Ahh! the 'wiki', that now embedded-in-the-language-generic-reference to a collaborative website/tool/online community.
We all know Wikipedia, that huge open community encyclopedia with lots of stuff about so many things. Useful, at times fascinating but trustworthy? Everyone's heard of the problems, yet because of that same 'openness', the 'sense of community' perhaps, the problems are resolved, the glitches are fixed - and the answers get better - but the trust/credibility issue is still there. It isn't the Encyclopaedia Britannica - that isn't what it should be nor is it what it is meant to be!? (just look at Wikipedia's entry on the Ency Brit! - seems extensive and interesting - but just can't resist comparing usage figures with Wikipedia itself!)
Yet, the concept lends itself as an excellent resource to small or closed 'communities' for collaboration, knowledge sharing, etc. The ease and speed with which entries can be added/modified leading to the development of the 'knowledge base' certainly beats sending everyone an email 'here's an interesting article', trawling thru a discussion list or wading thru a selection of blogs (feeds, etc notwithstanding).
We here at my work abode have one underway ("in development"). We're using the MediaWiki software, so everyone can guess what it looks like ;) yet it starting to come together well. As one of the chosen few, I 'have the power!' and am working on a couple of articles presently - resources for our in-house trainers and on search engines (gee!, that one will be hard to find content for - not! ) - but as per my last blog entry - sorting the wheat from the chaff is what they need us librarians for!
Also played the required lesson in the 'sandpit' (sorry, we're Aussie here - we think outside the 'box' ;) of PLCMC's Learning 2.0 Wiki. Added a few items. Nice to have a play around with different software than we're using at work - no great surprises but gives the eyes a break to have a different screen scene!
Lots of articles to read out there about wikis - just 'ask' via your favourite search engine!
A couple to peruse - for library things, try Library Success (love the cute, anachronistic? touch - the logo is a catalogue drawer! Only people watching re-runs of the first Ghostbusters movie will know what they are soon! - just kidding library folks! - we'll know - or some of us will...???), The Blogging Libraries Wiki (a wiki to find blogs - how much mashing can we do?) or LISWiki. Just a couple of others - WikiHow, a wiki to look at when you're using sites like How Stuff Works; or History Wiki.
Monday, July 30, 2007
The point of 2.0 ?!
The internet and the web - from origins as read only - is now a place where any or all can create, add and transform information.
Web 2.0, and given our interwoven relationship - Library 2.0, are very much here and now - and still growing and changing.
And this just happens to match up with the here-and-now information attitudes of the gen y / gen neXt / net gen, and all the other older but information au fait folks out there. Try convincing a 19 year old that the world does not depend upon their immediate response to a just received text message - and you just try to get their attention for anything else while they are doing so !!
Immediacy is the key - the demand, the assumption and the expectation. "I want it now, it should be right at my fingertips - like everything else is". Whether it is true or accurate or the best information/answer (or even trustworthy!) often seems to be secondary at best.
[Yes, I can hear my esteemed colleagues out there muttering and quietly crying into their coffee.]
The answers/information is expected to be out there, on tap (of keyboard or keypad) and it is to often taken to be the answer. And, yes, alot of stuff is out there and quite alot of it can be found using "the Google".
Yet is any answer the answer?!
Us library folk have always imparted the hows, whys and wherefores of information seeking.
In the physical library we had them - the users/clients/people - right at hand, ready to be grasped and encouraged (or dragged) into knowledge. The answers were in physical, obvious and logical (well mostly) places.
With great speed, things changed and keep changing - physical world and real people to deal with - if you're lucky! Real world 'visible' resources - likewise.
The truth is out there (and so many versions of it to choose from ! ;) but in many ways the ye olde information super highway is still the bumpy dirt road it once was - now it is just 18 lanes wide.
Quality and quantity - it still always comes back to these two basics.
Us library peoples, (the original and cleverest search engines), just have to keep shifting with the times - and the technology - as we have always done. And more so - we have to both keep up and be ahead in order to both meet information needs and plan for the future.
Through whatever techy means that we can best reach those who want the answers, we still have to keep teaching/showing them how to find, and - increasingly more important - to evaluate the 'answers' they find - and don't find. (Eg. there are those out there who will believe that the Great Wall of China was built to keep rabbits out - if only because "it was on the internet".)
Yes, it is an old argument but is still valid now and the pressures are greater. The sheer volume of information facing any seeker is mind-boggling. This, together with short attentions spans, and perceived immediacy of need, leaves the info worker much put upon... but we can do it!! we always have, in one form or another, the tools are just different.
There will always be information to be organised, answers to be sought and people who need to learn how to seek the right ones ...
"It's libraries, Jim, but not as we know it!"
Web 2.0, and given our interwoven relationship - Library 2.0, are very much here and now - and still growing and changing.
And this just happens to match up with the here-and-now information attitudes of the gen y / gen neXt / net gen, and all the other older but information au fait folks out there. Try convincing a 19 year old that the world does not depend upon their immediate response to a just received text message - and you just try to get their attention for anything else while they are doing so !!
Immediacy is the key - the demand, the assumption and the expectation. "I want it now, it should be right at my fingertips - like everything else is". Whether it is true or accurate or the best information/answer (or even trustworthy!) often seems to be secondary at best.
[Yes, I can hear my esteemed colleagues out there muttering and quietly crying into their coffee.]
The answers/information is expected to be out there, on tap (of keyboard or keypad) and it is to often taken to be the answer. And, yes, alot of stuff is out there and quite alot of it can be found using "the Google".
Yet is any answer the answer?!
Us library folk have always imparted the hows, whys and wherefores of information seeking.
In the physical library we had them - the users/clients/people - right at hand, ready to be grasped and encouraged (or dragged) into knowledge. The answers were in physical, obvious and logical (well mostly) places.
With great speed, things changed and keep changing - physical world and real people to deal with - if you're lucky! Real world 'visible' resources - likewise.
The truth is out there (and so many versions of it to choose from ! ;) but in many ways the ye olde information super highway is still the bumpy dirt road it once was - now it is just 18 lanes wide.
Quality and quantity - it still always comes back to these two basics.
Us library peoples, (the original and cleverest search engines), just have to keep shifting with the times - and the technology - as we have always done. And more so - we have to both keep up and be ahead in order to both meet information needs and plan for the future.
Through whatever techy means that we can best reach those who want the answers, we still have to keep teaching/showing them how to find, and - increasingly more important - to evaluate the 'answers' they find - and don't find. (Eg. there are those out there who will believe that the Great Wall of China was built to keep rabbits out - if only because "it was on the internet".)
Yes, it is an old argument but is still valid now and the pressures are greater. The sheer volume of information facing any seeker is mind-boggling. This, together with short attentions spans, and perceived immediacy of need, leaves the info worker much put upon... but we can do it!! we always have, in one form or another, the tools are just different.
There will always be information to be organised, answers to be sought and people who need to learn how to seek the right ones ...
"It's libraries, Jim, but not as we know it!"
Friday, July 20, 2007
To tag or not to tag...
This puppy’s inner indexer/cataloguer is torn between running screaming into the distance and enjoying - plus occasionally appreciating - the weird and wonderful? side of web 2.0 that includes tagging / social bookmarking / folksonomies.
One nice ‘potted version’ article that I came across - that you can share with all those you know who look blank (or worried) when you say tagging - is was ‘7 things you should know about social bookmarking’ on the Educause website - a useful summary, including discussion of the good, the bad and the folksy.
Technorati can be interesting - have to agree with their “…zillions of… some of them have to be good” headnote ! I just haven’t found many yet - and no, I’m not counting the fun ones that I peeked at!
It did point me in the direction of some other interesting sites like… Thoof - a cute combo of tagging site and wiki, but still in its infancy, eg. a recent search for ‘library’ had only 4 hits; and BoingBoing - self proclaimed ‘directory of wonderful things’ - lots of stuff to chase through (interesting history of BoingBoing’s real-world to e-world life in Wikipedia entry).
Well, del.icio.us is a bit of fun - useful place to store and share your own choice websites, blogs, etc, as well as to pick up on ‘what-other-people-are-looking-at’ (or, to put it in tv cooking show speak: ‘here’s one somebody else prepared earlier’ !
The value of what one might call social search refinement seems to work best, perhaps naturally, when the numbers of users/contributors hit a (fairly large) critical mass. Enough bodies putting in their 2 cents worth, or by default not doing so, can push the more useful sources to the fore.
The dear 75 year old Australian Broadcasting Corporation took a curious leap in the tagging direction, when, on July 1 2007/this year, its news website was redesigned and ‘my tags’ and ‘my stories’ (for bookmarks) sections appeared ready for (inter)action. Worth noting that the tag library is well populated and exudes an air of authority, control and sense ! So either ‘Aunty’ was very well prepared (no surprise there) and provided an authority list… or (and?) we, the ABC viewers and listeners, are a truly erudite bunch!
One nice ‘potted version’ article that I came across - that you can share with all those you know who look blank (or worried) when you say tagging - is was ‘7 things you should know about social bookmarking’ on the Educause website - a useful summary, including discussion of the good, the bad and the folksy.
Technorati can be interesting - have to agree with their “…zillions of… some of them have to be good” headnote ! I just haven’t found many yet - and no, I’m not counting the fun ones that I peeked at!
It did point me in the direction of some other interesting sites like… Thoof - a cute combo of tagging site and wiki, but still in its infancy, eg. a recent search for ‘library’ had only 4 hits; and BoingBoing - self proclaimed ‘directory of wonderful things’ - lots of stuff to chase through (interesting history of BoingBoing’s real-world to e-world life in Wikipedia entry).
Well, del.icio.us is a bit of fun - useful place to store and share your own choice websites, blogs, etc, as well as to pick up on ‘what-other-people-are-looking-at’ (or, to put it in tv cooking show speak: ‘here’s one somebody else prepared earlier’ !
The value of what one might call social search refinement seems to work best, perhaps naturally, when the numbers of users/contributors hit a (fairly large) critical mass. Enough bodies putting in their 2 cents worth, or by default not doing so, can push the more useful sources to the fore.
The dear 75 year old Australian Broadcasting Corporation took a curious leap in the tagging direction, when, on July 1 2007/this year, its news website was redesigned and ‘my tags’ and ‘my stories’ (for bookmarks) sections appeared ready for (inter)action. Worth noting that the tag library is well populated and exudes an air of authority, control and sense ! So either ‘Aunty’ was very well prepared (no surprise there) and provided an authority list… or (and?) we, the ABC viewers and listeners, are a truly erudite bunch!
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