CIL From Afar
I am enjoying reading the session recaps and tweets from Computers in Libraries 2008. Binky and Emily are there presenting on the Research JumpStart. Their session today was huge--Em estimated over 500 attendees! Woo! (Em, post that picture of the audience!) Congratulations, guys!
One of the best parts of participating in CIL (even from afar) is seeing other librarians' reactions to our new interface. I'm really looking forward to hearing what Binky and Emily heard from everyone in attendance.
Two blogs covering the session (RSS4Lib & bibliosk8) raised an interesting point, questioning our use of Widgetbox to host the JumpStart widgets.
Here's a quote from Bibliosk8:
"A product like WidgetBox allows a non-programmer to create widgets easily — powerful. I have some concern about free 3rd party apps. In particular, their business model. If you can sign up for WidgetBox and use it for free, what happens to your page if they go belly up, their grant money dries up, or whatever? Since the widgets actually require that company’s servers to function, it seems to me that may be in a less-than-great position."
I agree. Widgetbox has been good to us as an interim solution, but it can't be a permanent tool. We have always felt that we need to host the tools that we create locally (or through providers that we have some investment in or relative control over). Now it's time to move forward with this plan.
Congrats again, Emily & Binky! It is really cool that you shared the JumpStart with such a huge audience today! I think the attendee feedback (both immediate and eventual) will be very helpful to us as we continue to develop the JumpStart interface.
Updated to add: Rudibrarian weighed in on the Research JumpStart too, with a reminder that when using third-party tools to create library resources, we need to hold students' digital privacy as a primary consideration. As he says, "le sigh."
We have work ahead of us to do on our interface this summer.
One of the best parts of participating in CIL (even from afar) is seeing other librarians' reactions to our new interface. I'm really looking forward to hearing what Binky and Emily heard from everyone in attendance.
Two blogs covering the session (RSS4Lib & bibliosk8) raised an interesting point, questioning our use of Widgetbox to host the JumpStart widgets.
Here's a quote from Bibliosk8:
"A product like WidgetBox allows a non-programmer to create widgets easily — powerful. I have some concern about free 3rd party apps. In particular, their business model. If you can sign up for WidgetBox and use it for free, what happens to your page if they go belly up, their grant money dries up, or whatever? Since the widgets actually require that company’s servers to function, it seems to me that may be in a less-than-great position."
I agree. Widgetbox has been good to us as an interim solution, but it can't be a permanent tool. We have always felt that we need to host the tools that we create locally (or through providers that we have some investment in or relative control over). Now it's time to move forward with this plan.
Congrats again, Emily & Binky! It is really cool that you shared the JumpStart with such a huge audience today! I think the attendee feedback (both immediate and eventual) will be very helpful to us as we continue to develop the JumpStart interface.
Updated to add: Rudibrarian weighed in on the Research JumpStart too, with a reminder that when using third-party tools to create library resources, we need to hold students' digital privacy as a primary consideration. As he says, "le sigh."
We have work ahead of us to do on our interface this summer.
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Thanks for using Widgetbox to date. Please know that we are on very sound financial footing and there is no need to worry about your viability.
Let me know your specific concerns, and i hope you continue to use our service and see value in our offering.
Will
Questions that came up at the session that I can remember at the moment:
-privacy concerns--is widgetbox collecting search terms? (questioner came up after and apologized for putting us on the spot which is her words "her current pet peeve" (i.e. no one looking out for privacy)
-when we use the site to teach, so we place it in the context of the larger libraries' web site?
-what other widgets are we thinking about making? Would we have one that searches our IR (if we had one), digital collections, more?
I think the most interesting thing was that when I asked the audience if any of them had a specially designed site for undergrads/novices, there were only 2 "half hands" that went up!