I just read about the 5 P’s of Preparation – talking about planning for a meeting (on page 53). But I realized as I was reading the 5 P’s that they also work pretty well for planning and discussing a technology project.
So – here are my modified 5 P’s of Techie Project Planning:
Purpose – what are the key objectives, why are we building/redesigning this?
Product – what’s the goal? What’s the end result? How will we know we were successful?
Participants – who needs to be involved? Who are we building this for?
Probable issues – are there any concerns? Any roadblocks or challenges in our way? How can we prevent those?
Process – What steps do we need to take to meet our goals?
What steps do you use when planning a technology or web project? Do they look similar to this? Let us know in the comments!
Mark this down as a cool tool for your website-building toolkit…
Ever wondered what CMS or web server a certain website was using? Wonder no more! Simply enter the URL of that interesting site into builtwith.com and voila! – this site will tell you all that geeky stuff!
For example, look at their CMS page. For the top million websites that BuiltWith tracks, they find that 62.87% of websites use WordPress, 14.77% use DotNetNuke, 10.25% use Joomla, and 3.40% use Drupal. Then when you move to their Top 10,000 sites graph, those percentages change quite a bit.
Or look at the Top Payment Distribution Services – look at the top 10,000 sites graph. % us Paypal (duh), 35.94% use CCBill, 10.94% use Google Checkout, then Flattr, Mollie, and Amazon Payment Services are there, too. CCBill, Flattr, and Mollie? Never heard of them.
So – use it to check out your website against others, use it as a discovery tool to learn about new services. Pretty handy!
My newest video for WebJunction is out! This time around, I provide a succinct explanation of how competencies can be useful to you and your library. It fits nicely with WebJunction’s Competencies website (you should check it out sometime).
“Every library needs a presence on the Web. Whether you work at a large academic library or a public library in a small town, you need to be able to provide service and content to your patrons beyond the walls of your building. In this workshop, David Lee King will take you through the process of building an effective, user-friendly library website that will exand and enhance your library’s presence in its community.
This event will take place on Tuesday, August 3rd at 2:30pm Eastern (1:30pm Central, 11:30am Pacific).
Whether you’re looking to launch your first website, redesign your site, or expand the site you have, this workshop will provide practical guidance for every step of the process.”
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:
Watch the video, and leave a comment if you want to
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!
I was a panelist at PLA 2010′s Top Tech Trends session, and talked about ebook readers and the ipad as a top tech trend to watch in 2010. Here’s my outline for the session:
Ebook Readers and the iPad:
ebooks have been around wince 1971! that’s when the gutenberg project started!
1998 – first ebook readers appeared
how many different models are there?
at least 20 different manufacturers
over 2 million free ebooks
15 different file formats!
kindle, txt, epub, html, pdf, etc
epub
open free format – not proprietary
css, xml styling
default standard, not everyone (ie., kindle) uses it
Operating Systems on ebook readers:
linux
android
windows mobile/win ce
iphone OS
size
most are 6-8 inches or so
mobile version – iphone is an ebook reader, other phones
e-ink or LCD
e-ink – imitates the look and ease of readability of print while consuming little power
memory
most are in gigabytes
holds hundreds of books
connectivity
wifi
cellular networks
price – 150 to 750
still sorta like the 90s with cell phone or PDAs why did I pick this for a top tech trend when they’ve been around for so long?
Apple likes to change things
Mac – changed the computer industry – mouse and GUI were pretty obscure untilt hat first mac came along in 1984
ipod – changed the music industry – pricing, formats, size, etc., mp3 players
iphone – changed the cell phone industry
touch screen
more than just a cell phone – games, internet, browsers, ipod, movies, calendar, email, twitter, facebook, etc, etc, etc
many copycats
iPad will do the same thing – but to what industry?
gaming and movies
will probably change the ebook industry
better ebook reader
more like a book – flip the pages by touch
color
great screen
turn the thing to flip the screen
accessibility built in
and 5 of the 6 largest publishers are already on-board.
why?
money – they’ve seen itunes and the app store and want in
What might we have by end of 2010?
The iPad ships on April 3
iPad will be on version 2-3 by the end of 2010
will have made millions of publishers millions of dollars, Apple even more
price will have probably dropped
more publishers will be using the epub format (and wanting into itunes store)
copycats will start to appear
Issues for libraries to consider:
our patrons will start buying iPads soon.
does it work with Overdrive?
does it work with our catalogs?
can patrons plug them into your PCs?
staff issues
can your staff use them to help patrons who own one?
library stuff
can patrons check them out?
can your library buy them for patrons to use/check out?
battery life -do you charge the battery before handing them out to patrons? Do you have a place for multiple devices to be charged behind the circ desk (or wherever you might keep them)?
Every once in awhile, I write a “what David did today” post … I’d love to see what others with similar jobs did!
So – What did I do today?
Checked to see if someone was answering a couple of blog post comments on our website (they were)
Gathered updates from my department about our nasty Conflicker worm (almost cleaned out – nasty, nasty worm. Still have to yell at McAfee.
Also got updates about our virutal servers we recently purchased, about scanners for the public, and about our recent bandwidth upgrade
Lots of Podcamp Topeka work (we’re hosting a podcamp) throughout the day- emailed podcamp.org owner to see about being listed there, emailed our cafe manager to figure out lunch costs, created a pbworks wiki page for session leaders, and tweeted about it a couple of times
Added 23 things kansas meeting to my calendar…
emailed youtube video of local family using our summer reading coupons at applebees to library managers
lunch at my desk … twitter/rss/emails/facebook messages
walked around public floor, asked staff how PCs were behaving
Did some planning for Thursday’s skype call with Darien Library for our weekly managers meeting
Worked on updating our Technology Plan to send to the state… erate and all
Finished off the day researching how to write an Experience Brief – thinking about writing one for our website.
I recently visited Darien Library with the goal of checking out their innovative approach to technology – goal achieved! Check out the video in this post (and thanks to John Blyberg for the tour and for putting up with my video camera!). While their technology is amazingly cool, that’s not really what excited me. What excited me most was Darien’s idea of extreme customer service.
During my Darien visit, I had the privilege of chatting with Louise Berry, Alan Gray, and John Blyberg over lunch (great lunch, great conversation – thanks guys!). We talked about technology, new library buildings, and how we should be serving our library customers. Louise and Alan told me about their library’s core message – extreme customer service. Basically, they want to demonstrate extreme customer service in everything they do.
This idea of a “core message” is discussed in the book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip and Dan Heath. Most of the book is devoted to making your core message “stick” – this is what Darien Library has done.
They even provided examples. During lunch, Louise, Alan and John mentioned an after-hours wine and cheese event they held at the library. The library was closed, but doors were open. Patrons not attending the event came in anyway … and guess what? They weren’t turned away – instead, they were allowed to check out books (RFID-based self-check-out machines help). Staff were even seen setting up new library cards for patrons. This is very different from what many libraries do. For most after-hours events, patrons would simply be told (nicely, I’m sure) to come back tomorrow.
So – one example of extreme customer service at Darien. You can find another example in the video. Watch for the mini laptops in the children’s area of the library. Those are staff public service laptops used for roaming reference type stuff. But listen to the children’s staff talk about them – kids pick those laptops up and use them. Patrons even use the public service desktop … and Darien’s staff is fine with that! When I asked about this, here’s what I heard: “why would we NOT allow that?”
John said the same thing later on in my tour (not captured on video). We were in a staff area, and I noticed someone had brought in her personal laptop. I asked what she could connect to … and John said staff can bring in their personal laptops and connect to Darien’s staff-only network. I pried a bit further, and this is when John said “why would we NOT allow that? It would simply hinder their work!” Then John went on to explain that they plan for the exceptions and fix those things, rather than lock down technology so much that it hinders the work of the library. Extreme customer service for their staff, too!
Does your library have a core message, and how does that play out? And … does your library lock technology down so much so that it hinders the work of the library? What would happen if you opened that can of worms up? Would any escape? Something to think about…
Michael Stephens and Sarah Houghton-Jan
Building your techie team: tips for training staff – they were creative – this presentation was built around the word “experiment:”
Engage – use real world examples, stay relevant, highlight tips and tricks
Xenagogue – become a guide through a strange land, be available and accessible, encourage student independence
Play – encourage exploration, allow fun to happen, make exercises and discussions lighthearted
Explain – provide context for all topics, repeat ourself, offer handouts and online materials
Reward – right answers, participation, completion, presence
Imagine – ask students to dream up applications and concepts at the end of the class, be inspired by the muse, don’t dismiss them
Mentor – treat students like adults, be available for questions, etc… expect success!
Empower – use the tool that you’re teaching about in the class
New – there is always something new… hold an entire class on dealing with change. Hmm…
Time – enough time for practice, questions, training should precede technology launches by weeks at the least…
I’m reading The Secrets of Facilitation: The S.M.A.R.T. Guide to Getting Results with Groups by Michael Wilkinson (all us managers at the library are reading it right now).
Mark this down as a cool tool for your website-building toolkit…
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