Technology in K9 SAR

What’s a vlog you ask? It’s a video log or video blog. This site employs images, video and other media to elaborate on concepts or impressions not as easily conveyed by text alone. If you want to know more about what a blog is, read this post on “what’s so cool about blogging?” and visit videoblogging.info. Also visit some of my vlog posts. If you have trouble seeing videos on this site, please read this.

This particular vlog is an experiment focusing on K-9 SAR. Dog handlers and SAR volunteers, in general, spend a huge amount of time training. However, much is learned via word-of-mouth on mailing lists or through practical training in seminars and other informal or formal venues. It can take years to become a proficient SAR dog handler. I believe the use of video and other technology can shorten the training curve. Not only by observing one’s own training, but by watching other dogs and handlers as well as via interaction with web-based video training aids.

This site also serves as an experimental “training log” for my k9 partner. BB is an operational air scent (or wilderness) search dog with Mid-Atlantic D.O.G.S. who works cadaver and is also working on a qualification for water and trailing. We are required to maintain a record of our training and also searches. These are legal records that could be used in court. Most of this data is stored as metadata that you don’t see in my vlog. However, it enables me to do databases queries and reports when I want to review our training.

I get asked this question a lot. Most people I know are skeptical that this new media is revolutionary. I’m convinced it will change the way we use the web. The web is becoming more socialized and, thus, will gain greater importance to more and more people in the world. So here’s my short-list of reasons why this technology is so important. If nothing else, it’s important in the sense that it introduces a need for changes in those web technologies that interact with blogs. For example, blog structure has an impact on search engines and information-gathering, in general.

1. Separation of content from presentation. This is useful and important for accessibility (layout and design issues).
2. Consistent and coherent structure. Blogs are organized temporally and categorically.
3. RSS and automatic discovery. Really simple syndication is a standard enabling aggregators to find feeds. Services like Syndic8 can gather feeds and process information such as information category, links, stats, etc. If you can’t quite grasp why this is important, imagine that while you are using the web, your computer is learning about what is important to you and gathering and consolidating information for you on these topics for use at a moment’s notice.
4. Information linking via pingbacks. If I publish something on a particular topic and reference a post on another site that also supports pingbacks, my post is linked on their post as comment. In essence, this is discourse where virtual conversations are managed automatically. Two way pingbacks would better model conversation. These are coming… Less interesting (to my mind) are trackbacks that require posters to explicitly create a link to a referenced site.
5. Permalinks. Blogs are inherently structured differently that standard websites. Content is constantly being archived. Permalinks are permanent references to particular posts. For example, this post has this as a permalink: http://www.lisaharper.org/archives/2004/08/whats-so-cool-about-blogging/. It’s a reference that is easily readable by both machines and humans. Permalinks are a kind of URI — Universal Resource Identifier. My permalink scheme is clearly semantically logical and extensible. There is much debate about whether URIs are an improvement over URLs. But from the point-of-view of blog-based websites, the idea of a hierarchical naming scheme is very useful.
6. Anyone can publish. You have the power to publish whatever you like whenever you like. And also earn a readership or forum without having to go through a publisher.
7. Blogs are by nature of a personal perspective. Perspectives communicated in a blog are attributed to a particular individual.
8. Blogs are incremental. It is very easy to add new content. You don’t have to change or edit existing content to make additions.
9. Blogs are accessible. Anyone can add content. You no longer need much technological saavy. Also, you can use devices such as cellphones or cameras to add content when and where you please.
10. Blogs are findable and linkable. Blogging enables social networking. There are all sorts of innovative ideas that extend and expand on blog structure. This includes things like blogrolls, XHTML Friends Network (XFN) and geoURLS. Blogs are, by nature, participatory and invite readers to leave comments and converse asynchronously.
11. Topical embedding (”x-rolls”). I admit it… I made this term up. What this refers to are embedded materials such as blogrolls, vogrolls, and feedrolls. Blogrolls are lists of blogs, vogrolls a video list of video blogs, and feedrolls are embedded bits of news feeds. I think the reason we are seeing x-rolls appear so commonly now is that blogs very much share common and coherent structural elements. Blogs are organized both temporally and categorically. X-rolls are essentially external material related to information contained within a given blog.