Richard Wallace’s Juice project (Javascript User Interface Componentised Extensions) is a “simple componentised framework constructed in Javascript to enable the sharing of Ajax Stye extensions to a web interface.”

WordPress or Scriblio users might do well to think about it as a way to put widgets on systems that don’t support widgets, though as Richard points out, “the framework is applicable to any environment which, via identifiers contained within a html page, needs to link to or embed external resources.”

I got a little excited when Shirley Lincicum wrote to the NGC4Lib mail list:

[O]ne of the most frustrating things for me about Next Generation Catalog systems as they currently exist is that they seem wholly focused on the user interface and can, in fact, actually hold libraries back from designing or implementing improved “back end” systems because of the dependencies introduced by the new “discovery layer” applications.

I was excited because almost two years ago I wrote something like this:

Libraries are good at sharing data, but we’ve done a poor job of taking advantage of the network and new technologies to reduce the costs of sharing. …We recognize now that our data is living and evolving, but synchronizing available record enhancements with individual collections remains costly and laborious.

Without efficient mechanisms to share improvements, the value to any one library of trying to share what local improvements or corrections they make is limited, preventing libraries from benefiting from the network in ways that open source software development has.

Some, however, have called Scriblio a “next generation catalog,” so I’m anxious to point out the following: The Scriblio MATC Project Final Report, which hits on some of the above points; this (not funded) IMLS proposal, which fully embraced the challenge (take a look at this diagram); and Scriblio 2.7 with its new internal data model, which finally delivers some of the answers I’ve had in mind.

On the other hand, I’ve resisted the label “next generation catalog” for Scriblio not only because the software does a pretty good job of hosting digital libraries in addition representing library catalogs, but because my hope is that Scriblio does more than put a pretty face on antiquated systems. It’s hard to deny the dramatic changes in writing, publishing, and information sharing, and WordPress is very near the center of it all (WordPress.com alone hosts about 150,000 new posts each day); I see an opportunity for libraries to participate at the start of information creation, rather than at the end.

Shirley continues:

If our metadata and communication standards, and the systems we use to manage the resources we collect, were open enough, and therefore able to be integrated seamlessly into general discovery interfaces like Google, Facebook, etc., it would allow librarians to focus on collecting and organizing stuff (which is challenging enough to do well), and let the folks with the resources to do really good usability research and hire lots of really good programmers to design the interfaces.

I might argue with the end of Shirley’s point, but the overall message that we build systems and data that integrates with Google, Facebook, and whatever else is next is a good one.

I’m excited and honored to be joining Meredith Farkas and David J. Fiander in a roundtable discussion of Top Tech Trends, an OLITA program at Superconference. We’ve made a pact not to share our trends with each other in advance (no peeking), so it’ll be interesting to see how much overlap we have and how differently we approach the issues where we do have overlap.

Sophistication

The search box with its flashing cursor is a powerful tool, but it’s positively pre-cambrian when compared to our hyper A/V culture. Voice recognition is a reality (try it with Phonepedia), but image search is soon to come.

Jim Bumghardner’s Flickr Colr Pickr and System One Labs‘ Flickr Retrievr are a bit toy like (in that they’re great fun), but Google is eyeing OCR enabled image search (with implications for Street View and a potential for real open source OCR). Riya is now a “visual search engine,” but in 2006 the company promoted itself as a kind of flickr with facial recognition. And if identifying your friends in your photos (as well as the crazy guy that made a funny face in the background of your vacation snapshots) is too narrow, Microsoft’s Photosynth will identify the location of your photos and stitch them into the larger fabric of photos around the world.

Contextualization

Our TVs (and DVRs) are networked, our phones are networked, soon they’ll both be smart enough to talk to each other and pause TV when we pick up our phone (this one does, according to Zach). But the technology that can do that is very nearly the same technology required to make our phones (and computers) aware of what’s on TV (and our TVs aware of what we’re talking about or surfing; see The Pudding). Advertisers are learning to take advantage of the detail afforded by technology, soon they will leverage its integration to target messages across media.

Watching TV, a commercial for a new car plays, you go to browse web, you see banner ads for the same car. You mention car to friends in chat, then sign in to Second Life and get an offer for free virtual car there. You buy real car, then get offer inside Facebook to get exclusive theme based on the new car.

Unlikely? Google recently purchased an in-game advertising network and has plans to generate automated psychological profiles of users, and an unrelated patent speaks of “obtaining revenue from the distribution of hyper-relevant advertising through permissive mind reading, proximity encounters, and database aggregation.”

But this isn’t limited to advertising. Our iPhones know where we are, how long before the maps application shows us points of interest based on that? Or perhaps our location will be add as part of our web searches in the browser? If locally or contextually relevant results aren’t too creepy, won’t we appreciate them?

Disintermediation

Amazon’s Kindle cuts libraries from the picture, but it could also cut publishers from the picture. Lulu.com made self publishing cool, and Amazon is aiming for the same market. You can read all today’s best sellers on the Kindle, but Amazon is hoping their Digital Text Platform becomes the publisher of choice for tomorrow’s

But, Lulu and Kindle books are difficult to access for libraries. How will we handle such materials? How might we use the huge volume of full-text digital content that is being created?

Somebody asked a well-published friend of mine for advice about how to get published. His answer: start a blog and you may discover you don’t want a publisher.

There is huge pressure in all markets to leverage technology to reduce costs, but that same technology also better enables content creators to speak directly to content consumers. And the growth of mashups has blurred the line between creator and consumer. Where libraries fit in this picture remains to be seen.

Identity & Reputation

I’ve been saying identity management is the next big thing for a few years now. I may have been calling it by the wrong name, but now it’s a reality.

Facebook is becoming an application platform, Google is countering with OpenSocial, and Gravatar has been acquired by the WordPress.com people. And in the area of single sign-on, Yahoo! and Google have thrown their weight toward OpenID.

But who owns your identity or reputation? Who owns your friends? Ebay reputation is valuable, but the exodus of users from MySpace suggests reputation there isn’t.

As we struggle with how to figure out how to deliver services to the Facebook crowd, commercial competitors are leaping right in. Amazon is courting Facebook developers (AWS Blog post) and making it easy for third-party developers to deliver library-like applications (book reviews.

Comments & Contribution

The biggest lesson I’ve learned from my work on Scriblio in libraries is the importance of comments in our systems. Cook memorial library in Tamworth NH, a town of 2500, is discovering new patrons and strengthening the fabric of the community in its comments. The Beyond Brown Paper photo archive has shown that it’s the people of the community that hold its history, the photos we have are only artifacts. Both sites have received hundreds of comments, despite limited access (at best) to broadband and other barriers to use in their target communities.

I’m honored to be invited to the Ontario Library Association Superconference to present my work on Scriblio today (session #1329). A PDF of my slides is online.

Scriblio has had about a year of use in production at each of three sites, and the lessons suggest that Web 2.0 technologies really do work for libraries. And the best news: we can do it without breaking the budget: I’ll be demonstrating how to install Scriblio and reinvent a library in about ten minutes.

Why the slide above? Web 2.0 applications work best when they have a good logo. That’s Scriblio’s.

Update: I’ve posted the screencast I used to demo the Scriblio install and configuration process. It really needs the narration I did during the presentation and I’m planning on doing a new screencast soon, but I think this may offer some value to someone.