The 2nd day of the conference has come to a close. Very good sessions today. I spent the morning learning about podcasting. Not a lot of technical detail, but I didn’t expect a lot, so that’s cool. I think we can get into podcasting without much, of any, actual dollar cost. I also think there are numerous library events that would make really good, useful podcasts for our public library patrons. Likewise, for my specialized client base I think there are some good podcasts I can seek out, subscribe to, and direct my users to when relevant subject matter appears.

The session on JavaScript and RSS was extremely interesting, and I suspect it will be very useful. The speakers presented various tools which use JavaScript to embed RSS feeds on “normal” web pages. The intranet site I’m building for city staff is potentially a great place to do this, and I’m sure the public library site could use it too (assuming we can get the CMS to allow it).

I also attended a session on Flickr. It turned out to be not only a very fun session, but also useful. I think the public library could do some really cool stuff with Flickr, and I’m making a list of some potential projects.

Tonight I went to a dine-around with about 10 other librarians. Good food. Very cool people. The official subject of the night was blogs, but conversation of course drifted to related topics. I met the librarian who runs this very cool Flickr photo collection. I love stuff like this because it’s real. It’s not someone blogging about what they had for dinner that night. anyway, I had cheese ravioli with shrimp. The restaurant was down on Old Fisherman’s Wharf. To get there you walk through the plaza (to the left). You will notice the white wall. It surrounds the plaza.

About every 20 feet, the message to the right is posted on the wall. Not cool. I guess skaters could say they misunderstood the message. “I thought it meant bikes and skateboards. I was only on a skateboard.” When I was in Germany over the summer, public space was exactly that — public space. People could skate wherever and whatever they wanted, even right outside the museum in Cologne. Skate stoppers (little pegs they attach to ledges to prevent manuvers) are everywhere here in Monterey, which does have a skatepark. It’s free and concrete, and actually quite fun, but it really doesn’t simulate the kind of real street obstacles that modern skaters enjoy. Oh well – same ol’ same ol’.

And as long as I’ve swerved over to the topic of skating, here’s a picture that Gary Holl took of me during our Sunday flatground session. Nice pic. I think I even made this fingerflip.

Back on the subject of the conference…I’m just astounded at how quickly some of the bloggers are churning out detailed reports of sessions. Rather than write my own when I the spirit moves me to do so, I may just link to some of the better write-ups and makes some additional comments.

I’ve now been in Monterey for two days.

1st day on my own dime. Rented car. Drove to San Francisco to skate. Had a great time. Drove north to Mill Valley to hang with my friend Dale and skate. Also had a great time. It’s always great to see Dale. Good to skate with someone who’s style makes sense to me and talk to an old friend about new things. As usual, I was so busy skating I forgot I had a digital camera with me. So no pics or video.

2nd day — Day 1 of the Internet Librarian conference. So far the conference has been very cool. I spent most of the day in sessions related to some new (to me) web technologies. Paul Miller, of Talis.com, was an interesting speaker. He discussed the terms “Web 2.0” and “Library 2.0” – essentially a service outlook of engaging your customers and the technical tools that enable that to happen (http://www.talis.com/tdn/innovationdir). I was pleasantly surprized today by a session on information discovery of blog and podcasting information. I really only went to the session because after lunch I wanted a comfy seat, and that session was in the “nice” auditorium! haha. Anyway, besides providing some hints on resources for finding such information sources, the session gave me some ideas for new things to try at work. Actually, new things for other people to try, that I’d like to be involved with. In particular, I can think of some good applications for podcasting of some services the public library provides. Likewise, there are some really cool potential applications for podcasting to my own, specialized customer base.

At 5pm they opened the exhibit hall and had free food. I lurked in there for a while and took some pictures. Then I went down the old pier and ate some fried calamari while watching some sea lions beg for food. Nothing compliments the taste of good fried calamari like the smell of sea lion.

I’ve decided that on Tuesday I’m going to attend sessions on podcasting all morning. In the afternoon it’ll mostly be podcasting, but also a session on JavaScript and RSS techniques that we might be able to use to include external content on our webpages, which is one of the main things I came here to learn. I’ve decided not to hit the session on Mashups. I think the topic is a bit too technical to get the detail I need in short sessions. I can learn it on my own.