Global Web Scale
Posted On Mar 1 2010I just got back from the first ever OCLC EMEA Regional Council meeting in The Netherlands. Much has been written and discussed regarding OCLC’s governance changes, but that is not really what I wanted to address. This meeting was the best I have ever seen for non-US participants and members for OCLC. And I’m not just saying that because OCLC’s Web-scale strategy was a central part of the discussion. OK, that is why I’m saying it. “EMEA”–Europe, Middle East, and Africa–is completely an American invention, used to simplify business dealings across an entire region. OCLC certainly didn’t invent it, but …
Why do we continue to silo our supply chains?
Posted On Aug 13 2009Okay, so I have not been the most faithful blogger, lately. I was going to make an excuse about increased micro-blogging on Twitter or social activity on Facebook, but those have fallen rather dormant as well, so I have no good excuses. I do, however have some good news, and that is some guest postings from my friend and colleague, Matt Goldner. So today, guest columnist, Matt Goldner, Product and Technology Advocate, contributes his thoughts on sharing systems and workflows to deliver a more effective experience to patrons. In his new role, Matt will be on the road visiting libraries …
Renaissance Geek
Posted On Jun 23 2009Last week, I addressed a group of librarians about cloud computing trends, web-scale, and how OCLC plans to apply them to library management systems and services. One of the thematic questions before I took the podium was whether libraries are entering a renaissance period. That discussion might have been more interesting had the previous topic not been the very sorry state of library funding. As I am always inclined, I tried to mix the topics all together. A few folks asked me to reproduce my brief remarks, so I will attempt that here. Technology applications makes for a boring topic …