Make $75 Quick and Easy

Tonight I am going to be a part of a focus group here at the Holiday Inn in lovely Terre Haute. I will be paid $75 for giving my views for a couple of hours on whatever or whoever is paying Herron Associates for market research. To me, I love to share my opinions and would probably do it for free. This is a great gig. A coworker at the school where I used to work put me in contact with this research company. In the past 5 years, I have probably made $750. Periodically they call me up to see if a qualify for their study and sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. All it costs me is time. You can sign up to become part of their potential pool of panelists. Herron Associates is located in Indianapolis and I believe you would have more of an opportunity if you lived there.

My first time, I was part of a "pretend jury". The unknown company's lawyers argued their case and wanted to know our opinions based on the information presented. It was fascinating to me as they were quizzing us down to the detail of what terminology to use. About eight months later, I read in the newspaper about a trial involving Allstate Insurance and the use of Original Equipment Manufacturer parts in automobile repairs. Allstate lost and it cost them plenty (BIG BUCKS).

Another time, a group of three individuals drove over from Ohio to go with me on a tour of my local grocery (Kroger) store's coffee aisle. Then we spent 45 minutes at my favorite local coffee house (Java Haute). Finally we ended back at my house where they took photos of my coffee pot and videotaped my response to various print ads and online commercials. The whole thing took about 3 hours and I got $175. Come to find out, the company was Folger's and I was very disparaging about the black plastic lids on the then new plastic cans for holding coffee. I told them they looked dirty and dusty sitting on the shelves even though they were brand new. I think I am responsible for them changing the color of the lids to a gold color.

One of the print ads also made me laugh so hard. I KNOW I will never see it in a magazine. The ad depicted a woman early in the morning, bathed in sunshine, perched precariously on a stack of rocks next to a deep ravine. I believe I was suppose to think "I'm the Queen of the World" like the image on the bow of the Titanic but that is not what I saw. Along with the print copy, I immediately thought "She is going to jump and commit suicide because drinking Folger's coffee in the morning has given her the courage." This was not the response they were hoping to invoke.

So being a part of the focus group tonight is especially important to me as we are working on usability testing for the Mooresville Public Library. I am going to concentrate on thinking about the what and the why they are asking certain questions in addition to answering them. Should be good research for me with the great added side benefit of getting paid. Life is good.



The government has a fantastic website guide about creating a usable and useful websites. The above flowchart is from there. I think my group is in the "Test and Refine" section.

The Second Paper Revolution

Photo Caption: Nick Sheridon and Fereshteh Lesani show off the first roll of Gyricon E-PAPER
producedby 3M partners. (Credit: Xerox).

I was online reading an article about the future of electronic paper on TFOT (The Future of Things). Frankly one of my many ideas to become ridiculously rich is to create a “book” where all the various formats reside in a single compact packet. Not only would there be printed pages in both normal and large print, but also audio editions in several languages and even a 3D holographic performance (think Star Wars “Obi Wan - You’re our only hope!” projection of Princess Leia by R2D2). It can not be too heavy for me to comfortably read in bed and it must be waterproof so I can use it at the beach or by a pool. Well, I do not have any prototypes as yet but I am sort of busy. I also do not want to deal with all the copyright issues.

So back to the evolution of paper, I remember making paper with several enthusiastic third graders prior to Valentine’s Day. Fun but much work was involved so I am curious about this new ePaper. This before-mentioned article caught my eye. After perusing it, I felt so limited in my money making visions. TFOT interviews Nick Sheridon, who back in the early 1970s, while working at Xerox, developed the Gyricon which was supposed to be the technology for the Alto personal computer. This technology was adapted and perfected to be a platform for the new e-paper. I was floored when I read his answer to the following question: “How do you see the future of e-paper?”

“I like to tell people that the holy grail of e-paper will be embodied as a cylindrical tube, about 1 centimeter in diameter and 15 to 20 centimeters long, that a person can comfortably carry in his or her pocket. The tube will contain a tightly rolled sheet of e-paper that can be spooled out of a slit in the tube as a flat sheet, for reading, and stored again at the touch of a button. Information will be downloaded—there will be simple user interface—from an overhead satellite, a cell phone network, or an internal memory chip. This document reader will be used for e-mail, the Internet, books downloaded from a global digital library that is currently under construction, technical manuals, newspapers (perhaps in larger format), magazines, and so forth, anywhere on the planet. It will cost less than $100, and nearly everyone will have one!”

This concept just leapfrogs over my idea for all-in-one book. There are photos of e-paper wrist watches, the ability of incorporate it on packaging (your grocery shelves will never be the same) and other Flash Gordon like applications. I am sort of daydreaming along until a certain phrase kicks in. Did he say “GLOBAL DIGITAL LIBRARY”? There goes my job security!

Now I share the article with my coworkers and much debate ensues. Responses range from “Big Brother” will control the access to knowledge and we are all doomed to that’s a nice idea but not in my lifetime. My take on it is: I am going to keep on working on my MLS. I just see too many copyright issues over content for this to work before I am ready to retire. The technology may be on the horizon but people will fight to the(ir) death over their right to control access to their material.

LibraryThing Stuff

Updates on LibraryThing

LibraryThing is created using MediaWiki. It recently boasted that it has catalogued close to 20 million books so it should be no surprise that LibraryThing now has a wiki. This fact seems odd to me. It is the whole thing about having a wiki about a wiki.

So I checked out my LibraryThing account I had to create last fall for a LIS class. I still detest “Ruins” by Scott Smith but adore my review: “I found the author to be overly fond of the characters' body fluids and waste. . . Rather than being suspense-filled, it was easier to count the ways how each character would make stupid mistakes with, ho-hum, tragic repercussions.”

So they have added a “new and addictive feature” which they refer to as "Common Knowledge." So now they have added a bunch of new fields to every author and book page, so anyone can enter new stuff such as book awards, characters, and even biographical details on authors. So while this is great and it is hard to fault the fleshing out of authors' backgrounds, it has spawned a tide of questions (i.e., what gender do you you bubble when the author used a male name but was actually a woman?, with regards to colleges, do you put down only the places they got degrees or all the places they attended?, do you include honorary degress?). So see the blog post about it for more info.

Now the part I like best about the new stuff at LibraryThing is this new program where you have the opportunity to be an EARLY REVIEWER! "LibraryThing is teaming with publishers to give out advance copies of books to you, our members, in exchange for reviews." In October, they had 12 publishers involved and almost 600 free books. How cool to be the first one on the block to read a book and then casually slip it into the conversation flow during the weekly Euchre get together.

The part of LibraryThing which reminds me of the joys and struggles of working in a team setting (like our class) is one of the groups set up in LT entitled I See Dead People('s) Books. Their current and first project is cataloging Thomas Jefferson's library. It is great how they have split up responsibility on their main page. I believe they are at over 83,000 books so working collabrately online does work!

If you are really into LibraryThing and do not currently receive the monthly enewsletter “State of the Thing”, go to your LibraryThing account and select “edit profile” under the profile. Make sure to check the little box by "receive a monthly 'State of the Thing' email."

Saturday morning at the library – 15 minutes past opening – already hot outside and the phone has not yet rang. Not a normal situation but I take the opportunity to look at my work email. One message catches my eye - IOLUG Fall Meeting: ...Digital Natives & Immigrants... from INpublib listserv. Well, I discussed being a Digital Immigrant in one of my mid-semester’s reflections just last week.

After opening the email I find:
Register TODAY for the Indiana Online Users Group (IOLUG) Fall Program: Friday, November 2, 2007

Are you curious about Facebook, Second Life, Flickr and other newer social networking technologies, but aren't quite sure how to use them in your own library?

Then please join IOLUG for our Fall Program about Reaching Digital Natives and Immigrants: Library 2.0. There will be great speakers with practical experience teaching their staff and patrons about these exciting new technologies. And, check out the Library Science Fair. You’ll leave with more confidence to “Try this at home!”

Friday, November 2, 9:00-3:30 - Plainfield-Guilford Township Public Library

The price ($25 members, $45 non-members) is good for an all day seminar. Possibly I’ll see what my coordinator thinks and check the vacation calendar to anticipate scheduling issues. Then I wonder who is going to be speaking so I follow the link (http://www.iolug.org/2007fall.php) included at the bottom of the email.

SURPRISE! SURPRISE! – The keynote speaker is . . .
Mary Alice Ball, a professor at the Indiana University School of Library and Information Science at IUPUI. Professor Ball presently teaches a course on Library 2.0 technologies. It is my professor! I am not expecting this. It is weird, just like when you see your doctor at the grocery store. You forget they have their own lives.

Now I am in a quandary. Is this material I am going to be interested in or what? I read further and recognize some other names: Scott Pfitzinger, Bill Helling. I am tempted but then I stop. If I go to this seminar, because notices of employees’ attendance at training events are posted in the monthly board reports, it will be public knowledge. Then coworkers will expect me to proficient in all these tools. Is this really what I want?

So I delve deeper - What is exactly is IOLUG? According to their website’s FAQ, IOLUG (Indiana Online Users Group), founded in 1982, is an organization established for the purpose of furthering the use of online systems, databases, computers and telecommunication systems in libraries.

1982 is a long time ago and a galaxy far, far away from libraries of today or is it? I am getting confused but I know having computer access for patrons is a BIG draw for my library’s patrons. Also I have found in the past that you should never pass up an opportunity for training as you never know what you might learn.

SO to go and network with people who share common interests or retreat to the safety of non-responsibility, that is the question.

The solution: I’ll see if I can get any other coworkers to go with me. Plainfield is only 45 minutes away. It will be attractive as long as I play up the “Road Trip” side of it. Another idea! If I blog about it, maybe one of my classmates might attend also. I can see potential for bonus points in class participation.

Antisocial Social-Networking

Monday through Friday, I get a daily newsletter in email form entitled Shelf Awareness. While I believe the audience for the newsletter is the book publishing/selling industry, I use it mainly for the information it provides concerning which authors are on which TV shows. Then when a patron calls about a book they saw on the Today Show, I have some idea of what they are referring to and can help them. Sometimes I also find write-ups about books I would like to read. I usually just skim over the content. Sometimes I delete the email without even reading it. On Monday, October 1, they had an entry regarding Goodreads which caught my eye. I had never heard of Goodreads so I stopped and read:

In a piece in the Stranger, Elliott Bay Book Company's Paul Constant calls Goodreads "Facebook for Book Nerds" and "the most Antisocial Social-Networking Site on the Internet."

"I first noticed www.goodreads.com four months ago when a coworker at my bookstore sent me an invitation," Constant wrote. "The website tore through the Seattle bookselling community like an STD. Soon, every bookseller under 40 was a member. 'Will you be my Goodreads friend?' we'd whisper to each other among the stacks. It was like MySpace, only better--it was all about books."

While chronicling the fast rise and more recent leveling off of local interest in Goodreads, Constant also asked an intriguing question: "Does anyone over the age of 16 even have a favorite book? Claiming a favorite is only indicative of the fact that you haven't read enough: Out of the thousands of books that I've read, with the enormous palette of ideas and emotions they've represented, how could I choose only, say, five? Why not ask for a favorite orgasm, or laugh, or grain of sand?"
I looked at Goodreads and it reminds me a lot of LibraryThing. You enter in the books you own and/or read and put in a review of them. You can contact and communicate with other people who have similar appetites. My problem with both is that I do not want to take the time to enter what I am reading and what books I own. I read fast. Updating would be a burdensome chore rather than an enjoyed activity.

I now realize I do not recreationally use the Internet for friends and conversation. This is what separates me from many other users. Because I do not desire to socially network, it is hard for me to understand the benefits of using the associated online tools with regards to work. While I do enjoy reading classmates’ blogs, I do not take pleasure in writing mine because it is a task rather than a desired activity. It is far easier for me to get up in front of class and talk for two minutes than write three hundred plus words (479 words and counting) in a blog every week. This is how I view technology this week.