Blog Post for Week 2

  My supervisor, another intern, and myself had a telephone conference at the start of the week. The conference was meant to discuss the week's assignments, in which I was given the assignments to transcribe two more interviews for an upcoming book by The Association of Virtual Worlds, and a brief discussion about what we interns are hoping to learn from this internship, and why we wanted to intern for the Association of Virtual Worlds. I wanted to intern for this organization because libraries can use virtual worlds, 3D technology, and all technologies discussed in the two interviews I transcribed during Week 2 to connect with the populace.

  The two interviews I transcribed were one where my supervisor interviewed Brenda Young, and the other in which my supervisor interviewed Al Caudullo. The Brenda Young interview was about how to integrate technological innovations into corporate business, and the Al Caudullo interview focused on how to integrate 3D technology into business.
 
  Brenda Young has a company called The Marvay Group, and she does consulting in marketing, social media, strategy development, and innovation incorporation. Her argument is that companies, or anyone, need to embrace mobile technology to get ahead in the world such as using smart phones and IPads to communicate with their customers and work with others within their companies or organizations.

  Al Caudullo makes 3D documentaries and argues that companies should use 3D technology to give customers ideas and feelings about how things work. For example, a restaurant could allow people to view 3D versions of whatever food is on their menu to simply get them interested in the food and give them appetites for it. At one point during the interview, Caudullo described an incident in which people in Bangkok's Chinatown District viewed 3D images of fish, and developed cravings for real fish. Another example would be that apartment owners could give people 3D tours of apartments so they know what the apartments look like inside before deciding to move into them.

  I imagine that librarians could give people 3D tours of a library's collection and space, so they know whether or not the library will meet their information needs. Furthermore, librarians could connect with library users and other librarians through mobile technology to strengthen a library's place within the community. Library's are of course using this technology, so I find interning for the Association useful since it is most likely that I and future interns will have to use such technology as librarians; assuming that libraries can fit 3D technology into their budgets.

Christopher Zeidel, February 4, 2012