I mentioned a few months ago that the current Information Services team at Sun was working on a History of Information timeline as part of the overall Tribute to Sun website being created by Sun Marketing. Images we created of various information projects can be found on our previous blog entry.

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

Please join us in Second Life at the Sun theater for this really exciting chat with two Sun Authors - Jeff Gardiner (SL: JeffGardiner SunMicrosystems) and Janice Gelb (SL: Editrix Alter)

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.

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!

Learn more about Laura on her website and on Twitter.  You can find her books at this site as well. 

Sun Technical Publications is pleased to announce 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 third edition features new chapters on:

• Writing for wikis and encouraging wiki collaboration
• Creating screencasts, using screencast terminology, and guidelines for creating narration
• Creating alternative text for nontext elements such as screen captures, multimedia content, illustrations, and diagrams

It also includes new tables for symbol name conventions, for common anthropomorphisms, and for common idioms and colloquialisms. To quote STC Fellow Dr. JoAnn Hackos, "It brings together a wealth of knowledge that all technical communicators must have to succeed."

"Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry, Third Edition" is available through Safari Books Online at http://techbus.safaribooksonline.com/9780137058280. The print edition will be available in mid-October. For Sun employees, access is funded via the Sun subscription to Safari Books Online - access this amazing book here: http://sunlibrary.safaribooksonline.com/9780137058280/?uicode=sun and learn today (note: this does not replace the Sun Editorial Style Guide, which is the in-house and Sun-specific version of this guide).

This new video, created by Robin Williams in the Information Services: Digital Libraries & Research group, has a great message about the value of virtual worlds for business and also uses various types of media to get the message across - including mixing real people and avatars - it's a must see!

Please join us for our next Author Chat at the Sun Second Life theatre!Author Chat: Clara Shih, Author of The Facebook Era and CEO of Hearsay Labs (SL: ClaraShih Zufreur)

Where: Sun Campus in Second Life (SLURL:http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sun%20Microsystems%201/141/132/23)- must have Second Life avatar and software (http://www.secondlife.com)
When: September 28, 2009 - 5pm SLT / PT

Topic: Sales, Marketing, and Business in the Facebook Era
Last decade was about the World Wide Web of information and the power of linking content pages. Today, it's about the World Wide Web of people and the power of the online social graph across sites. Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin are rewriting the rules for customer engagement, interactions, and relationships. Social networking sites are changing everything we thought we knew about sales, marketing, and product development -- and empowering companies with new tools, insights, and ability to transform customers into true partners and your most effective sales force yet. Bestselling author and social networking expert Clara Shih will walk through the radical business transformation taking place and what sales, marketers, and professionals must do to thrive and win in the Facebook Era.

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

Learn more about Clara on her website and on Twitter.   

Sun employees - access The Facebook Era on Safari Books Online!

Hope to see you there!

Christy Confetti Higgins
Informaiton Services: Digital Libraries & Research
Sun Learning Services
Sun Microsystems
christy.confetti-AT-sun-DOT-com | 303-990-5005
Skype: cconfettihiggins
Twitter: twitter.com/confetti and twitter.com/libraryresearch
Blog: blogs.sfbay.sun.com/sunlibrary and blogs.sun.com/library

We recently created a quick wikis.sun.com site for Sun employees who are not on the Sun network (SWAN) but need to connect with the information experts at Sun and/or need to know what information services are available to them. Check it out - most of the services are available off the network after you register - just ask us!

Information Services - Digital Libraries & Research (Sun Learning Services)

You can connect with us via our Twitter (/libraryresearch), this blog as well as view some of our digital content and presentations via the Social Learning Exchange - Digital Libraries Information channel (employees can view it all off the network, non-employees can view all content tagged for the public).

There are many ways to connect, stay connected and learn through these key informal learning information and knowledge services!

Christy

Thank you again to everyone that joined our series of author chats in Second Life during JavaOne 2009. If you missed the sessions, here are some replays and slides as a way to share the learning - these are all posted to Sun's Social Learning Exchange (a fabulous platform for information and knowledge sharing - learn more here!)

The Developer's Edge
by Darryl Gove
June 3, 2009
eBook available via Safari Books Online:  Non-Sun Employees | Sun Employees
Slides and transcript | Replay of slides with audio

JavaFX: Developing Rich Internet Applications book
by Jim Clarke, James Connors and Eric Bruno
June 3, 2009
JavaFX video played during the session
eBook available via Safari Books Online: Non Sun Employees | Sun Employees

June 4th at 9am PT
Core JavaServer Faces 3/E
by David Mark Geary and Cay Horstmann
Rough Cut access via Safari Books Online: Non Sun Employees | Sun Employees  (early access to the book)

June 4, 2009 at 12pm PT
Real-Time Java Programming: with the Java RTS
by Greg Bollella and Eric J. Bruno
eBook available via Safari Books Online: Non Sun Employees | Sun Employees  (early access to the book)
Slides | Replay with slides and audio

Check our previous blog entries about the author chats with photos and more. Thank you -

Christy Confetti Higgins
Information Services: Digital Libraries & Research
Sun Learning Services

Last month Harry Foxwell, Sun employee and author of Pro OpenSolaris, spoke in Second Life to employees and the public about his new book (access the replay here). Today, I'm pleased to announce that through a 3 month pilot with Springer (Sun employees - go to this internal site for access), we have access to all Apress books including Harry's book, Pro OpenSolaris.

Sun is currently a subscriber of key Springer collections via SpringerLink: Computer Science, Engineering, Math/Statistics. So, all Sun employees, be sure you are leveraging this fantastic learning content today. We are piloting access to Apress content specifically as Springer owns Apress and there is some key content in there that we are not able to get from other services.

For Sun employees, try it out today within SWAN and access all Springer content mentioned above as well as the new Pro OpenSolaris eBook.

If you are not a Sun employee, you can get access to this book in a few places - check Harry's blog for details.

As part of a bigger effort at Sun to capture Sun's history, the Information Services: Digital Libraires & Research team (previously known as SunLibrary) are pulling together the history of information at Sun. As part of this effort, these image were created that showcase visually the services, innovations, learnings, changes and impact of information to Sun's business over the years.

Keep a watch out here for the full timeline and history of information at Sun as told by Sun's information experts (both current and past)!

Christy

The Special Libraries Association (SLA) is one of the major information professional organization that the information experts at Sun belong to and participate in as part of our profession. This year, SLA is going through an "Align 09", effort looking at how to express the value of the profession in the future, how to communicate that value to executives and looking at a renaming the association.

SLA hired a market research firm to collect and analyze information to guide this effort. One key thing is that explaining the value of information to an organization is difficult and the word "librarian" does not always send the message of unique value and impact as it should.

Here are a few key ways to express the value information professionals at Sun and other organizations provide to the business - it is critical!

Knowledge Sharing
Information professionals are accountable for gathering, organizing and sharing the right information for the best decisions.  Information professionals further create a culture of knowledge sharing by educating colleagues on the best use of information.

Global Networking
Through active global networking, information professionals promote  the exchange of information, innovative ideas, insights and trends.  

Competitive Advantage
Information professionals ensure organizations have the right > information, insights and trends to make good decisions and gain competitive advantage.

Bottom-line Benefits
Information professionals save organizations time and money by providing value-added intelligence that is accurate, reliable and relevant.  We deliver expert information to our organizations in a timely, accessible and convenient manner.

For more information on how the Sun information professionals provide these benefits to Sun, keep reading this external blog, Twitter, check out our various presentations on the Social Learning Exchange at Sun, and watch out for our contribution to the Sun history/museum site (coming soon) where we contributed a section called The History of Information at Sun.

Good Decisions Depend on Good Information - one executive said "To make
strong business decisions we should have the best, most timely information. If we don't have the correct information, we may make faulty decisions." (Outsell Inc., August 2008, "What Executives Think About Information Management")

The Information Services: Digital Libraries & Research team at Sun (previously known as SunLibrary) has been providing information services to Sun employees, teams and programs for about 15 years: digital content, information/knowledge sharing, research, information consulting, information organization, content evaluation/analysis, enterprise search, social networking and other information services.

The research services have gone from answering any and every business related question to focusing on deeper, more complex research for strategic business requests to integrating the information experts/researchers into key programs at the company to today where we focus on the strategic research as well as our pro-active research service (via our Research Blog). This shift began around 1996 in conjunction with providing more digital information services to employees so they could more easily get information on their own, when they need it (we had to wait for information providers and publishers to catch up to our need for web-based content).

Information experts have the ability to understand the organization's information needs and anticipate those needs based on a keen pulse we have on the business and how integrated we are to teams across the organization. With that, we've created a Research Blog where we are sharing research results from key requests as well as conducting research pro-actively on topics that we know are important to Sun's business.

It is critical for employees to have access to quality information to drive their learning, business decisions and to stay competitive. What we've said for years is: Content + Research + Technology = Knowledge, Innovation, and Effectiveness = REVENUE.

From the Special Libraries Association blog, a member was interviewed about research skills. Here is what the interviewer, Chris Kennealy, author and journalist, said: "... discovered that there’s more to research on the Web than just “Google-ing.”  (read the full post and access the interview here)

We have been thrilled to offer these research and information consulting services at Sun and see the impact of information to Sun's business - information is our passion!

"If these highly skilled employees lack authoritative information to inform their decisions, their work is compromised." (Forrester, May 2008, "Best Practices: Reinventing The Corporate Library"

Sun has been a subscriber of Safari Books Online for many years! We started out small but quickly grew the access to employees as well as influenced the content and features based on Sun's business needs. The Safari Books Online service provides Sun employees access to over 8000 books, all online, all from tier 1 publishers. The ability to search, learn, download, discover, share are all key features of what makes Safari Books Online a critical information service for Sun employees.

Here are a few things employees have said about the information availale:

• "Sun makes use of many different software technologies. Usually, a developer's primary focus spans just a few of these technologies but he/she will invariably need to use, interface, or reference several others during their career here at Sun. Although google has become an indispensable reference tool, it is not able to replace authoritative texts on technical subjects. Safari has saved me a great deal of time by allowing me to find the best book for the task at hand. The ability to instantly have an expert available in the form of a book to answer questions or provide training has made it easier and more enjoyable to be a software developer here at Sun."
• "I was recently tasked to write some software in a language I had never used before. I was able to access excellent references within minutes using Safari instead of waiting for a book to be delivered or wasting time in the local bookstores. I consider Safari an essential tool in my work here at Sun."
• "This service helped our team get a very good understanding of the capabilities of an open-source software tool by giving us access to several books on the topic. This saved us a lot of time and effort. It would have saved us even more time and effort if I had thought to use Safari first rather than trying to compose appropriate Google searches to answer our questions...."

Sun has also purchased access to the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) books online via Safari. ITIL is a widely-accepted approach to IT service management across the globe. ITIL provides a cohesive set of best practices, drawn from public and private sectors internationally. Here is one employee's response to have the ITIL information available at her fingertips:

• "This is the best news.. Sun needs the gift of ITIL V3 Service Management Best Practices, and having them available for regular use is a win for all of us. May we as a community continue to use this to make the most of our service delivery and service management practices. This documentation and our organizations collaborating has competitive value for Sun and the IT Industry as a whole."

Safari recently wrote a case study on Sun's use of Safari Books Online and the value from Sun's perspective. Check out the case study!

Also, Safari created a customer video - a commercial - and interviewed several users of their service including Sun's Neeraj Mathur. Check out the video and hear what customers have to say about the impact to their business and what Neeraj says the impact is to his work at Sun.

For more information about Safari Books Online, Sun employees can see our SunSpace page at Information Services > eBooks > Safari Books Online.

Thanks everyone - enjoy, keep learning!

Christy

The Information Services: Digital Libraires & Research team within Sun Learning Services have been part of Sun for many years. We provide the information that Sun employees need to get their work done, make good decisions, stay competitive and smart.

One way that we help to keep employees informed and connect with employees regarding their information needs is Twitter. Our Twitter handle is libraryresearch.

Follow-us, connect with us - we are Sun's information experts!

Two new articles on the new SMI Press Citizen Engineer book!

• Engineers need to get the message across
  By Greg Papadopoulos and David Douglas of Sun Microsystems
  Finantical Times
  Published: March 5 2009 12:32 | Last updated: March 5 2009 12:32
• The Mercury News interview: Greg Papadopoulos and David Douglas
  By Brandon Bailey
  Mercury News
  Posted: 12/19/2008 12:00:00 PM PST

See the previous blog entry with details on access to the eBook version!

Learn and enjoy!

Christy