Thanks to Christina, I was alerted to the posting of the program for this years ASIS&T Annual Meeting in Milwaukee in Oct.
It looks really exciting! Some time slots have a lot of competition for my attention, some not so much. I also know my interests will change some between now and mid-Oct. Nonetheless, it looks like my poor brain will be overloaded with amazing amounts of information.
The full-day, Friday pre-conference, Taxonomies in Search, looks like it could be amazing but this kid doesn’t have $245 on top of conference registration!
Saturday, is the SIG/CR Classification Research Workshop pre-conference.
This half-day pre-conference on Sunday, Information Architecture 3.0 with Peter Morville looks good. But $300 for a half-day? Hahahaha. Dude, I already bought that piece of crap “find me” book of yours! People tell me Morville is a librarian; I say he is a huckster. I guess when I can charge people $600/day to hang out with me then I’ll be a professional librarian and not a minute sooner. Update: This is far too much money for me to pay, but my overly snide comments were perhaps inappropriate. My current state precludes me from deciding if they truly constitute a “nasty personal attack” or not. Either way, they were found offensive by the subject and for that I truly apologize.
On to the real conference and people more on my level:
Sunday, Oct. 21
Dang it! June Abbas is up against Michael Buckland, et. al. Tagging vs. History and foundations applied to the current situation (you know, that little bugaboo of mine).
The late afternoon session looks a little weaker as regards my interests, but crossword puzzles could be interesting.
Monday, Oct. 22
Everyday classification in the AM. Or, perhaps, live usability testing with Dorothea and others.
Early afternoon has several interesting presentations, like these folks who claim some LIS schools are teaching us about social computing, but I’m not missing danah boyd.
Late afternoon has another presentation with danah boyd, which I’m guessing jennimi will be at. An interesting presentation on personal info management by my friend, Christina Pikas. And a 3rd one on KOS Standards. Seeing as I’m on the Standards Committee ….
Tues, Oct. 23
Early AM: Kind of open at the moment, but probably this on the applications of traditional & non-traditional KM.
Mid-morning: Oh, boy! Improving Online Dating with Virtual Dates! I am so not there. Pretty much open at the moment. Break time is always good.
Mid-afternoon: Social epistemology in LIS.
Late afternoon also seems kind of open for now.
Evening: SIG CON. Woohoo! And notice, my friends, it is labeled “Tag Me!” Seems a certain rogue group had some influence last year.
Wed, Oct. 24
AM looks like tough choices: Next generation catalogs, Christina and others on blogs & wikis, or another look at Randall Kemp’s humanitarian relief organizations work and the traveling road show of Renear and Dubin on FRBR Group 1 entities in a slot entitled “Standards/Restrictions/Reinterpretations.”
I’ve heard sketches and pieces of this argument and I agree:
We examine the conceptual model of the “bibliographic universe” presented in IFLA’s Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) and argue, applying the ontology design recommendations developed by N. Guarino and C. Welty, that three of the four Group 1 entity types should be considered roles (relationships) rather than types. We then show how this analysis generalizes the solution to a previously identified puzzle in entity type assignment and is supported by John Searle’s notion of a cascade of social facts established through collective intentionality — which we take to be confirmation that this re-factoring results in a more accurate picture of the bibliographic domain. Finally we make some suggestions as to why it seemed that these entities were types rather than roles and note that in specific applications there may in fact be good practical reasons for models that treat types as roles.
Mid-morning: Plenary with Clifford Lynch.
Early afternoon: Digital natives research or social capital. Probably the 2nd since I have serious issues with most claims made about the 1st.
Late afternoon: More social capital stuff, or perhaps time to head home?
There is so much more going on and as I said my interests will shift. Dorothea will be there. I sure hope she’s staying for more than her presentation. Other friends who I’ve seen more recently than Dorothea will also be there.
I’m so excited and it’s only a little over 3 months away. Alright, GSLIS students. Time to do some serious planning!
8 responses so far ↓
1 Peter Morville // Jul 13, 2007 at 7:24 am
Mark,
I can understand why the relatively high price of my workshop annoys you, but I’m not sure that merits such a nasty personal attack .
2 Public apology to Peter Morville // Jul 13, 2007 at 11:30 am
[...] seems that I have managed to offend Peter Morville with a “nasty personal attack” in my ASIS&T 2007 Annual Meeting program posted [...]
3 Mark // Jul 13, 2007 at 11:42 am
Dear Peter,
My comments were overly snide, although not intended as a personal attack. But seeing as that is how you took them, I do apologize.
I have added an apology here and in a separate post. I have struck through the offending sentences but will not remove them as, ill-conceived as they may be, they are part of the public record.
I would like to add that although I personally have little use for Ambient Findability I would never advocate that anyone not read it for themselves, and that I have a world of respect for Information Architecture which occupies a place of respect with the other books on my shelves that deserve the imprimatur of O’Reilly.
4 Peter Morville // Jul 13, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Hi Mark,
Thanks for your apology. I’m glad you liked the polar bear book, if not the lemur. Perhaps I’ll see you at the ASIS&T Annual, though not in my workshop, of course
5 Dorothea Salo // Jul 14, 2007 at 6:25 am
I’m only 90 minutes away by bus, so yes, I plan to be there for as much as I can. May have to rent car for the weekend, as bus arrives at 8:30, and even given that the depot is only four blocks away from the conference venue, that’s cutting it way too close for the two 8:30 sessions I have to be at.
Not sure what your travel situation is like, but if it’s not settled yet, you might want to get in touch with Tim Donohue.
6 jenny // Jul 14, 2007 at 10:44 am
I would also point out that, having seen Peter’s conference presentations several times now, they are meant for an audience you aren’t included in. $600 and a few hours is a lot cheaper and quicker than library school for IAs. I respect your dislike of his works, but, from personal experience, seeing people in other fields who would have never known or respected anything LIS related come out of his events and get excited about librarians, I have to like him!
7 Mark // Jul 15, 2007 at 7:29 am
Hi Dorothea. Glad to hear this.
The UIUC ASIS&T Student Chapter is supposed to be going relatively en masse since it so close. I just hope we do some (more) planning soon.
Perhaps having an early chat with Tim is a good idea, though, just in case.
8 Mark // Jul 15, 2007 at 7:45 am
Hi Jenny, I have a lot of respect for the work Peter does. Perhaps I am not in his demographic, but I have no doubt that I *could* learn a lot from him.
I agree, that in many ways, the pricing structure is fair. But there are many other ways in which I have issues with it, but those issues are MUCH bigger than Peter or any other individuals. Nonetheless, that 1/2 day seminar would cost me more than double the cost of registration for the entire conference.
And I would not say that I disrespect his works, I really like the polar bear book. I do dislike the lemur book. Now, I am clearly not the target audience for that book and that is a part of it. But my issues with it are either relevant despite the intended audience, or still of import keeping the intended audience fully in mind.
And I agree that getting people who know nothing about LIS excited about things we care about is an important job; I applaud him for that. But, this is ASIS&T. Sure, no L in the title, but ignoring etymologies and timing of the use of terms, IA and its affiliate and constituent components have always been IS, despite what we labeled them then or now.
I guess my thinking is that this conference isn’t a bunch of corporate types needing a solution last month so are willing to pay lots of money for a short, intense lesson. And, yes, I am well aware that there are a lot of corporate folks in/at ASIS&T. In fact, I would love to see the demographics of who actually attends his pre-conference.
So, in the end, perhaps I stepped over a line. But I didn’t realize that we can’t say we don’t like a book or that we think someone is being overpaid (in a certain situation). It seems we’re back to politeness, moral minimalism and “professionalism” trumping the right to criticize and express an opinion.