23 Mobile Things - Join other Australians and New Zealanders in doing the 'things'!

© Scanrail - Fotolia.com

Have you heard of the 23 things?  How about the 23 Mobile things?  This updated course is a great way of learning new skills, and new things about old skills. 

So what is the NZ/Australian Cohort for 23 Mobile Things all about?  Read on.

What are the 23 Mobile Things?

1. Twitter
2. Taking a photo with a mobile device:  Instagram / Flickr app / Snapchat
3. eMail on the move
4. Maps and checking in: Foursquare
5. Photos + Maps + Apps: Historypin / What was there / Sepia Town
6. Video: YouTube and screencasts
7. Communicate: Skype / Google Hangout
8. Calendar
9. QR codes
10. Social reading: RSS / Flipboard / Feedly / Goodreads / Pocket
11. Augmented reality: Layar
12. Games: Angry Birds / Wordfeud
13. Online identity: FaceBook and LinkedIn
14. Curating: Pinterest / Scoop.it / Tumblr
15. Adobe ID
16. eBooks and eBook apps: Project Gutenberg / Kindle / Overdrive / Bluefire / Kobo, etc.
17. Evernote and Zotero
18. Productivity tools: Doodle / Remember the Milk / Hackpad / any.do /  30/30
19. File sharing: Dropbox
20. Music: last.fm / Spotify
21. Voice interaction and recording
22. eResources vendor apps
23. Digital storytelling

You can view the 23 Mobile Things on the official blog here - http://23mobilethings.net/wpress/the-things/

What is this NZ/Australian cohort all about?

Simple; it is just establishing a group of librarians in NZ and Australia who are keen to do the 23 Mobile Things at the same time. This cohort will give us mutual support and contact with each other so that we can learn together and keep each other motivated. Hopefully it will help you grow your own personal learning network (PLN) and have fun and great collaborations throughout the course!

Who can take part?

Anyone! This is not limited to New Professionals, but is open to anyone who would like to take part - whether newer or older to the profession. I have just put the contact form on the New Professionals blog as that is a place where I know many people will find it. We are creating another blog specifically for this NZ/Australian cohort that will be the hub of our conversations and connections. So please sign up and let's all learn from one another and have fun playing with mobile technologies! Over 60 people have signed up already; this is going to be such a fantastic group to be a part of :D  (It's mainly NZ'ers at the moment so come on Australians- sign up!)

What do I need to take part?

• Access to a mobile device (e.g. iPad, tablet, smart-phone, etc...) - if you don't have one yourself, you could borrow one or use the PC applications to understand the general principles.
• Time to dedicate to investigating the 23 things - it seems most people are keen to do 1 Thing a week so you can dedicate as much or as little time as you need to exploring that thing and engaging in chatting and collaborating with others on the course.
• Willingness to collaborate, experiment, and support each other - it's going to be fun!

How do I sign up?

So you're keen? Great! Here's what you have to do to get involved:

•  fill in the contact form on the blog
• vote in the poll for best time-frame for the course
• share the news with friends/colleagues

I'll be in touch as we create a blog as a hub for the group, a Facebook group (if you are keen) and organize some online real-time events such as Twitter chats and Google+ hangouts so that we can chat and collaborate. It will also give us an opportunity to put into practice what we have been learning!

We are hoping to start with Thing 1 the first week of May. If the course runs for six months (approximately 1 Thing a week), it will finish at the end of November. 

So what are you waiting for? Sign up today and we will be in touch again a bit closer to the date.

If you want more information please don't hesitate to email me (Kate) at mailto:skeetakate@gmail.com.nospam (take off the no spam) or on twitter at @katejf.

Abigail Willemse (NZ) and Kate Freedman (NGAC) and Hiba Kanji (NGG)(AUS)

Siriously Siri!

Poll for people with Siri:

Last year when I got my new iPhone 4S I was so excited to try Siri. The slick promo video (above) created by Apple promised so much and I had visions of Siri being my new personal assistant who would schedule meetings, write messages and emails on the go and generally make me a more awesome version of me! Let’s just say I was a little disappointed. Siri just doesn’t understand me. I have tried speaking clearly, slowly and American. Nothing seems to work. She doesn’t do what I ask and she gets it wrong when she tries. Frustrating. A big problem she has is names. I ask her to message Ceci and she thinks I want to message Lissy. I  just end up using my fingers. I know I’m not the only one outside the USA and UK  (where it apparently works best) who is troubled by Siri (just look at how many people have sued Apple over it). Another irritation is the lack of location services for Aussie Siri. I don’t want to harp on about that ad again but it did make it seem like I could be jogging my way to fitness and between breaths ask Siri where I can buy a decaf skim mochachino or whatever else I feel like.

Dear Siri, I keep trying and you keep failing me. I hope one day we see eye to eye. Until then, I guess I’ll just keep trying...

 

Here are some interesting Siri resources if you want to find out more: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/tags/siri/

And because everyone loves an Infographic: http://mashable.com/2012/05/21/siri-infographic/ Although this information is based on American users so we can only really view this and think about how good it will be one day...

~ Sophie for ALIA Sydney

Staying on top of mobile technology

Close up of a sculpture on recent trip to Italy

Staying on top of the latest trends can be tough when you're juggling workloads, home, family, friends, study and everything else that takes up time in your day. How do you choose which trends to investigate further? Is the latest trend going to last or will it go the way of Google Wave (i.e. the dodo)? This confusion can lead to a "wait and see" approach which means waiting for others to try, possibly fail and report on things at conferences :-) Of course there are many who jump in with both feet at the sniff of an emerging trend.  I'm sure you can pick which camp you fall into.

Mobile technologies have been on the trend watch list for a while now and are definitely worth investigating further. The "wait and see" period should be over - it's time to jump in! But why should libraries care about mobile devices? They're expected to be the main method of accessing the internet withing the next 18 months and people are now spending more time on apps than the internet! This means the way our clients access, use and share information has changed so we need to rethink how we deliver services. Many libraries are responding to this challenge and librarians are continuing to develop skills and expertise in this area. Hopefully this post will give you some direction if you're still getting your head around it and if you're already an app addict, hopefully it'll hold something for you too.

What can we do?

• Facebook and Twitter are both increasingly being accessed via mobile apps. Set these up and you automatically have a presence in the mobile world. They provide an opportunity to communicate with clients informally and connect with them via their mobile networks. 
• Foursquare is a geo-location based game where people checkin to win mayorships and badges which they share with their social networks. Claim your location to start running library promotions for free.
• QR codes are a square shaped barcode that can be scanned using a smartphone and will connect to online information. Libraries are using them to link to videos, contact information, webpages, competitions, brochures, journal articles - ANYTHING online! Many are now also using them to create games like treasure hunts and scavenger hunts.
• Many libraries are making a mobile friendly library website with contact details, opening hours and access to their catalogue. When doing this you need to consider who will be accessing the mobile site, what kind of information they're likely to access and what device they're on? You need to design for at least Apple and Android platforms. Some libraries have an app and others have a mobile version of their website.
• Screencasts and videos are being made to keep up with the demand for more visual delivery of information and training. You can make these accessible on mobile devices by uploading them to YouTube. It's a good idea to think about the small screen and make sure you zoom up on what you're talking about.
• Trial ebook reader loan schemes. Many libraries are trying this with mixed results results largely due to publisher and device restrictions. Devices are usually intended for single person use. Despite the drawbacks many libraries describe high usage of the service.

How do we find out more?
Conference papers are a great way to find out what others are doing and clarify your own ideas. These are some recent conferences on mobile technologies with links to abstracts and papers. Many of them explain in detail projects that were started to achieve things in the list above.
m libraries 2011, Brisbane
Handheld Librarian conference archive
Handheld Librarian online conference 27-28 July 2011 <-- coming up!
mlibraries 101, online seminar - keynote by Meredith Farkas
IADIS mobile learning conference

There are also some bloggers that are good to follow:

Meredith Farkas

Joe Murphy

Andrew Walsh

How do I hone my skills?

At the m-libraries conference in May this year Kate Davis and Helen Partridge presented that m-librarians need a combination of skills, knowledge and attributes such as: IT skills, user focus, communication, collaboration, research and development.  Are these any different from what's been expected until now or is the focus slightly different? In my opinion, all these skills have been needed in the past but it's the way we apply them that is constantly changing. So how do we go about applying these skills to the mobile world? The first thing to do is get yourself a smartphone and start playing because there's no better way to understand what all the fuss is about. The next thing would be to read journal articles, conference papers and attend future conferences if possible. Before long you could even be presenting at one yourself! Finally, the key to achieving things in this area is collaboration. Technology changes all the time and it's impossible to know everything so team up with others because there's always strength in numbers.

Sophie is an ALIA Sydney committee member @misssophiemac