Entries Tagged 'SAA2006' ↓

I still haven't had enough time to process everything I took in or ideas I came up with as a result of the SAA conference. Many were more diligent than I and I'm sorry to say I didn't meet them, but some highlights follow:

• Geof Huth took notes on the SAA Awards Ceremony,
• Christie Peterson pitted Archon against Archivist's Toolkit,
• Jessamyn West blogged about her session on blogs,
• Peter Van Garderen discusses his experience at the conference including his session on archives and Web 2.0,
• and Merrilee Proffitt from RLG mentioned the blog session and RLG Roundtable.

I'm not even up to speed on the rest of the archival blogs out there. In a stroke of genius and madness I've got an idea that I may put into motion. I'm thinking about setting up an instance of Planet, a Python-powered web-based news aggregator. It's pretty common in the FLOSS world, and has been picked up by the code4lib folks; they're running theirs as planet code4lib. One of the reasons I think this is a good idea is that one doesn't need to use an aggregator (Bloglines, NetNewsWire, what have you) to get all of the content at once. This in turn eliminates a hurdle from those archivists that are not technically minded: they just need to be told to go to a single website to read everything.  What do you think? Would you be willing to take part?

I'm at the Hilton Washington, the site of the SAA conference. I've registered and picked up my free totebag. I, and others, have bemoaned the lack of connectivity in the conference area. Wireless is only available in the lobby, so it seems, and it's rather pricy ($5.95 for 4 hours or $9.95 for 24 hours). I know archivists are often thought of as being technologically behind (whether we are is a Pandora's box that I won't open in this post), but I feel that some sort of net access is necessary at every conference. I'm just barely able to get it through my cell phone, which is how I'm posting now. Unfortunately, I get no reception on the conference floor so I needed to make my way up to the lobby anyhow.

I missed the Standards Committee meeting since I was a little late and I didn't want to barge in since the doors were closed. It's nearly time for the Archival Solidarity session, which sounds interesting to me since I'd like to get involved in ICA. I'm trying to figure out a way to get to their university and research symposium this September in Reykjavik since I'd love to go back.

I'm one of several bloggers attending the SAA conference the rest of this week. Nothing against CoSA or NAGARA, but I'm attending the conference for the organization to which I belong. My schedule is pretty packed, and if you're one of us be sure to attend the Description Section meeting since I'm running for Vice-Chair.