Google doesn’t hate me after all.

Hi there!

Well, I finally got my GoogleWave invite. You can find me at librarianinreallife at googlewave dot com.

So far, I could see how this would be awesome for realtime role-playing games online, and not much else.

But I’m still exploring. Add me.

Google Hates Me

Hi there!

Okay, so everybody’s been talking about Google Wave lately.  In fact there’s a perfectly awesome YouTube video making the rounds, which describes Google Wave in terms of a key scene in Pulp fiction. It’s really awesome, and you should watch it. But be careful, because the dialogue is not very work-safe.

So, when I saw this video, I was very excited to test drive this new social media platform. I feel like this is the sort of thing that I’d be pretty good at, since I have one of those brains that quickly shifts from song lyrics to movie quotes to inside humor between my friends and I that no one in their right mind would find funny.  So I was excited about Google Wave.

Unfortunately however, at this time it is by invitation only.  The fine folks at Google apologize for not allowing EVERYone to experience the wonder of GoogleWave, but at this time, it’s still in it’s experimental stages.  So … I wait.

Eventually, one of my awesome awesome friends on Twitter sends me an invite.  This encourages me to do a little heterosexual white man dance right in my office.  I follow the link, intending to sign up to Google Wave using my work e-mail address.  The university at which I work uses a Google interface, so I should be able to use this to log into Google Wave.  When I follow the link, it tells me: “This account cannot be used with Google Wave”.  Apparently, having an open source Google interface is not enough. I need to have an account that ends in @gmail.com for it to work.  So I go to librarianinreallife@gmail.com and attempt to sign in. No luck. “That’s odd”, I think, and try logging out and re-logging in. Still no luck. Well, this is all too confusing for me, and besides, I have to be on the reference desk anyway, so I give up and decide to try again from the ref desk.

However, when I go down to the reference desk and try the exact same thing, I discover that apparently, the last time I was on the ref desk, I was signed into Draconius.Merlin@gmail.com. Yes, this was a g-mail account that I’d made specifically for my Second Life avatar. I’d intended to keep my Second Life separate from my First Life, and so created an account specifically for my Second Life identity.  I check that e-mail address maybe once a MONTH. It’s not related to my real life at ALL.  However, when I tried to get into Google Wave, it immediately told me: “Welcome to Google Wave Draconius Merlin!”. So … my avatar has Google Wave, and I don’t.

So I decide to sign up for Google Wave the old fashioned way. I apply for a Google Wave invitation.  Being an honest sort, I explain to the fine folks at Google my conundrum with my Second Life avatar, highlighting the fact that this was all just an honest mistake that anyone could have made, ah ho ho hee.

A week later, many people on my friends list are just overflowing with Google Wave invites.  The interwebs are all a-twitter with tidings of GoogleWavery.  Humbly, I ask one of my Twitter friends for an invite. Still being an honest sort, I explain to her the terrible circumstances of my LAST GoogleWave travesty and how it was a simple mistake that could happen to anyone, ah ho ho hee.  Minutes later, I get a direct message telling me that she’s sent out invitations, and that I should be getting one.

Weeks pass.

So I’m still sitting here in my non-Google-Wave-having poverty, wondering what happened to my GoogleWave invite. The only thing I can figure is that Google has uncovered the sordid little detail that I … technically HAVE a Google Wave account. Or more correctly, my Second Life Avatar has one. I could be submersing myself beneath the Waves of Google right now as we speak, if not for the fact that I don’t want hordes of my library friends to be on my Draconius Merlin @ Googlewave account, and then have those friends be forced to RE-add me to their account once  Librarianinreallife@googlewave.com eventually goes live. Is that selfish and petty? Probably.

So now I’ve completely abandoned any sort of pretense at honesty. I’m like an addict searching for a Wave invite on the streets. I’m wandering cyberspace with an oversized trenchcoat, pulling the collar up over my face, asking if anyone’s got a Wave invite for me.  I just need one fix, so I can get myself straight. Just one fix, and then I promise I’ll be a lawful upstanding member of Google Wave society. Just one invite, man. One invite and then you’ll never see me again. C’mon dude …

So, do ya know anybody? [twitch]

Grr … ARGs

Hi there!

Hey! Y’know what I just realized? That I can actually make BLOG posts on this site without having to stammer my way through a video every time! That’s special!

My boss just sent me an article about the various ways that academic libraries attract freshman into their library space.  Showing here: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6703840.html?nid=2673&source=title&rid=2048373597& Although this article mentions a few different ways to get users into the library, I’m going to focus on the briefly mentioned “ARGs”.

When I was younger, I used to write out these complicated ‘Dventures (because leaving off the initial “a” makes it cooler) in which I’d leave clues to a “treasure” all over the neighborhood and force my brother to begrudgingly find it.  I got my idea from movies like “Midnight Madness” and “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World”. (and one episode of The Incredible Hulk which ripped off The Most Dangerous Game) I’m told that nowadays, people construct byzantine scavenger-hunt-type “Alternate Reality Games” which throws roleplay into the mix by getting people to imagine that they’re international spies, super-sleuths, or even Hitchcockian “Ordinary Men” who must uncover a fiendish plot by following clues.

This is pretty much the kind of thing that I was BORN to do. Getting a bunch of people to do something silly and immature in the name of gaming is kind of my forte.  Making it LIBRARY-based only sweetens the deal.  There’s only two things that make me nervous about this. 1) Getting a bunch of jaded college kids excited about library research, and 2) organizing an event that requires people to sneak around campus acting suspiciously and leaving unattended packages all over the place in our paranoid post 9/11 world.

Has anyone out there had any experience in playing/organizing ARGs? I’m afraid that this would either be a project far too complicated for me to accomplish, or else I’d wind up with some pitiful little exercise where students  go on a boring little scavenger hunt for books. (or, that the first person to go through the game will muck up the clues for others)

If I knew that actual GAMERS were going to play with this, I’d know exactly how to handle it, but these are [gasp!!] … students. I guess one alternative would be to do some kind of tabletop gaming session where people are forced to perform library searches while at the game table. The article up there even shows kids seated at a table with maps and other print resources spread out before them.  So that might work, too. Maybe a weekly game throughout the semester where students have to get me the answer by each week for the “story” to continue. At the end of the semester we give out a prize? That would be great if we get a bunch of people playing, but if there are only two or three students involved, it loses something.

Any suggestions?

The Phenomenon that is Library 101

Hi there!

In this video, I talk a little about Library 101: The Video.  You library people have probably all seen it by now.  You’re probably IN it.

In which I talk about copyright laws and show you my tattoos!

Hi there!

I’m back from an unscheduled hiatus with a new Vlog entry about copyright law! Try not to faint from excitement!

(One of these days, I’ll actually make a non-video blog entry just for a change of pace) 

In which I talk about the uselessness of Twitter and how you can make it work for you.

Hi there!

Yes, I know you’re all sick to death of hearing about Twitter, but I’m not sick to death of talking about it yet.  Muahahahahaha!!

Computers in Libraries 2009 wrap-up

Hi there!

Yes, I know that I’ve been back from Computers in Libraries 2009 for almost a week now, and that I probably could have done a cool rockin’ vlog entry “from the road”, but it’s been kinda crazy since I got back.  Here’s the new video blog in which I bring the depressing news that everything we know is wrong.

In which I discuss professionalism vs. fun and draw funny pictures of Nebraska government employees.

Vlog Entry #4:

The original article is here:  http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2009/February2009/nebrgamingaudit.cfm

The Official Nebraska Auditor’s Review here: http://www.auditors.state.ne.us/local/pdfSearch/PDF/2009_Library_Commission_Review.pdf

Another plug for Penny Arcade …

You’d think that the Penny Arcade guys were paying me for all of this fannish promotion of their strip.  It’s just that they’ve had a lot of library-relevant stuff.  Here’s their latest:

I promise that next time Jeph Jacques posts a library-relevant strip, I’ll pimp his site, too …

And the Geek shall inherit the Earth …

Yesterday, I made a Vlog post which explored the idea of the computer gaming geek as the new “Macho”.  The video suggested that since tech-savvy nerds have become more capable providers than the stereotypical athletic manly men.

After watching the video, my friend Lori sent me an e-mail which explained that it wasn’t so much that geeks were the new “macho”, but that people in general were becoming geekier.  In our society, many young people grow up playing video games.  The wall between “geek” and “jock” is disappearing.  That big, manly, athletic jock superstar is probably JUST as likely as our computer geek to get on his Xbox and throw down with his buddies on Halo for an hour or so.   The mild-mannered housewife who kisses her husband goodbye and sends her kids to school is probably going to be pwning n00bs in the Arathi Basin later that afternoon.  It’s not just that geeks are the new paradigm for masculinity, it’s that everyone has acquired the “geek” template, and uses those geektacular skills in their daily routine.

Lori then sent me this video. It’s for a new Mercedes concept car.  Watch the full video, and tell me what that says about our new culture of high geekery.

PS: I want one of these now … [drools]