Highlights from the 2nd Annual VCARA Conference in SL

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I see the last post made was 'before' the conference.  The 2 months since have flown by--very busy with a number of tasks that I'll fill you in on eventually.  Right now, though, thanks to Caed Aldwych and Brande Hall Gex, the two keynote speakers at the May 24th conference.  

 

Caed shared the history of The Road to Deadwood build with an enthralled audience.  He even brought a set from the wild, wild west to provide an authentic background for his presentation.  

 Brande shared the results of her research into the preservation of virtual worlds, forcing the audience to consider the question, "Should we? and if so, How will we?  preserve virtual worlds, like The Road to Deadwood, for future generations? 

These keynotes were followed by a tour of 7 poster presentations.  At each stop, the researcher responsible for the presentation provided a summary of their work and findings, and visitors were encouraged to return later to listen to the podcast if they wanted to hear the presentation in more detail.  

Each of the poster presentations provided the visitor a glimpse into the lives and times of individuals, either past or present, including Lower East Side Tenement Museum in NYC, Virtual Texas, 9/11 New York City & DC, American Reality Television, Web 2.0 & the Fluxus Movement, Last Soul Surviving Knowledge Keepers, Nodaway, and A Foodie on Each Continent.

If you missed the conference and wold like to visit the poster presentations, just log into Second Life and head to SLURL: http://tinyurl.com/VCARA

VCARA 2nd annual Conference in SL/Meet Caed Aldwych, co-founder of The Road to Deadwood

Tweet Caed Aldwych, co-founder of the Road to Deadwood, is one of two keynote speakers at the 2nd annual conference to be held in the Virtual Center for Archives and Records Administration (VCARA) at 5:30 p.m. SLT (pacific time) on Tuesday, May 24. If you haven't visited yet, you should!  Caed will explain the tought process that went into developing this environment and describe its social and economic model.


Brande Gex, MARA 2011 graduate and the 2nd keynote speaker at 6:00 p.m. SLT (pacific time), will describe her efforts to develop an appraisal process for virtual worlds, including Second Life.  


Following the keynotes, conference participants will move to the open courtyard to view and hear presentations on 8 unique glimpses into "lives and times past and present."  Poster presentation topics are:  Last Soul Surviving Knowledge Keepers," "There's a Photographer in  Your Town: Brining Family Stories and Photographs to Life," "Lower East Side Tenement Museum in NYC," "Virtual Texas: Information delivery into virtualw worlds," "9/11 New York & DC: A Decade of Revival," "American REality TV Virtual Time Capsule," "Web 2.0 and the Fluxus Movement," and "Around the world in one day: A foodie on each continent."  


Everyone is welcome--you do not need to be a SLIS student, alum, or grad to attend. Plan to join us on VCARA beginning at 5:30 p.m. SLT on Tuesday, May 24.  The SLURL is http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SJSU%20SLIS/50/25/33

SLIS Commencement 2011

Tweet Approximately 178 of the over 700 SLIS graduates attended commencement ceremonies in San Jose on Saturday, May 21.  Dr. Ken Hayckock, former SLIS Director and commencement speaker, encouraged the graduates to consider employement opportunities by how well they fit the student's interests and goals and not by  job title, stressing that in over 40 years in the field, he has never held a position with the title of "libriarian." The digital environment has brought with it a myriad of opportunities for graduates of SLIS; the task of finding just the right opportunitiy is now up to each individual graduate.  Congratulations and good luck to all!!

Reflections on a semester almost over

Tweet It's been a busy few weeks, and instead of blogging I've been teaching and reviewing final projects and reports. One report, in particular, struck me with how much the worlds of archives, records, and even museums are converging. To learn more about one Master of Archives and Records Administration student's semester-long experience in the archives at the Museum of Idaho, read his blog.

Start at the bottom with week one and work your way to week 16--the end of his successful internship experience. Note the variety of tasks completed that include accessioning, scanning, working on both wired and wireless networks, and indexing using PastPerfect. This is a small museum that required someone with knowledge in archives, records, and information technology/management.  John is an example of the 'new breed' of "recordkeeper" that exemplifies the "convergence" of knowledge and skills needed today.

Community Virtual Library Tour, Monday, April 25, 7 p.m. SLT (pacific time)

Tweet ARA student group meeting/virtual tour: Arranged by ARA but open to all!
Date: April 25, 2011
Time: 7 p.m. SLT (pacific)
Location: Community Virtual Library
SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/150/96/23
Host/Tour Guide: Dr. Diane Nahl (avatar Adra Letov)

Note: To save time, we will not meet on VCARA but head straight to the Community Virtual Library.

Dr. Nahl is a Professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in the Library and Information Science Program. She publishes research on information behavior, affective computing and information technology literacy, and teaches courses in reference services, information literacy instruction and human computer interaction. Dr. Nahl is going to invite some of her students to join us as well, so you will have a chance to meet fellow LIS students.

Did you know April is Records & Information Management Month?

Tweet Well, it is. And ARMA International, along with local ARMA chapters, have many exciting and educational events planned across the globe. Just yesterday, I had the pleasure to be one of the presenters at the Metro Maryland Seminar 2011, which took place at the University of Maryland Shady Grove Conference Center.

Highlights of the conference were shared on Twitter, and once in a while with the audience on the large screen shown in this image.

It provided me the welcome opportunity to discuss a topic I passionately believe in Reocrds Management: The Cornerstone of an Effective Information Governance Strategy. I also was invited to provide highlights of a recent research report, How Federal Agencies Can Effectively Manage Recorsds Created Using New Social Media Tools.

It was also an opportunity to learn from my two co-presenters: Michael "Mike" Daconta and Richard Hogg.

Michael "Mike" Daconta, Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Accelerated Information Management (AIM), LLC provided his perspective on Information Management and Transparency in the Cloud. Mike is the author of a number of works, including The Smeantic Web: a Guide to the future of XML, Web Services, and Knowledge Management.

Richard Hogg, ERMp, B.Sc, MBCS, CITP has been with IBM since the 2003 acquisition of Tarian Software, where he served as Chief Client Officer. Richard, an IBM Redbooks author, shared his views on RM for the Future .. what is needed today and future challenges, in his presentation titled, Information Governance 2.0+.

Social Media @ BHIC: How we achieve our goals by using Social Media

Tweet Last evening Christian van der Ven captivated an audience of students and professionals during a Webinar as part of the MARA Guest Lecture Series in the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University.

His presentation described how archivists at the Brabant Historical Information Center (BHIC) in the Netherlands use social media to highlight the archives' collections, keep in touch with patrons, for crowdsourcing and more.

Christian van der Ven is a Coördinator of Reference Services at the Brabant Historical Information Center (BHIC) in the Netherlands. At the BHIC he is also responsible for the Web 2.0 and Social Media projects. Among Dutch archivists he is a world-famous blogger, and community manager of the online Dutch Archives 2.0 network.

Among the tools in the BHIC's Web 2.0 toolbox that are used to interact with the public are: the BHIC Website in general, Forums and Webcare, Chat, Blogs, Flickr, Twitter, Wikipedia and Facebook.

To learn more about Christian, read his profile on the Archivists: The Social Network for Archivists at http://archives20.ning.com/profile/ChristianvanderVen