Author: Joan Starr
Earthquake weather
It’s a beautiful, warm October day here in the Bay Area. And yet, I have to admit, that warm autumn days can sometimes give me a slight sense of foreboding, because they remind me of the seasons when we’ve had […]
Repeating patterns
Using patterns as the basis for creativity is common in the world of design. It seemed counter-intuitive to me until I read Designing Social Interfaces, a book that calls itself “a family of social web design principles and interaction patterns.” […]
Sustainability
Have you done any sustainability planning? While it’s true that a number of granting agencies now include requirements for this kind of planning, what’s really the driving force for many of us is that our institutional homes are now asking […]
Which way forward?
Does your organization do 5 or 10 year plans? What about 15-year plans? I sat in a meeting recently with someone who was asking for this kind of forward thinking: what will the world look like in 2025? Now that […]
Making connections
The other morning, I rather crankily tweeted, “I’m trying to write about barriers to adoption, thinking about technology + new business practices. Not that pleasant of a way to start day.” A day or two later, someone tweeted back, “I […]
Just one more thing…
I suspect that we don’t often link projects and perfection in our minds. Projects–even well-run projects–are human affairs with ups and downs, ins and outs. The art of project management is learning how to keep the project on track even […]
Persistence
Since March, I’ve had the opportunity of working with the UC3 team at CDL. I joined part time, you might say, as the project manager for the EZID/DataCite project. (I wear a lot of hats here.) In this role, I’m […]
The heart of a sprinter
Your project timeline has just been cut, significantly. Let’s say it’s for a reason you understand. Does any part of you get excited? If so, you are one lucky project manager, because it means you have the heart of a […]
Listening: a competitive advantage
I was on a conference call recently when a question came up as to how a service offered by a consortium of libraries and research institutions might compete with a similar one offered by the private sector. We had a […]
Privacy matters
The [http://www.handheldlibrarian.org/program-2] conference held July 28 & 29 touched on privacy issues repeatedly, as might be expected for a conference dealing with topics such as geolocation and “augmented reality.” Lisa Carlucci Thomas in her keynote on “Risk, Reality, & the […]