I started this blog post in a conference break at the JISC Future of Research conference. I wasn’t actually at the conference (it was held in London); I was in my office in Birmingham following along using various event amplification tools.

I hadn’t come across the term event amplification (i.e. amplifying the event beyond the physical location, for example by using livestreaming or Twitter) until quite recently, through Brian Kelly’s blog and a subsequent discussion I had with him. However, I have been involved in event amplification in a number of different ways before. Event amplification (although I didn’t term it as that) has been an important consideration of mine both as an attendee, an organiser, and a remote participant. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the things that has stood out for me so far in my new job is the vast amount of reading I now have. I’ve always used the commute to and from work to read (study modules for my diploma, journal articles, reports, work related reading etc.), and tended to prefer to read these on paper than on screen. But in this job the volume of reading is a lot higher, and I was conscious of the amount of paper I was using (and also having to carry around between home and work), so I wondered if an e-reader might be a better way of doing things.

I do read a fair bit on my iPhone but I’d never tried a dedicated e-reader. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to borrow a Kindle for a couple of days thanks to BCU eLibrary team. I had a couple of days of travelling so knew I’d be spending a lot of time on the train, so I decided to use the opportunity to see if the Kindle suited my needs.

As some of you may be aware (particularly those of you who follow my tweets), I had a mixed experience with it. I thought I’d share the main pros and cons from my experience as I know there are others wondering about getting a Kindle at the moment. Read the rest of this entry »