Re: [CODE4LIB] New thread: Why are you doing what you're doing?
I think a great question would be: what would you REALLY like to be doing? And I'm meaning that professionally, not "I'd rather be sailing/sleeping/drinking a beer." Pretend that the daily niggling bits of the job are gone and money is no object -- what would you do? I love your variation to the question! I am currently in library school because I REALLY want to be a digital archivist! Like one of our other responses, I've done a lot of other things and discovered what I WANT to do along the way. Once upon a time, I wanted to own and run a gymnastics business. Been there, done that, and did it well. Time to respond to my love of history, books, and this strange desire to play with the newest technologies I can get my hands on. Nicole On Fri, Sep 30, 2011 at 11:34 AM, MJ Ray wrote: > Eric Hellman wrote: > > I think it's a good question, worth asking about *every* dev > > position being hired for. I would be interested to hear an answer > > from others on the list. In fact, I think the price of putting a > > position announcement on Code4lib should be a willingness to answer > > "why?". And "why not?" is a pretty pathetic answer. > > > > For me, I'm doing what I'm doing because I think it's important and > > because no one else is doing it. I hope there are many other with a > > similar answer. > > I answered part of this a while ago: > http://www.news.software.coop/hi-why-are-you-doing/1000/ > > The tl;dr is "to provide computer-related services..." and I do that > in a co-op so that we get hired for those services, not for our flesh > and time. ;-) > > Regards, > -- > MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op. > http://koha-community.org supporter, web and LMS developer, statistician. > In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html > Available for hire for Koha work http://www.software.coop/products/koha >
Re: [CODE4LIB] New thread: Why are you doing what you're doing?
Eric Hellman wrote: > I think it's a good question, worth asking about *every* dev > position being hired for. I would be interested to hear an answer > from others on the list. In fact, I think the price of putting a > position announcement on Code4lib should be a willingness to answer > "why?". And "why not?" is a pretty pathetic answer. > > For me, I'm doing what I'm doing because I think it's important and > because no one else is doing it. I hope there are many other with a > similar answer. I answered part of this a while ago: http://www.news.software.coop/hi-why-are-you-doing/1000/ The tl;dr is "to provide computer-related services..." and I do that in a co-op so that we get hired for those services, not for our flesh and time. ;-) Regards, -- MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op. http://koha-community.org supporter, web and LMS developer, statistician. In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html Available for hire for Koha work http://www.software.coop/products/koha
Re: [CODE4LIB] New thread: Why are you doing what you're doing?
Great logo! We do get pretty lippy around here sometimes. On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 2:13 PM, Montoya, Gabriela wrote: > I'm not a developer, but I too like to lurk on this listserv. Sometimes you > learn something new, and other times you just have to make light of a > situation. See my attached, proposed new logo. > > Gabriela > > -Original Message- > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Eric > Hellman > Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2011 10:44 AM > To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU > Subject: [CODE4LIB] New thread: Why are you doing what you're doing? > > I think it's a good question, worth asking about *every* dev position being > hired for. I would be interested to hear an answer from others on the list. > In fact, I think the price of putting a position announcement on Code4lib > should be a willingness to answer "why?". And "why not?" is a pretty pathetic > answer. > > For me, I'm doing what I'm doing because I think it's important and because > no one else is doing it. I hope there are many other with a similar answer. > > Eric >
Re: [CODE4LIB] New thread: Why are you doing what you're doing?
Salvete! > On 9/28/11 2:12 PM, "Karen Coyle" wrote: > >> I think a great question would be: what would you REALLY like to be >> doing? And I'm meaning that professionally, not "I'd rather be >> sailing/sleeping/drinking a beer." Pretend that the daily niggling >> bits of the job are gone and money is no object -- what would you do? >> This is fun in a what did you do over the summer sort of way. :) I used to say that one of the things I'd do if I won the lottery would be to run an experimental Library. As it turned out, I didn't need to win the lottery. My Board was pretty cool and let me implement a lot of the stuff that I wanted to. So I feel like that's out of my system now. (At least the part of the experiment that involved running a Library on a shoestring budget. I'd still like to try and run a Library at some point on an adequate or dare I say plush budget.) I worked a lot of different jobs before finding Library and Information Science. I can safely say that you haven't lived until you've tossed cones out on the Jersey Turnpike and watched a chronic offender's undercarriage be mercilessly ripped out from under him by a metal stool. (Not my initiative, no one was hurt, but I bet he never ran the booth again.) Gordon Ramsay is a kitten compared to a lot of Chefs. When you knock on a total stranger's door and ask after their political support, you have a lot better idea of why things take forever politically. I'm still not sure if Children's Reference beats literally smelling the roses all day. I love learning, I love writing, and yes, get thy tomatoes ready, I really like books. I wanted to do research, but my experience was in public. Thankfully my Patrons egged me into writing stuff anyway. I live in a bubble. I have an incredibly modest standard of living. When a colleague suggested to me that I become a technology consultant for small Libraries, my immediate response was "Oh I can't, they can't afford to pay a consultant." In the back of my head, I was thinking "Why just technology? I write a hell of an annual plan and I know plenty of people that dread that. I index, too...hmmm". The solution was to have a hell of a sliding scale. Inner city school, you don't get to pay me. Very rich foundation looking for an awards panelist, show me the money, please. I do what comes to my doorstep and it is usually awesome. If nothing shows up, I research or write documentation. The field is diverse. Go play. :) I can't think of anything better to do. Our field basically assists people that need help. So that's what I do, that's what I like to do, and I can't think of much else to do. Cheers, Brooke
Re: [CODE4LIB] New thread: Why are you doing what you're doing?
Evangelizing the importance and use of large information sets, research, and discovery through alternate media forms. Visualizations, interactive installations, video art. Anyone feeling crazy enough to create a position like that? -Sean On 9/28/11 2:12 PM, "Karen Coyle" wrote: > I think a great question would be: what would you REALLY like to be > doing? And I'm meaning that professionally, not "I'd rather be > sailing/sleeping/drinking a beer." Pretend that the daily niggling > bits of the job are gone and money is no object -- what would you do? > > kc > > Quoting Matt McCollow : > >> "Why not? Why not? Why not not, then, if the best reasoning you can >> contrive is why not?" - David Foster Wallace >> >> I do what I do because I like learning how things work, taking >> things apart and seeing what makes them tick. I like taking an idea >> I have and making something with it, and I like taking things that >> are broken and making them work. I think if I hadn't gone down the >> developer path, I might have liked to be a mechanic. >> >> Matt McCollow >> Web Developer >> Mills Library, McMaster University >> >> On 2011-09-28, at 1:44 PM, Eric Hellman wrote: >> >>> I think it's a good question, worth asking about *every* dev >>> position being hired for. I would be interested to hear an answer >>> from others on the list. In fact, I think the price of putting a >>> position announcement on Code4lib should be a willingness to answer >>> "why?". And "why not?" is a pretty pathetic answer. >>> >>> For me, I'm doing what I'm doing because I think it's important and >>> because no one else is doing it. I hope there are many other with a >>> similar answer. >>> >>> Eric >> > >
Re: [CODE4LIB] New thread: Why are you doing what you're doing?
On Sep 28, 2011, at 2:12 PM, Karen Coyle wrote: > I think a great question would be: what would you REALLY like to be doing? I can answer that question. I'd like to be more actively digitizing content or harvesting it from the Web. I would then like to have more direct one-on-one working relationships with university faculty. I'd like to teach a class or two. And then I'd like to mix all of the above together with some open source tools making it easier for everybody to use, understand, and interpret the content for the purposes of better understanding the human condition. Really. I'm serious. -- Eric Lease Morgan
Re: [CODE4LIB] New thread: Why are you doing what you're doing?
I think a great question would be: what would you REALLY like to be doing? And I'm meaning that professionally, not "I'd rather be sailing/sleeping/drinking a beer." Pretend that the daily niggling bits of the job are gone and money is no object -- what would you do? kc Quoting Matt McCollow : "Why not? Why not? Why not not, then, if the best reasoning you can contrive is why not?" - David Foster Wallace I do what I do because I like learning how things work, taking things apart and seeing what makes them tick. I like taking an idea I have and making something with it, and I like taking things that are broken and making them work. I think if I hadn't gone down the developer path, I might have liked to be a mechanic. Matt McCollow Web Developer Mills Library, McMaster University On 2011-09-28, at 1:44 PM, Eric Hellman wrote: I think it's a good question, worth asking about *every* dev position being hired for. I would be interested to hear an answer from others on the list. In fact, I think the price of putting a position announcement on Code4lib should be a willingness to answer "why?". And "why not?" is a pretty pathetic answer. For me, I'm doing what I'm doing because I think it's important and because no one else is doing it. I hope there are many other with a similar answer. Eric -- Karen Coyle kco...@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net ph: 1-510-540-7596 m: 1-510-435-8234 skype: kcoylenet
Re: [CODE4LIB] New thread: Why are you doing what you're doing?
Oops. FWIW, this works much better with software and cars than with frogs. Not that I know from experience. With frogs, that is. Cary On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 11:05 AM, Cary Gordon wrote: > I like to break things open, throw away half their parts, put them > back together hand have them work better. > > FWIW, > -- > Cary Gordon > The Cherry Hill Company > http://chillco.com > -- Cary Gordon The Cherry Hill Company http://chillco.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] New thread: Why are you doing what you're doing?
I like to break things open, throw away half their parts, put them back together hand have them work better. FWIW, -- Cary Gordon The Cherry Hill Company http://chillco.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] New thread: Why are you doing what you're doing?
"Why not? Why not? Why not not, then, if the best reasoning you can contrive is why not?" - David Foster Wallace I do what I do because I like learning how things work, taking things apart and seeing what makes them tick. I like taking an idea I have and making something with it, and I like taking things that are broken and making them work. I think if I hadn't gone down the developer path, I might have liked to be a mechanic. Matt McCollow Web Developer Mills Library, McMaster University On 2011-09-28, at 1:44 PM, Eric Hellman wrote: > I think it's a good question, worth asking about *every* dev position being > hired for. I would be interested to hear an answer from others on the list. > In fact, I think the price of putting a position announcement on Code4lib > should be a willingness to answer "why?". And "why not?" is a pretty pathetic > answer. > > For me, I'm doing what I'm doing because I think it's important and because > no one else is doing it. I hope there are many other with a similar answer. > > Eric
Re: [CODE4LIB] New thread: Why are you doing what you're doing?
Many of us have had to answer that question several times before getting to the point where a job posting is even possible, so it shouldn't be hard ;). But I think it is worth glossing the question a bit..."dev positions" could be created to create new stuff from scratch, or they could be used to develop existing systems to meet local needs, as is our case in hiring for our Digital Repository Manager ( http://library.brown.edu/cds/pages/job-opportunity-digital-repository-manager-2)ahem. In our case, we chose inherently flexible, interchangeable platforms (Fedora/Solr/Django) because we recognized that our community's needs would evolve faster than any one product. So while we're not creating any particular piece of that stack from scratch, we feel we need the flexibility to create outcomes that may serve needs unique to Brown. It seems that the bar for justifying a position would be set differently based on the those kinds of nuances. -Andy On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 1:44 PM, Eric Hellman wrote: > I think it's a good question, worth asking about *every* dev position being > hired for. I would be interested to hear an answer from others on the list. > In fact, I think the price of putting a position announcement on Code4lib > should be a willingness to answer "why?". And "why not?" is a pretty > pathetic answer. > > For me, I'm doing what I'm doing because I think it's important and because > no one else is doing it. I hope there are many other with a similar answer. > > Eric > -- Andrew Ashton Director of Digital Technologies Brown University Library
Re: [CODE4LIB] New thread: Why are you doing what you're doing?
On 9/28/11 10:44 AM, Eric Hellman wrote: I think it's a good question, worth asking about *every* dev position being hired for. I would be interested to hear an answer from others on the list. In fact, I think the price of putting a position announcement on Code4lib should be a willingness to answer "why?". And "why not?" is a pretty pathetic answer. For me, I'm doing what I'm doing because I think it's important and because no one else is doing it. I hope there are many other with a similar answer. An answer which assumes we all have our Eric Hellman bios at the ready. ;-) Perhaps a more complete question would be "What are you doing and why?" --VMB -- Vicky Brasseur Product Manager, Digital Archive Service Internet Archive http://archive.org v...@archive.org
[CODE4LIB] New thread: Why are you doing what you're doing?
I think it's a good question, worth asking about *every* dev position being hired for. I would be interested to hear an answer from others on the list. In fact, I think the price of putting a position announcement on Code4lib should be a willingness to answer "why?". And "why not?" is a pretty pathetic answer. For me, I'm doing what I'm doing because I think it's important and because no one else is doing it. I hope there are many other with a similar answer. Eric
