… but I play him at ASIST
Remarkably, I am all done with my ASIST 2007 conference responsibilities. And I’m not dead yet! This is really quite startling.
Friday’s preconference workshop went without a hitch, and the comments Tim and I got were remarkably kind and gracious. I learned things about Manakin that I didn’t know! (And a few things suddenly made sense that hadn’t.) I also think we genuinely helped some people, and that’s wonderful. And of course it’s great to share a dais with anybody from UIUC.
The institutional repositories panel that I pinch-hit for (“I’m not Ken Frazier, but I play him at ASIST!” and I have the “NOT Kenneth Frazier” name card to prove it, too!) was a thrill and a half. Meeting Drs. Robin Peek and Leslie Chan (even if only virtually in the latter case) was super-fantastic, and Sarah Shreeves and I tag-team emphasized each other’s points. I knew we’d do that, but emphasis is not a bad thing at all… and what’s even less bad is sitting with five people (three panelists, one moderator, and one facilitator) who all contributed excellent insights that came together into what I thought was a coherent, compelling story.
Today’s institutional-repository usability lab—I don’t have words for the awesome. If Paul Marty asks you to do one of his usability labs for your project, do not hesitate: do it! The satori flows like sake. Plus, it’s fun! The test volunteers really got into the spirit of the thing.
Next time I do a poster session I’m going to be a little less ambitious about my poster size. It looked pretty darn good, mind you—I caught several folks taking pictures of it!—but it could have been smaller and still done well. I’m filing that under “live and learn.”
And in a bit of serendipity, the ASIST book exhibitor display had Information Tomorrow, which I hadn’t seen yet. Yes, I picked it up, and yes, I hunted down my own essay, and… remarkably, it didn’t read all that badly. Fit well with the related piece before it, too. It’s so neat when that happens!
I like ASIST. It’s laid-back and fun-loving in tone, which I consider to be a good and too-rare thing in a conference. (I can get uptight and humorless lots of places.) The material is a bit eggheady sometimes, but I knew that going in, and this year’s slate is actually quite a bit more pragmatic than I expected. I’ve seen lots of people I know and like, and been rather more lionized than I in any way merit, and I’m looking forward to the rest of it! Now that I can actually relax.