Next iBala Consortium meeting: 9 Febr 2011

The 2nd iBala Consortium will meeting will take place at the
Venue:  Knowledge Commons, Ulwazi Auditorium, CSIR, Pretoria
Date: 9 February 2011
Time: 12:00 - 04:30.


An agenda will be submitted soon, but herewith some of the points for discussion during the meeting.

1. We want to think ahead, create a strategy and do some brainstorming about the use of mobile technology in libraries for its users.
2. The consortium need also to discuss R&D on this technology and share what we have done since ouyr first meeting.
3. The election of the next committee

New developments

We have been quiet, but still busy planing ahead on the 9th September 2010 iBala consortium will be launching the community of practice at CSIR bldg 22 from 12h30 - 15h00 RSVP by emailing ibalamobile@gmail.com please see the invite for more information.

22nd of September 2010 we will be repeating the workshop, (Delivery of library services via mobile technology)  book your space by emailing ibalaconsortium@gmail.com

hope to see you there

CoP launch and repeat workshop in September

Unfortunately we did not launch the CoP at the workshop as planned, the new launch date is the 9th of September 2010 at the CSIR. Due to the success of the SAOUG workshop we will be 'repeating' the workshop for those who didn't attend, towards the end of September. The investigation is continuing, ebook readers seem to be making a lot of noise too, maybe the next post will look at that, what to consider before buying:). For now its business as usual...

SAOIM - Mobile technology workshop

On the 6th of  August 2010 we had our first South African workshop as iBala Consortium. Everything went well, Adele shared a bit on what a mobile service is and is not, what to consider before starting a mobile service. A group from CSIR's Modelling and Digital Sciences reviewed cellphone features and security - on viruses and security the tip of the day was "switch off your Bluetooth if you are not using it". Cornelle from the University of Free state demonstrated how their users use SMS to contact them. Herman switched on the lights on QR codes, what and how they can be used in a library environment, look out for them on business cards/library card in the not so distant future. Siphethile and Christelle talked about creating a .mobi site using a free service and the other using Dreamweaver. Kosie had everyone checking their bank balances and some looking for the nearest date they can have a 'birthday'; yes you'll do that too when you realise just how handy eBook readers are.

Getting ready for the SAOUG workshop

All is set for our second workshop on the 6th of August, but it was not an easy task. Getting cellphone companies to come and do a demonstration for us was a nightmare, I felt totally ignored because none of them bothered to respond, another one asked a series of questions transferred me from one person to another yet I dint get help. Martie managed to get Samsung to do a demonstration for us. Soon after that our luck changed, it turned out that we have another group within the CSIR that doing research on mobile technologies with a few demo phones in their lab - now we have them on board too.

We are more excited about the coming workshop because now we have more people presenting meaning less to do as it is a bigger group work. We will be presenting as iBala Consortium, more information about the CoP is available on the wiki

CoP and another workshop

After all the hard work, we are happy to announce that the group is bigger and doing bigger things. We busy preparing to facilitate another workshop on the 6th of August at the 10th Southern African Online Information Meeting on the same day we will be launching the community of practice.

students meet our 'secret weapon'

Siphethile arranged for the students to meet with Adele so they can ask her about the cool stuff she is working on. Knowing just how 'traumatic' that can be we tagged along for emotional support (and to learn more ourselves). The thing is each time we talk to Adele we learn something new, there was no ways we were going to miss out. Today's panel consisted of two more people who were also as interesting and knowledgeable as Adele. We got to meet the woman behind Dr Math.
Needless to say the students were really disappointed and excited at the same time. One thing that really impressed me more about them is, as heartbroken as they were not even a single one said "I quit or wh
at now" they knew what they had to do. With week smiles they were ready to go back to the drawing board and fix their project.

With that kind of determination I can safely say, they are going far.