thoughts and rants

well that was awesome and terrifying.

my first presentation at Internet Librarian. i think it went pretty well. i know i spoke way too fast but i was worried that we wouldn’t have enough time.

click here to go to my list of presentations and check out our slides.

many thanks to erik and jaap of the shanachies who were on the same panel, and the wonderful mary auckland for organizing the whole enchilada.

i know i’ve said it before, but i’ll say it again. twitter has rocked my world when it comes to professional development.

one of the prime examples is the AWESOME Kathryn Greenhill who blogs at librarians matter. i felt like i was a bit in a bubble in terms of my second lifeness, and was unsure how non-US librarians were doing tech stuffs in academia. and then Kathryn introduced herself and was nine kinds of welcoming to me.

since that moment, oh so long ago (maybe 9 months), Kathryn has continued to support me in my craziness and encourage me to keep pushing the LIS envelope.

so i would love to take her for coffee (okay, pints).
and would love to take her for a kick-ass meal.

BUT

she lives in western australia.

so though i think she rawks the kasbah, me and my measley aeroplan points will not get me to oz anytime soon to thank her.

so, to Kathryn, a big SMOOCH to you. and many many thanks for encouraging a library school student to go with what she knows.

got my akoha cards tonight care of the always rockin’ Patrick who got to go to PodCampMontreal while i was working (yay work but BOO schedules).

srsly, check out Akoha

get ready to play it forward, peeps.

i love games
i love meeting new people
i love doing things for people i believe in
and
i love montreal.

akoha fits the bill for all of these.

check it out and sign up for the beta release. or if you bump into me (and i’ve received my cards - hint hint akoha peeps!) i’ll invite you to play!

i gotta start getting my beloved CLA to do some of these fun things!

wicked easy to do - click here to start.

i kid, i kid.

but i just want to publicly thank a bunch of people without whom my degree would NEVER have been possible.

first, naturellement, to my hubby™ who loved me when i had no idea what i wanted to do with my life (and was doing very little), and who continues to support me now that i think the world is my frickin’ oyster and i am invincible. (i even have a superhero - you should too!)

second, to my bestest ever friend, who will remain an online-enigma, save to say that if Alexander McQueen ever went straight, she would be first in line to marry him. and he’d be one lucky dude to have someone so intelligent and creative at his side. velouria FTW!

third, to my rugby posse. who tonight surprised me not only with sushi and molson export (YAY!), but earrings from the Frank Gehry collection at Tiffany (love me some Frank) to celebrate my graduation. the card read:

with so much love & pride.
congratulations on everything amy.
love cathy, shelly, gij, susy and jess

given the accomplishments (leaving their rugby achievements aside) of these women (anyone need an accountant, social worker, teacher, graphic design firm owner, or philosophy professor?  just holler) i can’t believe they have the time to look out for me - but i know they always have my back.

and to my online network of librarians and ed tech folks. [i was thinking of linking each of your blogs to a word in the following paragraph - but i don't have enough words to thank everyone...] you played a significant role in my success in library school. i couldn’t find all the components of the professional network that i wanted to create from the peeps i knew in Montreal/at McGill, and all of you have managed to answer questions, lend support, tell me when i’m doing something stoopid, and share your lives. you are all part of one of my fundamental beliefs, that knowledge requires collaboration.

finally, there are many folks from grad school who made academia WAY more fun - you know who you are, JJaCL. the day-to-day would have been excruciating without you. i am forever in your debt.

since a whole whack o’folks are Wordle-ing their del.icio.us tags or blogs or CVs or books (see Meredith, John, Walt, Sarah, and Amanda), i thought i would too.

i really don’t use that many del.icio.us tags for my sites. hmmm. think this stems from my poor grades in cataloguing class?

when i started this blog i really thought i would be blogging about library-related matters in Second Life. i have, and i will again, but i don’t think calling this blog “informing MUVEs” is entirely accurate.

since my motto/mantra/catchphrase/thing i like to write is “knowledge requires collaboration” maybe i should try and incorporate that. but how, without it seeming awkward.

and after chatting with Jill, i also like keeping the whole “informing” angle. but that seems a bit daunting - does that mean i have to always inform when i blog?

what about in.forming ? thoughts?

since we all read LISNews (and if you don’t - wtf?) and since Blake rocks all things LISHost (if you need a site hosted - check it out!), we should all subscribe to LISWire, which is:

a brand new idea from the guy behind LISNews & LISHost, Blake Carver. The plan is to allow member companies and organizations to use LISWire to send their full-text news releases and multimedia content to librarians, journalists, library professionals and the general public. We’re going to build a network to distribute this information world wide.

love it.

pecha kucha (pronounced “hootchie kootchie” by those of us who were tired of sounding like idiots) is a rockin’ great way to present at a conferences.

here’s the dirt: you get 20 seconds to talk about your slides, and 20 slides for your presentation. the slides advance automatically (well they’re supposed to - aaron was taking care of this for everyone but then started cheating during his own presentation so greg took over) so you really only have 20 seconds to get your message across.

it rocks.

you have to be creative with both the visual and the aural presentation, and the time constraints gives the whole thing a sense of urgency which the audience picks up on and it really increases engagement.

the presenters at this hootchie kootchie were all rock stars:

• amanda - IM
• greg - podcasting
• david - videocasting
• meredith - wikis
• aaron - facebook
• greg n. - skeptic

i really think this format would be great for students - it allows you to practice a presentation, using tech, where you have to be succinct and entertaining at the same time. you could hold monthly hootchie kootchies over a lunch hour. you could choose a theme, or even better, turn them into skill-shares/unconferences where people would present on a topic which they know particularly well.

so much fun!

UPDATE

check out the hootchie kootchie for yourself.