Clear Blue Dei

This is a video that the Allen County Public Library Youth Services made to explain tag clouds. What is also interesting is that it uses Vimeo instead of YouTube which allows you to produce a much higher definition video. Also, you can click on the full screen icon in the bottom right of the video to view it full screen.

This came from the ACPL’s Innovation Through Technology Blog.

ACPL Youth Services Tag Cloud from Kaygraphic on Vimeo.
Check it out!

~Susan Mellott

I was looking through My Yahoo news and found an interesting article about a robot that the japanese were developing called Twendy-One.

Twendy-One, named as a 21st century edition of a previous robot, Wendy, has soft hands and fingers that gently grip, enough strength to support humans as they sit up and stand, and supple movements that respond to human touch.

It can pick up a loaf of bread without crushing it, serve toast and help lift people out of bed.

The robot is a little shorter than an average Japanese woman at 1.5 m (5 ft), but heavy-set at 111 kg (245 lb). Its long arms and a face shaped like a giant squashed bean mean it resembles the alien movie character E.T.

Here is the website for Twendy-One. It is mostly in japanese, but has videos of Twendy-One performing various tasks.

So I went to YouTube to see if there were other videos of Twendy-One, or other robots. I found this video of a montage of Japanese robots.

And this video of the LandWalker Robot Suit:

And I love this one of Robots Fighting. It is so cute!

And here is a totally cool robot toy ROBOZAK RZ-1 that it looks like you can build yourself? Watch it’s amazing moves. For some reason it is not displaying in my post, but follow the link to view it in action.

Here is a video of and a link to the Humanoid Robot Project: Promet MK-II, very cool. The HRP-3 Promet Mk-II is a blue-collar android tough enough to trudge through heavy rains, carry out disaster relief operations and work in environments hazardous to humans. The robot was unveiled on June 21, 2006 at Kawada Industries headquarters in Tochigi prefecture, Japan, where it showed of its ability to operate power tools and walk on slippery surfaces.:

And last but not least, here is a picture (and the set of pictures) from our local ACPL Shawnee Library branch of their Sumo Robot building and testing from their teen robot program.

Pretty cool, huh?!

~Susan Mellott

Stephen Abram, noted Library 2.0 speaker and Vice President of Innovation for SirsiDynix and Chief Strategist for the SirsiDynix Institute was at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana and spoke to the ACPL staff on the Top 10 Strategies for Library Success and gave a public speech on Library 2.0 in the Real World on September 19, 2007 at the ACPL Downtown Main Library Auditorium.

While he was there, Sean Robinson and Kay Gregg, who have been creating the “Conversation with” youtube series of conversations with influential people in the library and web 2.0 field, videotaped a conversation with Stephen Abram. They have finished the editing and have just released this interesting video with Stephen Abram talking about his lifelong fascination and love of libraries and library science.

~Susan Mellott

My husband Sean Robinson and Kay Gregg from the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, created a video for the Librareo “Why I Love My Library” video contest.

Out of over 175 public, school and academic libraries that submitted videos for the “I Love My Library!” video contest, Sean and Kay’s video was selected as one of the 5 finalists.

The winner was revealed at the annual ALA (American Library Association) conference. Unfortunately, the ACPL video did not win (though it was certainly the funniest, although the others were also good). However, it did get many, many more views than any of the other finalists!

And who doesn’t love a zombie video? Especially one set in a Library! So just in time for Halloween, I present to you: Reference Zombies!

~Susan Mellott

Sean Robinson and Kay Gregg of the Allen County Public of Fort Wayne, Indiana, are starting a series of YouTube “Conversation” videos with important people in the Library field.

They are currently editing a set of YouTube videos interviewing Jeff Krull, the Director of the Allen County Public Library. In my post called “Conversation with Jeff Krull, Director of the Allen County Public Library” I blogged about the first video. They have just released Part II of Conversations with Jeff Krull.

In Part II, Jeff talks about books and authors that have left an impression on him. He talks about All Quiet on the Western Front, Autobiography of Ben Franklin and The Red Badge of Courage. He mentions authors like Mark Twain (Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer) and Hawthorne.

It is fascinating to hear his thoughts on influential books and authors and the impressions they made on him.

And Sean and Kay have done a beautiful and artistic job of filming and editing their Conversation YouTube videos. They are done in black and white and in letterbox.

They have also recorded an interview with Stephen Abrams and will be creating a set of Conversation with Stephen Abram next. And they have plans to interview and create YouTube Conversation videos with other people who are interesting and influential in the library field.

Here is Part II of Conversation with Jeff Krull, Director of the Allen County Public Library. Enjoy!

~Susan Mellott

Sean Robinson and Kay Gregg of the Allen County Public of Fort Wayne, Indiana, are starting a series of YouTube “Conversations with” with important people in the Library field.

They are currently editing a set of 3 YouTube videos interviewing Jeff Krull, the Director of the Allen County Public Library. Jeff is a private and humble man and when I looked to get a bio on him from the internet, it was very hard to find a list of his accomplishments though they are many.

I found out that he has been the Library Director since 1986, he is on the board of the Indiana State Library and that the board of the ACPL honored him by naming the new ACPL gallery, the Jeffrey R. Krull Art Gallery.

But I really couldn’t find a lot about him, although I believe that is largely due to his quiet and unassuming way of accomplishing things. Some people put their accomplishments every and anywhere and there is no way you could miss every little thing they have done. But Jeff is not like that and this is a great chance to learn a little more about this interesting and influential man.

In this first video, Jeff talks about his young life, growing up in a small town. In a short clip from the “Conversation” series. Allen County Public Library Director, Jeff Krull talks about his early experiences with reading and books. The full interview will also be aired on our Public Television station.

There will be another one coming, continuing his life story and vision. Enjoy!

~Susan Mellott

I have had trouble adding the embed code for a YouTube video to my self-hosted WordPress blog from wordpress.org.

Normaly, you would copy the embed code from the page of the YouTube video you want to copy, into your post where you want to add it, using the ‘code’ tab for your post.

But that doesn’t usually work and you end up with nothing showing up, even though you can see the code when you switch from the Visual tab to the Code tab of your post.

So what you need to do is go to your wp-admin and then to Users and then edit the user you are currently using to post under (logged in as). You’ll see a checkbox at the top that says “Use the visual editor when writing”. Uncheck that box and save.

Then go back and edit your post and copy the embed code from the video into your post. Your post will appear as it would if you were looking at it on the Code tab, but there is no Visual tab.

You have to do this after you have set the user to not use the visual editor. If you copied the code before you changed it, delete it and re-add it. It is usually easiest to do your whole post using the regular visual editor and then switch to not using it just to add the YouTube code. Also, be careful that you don’t edit the post using visual editor after you have embedded the video.

It doesn’t make sense, since there is a code tab that should allow you to add it, but this is how you can do it so it works.

Here is a video I took of my cat that I embedded in this post.

~Susan Mellott

What can I say? Enjoy!

Thanks to just giblets for posting about this gem.

~Susan Mellott

I was looking for episodes on the internet of some TV shows for my sister and was having a hard time finding “So You Think You Can Dance” (which apparently Fox does not put on their website). But I looked for anything on YouTube and found Snape teaches Slytherins to dance. It is excellent and was created using the game Sims 2.

And fourth-rose has also written a story that goes with the video, in which Professor Snape, in order to make sure Slytherin doesn’t make fools of themselves at the upcoming Yule Ball, teaches them to dance. It is absolutely hilarious and well worth the read.

Looking around, I found that people were writing additional Harry Potter stories using Sims to illustrate them. Here is a page of Sims outtakes from a chapter of one of those stories by CloudlessNights. You can find her work by checking out her tags and links, like Harry Potter starring The Sims: Book 1 – The Philosophers Stone and Book 2 – Chamber of Secrets.

She also has a great series called the Timeturner Incident written by the Sims. As she says in episode 1: “Please bear in mind that visiting sims can’t be controlled, so whatever they did, they did it all on their own accord. I was only watching in shock, awe and amusement, and taking a lot of pictures ”

And check out the Harry Potter Sim Videos on YouTube. The assortment of creative ideas is outstanding. And there is an outstanding series of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with voice actors and everything. Here is chapter 1 (he has disabled embedding the video). These were created starting in October of 2005. It is interesting to compare to the movie.

And of course, if you just search on Sims2, you end up with a ton of fun videos. Who would have thought people could be so creative with this new medium?

Enjoy.

~Susan Mellott

The CNN/YouTube Democratic Presidential Debates took place on Monday, July 23, 2007. It was a first for that type of debate format and was quite popular, especially among the younger viewers who are perhaps more drawn to this more unconventional approach. CNN says it got a boost in the 18-34 demographic – the most ever for a cable news debate. And those are real-time numbers, not including younger viewers (or any viewers) who may have watched a stream or a Tivo’ed show or even the post-event sound-biteable nuggets on YouTube itself.

Here is a great recap of the debates provided by YouTube. I love the format, it briefly states the question they were asked and then shows their response. You can also watch the videos of each question. There are also the questions that were submitted but not used and video responses to the debates.It is really ‘by the people’, people like you and me and it is real questions from real people. There were difficult questions asked and real feedback given. You can also view the questions that were submitted but not used.

I watched several of the unused questions (there were almost 3000 entries) and was impressed at the thoughtfulness and interest expressed by so many people. Sure, there were some that were just people goofing around, but that doesn’t negate the large amount of people who had real concerns and real questions and who clearly are interested in trying to make the correct decision with their vote.

Mitt Romney (Republican candidate who has refused to participate in the CNN/YouTube debate format) said “[The debates] ought to be held at a higher level than having to answer questions from a snowman.” (referring to a question about global warming that was presented on the video as a snowman sock puppet). Well all I can say is lighten up! What, your dignity and stature doesn’t allow you to interact with people who don’t care about all that? It reminds me of people who read a very thought provoking post and all they can do is nitpick about the spelling or grammar. I guess that is safer (and easier) than actually stating an opinion. And it makes a point that you feel you are better in some way than they are (without actually having to do anything that might disprove it).

I think that the Republicans (I’m sure there are exceptions, but I don’t know who they are) are a bunch of control-freaks that can’t handle anything that they have not orchestrated to the nth degree. I think they feel they know better than we do and that we are all a bunch of ignoramuses (ignorami) that need their fatherly protection so we don’t run with a stick and poke someone’s eye out. Shame on the Republican candidates for thinking they are too good to have a voter ask a question directly. Format be dammed, a voter’s question is a voter’s question and deserves an answer.

And there are plenty of Republican party youtube videos put out by the candidates or their people. But of course this is the format they like best, they talk about what they want to say and you listen. No input allowed.

I also think they don’t want anyone telling them what to do and will go out of their way to not do something just to prove it. And they feel no need to explain why they do what they do. At the NAACP GOP Presidential Candidate forum on July 12, one lone republican candidate showed up, Tan Tancredo. The NAACP invited all the Republican candidates to the forum, put out 9 podiums, but only one Republican showed up. All the Democratic Presidential hopefuls showed up for their forum. The excuses given by the Republican campaigns mostly had to do with scheduling conflicts–just too busy to make it.

Here is a telling photograph of the nine podiums and the one candidate. And here is the post that led me to this picture and from which I found out about the NAACP debacle.

There are a group of republicans who are asking their candidates to debate in this format and their website is called Save the Debate. I applaud their progressive attitude and their acumen in recognizing that they stand to lose a lot more by not attending than by having to answer a tough question or two. You can also sign a petition on that website, requesting that the candidates attend. Personally, I doubt that their opinions and requests matter that much to the republican candidates. But if enough people stand behind it, maybe they will get the clue.

~Susan Mellott