Week 15 Reading Notes

What Cloud Computing Really Means
Eric Knorr, Galen Gruman

- At it's core, cloud computing is still nebulous when the term is thrown around by generalists. Sometimes the term is in reference to "virtual servers," other times it means anything beyond your immediate connection.
- It's a way to extend the reach of internet and information technologies.
- I had no idea about the range of cloud computing services. I thought of things like the gmail suite - everything is available, all the time.
-Types of Cloud Computing  services: SaaS, utility computing (virtual servers), web services
- The idea of platform as service...designed by what you want and what you do.
- MSP, Service Commerce Platforms (trading)
- Internet Integration... putting a bunch of different things together.

- This article didn't make the concept of cloud computing any clearer for me. Perhaps more reading will do the trick.

Video: Explaining Cloud Computing
-"purchasing software and hardware as a utility service" and "users accessing data from anywhere"
I think these concepts seem strange to be primarily because of their embedded-ness within my day to day life.
-SaaS = software as a service is something that I use absolutely every day to do a myriad of takes, both personally, scholastically, and professionally.
- This video is great! Cloud computing totally makes sense through this presentation.

The Future of Libraries
- Once again, we are confronted with the notion that what seems best in modern moments may actually do more harm than good.
- The image of books chained to lecterns seems harsh and uninviting - perhaps antithetical to what we consider the mission of libraries. However, libraries still enforce similarly strict measure on the will of patrons through limits in what, where, when, and how they use equipment. Perhaps to many of us this seems like normal library operations, but I would suggest that to some user groups, it is as though the books are still chained to the lectern.
- Interesting trends "communication systems changing the way people access info." love the question about the ultimate form of communication. Will form continue to change with function?
- "All technology ends" seems alarmist. Dystopian, even.
- Search technology - searching for taste, smell, texture. CRAZY! Librarians should start being more worldly. Yay for diversity.
"Time Compression"
- "Transitioning to a verbal society" I think this is hilarious because a verbal society - steeped in oral tradition - is at the core of every aspect of humanity. The idea that by 2050 literacy will be dead is ludicrous - or maybe not.
- Experience based economy - definitely in the library, but maybe not as a whole for the rest of the wrodl.

A lot of what this article says seems sound - but that's also because the article was written in 2006, so much of what Frey suggests has already been adopted by many mainstream and progressive library systems and organizations. On the other hand, a lot of the article seems unnecessarily alarmist.