January 2012 Meeting

It’s time for ASIS&T @ Pratt to have a spring awakening!  Our planning meeting for the spring semester is TODAY at the Manhattan campus, in room 610, from 5:50-6:30.  If you can make it we’ll see you there!

ASIS&T @ Pratt Year-End Meeting and Elections (Thur 12/8)

ASIS&T @ Pratt, the school chapter of The American Society for Information Science & Technology, will be holding elections for all four officer positions (President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer) at our end-of-semester meeting on Thursday, December 8. These positions will be for the Spring Semester. If you would like to be a part of the ASIS&T team, please email Kevin Pelrine by December 8th with a couple paragraphs about the position you are interested in, where you are in the SILS programs, and what you hope to bring to ASIS&T.

Fall was a quiet semester for ASIS&T @ Pratt but 2012 promises to be much busier with our 4th annual Spring Symposium, the 100th Anniversary of Alan Turing, and the 75th Anniversary of ASIST.

Officer positions are a great way to meet professionals in the field and they look great on a resume. The more you put in, the more it will help you in your career—with networking, event planning experience, and reaching out beyond Pratt to the wider information science and technology community.

Introducing (dis)connect: ethics and identity in social media.

ASIS&T @ Pratt,  in partnership with the ASIS&T Metro NY chapter, is proud to present the 3rd annual Spring Symposium:

(dis)connect: ethics and identity in social media

2:00PM, Saturday, May 7, 2011

Room 213 at Pratt Manhattan Campus.

We’ve put together an amazing panel to engage in conversation about the moral and ethical considerations of daily “life on the screen.”*

(dis)connect is about people.

More than Human Computer Interaction, this is about Human-to-human interaction on the computer.

This is about you. 

Are you the same person online that you are “IRL?”

How does your use of language shape your online reality?

How do we create a social network that teaches people how to deal with impermanence?

Why is their rampant hate-speech in gaming communities?

“Should computer-mediated communication try to reproduce the traditional communication structures and norms that humans have evolved/developed over several millenia to manage social interactions?” (Sula)

How do we design social media for a better world?

Join us for a lively discussion, followed by a group design experiment.  This is our foray into the”unconference” format where we will collectively brainstorm and collaborate in design thinking - taking the ideas generated by our discussion and putting them into action! Don’t panic, there will be coffee, food and a happy hour sponsored by ASIS&T Metro.  

This event is open to the public. Everyone must register to attend -
including Pratt students! – at www.tinyurl.com/may72011. Space is limited!

Our panelists are:

Generoso Fierro is the Outreach Coordinator for GAMBIT, Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab, a collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the government of Singapore created to explore new directions for the development of games as a medium. There he creates video the content for their website, assists with the summer program and produces GAMBIT events.  His most recent video project, “The GAMBIT Hate Speech Project” examines “the pervasive reality of exclusionary speech in online game communities”

Joanne McNeil  is senior editor of Rhizome (http://rhizome.org). She is also founding editor of The Tomorrow Museum (http://tomorrowmuseum.com).

Chris Alen Sula recently defended his PhD. in Philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center. His research focuses on individuals’ interactions with each other and the world, including topics in metaethics, intentionality, and cognitive science, as well empirical work in moral psychology and evolutionary biology and formal models of social behavior and decision making. He is also a member of the doctoral certificate program in Interactive Technology and Pedagogy. Since 2006, he has been working with David Morrow to develop Phylo, an interactive research tool that examines the history of individuals, institutions, and ideas in philosophy.
http://chrisalensula.org/

Lance Strate is Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University, and author of Echoes and Reflections: On Media Ecology as a Field of Study, and the recently published collection, On the Binding Biases of Time and Other Essays on General Semantics and Media Ecology. He has also co-edited several anthologies, including The Legacy of McLuhan, and two editions of Communication and Cyberspace: Social Interaction in an Electronic Environment. He has also published over 100 articles and essays, and served as editor of several journals, including the Speech Communication Annual, the General Semantics Bulletin, and Explorations in Media Ecology, a journal that he was instrumental in launching. Moreover, he initiated and supervised the media ecology book series published by Hampton Press. A former department chair and graduate director at Fordham, he has recently led an initiative to set up a new program of Professional Studies in New Media. He is a founder of the Media Ecology Association, and served that organization as its first president for over a decade, as well as being a past president of the New York State Communication Association, and recently completing a three-year term as Executive Director of the Institute of General Semantics. He maintains a blog on topics related to communication and technology <http://lancestrate.blogspot.com>, has been active within the poetry-blogging community on MySpace, and together with several other participants is a partner in NeoPoiesis Press.

Benjamen Walker is the host and producer of  Too Much Information with Benjamen Walker on WFMU Radio.  “Too Much Information is the sober hangover after the digital party has run out of memes, apps and schemes. Host Benjamen Walker finds out that, in a world where everyone overshares the truth 140 characters at a time, telling tales might be the most honest thing to do.” (http://wfmu.org/playlists/TI)   (His episode, “Anonymous,” in which he interviewed Jaron Lanier about problems of anonymity online, was an early inspiration for this symposium.”

This event will be moderated by Pratt grad Josh Hadro – Technology
Editor, Library Journal.

Can’t make it? Follow the discussion and share links on Twitter @asistpratt with the hashtag #discon11.

(dis)connect: ethics & identity in social media

Behold! A poster for this year’s Spring Symposium!

Web Presence & Career Skillz Bootcamp this Saturday!

Last month I shared some inspiring online portfolios and other personal websites to get the creative juices flowing as to how to tackle creating a “web presence”  for SILS students at February’s Career Skillz Bootcamp.

And the question came up: Why have a web presence?

Who doesn’t google a new acquaintance or a potential collaborator or boss upon meeting? I bet we all have, therefore it is a safe bet that you are being researched as well, and why not give them something specific, professional, and carefully curated to better your professional successes?

Plus your website can say a whole lot more about you and how amazing you are than your resume or cover letter will be able to convey. The dynamism of a website is a real treat to someone with a stack of cover letters on their desk.

Well, What if  you don’t have a lot of work samples?

There are a variety of ways you can maintain a professional web presence. You could supply a landing page for prospective viewers that has an image, your career goals, and an interactive resume. Supply links to project sites that you have created for course work or internships, or links to the organizations you have volunteered or worked for. If you have an active social media presence, link up your blogs, twitter, tumblr, and LinkedIn all to one place.

If you do have work samples, and I would wager many of us do…think of online research papers, blogs created for practicum classes, or other writing based assignments digitized. Of course you would want to include information architecture deliverables, usability research samples, collections built for knowledge organization, or social media. What about final collections created for projects in digital archives and digital libraries? Provide a link and show off your hard work. And there are many more applicable projects, if you consider your past work with an open mind.

I would guess all of your classes require deliverables that can be included or referenced online if you so desired. So do it! Share with prospective employers how diverse your library and information science education has been with a variety of projects highlighting your skills and thought processes.

If you missed last months session, come to Nicki’s on Saturday March 5th at 3:30 p.m. in the Cultural Informatics Lab in room 609. Nicki will be walking us through the process of hosting your work samples and online resumes through Pratt’s MySite. We can also discuss other options such as WordPress and Drupal.

As this months session of “Bootcamp”  culminates our practical Career Skillz deliverables for the year, we would be happy to travel back in time to discuss past themes such as: formatting of resumes, wording for career objectives, and what sorts of work should go up on your site, as we move our work online this Saturday.

Join us and get yourself ready for your future career!

Denise

Denise’s site, built with skills garnered from Career Skillz Bootcamp: www.denisepasquinelli.com

Learning how to visualize (plus amazing

Learning how to visualize (plus amazing graphic on “exoplanets”): http://ow.ly/414DU

Using LinkedIn to enhance your job search

Guest blogger Jeremy Hutchins continues his job search:

Lately I’ve become rather aggressive about pimping out my LinkedIn Profile, and I’ve discovered a few useful things which might help in a job search.  First of all, I have added anyone and everyone I meet on job interviews, school, old friends etc.  One of the cool things about LinkedIn is that if you find a job that interests you, through, say, SimplyHired, you can view all the people you know who know someone who works at the company.

I’ve found that a very good thing to do is to join every “group” that exists in your career area.  For example, because I’m shooting more for the UX/Interaction Design angle, I’ve joined IXDA, IAI, Usability Professionals Association and a number of other groups.  Often these groups post jobs that you wouldn’t otherwise find on career websites, so there’s a smaller pool of applicants, thereby improving your chances of making a connection.

Another tool I’ve found useful is that after applying to a place, I can research the people who are in charge of, say, User Experience at XYZ company, and by searching for them on LinkedIn, you can find out if there’s a personal connection.

Another handy application is “reading list” by Amazon, where you can add books you’ve read or are reading for professional development.  Often employers like to know that job candidates are up to speed on issues facing their profession.  You can also add a creative portfolio display if you want to show documentation such as wireframes and sitemaps.

Jeremy can be found at http://humanuxdesign.com/

Interview Diary by Jeremy Hutchins

Kevin and I discussed an entry I could make for the  ASIS&T@Pratt Blog which I think could be helpful: an “Interview Diary” which describes my experiences in order to help other people prepare for their interviews.  People could add their own posts based on their experiences.  I wrote up my first three experiences (see below).

Interview #1

Job:  DIRECTV Latin America

DirectTV Latin America was looking for an Information Architect to work on their team developing sites for each of their divisions located in various Latin American countries.  The job required familiarity to fluency in Spanish.  I only interviewed with one person and we talked about my portfolio.  He asked me specific questions about the interactions of each aspect of my wireframes, and reasons for my placement of functionalities and information.  He asked me if I did any outside reading for the field.  He also gave me a test, which involved a list of topics and asked me how I would organize them.  He asked me questions about process.  I think he was looking to see that I knew how the iterative process worked (comparative analysis, SWOT analysis, Card Sorting, Paper Prototyping, wireframing, and usability testing)

What I learned: Be prepared to talk about how you keep abreast of the IA/Interaction Design field.  Be able to name some books you have read or are reading, as well as sites.  (When I was asked this question on my next interview, I was able to name three books and  said that I got Twitter Updates and Linked In Updates from IXDA and IAI and Usability Professionals group.)

Outcome: Did not get the job.  They were looking for more experience (4-5 years)

Interview #2

Job: MCD Partners

MCD Partners is an Interactive Agency specializing in E-commerce sites;  they build very slick applications, and have high end clients such as Tiffany and  Discover Card.

I interviewed with one guy who looked at my wireframes and didn’t seem that excited about them.  I finally said, “maybe I can do a test project for you” and so I built a prototype for the Babies r Us site, implementing improvements.

What  I learned: I realized that a professional portfolio of wireframes should have very specific annotations which describe interactive behavior, such as (Interaction:  On click, pop up window with log in.  Or, “On Rollover, dropdown menu appears with xyz options).  I created more of these types of wireframes for the babies r us site.

Outcome: I did not get the job. He said get back to him when I’ve got more experience and have a more souped up portfolio.

Interview #3

Job:  JPMorgan Chase

JPMorgan Chaseis a huge investment bank.  I got this interview from a connection, a former Pratt grad.  Initially I met the connection at a cafe, and then we set up a formal interview where I was to initially meet two people, talk about my experience, followed by a “test” and then a meeting with two different people who would view my test results.  The test was difficult.  I was given six pages of poorly worded documentation, instructions for  building an advanced search prototype which involved the ability to filter results.  The prototype needed an administrator to search by customer ID, customer password, company name as well as description of action, date and time on which action occurred, with results looking something like this:

10/3/2011        22:00        John Smith        Shell Oil    invalid password.

The test was to see if you could translate poorly worded documentation and create a clear functional search mechanism which allowed you to “drill down” to more specific results.  You were expected to draw out this search interface and discuss it with the two new people, or use the white board in the room.  I was left for about 20-30 minutest to figure it out.

What I learned: Spend  time considering issues of  Search.  Check out sites like Lexus Nexus or PubMed, and see how search was implemented.  Do wireframing of a Bank site to see how this is done, and practice making a few wireframes with this in mind.

Outcome: Waiting to hear from them.

The President Loves Us!

I for one am still reeling from the President’s reigniting State of the Union address last night.

This, combined with the minimal guilt I feel for not doing a smashing post about the need for information designers, following our Data Visualization workshop last December- I feel the need to write a quick and dirty state of things of my own.

How cool was it to hear that the President’s agenda for the State of the Union revolved around innovation, education, and the rebuilding of information infrastructures?  (ok…and many other infrastructures-but he did specifically mention information!) We, as information professionals,  do ALL of these things! Librarians are in this powerful and sexy place where we can work to help shape the way information is accessed for all. We have the power to work within our education systems to teach our youth about the endless possibilities afforded to them in the information age. As intellectuals, designers, entrepreneurs, model citizens, ect.

Not to mention the need for information scientists in almost every other network: government, health and financial services, sciences,  technology,  and entertainment.

If we are talking about the next space race, for the information age, who do you think should be leading the way? How about us. We we work and play tirelessly to disseminate information, and design better systems to access it, share it, use it, expound on it, save it, visualize it, and tweet it. Our skills, knowledge, and inherent draw to social justice, seamlessly collaborate with innovators in technology and sciences.

And as more and more information and library science students are not only purveyors of information, truth, and equity–we are designers, we are researchers, we are observers, and humanitarians.  We are at the forefront of the who, what, and hows of people using information to innovate, educate, and engineer our futures.

Bottom line- We are awesome.

Even the President thinks so.

Denise

Chair-ASIS&T@ Pratt

Watch SOTU here.

Read it here.

The Year in ASIS&T@Pratt

ASIS&T@Pratt had a super busy, jam-packed, and fun-filled year in 2010. For the sake of Holiday cheer, let’s take a trip down memory lane to review the year that was.

The Spring 2010 semester started off with new officer elections and ended with our annual Spring Symposium, with a new logo unveiled in between. The Copy/Right(?) Symposium continues to haunt us in the form of accolades for the variety and thoughtfulness of our incredible speakers. Relive the moment with a peek at our poster (designed by Denise P.) and photos (shot by Glenda B.) from the event. Our Twitter hashtag is #crs2010, so you can also rekindle your fond memories via our twitter stream.

Our officers for the Spring 2010 semester included Kendra Hadlock (Chair), Sara Elspth-Kirkmeyer (Vice Chair), Denise Pasquinelli (Secretary) and Davis Erin Anderson (Treasure). Both Kendra and Sara graduated in May, congratulations to the two of them!!

After a summer brainstorming meeting, we reconvened in the fall with Denise at the helm. Our first order of business included electing our new officers! And then of course putting them straight to work. Welcome (again), Kevin and Nicki!

In October, three of the four officers headed over to Pittsburgh to take part in the ASIS&T Annual Meeting. You can reread our reviews for some Friday night fun.

We also unrolled our Career Skillz Bootcamp, a series of workshops designed to help Pratt students find that first awesome library/info job. So far, so good – our first two sessions went really well! Re-dissect Davis’s “before” and “after” resumes to your heart’s content!

Earlier this December we hosted Agnieszka Gasparska at Pratt for a limited edition workshop on Data Visualization. Check out our photos (Glenda B strikes again!) and tune in to this a’here blog for a longer recap on the workshop in the New Year!

Until then, have a safe yet celebratory NYE!