I have moved...

I have started a new blog at http://librarian.justbeth.info and will no longer be updating Project Play Reflections. Please visit my new blog and let me know what you think!

Blog Action Day 2008

Join other bloggers on October 15th and discuss the topic of poverty in your posts.

Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world's bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.

Check out this video promoting the event and consider signing up today.


Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Identity 2.0

I can't remember how I first came across this video, but I'm fascinated by it and thought I'd share it here. It comes from Dick Hardt, founder and CEO of Sxip Identity and is his keynote from the O'Reilly Open Source Convention. Here's the description from YouTube:

Watch Dick deliver a compelling and dynamic introduction on Identity 2.0 and how the concept of digital identity is evolving.

Watching this is not only a verbal, visual, deluge on the topic of Identity, but an example of a dynamic presentation done in a way that not only explains a complex topic and makes it easy, but is the example I will strive toward if/when I do presentations in the future. That may be a bar a bit too high to reach, but it's good to have goals!

Here's the video. See what you think.

Wordl

I've been itching to play with Wordl ever since I heard about it a while back now. So I took a minute to do one of my del.icio.us tags. Here's what it came up with:



Pretty cool to see very quickly and visually what my interests seem to be these days!

Next Play Date

From the Project Play blog:

Our next Play Date is scheduled for Friday, July 25th at 10 a.m. online in OPAL. The topic will be “More on Google Apps.” Since this is a continuation of an earlier topic, be sure to do Week 2 of Semester 2 so you’re up to speed on the topic before the OPAL session. If you’d like to attend the online Play Date please register on the SCLS web site, so we’ll know how many people to expect. If you can’t make it to the Play Date, the content will be posted here on the blog so you’ll be able to go through it at your leisure.

“See” you on the 25th!

Sign up today!

Screencasts

In Week 8, Semester 2 of Project Play, Stef talked about screencasts, and we tried out a free tool called Screencast-O-Matic. I recently returned to screencasts as part of my work on an LSTA grant received by OWLS this year and have spent the last 3 days learning Camtasia and creating screencasts for new InfoSoup features.

It has been a fun process - I love learning new things - and I'm convinced more than ever that libraries should be creating screencasts as help tools for their patrons. They're easy to create (especially with the help of awesome software) and not only give help, but shows your patrons you're moving ahead with technology in order to provide point-of-need service.

Try it, you might like it!

A little off topic

This post may be a little off topic for Project Play, but maybe not... I watched a video last night entitled "If you're not gaming you're losing!" It's a 40 minute documentary about gaming and libraries and was created by Erik Boekesteijn and Jaap van de Geer of the DOK Library Concept Center in the Netherlands. I thought the video was fascinating and very well done, which is why I'm sharing it here. They share some insights into potential benefits of gaming for libraries through interviews with library bloggers and library staff in the States. If you're on the fence about whether or not your library should offer gaming opportunities, this video might help you decide once and for all. Check it out!


If you're not gaming you're losing! from Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo.

(Found via Librarian In Black's blog)