New IT Interest Group Meeting Notes – April 28, 2011 (at WAAL!)

Hey IT Interested! This month we met at WAAL to hold an IT Interest Group Meeting as a session. Due to the amazing and fascinating participation of many people, the session was FANTASTIC! So, here we go: after emerging from a cloud of smoke and pyrotechnics, we all got down to business...

Ian, Jim and Tom began with a discussion of the principles of the group:
1) The first rule is that we stick to discussing "technology" issues.
2) We all explore as newbies.
3) We stay focused on the goal of "producing creative thought."
4) People show up as their time and interest dictates.

Though we want the group to have as few rules as possible, these rules for the group have helped to keep the group going over a period of several years (since 2007!). Please see the handout about the principals here. And the handout about the group resources is here.

After our overview, we discussed a series of very interesting new tools and ideas:

Ian got us all started by discussing the very exciting ARIS game design platform for mobile devices. http://arisgames.org/ We watched a short video http://arisgames.org/demo/, and then Ian designed a simple game right before our very eyes. (I am really hoping we can eventually get that can of soda, as I am very thirsty.) Ian described the Global Game Jam http://arisgames.org/global-game-jam-2011/ that ARIS held this spring (April 18-20). Cool.

Next, Joe jumped right up to the podium to describe Compfight (http://compfight.com/ ), a very good way to search Flickr for images and then filter for “Creative Commons.” It works really well, and very fast!

Then Jennifer told us about the useful Evernote iPad app http://www.evernote.com/about/download/ipad.php, that assists you with note taking. It has the ability to sync between the desktop and the cloud. (Hope I got that right!) A similar version exists for smartphones like the iPhone. Found to be very helpful!

Louise told us about the very cool NetGalley http://www.netgalley.com/ site that provides you with free “galley” versions of upcoming books (especially novels) for FREE! You can add the galleys to your Kindle, Nook, or iPad. Louise notes that the publishers represented are not the biggest multi-nationals, but the texts are usually quality, and she has read a variety of good books at this site.

Tomissa introduced us to the fascinating and useful Shelfari http://www.shelfari.com/. The site offers a variety of functions, including the ability for users to “build a virtual bookshelf” to share with friends or the general public. One of the ways for users to share a bookshelf is to create embeddable widgets that display side scrolling visual booklists. (The images come from Amazon.) This could be a great way to promote collections and new acquisitions!

Jodi demonstrated the Mobile Me site http://www.me.com/ which provides a way to track and manage mobile devices. Jodi was using it to track and remotely wipe iPads that her library circulates to users. This could be very helpful in cases of theft or “reluctant tech return syndrome.” Jodi mentioned that there is a similar tool for Android called Lookout http://www.mylookout.com/.

Jim demoed the unbelievable and amazing tool Topicmarks http://topicmarks.com/. It is very hard to describe how mind-boggling this tool is without visually showing it, but here goes: The site allows you to upload PDFs of readings and articles. The site then runs a variety of algorithms on the PDF to analyze the text in order to 1) index the article, 2) auto-generate a summary of the article, 3) list the important facts stated in the article, 4) build a keyword list to describe the article, and 5) summarize facts about the article. Wow! This could be an amazing study aid for anyone.

Anna showed us the very interesting “micro-blogging” tool Yammer http://www.yammer.com/. It has functions similar to Twitter, but is built to be based on a social network created from a local email domain. In their words, it “brings together all of a company’s employees inside a private and secure enterprise social network.” So, basically it offers the benefits of Twitter while offering some control to the network admin over who sees what, and who can post. (I think we will see more of this kind of useful innovation within organizations.)

Dorothea finished off the session by reminding us all of the critical importance of good security. Accounts with simple passwords get hacked. Posted passwords http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Security-by-PostIt.aspx are always a bad idea. Dorothea recommends reading the “Usability of Passwords” http://www.baekdal.com/tips/password-security-usability article by Thomas Baekdal. A three word passphrase separated by hyphens may make a good password.

I want to thank everyone who came and listened, and I want to especially thank everyone who participated by sharing their ideas and discoveries! Amazing! We hope to see you all again in the future! (Please comment!)