Grand Finale

I joined Facebook which won the SEOmoz's web 2.0 aware for social networking.
I like Facebook, I think it is a lot of fun. It could be useful to set up a library facebook page on the ECU network in facebook, but I am still not convinced that the average student wants us (the library and university establishment) following them into the spaces they use to have fun and social interactions, be they vl (virtual life) or rl (real life).
Then again, I'm not sure I care if clients like it or not - I sort of like the idea of posting "Your loans are overdue" on their 'superwall' on Facebook and letting all their friends know they are a delinquent borrower.
One of the things I like most, and least, about Facebook is that friends from all over the world can find you. I found that on Facebook two worlds can collide - your social world and your work world. I think this can be a fine balancing act - and if I was to explore this further as a professional opportunity to communicate to clients I think I would have to open two profiles - one for professional interests and one for personal. You learn a lot about people by viewing their facebook page - I love it when I am learning about others - I'm not sure how I feel about it when others are learning things about me :)

I have really enjoyed doing these 23 things - though I have left the posting until the very last minute. To be honest I think I knew how most of the technology worked before I set out to do these exercises and that probably made me more slack about getting the posts up - which of course is just not ok, but there you go. I think the most interesting thing I have learnt is how my fellow staff members reacted to the experiences. As I am new to ECU it was a good opportunity to get a few insights into how people work.
I think i will keep up with Facebook, and really want to explore the opportunities that blogs present as ways of communicating with staff and students. I really enjoyed Youtube - but worry about how much of my life I will spend watching others' videos. I gave up tv a while ago because I thought it was a waste of time - now, instead of watching tv in the evenings, I download lots of posts from YouTube - I'm not sure if that is an improvement.
I think these web 2.0 technologies have huge potential, but I think in the end of the day, it is not about the technology you use to communicate with your clients, but rather the message itself. My experience suggests that people who want the information will appreciate it, not matter how it is delivered, and those that are not interested remain disinterested no matter how many bows and whistles you add as dressing.
I will keep using flick'r and facebook for my personal needs - and intend to use them professionally, once I find a way of stopping the worlds colliding.

Podcasting - videos and downloadable audio

Youtube rocks!! I love it. I haven't done one search yet that hasn't brought up some videos worth watching. Not all are worth watching of course - but I am really amazed at the talent out there. The standard of some of the videos is really high - even the fan videos that are just basically photos, or videos, taken by someone else and edited to music.
I think youtube is a great way to share information. It's hosted free - so you don't have to worry about storage - and you have the potential to reach millions of people. Yes, once it is on Youtube you lose control and it enters the public domain - but that's ok by me - I am one of those people that believe that information wants to be free. I have found Youtube really addictive - and find that when you search for one video it suggests others on the same theme and it can be *really* hard to drag yourself away.
I like this one about Mac Vs PCs - it is based on the Mac Vs PC ads put out by Mac.



I'm less enthusiastic about audio podcasts - mainly because I think they can become a bit boring. The challenge with doing good podcasts is not the technology, which is easy to master, but writing a script that is interesting. They are a good way to give out information - if you can stay away from the long recording of one voice speaking in a flat monotone - which is what the very worse podcasts consist of.
I like the podcasts that are done as interviews or conversations with more than one voice - and although they are almost always scripted to some degree they seem to run more naturally. I think podcasts are a great tool - if you can keep them interesting. Another problem with podcasts is that they are supposed to follow the 'feed and subscribe' model - ie the are supposed to be in a series. I think this could be really great for lectures etc where you have a captive audience (people that have missed the lecture will pretty much have to listen to the podcast). but most of library use for podcasts would be in one off training sessions. Podcasts can include images and video of course - but how many areas in the library lend themselves to regular updates? New additions to the collection in different subject areas perhaps?
In a general sort of way I'd rather put up little individual videos on YouTube than make a series of podcasts - though there is no doubt podcasts are technically easier to make and allow you to restrict the audience in a way YouTube doesn't.

Social Tagging.

The wisdom of the crowd, or just a big mess?
I don't like to think of myself as a order freak - and anyone who took a quick look at my desk would know that I am not one - but I find the looseness of the tagging in both Tecnorati and Del.icio.us disconcerting.
I'm not suggesting that we have to use LCSH (Library of Congress Subject Headings) but I find myself wishing for more order within social tagging. Blog, Blogging, Blogs, Blogosphere - these are all labels commonly used for people to tag their blogs - and none of them mention what the blog is about! These tags are so general as to be almost useless. And then there are the subjective tags that really only have meaning to the person doing the tagging. This is fine if you are tagging for your own use, but if what you are trying to do is use 'social tags' then this subjectivity just makes your stuff really hard to find.
Having said that, and admitting that I do miss neatly stacked folders - I have to give credit where credit is due. I like the idea of publicly accessible bookmarks. I like the idea of doing a list of websites for each subject (hey wait - we already do that!)in an area - and I like the fact that each bookmark can have more than one tag - as many tags as you like - so as well as putting in the subjective and general tags you can put in tags that will actually lead someone doing a search in the area to the correct document.
I think Del.icio.us is a great way of sharing bookmarks within a group. The FEA faculty have set up their own account as a way of sharing bookmarks - but we have found that we need a 'gatekeeper'. A person that will make sure there is some consistency in the way things are tagged.
It is only by making good use of the tags that the account can be useful - otherwise it is just a long list of links. The list of links can be *very* long in Del.icio.us. and useful tags are necessary as the only way to quickly navigate the list.
I love having my bookmarks available regardless of what machine I am on.
I love being able to share links without having to spam people with emails - if people are interested they can go to the site and look up the links themselves. I am getting used to, and beginning to love, the tag clouds generated by social tagging. This is interesting within the library, but is also fascinating on a personal level - you certainly learn a lot about people, not just by WHAT they tag, but by HOW they tag it.
Searching for Blogs is very informative as well. I am constantly amazed at how much time and effort some people put in to their blogs - both personal and professional. I think a good quick way of searching for blogs, by certain people or on certain subjects, is critical as I find myself wondering if blogs and wikis are going to take over from mailing lists as the new quick way to distribute information.

Second LIfe - I'm having enough trouble with my first one!

Second life - Hmmm.

I know a lot of people that absolutely adore second life - some that adore it so much their Second Life is threatening to unsettle the priorities of their first life.

In the early 90's there were things called MUDS and MOOs - a MUD was a "Multi-user dungeon" (or domain) and a MOO was a "Mud - object orientated". In those days you had to use Telnet to get onto these areas and they were text based. The main distinction of MUDs and MOOs (apart from the fact MOOs used Object Orientated Programming) was that MUDs were for online Gaming and MOOs were for social interaction. A bit like the difference between World of Warcraft and Second Life.

I'm really showing my age here - but the point I am trying to make is that AT FIRST Second Life appears very much like a MOO with pictures and no programming.
However, there are two big differences between Second Life and the old fashioned MOOs. The first is that Second Life is very easy to use, even for people with very basic techno-literacy. The second is that Second Life has had huge coverage in the media. This means that people from all over the world, with all sorts of experiences and desires are using second life to help bring those desires to life - or at least to Second Life. U2 did a Second Life concert and many writers and artists are using Second Life to bring their work to a wider, virtual audience. Info Isle on Second Life has been set up for Libraries - a place where the residence of Second Life can go to a library and get help with a reference question or just browse the shelves, much as they do in a real world library. This is all very exciting.

However I do have concerns about college libraries encouraging students to use second life - and these concerns have nothing to do with the huge use of bandwidth.

One thing I think is very similar between the old fashioned MUDs/MOOs and Second Life is the degree with which people identify with their online identity or avatar. This is what makes virtual worlds so much fun - but it is also what makes them potentially dangerous. Second Life really is like a huge City, and like all large cities it has safe areas, and areas that are not so safe. Info Isle is a nice safe island full of helpful library types, but there are some very dark areas of Second Life. For example Sky did a news story on the pedophilia scene within Second Life.



Now, I am not a big fan of censorship - but I do think that if University Libraries are going to advocate Second Life to their students then the libraries must examine to what extent they are are responsible for what the students experience in Second Life. Do we have any responsibilities to these students?

In the 'good old days' you needed a certain amount of technical profiency to get online. If you wanted to make an object in the MOO you needed to have a basic understand of OOPs. (Object Oriented Programming) Things were text based - which meant, if nothing else, you had to think of something, and put it into language, before you could communicate it to someone else. You had to have the idea before you could put it out there, and it had to be in words - there was no visuals. This meant that things were much more conscious and deliberate. Everything had to be expressed verbally. If you wanted to show pain on your face you had to type a discription of that pain, there was no automatic animation what would change your faces expression to one of pain.

Second life is very different. Much of the interaction is done via animations - which you can either develop easily, or copy. The objects are visual, and when you trigger them they take control of your character and make you perform the action programmed into the object. You can see your character perform this action, but cannot directly control it. You can witness it passively, without having to process it through language.

The loss of direct control of your avatar or self-object, the passivity of consumption and the ease of connecting brings up a few issues that were not present in the far off days of MOO.

First of all MOOs weren't as publicly advertised in main stream media as Second Life and today's social network outlets - people were much less likely to 'stumble' into a MOO with absolutely no idea of what they were getting into.

MOOs were much smaller, with a relatively tiny population. That population tended to be much more homogenous than the population of Second Life. "Sex, drugs and Rock'n'Roll etc" were all represented on the MOOs - but it was the production of those characters that inhabited the MOO. There was no commericalisation, no profit to be made.

I'm trying to avoid making value judgements - but what I do believe is that visitors to Second Life can easily be exposed to what is beyond their experience and ability to process and cope with.

Triggering a device out of curiosity can leave you watching your avatar being stripped, bound, gagged, penetrated and displayed. If you have a strong identification with your avatar, and this positioning was not your intention, and beyond the sort of thing you yourself are comfortable with, this could be quite distressing.


If we actively encourage students to enter Second Life, do we owe them any safeguards or warnings - and if we do, can we provide these without seeming to want to limit or censor?

Flick'r, Photos and Images

This is Oscar, the Jack Russel that shares my house with myself and Achara my rottweiler.

I love the Flick'r site and am amazed at how many talented photographers there are out there. It is interesting to see the different paranoia level of people, some have absolutely everything marked private, and others are happy to have photos of their kids in the bath on-line for everyone to see. I have already used Flick'r to put up photos for my family to see - really exciting things like my garden and new shed and I am happy to put Oscar up - but don't think I'd put any photos of myself or my human family.

Podcamp photos are up and available for all to see, and I can see that many uses for Flick'r - but I think the privacy issue is a big one. I am amazed at how thoroughly some people document their lives - nothing can happen without it being recorded on a blog, wiki or by photos on Flick'r. This raises issues for people whose lives intersect with those committed to this documentation. If I go to a conference, do I have the right to refuse to have my photo on the conference's Flick'r site? I have only been asked by one company (and the fact it was a commerical conference may be significant here) if I would object to my photo being put up. Other people happily put up photos taken at public events, and don't think of it as any sort of invasion of privacy against those that appear, sometimes without knowing, in those photos.

I think you also have to be aware of the rights you declare on your Flick'r photos. I am sure most of us have heard the story of the girl who put up a photo of herself whispering with a friend, and found herself appearing in a Virgin Phone ad with the caption "Virgin to Virgin" under her photo. She had put her photo up as "public domain" so anyone had the right to use it anyway they wanted. Virgin broke no laws and she didn't have any legal recourse, but it has become a cautionary tale for Flick'r users.

Copyright is a big issue with things on Flick'r. Some people have very generously giving up all rights to their stuff and made them part of the public domain. A number of people have done this will photos of alphabetic characters (also called letters ;) ). I used some of these to do the JSTOR title for my last presentation. I was happy with the way it turned out and think the letter collections on Flick'r are a great resource.