BlogDay 2006 - Alane's (Late) List

As others in the bilioblogosphere have noted, yesterday was BlogDay. So, here I am, one day late with my list of five blogs, picked somewhat randomly from my reader.

They aren't new at all, but they are outside of this space so perhaps will be new to you. It would be way too hard to list only five blogs from Libraryland so this was easier! Although Michael Stephens beat me to it and listed one of my favs, Church of the Customer Blog, requiring me to pick something else. That's what happens when you're late to the party.

apophenia. danah boyd is a Phd candidate in the UC Berkeley's SIMS (School of Information Management and Systems) as well as a social media researcher at Yahoo! You might have caught her at LITA 2005 when she gave a talk called "Blogging Outloud: Shifts in Public Voice". danah writes about things many of us are tracking: MySpace, other social networks, DOPA.

Cosmic Variance. Like this blog, a 5 author blog. Unlike this one, the writers are physicists and astrophysicists which might lead you to assume that the content would be way too esoteric and dry for non-scientists. Not. It's lively and topical--and informative.

BuzzMachine. Jeff Jarvis is a journalist and often writes about the challenges of traditional print media in a Web world. He's opinionated and isn't shy about sharing.

The End of Cyberspace. Alex Soojung-Kim Pang is a futurist, the Director of the Institute for the Future, and a historian of science. He contends that the notion of cyberspace is a vivid metaphor that has ended its usefulness: "...in a rapidly-emerging world of mobile, always-on information devices (and eventually cybernetic implants, prosthetics, and swarm intelligence), the rules that define the relationship between information, places, and daily life are going to be rewritten. As the Internet becomes more pervasive-- as it moves off desktops and screen and becomes embedded in things, spaces, and minds-- cyberspace will disappear."

Creating Passionate Users. Perhaps Kathy Sierra's blog isn't new to you because I link to it now and then, and I've noticed other library bloggers have as well. Great graphics and thoughtful and thought provoking posts about....customers, users, patrons.

For US and Canadian readers: Happy Labo(u)r Day weekend! Aptly named, as I will be labouring quite a bit around the homestead. But I am not whining...two weeks ago I was in the Highlands of Scotland with my sisters (and their families) for a family party. Cousins, uncles and aunts I've not seen for decades, It was lovely. I'd include a picture but I can't get blogger to go fetch one....