Blogging

Pivot looks cool. It’s like WordPress et al, but apparently doesn’t need a back-end database. Hmm… where do the posts go? Not sure. But I’m throwing it out nonetheless.

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fishing_6_pb
Originally uploaded by davidking.

I’m testing out image posting. Sorry!

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Karen Schneider has posted about blogging ethics - very interesting reading, especially the two links to lists of potential “blogging ethics” that bloggers might want to follow. The whole “blogging ethics” thing is an interesting concept, though difficult at best to implement in any formal fashion, since anyone with a PC and a web connection can post whatever to their heart’s content. But it could be implemented in the seeting she’s interested in - that of the bloggers who plan to blog for PLA.

I’m going to comment on something Karen mentioned in the beginning of her post, and has mentioned in previous posts, because I think this concept is something that bloggers need to get their heads around before moving on to a discussion of blogging ethics. Karen says “Too many of us want to be considered serious citizen-journalists, when it suits us” … I even claimed this in a previous post .

Let me clarify a little bit (practicing the blog ethics concept of correcting misinformation :-). I don’t see my blog or other library blogs as replacing cnn.com - they serve two very different purposes. Using my blog as an example, here’s my stated purpose (lame though it might be): “cool stuff about library web sites … and whatever else I decide to post.” Here’s what I do: I read other blogs, articles, books, etc., mostly focused on web technology. When I see something interesting and useful, something I think other library web techies would be interested in, I post it to my blog. I comment on it - try to take an idea further, stretch non-library web products into a library setting, etc. And I might post my own web-related thoughts when they occur and seem interesting, too. The goal could be stated as being in two places at one time - if you didn’t see something interesting, maybe I did. Two people can cover more ground in keeping up with web-related information than one person.

Is that being a citizen journalist? Well… yeah, kinda sorta. Googling the term “journalist” gives these two definitions, among others: 1. “one who keeps a journal” and 2. “The conductor of a public journal.” I fit both of those. But I think Karen is thinking more about the other definitions given - “one whose occupation is journalism” and “one whose business it is to write for a public journal … or other professional writer for a periodical.”

I don’t meet all those criteria. I’m not paid to blog, and it’s not my “business” (although Gary Price might fall into this category). But then again, my blog could be called a “public journal.” Could it be that this is a new medium of communication? What do you get when you mix a diary, niche information, a trade publication, notes, an email, an IM, and a converstion together, and then stick it on a website? Answer: a blog.

My point here? Blogs (library-related blogs, anyway) are just similar enough to traditional media (I’m thinking trade publications, or at least posts on trade publication websites) to be confused with actually being traditional media. But a blog is also very different from traditional media - for example, my blog doesn’t pass through any editorial channels. This is happening with other forms of media as well - I can post my own music on the web without having to pass through a record label; I can create a movie and post it on the web without having to pass through a movie studio; I can write a book and post it to the web (like Lawrence Lessig did with his latest book). Etc. This is a great thing - other professionals can access my blog, and “subscribe” to it if they find it useful. Sure, having no form of editorial board could also be a bad thing - but I’m not posting about brain surgery, either. If someone doesn’t find my blog useful, they can ignore it. Any discussion of what should be done when bad information is posted to a blog should really cover that concept for the whole web - not blogs alone.

Here are two other examples. LISNews is great at posting interesting library-related news. So that’s sorta traditional (except that you don’t have to wait for a monthly print publication to keep up-to-date on library news). But TeleRead isn’t very traditional at all: that blog is very focused on niche information (e-books). TeleRead includes information on new e-book products, comments on those products, observations on ebooks, etc. No traditional media is going to be that focused. At the least, it wouldn’t be profitable enough to sustain.

So… where does that leave us? Am I a citizen-journalist? Not really. I’m participating in a new medium of communication that resembles some aspects of aspects of traditional journalism, but is very different in many ways, too. How’s that sound? Am I going in the right direction with this? Feedback is always good

Looking back at the early 1900s, I wonder if someone debated whether or not letter writing and phone calling were similar or different?

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How cool is this? Michael Stephens library was mentioned in the New York Times (login is required)… no, not just his library, but the BLOGS his library has set up!

The article goes on to mention lots of other cool, on-the-edge types of library technology. I thought it’d be fun to list them all out and do a comparison of who is using what the article mentioned… so here we go:

1. ebooks (we have them through netLibrary)
2. Downloadable ebooks (not yet, although we’ve talked about it)
3. Blogs (we have them)
4. Created a “my library account” feature - Richmond Public Library is mentioned, with ways to track favorite books for individuals… wow. (not really - our ILS does some of this)
5. receiving book passages by email and holding discussions on them… (partially through the BookLetters service) (We do use Chapter-A-Day to email book excerpts… does that count?)
6. Chat services (QuestionPoint and tutor.com were mentioned, although they called them IM tools, which they’re not)(we have chat reference)
7. Networked video games (no. But an extremely cool idea.)
8. Wireless hot spots (got em)

OK - so what’s missing from this list? WiKi’s? True IM? Federated searching? What else? Let me know, and I’ll include it.

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Karen Schneider had some interesting things to say about bloggers being, well… bloggers at Internet Librarian 2004. Mainly concerning the observation that they might not be listening as well as they should be, and that their blogging might not be terribly courteous.

Here’s my take on it (speaking as a presenter who had bloggers in attendance):

1. Not so much with personal blogging, but for the more focused bloggers, I see them as the new grassroots press. they provide instant feedback to conferences, seminars, and even the general “feel” of the conference. You can know what’s going on even without being there, which is cool. And like bloggers during this last presidential election, they can sometimes upstage the “traditional” press (in this case, the IL report that’ll most likely run in Information Today in the upcoming weeks).

Plus, there’s the whole excitement aspect. Bloggers aren’t blogging the stuff that bores them - they’re writing about what excites them, or as Michael Stephens says “that rocks!” You can lose something in the translation if you don’t “write it down” while the excitement is still there.

2. Dissemination (sp?): I think it’s way cool to get instant thoughts from a topic, rather than waiting a week or two or three… or never. I’d really rather have people share than not. There will be many attendees who do go back and share what they learned, but in internal staff meetings. It’s great to also see and read attendees thoughts in the open web.

3. Attendees already take notes. Why not take them on a laptop? And if they happen to blog, why not post those notes? If they’re taking notes anyway, posting those notes just takes a click - it’s no more disruptive than people quietly typing or scribbling on a legal pad (or in my case, on a PDA). Shoot - my blog started as a place I could post info so I wouldn’t forget it - sort of a customized, summarized bookmarks page of my own (that I could access at work or home).

4. The Younger Generation - They’re here, and they plan to stay. Thankfully! They IM, they SMS, they chat on cell phones, they blog. These are things they just do - it’s all part of their social structure, sort of like nudging your friend at a seminar or raising your eyebrows during an eye-opening point. The younger folks nudges just happen to be done electronically.

Stephen Abrams wrote a great article in the Nov/dec issue of Multimedia & Internet Schools about how schools tend to teach up-and-coming workers yesterday’s technology. Some examples were: not typing when he was a kid (you’ll have a secretary to do your typing); Too much emphasis on typing for his kids (they’re going to be inputting info in many ways, not just on a large keyboard); etc. These “kids” are growing up and becoming librarians, and they have brought their cell phones, their Treos, their IMs and their SMS gadgets with them and EXPECT to use them! Why should it be any different at a library conference?

I look at bloggers in my talks as instant feedback - they more they type, blog, and even photograph me (thanks, Steven), the more I know I’m doing a good job of presenting.

Please keep it up!

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Skybox by Jay Rosen: Knight Ridder Election 2004

Interesting article about how “the blogosphere” has successfully taken on the current media… and is winning at it.

This reminded me heavily of how internet based news really flourished during the whole Clinton scandal - you went to the web if you wanted up-to-date information.

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