Michael E. Casey's Blog, page 10
June 23, 2009
and everyone shall be heard
Good article in today’s NY Times by Saul Hansell on President Obama’s open government initiative, Ideas Online, Yes, but Some Not So Presidential.
On Jan. 21, his first full day in office, President Obama promised to open up the government, ordering officials to use modern technologies like Internet message boards and blogs to give all Americans a bigger voice in public policy…
…The experience so far shows just how hard it is to allow all voices to be heard and still have a coherent discussion. Wh
June 22, 2009
capa, soltan, and the shots heard around the world
PDNPulse went and drew a parallel I was waiting for someone to draw — the video of young Neda Soltan and Robert Capa’s famous photo, “The Falling Soldier,” taken during the Spanish Civil War in 1936.
On Saturday, a shocking video of a young woman bleeding to death appeared on social networking sites.
Anonymous and impossible to trace, the clip went viral with a story attached: The woman is Neda, an opposition protester in Iran, who was gunned down by a government sniper Saturday on the streets of
tehran
It probably won’t be up for long (violence, murder, copyright violations, etc) but this video is worth watching. Warning, video contains graphic scenes of violence and the final moments of Neda Agha Soltan, the young Iranian woman murdered by basiji militiaman.
If you’d rather not view the video, this CS Monitor article covers it rather well.
The student rembembered, Neda Agha Soltan, was reportedly shot in the chest by a basiji militiaman passing on a motorcycle. Graphic Internet video of the aft
June 18, 2009
lens on tehran: an interview with newsha tavakolian
From the Lens comes On Assignment: Covering Tehran, by David W. Dunlap. This interview with photojournalist Newsha Tavakolian is a fascinating story of a young female photographer trying to cover a very rapidly developing story in a male-dominated country and profession.
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June 16, 2009
simplicity, and cameras, and libraries
Wikipedia says, In photography, the technique of simplicity is used to achieve the effect of singling out an item or items from their surrounding.
I also like this definition from Bluemoon: the understanding of what is and is not important in a design. Details that do not have a major impact to the design are omitted to keep it uncluttered.
And Princeton is perhaps a bit more to the point, the quality of being simple or uncompounded… absence of affectation or pretense.
Olympus today annou
mail a real postcard from your iphone
Have you ever stood in front of some great building or iconic scene and wished you had a postcard of it so you could send to your Luddite friends or family? Well now you can, thanks to a new iPhone app from Hazel Mail. For $1 (when purchased in groups of twelve), Hazel Mail will print and mail a postcard and message to pretty much anywhere in the world. It sounds very cool. Take a look.
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the transparent library: be selfish, promote service
Be Selfish, Promote Service
By Michael Casey & Michael Stephens — Library Journal, 6/15/2009
Now, More than ever, we need to deliver our best customer service. No library users should walk away feeling that their questions or needs were not fully addressed. No teen should come to the reference desk only to be met by a sarcastic answer and a hand gesturing them to some distant region of the stacks. No senior should be expected to use our newest technology without being offered a training session.
I
iranian revolution of 2009
Having just written about social software and national security, I find the situation in Iran to be rather fascinating. It’s amazing to see the huge role that social sites are playing in the 2009 Iranian election and, perhaps, the 2009 revolution.
Social Networks Spread Iranian Defiance Online - Iranians are blogging, posting to Facebook and, most visibly, coordinating their protests on Twitter, the messaging service. Their activity has increased, not decreased, since the presidential election on
June 10, 2009
congratulations
Congratulations to my very good friend and co-author, Laura Chambers Savastinuk, on her promotion to Branch Manager of the Collins Hill branch of the Gwinnett County Public Library. Laura is one of the hardest working librarians I know, and her dedication to GCPL and librarianship is obvious to everyone who knows her.
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