Usually I am not one to put together lists, but the brain dead in me at the end of this semester has left me bereft of ideas, so here goes my list about what I thought about the course LIBR 246
1. How has your view of social software changed since starting the course?
I would say that the largest amount of change to the social software course has been what I actually included what would be in a course about social software. I would have never thought of Delicious, or Wikipedia, or the RSS feeds as having anything to do with social software whatsoever. I knew they were tools on the Internet but I never thought of them as social constructs. This class has expanded my mind to what social software was and how it could be applied in unique and intriguing ways.
2. What technology did you find most interesting for your personal use? What technology did you think would be most useful professionally?
I believe that the blogging software would be something I would be likely to use in my personal life outside of the generic facebook or twitter. It has applications as I am something of a writer and love to create and post work that I have done. I think this gives me a forum that I can work with more personally and allow my creativity to flourish with it. Professionally I think RSS feeds have a large ability to adapt themselves. Of course the adaptations may be more complex and require a larger background in programming languages, but I believe information that is easily shared across many platforms has a large adaptation in the professional workplace.
3. What surprised you during the course?
I cannot say that I was exactly surprised by anything, as I have used a great deal of the social software tools before, either in my personal life or in another library science class. What I can say is that I wouldn't have thought how all of these tools could be used or of their intrinsic benefits. I wouldn't have thought that with something like delicious I could weave through a myriad of articles and be able to do research on a subject faster and more efficiently.
4. What suggestions do you have for improving the learning activities (exercises, assignments, blog posts, readings, examples, etc.)?
I am not sure what to add as we did a thorough amount of research across all different kinds of platforms. While we did not really do anything integrative with MySpace or Facebook, I am not sure that is something that I would feel the need to do, as those platforms get a lot of users on them already and most people coming into the class probably already used or have used one or both of those platforms, making the activities in them unnecessary.
5. Looking back, how would you sum up your experience?
I would say that the experience broadened my horizons about ready made platforms and how the libraries can integrate themselves and market themselves with these technological tools. I would have thought maybe a facebook page would have been enough, but now I think there are so many more possibilities and things to do in this rapidly expansive environment. The future certainly is now.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
My Proposal - Video Blogging by Anthony Dillehunt and David Elliott
Proposal: To maintain a current technological impact on the community that the Buena Park library system serves, we believe that designing a video blog would effectively promote library services as well as be an invaluable tool in training and outreach to the community.
Libraries, by many people, are considered antiquated institutions, unable to keep up with the current technological revolutions that are seemingly occurring on a daily basis. This is indeed a sad state of affairs if it were true. While libraries often have a resistance to change, as do many likeminded government agencies, libraries are one of the best institutions suited to adapt to the current technological and informational needs of the public. Computer usage and proliferation have been encouraged by the libraries, since their inception, as new tools to assist in cataloging, and maintaining large archives for the public to be able to use. From Microfiche to the current OPAC system, libraries have attempted to maintain up to date ways of information maintenance and retrieval. The current trend in information storage and retrieval is the World Wide Web. This vast collection of pages stores numerous amounts of information on any subject imaginable. The proliferation of this resource to meet the need of almost anyone in the general public has meant that anyone who does not currently utilize the internet has or will become hopelessly behind in this new "Information Age." It is with this view of the current state of affairs that we recommend development of a video blog.
Successful Implementations of the Technology
A well maintained video blog reaches out to vast amounts of people, extending the scope and reach of everything an operation does. There are many well maintained, successful video blogs. Here are but a few of them:
MedLibrary.org - http://medlibrary.org/medwiki/Video_clip
This site uses video clips to be able to talk about services that they provide as well as up to date information about all things medicinal. This particular article discusses the use of video blogs for libraries and how video blogging is becoming a very popular means of communicating to a mass audience.
CNN Money.com - http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/05/01/8375939/
This article talks about the proliferation of videoblogs in today's society. There has been an exponential increase in the technology with the posting of videos since the recent Iphone boom. As the popularity of these blogs has increased there is now a market for such blogs on the net. One such company and their blog, Rocketboom, was able to generate a 40,000 dollar ad buy from people looking to put ads onto these sights. If advertisers see the possibilities of this medium and are willing to invest money in it, one would think the library should at least consider the possibility of using it.
Quilt Block Library Video Blog - http://www.quiltblocklibrary.tv/
This is a website/blog that it totally dedicated to designing quilts. As our interest is designing a blog where the primary method of communicating information is through videos, this blog succeeds in just that fashion. It informs, similarly to the way we view our tutorials page about library usage will inform, about how to do basic things with quilting. It does this instruction primarily through video feeds.
Otis Library - Maberry, S. (2009). Archiving 2.0: Problems, Possibilities, and the Expanding Role of Librarians. Art Documentation, 28(1), 40-3.
The Otis Library has been able to develop a video blogging system of a sort, being able to create video for the professors for their classes and being able to post them to a blog. The upside is the advent of this technology has enabled professors to more easily and cheaply produce videos that they can use for multiple classes. The downside of this technology is that it presented a problem when it came to actually archiving and cataloging the feeds that it created. I believe this may not be as large of a problem for us as our tutorial will be limited to services that the library provides. However, at some point there might be an archive problem with past tutorials as things change in the library. Hopefully, a good way can be developed down the road to successfully archive and retrieve the information that is generated.
The Wine Library Video Blog - http://tv.winelibrary.com/
These blogs on this site are developed to be able to give the users a lot of information about all things about wine, from tasting to different types of wines and vineyards. This is an effective method of instruction, however it may have something to be desired in the trying to organize the blog. It does divide up the blog by creating a listing of wines used in each episode but does not have any other method of categorization. I suppose that this may be all one needs for wine. The real question is whether, as with the Quilt Library blog, does blogging lend itself to be best categorized when there is a limited amount of subjects that can be discussed, as opposed to the library which has a much wider variety of information to store.
Rationale
While many of the video blogs developed on the net consist of operations whose only responsibility is to maintain contact with the public through their blog, the library is a pre-existing entity with responsibilities to the tangible public that they serve. Furthermore, these public libraries also have problems, in this economic state, with shrinking budgets and minimal staff to deal with their day to day responsibilities. Despite these facts, a library who is not able to maintain an effective presence on the Information Superhighway, may end up becoming the antiquated institution everyone fears that they are. If such a popular notion takes hold in the general public about the library, it may become defunded altogether, making libraries antiquated, and out of business. The technology then should not be a matter of whether, but a matter of when and how.
Aside from the obvious reasons for maintaining a presence on the Internet the Buena Park Library has many specific reasons for publishing a video blog as well. Our library has a limited capacity to be able to publicize things to the community at large. Frequently, items are publicized in the library but no one in the community actually knows about them. A recent Oprah episode commented about the fact that the library was a place to rent DVD’s for free, and the audience was surprised to find that out. We believe our library needs to have a better more modern way of outreach to the community. Furthermore, there is great utility in the use of a video blog. We feel that creating video links instructing patrons how to use library technology and services would be a more efficient way of having people access information about the library, alleviating pressure off of already overworked staff. This information would be stored and archived on the blogs server, making it always available and ready for whenever someone needed it.
Library Implementation
This need to be modern as well as the utility of the application makes video blogging something well worth its time and effort. In this vein we recommend the following for implementation of a video blogging site:
Technology: We propose to develop the blog pages in-house on the library’s web development server. The pages will be coded in HTML and we will integrate video content via YouTube.com’s embedding source code. Our proposed areas include the following: the teen spot; the adult book club; tutorials; and the children's corner. We would like to use screencast and other video technology through webcam and other means to record video segments to be able to train others as well as publicize certain events that the library has in any situation. We plan to use and open-source screen capturing solutions, such as Screentoaster, in addition to content recorded with more traditional hand held devices.
The Service: We are attempting to create a blog to promote the services in the library. The blog will be divided into sections to publicize things in the library separately. We decided to cover three specific parts of the library, which includes separate spaces for the adult, teen and children section. We did add a fourth section of the blog site, which will include tutorials. These tutorials will include things about learning library services.
Maintenance, Policy, and training: The maintenance of the website will be done by having one staff member develop the blog and the four areas the blog went into. The Children's Librarian, the Adult Librarian and the Teen Librarian would be responsible for developing videos that publicized their various programs in their sections. Tutorials would be developed through staff cooperation. The person in charge of the website maintenance will upload the feeds and edit the introductions to the videos on the screen.
Concerning policy about the site, it will be managed by the one employee responsible for putting information on the site. The Branch manager will be ultimately responsible for monitoring whatever information is put on the site and see that it conforms to existing Social Networking policy. Blogs will be monitored twice a day and any inappropriate comment added to the blog will be deleted at that time. There will be a link to appropriate methods for posting on the blog so that everyone will know what the library considers an acceptable use of commentary is. This will be monitored for a few months and evaluated to determine whether or not the ability to comment is being overly abused. If it is, the ability to comment on the blog postings will be eliminated.
With training on the website, there should be at least three people who are able to operate and upload things onto the website, in case two people are unable to be there for any apparent reason. Each person should spend a few hours on the website, and receive some light training in html, and understand what HTML and CSS are, and how they interoperate. Thankfully the website itself does not require a great deal of understanding in its programming so it will be more a matter of style than actual substance to the site. A person should also learn how to operate Screentoaster, which is an online service for creating videos while recording your screen. The blogs themselves are easy to operate so it should not be a large learning curve to operate the system.
Assessment: We will review everything at the end of a three month trial period. Provided there seems to be an "acceptable" amount of usage of the blog space (acceptable meaning at least 100 visits per month), the blog will continue being made. The blog will then be re-evaluated at the end of 6 months to see that the visits to the webpage continue and the appropriate use of the blog space and commenting are maintained. Provided that the blog maintains an "acceptable" or better use of the blog, the blog will be re-evaluated every six months for blog usage and evaluation of what things seem to be working and what things seem to be failing.
Possible Hurdles
We believe that the implementation of the video blog for the Buena Park Library or some other similar project is necessary. Despite the ease of the software technology and training to use it, there are some considerations about the technology that one must consider before initiating such a project. We believe the primary roadblock to such an undertaking is staff motivation. To be able to maintain a blog, there must be consistent use and monitoring of the site. Librarians and staff frequently have many different things on their plate that they need to accomplish. Things that staff deem to have a lower priority frequently gets put off, never being accomplished at all. To operate a blog, considering its need to be constantly updated, staff must believe that it is a vital part of a library’s operations. We believe the best way to maintain such an interest is to be able to develop and maintain a feedback system. Promotions of the blog via brochures at the library and posters need to be put up. There should be positive and negative feedback posted about the blog through the comments that people make to the blog on the site. Every month there should be several comments posted in the library, letting the staff know that not only is the system being used, but there are ways for refinement.
While staff motivation is the primary reason such a project can be derailed, there are other issues with the technology as well. While we plan to develop the blog pages in-house, the possibility may arise that this approach may prove to be too time consuming too continue. If this turns out to be true, we plan to use the blogging platform Wordpress as an alternative. Wordpress is one of the most highly used blogging platforms, and it is used by well-known and intellectually varied bloggers such as Perez Hilton or Michelle Malkin. While we may not be tied to the use of either in-house developed pages or Wordpress, there should be a discussion about library needs and what best suits the library, so that everyone understands why the Buena Park Library system is using a particular software solution. Balancing cost, man hours and ease of use will weigh critically on which solution the library ultimately decides to choose.
Finally Video Blogs using other people's blog technology creates an archival issue. As the library does not have access to the archives it does not control much of the information that it stores. Once it is uploaded it is left there without a sufficient means of archiving the information. While this may be a problem it is somewhat overblown as most blogs create date stamps. It is an archival method of its own. And as most information in promotion will be time sensitive, it may not be necessary to create a cataloging system of information. However, since the training section of the site will not be a time sensitive issue, but an information issue, there must be some way of organizing the information to retrieve that is not alphabetical. All of this could be eliminated if we were generating our own website, but this would create a time issue of its own. We recommend maintaining a copy of the videos on file at the library, organizing the training videos with some categorical scheme, either Library of Congress, or Dewey decimal. This is somewhat impractical and confusing on a website however.
Conclusion
The library cannot and must not become an entity of the past, holding on to previous ideas of acceptable information sources, and limiting its resources and time and energy to those things that are tangible. While books may not become a thing of the past, one has to consider all of the ways "books" may now be read. Likewise, promotion cannot be limited to posters and some bookmarks on the counter. The library must consider other promotional methods. We believe that the Video Blog for the Buena Park Library will fill both those concerns. It will move us in a forward looking direction, both technologically and promotionally. For the Library, both the past, and the future should all exist in the now.
The Technology Prototype URL: http://buenapark.lib.ca.us/development/layout.html
Libraries, by many people, are considered antiquated institutions, unable to keep up with the current technological revolutions that are seemingly occurring on a daily basis. This is indeed a sad state of affairs if it were true. While libraries often have a resistance to change, as do many likeminded government agencies, libraries are one of the best institutions suited to adapt to the current technological and informational needs of the public. Computer usage and proliferation have been encouraged by the libraries, since their inception, as new tools to assist in cataloging, and maintaining large archives for the public to be able to use. From Microfiche to the current OPAC system, libraries have attempted to maintain up to date ways of information maintenance and retrieval. The current trend in information storage and retrieval is the World Wide Web. This vast collection of pages stores numerous amounts of information on any subject imaginable. The proliferation of this resource to meet the need of almost anyone in the general public has meant that anyone who does not currently utilize the internet has or will become hopelessly behind in this new "Information Age." It is with this view of the current state of affairs that we recommend development of a video blog.
Successful Implementations of the Technology
A well maintained video blog reaches out to vast amounts of people, extending the scope and reach of everything an operation does. There are many well maintained, successful video blogs. Here are but a few of them:
MedLibrary.org - http://medlibrary.org/medwiki/Video_clip
This site uses video clips to be able to talk about services that they provide as well as up to date information about all things medicinal. This particular article discusses the use of video blogs for libraries and how video blogging is becoming a very popular means of communicating to a mass audience.
CNN Money.com - http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/05/01/8375939/
This article talks about the proliferation of videoblogs in today's society. There has been an exponential increase in the technology with the posting of videos since the recent Iphone boom. As the popularity of these blogs has increased there is now a market for such blogs on the net. One such company and their blog, Rocketboom, was able to generate a 40,000 dollar ad buy from people looking to put ads onto these sights. If advertisers see the possibilities of this medium and are willing to invest money in it, one would think the library should at least consider the possibility of using it.
Quilt Block Library Video Blog - http://www.quiltblocklibrary.tv/
This is a website/blog that it totally dedicated to designing quilts. As our interest is designing a blog where the primary method of communicating information is through videos, this blog succeeds in just that fashion. It informs, similarly to the way we view our tutorials page about library usage will inform, about how to do basic things with quilting. It does this instruction primarily through video feeds.
Otis Library - Maberry, S. (2009). Archiving 2.0: Problems, Possibilities, and the Expanding Role of Librarians. Art Documentation, 28(1), 40-3.
The Otis Library has been able to develop a video blogging system of a sort, being able to create video for the professors for their classes and being able to post them to a blog. The upside is the advent of this technology has enabled professors to more easily and cheaply produce videos that they can use for multiple classes. The downside of this technology is that it presented a problem when it came to actually archiving and cataloging the feeds that it created. I believe this may not be as large of a problem for us as our tutorial will be limited to services that the library provides. However, at some point there might be an archive problem with past tutorials as things change in the library. Hopefully, a good way can be developed down the road to successfully archive and retrieve the information that is generated.
The Wine Library Video Blog - http://tv.winelibrary.com/
These blogs on this site are developed to be able to give the users a lot of information about all things about wine, from tasting to different types of wines and vineyards. This is an effective method of instruction, however it may have something to be desired in the trying to organize the blog. It does divide up the blog by creating a listing of wines used in each episode but does not have any other method of categorization. I suppose that this may be all one needs for wine. The real question is whether, as with the Quilt Library blog, does blogging lend itself to be best categorized when there is a limited amount of subjects that can be discussed, as opposed to the library which has a much wider variety of information to store.
Rationale
While many of the video blogs developed on the net consist of operations whose only responsibility is to maintain contact with the public through their blog, the library is a pre-existing entity with responsibilities to the tangible public that they serve. Furthermore, these public libraries also have problems, in this economic state, with shrinking budgets and minimal staff to deal with their day to day responsibilities. Despite these facts, a library who is not able to maintain an effective presence on the Information Superhighway, may end up becoming the antiquated institution everyone fears that they are. If such a popular notion takes hold in the general public about the library, it may become defunded altogether, making libraries antiquated, and out of business. The technology then should not be a matter of whether, but a matter of when and how.
Aside from the obvious reasons for maintaining a presence on the Internet the Buena Park Library has many specific reasons for publishing a video blog as well. Our library has a limited capacity to be able to publicize things to the community at large. Frequently, items are publicized in the library but no one in the community actually knows about them. A recent Oprah episode commented about the fact that the library was a place to rent DVD’s for free, and the audience was surprised to find that out. We believe our library needs to have a better more modern way of outreach to the community. Furthermore, there is great utility in the use of a video blog. We feel that creating video links instructing patrons how to use library technology and services would be a more efficient way of having people access information about the library, alleviating pressure off of already overworked staff. This information would be stored and archived on the blogs server, making it always available and ready for whenever someone needed it.
Library Implementation
This need to be modern as well as the utility of the application makes video blogging something well worth its time and effort. In this vein we recommend the following for implementation of a video blogging site:
Technology: We propose to develop the blog pages in-house on the library’s web development server. The pages will be coded in HTML and we will integrate video content via YouTube.com’s embedding source code. Our proposed areas include the following: the teen spot; the adult book club; tutorials; and the children's corner. We would like to use screencast and other video technology through webcam and other means to record video segments to be able to train others as well as publicize certain events that the library has in any situation. We plan to use and open-source screen capturing solutions, such as Screentoaster, in addition to content recorded with more traditional hand held devices.
The Service: We are attempting to create a blog to promote the services in the library. The blog will be divided into sections to publicize things in the library separately. We decided to cover three specific parts of the library, which includes separate spaces for the adult, teen and children section. We did add a fourth section of the blog site, which will include tutorials. These tutorials will include things about learning library services.
Maintenance, Policy, and training: The maintenance of the website will be done by having one staff member develop the blog and the four areas the blog went into. The Children's Librarian, the Adult Librarian and the Teen Librarian would be responsible for developing videos that publicized their various programs in their sections. Tutorials would be developed through staff cooperation. The person in charge of the website maintenance will upload the feeds and edit the introductions to the videos on the screen.
Concerning policy about the site, it will be managed by the one employee responsible for putting information on the site. The Branch manager will be ultimately responsible for monitoring whatever information is put on the site and see that it conforms to existing Social Networking policy. Blogs will be monitored twice a day and any inappropriate comment added to the blog will be deleted at that time. There will be a link to appropriate methods for posting on the blog so that everyone will know what the library considers an acceptable use of commentary is. This will be monitored for a few months and evaluated to determine whether or not the ability to comment is being overly abused. If it is, the ability to comment on the blog postings will be eliminated.
With training on the website, there should be at least three people who are able to operate and upload things onto the website, in case two people are unable to be there for any apparent reason. Each person should spend a few hours on the website, and receive some light training in html, and understand what HTML and CSS are, and how they interoperate. Thankfully the website itself does not require a great deal of understanding in its programming so it will be more a matter of style than actual substance to the site. A person should also learn how to operate Screentoaster, which is an online service for creating videos while recording your screen. The blogs themselves are easy to operate so it should not be a large learning curve to operate the system.
Assessment: We will review everything at the end of a three month trial period. Provided there seems to be an "acceptable" amount of usage of the blog space (acceptable meaning at least 100 visits per month), the blog will continue being made. The blog will then be re-evaluated at the end of 6 months to see that the visits to the webpage continue and the appropriate use of the blog space and commenting are maintained. Provided that the blog maintains an "acceptable" or better use of the blog, the blog will be re-evaluated every six months for blog usage and evaluation of what things seem to be working and what things seem to be failing.
Possible Hurdles
We believe that the implementation of the video blog for the Buena Park Library or some other similar project is necessary. Despite the ease of the software technology and training to use it, there are some considerations about the technology that one must consider before initiating such a project. We believe the primary roadblock to such an undertaking is staff motivation. To be able to maintain a blog, there must be consistent use and monitoring of the site. Librarians and staff frequently have many different things on their plate that they need to accomplish. Things that staff deem to have a lower priority frequently gets put off, never being accomplished at all. To operate a blog, considering its need to be constantly updated, staff must believe that it is a vital part of a library’s operations. We believe the best way to maintain such an interest is to be able to develop and maintain a feedback system. Promotions of the blog via brochures at the library and posters need to be put up. There should be positive and negative feedback posted about the blog through the comments that people make to the blog on the site. Every month there should be several comments posted in the library, letting the staff know that not only is the system being used, but there are ways for refinement.
While staff motivation is the primary reason such a project can be derailed, there are other issues with the technology as well. While we plan to develop the blog pages in-house, the possibility may arise that this approach may prove to be too time consuming too continue. If this turns out to be true, we plan to use the blogging platform Wordpress as an alternative. Wordpress is one of the most highly used blogging platforms, and it is used by well-known and intellectually varied bloggers such as Perez Hilton or Michelle Malkin. While we may not be tied to the use of either in-house developed pages or Wordpress, there should be a discussion about library needs and what best suits the library, so that everyone understands why the Buena Park Library system is using a particular software solution. Balancing cost, man hours and ease of use will weigh critically on which solution the library ultimately decides to choose.
Finally Video Blogs using other people's blog technology creates an archival issue. As the library does not have access to the archives it does not control much of the information that it stores. Once it is uploaded it is left there without a sufficient means of archiving the information. While this may be a problem it is somewhat overblown as most blogs create date stamps. It is an archival method of its own. And as most information in promotion will be time sensitive, it may not be necessary to create a cataloging system of information. However, since the training section of the site will not be a time sensitive issue, but an information issue, there must be some way of organizing the information to retrieve that is not alphabetical. All of this could be eliminated if we were generating our own website, but this would create a time issue of its own. We recommend maintaining a copy of the videos on file at the library, organizing the training videos with some categorical scheme, either Library of Congress, or Dewey decimal. This is somewhat impractical and confusing on a website however.
Conclusion
The library cannot and must not become an entity of the past, holding on to previous ideas of acceptable information sources, and limiting its resources and time and energy to those things that are tangible. While books may not become a thing of the past, one has to consider all of the ways "books" may now be read. Likewise, promotion cannot be limited to posters and some bookmarks on the counter. The library must consider other promotional methods. We believe that the Video Blog for the Buena Park Library will fill both those concerns. It will move us in a forward looking direction, both technologically and promotionally. For the Library, both the past, and the future should all exist in the now.
The Technology Prototype URL: http://buenapark.lib.ca.us/development/layout.html
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Library Social Tools Assessment
What can libraries do to assess themselves? How does a library assess itself when it has limited ability to do so as it has limited control of the software it uses to promote itself?
- The most obvious way for a library to assess itself is through usage. Every website should have information on visitors who have viewed the site.
- It would be good for a library to have the ability for its users to comment. A library can review all of the different meaningful assessments that have something to say about the social software used.
- Libraries can put out surveys for patrons who come to the library about usage on the social software sites. They can answer whether using the social site was a good experience, whether it was instrumental in whether or not they come for a library program.
- Libraries determine the ease of use of the software they are using by surveying the people responsible for using the social software.
- Libraries can monitor review sites to see whether they are getting positive or negative feedback on these review sites.
- The most obvious way for a library to assess itself is through usage. Every website should have information on visitors who have viewed the site.
- It would be good for a library to have the ability for its users to comment. A library can review all of the different meaningful assessments that have something to say about the social software used.
- Libraries can put out surveys for patrons who come to the library about usage on the social software sites. They can answer whether using the social site was a good experience, whether it was instrumental in whether or not they come for a library program.
- Libraries determine the ease of use of the software they are using by surveying the people responsible for using the social software.
- Libraries can monitor review sites to see whether they are getting positive or negative feedback on these review sites.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Lurkers: Behind the Veil
Online communities are developed among a bunch of people who are interested in communicating about a topic, or along a particular type of topic, as Slashdot is supposed to be people who are generating topics that "nerds" would be interested in, as the site lists that it is news for nerds. These communities are largely composed of articles posted by people who create names for themselves. After a while a person who would go to the site regularly might get to know what types of topics a person is interested in, as their postings might take on a certain theme, or they might post regularly about apple computers and you would get to know something about a person through their posts.
There are other people, who are interested in keeping some level of anonymity about themselves. While the Internet inherently provides some anonymity, these people do not even wish to be known by a screen name. They are called lurkers and jealously guide their identity, for their own reasons. Is lurking something that is understandable, or is it something where people are hysterical about protecting their identity.... or is it just laziness? Given my own participation in many things on the net, I would argue that it might be a bit of all three.
Certainly, with the advent of the Internet, and hearing about fishing schemes, and people out to steal your identity, one might determine that protecting one's identity at all costs might be a worthwhile effort. However, one does not have to share all types of information. I know many people who will lie about all sorts of things when they sign up for a site that they do not have to pay for. They will generate email accounts they do not use regularly, create fake numbers and addresses, all for the purpose of getting on a site. Their web names on a particular site are unique to the site.
By being a lurker, or even a anonymous poster to a website, a person refrains from developing any relationships with anyone over the net. If a person posts or comments on a particular topic, keeping ones self anonymous keeps one from having a real discussion about that topic. Also just by sitting back and not posting, or simply lurking, one keeps ones self at arms distance from any real connections that the website is supposed to offer. Its almost kind of counterproductive to the nature of the website in the first place.
Whether one agrees with lurking or not, for whatever reason, I believe the biggest reason for lurking, which is oft ignored is laziness. People tend to be very information focused on the Internet. They may find a topic that they are interested in and read about it, but never participate, not because they do not have anything to contribute, but because they are in a hurry and only came to get the information they are seeking. They do not post, not because they have nothing to say about a topic, but because they would actually have to take the time to formulate a thought about a topic that they would consider worthwhile for other people to hear, and they do not feel it is worth their time and effort.
While my instant reaction is to criticize the lurker, I must consider my own use of the Internet. I think it would be responsible to participate in all of the websites I use, not only because I am part of the community interested in the information, but because my participation encourages advertisers to be interested in that website and contribute money for the furtherance of the website, but I often do not because I am lazy and only seek information for my own personal use. Communities work because people participate in them, and somewhat actively. And real participation requires a level of vulnerability that would allow others to know who I am. The question of to lurk, or not to lurk, should not be a question at all. I should not lurk, and be...
There are other people, who are interested in keeping some level of anonymity about themselves. While the Internet inherently provides some anonymity, these people do not even wish to be known by a screen name. They are called lurkers and jealously guide their identity, for their own reasons. Is lurking something that is understandable, or is it something where people are hysterical about protecting their identity.... or is it just laziness? Given my own participation in many things on the net, I would argue that it might be a bit of all three.
Certainly, with the advent of the Internet, and hearing about fishing schemes, and people out to steal your identity, one might determine that protecting one's identity at all costs might be a worthwhile effort. However, one does not have to share all types of information. I know many people who will lie about all sorts of things when they sign up for a site that they do not have to pay for. They will generate email accounts they do not use regularly, create fake numbers and addresses, all for the purpose of getting on a site. Their web names on a particular site are unique to the site.
By being a lurker, or even a anonymous poster to a website, a person refrains from developing any relationships with anyone over the net. If a person posts or comments on a particular topic, keeping ones self anonymous keeps one from having a real discussion about that topic. Also just by sitting back and not posting, or simply lurking, one keeps ones self at arms distance from any real connections that the website is supposed to offer. Its almost kind of counterproductive to the nature of the website in the first place.
Whether one agrees with lurking or not, for whatever reason, I believe the biggest reason for lurking, which is oft ignored is laziness. People tend to be very information focused on the Internet. They may find a topic that they are interested in and read about it, but never participate, not because they do not have anything to contribute, but because they are in a hurry and only came to get the information they are seeking. They do not post, not because they have nothing to say about a topic, but because they would actually have to take the time to formulate a thought about a topic that they would consider worthwhile for other people to hear, and they do not feel it is worth their time and effort.
While my instant reaction is to criticize the lurker, I must consider my own use of the Internet. I think it would be responsible to participate in all of the websites I use, not only because I am part of the community interested in the information, but because my participation encourages advertisers to be interested in that website and contribute money for the furtherance of the website, but I often do not because I am lazy and only seek information for my own personal use. Communities work because people participate in them, and somewhat actively. And real participation requires a level of vulnerability that would allow others to know who I am. The question of to lurk, or not to lurk, should not be a question at all. I should not lurk, and be...
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Possible Failures for User Generated Systems
Its always interesting to speculate on what the reasons for why something does not work. I remember when we were trying to generate a blog at the library for interoffice use. After about three months the blog stopped being used by anyone in branch and was never heard from again. I have talked to a few people about the reasons for this after the fact. Most of them discuss the fact that it was not being used by anyone else and saw no reason why they should get on it anymore to check on it. Furthermore, we already had an email account to connect with people at the branch. Why should we have to use anything else?
All of the various reasons made sense, but I think the reasons go deeper than that. Part of the problem is that there was one person spearheading the effort, and she had mental and emotional turmoil going on after starting it about three months. She did not have the time or energy to use it. There was no second person responsible for maintaining the blog. As it was no one else's responsibility, it fell to neglect. And no one else took it up to keep it going. By the time the person in charge had righted the ship, she had other things on her mind and did not take it up again.
So when considering the reasons why something that would be user generated would fail, there are the obvious reasons, and then there are the reasons that you have to dig a little deeper to find. The most obvious reason for something user generated not working is a lack of user support. As with anything you have to be able to get multiple people involved in the process. It cannot be left up to one person or its not really a community effort to develop a platform. And actively involved does not mean to simply get on the site and see what other people have done. These people have to publish to the site and be come involved as part of the process.
While participation is an obvious reason for something not working there are many other possible reasons for failure. Aside from participation, language is often a barrier to a community working together for something. Everyone has to be able to have the same way of saying things. Something may have local appeal but not have an appeal nationally because the way people communicate change from society to society. Also, the platform that people have to comment on something can make something not work long term. There has to be a way to get feedback about what is being written and said. Also, someone who is overzealous in editing what is allowed on a site can make a collaborative effort fail. If someone deletes everything that is being written, than people will stop being interested in participating of the writing or commenting on the site.
Whatever the possible reasons there maybe, one thing I have found universally is that someone needs to be flexible in what they are creating in order for it to work. If someone is too rigid in what they want or expect, people will be turned off the the item and the process. Flexibility is a virtue that is vastly underrated.
All of the various reasons made sense, but I think the reasons go deeper than that. Part of the problem is that there was one person spearheading the effort, and she had mental and emotional turmoil going on after starting it about three months. She did not have the time or energy to use it. There was no second person responsible for maintaining the blog. As it was no one else's responsibility, it fell to neglect. And no one else took it up to keep it going. By the time the person in charge had righted the ship, she had other things on her mind and did not take it up again.
So when considering the reasons why something that would be user generated would fail, there are the obvious reasons, and then there are the reasons that you have to dig a little deeper to find. The most obvious reason for something user generated not working is a lack of user support. As with anything you have to be able to get multiple people involved in the process. It cannot be left up to one person or its not really a community effort to develop a platform. And actively involved does not mean to simply get on the site and see what other people have done. These people have to publish to the site and be come involved as part of the process.
While participation is an obvious reason for something not working there are many other possible reasons for failure. Aside from participation, language is often a barrier to a community working together for something. Everyone has to be able to have the same way of saying things. Something may have local appeal but not have an appeal nationally because the way people communicate change from society to society. Also, the platform that people have to comment on something can make something not work long term. There has to be a way to get feedback about what is being written and said. Also, someone who is overzealous in editing what is allowed on a site can make a collaborative effort fail. If someone deletes everything that is being written, than people will stop being interested in participating of the writing or commenting on the site.
Whatever the possible reasons there maybe, one thing I have found universally is that someone needs to be flexible in what they are creating in order for it to work. If someone is too rigid in what they want or expect, people will be turned off the the item and the process. Flexibility is a virtue that is vastly underrated.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Excercise 5 or The Tagging Process
To be perfectly honest, before working on this assignment I did not do a whole lot when it came to delicious. All that I did with delicious is find some web page that discussed what someone had to say about the topic and then add it to my list of topics. I was not sure of the long term value of bookmarking these pages. After working with all of the capabilities of delicious it has transformed my view of the nature of the social networking bookmarks and why it can be useful.
The usefulness of the bookmarking comes in where it comes to the connections with other people. I can see what everyone else is thinking when they are talking about another topic online. If I tag something tagged, I will know how many other people used that word tagged to tag something. I can also find the websites that those other people find interesting, or I can find the websites that they find interesting about the use of the word tagged. The searches can be endless. And you kind of get to know someone else's thought process as a result.
Despite the usefulness of such a tool, I do have to also say that there are some limitations to the whole idea. While I can find what other sites there are on the word tagged, or what someone else may be thinking about when they think the word tagged, I have learned through this and through Cataloging that coming up with a consistent term is the only way of being able to find anything when you are classifying. For example, I may look up tagging and thing that I am going to find all of the instances where someone is noting a word in a social tagging site. However, I know that others have used the term to mean someone who spray paints their insignia on a freeway or cable car or other item to denote that they have been there. I may look up tagging but its only as useful as however many others have the same idea about what the word tagged means. This does not even include what other English speaking countries may mean when they tag one word that has multiple meanings in the two different countries.
Tagging, I have discovered, can be a beautiful thing. Tagging has its limits.
The usefulness of the bookmarking comes in where it comes to the connections with other people. I can see what everyone else is thinking when they are talking about another topic online. If I tag something tagged, I will know how many other people used that word tagged to tag something. I can also find the websites that those other people find interesting, or I can find the websites that they find interesting about the use of the word tagged. The searches can be endless. And you kind of get to know someone else's thought process as a result.
Despite the usefulness of such a tool, I do have to also say that there are some limitations to the whole idea. While I can find what other sites there are on the word tagged, or what someone else may be thinking about when they think the word tagged, I have learned through this and through Cataloging that coming up with a consistent term is the only way of being able to find anything when you are classifying. For example, I may look up tagging and thing that I am going to find all of the instances where someone is noting a word in a social tagging site. However, I know that others have used the term to mean someone who spray paints their insignia on a freeway or cable car or other item to denote that they have been there. I may look up tagging but its only as useful as however many others have the same idea about what the word tagged means. This does not even include what other English speaking countries may mean when they tag one word that has multiple meanings in the two different countries.
Tagging, I have discovered, can be a beautiful thing. Tagging has its limits.
What I actually learned this week about collaborative efforts...
When I began this week I was already familiar with some of the collaborative software that was already out there. I had already used Yahoo groups and Google Docs to be able to actively edit papers for different classes. I have used both Meebo and Skype with communicating with different people in the past and so was familiar with their software. I knew that all of these forums could be used to communicate effectively with one person, or with many people at the same time.
Despite this familiarity with the process of everything, I did come to a realization about the failures of communicating tools like this when given short notice about who you have to work with. Elluminate is great, if you have the time to set up a meeting in advance. If you have little time to work, it becomes next to impossible to accomplish. Also, I learned that collaborative efforts are difficult when one is trying to put together some amount of personal reflection on a particular item. If I am going to discuss what I learned this week, it is hard for someone to come along side to what I have written and piece together a group reflection about what I learned. I suppose we could have pieced one together about what we learned.
What I am excited about with all of these tools is the ability to find some tool that can be used in an effective way to develop a group project and presentation. I want to let nothing get in the way of imagination and innovation to develop something that will stand out. I hearken back to my first time working with Power Point, almost 13 years ago now. I remember what little I could accomplish and how much more I can accomplish using Power Point today. I hope that my experiences from the past and working with a partner will sharpen my skills and make my projects more streamlined this time.
Despite this familiarity with the process of everything, I did come to a realization about the failures of communicating tools like this when given short notice about who you have to work with. Elluminate is great, if you have the time to set up a meeting in advance. If you have little time to work, it becomes next to impossible to accomplish. Also, I learned that collaborative efforts are difficult when one is trying to put together some amount of personal reflection on a particular item. If I am going to discuss what I learned this week, it is hard for someone to come along side to what I have written and piece together a group reflection about what I learned. I suppose we could have pieced one together about what we learned.
What I am excited about with all of these tools is the ability to find some tool that can be used in an effective way to develop a group project and presentation. I want to let nothing get in the way of imagination and innovation to develop something that will stand out. I hearken back to my first time working with Power Point, almost 13 years ago now. I remember what little I could accomplish and how much more I can accomplish using Power Point today. I hope that my experiences from the past and working with a partner will sharpen my skills and make my projects more streamlined this time.
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