SJRLC Connections

Interesting Debate on Web 2.0: Weinberger vs. Keen

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal ran a piece, "The Good, the Bad and the Web 2.0" that featured a debate between Andrew Keen, author of, "The Cult of the Amateur" and David Weinberger, author of "Everything is Miscellaneous".

I highly recommend the article, but for you fans of Cliffs notes, here's my quick 'n' dirty summary, followed a by a few questions to ponder.

Notes on Keen's position

IS WEB 2.0 A DREAM OR A NIGHTMARE?  It is: "The radical democratization of media which is enabling anyone to publish anything on the Internet.    

• Web 2.0 tranforms all of us into digital writers, music artists, movie makers, journalists (and critics)
  
• YouTube, blogs, Wikipedia, MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Tagging
  
• A flattened media is a personalized, chaotic media without that essential epistemological anchor of truth.  The impartiality of the authoritative, accountable expert is replaced by the murkiness of the anonymous amateur.  When everyone claims to be an author, there can be no art. no reliable information, no audience
  
• Web 2.0's Democratization of information is creating a generation of media illiterates.  That's the Nightmare.
  
• Web 2.0 (combined with broadband) will transform the media into "ubiquitous chatter".  Digital abundance will lead to intellectual poverty.  "The more we know, the less we will know."
  
• Traditional media has done a good job in discovering, polishing, and distributing talent.
  
• To use this chaotic media efficaciously, we need to invent our own taxonomies -- which isn't realistic to the majority of the people.

Notes on Weinberger's position

THE WEB IS ABUNDANCE, WHILE THE OLD MEDIA IS PREMISED ON SCARCITY

• The web is problematic because there are no centralized gatekeepers BUT the Web is ALSO the continuing struggle to deal with that problem:  sites that enable users to tag online resources; the Web invents ways to pull together ideas and information, finding the connections and relationships that keep the "misc" from staying that way.
  
• People rely on a wide range of trust mechanisms appropriate to the domain to guide us (i.e. ebay reputations; persistence of posts on blogs; recommendations of other bloggers; Wikipedia's sophisticated governance and complete transparency…)
  
• Amateurs aren't driving out pros.  But the criteria governing our choice of whom to listen to are expanding from "those are the only channels I get".
  
• Keen's picture of talent is formed by the binary view the traditional media has forced on us.  It's been expensive to produce, market, distribute products (book, records, films).  The traditional distribution system made it look like talent is a you-got-it-or-you-don't proposition.  That doesn't reflect the scarcity of talent so much as the scarcity of distribution, a result of the high cost of delivering the first copy.
  
• We couldn't find so much on the web if finding required creating our own taxonomies as Keen says.   We rely on taxonomies created by experts (catalogs, indexes), computer assistance (search engines) and recommendations from people we trust.  We're getting better at all of these.
  
• Consider how much more we know about the world because of bloggers.  They may not be "journalists" but they are sources.

Thoughts/Questions

1. What can libraries be doing to help people find information?
   • Creating (good) expert taxonomies
   • Building recommendations systems into our catalogs and websites
   • Leveraging our reputation as a trusted source
   • Become actively involved with social tagging.   
     
2. What can/should libraries be doing to help customers create and share?  Can/should we be aggregating or creating local community or subject oriented:
   • Blogs
   • Wikis
   • YouTube "channels"
   • Podcasts
     
3. As information professionals, what are our information competencies in the web 2.0 world?
   • Can should we be helping to teach our customers how to use new information technologies to enhance their lives?
   • What do you think of David Lee King's suggested competencies. 
   • How do Livonia Central School's tech competencies for 3rd graders compare/contrast with the current competencies of library staff?   
     
4. Web 2.0 fosters communities of interest.  Are there opportunities for libraries to strengthen their role in their community and/or connect people (or connect with people) in their communities?

Workshop: Connecting with IM

Connecting with Instant Messaging (IM)
Led by Heather Huey, NJIT

Thursday, March 8, 2007
1:00 - 4:00
Cost: $30

CAMDEN COUNTY LIBRARY
3rd floor computer lab
203 LAUREL ROAD, VOORHEES
Directions: http://www.sjrlc.org/directions/ccl

For complete details and registration form, click here.

Five weeks to a Social Library

from: http://infotangle.blogsome.com/2006/10/07/call-for-participants-five-weeks-to-a-social-library/

Call for Participants - Five Weeks to a Social Library

We are now accepting applications for participants for the Five Weeks to a Social Library course which will take place online between February 12 and March 17, 2007.

We have a really fantastic program planned including webcasts, screencasts, podcasts and group chats, with a very talented group of presenters who will be teaching participants about Blogs, Wikis, RSS, Social Bookmarking, Flickr, MMOGs, and Selling Social Software. Application deadline is December 1,2006. The course will be limited to forty participants, but all of the course content including live Webcasts will be archived and made freely available to the public. Questions should be directed to the planning committee at sociallibrary@gmail.com.

You may also be interested in the "Learning 2.0" class that the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County recently offered. You can follow that class on their blog at your own pace.

FREE AOL

Heads up--you may be getting questions on this at the reference desk. 

AOL is now giving away their service for free.  Current AOL subscribers who don't use AOL to connect to the Internet can switch to the free plan. 

Currently AOL is telling customers, "To change your current AOL plan, simply call Member Services at 1-800-984-6207 and select the Billing Option when prompted."    I tried this, and after spending 20 minutes navigating their (gasp!) poorly designed voice-menu, I actually got through to a nice fellow who told me how to cancel.  THIS IS BIG SO READ ON...

Although AOL is not really advertising it yet, subscribers can easily make the switch to the free plan by:

1. Logging into AOL (log in through their software--sorry, this won't work through www.aol.com; at least not yet...)
2. Choosing KEYWORD: Change plan
3. Choosing the option for "Free Plan"

I've done it, and I'm here to tell you that it was that easy.  A pleasant surprise, especially considering AOL's well-documented history of making it nigh impossible to discontinue service.

For the first time in many years I'm moved to say, Thank You AOL!