2012 talks proposals

Deadline for talk submission is Sunday, November 20.

Prepared talks are 20 minutes (including setup and questions), and focus on one or more of the following areas:

* tools (some cool new software, software library or integration platform)
* specs (how to get the most out of some protocols, or proposals for new ones)
* challenges (one or more big problems we should collectively address)

The community will vote on proposals using the criteria of:

* usefulness
* newness
* geekiness
* diversity of topics

Please follow the formatting guidelines:

== Talk Title: ==
 
* Speaker's name, affiliation, and email address
* Second speaker's name, affiliation, email address, if second speaker

Abstract of no more than 500 words.

• Demian Katz, Villanova University, demian.katz@villanova.edu

A major new version of the VuFind discovery software is currently in development. While VuFind 1.x remains extremely popular, some of its components are beginning to show their age. VuFind 2.0 aims to retain all the strengths of the previous version of the software while making the architecture cleaner, more modern and more standards-based. This presentation will examine the motivation behind the update, preview some of the new features to look forward to, and discuss the challenges of creating a developer-friendly open source package in PHP.

• Peter Murray, LYRASIS, Peter.Murray@lyrasis.org

LYRASIS is creating and shepherding a registry of library open source software as part of its grant from the Mellon Foundation to support the adoption of open source software by libraries. The goal of the grant is to help libraries of all types determine if open source software is right for them, and what combination of software, hosting, training, and consulting works for their situation. The registry is intended to become a community exchange point and stimulant for growth of the library open source ecosystem by connecting libraries with projects, service providers, and events.

The first half of this session will demonstrate the registry functions and describe how projects and providers can get involved. The second half of the session will be a brainstorming suggestion of how to expand the functionality and usefulness of the registry.

• Brian Tingle, California Digital Library, brian.tingle.cdlib.org@gmail.com

TinkerPop is an open source software development group focusing on technologies in the graph database space. This talk will provide a general introduction to the TinkerPop Graph Stack and the property graph model is uses. The introduction will include code examples and explanations of the property graph models used by the Social Networks in Archival Context project and show how the historical social graph is exposed as a JSON/REST API implemented by a TinkerPop rexster Kibble that contains the application's graph theory logic. Other graph database applications possible with TinkerPop such as RDF support, and citation analysis will also be discussed.

• Erin Germ, United States Naval Academy, Nimitz Library, germ@usna.edu

I would like to talk about security of library software.

Over the Summer, I discovered a critical vulnerability in a vendor’s software that (verified) allowed me to assume any user’s identity for that site, (verified) switch to any user, and to (unverified, meaning I didn’t not perform this as I didn’t want to “hack” another library’s site) assume the role of any user for any other library who used this particular vendor's software.

Within a 3 hour period, I discovered a 2 vulnerabilities: 1) minor one allowing me to access any backups from any library site, and 2) a critical vulnerability. From start to finish, the examination, discovery in the vulnerability, and execution of a working exploit was done in less than 2 hours. The vulnerability was a result of poor cookie implementation. The exploit itself revolved around modifying the cookie, and then altering the browser’s permissions by assuming the role of another user.

I do not intend on stating which vendor it was, but I will show how I was able to perform this. If needed, I can do further research and “investigation” into other vendor's software to see what I can “find”.

If selected, I will contact the vendor to inform them that I will present about this at C4L2012. I do not intend on releasing the name of the vendor.

• Greg Lindahl, blekko CTO, greg@blekko.com

blekko is a new web-scale search engine which enables end-users to create vertical search engines, through a feature called slashtags. Slashtags can contain as few as 1 or as many as tens of thousands of websites relevant to a narrow or broad topic. We have an extensive set of slashtags curated by a combination of volunteers and an in-house librarian team, or end-users can create and share their own. This talk will cover examples of slashtag creation relevant to libraries, and show how to embed this search into a library website, either using javascript or via our API.

We have exhibited at a couple of library conferences, and have received a lot of interest. blekko is a free service.

• Stephanie Collett, California Digital Library, stephanie.collett@ucop.edu
• Martin Haye, California Digital Library, martin.haye@ucop.edu

Within a relatively short time since their introduction, distributed version control systems (DVCS) like Git and Mercurial have enjoyed widespread adoption for versioning code. It didn’t take long for the library development community to start discussing the potential for using DVCS within our applications and repositories to version data. After all, many of the features that have made some of these systems popular in the open source community to version code (e.g. lightweight, file-based, compressed, reliable) also make them compelling options for versioning data. And why write an entire versioning system from scratch if a DVCS solution can be a drop-in solution? At the California Digital Library (CDL) we’ve started using Git and Mercurial in some of our applications to version data. This has proven effective in some situations and unworkable in others. This presentation will be a practical case study of CDL’s experiences with using DVCS to version data. We will explain how we’re incorporating Git and Mercurial in our applications, describe our successes and failures and consider the issues involved in repurposing these systems for data versioning.

• Lisa Kurt, University of Nevada, Reno, lkurt@unr.edu

Users expect good design. This talk will delve into what makes really great design, what to look for, and how to do it. Learn the principles of great design to take your applications, user interfaces, and projects to a higher level. With years of experience in graphic design and illustration, Lisa will discuss design principles, trends, process, tools, and development. Design examples will be from her own projects as well as a variety from industry. You’ll walk away with design knowledge that you can apply immediately to a variety of applications and a number of top notch go-to resources to get you up and running.