Tag Archives: microsoft

Locking Down Windows

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I’ve recently moved Back to Windows for my desktop computing. But Windows 10 comes with enormous privacy and security issues that people need to take into account…and get under a semblance of control. Here’s how I did it.

There has been much written on this subject, so what I’m including here is more of a digest of what I’ve found elsewhere with perspective on how it worked out for me over time.

Windows Tweaker

This is a pretty good tool that does what Windows should do out of the box: give you one-stop access to all Windows’ settings. As it is, Windows 10 has spread out many settings, including those for Privacy, to the Settings screen as well as Registry Editor and Group Policy Editor.

There are dozens of look and feel tweaks, including an easy way to force Windows to use the hidden Dark Theme.

The Privacy Tab, however, is the single most important. There, you can easily turn of all the nasty privacy holes in Windows 10, such as how the OS sends things like keystrokes (that’s right!) back to Microsoft. The list of holes it will close is long: Telemetry, Biometrics, Advertising ID, Cortana, etc.

Cortana

Speaking of Cortana, I was really excited that this kind of virtual assistant was embedded in Windows 10. I looked forward to trying it out. But then I read the fine print.

Cortana is a privacy nightmare. She can’t be trusted. She’s a blabbermouth and repeats back everything you tell her to not just Microsoft, but indirectly to all of their advertising partners. And who knows where all that data goes and how secure it is in the long run.

Yuck!

Turn her off. Pull the plug. Zero her out.

The easiest way to disable her is to set up a Local Account. But there’s more info out there, including this at PC World.

Local Account

When you first install Windows 10, unplug the ethernet and shut down wifi. Then, when you’re certain that all of MSFT’s listeners can’t communicate with your machine, go through the Installation Set Up process and when asked to create/log in to your Microsoft Account, don’t. Instead, use the Local Account option.

The down sides of going this route are that you can’t sync your experience, accounts and apps across devices. You also won’t be able to use Cortana.

The up sides are that using a Local account means you will be far more secure and private in whatever you do with your computer (as long as you maintain the many other privacy settings).

Reduce Risk and Streamline Your PC

Windows 10 comes crammed with many programs you may not want. Some of these may even be tracking and sharing, so if you don’t actually use it, why not lighten the load on your system and remove them.

You can do this the slow way, one app at a time, or you can use the Powershell nuclear option and kill them all at once.

I did this and haven’t regretted it one bit. So fire away…

Privacy Settings

I won’t go into all of this. There is plenty of solid advise on reducing your exposure on other sites (like at PC World) and some lengthy YouTube videos which you can easily find.

But it is critical that you go into the Settings panel and turn everything off at the very least. That’s my feeling. Some tell you that you even need to set up IP blocks to keep your machine from reporting back to Microsoft and its advertising partners.

Others say this is somewhat overblown, and not unique to Windows, like over at LifeHacker, so I’ll leave it to you to decide.

Conclusion

It’s really too bad that operating systems have gone down this road. Our PCs should be tools for us and not the other way around.

Imagine if everything that happened on your device stayed private. Imagine if it was all encrypted and nobody could hack into your PC or Microsoft’s servers or their advertisers’ databases and learn all kinds of things about you, your family, your work, your finances, your secrets. And yet, this is precisely what Microsoft (and iOS, Android and others) did, intentionally.

Frankly, I think its bordering on criminal negligence, but good luck suing when your data gets exploited.

Better safe than sorry…that’s my take. Do a little work and lock down your computer.

Good luck out there…

 

Return to Windows

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There’s a Windows machine back in my house. That’s right, after 14 years of Mac OS, I’ve shifted my OS back to Windows…on my primary computer!

Windows? WTF?

So, Mac OSX is still a superior operating system. But the gap between Windows and OSX has shrunk considerably with the launch of Windows 10, but that’s hardly a good reason to leave behind the most simple, well-designed and usable OS out there.

But Apple is steadily closing the noose on what computer users can do with their machines and this has really rubbed me the wrong way.

Besides, I had a dream. A dream to build a dream machine, that is. I wanted to build my own ‘Adobe Machine’ for home use and also be able to swap out hardware over time. In Apple’s ultra-controlled ecosystem, building such a device would be very, very costly and also fail to really expand over time. And for very practical reasons, relying on a finicky Hacitosh was out of the picture.

So, fed up with the self-imposed limitations of Mac, I went back to Windows…and this is my experience.

First Impressions

desktopSo, the design of Windows 10 is actually quite pleasant. The modern ‘Metro’ UI is very pleasant (I only wish it was applied uniformly across the OS–more on that later).

The Start (menu) is actually a great way to tuck all of your most important apps out of sight. And I love that it’s flexible, allowing you to organize apps and folders however you want. There are even ways to label and group apps however you wish. The librarian in me sings with these kind of organizational features.

I’ve found that I actually use the Start Menu as a replacement for not only my Desktop but also the Task Bar, which I only keep visible so I have the clock visible.

Maybe it’s the OSXer in me, but there are parts of Windows 10 that feel like redundant re-thinks of more familiar features. For example, the Action Center has quick access icons for things like VPN and creating Notes, all of which, one would expect would be handled by the Start Menu. There’s also the little arrow-thingy on the task bar where certain background apps live. Why?

An Unfinished OS?

As I began customizing and exploring Windows 10, I began to realize that Microsoft must have pushed Windows 10 out the door before the pain was dry. There are odd discontinuities you the pleasantly designed Metro aesthetic ends and you’re suddenly thrown into some god-awful old-school Windows environment. This happens in the Settings panel often, for example, once you get a couple levels down.

Uh, guys, the Metro thing really works. Did you not have time to reskin the old Windows 7/XP UI sections? Please do this soon. It’s like you drove up in a super sweet ride, with designer shades on your face and then you get out of the car and you’re not wearing pants! Actually, you’re wearing tighty-whities.

Also, what’s up with the VPN workflow? As it currently works, it takes no less than four clicks to connect to my VPN. This should be one or two clicks, really. Please fix.

There’s a very nice dark theme, but, alas, it only applies to certain top-level sections of the OS. The File Explorer (a heavily used part of the UI), actually does not inherit the dark theme. There are hacks out there, but seriously, this should be as universal as setting your color scheme.

Can’t wait for Windows 10 to get all grow’d up.

Privacy

I’m going to write an entire blog on this, but Privacy is the biggest issue with this OS. Readers of my blog will know my personal feelings on this issue run strong. So I spent considerable time fighting Microsoft’s defaults, configuring privacy settings, messing with the registry (really?) and even doing a few hacks to lock this computer down.

Microsoft is really doing a number on its users. Windows 10 users are handing over unconscionable amounts of personal information over to Microsoft’s servers, their advertising partners and, if this info ever gets hacked (won’t happen, right?), to whoever wants to do a number on Windows 10 users.

Anyway, needless to say, I had to forgo using Cortana, which is sad because I’m very interested in these kinds of proto-AI tools. But as long as their phoning home, I just unplug them. Did the same to all the “Modern Apps” like Maps, News, etc.

Bottom Line

Breaking up with OSX was actually not as painful as I had expected. And I’m really enjoying Windows 10, save for a few frustration points as outlined above. Overall, it’s well worth the trade offs.

And my Dream Machine, which I christened Sith Lord (because it’s a big, dark beast), is running Adobe CC, rendering at light speed and could probably do the Kessel Run in less than 12 Parsecs.

The Library Website Will Disappear

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A new year always elicits thoughts about the future, but this month, my library has been considering our next strategic plan, which has focused those thoughts for me on my library and the profession in general.

Since I’m principally charged with managing the online aspects of my library, I come to these kinds of discussions focused on web platforms, online communication and consumer technology trends. One of the biggest trends (you may have noticed) has been the adoption of mobile, touch screen devices like iPhones and tablets. I include even Microsoft’s attempt at reinventing the PC with its Surface Tablet, despite early failures to woo consumers. And given this apparently irresistable move toward mobile, tablet-like computing, I have to ask: what does this ultimately mean for the library’s web properties: our websites, our online instruction guides, our discovery systems and our digital collections?

Palo Alto Venture Capital firm KPCB recently explored this very issue in their 2012 Internet Trends Report. Some major insights from their report include:

  • Mobile traffic is now 13% of all global Internet traffic, up from just 1% in 2009. In some countries, like India, mobile Internet traffic has surpassed desktop traffic.
  • Almost 1/3 of US adults own a tablet or e-reader
  • Together, iOS and Android are 45% of the OS market share, vs. 35% for Windows
  • The install base of Tablets + Smartphones will surpass PCs + Notebooks this year

But one trend that stands out in KPCB’s analysis is that of the Asset-Light generation. A long-form definition can be found via a very Asset-Light resource: Quib.ly. But to put it more succinctly, being asset-light means your lifestyle is one less reliant on physical commodities and personal know-how, but instead, relies on cloud and crowd-sourcing just about everything. You don’t carry around notepads, you don’t buy maps, you don’t rely on “experts” for medical advice or which movie to see next. Asset-lighters, meet their needs by streaming, connecting and sharing.

From KPCB’s perspective, this is quite important in terms of where the web is heading. Some notable examples relavent to libraries include: MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), Amazon Textbook Rental and of course, good-ole Wikipedia.

So, socially, we’re moving toward a very different economy and radically different means of information distribution, especially when it comes to learning.

Add to this, two major and imminent innovations and you will get a glimpse at just how different the world will be in only 5 years:

  1. Wearable devices, especially eyeware will give people the ability to navigate the Internet by voice command, gesture and all through lenses fixed to their faces. Status: Google Glasses are expected to enter the market in early 2013 and Apple won’t be far behind.
  2. Artificially-intelligent agents will not quite resemble HAL from 2001, but be very capable of understanding your vocal commands and then ferreting quite reliable answers to your questions or carrying out mundane tasks, like creating appointments or sending messages for you. Status: Did you see IBM Watson slaughter Jeopardy’s world champions or used SIRI on your iPhone?

So, the way we gather information and where we go to get it is already changing. And the interfaces are already being revolutionized and that pace will accelerate dramatically over the next 5 years as voice and sight overtake the the very impractical and immobile keyboard…even the touchscreen may be reduced to the point where iPads seem like a whimsical dead-end much like 8 track or Beta tapes.

All of these changes will have an immediate effect on the core of our current Internet paradigm: the Web Page.

Text and links with a smattering of images have been the key content types of of web pages since Tim Berners Lee first formulated the WWW. Mobile devices have changed all that. Not only do they steer away from typical web interfaces in favor of “apps,” they actually de-link parts of the web from each other. The result, in most cases is a much more curated and manageable Internet.

And this is important for libraries, whose pages are almost hard-wired around interconnecting pages together in rather daunting tangles of hyperlinks, portals and gateways. Unfortunately, this paradigm is increasingly less relevant to today’s devices and today’s Asset-lighters, who expect a web page to cut through the clutter and get them the answer. In fact, they want an app to do the heavy-lifting for them.

And add to this, semi-intelligent software agents and a re-conceived commercial Internet based around voice and sight and you can see how much work libraries have ahead of them.

The users 5 years from now that enter our libraries’ virtual spaces, will expect a curated, largely automated experience. Already, we see this on the ground where incoming students are completely beside themselves in the antiquated library environment. One recent Facebook post on my library’s newsfeed noted: “The Library has a website?”

Another telling anecdote: One colleague of mine defined her job as teaching people to fish. I then asked: How many people actually go fishing anymore. Fishing to them is dropping by the supermarket. Full-stop.

The world is just getting too complicated for people to be expected to take the time to find information on their own. Information will continue to be a commodity, yes. Information will continue to badger the human mind. But AI servants and wildly different means of gathering information, will mean that single individuals will never have to tackle almost any information problem alone. The crowd, the bots and the apps will do the fishing.

And the web page will be like Matrix code that few ever need to concern themselves with. Get ready…

Below the Microsoft Surface

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Silverlight required to get product info: #FAIL

Coming back from Thanksgiving with my family, I came across a Microsoft Surface demo in the airport. Normally, I would have dismissed it immediately, the same way you might dismiss suggestions about trying a new dish at Chipotle after that first, stale burrito you had on your initial visit. But, I was trapped in airport limbo for 40 minutes, so the Surface seemed like a good way to pass some time.

Microsoft’s new tablet is really a new spin on the laptop, which, if you’re like me and need to create more than you consume online, is a much better solution than the typical Android or Apple tablet. That is, Microsoft kept the keyboard in mind when looking for their much required business strategy. Unfortunately, the new tablet does not come equipped with the full-blown Windows 8 OS, which seems like a big, bad burrito. That won’t come until after Xmas (did someone say missed opportunity here?).

Anyway, I was impressed, generally. Of course, we’re still talking Windoze, so the experience was fraught with so many error messages and OS-fails, that even the woman giving the demo seemed annoyed. But is still had enough new takes on what is now an old market (for tablets), that I had to give Microsoft some credit.

The most telling experience, though, came after the demo when I was asked to take a brief survey. The questions just said it all:

  • What would you buy before seeing the Surface/after seeing the Surface? (Apple)
  • Did you consider MSFT an innovative company before seeing the Surface? How about now? (If you have to ask, the answer is no)

But at least they woke up to the bleakness of their market position to even start asking these questions and try to change things, albeit soooooo late. On the train back from the airport, a fellow passenger and I discussed the Surface. He noted that MSFT is opening retail shops beside Apple Stores in shopping malls across the country. When I mentioned this to a colleague at work, he laughed, mentioning that he’d seen one of these shops. Apparently the Apple Store was jam-packed, while the MSFT store went ignored.

For now, at least, people will get their tacos from the place with the fresh ingredients.

SharePoint: A Square Peg in a Round World

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My university is moving its entire web content management system over to Microsoft SharePoint, and so I thought it would be a good idea to dive into the platform to get ready. My recent experience with a sandbox SharePoint installation on a hosted server has answered some questions, and made me appreciate some of SharePoint’s power, but in many ways, my initial concerns remain.

It almost goes without saying that anything Microsoft is going to be clunky. The once-enigmatic Tech Titan has not aged well. The list of failures is legion: Internet Explorer, XP, Vista, Window Mobile…As a result, many people have gone Mac or Android, Mozilla or Chrome.

It didn’t help that during its heyday, Microsoft’s market strategy focused on forcing the world of round pegs to conform to its square peg model. So the public at large has been fleeing in droves and the once mighty emperor is left naked on the stage as was the case at this year’s CES keynote given by MSFT CEO Steve “I’m going to F**kin’ Kill Google” Ballmer. Ouch.

Sadly, MSFT remains fairly entrenched in business and education, even as the precipitous flight of employees and students to anything not-Microsoft carries on. And so, we’re left with this disconnect between the ecosystem of our users and the ecosystem of IT departments. Long-term, this will get sorted out in a way that is highly unlikely to favor Microsoft, but in the transition period, we all must do what we can to fit those square pegs into their assigned holes.

Such was my primary mission for Project Spork, a multi-pronged CMS exploration that tested different CMS against a selection of requirements from our library’s production site. In this project, we built three prototyope sites in LibGuides, Drupal and SharePoint.

SporkSP (the SharePoint version) started off with a large dose of suspended disbelief as I waded through a product that was originally designed as a document-oriented wiki. It bears noting that the WCMS components in SharePoint were only later added when Microsoft realized that many of its Intranet customers were applying SharePoint to Internet problems. And this really shows when you start trying to create an institutional website with it.

Like Drupal and other CMS systems, if you come from a hand-coding/Dreamweaver background, you’re going to be put off right away. But in SharePoint, it’s much easier than in Drupal to code the old-fashioned way. However, while you can easily jump into codeview in SharePoint Designer, there is never any guarantee that the wiki-oriented SharePoint won’t strip out your code and drive you batty with security warnings.

SharePoint’s real strength, however, is in its database tools. With one click, you can connect SharePoint to an XML file, RSS feed, REST web services or external database (of almost any flavor). You can even easily make SharePoint the database editor for your external SQL database. And once you’ve made the connections to that data, SharePoint seamlessly integrates the database with the rest of your site. On this level, it blows Drupal away.

But lest you forget that you are working in a Microsoft product, let me recall the list of “Microsoft” issues that come up with this tool:

  1. IE is required to create pages and carry out many editing tasks within the browser due to certain Active X-based features
  2. You must install Silverlight for no better reason than the controls in the browser are built with Silverlight. In other words, without Silverlight, you can’t work effectively in a SharePoint site.
  3. And of course, nothing is straightforward:
    • CSS class and ID names are frightfully machine-oriented and even change!
    • If you build a relational database (or something that feels like a relational database) in SharePoint (say in your test environment) you cannot move it without all the lookup fields being broken.
    • The development tools are divided between the IE interface and SharePoint Designer. Meaning you are constantly jumping between them and it is never clear where a given feature will be found. For example, you have to create a database in SharePoint Designer, but then create the lookup fields within IE…say what?

But if I had to pick the worst FAIL of them all, it would be the wonky way SharePoint requires you to integrate external widgets and tools into your SharePoint site. Again, to be fair, SharePoint was designed as a wiki-like tool that focused on internally held documents. So tyring to bring in external web features was not ever built into the initial product. As a consequence, the most straightforward way to do so is through an iFrame…yuck!

For example, bringing in our WorldCat Local Search Box required the iFrame method, because SharePoint strips out the search form when you place the code directly into the page html. Okay, so you use an iFrame. But this method ensures that, one, you will need to host the form html and styling on an external server, and two, that iFrames are always fraught with display issues across browsers and devices.

Later investigation suggests that the more stable way around this, is by developing web parts that can display external content. But that requires that you learn .Net and Visual Studio…just to put a search form on a web page, folks.

For a site whose most important feature (the Library Catalog) needs to be brought in through an iFrame or some other even more heavy-handed method…well, that would normally be a deal breaker for any library comparing its requirements against a CMS.

I’m sure that Campus IT can solve some of these kinds of issues for us. But that brings up my final point: using this platform means that a Library web team will almost always be reliant on Campus IT for things that they would otherwise be able to do with ease. Or, alternatively, be forced to learn to develop for SharePoint. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, of course, but when you’re trying to keep pace with libraries that use more intuitive platforms (PHP, MySQL, Drupal, WordPress, etc.), well that means you’re likely to play catch up for years.

Library web services are always changing and will undoubtedly change even faster as we speed into the increasingly shifting landscape of e-readers, mobile devices, etc. The whole reason that librarians got into the IT business to start with, was because only they are familiar with their boutique technologies enough to make them all play nicely together.

SharePoint never had the library ecosystem in mind. Indeed, it never had web design in mind. Stil, you can use it to build very beautiful web pages that allow multiple users to edit them. The very nicely done pages that have already been deployed in SharePoint  at my institution testify to how well this product can work in some cases. But as a tool that improves the productivity of library web teams and library system teams, it fails.

Measuring the SharePoint Mood at #IL2011

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I’m reporting from Internet Librarian in fog-cloaked Monterey, fresh from a SharePoint development talk by Danielle Pollock of the Sandia National Laboratory Library. In fact, SharePoint has come up in a number of unlikely venues at IL2011, surfacing (briefly and with much ridicule) even in the CMS Smackdown held yesterday. Clearly, this platform is emerging in library-land.

At my library, SharePoint was chosen by Campus IT before I came on board in 2010 and word has it that our IT project team is prepared to guide us out of Serena Collage and into SharePoint within a few weeks of my return from California.

Meanwhile, our revised plan within the library is that a parallel beta site will be available for public testing in January in concert with a public beta test of WorldCat Local. We hope to switch over permanently in the Spring Quarter.

It’s all exciting stuff: our library portal is an unusable mess of fractured platforms and siloed collections (as is the case with a lot of libraries) relying on the stability of an unsupported CMS. So we’re very happy to move.

But will SharePoint really fly?

I’ve got lots of doubts. Specifically, I doubt that it will be as easy or as ideal as other CMS choices. In yesterday’s smackdown, in fact, the panelists ranked a variety of major CMS used by libraries and Drupal came out on top, with WordPress a close second. Clearly, these are the preferred options, but unless SharePoint fails outright in our library, we won’t be able to choose a preferred platform.

Most librarians smirk, shriek, or express their heartfelt sympathies, when I mention our move to SharePoint. Often they just don’t believe it’s possible. Others see a long, tortured path ahead of us as we are forced by SharePoint’s limitations to adopt highly unworkable work-arounds. I happen to think this will be the case, in fact.

Enforcing my doubts, last month, a web services librarian at another institution contacted me about my experience thus far with SharePoint. She has recently been tasked with making SharePoint work as her library’s CMS. After doing her research and failing to integrate her many external web services and platforms into SharePoint, she was now beginning to put forward the argument that it could not be done. Her strategy now was to document all of the things she would not be able to do and recommend a move to Drupal or some other technology.

My hope is that her example and the year-long conversation I’ve been having with IT will get us the kind of access in SharePoint that will be required to accomplish what I see as my main focus: to integrate as seamlessly as possible our various platforms, which include the site itself, our catalog, room booking system, chat, libguides, digital commons IR and contentDM.

This was also a common meme at IL2011: integration. This is, without a doubt, a titanic task no matter what CMS you are using. Doing it successfully with a system that was actually designed more as an Intranet collaboration platform rather than as a true CMS will be even more challenging.

And so, as I wrap up here in Monterey, I will certainly have my work cut out for me. Expect more updates as the process begins. And pray for us as we charge ahead.

SharePoint Migration

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At long last, my university IT Department is gearing up to initiate campus-wide migration of all websites to SharePoint. This includes the library’s website.

Say what? SharePoint for a public-facing library website?

I’ll admit, I was fairly incredulous about this concept and continue to wonder how it will play out. This is a Microsoft product after all. But the experimental nature of the idea intrigues me, and I’m actually looking forward to it. Alot of this excitement, of course, also arises from our current CMS conundrum. You see, we’re on Serena Collage, perhaps one of the clunkiest content management systems still in operation…In fact, that’s the problem, it’s not really supported anymore. Fact is, it often doesn’t work at all.

So, I’m excited about getting out of Collage. And, I’m coming around to SharePoint as well…kind of.

Much of my remaining hesitation stems from not knowing how this will all work. Case in point, my team currently has access to the server, where we can do a fair amount of development, despite Collage’s problems. It remains unclear exactly how much access to the server we will have in the future to do the kinds of web service development that we’re accustomed to.

But, let’s focus on what is known…and it’s much to be happy about. SharePoint has a pretty good governance structure to it, which will allow our library to assign sections of the site to curators responsible for keeping information up to date, while allowing me to keep on top of what they’re doing. There are other features that I’m extremely happy about:

  • multiple instance of blogs
  • on-the-fly database creation
  • intranet capabilities

Another cool aspect of this migration is that, as far as I can tell, no other library has used SharePoint as its public site’s CMS. Think journal articles and presentations here. I like that…

So, as you can imagine, there is quite a bit of activity at the library right now. We’ve got until the summer before the migration begins. In the meantime, I’m working on cleaning up our site as much as possible so that we get rid of the clutter and worst usability issues. My sense is that once we begin working with IT, there won’t be much bandwidth for working out a whole new architecture. I’ll have to come back to that later on my own. But I am using some Google Analytics and Crazy Egg data to help re-architect some areas of the site, particularly the unwieldy Special Collections areas ahead of the migration…as sort of site weeding if you will.

As such, my plan post migration is to do immediate user testing, followed up by iteration, more testing and then iteration. We’ll keep that up until we get where we need to be.

Along the way, I plan on keeping a few channels open to our stakeholders, essentially following the model established by the North Carolina State University’s Library redesign project…namely by creating a Web Advisory Committee composed of librarians from across our organization, focused librarian interview sessions and also through a public blog aimed at the university stakeholders. But I’ll also add commentary here when appropriate.

Wish us luck!

Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad OCLC? Not Me.

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At ALA Midwinter, I was sitting down with my library’s rep from OCLC and I asked a naive question: “Are you guys public…or planning on going public?”

Some librarians may be surprised by my question since non-profit OCLC is only one of the most important players in the library vendor world. That is, few librarians would not know the OCLC story. Actually, this has alot to do with my fairly non-librarian experience at Adobe Systems which hired me out of library school…and the fact that I had never worked in a library before committing to risking it all on a library profession.

Of course, once the rep began discussing OCLC’s history, it all came back to me from that foggy nether region that was my library school experience, where a blizzard of unfamiliar acronyms, standards and issues was dumped into my brain.

But there was a reason for my question: these guys don’t act like a non-profit…more like a hungry start up.

  • Exhibit A: They are aggressively working on being the Google of library search with WorldCat Local.
  • Exhibit B: They are now building a very intriguing, extensible backend library system, Web Scale Management.
  • Exhibit C: They are looking to channel all that dynamic energy that swirls within the world’s pool of librarian developers by building a community around a library “Apps Store.”
  • Exhibit D: All the above is in the cloud, integrated and scalable…just like the business model of any other technology startup set to disrupt the world as we know it.

In a sense, what I was walking away with after a few days of discussions, presos and visits to the OCLC booth was the sense that the Google analogy was actually quite fitting. The fact that this kind of energy and determination was present at a non-profit made it all the more appealing.

Now, many librarians worry about OCLC, arguing that their trajectory is following not Google’s path but Microsoft’s.

Here’s why I’m not afraid…in fact, here’s why I embrace a Big, Bad OCLC:

Firstly, Microsoft did set technology back via their sub-standard products and near-monopoly for almost 15 years, but that company is now losing market share rapidly for both of those reasons. In fact, they’ve already been dethroned by Apple as the world’s largest tech company, and probably soon by Google too. OCLC, on the other hand, is being too innovative (for now) to be a slothful titan like Microsoft.

Second, libraries are already suffering under other monopolists: the publishers and their database brethren, which have created extremely unser-unfriendly information silos in the areas of eBooks, journals, etc. A Big, Bad OCLC will have the leverage over these folks to push them to opening up their indexes so that the long, sad saga of multiple, siloed databases will finally come to an end. When there is a Big, Bad OCLC, you either add your index to WorldCat, or you suffer a lonely obscurity that is very unprofitable.

Finally, there is a movement to extend OCLC’s benefits across the library world. This idea of making OCLC a platform designed for others to build on top of is just the kind of environment libraries need to compete with the likes of Google and other information providers. It will keep us fresh as Firefox, up to date like Twitter, connected like Facebook…and more importantly, perhaps even more relevant than Google.

Yeah, I can’t wait for the Big, Bad OCLC.