Librarian has solved your book, data, and resolution dilemmas! Never let it be said that I didn’t try to help.

Enjoy the day and I’ll see you tomorrow.

Rock on Neil Gaiman!

/ dwakimoto

Happy Tuesday! Yes, I am well aware of the fact that this blog post is late. I usually get a post up on Monday, but it has kind of been a crazy weekend and start of the week. So I apologize for the delay. But to make up for it, here is a post all about Neil Gaiman.

First off, congratulations to Neil Gaiman for winning the Newbery Medal for The Graveyard Book. Read more about it in this page about the Newbery Medal from ALA. That is really cool and Gaiman is a fantastic writer so celebrate by getting one of his books and reading!

Also, Neil Gaiman happens to have a fantastic blog which you can find at Neil Gaiman’s Journal. Honestly I don’t know how he can write as much as he does on his blog and Twitter feed (follow: neilhimself) and still have time to write such amazing stories.

Also, the claymation movie Coraline, based on Neil Gaiman’s story, is coming to theaters February 6th. Did you like The Nightmare Before Christmas? Well, this has the same director, Henry Selick and looks fabulously creepy. I can’t wait.

Haven’t heard of this before? Check out the trailer below:

And just in case, for some reason, you aren’t into Gaiman’s work, here is a little piece you might be interested in: a post about how to embed almost anything in your webpage. This is great. I learned how to embed the high definition version of the Coraline trailer that you watched above.

Enjoy your day, more later in the week.

Friday Random Fun Stuff

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Happy Friday! It’s almost the weekend, but first I have a few random, fun and hopefully helpful resources for you and your other library buddies. Fridays should be fun and slightly random, or else how would we get ready for the weekend?

So as you know, faithful reader, I also do podcasts of workshops I lead. Well, I have to say, I would love this podcast set-up. Basically, as Wired says, it is a studio in a box for podcasting. I bet my audio would sound better with this. So if you want to get into podcasting, here is your chance. And just to let you know, Audacity really doesn’t crash that much, but save a lot you know, just in case.

I am always looking for ways to keep organized, so I am very happy with this article on eight ways to keep your office clutter free. This is a constant challenge that I think everyone struggles with at some point. And I just love the fact that one of the suggestions is to create and keep a records retention policy! Records managers for the win on this one!

And who doesn’t like free stuff? Well, here is your freebie for Friday: an audiobook copy of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People from Audible. Yup, completely free. Don’t you just love it?

And last, but certainly not least, here is Ueatcheap.com, a website that helps you find places to eat for under $10. I know this will be of great interest of anyone looking to save money, but especially all the starving grad students out there. And, yes, you can join the site and start adding your own opinions and restaurants you like.

So that is all I have for on this rainy Friday. Have an awesome weekend! Now, stop staring at your computer and go read (or listen) to a book!

Mobile Technologies and the Library

/ dwakimoto

Hello! Wow, it is the middle of the month, but doesn’t it feel like a new year?

In honor of President Obama, here is a short article about the President librarians can love. I think it is just wonderful that the article says that Obama gave a “shout-out” to librarians in one of his weekly addresses. I mean, we got a shout-out. That is pretty darn cool. And, hopefully having an intelligent, well-read president will encourage more people to pick up a book and just read!

Next up, a bit unrelated but not really, is this great research article on the Information Ecology of Social Media. It is from 2007, but still is pretty relevant. I love the graphs showing interconnectivity among blogs and discovering blog communities in the blogosphere. I think librarians have a thing or two to teach the rest of the world about the blogosphere! I need time to do a closer reading of this article, but have office hours ssoon so that will have to wait.

How cool is it that the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) now have CDC Mobile? That’s right, they have optimized their website for mobile devices so you can now get credible health information right on your iPhone or other device. Rock on for taking on the mobile revolution CDC!

To end with, here is a great story about text messages saving languages. I think this is just wonderful, not only because I happen to be a huge fan of text messages, but because here is a use of text messages that I bet wasn’t on anyone’s radar when the first lowly text message was sent. However, if advocates succeed in getting more language options for predictive text on cellphones, think of what a boon that would be for the world’s languages, especially in the hands of teenagers (who, after all, are the ones who will be perpetuating the world’s languages). Not to mention, of course, the almost infinite crazy misunderstandings that will happen when people start creating text messaging lingo in their native languages. Now that is going to make for some interesting lost in translation moments! LOL

Mobile technologies are here to stay, a new day is dawning in the United States (sorry for the horrid use of a cliche, just couldn’t resist), and librarians can assist both with mobile technologies and with keeping our patrons informed and hopefully and really well-read. So rock on librarians! Have a great rest of your day, but now I’ve got to jet–I have office hours.

Tech Fun for Everyone

/ dwakimoto

One of the things I like most about the continuing advancement of technology, especially collaborative, online technologies, is that it is getting easier to use these technologies. It used to be if you wanted to create a professional looking website you needed to know a lot of HTML and preferably CSS, etc. Or you needed to have money to hire a professional web designer.

Now, if you want to have a website or a blog, you have many drag-and-drop and WYSIWYG options to choose from to build your own online presence. Now, this is not to say we no longer need skilled web designers, information architects and graphic artists–of course we do! But to have a functional, simple, website is now within the reach of way more of the Internet surfing public. And to me, that is a good thing.

This is basically just a very long-winded way of saying, “Yay! Look at some more cool online stuff I have been playing with and want to share with you.”

First up is LucidChart: an online, collaborative flowchart application. You can make beautiful flowcharts all via drag-and-drop! I think this is so cool. No more wasting time in Word or other programs that can’t make a decent flowchart. You can use LucidChart instead. I might just have to make a flowchart to use in class because of this application.

Of course, that still doesn’t solve the problem of getting people to read flowcharts as evidenced by xkcd comic, “Flow Charts”:

 

Flow Charts comic from xkcd

Flow Charts comic from xkcd

It just can’t be a Friday without sharing an awesome post by Lifehacker; this one is about Self-education. Yes, more self-improvement for the new year. And yes, it includes watching YouTube videos! Now there is no excuse for not learning something when you are staring at your computer screen day after day, for hours on end.

And, finally, here is Michael Stephens’ Ten Trends & Technologies for 2009. A very interesting read about technology and the library. I’m really interested in learning and applying more of the mobile technology applications to the library. I mean, if people are going to insist on being tied to a cellphone or BlackBerry all day, they might as well get optimized library websites and catalogs on there too. (Full disclosure: the one technology I personally am not thrilled with is the cellphone, except for texting, I really like text messages. I just don’t like people calling me all the time; that’s what texts and Twitter are for! I mean, who really needs to know that you are standing in line at the supermarket? Not me.)

But, back to the post, the most exciting bit, to me, is the emphasis on making the library a collaborative space, a learning commons space, The Commons for the campus or community. I think that is how it should be and how it needs to be for libraries to remain vital and vibrant.

Happy Friday, enjoy the weekend!

Reading, OCLC, and Gadgets

/ dwakimoto

Happy Monday! It is bright and sunny in the Bay Area and I am feeling very guilty about enjoying the day because it should be raining. Unlike other parts of the country, we really need it to rain here.

But enough about the weather, you are here for the techie and library related goodies! And I have some fun and some disturbing information to relay to you today.

I thought we better get the bad and disturbing information out of the way first: check out this analysis of the new OCLC policy. It sounds like member libraries could be negatively impacted by this new policy. I want to read the entire policy before adding to much to this discussion, but I think everyone should be aware of this coming change.

On to less disturbing news: online reading versus book reading–what is better? There is a lot of debate surrounding this question, especially as more and more of the information and services offered to students and patrons moves online. Check out a summary of research done on this very issue that says that there may be negatives to reading and learning online. I know this is a huge debate and there isn’t nearly enough research to say definitively whether online and print reading are equivalent in terms of cognition and comprehension levels. But I think it is a good idea to keep up on the research and discussion surrounding reading and learning as we spend resources and time on ebooks, online instruction and services.

Online reading works for me in small doses and for short periods of time, but I would never want to read the complete works of Foucault online. What do you think?

Now for the fun: you might have thought we were done with lists because, after all, it is January 12th, but no! Here is a list I just had to pass along: New Year’s Resolutions for Readers. I love this list; I find it inspiring and encouraging and will use it as a reason for my indulgence of reading more this year. So go forth and read; then let me know what books you liked–I’m always interested in what other people are reading.

Lastly, I couldn’t have another post without talking about some technology. Here is Wired’s list of 12 Good Gadgets for Hard Times. It is a thought-provoking list (as shown by the massive amounts of comments on the article, some of which are entertaining and others of which are not very nice). I think it is always interesting to see what someone else thinks are the go to gadgets. I have to say, after living in South America, I’ve got to agree with the hand-crank radio, multi-tool and some kind of water filtration unit. A solar powered or hand-crank laptop would be icing on the cake. Remember, don’t let technology rule your life or your work, make it be a tool that works for you.

Have a great rest of your Monday, see you again later this week!