You’ll get the sense that this week’s Thursday Threads is stacked towards cultural awareness. First is the view of a developer of the female gender in a room of peers at a meeting of the Digital Public Library of America. The second thread is a pointer to a story about Facebook’s software release process, and it leads into a story about the role of alcohol in technology conferences and reflections from the library technology community.

DLTJ Thursday Threads is a weekly summary of technology, library, and publishing topics (and anything else that crosses my path that is worth calling out). Feel free to send this to others you think might be interested in the topics. If you find these threads interesting and useful, you might want to add the Thursday Threads RSS Feed to your feed reader or subscribe to e-mail delivery using the form to the right. New this year is that Pinboard has replaced FriendFeed as my primary aggregation service. If you would like a more raw and immediate version of these types of stories, watch my Pinboard bookmarks (or subscribe to its feed in your feed reader). Items posted to are also sent out as tweets; you can follow me on Twitter. Comments and tips, as always, are welcome.

An Inclusive Table

But here I am, with a constant background obsession, now, of how to get more librarians involved (and involved more deeply) in tech, how to foster collaboration on library technology projects, which is inseparable from the problem of how to get more women involved more deeply and collaboratively in technology. So I can’t not look at that room and see how the status lines fracture, along code mastery but coincidentally also gender, written in the physical geography of the room, where I’m the only one sitting at the table. I can’t not wonder, how can I create spaces which redraw those lines.

- my first hackathon; or, gender, status, code, and sitting at the table, by Andromeda Yelton

Andromeda attended the DPLA hackathon last Thursday and posted this very pointed view of the perceptions of women in library technology.

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Facebook Release Engineering

I recently had a unique opportunity to visit Facebook headquarters and see that story in action. Facebook gave me an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the process it uses to deploy new functionality. I watched first-hand as the company’s release engineers rolled out the new “timeline” feature for brand pages.

That was where I met Chuck Rossi, the release engineering team’s leader. Rossi, whose workstation is conveniently located within arm’s reach of the hotfix bar’s plentiful supply of booze, is a software industry veteran who previously worked at Google and IBM. I spent a fascinating afternoon with Rossi and his team learning how they roll out Facebook updates—and why it’s important that they do so on a daily basis.

- Exclusive: a behind-the-scenes look at Facebook release engineering, by Ryan Paul, Ars Technica

I’m pointing to this story for two reasons. First, it is a fascinating look at how one of the top internet operations manages its processes for rolling out new software. Second, how the wheels of the release process are greased feeds into the third story below.

Our Culture of Exclusion

Lately there have been a lot of great articles being written and discussion happening around sexism in the tech industry. And the flames are being fanned by
several high profile incidents of people saying and doing just plain stupid things.

It reminded me of this draft post just sitting here, uncommitted. For quite a while I’ve been collecting links, tweets and other stuff to illustrate another problem that’s been affecting me (and other people, surely). I thought it was finally time to write the post and bring this up because, honestly, I feel excluded too.

- Our Culture of Exclusion, Ryan Funduk’s blog

The role of alcohol in technology events was a topic of discussion on Twitter and elsewhere at the end of last week. There is a term for this that I heard for the first time last week — brogrammer — and I don’t think it is a flattering persona for the technology profession. The way in which Facebook releases its code, described in the thread above, is one data point. Ryan’s message, quoted above, points to some high-profile conferences where alcohol seems to play a central part of the event. His article was the source of some introspection among the Code4Lib community as well.

Code4Lib Discussion of "Culture of Exclusion"

Storified by Peter Murray · Wed, Apr 11 2012 23:09:38

@yo_bj @mjgiarlo @anarchivist @lljohnston @sshreeves @jmarkockerbloom barrel aged munster? Dan

Talk of #code4lib and social reminds me I’m hoping to play some board games for #code4lib13. Lot easier to bring when driving Jon Gorman

@mjgiarlo that being said, I’m a huge fan of the craft beer parts. Tim Donohue

@mjgiarlo coolio I didn’t realize that.Tim Donohue

The end-of-year holidays are behind us and (in the northern parts of the northern hemisphere) the cold days of winter in front of us. What better time to bag it all and head to the warm(er) temperatures of San Diego, California for the ALA Midwinter meeting. I mean — come’on — do you really want to dive into all of that work that piled up over the past week or so? (You say that even more work will pile up if you attend the meeting? Bah, humbug!) If you are going, I wholeheartedly endorse the new ALA Connect-based meeting planner. It is at times frustratingly slow, but chock full of ways to slice-and-dice meeting events that were not possible in the earlier version. (I’m going to put in a suggested enhancement that the iCal file export includes URLs to the meeting listing online; that would be immensely helpful.)

Here is my schedule of events, with links into meeting descriptions on ALA Connect where appropriate. Also don’t forget to check out the What’s Happening (229KB, PDF) document for the inside scoop from the ALA staff to the ALA Council members. If you are interested in getting together with me, let me know and we’ll find a time.

Friday, January 7th

I’m arriving late, but normally I would try to get to the RMG Integrated Library System vendor panel. If the past year is any guide, I think it is going to be another wild year for ILS vendors. I do expect to pop into the LITA Happy Hour at the Uber Lounge of the Se San Diego Hotel.

Saturday, January 8th

After time for lunch, some exhibits and a private meeting I’ll have a choice to make. On the one hand is the regular SPARC/ACRL forum on the topic of Open Access and the changing state of scholarly publishing. The lineup is great: Caroline Sutton, President of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA);
Wim van der Stelt, Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy for Springer; and Catriona McCallum, Senior Editor for PLoS Biology and Consulting Editor for PLoS ONE. That sounds like a lively discussion.

On the other hand is the ad hoc Google Books Task Force meeting. The topic is certainly of interest, and news of any movement by the court on the settlement has been too quiet. But I don’t see an agenda for the meeting and I don’t know what will be covered. Fortunately, these two meetings are near each other in the convention center. Maybe I’ll start here and move to the SPARC/ACRL Forum.

Sunday, January 9th

Then I have another tough choice. I could go to the LITA Emerging Technologies Interest Group meeting. There will be a follow-up discussion to the panel from ALA Annual (which unfortunately I missed due to a family illness). Or I could go to the LITA Cloud Computing / Virtualization Interest Group meeting. I can’t find an agenda for this meeting either, but the topic is of interest at work.

Rounding out the day will be the public launch of an experimental service “providing a low cost and easy-to-use Web site service for small and rural public libraries” by the OCLC Innovation Lab.

Monday, January 10th

Tuesday, January 11th

The text was modified to remove a link to https://www3.oclc.org/app/ala_registration/ on January 28th, 2011.

The text was modified to remove a link to http://www.sesandiego.com/ on June 9th, 2011.

At the American Library Association conference this weekend, I’ll be part of a panel presentation from the LITA Emerging Technologies Interest Group with the title “What Is Your Library Doing about Emerging Technologies?” The presentation will be on Saturday, June 26 from 1:30pm to 3:30pm in room 103B of the Washington Convention Center. The publicity blurb:

A new job title of “Emerging Technology Librarian” seems to reflect an awareness among today’s libraries that there is a need for a librarians whose main role is to explore, evaluate, promote, and implement various emerging technologies. 19 librarians in different fields of librarianship at academic, school, and public libraries will discuss the topic of emerging technologies at libraries, their evaluation, implementation, adoption, and management challenges.

My panel group met by conference call this afternoon to discuss the topic, and I came away feeling great about the synergy of this group. The panel style is the panelists responding to a question from the moderator and reactions from each other with time for questions from the audience. No canned presentations!

Thanks to Bohyun Kim from Florida International University for setting up the panel discussion.

For those interested and involved with distance and technology enhanced learning or have attended one of the past ODCE/LLT higher education conferences, you’ll want to know about the Ohio Educational Technology Conference in early February.

Add this event to your desktop calendar program.

The Ohio ETC is the combination of OLN/OhioLINK/OARnet conference and the eTech Ohio conference — coming together this year for the first time. There are many sessions directed towards higher education that shouldn’t be missed and opportunities to network with counterparts in primary and secondary education. The Ohio Educational Technology Conference has published its program guide for its annual meeting February 1 through 3, 2010 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. With over 300 concurrent sessions, 225 exhibitors, and acclaimed keynote and featured speakers (Adora Svitak and David Weinberger among them), it is sure to be a great event.

Registration is available on the eTech Ohio website. While there, also sign up for a “Hall Pass” that will enable you to create your own personal itinerary in the Ohio ETC Conference Planner. (Tip: when registering for a Hall Pass and are prompted for an Organization Category, select “Other” then select “College/University” under the Organization Type heading.)

This year is the first year of an exciting new conference mission — one that includes primary, secondary, higher education, and adult career center participants all in the same meeting. That mission is reflected in the theme of the conference: P-20 Conversations: Shaping a Path for the 21st Century Student. Highlighted below are events that might be of particular interest to higher education faculty and staff, and you are encouraged to view the entire conference planner for other sessions of interest. As you read through the descriptions, look for the “BYOT” sessions; these are “Bring-Your-Own-Tools” — 90-minute hands-on sessions where presenters teach attendees on their own tools.

The theme of the 2010 Ohio Educational Technology Conference, P-20 Conversations: Shaping a Path for the 21st Century Student, addresses the need to provide seamless technology integration throughout students’ careers. Reflecting this year’s theme, the sponsors of last year’s Learning, Libraries and Technology conference — Ohio Learning Network (OLN), OhioLINK and OARnet — have joined with the Ohio Resource Center (ORC) and eTech Ohio, the technology service provider for primary and secondary education, to provide a premiere professional development event for all of us – teachers, faculty, librarians, instructional designers, administrators, students, and technicians.

The conference organizers are seeking interactive and engaging proposals for presentations, posters, and technology demonstrations. Proposals for college and university audiences will be peer reviewed by a committee of higher education representatives. In exchange for presenting a session or display, the presenter and co-presenter(s) will receive complimentary registration for the day of the presentation!

This year’s conference features three types of proposals:

• In the room: 45-minute sessions of a variety of formats that are held concurrently in breakout rooms
• On the board: full-day poster displays located in the interactive Technology for Learning Center
• Out of the box: highly interactive, hands-on sessions that are held in the Technology for Learning Center

All proposals must be submitted through the online proposal system hosted by eTech. To submit a proposal, the presenter must create an account in eTech Ohio’s online user account system, called “Hall Pass.” (When prompted for “Organization Category” select “Other” followed by “College/University”) With that account you can submit the proposal by following the “Begin a proposal” link at one of the three proposal types above. The deadline to submit a proposal is October 7, 2009. Please note that the proposal deadline will not be extended.

Add this event to your desktop calendar program.

Visit http://www.etech.ohio.gov/conference/register/presenters.dot to learn more about submitting a proposal today!

The text was modified to remove a link to http://www.etech.ohio.gov/conference/register/proposals.dot#onboard on June 9th, 2011.

The text was modified to remove a link to http://www.etech.ohio.gov/conference/register/proposals.dot#outbox on June 9th, 2011.

The text was modified to remove a link to http://www.etech.ohio.gov/conference/register/presenters.dot on June 9th, 2011.

The text was modified to remove a link to http://www.etech.ohio.gov/conference/register/volunteers.dot on June 9th, 2011.

The text was modified to remove a link to http://www.etech.ohio.gov/conference/register/proposals.dot#inroom on July 13th, 2011.

The American Library Association annual conference is getting more social each year, and as a long-time member of ALA and often a critic of the, well, un-togetherness of ALA’s electronic capabilities, it is nice to see the trend continuing this year. Take, for instance, the Blogger’s Room. Initially just a LITA thing, it is now being promoted as an association-wide service. As I write this, that page has about two dozen entries for individual and group blogs that say they will be covering conference events.

Or take Brian Eisley‘s unofficial Twitter reflector. (Brian calls it a group; I’m calling it a reflector; it is something different than a Twitter Hashtag.) He has put up some instructions on how to get signed up to receive and how to sent messages to the reflector. There is also the Twitter hashtag #ala08. I’m a Twitter newb, so I don’t know the differences, advantages, and disadvantages of each. But I’m interested to learn…

Speaking of tags, the ALA Annual Wiki defines ala2008 as the official conference tag. That’s not such a stretch to assume — it is a logical choice — but the establishment of an “official tag” (as much as anything is official in the social tagging space) does help collocate meeting content in the blogosphere, in Flickr, and in del.icio.us. (What?!? …you say? That’s the function of subject analysis and description? Here in the unwashed folksonomy space? Blasphemy!)

Did I mention the Official ALA Annual Wiki? It is now getting prominent placement in the navigation area of the primary conference pages. The fifth link down — pretty impressive. And it is easy to see why. The Official Wiki holds a host of information not previously found in the American Libraries insert or even on-site. Links to policies and procedures, a Google map of area restaurants and hotels, an “Unofficial Events” page, and a Conference Presentation Materials site to put all of the PowerPoints and handouts from meetings.

It is nice to see ALA providing this space where grassroots organization and promotional efforts can be shepherded in on co-located space. There was a time that this was spread out over various hand-coded web pages, blogs and other web services. Way to go, ALA; and way to go ALA members!

The text was modified to remove a link to http://www.brianeisley.com/TwitterALA2008/ on January 28th, 2011.

At the Ohio Digital Commons for Education conference yesterday I had the privilege of chairing a panel for a session called “Teaching with Digital Texts: Comparative Experiences from the Field“. The panel was a mixture of the principle investigators and the publisher representatives from two pilot projects that ran last fall testing the economics and suitability of enhanced digital learning materials. The abstract of the session and the participants were:

The eText Ohio project piloted the use of digital learning materials in two large undergraduate courses in 2007: Introduction to Psychology at Miami University and Introductory Biology for non-majors at the University of Dayton. This panel — made up of the faculty, learning technologists, researchers, and publishers involved in the pilots — will share data and experiences regarding teaching strategies, student learning, and opportunities and issues associated with using non-print resources as the fundamental texts of instruction.

• Daniel Bartell / Pearson Publishing
• Kevin Feyen / Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishing
• Leonard S. Mark, Professor of Psychology / Miami University
• David J. Wright, Director of Curriculum Innovation and E-Learning / University of Dayton

A longer introduction and description of the pilot projects is on the conference wiki. Some of the data points we learned through the pilots are in that document and in the presentation slides from the session. We plan to published a longer exploration of the data, but the short version is that students appeared to do as well on examinations in classes where the enhanced digital materials were used, and the price of the content to the student was roughly half that of the purchase price of a new paper textbook.

Update 2008-03-10T11:11 : The Dayton Daily News has an article today on the e-textbook pilot program at the University of of Dayton. Thanks, Nicole, for sending me the link.

The text was modified to remove a link to http://oln.org/conferences/ODCE2008/ODCE2008.php on July 13th, 2011.

Last month, Ed Vielmetti posted about the plans for the Ann Arbor District Library Camp 2008 on March 20th, 2008 in Ann Arbor, MI. For those unfamiliar with the “camp” conference format (also known as an “unconference”), it is modeled after the Open Space Technology style from Harrison Owen. It focuses on creating the right meeting for the people who attend. As such, there is not a pre-set agenda or predetermined list of speakers. Instead, the agenda is formed as the meeting starts based on the interests and skills of those that come. As Harrison says, the technique is effective when “real learning, innovation, and departure from the norm are required. When you aren’t quite sure where you are, and less than clear about where you are headed, and require the best thinking and support from all those who wish to be involved, Open Space Technology will provide the means.” For a more gentle introduction to the camp/unconference topic, see The Rules of Bar Camp.

I’m planning on attending the Ann Arbor District Library Camp — and Code4Lib in Portland, Oregon, this year (if I get off the waiting list) — with two big thoughts in mind. First is to soak up and contribute to the meeting. Second is to watch how the meeting is done in anticipation of replicating it in Ohio with a focus on academic library technology. For those in Ohio, do you think you would find something like this useful? We have a large number of skilled developers in the state, and based on what I heard of the experiences of Kent State and Miami from a meeting in the spring of last year, there is a strong desire to share experiences.

Add this event to your desktop calendar program.

Still deciding whether to attend the Ohio Digital Commons for Education 2008 Conference – The Convergence of Learning, Libraries and Technology? Here are 10 great reasons to register today.

1. Meet, connect and share success stories with colleagues from across Ohio. ODCE 2008 will provide endless opportunities to talk with 300+ faculty, librarians, administrators, IT gurus and others facing the exact same challenges you do.
2. Get ideas, practical knowledge and tools you can use on your campus right away. With its focus on teaching and learning, student success, moving Ohio forward, and transforming technologies, you’ll leave ODCE 2008 with many new ideas and best practices to try.
3. Find out about the future of Ohio higher education. Learn more about The University System of Ohio and its master plan from Chancellor Eric Fingerhut on Monday, March 3. Go to the Ohio Education Panel on Tuesday and hear a range of Ohio voices discuss key issues facing Ohio higher education.
4. Get affordable, hands-on training via a pre-conference workshop. Choose from: Creating Accessible MS Word, MS PowerPoint and PDF Documents; Second Life Bootcamp; Introduction to Multimedia Production for Classroom, Web-Based and Distance Instruction; Redesigning Courses Using the NCAT Approach, Integrating Quality Matters in the Course Development Process, and Social Networking for Dummies!
5. View the innovative ways Ohio institutions are using technology for teaching and learning with exhibits on virtual worlds, podcasts, learning objects, lab experience at a distance, developing digital content and more at Innovation Island. (Monday, 4:30-5:30 p.m.)
6. Learn more about Second Life, online professional development, the latest digital learning tools and other hot topics featured in 45 engaging sessions.
7. Get great ideas from high school teachers on how to engage more students in STEM disciplines at the Preparing Students to Succeed in STEM Disciplines poster sessions (Monday). Both high school teachers looking for ideas, as well college and university administrators wanting tips on recruiting more STEM students, should attend. (special rate available for high school teachers and students)
8. Engage with leading vendors. Speak frankly with leading higher education vendors and partners at the exhibits, vendor presentations and vendor reception.
9. Unwind after a hard day of learning at our vendor reception from 4:30-5:30 p.m. on Monday. Then, enjoy the delights of Easton Town Center including great restaurants, a variety of shopping and entertainment.
10. The learning doesn’t end March 4! Begin discussing, sharing and learning now and continue long after the conference ends with the ODCE Conference blog and wiki.

ODCE 2008 will be held March 2-4, 2008 in Columbus. View the preliminary program [PDF] and register for ODCE 2008 online. Register by February 7 to receive $50 off regular conference rates.

Download iCal file

March 2th – 4th, 2008 — ODCE 2008 — Columbus Hilton at Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio

ODCE 2008 is the ninth annual Ohio Digital Commons for Education Conference – The Convergence of Learning, Libraries and Technology. The conference will feature submitted and invited presentations, technology demonstrations, pre-conference workshops and plenary presentations on the themes of Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century, Student Success, Moving Ohio Forward, and Transforming Technologies.

Add this event to your desktop calendar program.

The text was modified to remove a link to https://secure.oln.org/ODCE2008/ODCE2008registration.php on December 31st, 2010.

The text was modified to remove a link to http://www.oln.org/conferences/ODCE2008/ on July 13th, 2011.

The text was modified to remove a link to http://oln.org/conferences/ODCE2008/ on July 13th, 2011.

The text was modified to remove a link to http://oln.org/conferences/ODCE2008/ODCE2008fees.php on July 13th, 2011.

The text was modified to remove a link to http://oln.org/conferences/ODCE2008/pdf/ODCE2008PrelProgWS.pdf on July 13th, 2011.

Here is a map of official conference hotels and a link to download the KML file into Google Earth.

ALA Midwinter 2008 Hotel KML Location file

I’m somewhat disappointed by the display of the KML file through the Google Maps API. The KML file contains <address> tags, which in the Google Earth desktop application appears to enable the “Directions From” and “Directions To” options. It is entirely possible that I’m missing something in the KML file — it was created by exporting a folder of placemarks from the Google Earth application. The raw KML file, suitable for importing into Google Earth, can be downloaded from the link under the map.

If you have any suggestions for improving the output, let me know.