I just finished attending a Masters of Information Management (MSIM) book group that read Pull: The Power of the Semantic Web to Transform Your Business out at Third Place Books. It was a great conversation about both the MSIM program generally and the future of information systems.

Here are a few of the topic we covered.

Q: What is Pull?

Metadata, Personal Data Lockers, Automation (several of the examples are mere automation but the idea of pull is more then automation)

Q: Is David Siegel a visionary or an Andy Rowney? No answer was agreed upon here.

Q: What are the strong points of the book?

Great ideas, several little slices of what the future could look like.  Several interesting conversation starters, it gives people enough information about topics to launch them into heated discussions over the future.

Q: What are the weakest parts of the book?

Privacy concerns were glossed over with no real solutions presented.
Other books talked about:

Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart, The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations

Cool ideas from the discussion group:

• UW Toastmasters we need an iSchool specific chapter that focuses on teaching people how to explain what MSIM is in a short compelling elevator speech
• Blogs we mentioned: Chris Messina’s he is a board member of OpenID and Open Web Foundations; Nate Silver’s 538,
• Wordnick Social media integration in a dictionary try Copyfight or Fop which was popular in the 1800′ and then again in the 1980′s
• InfoCamp Seattle 2010 will be on October 2 & 3 at Seattle University in the First Hill/Capitol Hill area of Seattle.

Video on Designing a Stop Sign:

Bonus Photo: While I was at, Third Place Books, I could not help but drool over the Espresso:

“Voices from the Rwanda Tribunal: Genocide and Justice”
Date: Tuesday, January 27
Time: 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Location: Kane Hall, Room 120 ,University of Washington
Cost: FREE!

To register, visit: https://catalysttools.washington.edu/webq/survey/lhatfiel/66846 or call Natalie Michael at 206-543-4794.

Recent events in Congo, Darfur and Somalia underscore the persistence of genocide as a political, legal, ethical and humanitarian problem. In 1994, the Rwandan genocide lasted only 100 days but left more than 800,000 dead, a rate of killing far higher than any other previous genocide. In response to the Rwandan genocide, the United Nations in 1994 created the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

The presentation will be given by University of Washington Information School Professor Batya Friedman and a team of experts from Seattle University School of Law and UW. “Voices from the Rwanda Tribunal” is part of a UW multi-lifespan research initiative intended to help future generations understand and learn from the Rwanda genocide, develop an improved system of international justice, and contribute to a process of healing and peace. A series of compelling videos will give voice to the judges, prosecutors, defense counsel, administrators, interpreters, investigators, jailers, psychologist and others associated with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Last fall, Friedman and former Superior Court Judge Donald Horowitz led a team of information scientists, legal experts and award-winning cinematographers to Rwanda and Tanzania. The team, which included former State Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Utter; former U.S. Attorney and Seattle University School of Law Professor from Practice John McKay and SU Law Professor Ron Slye, conducted 49 in-depth video interviews with participants in the tribunal. For the first time ever, both the professional and personal experiences of lawyers, judges and others directly involved with such a court or tribunal have been brought together, collected, and preserved. That didn’t happen at Nuremberg on in Cambodia or South Africa. These materials will be made fully available to the public in Rwanda, throughout Africa, and the rest of the world.

I will likely be in attendance and live blogging.

The most recent Informatics cohort put has put a YouTube to try and explain the major to prospective students:

Brian Reyes, one of the grads talking in the video, did a great Drupal site for WSBA last year it is the ATJWeb.org site. Pass it on to your friends who might be interested in applying to Informatics! The application date is coming up on April 15. And of course, feel free to post it on your social networking pages, etc. (I need to talk to them about putting the video under CC). For more information about Informatics check out the Ischool website.

Disclaimer: I am a proud Graduate of the Informatics program of the ISchool and regularly attend events they host such as Kahle’s speech on Access to Knowelge.

http://www.ischool.washington.edu/events/newsletter.aspx

It is great to see the Ischool reaching out to the community and implementing best practices in the information field in the schools own administration.

I am working with Seattle University Law currently to try and persuade the school of the advantages of podcasting. A podcast focusing on social justice legal issues could be an incredible asset to the legal services community.

Background on the Ischool:

The ISchool is one of UW premier schools with a strong Ph.D program, a Masters in Library Information Science (MLIS), Masters of Science in Information Management (MSIM) and a unique Bachelor of Science in Informatics which consists of tradition Computer Science curriculum paired with cutting edge human-computer interaction and information science research.

My undergrad work was done in the Informatics program and the volunteer organization I now run Freedom for IP , was an out growth my Informatics research capstone.