What could have been a boring link to a pdf document ended up being a pop-up interactive book – it still gives you all the fact you need, but in a really creative way.

Here’s the link to the full annual report.

I love how it goes against the stereotypical idea of librarians as being boring, old-fashioned, fuddy-duddy people!

I think mine would read:

Sophie van der Walt

AKA …

- camper

- amateur cook

- wild life enthusiast

- lover of pina coladas

(Click on the image to enlarge or go to this link).

What I found interesting is the last comment made in the post:

This infographic confirms what many of us already know, kids are creating and consuming content online at a higher rate than their teachers and parents.

I found it interesting because at Tuesday’s conference Arthur Goldstuck, CEO of WorldWideWorx research, talked about what his company is calling the Digital Participation Curve.

The Digital Participation Curve argues that it takes people (on average) 5 years to get comfortable enough with internet technologies to start contributing content – whether it be on blogs, fb, social media sites etc.

So by this logic, the younger generation should be the ones to contribute more as they’ve had more constant experience with these technologies.

Unfortunately, South Africa is not listed at being known for its wild life, beauty or friendly people … nope our claim to fame according to the graphic is Assaults. And while I can’t really argue with that it does make me sad, because my country is so much more than that!

(But then I saw that Tajikistan is known for intestinal diseases; Senegal for rain and Mexico for television – so I didn’t feel that bad anymore!)

Click on the image to enlarge it or click here to go to the interactive version of the InfoGraphic.

NachoFoto is an image search engine designed to bring you the latest images from across the web on emerging trends and breaking stories.

At the moment the Trending Topics they have images for are:

Afriqiyah Plane Crash 12th May 2010 Pictures Bay to Breakers Pictures Cannes Film Festival Pictures Elections in the United Kingdom Pictures Miss USA 2010 Pictures Oklahoma tornado outbreak 10th May 2010 Pictures Open Air Mass At Fhatima 13th May 2010 Pictures Quebec landslide 11th May 2010 Pictures Series Of Explosions Hit Iraq 10th May 2010 Pictures Thai Anti Government Protest 2010 Pictures Uranium Exchange Program 17th May 2010 Pictures Wall Street reform Pictures War in Somalia 2009 Pictures

It can offer great images to link to current events/topics and you can use the NachoFoto’s timeline slider to look back at images taken over the course of the development of a news story.

1. What is it?
2. How does it work?
3. Who’s doing it?
4. Why is it significant?
5. What are the downsides?
6. Where is it going?
7. What are the implications for teaching and
   learning?

I spoke about the findings of my Masters’ studies on generational awareness in academic libraries in South Africa twice and co-presented a paper on using e-posters to teach research methodology to honors students. (I’ll try to post both presentations today or tomorrow)

It went really well, and this morning when I read Roy Tennant’s post Thoughts on Speaking where he mentions another post on “30 Quick Tips for Speakers (now 35!)” that gives a few tips on presenting and speaking I thought I’d add my 2 c worth:

2. The power is not the point – slides are there as navigation points, not to be the content - I couldn’t agree more! the presentations that resonated with me where the ones that were text light but the presenter was knowledgeable enough not to need a text heavy slide

4. There is a high demand for people who can both provide content and deliver it effectively from stage. Some can do one of the two, most don’t do either and a select few do both. Aim to be great. Amen! Great content can get lost/spoiled if the presenter can’t deliver well. Practice untill you find your presenting voice and don’t try to imitate somebody else’s style

15. Have passion for what you’re saying. If you don’t, your audience won’t either. I experienced this in all three my presentations. Because I was passionate about my topic and thought it was really interesting the audience responded very well too and ended up asking really interesting/thought-provoking questions

20. Change your presentation every time. Update stats, bring new examples. Own the content, not repeat it. I agree with this. Even though there was only one person in audience who attended both of my solo presentation I changed some of the slides, added some videos and cartoons and made sure that it looked and felt different and new

33. Tell great stories (your own, not someone else’s), and be funny. Don’t tell jokes, but use humor. (From Ava Diamond Site / Twitter) People respond better to you as a speaker if you can humanize yourself, so I always try to use humor (even at my expense) to show that I’m just a normal 30-year-old

I like presenting not just because I like to talk so much but because of the incredible feedback and vibes you get when presenting. It’s a chance to tell people “here’s what I did/think – what do you think about it” and that leads to some really interesting meetings and people!

So by posting things you should really know that chances are good other people might see/read/comment on it – so if this freaks you out, maybe the way to go is to take responsibility for your own privacy on the net, and not rely so heavily on systems to protect you.

In line with this Dave Lee King posted about fb and privacy and I complete agree with him. Here’s a little snippet:

First, there’s the “update me with your stuff” things, like status updates, new photos, and new videos:

• If you want those to be private, you shouldn’t post them. Period.
• Hello! Nothing’s private on the web. Even on Facebook.
• If you want to share a status update with just some people, you can do that. Which is more than Twitter gives you.

Basic info, like:

• Name: um … don’t open a Facebook account if you don’t want to share your name.
• Gender: That’s rather apparent, isn’t it? Is it bad that you know I’m a guy?
• Birthday: Hmm. I don’t really care. Should I?
• Relationship Status: OK – so I have a recently divorced friend, and it was rather painful to watch his relationship status go from married to single to it’s complicated … back to single, etc. Maybe a case of sharing too much info, rather than one of privacy. So if your life’s on a rollercoaster ride … don’t fill that one out.
• Current city: big whoop. Google already knows this.
• Hometown: That’s sort of important when connecting with past schoolmates.

Religious and Political views: I have em. So does everyone else.

The New York Times also posted an InfoGraphic on Facebook Privacy that’s quite interesting (It’s small, so click on the NY link for a bigger version):

And a cute cartoon:

by  fabbriciuse