Midwinter Top Tech Musings

Top Tech Trends in tomorrow and I’ve been bouncing ideas off of several colleagues trying to decide what topics exactly would be the most interesting to discuss. The last 6 months haven’t really produced any killer insights for me but maybe that is because I’ve been spending huge amounts of time implementing new systems at UH.

So what I’ve picked up on my radar since Annual that I think is worth considering…

1. Ultra-light and small PCs (eeePC and competitors) – This whole concept is relatively new on my radar, but is pretty interesting. The idea of having a small, cost effective ($300 -$400) efficient computer that has a limited amount of storage (flash memory for a hard drive) and relies heavily on the network and open source software to meet users needs is one that has both appeal (Hey maybe theses are the laptops we should be loaning) and raises questions about how libraries will provide services in the future.
2. New uses of wireless – Probably the coolest moment at Internet Librarian this year was the guys from DOK, Delft Public Library demonstrating the hardware which allows them to push content to people’s wireless phones via bluetooth when the phones get within a certain proximity of said hardware. I immediately thought “gosh libraries could use this to tell people about new books, or that they have a fine they need to pay or book to pick up”. I also thought about things like this to transfer data from library computers to a users mobile devices. Combine this with GPS and things start to get really interesting. I’d love it if my Prius would not only help me find the restaurant via GPS navigation but show be possible restaurant options in the area and let me read reviews of them on the web. This is now technically possible.
3. Blogging ceases to exist as blogging – Writing the blogging book, I came to the realization that blogs and blogging have reached a point that people don’t recognize that as what they are doing anymore. Social networking sites which offer blog-like features have clouded the issues as have microblogging technologies like Twitter and the ability to create feeds of media such as photos and video. For many blogging has simply become the way in which content is being created, rather than its own genre or methodology.
4. On the Go Applications and Data – I and many of my colleagues do 90% of their business using web applications today. We expect applications to be available from wherever, whenever. We are starting to expect the same of our data. Furthermore we don’t want to carry a heavy laptop around with us. Instead we’d prefer to use the smallest device possible for comfortably (what is comfortable is a personal preference) accomplishing our tasks. Increasingly library users are expecting the same things. Therefore we need to make sure our systems interact well with these technologies that support portable applications and data.