Zzzoot

IBM developerWorks has an article ( Linux: Lean, clean, and green: How GNU/Linux is becoming more eco-friendly - 26 May 2009) which examines some of the Green benefits of the Linux operating system. It focuses primarily on the low resource demands Linux has on systems (as well as its support for older systems), thus extending the life of machines that would otherwise be junked. Also discussed is virtualization and aspects of the Linux OS that reduce power consumption in servers. Additional Green Linux and Open Source resource: LessWatts.org - Saving Power on Intel systems with Linux Ten ways Linux can turn you green . 2009 Green Computing With Open Source Software . 2009 Open Source is Already Naturally Green: Fewer Lawyers, Fewer Showers, More Real People Add Up to Big Green Wins . 2009 Is Linux the Greenest Operating System . 2009 Go Green, Save Green with Linux . 2008 Linux captures the 'green' flag, beats Windows 2008 power-saving measures 2008 Canadian Green Party...

This is old news from February, but I seemed to have missed it: the NRCan (Federal Natural Resources ministry in Canada) libraries have chosen the Open Source Evergreen integrated library system (ILS). Kudos to my colleague George Duimovich and others at the NRCan library . Here is the opening search interface . It is great to see sensible Web 2.0 and Open Source choices can be made in such organizations.

The final report for the NSF Information Seeking Support Systems Workshop has been released . "The general goal of the workshop will be to coalesce a research agenda that stimulates progress toward better systems that support information seeking." From the executive summary: Our nation and our world depend on citizens who are able to seek, assess, understand, and use diverse kinds of information. Much of the information we need is complex with different components held in disparate electronic sources and many of our efforts to gather, assess, and use this information are done in collaboration with others. Additionally, much of the information we need is not discretely anticipated, but rather emerges as seeking and reflection continues over time. Information seeking in the digital age is a kind of problem solving activity that demands agile and symbiotic coordination of human and cyber resources; in short, a fundamental kind of computationally-augmented thinking. Computation ...

The 2009 ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries ( JCDL ) poster session will be held both in real life and in Second Life . This is the first time that the JCDL has done this, and allows for remote participation in at least this part of the conference. More information on all of the JCDL2009 sessions . BTW, I will be chairing session #7 on Wednesday, June 17.

http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/mapsdata/

The W3C has today announced Service Modeling Language 1.1 and SML Interchange Format 1.1 (SML-IF) , two XMl-based standards: SML, SML-IF Enable Validation of Sets of XML Documents To illustrate what SML adds to the XML ecosystem, consider what happens when someone purchases an airline ticket. Suppose the reservation information is stored as an XML document that includes passenger information. The reservation also refers to a second XML document that stores departure time and other information about the flight. One department manages customer information, another manages flight information. Before any transaction with the customer, the airline wants to ensure that the system as a whole is valid. SML allows the airline to verify that certain constraints are satisfied across the reservation and flight data. This makes it easier to manage inconsistencies, and to do so without writing custom code. As a result, the airline lowers the cost of managing tasks such as informing passengers when...

The issue 1 volume 1, Spring 2009 of the Journal of Information Architecture is now available. Topics for this journal are (from the site): Theoretical foundations of information architecture; Pervasive information architecture; History of information architecture; Information architecture techniques and best practices; card sorting; freelisting; Way-finding in digital environments; human information seeking; human information interaction; navigation and navigation behaviors; findability; Labeling and representation in digital environments; Organization of information; pace layering; taxonomies; folksonomies; collaborative tagging; Social media; social computing; social networks; Information architecture and digital genres; Information architecture development in organizations, in communities, in society, globally; The role of information architecture in information systems development; The value of information architecture for organizations; The impact of information architecture in...