Google will soon be releasing their own take on a Wikipedia-style of information resource – Google Knols (screenshot).
Some of the significant differences
will be: named authors (who can choose to receive a portion of ad
revenue for the “knol” pages they write) instead of Wikipedia’s
anonymous author model. The site will allow multiple “knols” on a
single topic (each will be written by a single author) with the
community voting for the best one and suggesting changes in a separate
area instead of the collaborative style of composing articles used on
Wikipedia.
I didn't see the game tonight (getting Santa pictures at the mall in Weyburn is apparently more important ) but I saw the highlights and wow. A see-saw battle in the first meeting between these two teams in Tampa since the Lightning beat Calgary in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals in 2004. (Don't get me started on the NHL schedule and how it mislays the focus on inter-division rivalries at the expense of making sure at least each team has a home and home with each other every single year. Sidney Crosby finally playing in Vancouver last Saturday after being in the league for two years is another example.)
The game was back and forth, all the stars were shining, and then the Flames pull away in the third for a convincing victory led by Captain Jarome Iginla. (In 2004, I often made the comparison that the Stanley Cup final was like Superman II. Iggy was Superman fighting the heroic battle against three foes, all with the same level of (hockey) super-powers but leaving him badly outgunned. The three bad-guys were Vinny LeCavalier, Brad Richards and Martin St. Louis (he was the female bad guy ) and the result in 2004 wasn't the typical Hollywood ending as the Flames just simply ran out of gas and ultimately lost after having two chances to win the Cup after going up 3 games to 2 in the series. So Iggy had some redemption of his own last night with a third period hat trick and all is right with the world again. Dion Phaneuf also had a wicked game with five assists (which makes my pool stats very happy!) and Kipper looks to be getting back to form after a (typical) slow start.
From the Flames thread linked at the start of this post: Dearest Gary Bettman,
Enclosed is Grandma's Famous High-Scoring Recipe avec Chocolate Chips
1 part league's highest scorer (Lecavelier's Special)
1 part league's second higher scorer (Iginla Deluxe)
Add 6 parts extra sour defense (Calgary Brand)
Add 2 parts chopped up goaltending (Tampa Regular Mix)
Mix thoroughly for 60 minutes (as per NHL regulation cook book)
Serve on a bed of half-melted slush and ice (St. Pete Times Forum Specialty)
Give chocolate chips to people who got screwed in pools
“No, it's just my CLA membership renewal, son.” (Just kidding – it's actually the address insert from the latest Feliciter. And hey, at least I didn't give him the shrink wrap to play with!)
Following up nicely on yesterday's post about Yahoo Answers! (with its passing compliment of Ask MetaFilter), I see today that a MetaFilter user has taken the time to compile and categorize a master list of book-related questions from Ask MetaFilter in Wiki format.
The blockbuster success of Yahoo! Answers is all the more surprising
once you spend a few days using the site. While Answers is a valuable
window into how people look for information online, it looks like a
complete disaster as a traditional reference tool. It encourages bad
research habits, rewards people who post things that aren't true, and
frequently labels factual errors as correct information. It's every
middle-school teacher's worst nightmare about the Web.
The article has some good insight on why a site like Wikipedia succeeds while a site like Yahoo! Answers fails. (On that note, I've mentioned it a lot before but Ask MetaFilter probably comes closest to getting the “community answer site” idea right of any I've seen.)
I follow US Presidential politics and this year is shaping up to be one of the most interesting elections in a long time – because of the Iraq War, because of the razor-thin margins (and resulting controversy) of the last two elections in 2000 and 2004, because the Democrats made a stunning comeback in the 2006 mid-term elections in both Congress and the Senate but have been largely ineffectual since (with many commentators speculating that the Dems don't want to risk doing anything drastic or controversial – ie. impeachment – that might damage what looks like a sure victory in 2008.)
For the Republicans, the current front runners are Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney (interestingly, two men with a history of being more liberal than conservative) and for the Democrats, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
There are a number of interesting stories that can or will come out of this election. Hillary Clinton could be the first female President, Barack Obama could be the first African-American President, Bill Richardson (who's polling around 4th for the Democrats in most places) would be the first Hispanic President if he somehow managed to win, Mitt Romney would be the first Mormon President, Giuliani would be the first cross-dressingPresident.
In addition, if Hillary Clinton wins, that would mean an uninterrupted twenty-five year stretch of Clintons and Bushes in the White House going back to the George H. Bush Vice-Presidency in 1981! (I thought monarchies were why the United States had a revolution against England?)
Barack Obama echoes of John Kennedy in his youth and charisma, bursting onto the scene with a mesmerizing speech at the 2004 Democratic convention.
Nothing is likely to come of it but perhaps the most interesting element to me is the groundswell of support (especially online) for two unique candidates – one from each party.
Ron Paul is a Texas Congressman and physician who once ran for President as a Libertarian and is the only Republican candidate that favours leaving Iraq. He is against the War on Drugs, the Patriot Act and even the US having a federal income tax. These qualities match up closely with the beliefs of many of the technorati who are highly active online. These people have responded by giving Paul (who is a distant fourth or further, in most polls of Republican candidates) a record for single-day fundraising efforts, fittingly on November 5 (Guy Fawkes Day which commemorates a thwarted plot to overthrow the English Parliament). Unlike the other candidates for both parties, this fundraising isn't being coordinated by the campaign but is happening spontaneously as Ron Paul supporters plan “moneybomb” days which raise millions via thousands of small, direct donations.
The other unique candidate is Dennis Kucinich who is so liberal by American standards, he's practically a Canadian. But when polls are conducted in the US to match a cross-section of American respondents to see who best matches their own beliefs without naming candidates, Kucinich is always the winner (sorry can't find the reference for this statement but I did read it somewhere.)
He has an amazing life story – occasionally living in his parent's car when they were poor,
Kucinich even broached the idea of a cross-party ticket of these two Internet favourites to bridge the red-blue divide in the US but was rebuffed by Ron Paul. Still the idea of two candidates – one from each end of the political spectrum – who have the support of real people rather than corporations and lobbyists and who believe in principles rather than profits makes you wonder what might have been since you know it will never have a chance to be.
This list is focused mostly on the Internet and technology as things that librarians are better at (rather than librarians successfully utilizing these tools beyond what normal users might do – he says, typing on a blog) but it’s still a lot of food for thought.
To be honest, I think it wouldn’t be hard to make a 100 item list of why libraries and librarians are still essential.
Plus they forgot #34 – “Librarians are the ultimate service occupation. Gas station attendant of the mind.” (Thanks to Michelle L. for the quote.)
If you're doing your Christmas shopping over the next few weeks, why not consider Costco aka “The anti-Wal-mart“?
Their unique practices as a retailer – paying employees a living wage, offering generous benefits, customer-friendly return policies – has led to low employee turnover, a wealthier clientele in general and continued growth while competitors such as Wal-mart, Target and others see stagnant growth or even declines.
Costco's corporate culture (like others such as WestJet, Google and so on) reminded me of a blog post I read recently which said that, in essence, the entire history of management theory comes down to two schools of thought:
Between them, Taylor (management as the rational analysis of numbers) and Mayo (management as the humanistic art of influencing people) carved up the world of
management theory. According to my scientific sampling, you can save
yourself from reading about 99 percent of all the management literature
once you master this dialectic between rationalists and humanists. The
Taylorite rationalist says: Be efficient! The Mayo-ist humanist
replies: Hey, these are people we’re talking about! And the debate goes
on. Ultimately, it’s just another installment in the ongoing saga of
reason and passion, of the individual and the group.
) and the result in 2004 wasn't the typical Hollywood ending as the Flames just simply ran out of gas and ultimately lost after having two chances to win the Cup after going up 3 games to 2 in the series. So Iggy had some redemption of his own last night with a third period hat trick and all is right with the world again. Dion Phaneuf also had a wicked game with five assists (which makes my pool stats very happy!) and Kipper looks to be getting back to form after a (typical) slow start.
