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In: UFDC, visualization

In working on metadata concerns, we recently had cause to pull a full list of all creators in the UF Digital Collections. This is infrastructure-style work (meaning not-glorious and not-exciting to most folks, but critically important). While behind-the-scenes metadata work is only exciting to some of us, the products of that work are exciting for everyone. Long-term deliverables take more time, but in the short term we can see visualizations and other fun things like wordles. For instance, of the thousands and thousands (and thousands) of authors/creators, Florida and University are clearly dominant, as illustrated in the wordles below.Read More →

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In: access, gis, google, history, innovation, interface, interoperability, newspapers, nintendo, virtualworlds, visualization

I’ve stolen the title of this post from Shawn Rider’s article “Why Nintendo Gets It” because the title explains the whole point of this post and because of the parallels between Google and Nintendo. Nintendo gets it because they understand that games are about playability more so than technological innovation and because they understand that innovation can be  evolutionary or sustaining as well as disruptive. Evolutionary or sustaining innovations build incrementally on existing structures, but disruptive innovation changes the whole landscape. The 8-bit NES to the Super Nintendo was an evolutionary or sustaining innovation, largely technological, but that technology enabled longer and deeper games. TheRead More →

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In: interface, virtualworlds, visualization

This is another news release. Normally I don’t like to re-post news since it’s already handled by RSS feeds. However,  at the start of the University of Florida’s fall semester, there’s so much news with so many new people that it’s good to share to help get the word out through the clamor. The newness of the fall semester should start to quiet down in the next few weeks though. *** The Library Virtual Worlds Group at the University of Florida Libraries will be hosting a virtual lecture by Paul Fishwick, Professor of Computer and Information Science and Engineering at the University of Florida, onRead More →

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In: conference, design, games, Library, presentations, visualization

On Monday morning, Val Davis (from the University of Florida Marston Science Library) and I presented on “Bioactive: A Library Game” (currently online here) that several UF librarians made as an alternative to the standard 40 minute library intro tutorial to increase student engagement with the actual work of learning about using library resources. Bioactive was originally designed in Inform and it’s now moved to a web quest design, which is an even greater simplificiation from the earlier text-based Inform format. The simplicity of the design is for sustainability and ease of maintenance, but it’s more importantly used to ensure that the interface doesn’t getRead More →

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In: data sets, Digital Library, exhibit, visualization

Autotechnogeoglyphics I’m not sure how I came across the “Pruned” blog’s post on autotechnogeoglyphics, but it’s the most wonderful word I’ve seen in sme time. auto-techno-geo-glyphics sounds of steampunk, science fiction, fantasy, epic world building and world altering technology, histories of giants, and it holds so much promise, so much potential for exploration. While the definition speaks more to reality, the word speaks to fantasy worlds of stone like Shadow of the Colossus, science-fiction worlds of steel, and ancient worlds of myth and reality, of stone, sediment, and things long lost. “Pruned” explains autotechnogeoglyphics from the CLUI newsletter as: Among the many wonderful things worthRead More →

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In: Academia, data sets, datamining, interface, visualization

I’m currently at the Center for Literary Studies (CLC) Codework: Exploring relations between creative writing practices and software engineering workshop, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, held at West Virginia University (and it’s April 3-6, 2008 and there’s more on it here). Ted Nelson, coiner of the word hypertext and media studies visionary spoke. Sandy Baldwin opened by introducing Nelson – describing Nelson as a luminary, and having him speak as astronomical – and then describing how Nelson influenced his own English practice and work. Nelson began by explaining his preference for open ended speaking, and then introduced his new book-in-progress “geeks bearing gifts” onRead More →