Social Networking

Andy Carvin, National Public Radio

Dang, it just dawned on me who this guy is - he’s a videoblogger!

andycarvin.com/complibraries.ppt

Traditional Media production:
until recently, to produce content for a large audience you needed to be a … publisher, broadcaster, billboard owner, etc…

Enter stage left: web 1.0 - most people read the net instead of producing for it, because producers needed: html coding skills, programming skills, graphic design skills, etc

Today: web 2.0 - the new stuff has come out

social software and the democratization of content… flickr, youtube - awesome - he mentioned blip.tv and videoblogging

common thread: online communities where people are actively encouraged to use and share each other’s original content

content production: all the cool kids are doing it:
48 million americans have posted content online
1 in 12 internet users publish a blog
1 in 4 have shared original content
young people more likely to post content
race, income, education less of a factor
latinos, african americans slightly more likely to post online content than whites
(from Pew Internet & AMerican Life Project)

Most famous example - blogs - talked a little about them - said blogging is “fill-out-a-form publishing” - that’s a great way to describe it

why are media outlets embracing web 2.0?
improving journalistic transparency
creating a public dialogue
tapping into public knowledge and creativity
new collaborative opportunities with affiliates
maybe it’s profitable, too?

Open Piloting - something NPR is doing
inviting the public to help create new broadcast programming
sharing rough drafts of shows before they’re ready for prime time
a focus group, but everyone’s welcome
gave examples of Rough Cuts and Bryant Park

Radio Open Source radioopensource.org…
a blog with a radio show…
invites users to submit, debate program ideas
users recommend guests, questions
ask users to participate on-air

bbc have your say (another show)
centralized forum for discussing news
They allow people to rate other’s comments - that’s cool
Then, BBC uses those comments elsewhere on the site - they pepper their official stories with the highly rated user comments

CNN iPreport
partnered with blip.tv
citizen journalism - asks users to submit photos, video for specific stories
very best clips included on air
other highlights archived in an online gallery
published early video from VT shooting - via a cell phone video

hmm… can public libraries do this? Ask customers to take photos and video of local newsish events, and publish them somewhere on the library’s website? And then pepper that with books and videos that customers can check out… that’s related to the customer stories? That’d be pretty neat.

USA Today
embedded social networking across site
not balkanized to a special section
users can comment on any story
comments featured on homepage, elsewhere
syndicating blogs from around the internet

OhmyNews - Korean online news service
publishes in korean, english, and japanese
dedicates 20% of its space to citizen journalists
invites public to submit content as volunteers
ones that submit consistently get paid

Global Voices - example of alternative to mainstream media that the mainstream media is now using

VoteGuide
Berkeley journalism students created blog and aggregator for California’s 11th congressional district
pilot project for larger national project

Minnesota E-Debate
candidates submitted text, video, voicemail
public rated responses, posted comments
users uploaded content about it and tagged it
result - dozens of podcasts, 100 videos, hundreds of photos, text comments
could be replicated nationally in 2008

NewAssignment.net
provide a platform for pro and amateur journalists to collaborate on stories together
collaborating with Wired news
developing endowment to pay pro journalists, cover expenses of amateur journalists

cil2007

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Alane Wilson, OCLC

The network is community.

Harris Interactive conducted the research for them on this project…

Played a video made from ALA Midwinter’s OCLC preconference meeting

Data snippets:

How many years have you been using the internet? Librarians far exceed everyone else’s use. We started with things like gopher, Mosaic, etc - most users haven’t

The culture of paper…
Librarians have a different culture of reading - we read way more than the general population

Librarian’s reading has increased more than the general population.

Do you have a current library card?
Partly a cultural thing - US has more library card holders than in France or Germany

Librarians do all the librarian stuff more - ILL, read, check out, etc… we do it much more than our general populations. So possibly we are designing spaces that WE like, rather than what our users would actually like. Hmm…

Librarians use chat rooms, IM less than the general populations

We read blogs more

Younger librarians do IM more than older librarians… (she has actual data to support that, rather than just guessing)

Our needs for privacy haven’t caught up with technology.

Privacy also means anonymity.

We want privacy when it affects us - not so much when it affects others.

When buying stuff online, we give away personal info - librarians do this moreso. In a retail environment, librarians are comfortable giving away personal info.

But in social networking groups, we are not very comfortable doing this. Japanese (people in general? just librarians? Not sure here) NEVER tell some info (religious or sexual preferences were mentioned).

We don’t like to share what we have checked out.

Hmm… she urged all libraries to display the library bill of rights prominently, so patrons know what we do with their data. I’m not sure I agree with that - I do think patrons probably want to know we don’t do bad things with their information… but I also don’t think patrons would read the Library Bill of Rights if it were prominently displayed - to me, that sounds more like a “librarianish” thing to do, much like posting the Dewey subject headings… patrons really don’t care about that, and don’t understand if we DO post that type of thing.

cil2007

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Meredith Farkas

I’m in the overflow room - coolness.

defined social software (missed it)

Easy content creation and sharing

Online collaboration - she’s used Googled documents and wikis to work with colleagues - collaborate in a single shared space

conversations: distributed - used blogpulse as an example - it shows commenting

Conversations: Real TIme - IM

Capitalizing on the Wisdom of Crowds - using del.icio.us, tagging, etc to see what others have found interesting

ALA Chicago 2005 wiki - hundreds of librarians contributed to this wiki! It was an amazing way to collect knowledge from a diverse group of people

Transparency - we can share real stuff - what we’re passionate about. You can also give reviews of things - good or bad

Personalization

Portability - the whole mobile web thing

What can social software do for libraries?
disseminate information - push info to students about new databases, new studies, anything of interest to your users. Book/video recommendation. Do it via rss. RSS in catalog - subject searches. Use del.icio.us to collect web links by topic. Podcasting, too.

Get feedback! Start a conversation! aadl.org as an example. They leave their comments open and answer them quickly. Good point - this way, others, both staff and customers, can see everyone’s comments, can comment on those, etc - it starts a great conversation.

Give the library a human face: flickr - showed LaGrange Park Library’s flickr feed - they photo all library events, end up showing people having fun at the library. Blogs - conversations on a human level. SJCPL writes blog posts in a conversational tone, which humanizes the digital library experience.

Providing services to remote users: IM rather than VR. IM is a tool students already use, so use it rather than VR. Screencasting - a way to teach how to use something.

Providing services where our users are: myspace… Brooklyn College Library is providing a MySpace portal to theri library, including links to their databases, calendar of events, a news blog, etc - really using MySpace to provide library services. Cool. MeeboMe widget - easy access to IM on your website. SMS messaging - consider this as a way to do this via cell phones. SIMS Memorial Library has a text-a-librarian service. Text messages go to librarian’s email, gets sent back to cell phone.

Capitalize on the collective intelligence of colleagues and users: amazon as an example - customers who bought… also bought… some libraries have added tagging into their catalogs. AADL’s users who checked out this also checked out this - an amazon-like service. Hennepin County Library has added customer commenting into their library’s catalog. Wikis… using collective intelligence.

Strategies for Implementing:
Avoid technolust. Think about the needs first. What’s lacking at your library? Then work from that.
Will it improve library services? Will patrons use it?
Involve staff at all levels in planning
Please include IT in planning! Oh yeah! (I’d add that that one goes both ways)
Play with technology! Kick the tires! That’s the only way you’ll learn new tools.
Trust your patrons. Learn from them.
Consider Maintenance and Sustainability - Showed a blog that hasn’t been updated in 2 years
Do you need a policy?
Marketing - focus on the functionality. Don’t say “we have a blog!” Instead, say “We have a new books list.” - focus on what you’re giving the patron.

Her book cover contest… announced the winners.

cil2007

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Update - take time to browse through the comments on this post. They’re that good. So far, comments include one person who agrees with the board,  someone trying to compromise, much wondering aloud about what the library plans to censor next, discussion about the futility of censoring a single social networking site, one person who seemed to find the censoring a bigoted act, and even one anonymous Wake County employee. Wow.

First, read the story (found via LISNews).

The Wake County Board of Commissioners has decided “all public computers will now be banned” from visiting MySpace, because MySpace is apparently an “attractive nuisance.” The county “may start censoring other ‘nuisance’ websites on the web in a few months.”

Here’s what the Board states on their Hot Topics page: “Although myspace has many legitimate uses, it also serves as an attractive nuisance for those who gather in the libraries for purposes other than using the resources and collections for recreation, lifelong learning or cultural purposes. Some have used myspace in libraries to recruit gang members, to sell or purchase drugs, or to view or post pornography.”

Second, on Legitimate Uses of MySpace:

The article and the County’s press release page didn’t list legitimate or non-legitimate uses of MySpace - they only claimed that there were both. For kicks, here’s a small list of “legitimate” uses of MySpace:

• Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library
• Brooklyn College Library
• Clark County Public Library
• Sabatini Gallery - an art gallery
• Young Friends of the Kansas City Public Library
• The AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
• Urban Book Group (a book discussion group)
• Lauren, a teen fiction writer
• The Passion (a rock band)
• Desperation Church - a church!

Third: Content Container vs. Actual Content:

MySpace is a content container. The actual content is found on the millions of individual MySpace pages - some not terribly offensive, others pretty offensive to some groups. However, does it make sense to ban the content CONTAINER, when the majority of actual content found in MySpace isn’t terribly offensive? I don’t think so.

Why? Because logically, that argument allows for other content containers to also be banned. Hmm… can you, dear reader, possibly think of other content containers that might contain content that some library customers might find offensive?

HOW ABOUT BOOKS?

No - I don’t really think Wake County wants to ban books. But I also don’t think their decision is ultimately a logical one.

What do you think?

myspace, social networking

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I was chatting with Steven Cohen today, and he suggested something that I asked him about would make a good post. I had actually been thinking about posting it… so I thought “what the heck. If he found it interesting, probably others would, too.”

I asked Steven if he had been “skyped” lately… meaning this. I have Skype installed. Some in my library’s IT department have even found a good use for it - calling our English rep for the z-portal product we’re in the midst of installing (he actually asked us if we used Skype, and I was able to say “Yes!” and look hip in the process).

Anyway, yesterday as I was getting ready to leave for the day, my Skype calling window popped up, and it said that “David King” is calling you. Hmm, I thought - that’s me! So I answered, hoping beyond hope that I wasn’t actually calling myself (it comically reminded me of some silly movie I watched in grade school about a woman meeting herself at the door of some stranger’s house…).

Thankfully, I didn’t call myself. Instead, it was a 25-year-old student from Europe (I think he said Belgium) with a little too much time on his hands. He was browsing through the “Search for Skype Users” list, found someone with the same name (apparently, there are David Kings in Europe), and took it upon himself to call one - namely, me.

Well - being PERFECT STRANGERS to each other, we didn’t really have much to talk about, and we hung up after a few minutes of making small talk. And that leads me to this post about unwanted social networks. A similar thing has happened to me before, when I used to use ICQ. I kept myeslf on the “anyone in the world can contact me” list as an experiment, and lo and behold, people actually contacted me to say hi - usually students with other things to do than homework, wanting to chat. That turned into automated requests for a “date” that ended up pushing 1-900 numbers, so I soon turned off ICQ (and I didn’t really know anyone else using it at the time, anyway).

But now, I’m getting similar things with Skype. Besides the contact mentioned above, I have been contacted by someone in France wanting to practice using her English on someone from America (didn’t answer that one), and have had 4-5 requests for people wanting to add me to their contact list (but not providing a reason WHY they wanted to add me).

Is this good? I’m certainly enjoying keeping up to date and in contact with other library techies. I’m also able to chat with my wife… those are all good. And I love it when other librarians contact me with questions about techie library stuff. But is it good to be interrupted at work by people I don’t know who just want to say Hi because we share the same name? Not so sure about that one.

Possibly my introvertive nature is showing? Or maybe, I don’t mind when people contact me for something I consider to be a real reason, but don’t like it when someone contacts me with something I consider to be a lame reason? Could be.

What do others think? I want to hear someone else talk about this.

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