What is NFAIS?

NFAIS (National Federation of Advanced Information Services) is a global, non-profit membership organization serving all those who create, aggregate, organize, and otherwise provide ease of access to and effective navigation and use of authoritative, credible information. To improve member capabilities and contribute to their ongoing success, NFAIS provides opportunities for education, advocacy, and a forum in which to address common interests.

A summary of my talk is here:

The Information Services: Digital Libraries and Research team at Sun Microsystems has always put the user and the content first when it comes to providing effective and valuable services that impact business success. Come hear about the internal and external partnerships created to help drive the integration of information across the organization – from marketing, sales, and learning to engineering. See the creative and innovative uses of content and technology to connect, collaborate and share information with users – from wikis, blogs, mobile devices and virtual worlds to twitter.

It will be fun!

Christy

Many of the Sun Information Services: Digital Libraries & Research team podcasts and videos have been migrated here.

In any case Information Matters!!!

Christy
Cybrarian at Oracle (more to come on what my role will be)

As Information & Knowledge Services experts at Sun, one of the things our team does is enable employees to share what they know. Not only do we provide the right information for employees to do their work – creating competitive advantage, smarter decision making and an informed organization – but also enable the connections for employees to share and learn from others.

Our Safari Books Online services is very popular with the Sun technical community and as part of that, we’ve partnered with Sun’s Global Services Engineering (GSE) team to create a READ community within Sun – “reading recommendations from people you trust” – that includes connections to content in Safari (Sun employees can access the READ community on SunSpace).

In conjunction with GSE and the READ community, we have created lists in Safari for the recommended readings that happen to be books or videos and are in Safari Books Online. Below is an example from a Sun Solaris Security expert, Glenn Brunette. This image is of the recommended readings that come from books in Safari Books Online that Glenn recommends – and, as an expert, we care about what Glenn recommends, reads and thinks.

Not all content in the READ community is connected to Safari – other content can include blogs, experts, websites, Twitter feeds and other technical or business content that people at Sun recommend.

All this in an effort to partner with experts across Sun and enable them to learn from others and share their knowledge!

I didn’t know Greylin was such a chef, but she whipped up some dim sum, and a fabulous fruit and cheese platter for our guests. I also saw many folks sampling the punch!

As always, people hung out by the food table, as they waited for the next tour to start. We used Second Life’s Voice Chat system, which worked very well, as well as Text Chat. There were a lot of good questions, too, especially from folks wondering how they can get the high-definition video at their location for their distributed team.

I also saw several people trying out the desks with the multiple displays, the height adjustments, and the different media walls with their video playbacks. Watching the rooms reconfigure themselves at a push of a button seemed very popular, too!

We will be offering tours for Sun Employees over the next several Tuesdays, at 10am SLT (Pacific Time). If you’d like to join us, just meet us at the Sun Employee Island (slurl:http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sun%20Microsystems%206/117/110/26). If you’d like to try a self-guided tour, come by anytime, and use the Notecards to learn about all of the features in our space (the Notecards are explained in this entry). (Note: Sun employees only – your Second Life avatar must be registered as a Sun Employee; register or get an avatar here.)

Thanks to everyone who stopped by for our official opening and tour, and especially thanks to all of the people who helped us get everything ready, helped out at the tours, and got us looking so festive for the day!

Posted by Diana Foster – originally posted here.

Diana Foster from the Sun Open Work Services Group has posted several additional blog entries on the Virtual MPK16 Next Generation Workspace replica project – be sure to check them out for more details on the space and benefits:

• All blog entries on Virtual MPK16 from Diana Foster 
• Recent entries:
• MPK16 in the Virtual World
• MPK16 in the Virtual World: Enhancements!
• MPK16 in the Virtual World: Replicating the Real World

For Sun employees, check the wikis.sun.com  site for Virtual MPK16 for more details.

My next few blog entries will discuss the different aspects of the virtual world instance of our MPK16 Pilot Space, starting out with a little background on the project.

Background

The MPK16 pilot space, in the “real” or physical world, was built to facilitate collaboration for teams that are physically seated together, as well as those that have some distributed members. Currently, most of Sun’s MPK campus consists of closed (four walls plus door) offices, which, while excellent for heads-down and isolated work, is a poor choice for team collaboration. The MPK16 pilot space contains the following features to enable collaboration:

• open plan studios, dedicated to a team
• multiple informal areas for collaboration such as Laptop Bar, Network Den, and Break Area
• formal collaborative areas (conference rooms, Team Room)

All of these areas are enhanced to specifically improve collaboration, both locally and at a distance.

We originally built a virtual world replica of our physical version of the MPK16 space to train and tour our Sun counterparts throughout the world, to let them see the prototype space so they could see the functionality, layout, and obtain training in the use of these newly implemented collaborative areas and tools.

It has since become another “node” in our network of places, in addition to other nodes such as other Sun offices, client sites, travel locations, and employee homes. Most of my co-workers are local to the Bay Area, as I am, but my boss and another co-worker are in other states. Although our first choice is to meet face-to-face, that’s rarely feasible for us, so we can now choose to meet “in-world.”

In our Second Life version of MPK16, you can move your “avatar” around, walk around the space, and see and talk to your co-workers (the other avatars). This space exists in a private area, only accessible to Sun employees, so your conversations and presentations won’t be overheard. 

Next, I will explore how we have replicated some of the aspects of the MPK16 real world space.

Diana Foster (originally posted on her blog)

Please join us in Second Life at the Sun theater for this really exciting and timely chat!
Speaker: Laura Stack (SL: LauraStack Ghost)
Laura Stack, MBA, CSP, is a personal productivity expert, author, and professional speaker.

Where: Sun Campus in Second Life (SLURL:http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sun%20Microsystems%201/141/132/23)
When: October 13, 2009 – 9am SLT / PT (check your local time)

Topic: Digital Quicksand: Time-Draining Habits in a Web 2.0 World
Businesses and individuals worldwide keep finding interesting ways to use social networks and other interactive online media to do some pretty amazing things – from building their brands to getting to know their customers.  Like most technology, social networks and other social media tools are great resources but lousy masters.  You could spend all day hopping around to different sites, updating your information, and connecting with people all over the world.  But how does that add to your daily productivity?  Laura Stack discusses how to take advantage of the best aspects of social media, without letting it take advantage
of you.

Come and listen to Laura, chat with her and participate in an engaging and dynamic conversation!

Reminder – please join us in Second Life at the Sun theater for this really exciting chat with two Sun SMI Press Authors – Jeff Gardiner (SL: JeffGardiner SunMicrosystems) and Janice Gelb (SL: Editrix Alter) – Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry, Third Edition

Where: Sun Campus in Second Life (SLURL:http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sun%20Microsystems%201/141/132/23)
When: September 30, 2009 – 1:30pm SLT / PT (check your local time)
Note: This event is in Second Life so you must have a Second Life avatar and download the client software from www.secondlife.com

More details here.

The History of Information is now part of the offcial thenetworkisthecomputer.com website under the Inspiration tab. Check it out! It’s so great to see all that good information and information professionals have contributed to the amazing history of Sun Microsystems!

Christy

Where: Sun Campus in Second Life (SLURL:http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sun%20Microsystems%201/141/132/23)
When: September 30, 2009 – 1:30pm SLT / PT (check your local time)
Note: This event is in Second Life so you must have a Second Life avatar and download the client software from www.secondlife.com

Summary: Join us for a chat with Sun Technical Publications team members Jeff Gardiner and Janice Gelb on the release of the third edition of the industry-leading style guide “Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry”. This guide to creating clear, consistent, and easy-to-understand documentation covers everything from writing style to creating lists and procedures to managing schedules and workflow. The book is set to be published in print in November 2009 but is available today online via Safari Books Online.

More about their book and access for Sun employees.