Inviting Participation in Web 2.0

Posted on January 3, 2007
Filed Under Digital Space, Library 2.0, Web 2.0 |

The last few weeks, an idea has been slowly forming in my head - one that I’ll call inviting participation. David, what do you mean - inviting participation? Well… let me tell you.

A big chunk of web 2.0 has to do with different forms of participation. You can see this in the large, popular, user-created-content sites like myspace, flickr, or youtube - those sites depend on participation (i.e., content creators freely give away their creations) for their very survival. Even Time Magazine noticed this phenomenon, and named YOU as the person of the year for 2006 - all because you (i.e., we, i.e., me) are crazy content creators! Who knew?

I’ve also heard librarians discussing the same concept in the library community. In library-related articles, blog posts, and presentations I’ve attended and/or read this past year, the presenters/writers have been saying that Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 are all about starting conversations, building community, and telling our stories. But the writer/presenter tends to skip over what I think is the most important part - they never explain how to do it. Instead, they continue on with the next Powerpoint slide or paragraph (and believe me, I’m extremely guilty of this too, so all fingerpointing is aimed at me!).

For the most part, no one has actually explained HOW to start conversations, HOW to build community digitally, and HOW to tell your story in the digital space. In essence, how to invite participation using web 2.0 tools.

Here are two examples that illustrate what I mean by inviting participation. My first example goes back to this past summer when I did that song and video about web 2.0, Are You Blogging This. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that song invited a type of participation - a passive invitation to participate. Though I didn’t ask anyone specifically to do anything, the title of my song, Are You Blogging This?, apparently did - and people responded to the invitation! It’s one of my most popular posts to date, I have received 26 comments on my original blog post so far, and the video has been watched over 4000 times (3000 on YouTube, 1000 on blip.tv). But more importantly, the video was mentioned on other peoples blogs, too - usually with the blogger saying something like “Yes, David, I AM blogging this.”

My second example goes back a week or two when I was having trouble with my blog. I posted to my blog, asking readers to do two things for me: 1. leave a comment saying you saw my post, and 2. tell me what rss reader you’re using. And you guys did! I received 45 comments (and let me tell you, y’all use a WIDE VARIETY of RSS readers - wow!). That post is a great example of what I’ll call an active invitation to participate.

Here’s what I plan to do with my next few blog posts: I will talk about how libraries can invite participation in the digital space - how we can send digital invitations to our customers and invite them to the digital table to share “their stories” with us.

And - most importantly - I want YOU to participate! That’ll make this series of articles that much more fun, and you have some great ideas to share, I’m sure (you DID win that Time Person of the Year Award and all, so you must really know your stuff). Please feel free to chime in - agree, disagree, mention things I didn’t think of, etc - try out this participation stuff.

Next up:

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Comments

28 Responses to “Inviting Participation in Web 2.0”

  1. What I Learned Today… » Blog Archive » Inviting Participation on January 3rd, 2007 1:13 pm

    [...] David Lee King has a great post (a series to follow) on Inviting Participation in Web 2.0. I’ve attended and/or read this past year, the presenters/writers have been saying that Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 are all about starting conversations, building community, and telling our stories. But the writer/presenter tends to skip over what I think is the most important part - they never explain how to do it. Instead, they continue on with the next Powerpoint slide or paragraph… [...]

  2. Inviting Participation « Life as I Know It on January 3rd, 2007 8:30 pm

    [...] Inviting Participation Participation is one of the key tenets of Web 2.0 - and thus, of Library 2.0. I, personally, have been amazed at the success of ventures like Wikipedia - which owes is existence to wide participation. I’ve always been rather curious about what actually motivates people to participate in online arenas - and what makes a particular sites inviting over others. As such, I was quite intrigued by David Lee King’s blog post on the topic - Invitation Participation to Web 2.0. He writes: “For the most part, no one has actually explained HOW to start conversations, HOW to build community digitally, and HOW to tell your story in the digital space. In essence, how to invite participation using web 2.0 tools.” It is easy to be dissatisfied with what we have, but not so easy to figure out how to make things better. [...]

  3. joshua m. neff on January 4th, 2007 12:53 pm

    I think this is a great idea, David! I’m all for practical applications of theory and bringing the abstract down to the specific.

  4. John Evans on January 4th, 2007 4:25 pm

    David,

    Here’s a way one might start some sharing. I found LibraryThing http://www.librarything.com/ via Alan Levine’s Cog Dog Blog http://cogdogblog.com/2007/01/03/librarything/.

    It looks like a good social networking site for sharing books similar to Del.icio.us for websites.

    Looking forward to reading more about your participation ideas.

    John

  5. David Lee King » Blog Archive » Inviting Participation, Part 2: Passive Invitations on January 5th, 2007 12:46 am

    [...] etc « Inviting Participation in Web 2.0 [...]

  6. The Murky Waters of Participation & Politeness « Life as I Know It on January 9th, 2007 5:13 pm

    [...] The Murky Waters of Participation & Politeness In reaction to David Lee King’s recent blog post Inviting Participation in Web 2.0, I have been pondering the concept of participation, ways to encourage it and questioning how much participation we can really expect. What exactly are we looking for in terms of participation - not just in the library 2.0 world, but also within the the library blogging community? Are we looking for participation on the scale of Wikipedia, LibraryThing or something much smaller? Can we expect things from patrons that we don’t give? While thinking about participation and what it means, I read Mark Lindner’s A rant and some hopes for the Carnival of the Infosciences. The post is really an entreaty to LIS bloggers to participate in the carnival lest it be disbanded due to lack of participation. [...]

  7. David Lee King » Blog Archive » Inviting Participation: Active Invitations on January 10th, 2007 11:37 am

    [...] This is part 3 of my Inviting Participation in Web 2.0 series of articles. [...]

  8. David Lee King » Blog Archive » Inviting Participation, Part 3: Active Invitations on January 10th, 2007 11:39 am

    [...] This is part 3 of my Inviting Participation in Web 2.0 series of articles. [...]

  9. Information Wants To Be Free » Blog Archive » Creating participation in the wiki world on January 14th, 2007 9:47 pm

    [...] Inviting Participation in Web 2.0 [...]

  10. David Lee King » Blog Archive » Inviting Participation, Part 4: Specific Tools - Blogs on January 17th, 2007 2:01 pm

    [...] This is part 4 of my Inviting Participation in Web 2.0 series of articles. [...]

  11. taly weiss on January 24th, 2007 8:49 am

    great work,
    You really know how to motivate to action,
    Good luck
    Taly Weiss,
    Social psychologist

  12. Carnival of the Infosciences #53 (finally) at LIS :: Michael Habib on January 25th, 2007 11:23 pm

    [...] & Politeness, Jennifer at “Life as I Know It”, reflects on David Lee King’s post Inviting Participation in Web 2.0 in light of Mark Lindner’s post A rant and some hopes for the Carnival of the Infosciences. I [...]

  13. David Lee King » Blog Archive » Inviting Participation, Part 4: Specific Tools - MySpace on January 30th, 2007 8:37 am

    [...] is part 5 of my Inviting Participation in Web 2.0 series of [...]

  14. David Lee King » Blog Archive » Inviting Participation, Part 5: Specific Tools - MySpace on January 30th, 2007 8:38 am

    [...] is part 5 of my Inviting Participation in Web 2.0 series of [...]

  15. PascalK on January 30th, 2007 10:55 am

    Funny :
    we’re doing the same thing at the same time :
    http://bibliotheque20.wordpress.com/2007/01/29/montez-une-bibliotheque-20-pour-les-nuls/
    The title of the ten posts to come are :
    “How to build a Library 2.0 - for Dummies”
    ie : No cash & no IT litteracy required!!
    ;-D
    Cheers !

  16. info bunny » Blog Archive » Inviting participation in Web 2.0 on February 11th, 2007 4:39 pm

    [...] Link [...]

  17. 烂泥巴的园子 » Blog Archive » Inviting Participation on February 25th, 2007 1:24 pm

    [...] Inviting Participation in Web 2.0 [...]

  18. Tasarim on June 1st, 2007 2:39 pm

    Thanks for helpful information you catch up us with your instructional explenation.

    What people do is more important that what they say…

    Best regards

  19. La canción de la web 2.0 | Los blogs de mediotiempo.com on June 10th, 2007 11:26 pm

    [...] en eCuaderno la canción de la web 2.0, "Are you blogging this?" hecha por David Lee, y que ilustra claramente lo que hacemos en la llamada web 2.0.    Aquí un poco de [...]

  20. Copyright vs Creative Commons on Library Websites : David Lee King on June 16th, 2007 9:55 am

    [...] a small way to encourage your customers to start conversations - remember my Inviting Participation [...]

  21. Valintino on June 24th, 2007 3:09 pm

    Hello, Your site is great. Regards, Valintino Guxxi

  22. davidleeking on June 25th, 2007 2:22 pm

    Valintino - thanks!

  23. kapi on June 27th, 2007 7:48 pm

    thanks

  24. Web 2.0 » Blog Archives » … caught up with a story from Australia on August 8th, 2007 9:53 pm

    [...] A big chunk of web 2.0 has to do with different forms of participation. … they continue on with the next Powerpoint slide or paragraph (and believe me, … Read [...]

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  26. Kurye on October 24th, 2007 11:35 am

    Escuse me my english is bad. Bu yararlı bilgiler için site yayıncısına teşekkür ederim.

  27. the goblin in the library › Inviting Discussion on December 10th, 2007 11:17 am

    [...] by David Lee King’s series of posts on “Inviting Participation,” I wrote a post for MPOW’s public blog in which I raised issues about [...]

  28. effinglibrarian on January 10th, 2008 7:45 am

    here is my invitation for others to participate on my blog: “apply the rules for being a sexy librarian to the video of the hand puppet: would you help (or not help) both patrons equally? If not, why not.”
    at http://effinglibrarian.blogspot.com/2008/01/im-sorry-thats-video-of-what.html

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