Meredith and
Steve and
Dorothea were prescient. They wrote about mid-level tech training and conferences as Los Angeleno librarians were planning the latest installment of
techbootcamp.
It''s been over a year since we went on hiatus. We've begun the revival with more librarians participating. Here we are with our resident expert, watching the big screen, while I'm coached through a Drupal install. Through the command-line. Hands-on.
We talked through questions as they came up which led to nice side discussions on *nix, and relational database modeling with a smattering of local industry gossip. Oh yeah -- there was also good beer.
Needless to say I'm glad to see others recognizing the gap in tech training and networking opportunities for middle-grounders. And I'm thinking "no duh," hand slapped to head, when I read so many comments on the thread at S
ee Also about the need for a library related project or problem to make the learning relevant (we had one for techbootcamp: using Drupal plug-in for 2.0 OPAC interface. Just sayin'). Middle-ground tech librarians have no time or money to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps! There is no other choice but to teach ourselves as we go. And we're doing it!
I see murmurings about an asynchronous combo online unconference barcamp somethingorother on the comment threads. I see portions of it happening with my participation in techbootcamp and the
Semantic Library Learning Program. It would be great to have somethingorother coalesce. Let's marry the common elements between them all and beget the somethingorother mutation!
The take-away ideas are:
The "conference" never ends as long as it's online. There is always discussion, new content, and ways to connect with fellow participants over time.
Curricula and programming are co-created by participants hence intrinsically meaningful and thus motivating.
Curricula and programming resources are digitally distributed with asynchronous media. The web is the best vehicle for sharing instruction widely given that there are more learners than teachers in the middle-grounder community. For now.
Local communities of practice create shared opportunity for hands-on problem solving ... feeding back into curricula...etc. And most importantly: the chance to ask questions and get help from local coaches/teachers/experts
So what is stopping it from happening? Absolutely nothing. This is a do-acracy. Those that think it's a cool idea will run with it like the California Librarians in Technology participating in techbootcamp
Labels: techbootcamp
I've been toying around with regular expressions to help out with another big batch load (oh, and I did ensure that we increased the size of our transaction file so that I could avoid the problems of
my last adventure in batch-loading and global editing)
I need to work with the other California Librarians In Technology to reinstate
techbootcamp. I could use a Regex for Dummies hands-on kind of workshop. I certainly have a few use cases now.
Otherwise I'm head-achy and exhausted from this darn cold. Don't think I'll be making
Robert McDonald's talk tonight.
Labels: *nix, cataloging, III, techbootcamp, what i did today
*with apologies to
Nicole Engard and her excellent blogWhen I try to teach myself something new, it generally takes (a) much longer than I anticipated and (b)I end up learning a few more things than I intended. My experience today was another example of this.
I'm tying up final threads at my soon-to-be FPOW. One of the tasks on my to-do list is to wipe the hard drive on my laptop. Cool! I thinks to myself. It's a perfect opportunity to make use of some of my newly acquired
techbootcamp knowledge.
When we started going through basic *nix, our fearless instructor told us about
Knoppix. For those of you not in the know, Knoppix is a Linux distribution which can run live from CD/DVD/thumb drive. Knoppix has a utility called "shred" which does a good job with wiping. I figured I'd go with Knoppix/shred over something like
dban because I could continue using the laptop after the wipe by running the OS from the DVD drive. So I moseyed on over to the Knoppix download page and started my grand adventure.
I learned a thing or two. First, I figured out that bit Torrent is a faster download than a regular old mirror site. Well no duh! says you. But, like Dean Hendrix discovered during his recent analysis of librarian use of peer-2-peer networks**, I've been like most other librarians -- hopelessly slow with the uptake.
Then I realized that I needed to perform check sum verification on the things I download, especially with something as powerful as an operating system. So I had to download MD5summer (.md5 being a check sum file type)and actually do a check sum comparison between my downloaded files and the originals. I've known about check sums in a theoretical sense for ages, due to my interest in digital preservation and authenticity. I'd just never actually used them.
Finally, I had to poke around in the BIOS to get my laptop to prioritize the DVD drive when looking for an operating system from which to boot.
When all was said and done (about 4 hours later), I had learned Bit Torrent, MD5summer, revisited a computer BIOS for the first time since the age of DOS, installed a plug in so Windows Explorer could burn a .iso file as an image, and burned a verified copy of Knoppix to DVD.
It.still.didn't.work.
I suspect I screwed up something with the check sum verification and that my DVD is corrupted. Whatever. I've spent too much time on this little adventure. I'll use something simpler and just hand over the laptop after the wipe. It's not worth the effort to get a Knoppix DVD when I'm only using the equipment for another day.
It is frustrating to spend time doing something which should be incredibly simple if you know what the heck you're doing (download OS to DVD, boot laptop from DVD, wipe). I do consider learning the additional programs and reviewing BIOS to be time well spent. The thing is to actually remember that learning can be a slow-going and frustrating process without a guaranteed result. This is a good lesson to remember as we move forward with techbootcamp.
When the more technically inclined teach us newbies, they can toss off statements like, "oh, just download Knoppix and boot your laptop from there" without thinking about the prior knowledge required or the necessary computing environment. I'm reminded to consider these factors when I do any type of training. I'll also remember to schedule more time for these types of things.
**see Hendrix, Dean. "Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Knowledge, Use, and Attitudes of Academic Librarians." portal: Libraries and the Academy, 7(2) April 2007.
Muse subscribers can view the article here:
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/portal_libraries_and_the_academy/v007/7.2hendrix.html Labels: knoppix, techbootcamp, what i did today
Today was the third installment of
techbootcamp. We've now configured server hardware and gone through basic *nix commands. We can grep with the best of them now, but I still get a bit confused when piping commands. More practice will help.
Next steps? Take on a few projects and use them to train ourselves on particular open source applications. We have a few ideas in mind. My lib school student friends intend to digitize some out-of-copyright knitting patterns, get'em described, and make them available and searchable on the interbunny. They're considering using Greenstone.
For my part, I'm going to do something with ePrints. Not quite sure just what that will be yet, but I suspect it will involve images, batch importing, and metadata crosswalking. I'm totally open to suggestions if anybody has any.
Posts will be sporadic between now and 8/20. I'm leaving my current place of work on 5/30. I'm off on a few weeks vacation (
culinary school!) then ALA, then more vacation, before starting the new job in August. I will not have a laptop. I've avoided purchasing one because I've been using my soon-to-be-former-place-of-work's equipment. That, obviously, can't continue after I quit. I do intend to purchase my own equipment but I'm not sure yet when that will happen. Depends on how much I spend on vacation.
Labels: oss4lib, projects, techbootcamp
The
techbootcamp crew got together again yesterday. It's been difficult coordinating schedules but we finally managed. I think it should be a bit easier from now on, since the library school students are finishing up their quarter.
My camera is acting a bit funny, so I don't have pictures this time. This week we discussed the basics of Linux -- files, directories, command structure (command+arguments+flags), common commands for moving files around, shell navigation tips. T. brought her chihuahua puppy Oberon which lightened the mood. T & I both got accounts so they can practice logging into a shell and playing around with the commands.
Slowly, but surely, we're working towards the day when techbootcamp can become a working lab where we can get hands-on experience with the major Open Source applications in digital archiving. Yay.
Next meeting will be 5/27 3pm at the
Boneless Ranch. I should have my camera fixed by then.
Labels: techbootcamp
The
techbootcamp was a rousing success and a helluva lot of fun. We dedicated ourselves to hardware evaluation and set up since we had to carry the donated equipment into the
boneless ranch.
Check out the photo series.
After we moved everything into the space, we put the equipment onto a work bench for the inspection process. We started with the servers -- only 1 of the 4 we had actually functioned. We're saving the other 3 for parts.
We cracked the cases and switched out some RAM -- I think this means we get some street cred as systems techie types now.
Thanks to TJ for the use of the ranch space (and roommate Terry too!), Mayor Jim and Connie Lynn for the tech expertise and to all of the attendees. See you in 2 weeks to install the OS -- (Redhat? SuSE?).
Labels: techbootcamp
