At CIL 2005 Well, here I am at CIL with my spiffy work laptop and wireless card, I’m detecting a network and I have a good connection, now what do I do next? No internet, alas!

Clifford Lynch is now giving the keynote. Always very interesting. Since this is the 20th anniversary of CIL, he started with a history of the internet. Libraries have led the way to a certain extent because for many people the first interaction (not results of but interaction) with a computer was accessing the OPAC at their local public library.

He then went on to talk about the difference in cultural history now that there are conversations, “he’s not just a civil war general, he’s my great-grandfather” or “he’s more than a ‘native bearer’ he was my great-grandfather.”

Another interesting thing he mentioned is the archive of information that is the internet. If you google yourself, you might find a flame you sent to a listserv in 1994 that argues what now is an unsupportable position. Unfortunate, but unavoidable. Kids now will have to deal with their pre-braces, pre-contact lenses, pre-nose job pictures residing forever on the internet.  ¶ 9:37 AM| |cites (technorati) |