I’m a big fan of gadgets. I don’t go anywhere without my smartphone, iPod, and GPS receiver (that last one just in case a new geocache shows up). So when I heard about the San José Public Library’s new collection of gadgets, I got all excited and stuff.

The tricks that SJPL’s technology team has up its collective sleeve include an iGoogle tool which allows you to search for library materials right from your Google base page. There’s also a Google-like search bar that you can add to Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox.

But my favorite gadget on the widgets and web tools page is the library lookup bookmarklet for Firefox. You just drag the bookmarklet onto your links bar in Firefox. Then, say you’re looking at a book’s page on Amazon and you’re wondering if the library has it. Just click on the bookmarklet and pow! — you get the library’s catalog page showing the availability of the book. This bookmarklet functions on any page with an ISBN on it. Wow, cool, huh? My favorite bookmarklets, which I use every day, have long been the Google Reader subscription bookmarklet and the “share on Facebook” bookmarklet, but this library one rivals them for usefulness.

The library is promising more gadgets to come, so keep an eye on this page for further developments. And enjoy these gadgets!

From classic photos from Frontier Village to vintage yearbook autographs, every day you can find more and more in the San José Public Library California Room’s digital collection.

The California Room has moved into the digital age, as staff there gradually digitize its treasure trove of historic photos and documents. It’s an ongoing project, and eventually you’ll be able to find digitized versions of primary documents, letters, maps and more — right online!

My personal favorite is the Frontier Village collection, with the best photo (in my humble opinion) being this vintage photo of Marshall Clyde. Marshall Clyde’s daughter is my best childhood friend and she and I once perused the California Room’s collection in person, looking for photos of him. Now we can go online and see them from the comfort of our own homes. Ah, I love technology!

And guess what… There’s some fun involved, too! The library is sponsoring a treasure hunt with a digital camera as grand prize (and some great books for the runners-up). Another intriguing page on the digital collections site is the mystery photo page where visitors are asked to help identify the people in various photographs.

This new collection, another positive development in the relationship between the City and San José State University, is quite exciting, and I look forward to seeing what else comes along.

As part of the Envision 2040 general plan update, the city of San Jose is introducing “Wikiplanning“. This new web project allows residents to participate in the general plan update project without having to attend a (possibly inconvenient) public meeting. There is a loosely guided set of “activities” that gather users’ inputs, and inform us about the general plan update. There’s also a message board and a photo gallery where we can comment on photos that show things we might want to bring in or keep out of the city over the next 30 years.

Looking at the website, I think it might best be considered an promising experiment. It’s certainly not a wiki, which is a highly hyperlinked web site that encourages users to add and edit content freely (the city of Davis has a good example of a civic wiki). There is no way for users to add new content, except for uploading photos. Even on the message board users can’t create new discussion topics.

Also, there’s still a few bugs to work out in the site (I think of these bugs as the price of admission to a relatively advanced-technology city). Trying to go back from an individual photo to the main photo page I got a database error message, and the photos are shown in a way that’s inefficient in bandwidth and distorted to look at. Prominent tabs at the top of each page (”About Us”, “Thinking Green”, “Help”) don’t lead to information about San Jose, but to the Wikiplanning software company’s sales site, with no way to get back to the San Jose-specific website.

On the other hand, the site shows promise. A true wiki, with the kind technical learning curve and geeky culture you see on Wikipedia, for example, would not be the best way to get more people (except wiki geeks) involved in civic discussions, and the bugs I found in the site could easily be fixed for the next project. Most importantly, even with a few warts, the web site should be able to bring more residents to the table in the planning process. That includes people with limitted free time to go to meetings and people with disabilities.

To use San Jose Wikiplanning, visit wikiplanning.org and log in with your email address and zip code or just use the password “2040″.

San Jose Inside, a blog associated with Metro Newspapers and former mayor Tom McEnery, dropped a bomb on the local political blog scene with a post that claims to reveal the identity, or at least the team directing, combative political blogger “San Jose Revealed.”

Recently, the only somewhat Santa Clara-centric blog Mission City Lantern had been posting speculations about possible identities behind Revealed, but little conclusive evidence. In their latest post, Inside are effectively claiming that several of the people named by the Lantern are working together to direct Revealed’s blog, though admitting that a not-yet-identified third party may actually be writing Revealed’s words.

The people named by the Lantern and Inside are a fairly close group of advisers around former city councilmember Cindy Chavez, who ran for mayor in 2006. The Lantern specifically identified Revealed to be Philip Bump, formerly political director of the South Bay Labor Council, of which Chavez is currently CEO. In return, Revealed has posted a denial that the other blogs have him correctly identified.

I’ve always read Revealed as the kind of blogger who likes to poke a stick into a hornet’s nest, just to create some excitement. He has a certain group of local political figures who he regularly jabs at, and reading his stuff has been like watching over-the-top political rhetoric brought to the local stage. He strikes me as the “Rowdy” Roddy Piper of local politics. I always figured the people he took issue with were all grown-ups and could certainly stand up to Revealed’s somewhat clownish jeering.

On the other hand, I haven’t been reading Revealed long enough to see some of the more mean-spirited things Inside and the Lantern have pointed out, such as posting a map to the home of political aspirant (and gang prosecuting attorney) David Pandori’s. This, at least, clearly crosses the line from entertaining political bloviation to dangerous invasion of privacy.

Back in 2007 MetroFi Inc, setup Wi-Fi access points (antennas) on streetlights and utility poles in Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Santa Clara, Foster City, Concord, and downtown San Jose. Then, in mid-2008 MetroFi went belly up.

Recently, Santa Clara’s Silicon Valley Power paid $205,000 for MetroFi’s Santa Clara network. Silicon Valley Power will use the Wi-Fi to collect information from the new home energy meters every fifteen minutes and in return relay immediate usage information to the customer.

The system is currently being tested on a few thousand meters; then about 45,000 residential meters and 6,000 commercial meters are expected to be installed throughout the city.

There may be challenges with using these Wi-Fi access points as meter readers, since they did a very poor job providing Wi-Fi access to Internet users; however, electricity meters are typically on the outside of homes/businesses.

The outdoor Wi-Fi service is available to residents for free Internet access. Indoor usage may require a Wi-Fi modem to boost the signal.

Connect to the SSID network name “Metro_WiFi” or “MetroFi.” Your computer may automatically discover the Wi-Fi network.

With the help of the rest of the SJ Metblogs crew (thanks especially, Suzanne and Gary) I’ve been collecting links to other local blogs for the last couple of weeks.

My definition of a local blog is still a little fuzzy. I want to include blogs that regularly discuss local events, local people, or local issues. I don’t want to include blogs that are just part of corporate PR operations. I want blogs that are active, with at least a couple of updates in the last month or so. Beyond that, I’m making up the rules as I go.

I know I haven’t found every local blog there is. For example, I’ve definitely missed some blogs focussed on the Sharks and Earthquakes, because I just can’t read all the words that sports fans can produce.

With that said, here’s the list:

• ARTSHIFT San Jose. Covering the local art scene.
• Back in San Jose. A personal blog covering the local experience.
• Center Line Soccer. Covering the Quakes and FC Gold Pride.
• Fugitive Watch. The local, online version of America’s Most Wanted.
• Going San Jose. Local lifestyle, art, dining.
• Good Morning Silicon Valley. Mostly local news and commentary by John Murrell. Somehow connected to the Merc.
• History San Jose Blog. From San Jose’s official history museum.
• Hoosier Burger Boy. A transplanted Indianan in Palo Alto reviews (mostly) local burger joints.
• Ian the Santa Cruzan. Santa Cruz.
• Mannerisms. Covering the electronics industry. Maybe a stretch to call this a local blog.
• Mountain View Public Library. Books and events at the library.
• San Jose Day-by-Day. Daily life, photos, and news from downtown San Jose.
• san jose has a blog. Mostly photos.
• San Jose Inside. Originally the blog of former mayor Tom McEnery and a few friends, now seems to be morphing into part of Metro Newspapers’ online presence.
• San Jose Revealed. San Jose’s most vituperative blogger digs in to City Hall and local media.
• Two Heel Drive. South bay centered hiking blog.
• Silicon Valley Moms. Parenting and local lifestyle.
• Silicon Valley Sleuth. Industry gossip.
• Silicon Valley Watcher. Industry news and gossip.
• Willow Glen 2.0. Community-generated news from Willow Glen.
• Willow Glen Extra. Hyper-local news blog.

Like I said, I’m sure I missed a few good blogs. If you know a blog I ought to be including here, please let us know in the comments.

CONTENT Magazine's premiere issue was released May 12.

CONTENT, a new online glossy magazine highlighting San Jose culture and style, released its premiere issue on May 12.

The magazine was started by “cultivator” (they don’t seem to like the title of “editor”) Daniel Garcia to present our community’s art, commerce, politics, and lifestyle with “style and responsibility”, as he told me over coffee a couple of weeks ago.

The “beta” issue, which has been online for several weeks, was put together by Garcia, a professional photographer, with the help of his network of friends and contacts. As word has spread, additional volunteers have come forward to help with future issues.

The magazine staff plan to develop a theme for each issue. Where the beta issue focused on “traffic”, the premiere focusses on “dirt”, which they take to mean both the substance beneath our feet, and a place of renewal as when decaying material returns its nutrients to new growing plants. The issue covers topics like composting in the garden, the lives of migrant workers, and unemployment in Silicon Valley. The CONTENT website is also featuring a photo essay by Joe Claus (previously featured on Metblogs) on people who’ve been “let go”.

General areas the magazine will cover include music and fashion, in the print magazine tradition. A “Writings” section, covering current literature, is planned under the byline of “wordster” Jon Havens. Garcia plans to develop the magazine slowly, with no expectation of making it profitable in the near future. He sees it as a possible springboard and portfolio builder for writers, artists, photographers, and designers, although he is hoping to be able to pay for contributions at some point if the magazine takes off.

The beta issue showed great promise, with excellent photography and design, and good writing. Copyediting was one weak area, with a few typos and wildly arranged sentences sprinkled throughout the magazine. Luckily, Garcia told me one of his new volunteers is a self-described “copyediting geek” who can help them fill in this skill.

I just discovered another useful resource at the San Jose Planning Department website. Last time I wrote about the Historical Overview and Context maintained by Planning. Last week I found Planning in San Jose, a basic guide to what every San Josean should know about the planning department.

Some of the useful information in the booklet includes: a description of the planning and permitting process; the role of the Planning Commission, Historic Landmarks Commission, and City Council in Planning; the role of other agencies like Public Works and Code Enforcement; descriptions of the various kinds of permits available from the city; and a guide to participating effectively at public meetings.

There are a couple of public meetings coming up where you could show off your newfound knowledge after reading this booklet:

Envision San Jose 2040 Task Force

I wrote about Envision San Jose 2040 once before.

• Will select the growth scenarios to be studied in the environmental impact report.
• Informational web site
• Mon., March 23, 6:30 pm, at San Jose City Hall Wing Rooms

Community Meetings on the Sign Code Update

• Informational flyer (pdf)
• Wed., March 25, 7 pm, at Roosevelt Community Center, 901 E. Santa Clara St.
• Thurs., March 26, 7 pm, at Pearl Library Community Room, 4270 Pearl Ave.
• Contact: Carol Hamilton

Community Meeting on the Draft Housing Element

• To discuss San Jose’s plans to provide its fair share of the Bay Areas housing needs, as part of the 2020 General Plan
• Mon., March 30, 6:30 – 8:00 pm
• City Council Wing, Room W-119
• RSVP by email to Allen Tai.

San Jose Metblogs has been hanging out on Twitter for some time and thought it about time we mention that. We would be honored if you stopped by and clicked Follow.

Twitter (Typing What I’m Thinking To Everyone Reading) enables you to send short messages, up to 140 characters to your friends or “followers.” Twitter is designed to work on a mobile phone as well as on a computer. It is a free service; however, you may incur charges from your wireless service.

Along with following us on Twitter you will also find us on FriendFeed, Identi.ca, and of course, Facebook.

For about a year now I’ve been doing a lot of purchasing from shops on Etsy, for myself or gifts – it’s a great spot (and highly addictive!) If you’re unaware, Etsy.com is a online marketplace. People from all over create shops on Etsy to sell their handmade (or vintage) goods. Paintings, jewelry, furniture, crafts, etc – you name it, you can probably find it on Etsy.

So while buying handmade is awesome, buying handmade AND local is even better.

From time to time, I’m going to share a few Etsy local finds. I invite you to do a Shop Local search on Etsy the next time you are in need of a gift for someone special.

(Also, just to note, I am in no way affiliated with Etsy – I just love the site!)

Here’s a few from San Jose, Los Gatos, and Palo Alto!
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