mobile

iPads in Libraries

by David Lee King on June 17, 2010

See the Youtube version in HD

Going to ALA 2010 in Washington, D. C.? If so, please consider participating in the BIGWIG Showcase! What is the BIGWIG Showcase? It’s a fun, highly interactive way to learn about a lot of topics at once! Here’s a list of the topics for this year’s Showcase:

  • Libraries MUST Have A New Electronic Content Access and Distribution Infrastructure  (Michael Porter)
  • User Research on a Shoestring (Erin White and Susan Teague-Rector)
  • Information Overload & Personal Information Management (Bohyun Kim)
  • iPad and Tablet computers (David Lee King)
  • Teaching with Twitter (Ellen Filgo)
  • Qrcodes & Mobile Knowledge Networks (Bonnie Rosalen and Kelly Sattler)

And yes – I’m doing one … my presentation is on the Apple iPad and the new breed of tablet PCs that are coming out in the next couple of years. I show off the iPad and provide some examples of how to use one in a library setting.

What do YOU need to do? Two simple things:

  1. Watch the video, and leave a comment if you want to
  2. Attend the Showcase! I’ll talk briefly about the iPad, possibly even show one off … then we’ll chat – answer questions, debate the merits of the iPad, etc… and then you’ll be able to rotate off and talk to the other amazing presenters (listed above).

Simple stuff, huh? Make SURE to attend the BIGWIG Showcase – Monday, June 28, 2010 from 10:30am to Noon at the Renaissance Washington Grand BR South/Central. See you there!

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CIL2010: Developing & Designing for Mobile

by David Lee King on April 15, 2010

Speaker – Jeff Wisniewski, Web Services Librarian, University of Pittsburgh

Notes from this session …

mobile will surpass desktop web access in the next couple years

if you can write html, css, and javascripting … you can write for the mobile web.

me – mobile apps are great …. but we even moreso need to be building for the mobile web.

context is important:

  • not interested in your lending policy
  • want to satisfy immediate info needs
  • usually we’re in busy places, doing multiple things when we are accessing mobile web

Mobile usability – oxymoron (not sure I agree …)

- minimize the need to input text when you can.

remember you’re designing fro a small screen and will have speed and latency issues.

Two important points to remember:

  • don’t make me think!
  • don’t make me type!

content – ask your users what they would find useful

Cake and icing:

cake – directions, hours, contact info, ask a question, etc.

icing – (do these if you can, later on, etc) – catalog search, article search…

be selective – everything is on a need to know basis

repurpose existing content – podcasts, video, alerts, rss type stuff

content we buy:

some have mobile friendly sites already, like EBSCO, PubMed, westlaw, etc.

Catalog: look for accessible version if possible – it will probably be mobile friendly

me – mobile – make sure our site and services work on a 3g network – m.tscpl.org

m.home – make a new mobile homepage:

single column

single lines

flattened hierarchy

short titles

simple standard html and css

include a mobile dtd type

ignore handheld css stylesheets. most new mobile browsers ignore handheld stylesheet statement

media query – the link media thing – tells browser to use this stylesheet if screen is smaller than a certain size

include action links like a href tel:phone# stuff – sms: – same thing – this allows people to click and call or click and text, rather than having to type

optimizing for mobile:

combine dependent files, minify your javascript and css, tell google  – register mobile site with them.

Google small business center – register library website with google local

use validation services

drupal has a mobile template

usability testing – do paper tests

analytics – google analytics has mobile tracking, or you can filter by user agents

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Rethinking the 3rd Place

by David Lee King on September 22, 2009

I had a conversation with my supervisor (Rob Banks, Deputy Director of Operations at the library) a couple days ago, and thought it was worth sharing with y’all.

We were talking about our impending website redesign (yes, we’re at it again). I had sent him a rough draft of my redesign plan, and we were talking through it. He had been reading my book on digital experiences, and that had fired off some really cool thoughts about the concept of 3rd place for him… here’s what he said that made us start thinking:

“It’s not 3rd place – it’s The Place:”

  • Typically, Rob has maybe 6 windows open on his computer while at work – email,   a couple of work documents he’s working on, TweetDeck (ok – does YOUR deputy director have TweetDeck open constantly? Just sayin), and a couple of websites – usually including Facebook.
  • He’s doing several things at the same time … but Facebook is always on, and he’s always connected to his Facebook friends.
  • When he’s not at work, Rob has a Blackberry with a Facebook app – so Facebook is always on there, too. He can connect to Facebook whenever he wants to, no matter where he is.
  • Rob can still be in his physical “3rd place” and (important point) STILL BE CONNECTED to Facebook and his friends.
  • And that’s the idea that needs to be translated over to our library’s digital branch.

Our library websites/digital branches will probably never be a real 3rd place to people – and that’s ok. Instead of working towards that, let’s work harder to make this now-old phrase, “be where the patrons are,” a bit more seamless.

good bookRob can be in his 3rd place – but he is also constantly connected to friends/colleagues/family in Facebook at the same time. Facebook, in a way, has transcended the 3rd place to be “The Place.” It’s always on, always available to him, when he wants to be there.

Our library websites/digital branches can be like this, too! So… still developing, but this is definitely going in the redesign plan.

Thoughts? How are you “always there, always on” when patrons want to reach you?

Photo by javaturtle

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Playing with iPhone 3GS Video

by David Lee King on June 22, 2009

Yes, I had a new iPhone waiting for me when I got home from Florida (among other things). I upgraded to the new iPhone 3GS … which takes video! Here’s what I’m finding out so far about the video quality:

One of my first videos, uploaded to blip.tv:

The video quality is about the same as you’d find on a Flip camera, so not too shabby! It films in QuickTime .mov format, using AAC for audio and H.264 for the video codec. It makes a standard-sized video of 640X480 when held in landscape mode.

Here’s a video I uploaded directly to YouTube (the new iPhone allows you to do that):

So – I like having a video camera ALWAYS with me, in my pocket. What I’m not quite used to yet is how the iPhone decides when it’s going to be in landscape or vertical modes. For example, this video …

… was filmed and sent to YouTube in landscape mode … but it came out vertical (fyi – this shows off the iPhone’s macro video mode, too). This isn’t the first time that’s happened to me. Out of the four videos I’ve posted to YouTube so far, two are in landscape mode and two are vertical.

And that’s not the only place I’ve discovered quirks. Look what happened in iPhoto!

Uploaded to iPhoto - it's vertical!

Even weirder in iMovie – check out the thumbnails iMovie generated – the thumbnails are sideways are squished for some strange reason, but the actual video is in landscape mode!

iMovie - vertical & Horizontal

It’s quite possible I just haven’t figured out something yet, but this is a bit irksome. Otherwise, uploading to a variety of places seems to work fine. So far, I have been able to upload my videos to:

  • my computer, to iPhoto and iMovie for editing (haven’t tried importing to Final Cut Express, but I’m sure that will work fine, too)
  • YouTube
  • Flickr, through Flickr’s uploading tool and via email
  • blip.tv via blip’s uploading tool (the first video in this post). I have also tried blip’s mobile email uploader, but haven’t seen any video show up in my blip account yet. We’ll see what happens with that!

And one more thing – editing. Yes, you can do some extremely basic editing of your iPhone video – right on the iPhone. Here’s how it looks:

Editing video on the iphone!

See the timeline at the top of the video? You can click the beginning and ending points and trim the video’s beginning and ending. And that’s all. But that’s ok – I’ll probably end up dumping video to my Mac anyway for editing later. For some people, this will be pretty useful stuff.

So – my iPhone video report so far… will david figure out how to succeed in landscape mode? Will Apple usher in a new era of vertical video? Don’t hold your breath to find out!

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CIL2009: Handhelds & Mobile

by David Lee King on April 1, 2009

Ben Smith, Sheryl Bai, someone else…, Aaron Schmidt

First up – Handhelds at UCHC School of Medicine

PDA Program:

  • PDAs supported by the library since 2001
  • Library purchased PDAs for staff
  • Did an in-service class for staff
  • did some student and faculty training, too

Ben:

Current PDA Initiative:

meet with faculty, then test handhelds, create instructions.

Train students so they can be a resource to ther students. Cool.

They hold PDA clinics, help them install apps, etc.

Considerations:

  • which handheld platform?
  • Windows Mobile 2003 or Mobile 5?
  • Smartphones?
  • They’re limited because they’ve developed stuff on Windows Mobile platform, so they have to use those…

Smartphones:

  • two devices in one
  • cheaper
  • you have a phone contract too – have to make sure students understand this
  • screen resolution can be worse on a smartphone (aside – I love my iPhone)
  • not all have touch screen functionality

Handy software utilities:

  • dotPocket
  • DeepFreeze
  • ActiveSync
  • Microsoft Remote Display Control (displays the PDA on a computer screen, hence a live demo during a presentation)
  • My Mobiler
  • Windows Mobile Device Center

Chris Tonjes, Aaron Schmidt

Chris (CIO, DC Public Library)

their iphone app:

three layers – transaction layer, data layer, presentation layer (I think)

Goals:

  • continue horizontal integration of our ILS
  • presents an alternative delivery of online catalog – like most, not happy with their ILS. So this gave them a great excuse to start experimenting
  • first foray into mobile world
  • leverages the power of the iTunes app store – the delivery method of the future
  • model for other projects
  • provides tangible near term ROI and extended library use and awareness
  • leverage! Code and analysis used for …
  • They have a blackberry version too
  • more online catalogs! playing with VuFInd
  • Integration/direct download target for content from our electronic resource providers 9Gale and Overdrive)
  • iPhone 3.0! Ecommerce – fine and other payments from within app!
  • model for near future projects (kindle or other readers)

Showing their release roadmap – they are planning for the future

DCPL iPhone App – fast facts:

  • 2199 downloads so far
  • 85 in the last week placed holds with it
  • works with SirsiDynix enterprise portal search discovery tool
  • plug in web service
  • took about 100 total hours of programming time
  • we can forecast LOE to modify for use with ibistro and elibrary
  • code available for download

DCPL SMS Text Msg – Bill

Reach out to the younger people is a goal

they send notices, announcements

patrons opt-in on website registration page

increase library event participation via same day notifications – great reminder of events.

messages and notices tailored to SMS limitations/requirements (ie., message size & delivery)

Normal txt stuff: small messages, if you have more than one to send, you have to do each as separate messages

Cost to the library = 0

They schedule the txt msgs in the middle of the day – important point. You don’t want them sent at 2am! And you WANT them sent when people can see them, for reminders…

Aaron:

in charge of how this should look and feel.

started making paper prototypes

Even did user testing with paper mock-ups to see if the idea worked

It IS possible to design a BAD iphone app… they wanted to avoid that

There’s a PSD element library for iphones so you can quickly create a photoshop mockup

Giving examples of how it works

Next?

QR codes,barcode reading.

HUGE potential for these mobile devices.

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Mobile post

by David Lee King on July 26, 2008

Just playing with the wordpress app on my iPhone. Pay no attention to David and his techie toy :-)

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SXSWi 2008, Day 4: Life After the iPhone

by David Lee King on March 11, 2008

I thought this session was supposed to be about this (from the SXSW summary of the panel):

“The iPhone may be the most disruptive technology of this decade. The countless ubiquitous computing tools available to User Experience professionals mean convenience and usability headaches. With boundaries blurring between web and mobile, how will the UX discipline change? This panel explores challenges for designing Rich Internet Applications for multiple devices.”

That sounded interesting. Unfortunately, the actual panel was nothing like the above description. This presentation had: no info and no real thinking about the future.

More than one panelist said they like other phones better (so what in the world are they doing on this panel – according to the description given, they were supposed to do a bit more thinking about the iPhone, how disruptive it is, and the future).

One panelist said the iPhone was hard to use, another complained about the SMS capabilities and how hard they are to use.

Hmm… I’ve seen like 5000 iPhones this week, all being used successfully.

But enough about that! Fortunately, I’ve only attended two really bad presentations.

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Cell Phone to Podcast Tools

by David Lee King on February 13, 2008

me on the iphoneI’ve been looking into mobile podcasting tools, specifically services that allow you to post podcasts to a blog from your cell phone. Here’s a list of tools I’ve found that do this:

  • Gcast – run by the people behind GarageBand (I actually have some scary bad songs somewhere on GarageBand)
  • TalkShoe – seems to do this and a whole lot more
  • Hipcast – upload files up to 250 MB in size
  • Yodio – don’t know much about this service
  • Gabcast – 200 MB per user for the free account, and 1 hour per recording
  • Jott – Not sure if Jott does quite the same thing, but I’m including them anyway. Jott allows you to record a message to voicemail, then it can email it out to whoever (and most bloggers can set up an “email to post” email account, which would work)

Anyone use any of these tools? Is there another one I should add to the list? Thanks!

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PDAs in the Classroom

by David Lee King on February 20, 2006

I saw this article a few days ago, and thought I’d share… Basically, the article discusses a Kansas City-area middle school that is experimenting with PDAs – as in, 600 PDAs (the school district spent about $180,000).

Their goal? To prepare their students for the 21st century! The article actually says this: “Many educators think that preparing students for the 21st century goes beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic – students must be technologically literate.”

How cool is that? A public school actually teaching kids skills that they’ll need TOMORROW – rather than skills they’d need today, or yesterday. I applaud them!

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posting from my treo

by David Lee King on January 31, 2006

Just testing out the Treo. Did you know you can actually reach blogger’s web-based admin area using the Treo Blazer web browser? Of course that also means that I’m hunched over and typing on a thumb keyboard… very slowly. But a successful test, nonetheless.

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