Open Letter Regarding Net Neutrality

Seeing the debate currently going on in Washington regarding the issue of "Net Neutrality", which I fear is not well understood by a lot of people, particularly politicians, I felt compelled to write my congressional representatives the following letter. As I put a lot of thought into it and thought that others might also find what I have to say interesting or persuasive, I'm posting it here as well. Enjoy!

I have not frequently written representatives regarding any issue, but I feel strongly on the issue of the topic known commonly as "Net Neutrality" and feel compelled to let you, as my representative in Congress, know my perspective.

I am a librarian working at Winnetka Public Library in Winnetka and I live in Northbrook. When I was hired in 1997 it was because of my knowledge of computers and of the Internet and its protocols. As part of my job it has been necessary for me to use the Internet extensively for research, web development, education, and providing basic services for the library for which I work. At home I use the Internet for communication, self-education, computer maintenance and entertainment. My Internet connection comes through AT&T from whom I also receive cable television and phone service.

In this debate on the subject of "Net Neutrality" it seems that there are several concerns expressed by corporations which provide Internet connectivity that it is necessary to institute some kind of tiered access so that limited bandwidth resources can be preserved and that applications which use a lot of bandwidth can be stopped from using excessive percentages of bandwidth. Limited Internet resources can be a problem, as many libraries with which I have contact and my own library are only too aware. However, I think that there are appropriate ways to deal with the problem and innapropriate ways to deal with the problem, and the option of implementing a tiered solution, a solution which treats different kinds of data differently, is a potentially very dangerous one going forward.

As I mentioned, libraries have had to deal with the problems of limited bandwidth. As a small library, our problems have been smaller than most. We have (by current standards) a relatively limited 1.5 Mbps T-1 line through which all of our Internet traffic goes. As part of a consortium, by necessity we need to keep our computers connected constantly to a remote server for all basic library services. We have a bank of computers which the public may use to access the Internet as well as an Internet hotspot which the public may freely use with their own equipment. We have taken two measures to make sure that our network runs smoothly: we restrict the speed of the hotspot to 256 Kbps and we reserve a portion of our bandwith for library operations if other Internet functions start to interfere.

These I think are reasonable approaches to the problem. I also think, that in the case of corporations, if they wished to implement a metered service (as has been traditionally the case with phone service) that could also be a reasonable measure. My concern is that with the limited amount of competition available, particularly in faster, cheaper, and more reliable wired services, some of the market forces which might otherwise protect the consumer cannot come into play. There are no pure "Internet Service Providers" available if a home user wants a high-bandwidth line to their home. They must use a cable company (Comcast) or a phone company (AT&T). The Internet itself offers products which compete with phone and cable services. It would only be natural in our capitalist system for companies to recognize this conflict and take measures to marginalize competition which favored one of their services over another competing service.

To use a kind of analogy with our road system. It is a reasonable thing to post a speed limit and say "all vehicles must travel no faster than 35 miles per hour, no matter what kind of car you are driving." It is also a reasonable thing to make a toll road and say "all vehicles must pay according to a set scale a fair amount based on how far you drive on our roads and how heavy your vehicle is." It is not a reasonable thing to say "cars with Illinois plates may drive 55 miles per hour on this road, but cars from other states may only go 35 miles per hour because this road is paid for largely by Illinois tax dollars."

Likewise, bits traveling from one computer to another computer should not be descriminated against because of the kind of data they carry. If the connection is slow, all bits traveling from a common source should have the same hinderances. If the connection is fast, all bits traveling from a common source should have the same advantages. It should not be an option for a company to say, "this bit is from a Microsoft update so it can go its merry way, but this bit is from a streaming video service which which I compete and so it will be a little delayed or maybe even blocked entirely."

I fear that leaving this option open will inevitably lead to companies taking advantage of it, and because of limited competition in this sphere customers will have little option but to accept it or pay more money for prioritized service. This in turn will stifle the same kind of innovation which has made the Internet such an amazing resource and a force for the free flow of information that it has been over the last decade, in spite of its faults.

I plead with you to support the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009 and work against any policies which would leave the fate of data in our networks vulnerable to the whim of private interests.

CIL 2009 Day 3 - New Tools for Metrics & Measures

I originally had not planned to attend this particular session. I had planned to go to "Emerging Search Technologies." For better or for worse, the speaker for "Emerging Search Technologies" couldn't be there as planned (I don't know why) so I had to find something else. This session looked potentially useful so I went here.

All-in-all I think this was a useful session. There was a lot of stuff that wasn't that useful in it, but it was a nice discussion of usability and by the end of it I was convinced that we need to be doing more with usability. At the bare minimum I think the speakers made a very strong argument for Google Analytics, which can be installed onto the website and be used to track (broadly) user behavior on your site so you can see where they are clicking. This is something we've wondered about for a long time and I can't think it would be an entirely bad thing to look into using this to see if the way we think people use our site is indeed how they are using it.

Some other pieces of software were also mentioned that can use webcams and screen recording to track how users use the site in a more formal usability study. This is certainly something we may we may wish to consider doing and it could provide some useful information, although it would require explicit volunteers and a more concerted effort.

CIL 2009 Day 3 - What's Hot in RSS?

Steven M. Cohen (a regular at Computers in Libraries) gave his annual, entertaining list of sites and services that he thinks are notable in the world of RSS. Some of them are just sites that use RSS in some capacity and others can be used to create interesting RSS feeds. This year he had a list of one for every letter in the alphabet (fudging one and skipping a couple) presented in reverse-alphabetical order. Here's the list:

Z – Zoho – http://www.zoho.com – online documents

Y – YouTube RSS Search http://www.youtube.com/rss/search/???.rss (replace ??? with the thing you want to search for)

X - (he couldn't find an X)

W – WWWhatsNew – http://wwwhatsnew.com – in Spanish

V – Votes Database – http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/

U – JD Supra – http://www.jdsupra.com/

T – Tic Tocs – http://www.tictocs.ac.co.uk/ - table of contents RSS for journals

S – Scribd – http://www.scribd.com/ - YouTube for PDF files

R – Ravelry – http://www.ravelry.com/

Q – QuestionPoint - http://www.questionpoint.com

P – Page 2 RSS – http://www.page2rss.com/ - RSS feed for page with no feed

O – Open Congress – http://www.opencongress.org/ - Feeds for Thomas stuff

N – Nothing

M – Mashable – http://www.mashable.com/

L – Library Thing – http://www.librarything.com/

K – KillerStartups – http://www.killerstartups.com/

J – JustiaDockets - http://docket.justia.com/

I – I want to - http://philbradley.typepad.com/i_want_to/

H – Hunch – http://www.hunch.com/

G – Google Reader – http://reader.google.com/

F – Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/

E – eHub – http://www.emilychang.com/ehub/

D – Deepest Sender – http://deepestsender.mozdev.org/

C – Compfight – http://www.compfight.com/ - Image search (limitable to Creative Commons images)

B – Backup URL – http://www.backupurl.com/

A – Awesome Highlighter – http://www.awesomehighlighter.com/

CIL 2009 Day 3 - Mobile Library Apps

For the first half of this presentation I thought I'd wasted my time coming to this session. Then I saw the second half....

The first half discussed the University of Connecticut's use of Windows Mobile PDAs with their students. I use a PDA, and still recognize that they are a dying technology and they aren't what I think of when I hear "mobile library apps."

The second half was a whole different story. Some very bright coders from D.C. Public Library explained their process for making an iPhone application for searching their SirsiDynix catalog system allowing their patrons to look stuff up and put it on hold. That's version 1.0. They have a road map for this product going up to 2.0, and are working on plans to get the thing so you could snap a picture of a book UPC, find it in the catalog, and then put a hold on it. And they are putting the source code of this thing on their development information site. So all we need to do now is learn objective C, get an iPhone developer's account, modify the code, test the modified product, and we'd have an iPhone app.

And by the way, they also implemented SMS library notices for SirsiDynix too.

CIL 2009 Day 3 - Web 2.0 Tools for Learning and Outreach

This session had several interesting ideas. The first half of the presentation focused largely (although not entirely) on the use of videos and video technology for educational purposes in an academic environment. The specifics of how the library (in this case the libraries at Ohio University) used videos is not particularly applicable to a public library, but the basic idea I think could be quite useful. The possibilities for making online video tutorials for certain kinds of online services available could be quite useful.

In the second half of the presentation the use of Flickr to post PowerPoint presentations was described. This is a clever solution to a particular kind of problem which could be useful, but I don't anticipate any particular application for this in the near future.

CIL 2009 Day 3 - Learning Solutions Through Technology

Lori Reed from Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Sarah Houghton-Jan from San Jose Public Library gave this presentation on using technology for staff and patron training. Half of the presentation wasn't overly pertinent to particular needs of the Winnetka-Northfield Public Library District as it dealt with a lot of remote training issues and the money that Charlotte-Mecklenburg was able to save by using technology to train people across it's large geographical area while not spending it on travel costs and time.

The second part had some duplication with the session from yesterday that dealt with web 2.0 training methods and tips, although the speaker did make several additional points which I think have the potential to be quite useful.

CIL 2009 Day 3 - Keynote

Michael Edson from the Smithsonian Institution spoke of the challenges facing the Smithsonian in the constantly changing online world. In particular, Edson described problems facing SI as a result of it's decentralized structure and its inability so far to establish itself as an online brand. In contrast he described the power of the commons and its importance, both historical and in a modern online context, particularly the success of IBM with its patent commons, the National Institutes of Health, the Library of Congress, Flickr Commons, and MIT Open Courseware. The Smithsonian, like libraries in many cases, has a grand history of being a source for the kinds of open information that these sources are now, but has lost it's place because of its inability to capitalize on its natural strengths in an increasingly global and interconnected Internet. This is a big problem in a world where "both the web and physical presence must be excellent for either to be excellent." He ended his talk expressing his hope that the Smithsonian will find its voice and take it's rightful place as a knowledge commons on the Internet.

CIL 2009 Day 2 - Dead & Innovative Tech

David and I had a good time at this thought provoking and entertaining evening session. I could try to summarize it, but I think that the official Infotoday Blog's coverage is probably just as good, if not better than anything I could do to describe this session.

CIL 2009 Day 2 - Pecha Kucha: 2.0 Top Tips

This was an "interesting" session, although not a particularly useful one (at least to me). Pecha Kucha is apparently a Japanese term meaning "the sound of conversation" and the idea behind this kind of session is that each presenter has a limited amount of time (6 min. and 20 sec.) to give their presentation, spending no more than 20 sec. per slide. There were 5 presenters and each covered a different topic (blogs, learning the social web, wikis, the mobile future of libraries, and trying to implement Facebook in a change-resitant environment).

Not much new to me was said in any of these mini-talks, and anything that would have been particularly useful, I'm afraid was just too densely packed in, although the speakers generally did an admirable job of trying to stay within their time limits. Probably the most useful talk was the one on learning the social web, which, although saying things I know I've heard before, at least said things that I could use hearing again, namely that the best way to get someone to learn something new is to get them to use it, and to get them to use it is best for them to see some value in it. In this context the speaker mentioned the social networking site Ravelry, which caters to people interested in knitting and crochet.

CIL 2009 Day 2 - Evaluating, Recommending, & Justifying 2.0 Tools

This was a packed session which, although having it's good points, wasn't particularly applicable to my current situation. The presenter, Marydee Ojala from ONLINE magazine, described the process of deciding which web 2.0 applications are appropriate or inappropriate for a given context and how to convince all of the parties involved that doing this web 2.0 thing is a good idea anyway. It seemed more geared to larger, more bureaucratic organizations than WNPLD, and especially appropriate for corporate situations. It was well presented and had some good points, but not the session that I will take the most from.

CIL 2009 Day 1 - Web 2.0 Training for Customers & Staff

David and I both attended this excellent session where three people explained their processes for teaching web 2.0 to patrons and/or staff and the results of their training processes. Beth Tribe from Howard County Library explained explained how their web 2.0 classes for the public worked and how they helped patrons understand subjects such as tagging. Michael Sauers from the Nebraska Library Commission told of a statewide project to get library staff using web 2.0 services. The website for that project details the 16-day course that covered 23 different web 2.0 things. Finally, Bobbi Newman described her library's process of first teaching the staff (in an initial course of 29 things (23 things + mySpace)) and then a second follow-up course for the staff. They also started teaching classes to the public following their first round of staff classes, which seem also to have been somewhat successful. All-around, this was a good session.

CIL 2009 Day 2 - Social Network Profile Management

Four panelists gave 4 mini-presentations on the issue of digital identity and web 2.0 services. Some of the important points that were made multiple times were to have a consistent username/email address across services, if possible, to be authentic with your profile information and how you present yourself, and be sensible with what you put online. One interesting thing that came out in the Q&A at the end of the presentations was the repeated observation that trying to maintain a private identity and a professional identity separately almost inevitable ends in failure as the two eventually merge. It can be important to recognize this fact so you don't put information that you wouldn't want available to co-workers on a private profile. Information leak is almost inevitable.

CIL 2009 Day 2 - The Best of the Web

Aaron Schmidt (a librarian for D.C. Public Library who actually lives on the west coast) presented this quick run-down of useful webtools. Unfortunately I chose a terrible place to sit where my view of both screens was blocked by massive columns. The presentation covered a bunch of different online tools, some of which had been mentioned in yesterday's program of 40 web tools. I don't want to dump just another list of tools here (and the list I have from this one isn't as neatly formatted), but there are some good tools in the list I have (as well as some purely useless and silly ones, like the one that will add a slice of bacon to any page you want (don't ask)).

CIL 2009 Day 2 - Keynote

This morning's keynote was an inspirational interview of Paul Holdengräber, the director of Public Programs at the New York Public Library District, by Erik Boekesteijn. Paul discussed his role at NYPL in founding the "Live from the NYPL" programs which are done there. The talk had relatively little to do with computers, although it had a lot to do with libraries and in many respects is largely indescribable. His key points were that the Library is a place where we learn things, a place for opportunity and a haven. His job, and in many ways the jobs of library staff, is to facilitate a hospitable environment. The interview was streamed and if I can find a link to it somewhere I will post it here.

CIL 2009 Day 1 - Library Facebook Apps

This was a fascinating session where a staff member from North Carolina State University explained what they had observed about the nature of Facebook apps and that they realized that for a Facebook application to be successful it needed to have a social element. They developed an app for scheduling study groups in the Library and then tested it against a small group of students. The surprising result was something to the effect of "This seems like it would be useful. Why would you put it on Facebook?" Basically, the students see Facebook as messy and chaotic and not somewhere they would go for this kind of useful thing. They are going to continue evaluating what, if anything, to do with Facebook, but so far there is no successful application strategy for libraries at the moment.

CIL 2009 Day 1 - Searching Google Earth

Great session showing a lot of the cooler things that you can do with Google Earth nowadays. I was particularly impressed with the Rumsey Historical Maps collection which allows you to take historical maps of cities and overlay them right on top of the current satellite image. This session provided a good idea of what kind of thing is available for Google Earth and how to find it.

CIL 2009 Day 1 - 40-Plus New Tools & Gadgets for Webmasters

This is an annual presentation done by Diane Fichter from the University of Saskatchewan and Frank Cervone, who is now at Purdue University Calumet (somewhere I've actually attended classes). They whip through a huge list of cool apps and websites. I'll just post the whole thing right here. Some of it looks like it could be really useful (that stuff's in italics).

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Layout Gala (blog.html.it/layoutgala) – Lots of layouts

Wave (wave.webaim.org) – Accessibility testing

HTML Table Generator (www.spectrum-research.com/V2/projects_table_generator.asp) – Generates web tables

Visual Thesaurus (www.visualthesaurus.com) – Aquabrowser like thesaurus clouds added to your website (runs in Java, seems something most appropriate to education environments)

FancyZoom (www.dfc-e.com/metiers/multimedia/opensource/jquery-fancyzoom) – Adds a Mac-like zooming to a webpage for images

Uni-Form (sprawsm.com/uni-form) – Creates a well structured, semantic, accessible and usable form

feed.informer (feed.informer.com) – widget that assists with putting feed output on your website

phplist (phplist.com) – Open-source newsletter manager. RSS to email. (!!!!!!)

EasyPHP (www.easyphp.org) – Tool for simulate and installed PHP environment.

Net.tutsplus.com/videos/screencasts/how-i-can-code-twice-as-fast-as-you/

Texter (lifehacker.com/software/texter/lifehacker-code-texter-windows-238306.php) – GPL version of ShortKeys

TextExpander (www.smileonmymac.com/TextExpander) – (Mac)

Crowd Science (crowdscience.com) – Sophisticated survey tool (looks very nice and professional)

Fusestats web analytics (www.fusestats.com) – Can generate heatmaps of your website showing where people are going and looking on your page.

Read it Later (www.ideashower.com/ideas/launched/read-it-later) - Firefox extension

Top Posts Widget (www.postrank.com) – will show what blog entries have been most popular

Internet Health Report / Internet Status Report (internethealthreport.com / internettrafficreport.com) – Helps you figure out if there's a problem on the Internet and where it might be (possibly useful for patrons asking “Why is the Internet so slow?”)

Lonely Hearts Club for Web Sites (www.google.com/friendconnect) – Allows people to friend your website.

FireShot (addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5648) – for making screen shots

FileJuicer (echoone.com/filejuicer) – get all of the images out of a PDF, Flash, or PowerPoint documents

XnView (www.enview.com/en/index.html) – allows you to convert graphics file formats to other graphics formats

ColorPicker (www.colorpicker.com) – Simple tool for picking colors and provides hex codes

Color Wizard (colorsontheweb.com/colorwizard.asp) – gives you suggestions for complimentary colors

Accessibility Color Wheel (gmazzocato.altervista.org/colorwheel/wheel.php) – shows you what a color scheme looks like for different color blindnesses

Personal Fonts (www.yourfonts.com) – Make your handwriting into a font for free

Lovely Charts (www.lovelycharts.com) – clean, elegant visualization tools

XML/SWF Charts (www.maani.us/exm_charts/index.php) – converts an arbitrary XML file into a Flash-based chart

Mind Mapping (bubbl.us) – cloud-based brainstorming tool

Mindmeister (www.mindmeister.com) – more collaborative mind mapping

script.aculo.us (demo: wiki.github.com/madrobby/scriptaculous/puzzle-demo)

xcavator (www.xcavator.net) – searches a number of different photo sites and allows you to see the results based on a particular image. You upload an image and it searches for similar images

Google Unsend (mailblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/new-in-labs-undo-send.htm) – unsend a gmail message in 5-10 seconds.

Automatically open search results in a new tab (lifehacker.com/software/firefox/firefox-tip-open-search-results-in-a-new-tab-255171.php)
Review Basics (www.reviewbasics.com) – Collaborative document reviewing

Quintura Kids (quinturakids.com) – filtered kidsafe searching

Virus Total (www.virustotal.com) – detects trojans in a file

WinDirStat (windirstat.info) – see what's using up space on a drive

LetsCallMe (letscallme.com) – hides your phone number but lets people call you

DamnIT (damnit.jupiterit.com) – Sends you an email when something goes wrong with javascript

Chunk It! (www.getchunkit.com)

net.tutsplus.com – tutorials

www.designer-daily.com/mac-apps-1915) -free mac applications

noupe.com

homokaasu.org/rasterbator (make an image poster sized)

CIL 2009 Day 1 - Omnipresence Without Spending a Dime

This was a nice presentation with a few good ideas. Nina McHale from University of Colorado-Denver talked about putting "steal this code" blocks on your website for people to be able to drop catalog search boxes, chat boxes, etc. on their own pages to expend your online presence.

Curt Tagtmeier from Fremont Public Library District presented on how he used a free service called mobiSiteGalore to create a cell-phone friendly version of their website. It's certainly an idea worth considering for our own site, although we'd need to limit it to the core of the site and what someone would want to do on a phone. This mainly has traditional cell-phones in mind. Smart phones, like the iPhone, generally do a capable job of browsing normal websites.

CIL 2009 Day 1 - Website Redesign Pitfalls

Having just done a couple redesigns I have no intention of doing another design just now, but I thought it would be interesting to hear what would be said here. The most interesting thing about the session was that in many ways the presenter discouraged redesigning (or in his terms, redeveloping) unless you have particular, verifiable, measurable goals. If the site "feels old", change the colors and the fonts and swap out some graphics, but leave the structure intact. One of his points I think we've felt in the wake of our recent redesign: staff like redesigning (it's exciting) but users hate them. As time goes on users like your design more as you like it less, hence the necessity to evaluate real reasons for a redesign before doing one and redesign to meet those goals (preferably avoiding a committee in the process). Good points in general on the redesign process and how to avoid the redesign process entirely.

CIL 2009 Day 1 - Key Note

Lee Raimie presented an informative and thought provoking keynote on the technological categories our users fall into. Here are my notes from the keynote:

In 2000 46% of adults were using the Internet. 5% with broadband. 50% owned a cell phone. Less than 10% used “cloud” computing applications.

2008: 75% of adults were using the Internet. 57% have broadband. 82% own a cell phone. 62% connect to the Internet wirelessly. 53% use “cloud” applications.

These changes have had these effects in the ecosystems of everyday people.

1. Volume of information has gown

2. Variety of information has increased

3. Velocity of information is faster (you find out things, both on a national and person level, faster).

4. The times and places to experience media enlarge.

5. People's vigilance for information expands and contracts. (As people gain new interests they...)

6. The immersive qualities of media are more compelling.

7. Relevance of information improves.

8. The number of information “voices” explodes and becomes more findable.

9. Voting and ventilating are enabled

10. Social networks (not necessarily online) are more vivid (in an environment where all of this stuff is happening, people are falling back on their social networks to help them cope).

Homo Connectus

Different sense of

• Expectation about access to information

• Place and distance

• Opportunities to play

• Time use

• Personal efficacy

• Social networking possibilities

39% of those surveyed in a recent Pew Internet survey are motivated by mobility (love it and feel good about tech)

61% are tied to stationary media (ambivalent about tech)

10 groups in the greater population (5 excited about tech, 5 ambivalent about tech)

1. Digital Collaborators (8%)

   1. People at the cutting edge (blogging, tweeting, always online, etc.) Gen X group

   2. Libraries just need to be a place for them to connect to the Internet. They can influence.

2. Ambivalent Networkers (7%)

   1. Younger (Gen Y). Use the Internet but less excited about it. Don't rely on e-mail as much as texting

   2. Libraries can be a sanctuary where they can go offline. Gaming is important to them. Libraries can help them deal with Information Overload.

3. Media Movers (7% of population)

   1. Like putting photos online, etc. (The people who are always sending links, etc.)

   2. Libraries can help them find outlets for sharing their creations. Help them navigate to material they can pass along.

4. Roving nodes (9% of population)

   1. People who could not give up their email & cell phone. Feel that technology gives them control. Largely female population. (sounds like a Winnetka group)

   2. Help them to be efficient. Give them access to technology. They are candidates to learn about cloud computing.

5. Mobile Newbies (8% of the population)

   1. New to cell phones. Love them deeply. Largely a female group and the oldest group in the Mobile set. Don't know much or care much about the Internet.

   2. How-to-material, coaching and mentoring are services they can use. They would like tech support.

6. Desktop Veterans (13% of the population)

   1. Internet veterans. Mobility doesn't matter. 2004 was an awesome year. Cell phones are used for phone calls.

   2. Offer good computers with good connections. Self sufficient. May want tutorials on content creation.

7. Drifting Surfers (14% of the population)

   1. Largely female. Attitudes on technology have worsened ove r the past two years.

   2. Would like tech support. Traditional library services

8. Information Encumbered (10% of the population)

   1. Largely male. Angry about information overload. Get ticked off when things break down.

   2. Don't force things on them. Provide sympathy. Be filters and provide good support.

9. Tech Indifferent

   1. Not internet users. Some cell users.

   2. Computers & Internet 101, but don't force them

10. Off the Network (14% of the population)

    1. People who used to do things online but don't anymore (often). Love old media. Affordability is an issue.

    2. Traditional services big. Maybe some tutorials.

Roles for libraries:

1. Pathways to problem-solving information

2. Pathways to personal enrichment

3. Pathways to entertainment

4. Pathways to new kinds of social networks built around people, media, and institutions

5. Pathways to the wisdom of crowds, so you can fill your own future here...

CIL 2009

I left Chicago early and managed to avoid the bad weather there this weekend. The weather in Washington yesterday was absolutely gorgeous. Sunny with some clouds and a high of 75. I had come out early to meet with some relatives and do some sight-seeing. I've posted some photos from my trip to the Zoo and the Cathedral yesterday here.

I haven't seen him around yet, but I've confirmed that David got here safely via email. After this morning's keynote on "Freeing Libraries: The Nodes in People's Social Networks" by Lee Rainie my plans for today tentatively include these sessions:

• Website Redesign Pitfalls
• Help Your Library Be Omnipresent Without Spending a Dime (a staff member from Fremont will be presenting here)
• 40-Plus New Tools & Gadgets for Library Webmasters
• Searching Google Earth
• Library Facebook Applications

Stay tuned for further updates.