LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

With the start of a new year, I have to make a call for suggestions on authors to interview. A thread has been opened at the Erie Looking Productions site for this. Why there? Disqus lets me export comments to Comma Separated Values which I can then import into a spreadsheet program and create a tracker. Tracking down authors for interviews can sometimes be tricky which is why such a bit of case management is needed.

Some of our previous author interviews:
Piers Anthony
David Weber

This week's episode brings a chat with Cameron Kaiser, the creator of Twitter client ttytter, as well as a piece from The Effing Librarian and a commentary written by the program's engineer.

Links:
Blog entry referenced in the engineer's commentary
The prepared commentary text that was presented
The Twitter client, ttytter
The book by The Effing Librarian
The blog by The Effing Librarian
One book by the podcast production team
Another book by the podcast production team

Welcome to 2009! This special episode features Blake Carver's outlook on 2009. A look at the events calendar is also presented and shows how busy the first couple months may well be.

The next regular episode of LISTen will be posted on or near 5:00 AM Coordinated Universal Time on January 5th.

Links:
LISTen budget needs for 2009
English Internet Regulation Case
openSUSE
Mandriva
Ubuntu
CeBIT
Inauguration Website by District of Columbia municipal government

This week's episode doesn't have a single theme. First up is an interview with John C. Dvorak about a sad situation with Google Docs. Following that is a brief report about the impending demise of podcasts hosted on Podango. After the Podango update a commentary is presented on utterances made by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media, & Sport in the United Kingdom.

Links:
Post referenced in discussion with John C. Dvorak
Mashable on the Podango situation
LISNews post containing multiple links to stories on the situation the commentary references
Direct link to the Christmas Special if you missed it

No spoilers.

One could blame it on the holidays. One might blame it on the news being slow. In the end, this episode is a brief one. Computer complications delayed the post to where it could not post on-time either.

The episode begins with a recap of the top ten stories of the past week at LISNews. Following that the sixteenth installment of Tech for Techies is presented discussing some recent remarks by the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Homeland Security as they might relate to libraries. A review of openSUSE 11.1, which is available for purchase as well as download, is then given. Wrapping up the episode included a note that a Christmas special may or may not happen. Decisions have not been taken yet on that.

There will be an episode released at the usual time on December 29th. It should be remembered that CNET as well as the TWiT Network will not have podcasts coming out at that time with current coverage as they are on holiday breaks. A LISTen special for New Year's Eve is under discussion as to its specifics. Further details will be announced once they are available.

This week's late episode brings interviews concerning technology. The first interview was with Jerry Bell of Cytec Corporation about PodboxxTV. The second is with the CEO of Mahalo, Jason Calacanis, about the newly launched Mahalo Answers. The zeitgeist round up is not repeated in this bit of audio but can be found here.

Barring further complications the next episode of LISTen will be released on or near 0500 UTC on December 22nd.

Explanation as to why there is no audio post. Also, subscription options for videos posted

Donation link for mdoneil pie in the face fundraiser

This week's episode is characterized by variety. The episode kicks off with a recap of stories that might have flown below the radar. After that the program talks to Evan Prodromou, the creator of the Laconica software that operates sites site as TWiT Army and Identi.ca. From there the podcast took a look at a musical program at the West Charleston branch of Las Vegas-Clark County Library District. After that there is a mix of Linux and open source news followed by another installment of Tech for Techies. After Tech for Techies the episode wraps up.

Links referred to:
Site to download Laconica
Guitar Society of Las Vegas
Download location for openSUSE 11.1-RC1
Download location for stable openSUSE releases
Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope Daily Builds
OpenSolaris download site
Download location for TinyMe
Koha download site
Evergreen download site
Greenstone download site
OpenOffice.org download site
MarcEdit download site
Details about the Free Culture Showcase competition
The referenced wiki page showing all competitors entered so far
Announcement from TWiT Live about their mixer
MacBreak Weekly recorded without a mixer

In this week's episode we hear from Rob Lopresti not only about music but also about stolen books at Western Washington University. An analysis of a perhaps overlooked part of media coverage of the Mumbai incident is also presented.

As for the list mentioned by Mr. Lopresti in the interview, the address to write to is:

Rob Lopresti
Wilson Library
Western Washington University
Bellingham, WA 98225-9103
United States of America

A self-addressed envelope with USD$0.59 postage is requested from libraries located within the United States. While listeners outside the United States are advised to check with their respective postal authorities, it appears that enclosing a single Universal Postal Union International Reply Coupon may be sufficient to cover postage costs.

Related links:
Alexander Wolfe's blog post at Information Week
Report by Murad Ahmed at the Times of London
Report on Twitter in Mumbai at the site of the Courier Mail
Bloomberg News reporting on response by the Indian government
Mindanao Examiner talking about the Mumbai attack
Forbes on the use of Twitter in Mumbai
A Twitter user calling for no panic creation
Global Voices looking at Twitter in Mumbai
Potential Christmas gift for art lovers
Potential Christmas gift for lovers of information policy
Potential Christmas gift for those seeking to archive podcasts