Director's Brief: Google Glass

 The following was written as an assignment for The Hyperlinked Library MOOC in the form of a report to the director of a library on Google Glass.  It is appearing here for the first time.

           This is a preliminary report on a technology that has not yet been released to the public.  It is based on internet reports and opinions.  I don’t expect any final decisions to be made at this point, but we should be thinking about the issues raised by this new form of computer technology.

Google Glass is a wearable computer in the form of eyeglasses.  It can be integrated with prescription lenses.  It contains a computer chip, a camera, a battery, a motion sensor and WIFI.  It can be voice activated, but it also has a touchpad that is worn on an arm for silent activation.  It will allow Glass wearers to take photos or record videos hands free, and upload them automatically to Google’s cloud applications. (Houghton, 2013).

The miniature screen is  a cube located in the upper right hand corner of the device, and there is a microphone behind the user’s ear. (Arapaho Libraries, 2013).  Perceptually it will seem like the screen is eight feet away. Severely nearsighted people won’t be able to see it clearly without integration with their prescription  lenses.   There is a red light that is visible when something is being recorded.   Glass shuts off every 30 seconds and needs to be re-activated.  If users record frequently, the battery will need to be re-charged within 90 minutes. Google states that with normal use the charge should last an entire day (Liedtke, 2013).  It currently doesn’t include GPS.  Wearers will need to tether it to an Android smart phone  for access to the advertised Google Maps functionality that will allow them to get directions (Houghton ,2013).

There are 8,000 beta users currently testing Glass. (Stephens, 2013) They or their employers are paying $1500 to test this device.  After it’s scheduled for release in April of 2014, it will probably cost approximately $500.(Epstein, 2013) There are a number of librarians and library systems who are  demonstrating  the beta version of Google Glass to their users. 

  There are numerous potential uses.  Most prominently mentioned is the ability of physicians to receive information (e.g. the patient’s vital signs) while continuing to perform surgery (Doyle, 2013). Although I have seen no one point this out, if a surgeon were distracted during surgery by the Glass information feed, his surgical instrument could slip and harm the patient.  So this may not be a good use for Glass.

Of particular interest to libraries are educational uses  involving interactivity and virtual field trips as well as information feed  to students  (Kwikboost, 2013)and the likely ability that Glass may have in the future to simultaneously translate to and from any language.  Google Glass  beta tester, librarian Arian Kruppa  reports that Glass currently can’t understand any language other than English(Tween Tribune, 2013).  The widely reported  speculation that Glass will be able to translate is based on the existence of Google Translate.   This means that a translation application for Glass could be developed by Google.(Titlow, 2013)

  

              An important negative attribute of Glass is its radioactivity.  Google has reported the radiation of Glass to the FCC.  The FCC has ruled it safe.  Yet since it’s worn constantly on the head, Glass may increase the incidence of brain tumors (Wang, 2013).

   

             Another serious issue is the danger of a data breach.  If Google’s cloud is hacked, which has happened in the past, users’ identity information will be completely compromised.  In response to criticism, Google has prohibited facial recognition applications from the Glass equivalent of Google Play. (Houghton, 2013).  This would prevent Glass from identifying persons in Glass videos, accessing their identity records and imperiling their data in the event a breach.

               Reference librarians may be impacted by Glass wearers intruding on reference interviews conducted at the public reference desk ,and violating their confidentiality by videotaping them and uploading them to You Tube.  One solution could be to conduct all reference interviews in a private space by default. 

                Violation of privacy is a widely expressed concern about Glass.  Although Google removed an application that would allow photos to be taken silently by blinking, Denver Post reporter Michael Liedtke  states that while he was wearing Glass, he was able to record a video of a Google  representative discussing privacy as it applies to Glass without his knowledge by pressing a small button on the right frame without speaking a command aloud.(Liedtke, 2013) The arm touchpad would also allow silent commands.  So it will be possible to photograph or record individuals without their knowledge or consent.   

   

             A relevant study involving the possible impact of the prevalent presence of Glass wearers on society is a 2008 study  called “The eye of the camera: Effects of security cameras on prosocial behavior”  by Rompay, Vonk and Fransen  which showed that there is tendency to act in people pleasing ways in the presence of security cameras (Rompay et al, 2009).  Glass could have a chilling effect on speech which would be contrary to democratic values. 

   

             A study dealing with the concern that Glass will make users more distracted deals with the surprising finding  that only 2% of the population can multi-task successfully.  Scientist David Strayer called them “supertaskers”  and discovered that their brains are organized differently from the other 98% of us. (Sundem, 2012)   A Harvard Business Review blog article by Peter Bregman  states that multi-tasking reduces productivity by 40% because switching between tasks causes a loss of time.  Bregman cites a study by Ophir, Nass and Wagner in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that heavy multi-taskers are more distractable than light multi-taskers because those who multi-task more lose their ability to focus on any task. (Ophir et al, 2009).   So it would seem that Glass may aggravate trends that were initiated due to the common use of smart phones.  If Glass becomes as popular as portable technologies it is likely that the average attention span of technology users will continue to decline. 

  

              The privacy issue can possibly be dealt with by having Glass wearers sign agreements that they will not photograph or videotape library users or staff without consent which will be kept on file.  If they violate this agreement, they can be suspended or banned permanently from the library depending on the severity of their offense.  A simpler solution might be to tell Glass users to remove their devices, and ban Glass from the library as we have done with cell phones.   The Technology Committee will need to discuss how best to deal with Glass wearers in our population.

 As the Director, you will have the final decision about the role that Google Glass should play at our institution.  This is a powerful technology that may have great benefits, but will also have great risks.  Since Glass is still in beta phase, the best recommendation may be to wait and see what the impact of Glass will actually be instead of relying on internet speculation.  The Technology Committee will consult with other libraries that have Glass wearers on staff to find out what their experience has been with this device.   The version of Glass that is finally released may have significant differences from the device that is currently being tested.  Let us weigh the benefits and drawbacks of Glass,    

                                                             

                                                                        References

Arapaho Libraries (2013) Arapaho libraries website.  Retrieved from:http://arapahoelibraries.org/googleglass on November 23, 2013.

Bregman, P.(2010). How and why to stop multi-tasking. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from: http://blogs.hbr.org/2010/05/how-and-why-to-stop-multitaski/  on November 23, 2013. 

Doyle, M. (2013). How Google Glass is now being used in surgery. Forbes. Retrieved from:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/ptc/2013/11/05/how-google-glass-is-now-being-used-during-surgery/ on November 24, 2013.

Epstein, Su (2013). A Google Glass future. Public Libraries Online. Retrieved from: http://publiclibrariesonline.org/2013/11/a-google-glass-future/ on November 23, 2014.

Houghton, S. (2013). Google Glass: Release date, news and features. Tech radar.AV. Retrieved from:  http://www.techradar.com/us/news/video/google-glass-what-you-need-to-know-1078114  on November 23, 2013.

Kwikboost (2013). Google Glass in the classroom: A transformational trend?  Retrieved from:http://www.kwikboost.com/google-glass-in-the-classroom/  on November 24, 2013.

Liedtke,M. (2013) Google Glass: Spectacle-like, but impresses. Denver Post.  Retrieved from: http://www.denverpost.com/entertainment/ci_23825644/google-glass-spectacle-like-but-impresses-review  on November 23, 2013

Ophir,E. et al (2009). Cognitive control in media multi-taskers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  doi: 10.1073/pnas.09036206.

Rompay, T. et al (2009). The eye of the camera: effects of security cameras on pro-social behavior. Environment and Behavior, 41(1), 60-74.  doi:  10.1177/0013916507309996.

Stephens, M. (2013) News: Jen Waller, Miami Ohio librarian and Google Glass. Tame the web. Retrieved from: http://tametheweb.com/2013/10/06/news-jen-waller-miami-ohio-librarian-and-google-glass/ on November 23, 2013.

Sundem,  G. (2012). This is your brain on multi-tasking. Psychology Today. Retrieved from:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-trust/201202/is-your-brain-multitasking  on November 23, 2013.

Titlow, J. (2013).  10 compelling ways people plan to use Google Glass.  Read Write.com.  Retrieved from: http://readwrite.com/2013/03/07/10-compelling-ways-people-plan-to-use-google-glass#awesm=~oo9AUTXa3yPp1e on November 23, 2013.

Tween Tribune (2013). Are Google glasses worth $1500? Retrieved from: http://tweentribune.com/tween78/are-google-glasses-worth-1500  on November 23, 2013.

Wang, R. (2013) Wireless radiation from Google Glass: Is there a risk? Pong. Retrieved from:  https://www.pongcase.com/blog/wireless-radiation-google-glass-risk  on November 23, 2013.

Online Professional Learning Network: Digitization

This is an assignment for the Hyperlinked Library MOOC that I am posting here, and then re-posting to my MOOC  blog.

GOALS:  Although I have numerous professional goals, the one that is my current focus is digitization.  I will be taking a course on digitization at SJSU  next semester.  I feel that this could the most crucial professional set of skills that I have yet to learn.  I don't just mean the act of digitizing objects.  There is also curation of digital objects and digital preservation. 

SCOPE:  I'm currently a student about to embark on a LIS career.  I'm discovering through this assignment that digitization is crucial to all professional paths of LIS.  I have thought of becoming an archivist where I would need to digitize finding aids and carefully selected items from collections. I have thought of becoming an academic librarian where I might need to digitize theses or dissertations for a institutional repository.  I have thought of becoming a law librarian who would help to preserve legal documents through digitization.  It's also possible that a public library might want to digitize oral histories from local individuals.  I was looking for people who would be experience resources, resources involving best practices, opportunities and approaches to digitization that I hadn't considered.

NETWORK:

 Individual Contacts

Lori Lindberg at Linked In  http://www.linkedin.com/in/msarchive

Professor Lindberg was the instructor who taught me Encoded Archival Description which is used to digitize finding aids.  This is the connection that was my starting point in digitization.

Emily Odza at Linked In http://www.linkedin.com/in/emilyodza

Emily Odza is a local librarian who is a relatively recent SLIS graduate.  Her internship involved digitization of a special collection.  I am interested in finding out more about what she learned.

Digitization Best Practices

Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov
 
There are links to guidelines for various formats and links to working groups for the still images and audio-visual formats.

 Oral History in the Digital Age Wiki  http://wiki.ohda.matrix.msu.edu/index.php/Main_Page

This is a wiki dealing with best practices for digitization of oral histories.  

Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials Wikihttp://wiki.lib.utc.edu/index.php/Technical_Guidelines_for_Digitizing_Cultural_Heritage_Materials

This is a best practices wiki maintained by the UTC Library Special Collections and Archives.

Digitization Blogs

Page to Pixel http://page2pixel.org/about/

This is the blog of Isaiah Beard, a digital curator at Rutgers University.  He establishes standards and workflows for Rutgers University Community Repository

Info Overdrive http://infooverdrive.com/author/tonybarbeau/

Tony Barbeau is a corporate blogger who is interested in digitization.  This is Kodak's document imaging blog.  He recently wrote about preserving digital images in the cloud.

Collaborative Manuscript Transcription  http://manuscripttranscription.blogspot.com/

Ben Brumfield is an archivist blogger who is interested in collaboration between professionals and amateurs on digitization projects.

Free Government Information  http://freegovinfo.info/node/3961

I was attracted to this blog by a white paper presented at the ALA Convention in Chicago in June 2013 called Wait! Don't Digitize and Discard! which deals with the need for non-destructive digitization in order to maintain copies of paper originals for long-term preservation purposes.

You Tube

Inside Smithsonian's 3D Digitization Lab http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-2tLyTPs7Y

Smithsonian is digitizing objects in their collection in order to make replicas of them with a 3D printer.  National Geographic made this video.

Prezi

Oral History Projects From Interview To You Tube http://prezi.com/ozzqpnfhrpdt/oral-history-projects-from-interview-to-youtube/

This is a creative multimedia Prezi made by archivist Laura Ann Heller of the National Cowboy Museum detailing the entire process of doing oral history interviews, digitizing them and then making video clips for You Tube.  There's lots to learn here.  

NETWORK  MAINTENANCE PLAN

This network will be maintained on my professional blog, Information Metamorphosis. There will be new technologies, new best practices to deal with them, innovative projects, contacts and blogs to add to this network.  I hope to update it whenever I discover a new resource.  I may also need to update the links for the current resources.  This is a very exciting area of LIS. 

Context Book: Creative Synergy

I wrote this post as an assignment for the Hyperlinked Library MOOC which is San Jose State University's first MOOC.  It is being posted here on Information Metamorphosis for the first time, and I will cross-post it to my MOOC blog.

This is not a book review.  I read one book followed by part of another, and was suddenly inspired.  Consider this strange equation.  It doesn't have an equals sign because this post is the answer.


     

These are two authors who would be in an adversarial dialogue on a talk show.  Seth Godin is very excited by the creation of communities based on shared goals on the internet.  Jaron Lanier is deeply concerned by internet trends that he believes are dehumanizing.  In fact, they are some of the same trends that excite Godin.

 I hoped to share Godin's enthusiasm when I read his book, but instead I found him disappointingly  repetitive.  Godin is a motivational speaker.  Hammering on the same points can work very well in a speech.  I found a TED talk by Godin from 2009.  If you view this, you will not have to read Godin's book and you will probably find it far more enjoyable.  I embedded the video of this TED talk.  If it doesn't appear in the version of the post that you see, it's here .


  I absolutely agreed with  Seth Godin about the potential of internet communities and the importance of the true fan spreading great ideas, but it wasn't until I read Jaron Lanier's dismissal of  the creativity of mash ups devised by true fans that I felt galvanized to respond.

Mash ups are based on synthesis.  They make connections.  Someone who has never seen such a connection before could be inspired. It was after I wrote that response in my notes toward Context Book, that the idea of Makerspace fandom came to me.  Libraries should think creatively about nurturing a fan community, and think fannishly (the way fans would) about creativity.

How do you promote a Makerspace?   Some libraries have posted  material about their Makerspace.  I was impressed with the variety of services that the Detroit Public Library Makerspace offers.  Here's a link to their page about it at http://www.detroitpubliclibrary.org/hype/hype-makerspace .  Yet it seems to me that fans could spread the word about the Makerspace  more widely than the library could on its own.

How do you establish a fandom? What if the patrons who use the Makerspace had a forum on the library website to post about their projects?  There could be some great discussions that support the Makerspace.  Patrons could post about the discussions on their blogs, Facebook and Twitter. This would increase interest in the Makerspace and its forum.  In addition to discussion, there could also be creative responses.  So suppose Sarah posted a picture of the dress she made on the sewing machine, and Joe posted a picture of the t-shirt with a silk-screened image that he'd just produced at the Makerspace. Then Judy mashes up the two images, and Bob becomes creatively inspired by the mashup and writes a poem about it.  Kerry sees the poem, and writes a drabble based on the poem. A drabble is  a story that is exactly one hundred words.  Sam could have found the drabble amazing and made a video of himself singing a song that he wrote based on the drabble.  These are the sorts of things that fans do when they get creative. Soon people would start coming to the forum to see the creativity and perhaps participate in it themselves.

Jaron Lanier criticized mash ups because they're derivative.  He thinks that creativity will become exhausted because it depends on earlier work.  Shakespeare was derivative.  He borrowed plots from other writers who no one remembers.  We remember Shakespeare because his derivative versions were so compelling. Shakespeare was not the only major artist who was derivative.  No one creates in a vacuum.  Artists form communities because they become inspired by one another's work.  The people in a fandom do the same. Occasionally, there will be incidents involving blatant copying from someone else. Fans will then spread the word that the offender has plagiarized. 

A Makerspace community forum will need  guidelines and policies to prevent abusive practices such as cyber-bullying.  (Yes, it happens, but I think Jaron Lanier exaggerates the extent of it. We are not all trolls as he claims. I also don't think Lanier should feed inner trolls by insisting that everyone engages in trollishness.)   The forum will also need encouragement.  Librarians should include creative responses in a description of what posts on the forum are appropriate.  Perhaps they could add a supportive comment now and then.  They could also survey the members of the forum about potential new Makerspace services which would cause these users to become enthusiastic  about the possibilities, and write social media posts asking others to support these potential services.  A Makerspace fandom is not expensive.  When it grows to a certain size, it will become self-sustaining, and it will pay the library back with boatloads of community support.

This post is about synergy.  My response to these two contrasting books is synergistic.  So is the process of building a fan community on a library website.  If your library doesn't have a Makerspace, consider how you could build a similar fandom around one of your programs.