Surface RT: The first tablet that’s ready for the enterprise

Surface RT lags behind iOS and Android for consumer consumption, but it could very well be the first tablet that’s actually ready for the enterprise.

The ASUS TF101 Transformer Android tablet should be recognized as a trailblazer, because it delivered a vision of a lightweight ARM-based mobile device that bridged the tablet experience and promised on-the-go productivity. Unfortunately, the TF101 and its successors didn’t ever really catch on with mainstream consumers. It wasn’t until the 7″ Kindle Fire and Nexus 7 that Android tablets became a viable iOS competitor, and they’re largely not suitable as productivity platforms.

After trying to make a 10″ Android tablet work in this hybrid capacity for over two years, I finally gave in and bought a Microsoft Surface RT. I suspected that it wasn’t ARM devices that were the problem, it was OS limitations. Android is a great mobile OS for smartphones and consumption tablets, but it has serious design limitations for productivity use. My guess was that while Windows 8 and RT aren’t the greatest platforms for mobile consumption, they would both be better at delivering mobile productivity. So far, I don’t think I was wrong. But there are challenges in adopting RT for a long-time and invested Android and Google services user like myself. Some of those issues may have solutions that actually work better, once you change how you approach the problem. Other issues can be worked around, but the solution isn’t ideal. Still other issues are potential deal breakers. In this post, I’m going to discuss a few of my experiences and observations about the RT device.

Crippled Windows 8?

A claim I frequently hear is that Windows RT is confusing and limited. I think this is the wrong perspective. It isn’t fair to compare RT to Windows on IA. Instead, RT should be compared to Android and iOS. Especially for professionals working in a Windows environment, RT offers the most seamless integration of any mobile OS. With few exceptions, every shortcut or feature — even my favorite Windows keyboard shortcuts, plus Windows Snapping and Resizing — work the same in RT. While there isn’t a keyboard shortcut to take a screenshot on Surface RT, holding down the tablet’s Windows button and Volume down easily performs the same task. Once you have a screenshot, you can open and edit it in Microsoft Paint, just like you would on a traditional PC. You can even copy and paste the image right into Word or PowerPoint. Honestly, the ability to open a file or image in the Classic desktop, left-click to highlight, right-click to copy, and then paste it into any other app, including a Modern UI app, is something that you have to experience to appreciate.

Windows RT can be easily joined to a Windows Workgroup, gaining access to all shared resource. With some simple and familiar administrative modifications to the services control panel, the RT device can share its resources on your Windows network as well. Android offers SMB support for sharing through 3rd-party file managers, but these are not an OS-level integrated solution.

Printing support for both Android and iOS has been consistently frustrating and complex. RT isn’t perfect, but the printer support is still miles ahead of the competition. In my case, I have an OfficeJet 7310 All-in-One network printer. This printer isn’t currently supported by HP, but I gave the included Windows “HP OfficeJet 7000 E809 series” driver a shot, and it seems to work fine. If you’re familiar with a Windows environment, you’ll find RT to be a more powerful and smoother process than any other mobile platform. Inevitably, when I encounter shortcomings with RT, it’s more about getting my mind around the issue than RT being inferior. For example, I took screenshots on my TF300 and my RT device to illustrate that the desktop IE browser on RT gave a full desktop experience when writing a blog in Google Docs and publishing it to my site on blogger.com. On the Android TF300, I went into the Gallery, pressed on the images, tapped the Share icon, and selected Dropbox from the pull-down menu. On the native RT Modern UI Dropbox app, I couldn’t find the method to upload a local file to Dropbox. A quick web search indicated that it isn’t possible with the Modern UI app — and of course, the Windows Classic Dropbox app is Intel-only. Then I realized I was missing the example I was trying to illustrate in the first place. I went to dropbox.com from the Classic IE, logged in, and uploaded the image from the web interface. Surface RT is the only ARM-based platform that delivers a true desktop browser on a mobile device, and — in many cases — this opens a whole new world for ARM tablets. Not only is Microsoft Office included with RT, but RT also currently delivers a better experience in Google Docs than any Android tablet.

The FUDder becomes the FUDdee

For years, Microsoft has been accused of spreading fear, uncertainty, and denial (FUD) about competitive products. With the arrival of RT, Microsoft is now the victim of FUD. While some people may consider this “just desserts” for Redmond, many users could be missing out on a fantastic platform because they’re listening to half-truths and outright lies. The Modern UI portion of Windows 8 is not as mature of a mobile OS as Android or iOS. For achieving the goals of hybrid mobile devices though, RT is more like a real desktop than a mobile device trying to stretch and reach that goal.

Bottom line

When I try to use Surface RT as a classic mobile device, I’m less thrilled. For consumer consumption and non-business driven social media, RT lags behind iOS and Android. The app ecosystem is struggling, the Modern UI social media integration is not consistent or robust, and the media content is not as rich. I’ve asked before, “What good are tablets in the enterprise?” and I still wonder that when it comes to Android and iOS. To me, it seems like a way to justify consumer content consumption devices in the workplace. Surface RT, however, may be the first tablet that’s actually ready for the enterprise.

Google Preparing to Penalize Non-Mobile Friendly Websites in Search Rankings

Get your mobile on or else …

Visiting a desktop-only or misconfigured website on your mobile device can be a very frustrating experience. They are not easy to navigate or fail to work properly, leaving you with little to no satisfaction. To encourage websites to adopt good ‘mobile compliant’ practices, Google will be introducing new changes in how websites are ranked when users search on a mobile device.
Two of the most common problems that mobile users face are faulty redirects and smartphone-only errors. The search changes Google has in mind will focus on giving a better ranking to websites that follow good ‘mobile compliant’ practices.

To improve the search experience for smartphone users and address their pain points, we plan to roll out several ranking changes in the near future that address sites that are misconfigured for smartphone users.

Social media and academic libraries: Current trends and future challenges

 From: Proceedings of the ASIST Annual Meeting, Volume 49, Issue 1, 2012

 Academic libraries are increasingly using social media tools to promote services and highlight resources to patrons. This longitudinal study examines the social media adoption rates and practices in academic libraries in the province of Ontario over a fourteen month period beginning in April 2010.

Findings indicate that while interest in social media technologies amongst librarians has plateaued, patrons of academic libraries are using these tools in increasing numbers. Outcomes suggest libraries should attempt in the future to create more original content in areas of patron interest as well as utilize their preferred platforms with greater regularity

What do academics want – (includes the changing role of the academic library)

A new survey has been undertaken which looks at the changing practices of academics in the UK. Ben Showers of Jisc and Mike Mertens of RLUK discuss three key findings of the survey which demonstrate the influence of new technologies on research, the altering perceptions of support services and the changing role of the academic library.

(Interesting dichotomy - see the graphs in this article - researchers are not particulary interested in publishing in open access publications but the do want to be able to find the information they need freely available to download!)


"The survey underlines that for academics, electronic versions of monographs are not well suited to some research activities.  Specifically, a majority of academics indicated that reading cover-to-cover or in depth reading was ‘much easier’ or ‘somewhat easier’ in print format..."

and: "A major set of findings highlights the value academics place on the role of the library within their teaching and research. While only 2% of respondents visited the library to begin their research query, nearly 90% of respondents saw the library’s most important function as a purchaser of content. Furthermore, around 30% of respondents indicated that the library has a role in increasing the productivity of their research."

How Open Access Empowered a 16-Year-Old to Make Cancer Breakthrough

Published on 11 Jun 2013

An interview on Open Access to research journals with Dr. Francis S. Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, and Jack Andraka, the 16-year-old inventor of a breakthrough cancer diagnostic and winner of the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.


Jack used free online articles “religiously” in creating his pancreatic diagnostic that is 26,667 times cheaper, 168 times faster, and 400 times more sensitive than the current test.  In discussing his discovery, Jack points to paywalls for journal articles as a central barrier preventing others from making similar breakthroughs.

Jack is a perfect example of the increased innovation that arises from unexpected places when anyone with curiosity, determination, and an Internet connection has Open Access to the research literature. 

Open Access scientific publishing - should you be interested?

In October 2013 Rhodes University will be holding an Open Access Week during which it is anticipated that that Rhodes will join 23 other African institutions (including ASSAF, Universities of Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Pretoria, Witwatersrand, KwaZulu-Natal, Johannesburg, South Africa and Free State) in becoming a signatory of the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities

Some recent highly-cited "academic librarianship" articles

Not in Love, or Not in the Know? Graduate Student and Faculty Use (and Non-Use) of E-Books

 

“You Just Type in What You Are Looking For”: Undergraduates' Use of Library Resources vs. Wikipedia

Faculty Perspectives on Information Literacy as a Student Learning Outcome

 

Academia will eat itself*: the awkward love triangle of scholarly publishing

Academia will eat itself*: the awkward love triangle of scholarly publishing

from the Law Librarian  and the E-Resources Librarian Sunderland University

There are three major stakeholder groups in scholarly publishing: publishers, academics, and libraries. The awkward love triangle arises because each of these groups needs one of the others, but this relationship is not symmetrical between any two parties. This reminded me of the German chemist Kekulé, who had a dream about a snake eating its own tail, which inspired him to propose a cyclic (ring) structure for benzene. Because of the asymmetrical love triangle, it’s difficult to reach agreement through negotiation, as none of the three stakeholder groups can bargain fairly with each other.  One party needs something from another, but it’s always the other who holds all the cards.

Rise of 'Altmetrics' Revives Questions About How to Measure Impact of Research

Steven Roberts, an assistant professor at the U. of Washington who studies how environmental change affects shellfish, tracks social-media metrics to see how his research is used online.

Rhodes Library: Science and Pharmacy Faculties: May 2013 publications

May 2013 Rhodes University Science & Pharmacy Faculty publications

The Societal Impact of Research

 Issue 33 (June 2013) of Research Trends deals with a complex topic: the societal impact of research. One of the ways in which science is valuable to society is through its influence on technology.

Includes an excellent article on The Challenges of Measuring Social Impact Using Altmetrics

Designing researcher-centric library services

from 12th May 2013 Research Information (Analysis and Opinion)


"....findings highlighted three primary areas that would benefit from new or redesigned services. Firstly, there is the area of information discovery. In particular, there is a need to support chemists in keeping up with the literature and enabling serendipitous discovery.
The second key role is research dissemination and scholarly communications. While academic chemists publish frequently, the report revealed the need for greater support in disseminating their research outputs.
Data management and preservation was the third area identified. The report acknowledged a gap in training in how to store, manage and curate the data that is collected by chemists and their labs..."

Predatory Publishers

Interesting contribution in Library Journal newsletter:
 
"There are definitely publishers who come to mind when I hear the expression “predatory publishers.” My first thought is of the high-profile academic publishers who are increasing their journal prices by ten or 20 percent per year, leaving libraries with impossible choices to be made between maintaining their journal subscriptions in key fields or buying that year’s monographic production. None of these are on Jeffrey Beall’s “Possible Predatory Publishers” list at the Scholarly Open Access site, however. Beall’s list consists of newly formed open access (OA) journals that charge authors a fee for each article published but that allegedly do not follow accepted academic practice for quality publication or are even fraudulent in nature...."

Scholarly communication and information literacy (value of academic libraries)

"The integration of scholarly communication and information literacy has the potential to become a central element in demonstrating the value of academic libraries."

Just stumble upon the newish journal: Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication
and thought this article looked of interest
Time to Step on the Gas in Approaching the Intersections of Scholarly Communication and Information Literacy

What Students Really do in the Library: An Observational Study

What Students Really do in the Library

Reference Librarian Volume 54, Issue 2, April 2013, Pages 157-167 

Abstract: The authors observed 730 collegiate students in the library and recorded their study (or non-study) activities. Approximately 60% of behaviors were study related. The most commonly observed behavior was reading print material (18.8%). The second most common behavior was the use of social media (11.4%). These results have implications for understanding how students learn and study in the pervasive digital world.

from the discussion:

"........   Libraries, particularly in times of economic instability, must often justify their existence and use of funds. Demonstrating to library or school administration the actual observed use of the physical library for school-related behaviors can provide one or many pieces of data that may prove useful. Although our finding that 73% of those working on a computer were more likely to engage in a non-study behavior suggests that the presence of computers or other mobile devices can be major distractions, evidence presented in the literature indicates that students expect libraries to be social and study spaces. In addition, making library materials and study materials accessible via mobile technologies (e.g., iPads, smartphones) can allow for more frequent access to these resources. Little to no research has been done regarding the use of the mobile Web by students in the library, with the exception of a qualitative study conducted by. They noted that, depending on reading preferences, students may or may not read actual articles or books online, but they might begin their searches or access library services while waiting on line at the store (Seeholzer & Salen, 2011). Investigating how remote use of library resources ties in with the physical use of the building can provide stakeholders with data that can help to inform decisions.

When we can actually observe what students do rather than what they say they do in the library, we can get a fuller picture of study behaviors and how they relate to academic achievement. It is important for educators to understand that the learning environment can influence student engagement and study behaviors and that the environment is further influenced by a variety of factors. Students expect a comfortable and attractive study space not only for scholarly pursuits, but also for socializing. Social and academic activities are integral aspects for facilitating student engagement (Entwistle & Peterson, 2004; Milem & Berger, 1997; Suarez, 2007). A well-designed library should support scholarly activities, but both the current literature and the results of this study indicate that we cannot expect the library to be a building exclusively used for academic behaviors."

Massive Open Opportunity: Supporting MOOCs in Public and Academic Libraries

A new development to be aware of:

If you’re an academic librarian, you’re probably already awash, at least peripherally, in news about MOOCs—massive open online courses have been touted as the next big thing in higher ed since they burst on the scene about a year ago................................ There are multiple potential roles for libraries in the MOOC development, support, assessment, and preservation process............

 Wikipedia entry

and  MOOCs and Libraries: Massive Opportunity or Overwhelming Challenge?

e-books in Academic Libraries: Challenges for Discovery and Access

Abstract

This paper examines the recent literature on the presentation of e-books in college and university libraries, focusing on three mechanisms for discovery and access: e-book vendors' interfaces, library catalogs (OPACs), and resource discovery tools (RDTs). If libraries rely on vendors' interfaces, patrons must search on multiple platforms, many of which have limited and idiosyncratic search mechanisms. The most common strategy for discovery and access—including e-books in the library catalog—brings its own set of challenges, including limited availability of records, lack of standardization, difficulties managing the addition and removal of titles, and the generally low quality of vendor-supplied records. Likewise, libraries that use resource discovery tools face another set of difficulties: incomplete coverage, reliance on metadata from external sources, problems with subject headings and authority control, difficulties with guest-user access, and continuing dependence on vendors' platforms for access to full text.

 

Keyword Search, Plus a Little Magic

From Lingua Franca 
Google relies on at least four facts, all of them crucial, but especially the fourth one.

1. Computer memory chips have become so cheap and so tiny that in an office-sized space you can pack enough random-access-memory units to store an utterly gigantic automatically maintained concordance to the whole Web, augmented with copies of huge portions of what is on those sites.
2. Networks and processors have become so fast that your search command can be delivered to a server far away and checked against the gigantic index in just hundredths of a second.
3. The number of sites containing all of the words on a list (rather than just some of them) goes down rapidly with the length of the list, and much more rapidly when the words have low probabilities of occurrence.
4. Humans looking for a certain piece of information can on the whole be trusted to be smart enough to supply a list of words with the crucial property of having low probability in most texts but being guaranteed to occur in texts containing the desired information.

Taking it to the Stacks: An Inventory Project at the University of Mississippi Libraries

Abstract

This article examines multiple inventory methods and findings from the inventory processes at the University of Mississippi Libraries. In an attempt to reduce user frustration from not being able to locate materials, the University of Mississippi Libraries conducted an inventory process beginning with a pilot inventory of a branch library and a sample inventory at the Main Library followed by full inventory of sections of the Main Library's one-million-plus collection. The benefits of inventories, including cost effective, efficient workflows, are discussed

Altmetrics and Open Access: A Measure of Public Interest

Researchers, research managers and publishers are increasingly required to factor into their policies and practices the conditions by which publicly funded research must be made publicly available. But in the struggle for competitive funding, how can researchers provide tangible evidence that their outputs have not only been made publicly available, but that the public is using them? Or how can they demonstrate that their research outputs have reached and influenced those whose tax dollars have helped fund the research?