Two online appearances

This will be the first week in about two months that I won't be getting on an airplane. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to be spreading my little bits of wisdom here and there. (Somewhat analogous to a bird planting new mulberry trees, I believe.)

Tomorrow, Tuesday, Novemember 18th, I'll be doing a webinar for Linworth called, "A Professional Fitness Plan: Web 2.0 Tools to Develop a Personal Learning Network." Here's the description:

Continuing education prior to Web 2.0 consisted of reading professional journals, attending library conferences, and taking college classes. These activities are still available and important. But given the pace and amount of change, they alone are insufficient to keep most of us current with the happenings in librarianship and information technology. This workshop explores online continuing education options, both formal and informal, and strategies for developing one’s own Personal Learning Network.

Information on getting registered and technical details are here.

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For the insanely dedicated and insomniacs (at least in the western U.S.), BlueSkunk Johnson will be appearing with Chris (Shambles) Smith and Dianne McKenzie in Second Life at 4 AM SLT (Pacific Time) Wednesday, November 19 to have a casual conversation about library issues. Details here.

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Oh, I'll be doing a live session for the Minnesota Library Asssociation in Minneapolis this Friday at 8AM on "Policies for Web 2.0", some workshops and sessions for TIES in Minneapolis in Decemeber, and even driving over to Madison, Wisconsin in January for their New Promise conference.

But no flights for work until January 27, 2009. Sort of nice...

How to tell Doug and Dwayne Johnson apart

Taking my cue from Click and Clack and their "shameless self-promotion" department, some findings from my "reputation monitoring" efforts:

The Blue Skunk was named one of the Top 10 Blogs by ISTE for October. I guess I better renew my membership!

The Skunk was singled out for "Reader Appreciation Week" on the So You Want to Teach blog.

As a result of Steve Dembo's "30 Days to Better Blogging" event, I've been getting very nice emails like this one (not from my mother):

I'm currently participating in the "30 Days to Better Blogging" event that Steve Dembo is doing (http://www.teach42.com/2008/11/03/day-3-write-a-thank-you-note/) and our Day 3 "activity" is to thank someone who has linked to us in the past. In my case, that someone would be you! It is always thrilling to get a comment or a link in a post, especially from someone with a national readership and reputation like yourself and someone who has so many interesting and insightful things to say. Your blog has a prominent spot in my RSS aggregator and I read it often. I hope to someday actually meet you in person at NECC or elsewhere. Thanks!

I am flattered and humbled by such praise.

I am sometimes the subject of library school papers. I hope who ever chooses (or more likely gets assigned)  me gets extra credit for tackling the task of making a silk purse from a sow's ear. Anywho, here is a creative entry by Earl Edmunds who warns his readers not to confuse me with Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson. I can see how such confusion might be common.

 
Dwayne Johnson

Doug Johnson

Just remember the telling detail that Dwayne has a tattoo and I don't.

Five for fun

Following fellow columnist Miguel Guhlin's lead on Around the Corner, I here's a link to my latest TechProof column - a silly piece of work - on the Education World website.

A link to all three years of TechProof can be found here.

But read them only after you read Miguel's fine columns.