Conferences

If you're headed to ALA Annual, the American Library Association conference 2009 in Chicago in a couple of weeks, we'd love to see you at the OCLC Developer Network luncheon and the OCLC blog salon. You're invited. OCLC Developer Network Luncheon Sunday, July 12 12:00 noon-1:30 pm InterContinental Hotel, Toledo Room 505 North Michigan Avenue. Join fellow developers and tech enthusiasts for an informal luncheon. Hear an update about the OCLC Developer Network, the latest Web services and APIs available from OCLC (including authentication services like EZproxy). Brainstorm about new ways to enrich your users' experience with additional data. You'll need to register for it, please. If you're planning to attend and would like to show off your latest code, drop us a note! OCLC Blog Salon Sunday, July 12 5:30-8:00 pm Chicago Hilton, Boulevard Room C (2nd floor) 720 South Michigan Avenue. OCLC bloggers have joined forced with the OCLC Developer Network to host the Blog Salon this year. The Shanachies are going to be the special guests, (along with Michael and Jenny) at the LITA President's Program at ALA this year, and then we'll continue the fun at the OCLC Blog Salon. So the Shanachies (Erik Boekesteijn, Jaap van de Geer, Geert van den Boogaard) will have all their video equipment at the Blog Salon--so come out and meet them and other like-minded bloggers, tweeters, 'tubers, coders, developers and generally anyone interested in tech/social/outreach/frivolity. You may be in the next Shanachie movie! The Blog Salon is sponsored by OCLC bloggers (official and less so) and the OCLC Developer Network. Note: even if you're not planning to attend ALA, you can still participate in the Developer Network luncheon via WebEx. I'll post information on how to join in, closer to time.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Mashathon and followed us on tweets.

We're getting ready for the WorldCat Mashathon today. Yesterday I was traveling, and then Ralph M. from the Leiden office and I started in on the details.

We are pleased to announce the WorldCat Mashathon registration for Amsterdam is now open. Here is the *official* announcement: Join fellow coders for the WorldCat Mashathon in Amsterdam, May 13-14. Sponsored by the OCLC Developer Network and International Institute of Social History (IISH), the two-day event will be held Wednesday and Thursday at IISH headquarters in Amsterdam. The European Mashathon follows on the heels of a previous WorldCat Hackathon in New York City. Participants will spend the two days brainstorming and coding mash-ups with local systems, OCLC Web Services, and many other Web Services to embellish existing, and create new, library services. WorldCat includes national catalogues from the Netherlands, the UK, Ireland, Iceland, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, France, Spain, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Russia and many more--so there are plenty of potential uses and apps just waiting to happen. Why attend the WorldCat Mashathon?

Most of my fellow OCLC Developer Network staffers are still at Code4Lib soaking up all the great ideas, making technology intersections and creating new possibilities for library development projects.

The Developer's Network will be hosting a luncheon on Sunday, Jan. 25 at ALA Midwinter.

This would be your chance to join fellow developers and tech enthusiasts for an informal luncheon...except we're already at capacity. Who knew there would be so many people attending a conference in Denver in January?

But never fear, we'll post a summary of the discussion and photos of the meeting right here, after the fact. There will be a presentation on all the new activities going on with OCLC Grid Services, and guest speakers will share what they've created:

• Holly Eggleston from UCSD will share the latest on EZproxy authentication with Shibboleth
• Larry Henry from ERIC will discuss ERIC's implementation of WorldCat and Find in a Library
• Karen Coombs from the University of Houston will go over the Wordpress plugin for WorldCat

We invite other participants to bring their apps or sample code to share with the group in this informal, open-discussion setting. New this conference is also a poster gallery of sample Grid Services mash-ups and applications that members of the Developer's Network have created.

We're excited to share these innovative uses of the OCLC developer tools available -- and look forward to brainstorming with you in 2009 about new ways to build on the world’s richest library resource.

If you're going to ALA, we'll see you in Denver. You may also want to sign-up and attend the OCLC Update Breakfast on Sunday, Jan. 25 from 7-9 a.m.

I want to thank all of you who came to the first OCLC Developer's Network Hackathon at NYPL's Science, Industry and Business Library. We had good discussions about SRU, OCLC services like xID, Identities, and WorldCat Search API, and how all these services can play in Drupal, VuFind and other open source systems. See this video of the Hackathon. Also, some attenders put some pictures and info on the web including Eric Lease Morgan's summary, and our own site. And.. I want to thank Ann and Josh from NYPL for hosting - great facilities and you can't beat the location in NYC. Bruce Washburn and I had a nice long walkabout Saturday night up to Central Park and back down Park Avenue. Bruce took some pictures of his NYC trip. And I took a trip with a group of Hackathon'rs to the Empire State building on a beautiful misty night. Josh gave Alice and I a tour of the 42nd St NYPL HSSL - containing the main reading room, one of the great public spaces in the country. So my summary of our two days together -- fun, great code fragments and sample apps, great food, and opportunities to connect with library developers across North America (and two from Europe). We are planning the next Hackathon - maybe in Europe? Don

Thanks to everyone who was at the 'Introduction to WorldCat Grid' session and to all who made the Developer's Network meet and greet which included a demo of the WorldCat API. I met a variety of you and had quite a few interesting discussions about the WorldCat Grid and the API. We are pressing ahead with the invitation release of the API for late February. We want to accommodate as many as who are interested -- I know there will be some who may be disappointed not to be on this first list. I will be posting the presentation soon. My Philadelphia experience was positive. Philly has a real 'walkers' central city and I took advantage of that. Hopped the train from the hotel to the airport - enjoyed the rapid transit. Maybe because Columbus Ohio is the opposite - closest passenger train is 100 miles away. Don Hamparian Portfolio Manager WorldCat Grid Services

I've called the ALA Conference "The Show", and for good reason, although the real show is not really Midwinter, but Annual. Midwinter is a lot like Annual, though, but with less people, so perhaps I can be forgiven for failing to draw a clear boundary line. Nonetheless, the WorldCat Grid and Developer's Network were unveiled to the Midwinter attendees at a number of venues:

• Policies Directory Update
• Policies Directory Update and the WorldCat Registry
• Introducing WorldCat Grid
• Developer's Network Meet and Greet
• WorldCat Registry Update

I also devoted a part of the RLG Heads of Systems meeting to the WorldCat Grid and Developer's Network. At the Developer's Network Meet and Greet, Don demonstrated the WorldCat API to an interested audience of 30-40 developers. The beer probably didn't hurt either. All in all, we're quite happy with how the meeting went, and are already looking forward to the real "show" in Anaheim in June. We hope to see you there!