This is cheating to an extent but I'm rolling the last 2 bits up into a single post...
So, Library 2.0 - in the end, the term is derivative from Web 2.0, which itself is pretty much about leveraging the power of networks for mass collaboration and conversation, be it direct (eg commenting on a blog, contributing to a wiki) or indirect (the aggregation of 'intentional' data such as Amazon's 'people who bought this also bought...' or tagging more generally - ie the basis behind the remark that the defining feature of a web 2.0 application is that it functions better the more people use it) - and particularly focussing on the web as a platform for facillitating these network effects.
Web 2.0 has been translated into Library 2.0 in a number of ways:
- how do we use Web 2.0 technologies in an incremental way to improve the way we do what we've always done
- how might we use Web 2.0 concepts about conversation and co-creation to re-think the library/user hierarchy
- let's use whatever cool technology we can lay our hands on (er, no)
- how do we become more user-centric (well yes, but to a large extent this question has been asked for the past 30-40 years, which is one of the reasons some commentators tend to think that all this Library 2.0 stuff is just old wine in new bottles)
- how do we use network technologies to get our content and services out "in the flow" of the user environment like never before, ie so that users encounter us in their preferred digital environment - accessing our journal articles through Google scholar, finding our special collections through Wikipedia, plugging our digital reference services into Facebook - the possibilities are enormous, if we are prepared to give up a bit more control over the way people use our content than we have been in the past).
What does it mean for SLV? Well, I'm sure many of these principles will show up in the new website, but there's plenty to think about just within AID - new approaches to online reference services, resource guides, online learning programs, internal knowledge management activities to name just a few things that have crossed my desk this week.
And what of the Learning 2.0 program? I've had a bit of fun even though I'd been using all these sites previously - the great thing from my perspective is that there is increasingly a collective understanding of web 2.0 tools and how they might be used, and I can see people incorporating this understanding into their work already - and as we press forward with various new initiatives it provides a better basis for AID staff not only to remake some of our existing services and content, but also to be more involved in other slv21 or web projects across the organisation.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
#16 - Podcasts
<pedantry>
OK, it's 5.37pm at the tired end of a grumpy kind of day, so I'm going to let loose my inner pedant and confess to being the Web 2.0 equivalent of an apostrophe nazi when it comes to the use of the term "podcast". Though the definition seems to have shifted to mean "any audio file put on the internet" (which is pretty much as the cited New Oxford American Dictionary would have it), these have been around for years - the whole point of podcasting was that it was the audio equivalent of RSS and that you subscribed to a podcast and got notified when a new program was available. So a podcast is really a channel, not a program. Or was, common usage now having seemed to change it.
So I'm not really sure why SLV puts up single files as "podcasts"
- why would you want to subscribe to a channel that was never going to show another program?
</pedantry>
Over the past 2 years I have become an expert at subscribing to Radio National programs, downloading them to my iPod, and discovering that I still don't have either the time or the inclination to listen to the radio...
OK, it's 5.37pm at the tired end of a grumpy kind of day, so I'm going to let loose my inner pedant and confess to being the Web 2.0 equivalent of an apostrophe nazi when it comes to the use of the term "podcast". Though the definition seems to have shifted to mean "any audio file put on the internet" (which is pretty much as the cited New Oxford American Dictionary would have it), these have been around for years - the whole point of podcasting was that it was the audio equivalent of RSS and that you subscribed to a podcast and got notified when a new program was available. So a podcast is really a channel, not a program. Or was, common usage now having seemed to change it.
So I'm not really sure why SLV puts up single files as "podcasts"
- why would you want to subscribe to a channel that was never going to show another program?
</pedantry>
Over the past 2 years I have become an expert at subscribing to Radio National programs, downloading them to my iPod, and discovering that I still don't have either the time or the inclination to listen to the radio...
#15 - YouTube
I've found myself on YouTube more and more during the election campaign. At a time where image trumps substance in the political environment there's no better way for the citizenry to talk back, and no better antidote to pretense, hypocrisy and condescension than a bit of DIY video satire. The Kevin Rudd Chinese Propaganda video is still my favorite from the campaign:
#14 - Web 2.0 awards list
Very briefly -
Meebo - it's not quite there yet, despite the fact that it's popping up on library sites all over the place - but it definitely demonstrates part of the future of online reference services, namely a widget that you can stick on any web page for direct online communications with a relevant librarian. No need for a one size fits all service, could use it for example on different resources guides providing a link to the relevant subject librarian. They just need to sort out some mechanism of queuing inquiries :-) In the longer term (when Kevin07 makes good on his broadband promise... ) we might even get to widget based VOIP or teleconferencing and leave chat behind as a transitional medium...
Speaking of resource guides, Squidoo is worth a look to get some ideas about how we might redo some of our own in the Web 2.0 world - see for example this one on Library 2.0. Another nice development on this front is LibGuides - a paid rather than free service but worth checking out for ideas.
Meebo - it's not quite there yet, despite the fact that it's popping up on library sites all over the place - but it definitely demonstrates part of the future of online reference services, namely a widget that you can stick on any web page for direct online communications with a relevant librarian. No need for a one size fits all service, could use it for example on different resources guides providing a link to the relevant subject librarian. They just need to sort out some mechanism of queuing inquiries :-) In the longer term (when Kevin07 makes good on his broadband promise... ) we might even get to widget based VOIP or teleconferencing and leave chat behind as a transitional medium...
Speaking of resource guides, Squidoo is worth a look to get some ideas about how we might redo some of our own in the Web 2.0 world - see for example this one on Library 2.0. Another nice development on this front is LibGuides - a paid rather than free service but worth checking out for ideas.
#13 - Blog about Technology
Bizarre hype (and critique) this week in the blogosphere for the release of Amazon's ebook reader, Kindle. I can't see any reason why this is likely to be any more successful than all the failed ebook readers of the past - not because it's hard to read in the bath (who really does this?) but because:
- it's chock full of digital rights management crud that locks it in to the Amazon website and prevents easy management and sharing of files in other formats
- it's a single function device that's betwixt and between the myriad and converging forms of handheld devices on the one hand, and lightweight laptops on the other - if ebooks are really going to take off I can't see why it wouldn't be on software that runs on a laptop with a better digital display...
- it costs US$399 (if I recall correctly) - hardly an incentive to explore - if they worked on the razor principle (ie give away the razor to sell future blades) and sold it for twenty bucks, a lot of people might try them out and get to like them, but at that price, no way...
I guess you could argue that Apple's strategy for the iPod wasn't a whole lot different, but on the one hand a lot of people can see the value in toting around 1000 songs in a tiny device, but why you'd need 1000 books with you on the train is a bit less compelling, and let's face it the iPod is a brilliant piece of design and the Kindle is not.
My prediction - in a decade the only place you'll be able to find one of these is in the Dead Media Museum.
- it's chock full of digital rights management crud that locks it in to the Amazon website and prevents easy management and sharing of files in other formats
- it's a single function device that's betwixt and between the myriad and converging forms of handheld devices on the one hand, and lightweight laptops on the other - if ebooks are really going to take off I can't see why it wouldn't be on software that runs on a laptop with a better digital display...
- it costs US$399 (if I recall correctly) - hardly an incentive to explore - if they worked on the razor principle (ie give away the razor to sell future blades) and sold it for twenty bucks, a lot of people might try them out and get to like them, but at that price, no way...
I guess you could argue that Apple's strategy for the iPod wasn't a whole lot different, but on the one hand a lot of people can see the value in toting around 1000 songs in a tiny device, but why you'd need 1000 books with you on the train is a bit less compelling, and let's face it the iPod is a brilliant piece of design and the Kindle is not.
My prediction - in a decade the only place you'll be able to find one of these is in the Dead Media Museum.
#12 - Web Based Applications
Have been using Google Documents for quite a while now, though playing around with Zoho Writer I prefer the latter. However Google Docs sits neatly as a widget on my personalised Google homepage so I guess the convenience factor means I wouldn't switch unless I was really using it in a serious way rather than basic text docs which I might need either at home or at work. The Zoho upload function worked better than expected, didn't even corrupt any tables in a more complex document so I might even recommend it ahead of Google Docs to students who ask about access to Word so that they can edit/print their essays/resumes.
Only a matter of time before web based applications (SAAS, or software as a service) become standard and we end up renting online Microsoft Office for a few bucks a year if we don't want to use one of the less fully featured and free applications...
Only a matter of time before web based applications (SAAS, or software as a service) become standard and we end up renting online Microsoft Office for a few bucks a year if we don't want to use one of the less fully featured and free applications...
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
#11 - Flickr mashups
Hmm, maybe it's because because I'm more a text based than a visual kind of guy, maybe I'm just having an unimaginative or grumpy day, but this is the point where I go "huh?". Couldn't really find anything of interest, basically a lot of ways to edit or display photos in predefined ways. Just playing around with Photoshop is a lot more fun, and OK, that's expensive software but it's not going to be long before there's some reasonably powerful free image editing software available directly via the web - though interesting that Google's image app, Picasa, is still a download rather than genuine web based software.
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