Project Management

This week's readings on project management were largely a tedious duplication of topics already well-covered by Professor Walters in 672 last semester. I did find some additionally worthwhile components in some of the readings. All but one of the Frank Cervone articles were helpful to a certain extent. In "How Not to Run a Digital Project," Cervone's discussion of AULITs in Rule no. 8 hit home. "The average senior manager only spends - at most - 10 percent of their time on a daily basis on detailed tasks." I don't think I ever really stopped to think about it so succinctly, but it is true! I am always complaining about how I have no time to get "real work" done because I spend all my time in meetings, writing monthly reports, and program planning. If I stop and think about it, it probably is split about 80%/20%. "Standard Methodology in Digital Library Project Management" was a nice succinct refresher on PMBOK, but I was very dismayed to see that pretty much all my projects would be deemed failures based on his 4 major criteria for success. The project definition report description and key documents breakdown on page 6 of "Library Project Management in a Collaborative Web-based Working Environment" I think will prove very helpful when starting my next project. The sample MS Project Plan was also helpful since that is the software we use at work for project management and it was interesting to see how someone else might structure projects in that environment. I also really liked the Project Plan for the Odessa Mobile Technology Project for use as a template for my next project.

It is probably also worth mentioning that I found two of the articles to be particularly NOT helpful. "Nurturing Project Management in Higher Education IT" was all about establishing a project management office, which is most definitely will not be happening at my institution any time soon and I think is considerably more overhead than most archival institutions can afford. I also found the "Methods for Digital Library Project Teams" which essentially just generically talked about the decision making process to be not terribly informative.

Course Retrospective

This week we are supposed to compare where we were at the beginning of the course to where we are now. I have learned an extraordinary amount about all the technical components that operate behind the scenes not only of digital libraries, but computers in general. Some of the highlights for me have been learning that there is a "kernel" in my computer, lol. It think the most valuable part of the course for me, at least as far as immediate application at work, is learning how to work in MySQL. That is the database that runs behind out Archivists' Toolkit installation, and I am quite excited about the prospect of running queries through the back-end MySQL database to capture information that is more difficult to search and compile through the user interface. In general, I think that is the one aspect of technology that has changed the most for me this semester. I am so much more comfortable working with the command line and not relying on graphical user interfaces. It is very empowering to know you can access information more directly and not be afraid to look at what is going on behind the user interfaces for applications. And, although I certainly wouldn't even call myself proficient in MySQL or PHP, I now have the basic skills and knowledge to build on. I can easily take an understanding of basic commands and syntax and continue learning.

Queries

As predicted by Professor Fulton, my main struggle this week was constructing queries using JOIN. Ultimately, I was able to syntactically create queries that worked, but honestly I am not sure that I really understand the difference between a left join and a right join and when you would use which. Maybe it will make more sense to me over time with practice. I am thrilled to be learning how to get behind the scenes with MySQL and think this may be one of the most useful aspects of the course for me. It directly relates to my work with the Archivists' Toolkit and potentially other projects as well. The rest of the MySQL training was easy and I had no trouble picking up the syntax. Like I said, I can construct correct queries (well maybe after one error return!), but I don't really understand what difference the left and right join are making conceptually in the data that is returned. It could just be that it wasn't really relevant to the data we inputted because none of our tables or rows had null values. Perhaps that would make the difference more evident, or maybe I am still way off?

Data Modeling and Database Design

I really enjoyed this week's topic. I learned alot about what goes into planning and designing a database beyond just specifying what you want a software application to do. I am still struggling with the entity-relationship diagrams, but it made more sense after I had to think through it for my own database. I think it is actually the different diagramming conventions that are tripping me up more than the concepts behind it. I really liked the "Data Modeling: Finding the Perfect Fit" article. It was much clearer and easier to grasp than the wikipedia articles. I am still not clear on the differences between conceptual, logical, physical, and semantic models and all these different diagrams with their multiple arrows pointing all over do not help! Database normalization, however, I totally connected with. Oh my, could I totally geek out over normalizing database structure. It is all so neat and organized, and I love the concept of atomicity getting everything broken down into its most individual parts. I think I could get too carried away with this and end up living in a closet like that guy in Real Genius...

Technology Plans

I found most of the readings for this week very interesting. There were a few that I found somewhat outdated and too public library focused to be of much use to me, such as the Bertot article "Study Shows New funding Sources Crucial to Technology Services." The Dugan article "Information Technology Plans" offered a good breakdown of the components of a solid technology plan and the Gerding and Mackellar article "Applying for Technology Grants" pointed to multiple good resources for technology planning and grant funding. There were several readings, however, that I found particularly relevant to my work and interests. I like the Stephens article "Technoplans versus Technolust" for its emphasis on tying a plan to the organization mission, acknowledgement of the need for flexibility, and explanation of Everett Roger's Innovation Adoption Curve. I could so easily categorize my colleagues into his 5 categories: Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority, and (my favorite) Laggards. Sager's article "Environmental Scanning and the Public Library" was also especially valuable despite its public library focus. The kind of deliberate awareness of one's environment that he describes and how critical it is to developing strategic goals for your organization translate across the information professional community. The article that hit closest to home in a too familiar way was Whittaker's "What Went Wrong? Unsuccessful Information Technology Projects." As I am currently working on a software development project that has already considerably gone over budget and off schedule, I wish I had read her article before starting the project. We have encountered several of the pitfalls she describes, including poor project planning, lack of monitoring, unrealistic time and cost estimates from vendors, and vendors overextending themselves and not meeting deadlines.

As Lead Archivist of a Digital Program, I am intricately involved in technology planning at my institution. I have to advise on archival requirements for storage, software choices, software development projects, staff training on new software, etc. As the program grows and the archive moves more towards digital archiving, I only see the Digital Program and my role in technology planning growing. It is already at the core of every program, including reference, processing and description, and even donor relations. Moreover, the IT staff, while very knowledgeable about the technology involved, do not understand the special needs of an archive and need that perspective to be incorporated into their planning.

XML

I reviewed the UACBT tutorials. Having been working with EAD to encode archival finding aids and also working with multiple metadata standards for describing digital objects for over 8 years, this portion of the course was already extremely familiar to me and I had no trouble following along with the tutorials or doing the homework assignment.

HTML

I have taken alot of courses and workshops over the years in HTML. I find it is much like learning a foreign language, in the sense that if you don't use it you forget it. Still, I have also found that there is no need to keep all those tags and rules in my head. Once you learn the basics of how to structure a page, it really is just a matter of knowing where to go to find instructions on how to do specific things you can't remember. Obviously, if creating HTML is a core component of your job, it helps efficiency considerably to not need to be looking in a book every time you want to code something. But, if HTML is something you only use infrequently, then once you grasp the key concepts keeping some HTML resources handy for reference is sufficient. The resources provided in D2L this week were sufficient for completing the assignment requirements. I also referred to Dave Raggett's websites on basic and advanced HTML and some CSS, which are very clear and easy to follow:

http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/

http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/Advanced.html

http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/Style.html

There is also an excellent series of tutorials on HTML 4/5 with CSS available through the UA VTC site. This is an amazing resource for UA students which I wish I had more time to explore and learn from.

Learning Styles

I liked the article by Richard Felder and Barbara Soloman on "Learning Styles and Strategies" in this week's reading. It was sort of like a personality test for learning. I am a ASVS learner based on their brief descriptions - Active Sensing Verbal Sequential. Particularly when it comes to technology, I am definitely an active learner who prefers to just jump in and start trying things. That is also generally my approach to projects. I hate it when coworkers simply refuse to try something or won't even start a project because they assume it is impossible. I am a firm believer in pilot projects and test phases. I also strongly identify with the description of a sensing learner as someone who doesn't like "courses that have no apparent connection to the real world." No wonder me and philosophy didn't get along. I think I am a good strong middle ground when it comes to visual versus verbal learner, although with technology I may lean more towards visual. I definitely find the online tutorials and video demonstrations more helpful than the reading which frequently makes no sense to me. For some reason, even just hearing it versus reading it seems to make a difference. I also think I fall somewhere in the middle on the sequential and global learner scale. I do like linear, straightforward assignments and I can follow along even when I don't see the big picture yet. But once I grasp how something works, I do like to think outside the box and can often find ways to make software for instance work in novel ways.

Users and Groups

This week our assignments and readings focused on administration of users and groups. We had to do the same basic tasks of adding new users and groups and setting permissions using three different interfaces, Gnome, Webmim, and the CLI. It was all pretty straightforward and mostly about can you follow detailed directions. The only hiccups on the assignments I had were due to typos when using the command line interface. Once I got over my Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy moment and stopped panicking, I was able to figure out pretty quickly why things weren't working. It was usually just due to one letter being off, which is kind of frustrating but easy to fix. The umask numbering system is going to take some getting used to, but I think it is doable. I don't know that I need to understand intricately really anyways, so long as I know where to find the information and can set permissions as I need them. I actually had a harder time wrapping my head around the discussion of the set user identification attribute. I don't know why because it sounds straightforward enough, but the explanation just did not make sense to me. I am hoping it will click at some point. I think this is a situation where I really just need to understand the concepts and possibilities so I can accurately express to my IT administrator what my needs are. it is not likely that I will be setting these permissions myself, at least not at my current job.

Hands-on with the CLI

This weeks hands-on experience with the CLI was actually kind of fun. It made me nostalgic for my BASIC programming class in high school, although it also recollected my angst over my final project program not working and it taking me DAYS to figure out that it was all because I had typed a lowercase l in place of a 1. The teacher couldn't even find the mistake! Scarily, I actually found the Linux CLI easier and more enjoyable to work with than the vim interface and commands. Maybe I am just spoiled to Microsoft Word 2007, but I found the vim terrible to work with and can not fathom how it could ever be efficient to use. The far as CLI commands go, it was all pretty straightforward and everything worked as the tutorials described them. I have to admit that configurations I have done on my computers using Windows GUI were easier in some sense, but that is probably just because I am more familiar with them. I think the configuration possibilities in the Linux environment are actually more flexible and powerful though. The Windows GUI works great so long as you don't want to do anything to complicated or out of the ordinary. The Linux CLI seems like it could accommodate pretty much anything you could think of a valid command for.

This week we played around with a command line interface in Linux through a remote desktop connection. Luckily, I had no trouble using the remote desktop connection. I expect my luck in the running smoothly department to run out eventually, but will enjoy it so long as I can. The command tutorials were interesting and reminded me of my first BASIC course in high school oh so many years ago. Initially it was very straightforward, but the level of complexity the commands can reach is really quite amazing and a bit daunting. The absolute and relative pathnames explanation made sense because again it related back to previous HTML experience. There are also lots of typing shortcuts which the writer recommends you use, but for someone like me who likes things to be very explicit the typing shortcuts save me not that much time in exchange for somewhat more confusion. I think I will type things out for now until things come to me more naturally. I also think alot of it will make more sense when we are actually using the commands for real work instead of playing around with files I didn't create and don't really understand. I am afraid to play around too much for fear of screwing something up I can't fix. I definitely think I need more practice with the input/output redirection and linking together multiple commands using pipes. The potential of all these commands is really cool, but like I said kind of daunting to a beginner...

Ubuntu

First blog assignment was to read through some of the posts on the Ubuntu User Forum in the Absolute Beginner Talk forum. That is definitely me - absolute beginner! As such, of course the first thing that caught my eye was the "New to Ubuntu? Start here..." sticky post. Looks like lots of links to useful information when we move forward on installing Ubuntu. after skimming over the resources there, I started browsing the problem posts. I don't consider myself to be a pessimist, but I am kind betting on something going wrong at some point. I subscribe for the "hope for the best, prepare for the worst" school of thought :) I though arming myself with some knowledge of potential problems might help me freak out less when they happen to me! Looks like I could facing all sorts of issues, such as wireless connection no longer working, mouse and keyboard no longer working, screen resolution problems, and even the screen simply going all black and the monitor going to sleep. Okay, so deep breaths. Hopefully none of this will happen to me, but it was cool to see how responsive and helpful some people are on the forums. That makes me feel better!

Welcome

Hi! Welcome to Mouse Manor - official blog for my Introduction to Applied Technology Course for the University of Arizona's Graduate Certificate in Digital Information Management program.