2002 Computers in Libraries Buyer's Guide Article.

Welcome to the 2002 version of the Computers in Libraries Buyer’s Guide Windows/Intel (Wintel) industry review. Last year we began by noting that we were moving away from personal computers, operating systems, and applications that mainly generate printed pages while heading toward a future filled with the tools needed to create a high-bandwidth, Net-centric, media-rich environment. The article continued with a forecast that extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology would permit the manufacture of processors with billions of transistors in the 10, 20, or 30GHz speed range by 2005. Later, when these processors become widely available, real-time high-definition video creation, manipulation, and presentation; natural speech recognition; and idiomatic language translation will be possible on the desktop. The article concluded with a prediction that combinations of these high-speed, multibillion transistor processors eventually would become the heart of artificial agents and machines that think.

The most common reader response to this vision was, “If you’re right, what will this look like?” For once the answer was easy. First, check out three forward-looking corporate videos that have become the star charts of computing space—Apple’s "Knowledge Navigator" (1987), Microsoft’s "Information At Your Fingertips: 2005" (1994), and Sun Microsystems' "Starfire: A Vision of Future Computing" (1995). (All three videos had the same purpose: to show what personal computing space might look like in the future—the year 2004 for Sun, 2005 for Microsoft, and 2011 for Apple.) And second, follow the development of office environment design experiments like the IBM/Steelcase collaboration called "BlueSpace."

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2001 Computers in Libraries Buyer's Guide Article.

"Personal Computing Space: Specifications Subject to Change"

From the article introduction:

"Welcome to my ninth Computers in Libraries Buyer's Guide review of the Wintel marketplace. And welcome to a rapidly changing computing space. Today we travel an evolutionary path leading away from personal computers and operating systems that mainly support applications that generate printed pages, and we head toward a future filled with the smart tools needed to create a high-bandwidth, Net-centric, media-rich environment. At the end of the path, in a global computing space governed by Moore's Law, Metcalfe's Law, and the Bandwidth Scaling Law, location means nothing, and time means everything. Microsoft knows it, and so does Intel."

Click here to see a PowerPoint presentation called "Asynchronous Streaming Video from the Classroom to the Remote Student’s Desktop: Report of a Distributed Education Project" presented at the Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education (SITE) 2008 annual conference in Las Vegas on March 7, 2008.

Click here to see a PowerPoint presentation called “Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and Copyright 2.0, or, Creation, Dissemination, and Reward in the 21st Century” presented to LIS 693 “Copyright and Libraries” class at UH Manoa on June 26, 2007.

Click here to see a PowerPoint presentation called "Corporate Visions of Personal Computing Space: A Program of Videos on Computing Futures" presented at the Hawai'i Library Association annual meeting in Waikiki on November 11, 2006. Click here to see the introductory remarks for the presentation.

Click here to see a PowerPoint presentation called "Asynchronous Streaming Video from the Classroom to the Remote Student’s Desktop: Preliminary Results of a Distance Education Project." presented at E-Learn 2006 World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Health Care, & Higher Education in Honolulu on October 16, 2006.

Click here to see a PowerPoint presentation called "Synchronous Streaming Video From the Classroom to the Remote Student’s Desktop: Report of a Distributed Education Project" presented at E-Learn 2005: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education in Vancouver on October 26, 2005.

Click here to see a PowerPoint presentation called "Low Cost Narrow Bandwidth Synchronous Streaming Video From the Classroom to the Remote Student’s Desktop," presented at the New Media Consortium (NMC) 2005 Summer Conference in Honolulu on June 18, 2005.

Click here to see a PowerPoint show called “Competition, Technology, and Planning for Libraries and Information Services: Theorists, Critics, and Commentators,” presented at Knowledge, Culture and Change in Organisations at the University of Greenwich, London on August 6, 2004.

Click here to see a PowerPoint show called “Competition, Technology, and Planning: Preparing for Tomorrow's Library Evironment,” presented at Computers in Libraries 2004 in Washington, DC on March 12, 2004.

Click here to view "Competition, Technology, and Planning: Preparing for Tomorrow's Library Environment," Hawai'i Library Association Annual Meeting, Manele Bay Resort, Lanai, December 13, 2003.

Click here to view "Competition, Technology, and Planning: Preparing for Tomorrow's Information Environment with Special Reference to Libraries," University of Hawai'i-West O‘ahu / University of Western Sydney Joint Symposium, Honolulu, November 7, 2003.

Click here for "Low Cost Narrow Bandwidth Classroom-based Streaming Video with RealNetworks Products at the University of Hawai'i-West O'ahu," ED-MEDIA 2003 World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications, Honolulu, June 27, 2003.

Click here to see the UH This Week television show about classroom-based streaming video advances at UH West O‘ahu. This show was originally broadcast on KHNL on June 14, 2003.

Click here to see a PowerPoint show called “Competition, Technology, and Planning: Preparing for Tomorrow's Library Environment,” presented in the E-Libraries track of InfoToday 2003 in New York on May 7, 2003.

Click here to see a PowerPoint show called “Streaming Video On The Net With RealNetworks Products,” presented at the Hawai'i Library Association 2002 annual conference at Ko 'Olina, September 28, 2002.

Click here to see a PowerPoint show called “Streaming Video On The Net With RealNetworks Products,” presented at Computers in Libraries 2002 in Washington DC, March 15, 2002. Be patient. This may take a minute or two to load.

Click here to read the text of Eric Flower's November 8, 2001 introductory remarks at the Internet Librarian 2001 Conference and Exhibition closing keynote session entitled "Are We There Yet? Corporate Visions of Personal Computing Space." Session speakers were Mary Lee Kennedy, Director of the Knowledge Network Group at Microsoft, and Cindy Hill, Manager of the SunLibrary, Sun Microsystems. Click here to see the introductory PowerPoint slides.

Click here to listen to a thirteen minute audio clip of Eric Flower's March 14, 2001 remarks at the "Technology and Knowledge Forum: A Look at Dead and Emerging Technologies" at the Computers in Libraries 2001 conference. (Requires RealPlayer/RealOne Player.) By way of background, here's some of what Nancy Melin Nelson wrote in the June 2001 issue of Computers in Libraries:

"Well-known library prognosticators serving as panelists this year were Stephen Abram (IHS/Micromedia), Marshall Breeding (Vanderbilt University), Eric Flower (University of Hawai'i and former editor of CIL magazine), Greg Notess (Montana State University), and Master of Ceremonies Scott Brandt, aka Techman (Purdue University). Brandt's theme this year mimicked the popular television show Survivor as he challenged the team on these fronts: Choose which technologies you'd "kick off the island"; identify the critical information technologies that would ensure that your library would not be kicked off the island; and select a single Web site you'd want to access if you are stranded there on your own."