The Well and the Cathedral

One term on the tips of peoples’ tounges these days is “cloud computing.” It’s a nebulous idea (pun intended) and it was covered in an informative class by Glen Horton, . As a web designer and employee at a large organization, I’m used to thinking of server space. It gets a bit confusing because it’s such a simple concept: is cloud storage like the server space I buy from DreamHost? Or like the intranet server at work? I was poking around Twitter when I found Jessamyn West’s blog post entitled “what is the cloud, please?” and from there found a great article that explains more about cloud computing. The idea is that computing resources are concentrated and the costs are shared among many users. Most people have been using cloud computing for years, including server space and workplace intranet. Not only have I treated server space this way (and passed the savings on to clients as well!), but my gmail account and any number of other services I use employ this technology.

Also at TechConnections last week I listened to Ed Liddle talk about free tools to image machines. My personal nerdism does not cover this subject area so much, but I do have a limited understanding about running machines off an image. We do that at the library where I work. During his talk he mentioned that most computers manufactured today have much more power than they will ever need as a public workstation. This is important information when considering partitioning a hard drive, but something else about this statement caught my attention. I thought about all of the public terminals with so many gigs of hard drive and processor space going unused (not to mention the electricity at night). And thought about how slow some of the servers can get around here during a busy afternoon. I’m really curious what kind of solution these public terminals can provide. Knitting a system together could be a big pain and might take a huge initial resource investment, but could really save an institution a great deal of money in the long run. Perhaps someone has already developed a method for using this untapped resource. I’m interested to find out.

I’ve been working part time in libraries since 2002. The work nicely complements my freelance work. It offers stability, dependable income, coworkers and public service. It also sheds plenty (maybe too much?) light on how people use the internet. The library environment has a great appeal; my coworkers have always been outstanding and learning is integral. I’ve shelved materials, helped people find books, movies and music, but mostly I’ve worked with computers. This has led me to a great interest in the role technology plays in the library, so much so that I wrote an 80-page senior project about it. I’ve also taken a keen interest in open source solutions for libraries. A few months ago I discovered an open source integrated library system (ILS) developed by people around the world called Koha. That discovery led me to find other neat open source library solutions. They include a digital collection management system called Kete and a kiosk management system called Libki.

The past few months have been all about picking up a bunch of balls I dropped when I broke a bone last fall. I’ve handed off a big project and decided to drop a few clients. But since I’ve recovered I’ve been getting through several sites that have fallen by the wayside due to mutual “back burnering” on the part of both my clients and me. I’ve been learning SQL and Perl (and violin). So many options are opening up even as the economy is crumbling, so I’m pretty sure I’m doing the right thing.