Metametametadata

Damn it feels good to be an uber-nerd (1)

This is just what librarians do, for fun I guess. I mean, not me. I do way stupider stuff.

Peeps in the Library

Update!

I've been having trouble staying afloat of all the good stuff I want share with you. So I've decided that I need to spend some time talking about that trouble.

So I have no idea why I'm having so much trouble. True to form, I just decided to throw some organization at it.

There are three major messages that I'd like to share with you.

1. Damn it feels good to be an uber nerd. A sort of brain dump in which I compare my information dissemination project with other knowledege organization programmes and provide a window into my ridiculously over-organized mind.


2. Let's all wear blank badges. In which I try to convince everyone to join a routing list of my complete collection of Invisibles comics. Seriously, many of the major brain dump factoids originated as counter-cultural references in this comic.


3. Giving you your very own Personal Digital Library. In which I detail my efforts through the website, implementation of cocoon and savvy use of xml and xslt to develop a personal digital asset manager. Wouldn't you all like a quick and easy way to electronically manage your music, movie and book collections?

Okay, so maybe the trouble is that these major themes are quite personal and important to me, and the required effort per syllable to publish them properly is discouraging. You know me, "if it's not worth doing right (read perfectly) its not worth doing." So to counteract this inertia, I've tried to break the info down into its absolutely discrete units, then I'm just going to throw them up and let you sort through them yourself. The only categorical organization to this sub-publication of metametametadata will be through the titles of the entries. Otherwise the existing categories will be applied, but I'm not making categories for the three major themes.

Ok. Let's get started.

Here's the link to that discrete organization I was talking about. Bet you didn't even know the log was having so much difficulty as to warrant the organizational effort.

So how many times can I say so in a blog entry, it's kind of like how it's really, really annoying when public speakers say "um" all the time, but we totally need them to say it, so that we can catch up with their ideas, and they totally need to say it, to allow time for their brain to send coherent linguistic organizations of those ideas to their mouths. We really, really need it in coversation, but when you listen to a public speaker, or worse a radio dj, go um, um, um it drives you mad. Anyway it's so annoying. And what's up with the two different spellings of Oh-Kay? Something's wrong with my brain today. I need to like, defragment.

People keep talking

But are they drinking?

Just want to throw up this article from the Boston Globe about the renewly popular Martini. I got a kick out of the author's incredulous reaction to the "resurrection" of the sidecar. Who do you know has contributed (in an admittedly small way) to that revival?

Anyway, I prefer the Gibson (replace the olive with a cocktail onion).

Who wants to go to Noir with me?

The article (this link will likely break in a few days) http://www.boston.com/ae/food/articles/2004/03/25/so_many_martinis/

LOOOOLA, LO-LO-LO-LO-LOOOOLA

It's LOLA!

And, Learning Objects at Wesleyan.

Sorry, but my professional life is creeping into the log with this entry. The above image is a link to the best presentation of what I do professionally. I support programs like the Learning Activities/Learning Objects Repository at Wesleyan University. LOLA is an attempt to create a "refertory" of digital teaching resources. Refertory means that the project does not store the objects on its own servers. Rather, LOLA is just a catalog of metadata records with links to the actual objects at individual instructor or institutional websites. It's a clearing house where professors can find teaching material, share the way they make particular use of objects, and evaluate the object's effectiveness in the classroom.

For LOLA I provided an implementation of IEEE Learning Object Metadata (LOM). This meant picking a set of elements that completely and accurately describe an "Object," and another set that describes an "Assignment." Through conceptual models, data models, xml bindings and definition of best practices for metadata creation, I defined all possible relationships between "Objects" and "Assignments," and designed user interactions for creating a LOLA object (entering metadata), searching the catalog of LOLA objects, and providing feedback on LOLA objects in the form of assignments. Here's a picture of the Data model I provided to give you a better idea.

In the data model, the two big circles define the two types of metadata records, objects and assignments. The gray sausage looking things are individual metadata elements or fields in those records, and the green squares represent user interaction screens (webpages) where visitors enter catalog information or view that same information. So a LOLA object to the user is a collection of five webpages (including assignment) that provide useful information about the digital resource. The metadata elements in the System interaction screens are provided programmatically by the LOLA system behind-the-scenes; the user never sees them.

The cool thing (to me, anyway) about LOLA is that an object in the "refertory" is neither a physical thing, nor even a digital thing. It's just an instance of metadata (including a URL) that points to a thing!

Kinda explains why I call this weblog metametametadata.

Handgame and Gourd Dance

So whilst you alls wuz gittin ya ski on, and ya bored on, Kenj and I were making a very important, spiritual journey back to my homeland <!-- cue after-school special music -->.

We attended the 50th anniversary doings for my Uncle Lorenzo and Aunt Eva Stabler. We played handgame, I broke my mourning for my mothers death and we gourd danced. We also talked to my Dad's family about coming out for the wedding.

And we've got video! So enjoy. Home video watching being the favorite pasttime of the Fu Crew, at some point we'll bring the whole tape to Marlon's and you'll all have to sit through it.

Gorgeous

My goodness, this is a gorgeous trailer.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/thetripletsofbellville.html

This excerpt was taken from http://ginav.typepad.com/sansblog/2004/01/ It's an animated, full-length film about a woman's quest to rescue her grandson, who has been kidnapped while riding in the Tour de France. She has a sidekick dog who is obsessed with trains. They are helped by a trio of faded cabaret singers, the triplets of the title.

I hear that there is no dialogue. All music. They're still playing it at the Coolidge. Wanna go?

BAZZLE DAZZLE HITS "THE WEB"

Tahia Halim, Basil El Halwagy, 2004

Congratulations Basilia

on your recent publication to the internet. If I may partake in some hypertextual social networking, here's the link to Basil's friend's site where you will find Basil's art and words.

Skeleton No Skill

The Theory of the Derive

My studies of esoteric traditions and counter cultures has led me recently to the writings of the

SITUATIONIST INTERNATIONAL

good name, eh?

Anyway, I found in the Situationists a shared appreciation for the formation of a particular relationship with the city one lives in. That formation occurs through the undertaking of a "derive," or drifting. You should read the Theory to get a better sense of the concept, but for the most part one wanders without personal motive, allowing the city to lead you, while you listen to what the city and her denizens have to tell you about themselves. I don't follow the standard operation procedure Debord lays out. I like to take my derives on the weekends between 11pm and 3am. It actually drives The Kenj nuts. I'll walk all over the damn town for about four hours. She worries, the dear. It's part of how I have a good mental map of Boston, how I know where everything is and who goes where. I'm making a mental map, not of the physical territory, but of the mental territory of the other people who live in the city with me. It's easy to be walking and just start following college kids to a party of a club, or dog walkers down the boulevard, or Sox fans to the T.

Anyway I want to invite the Fu Crew and sundry to start making derives with me this summer. They're awesome. It just starting to Spring and I can already feel the wanderlust come over me. That sounds disgusting.

Here're the refs,

The Theory of the Derive explained by a founder of the Situationist International, Guy Debord.

I'm currently reading the Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord. Here's a not so great translation, that's at least free. If you want, you can borrow my copy.

You can find an introduction and definition of Dada, Lettrism and Situationism here.

Here's a compendium of english translations of Situationist work.

Here's an article from the Economist, trying to explain the heyday of the Situationist to current day capitalists.

Booklists!

As I expressed here I am jonesin' to get my booklists up on the site and browsable (searchable?) by you, the interested public.

As the author of the dijalog lifestyle article at xml.com so eloquently pointed out, our books and media collections are neither entirely digital nor entirely analog. Appropriately, neither are the various and sundry lists of these collections entirely one or the other.

I present to you the first of my many lists. This is my circulation report from the MIT SFS Library. It's a dijalog list. Originally analog, presented to you in convenient digital form. You can find it in the identifier section of my website. Note the repeated borrowings of a few select books. This pattern represents my attempts to get The Kenj to read these books. I think she only actually finished The Once and Future King.

Well, I'm all geeked out for the day.