Hennepin County Library talks about subscribing to our 'free' RSS feeds which indicates that maybe sometime in the future there will be a charge for this. Or maybe user's expect to pay for this service already and the library is using the wording to encourage users to subscribe.
I set up a feed from this library's catalogue search page on 'cats' and received the whole page from my screen with both checked in and checked out books. I am not sure why I would want to see the checked in books, but I can understand the seeing when the checked out books were returned. The explanation says that the RSS feeds alerts the user to the books as soon as they become available in the library.. so why would I see those that are presently available.. maybe I am missing something. The subject guides are an impressive list and link to some interesting websites regardless of the RSS feeds.
The Kansas City Public Library also offers RSS feeds to 47 subject guides which are useful in keeping up to date with relevant information. I subscribed to one on new books about Women and there were only 3 items in the feed. It seems that if libraries are posting new books to these feeds then somewhere in the processing of the books, someone is categorizing it under one of the subject headings and new book listings. This is especially apparent for the Tacoma Public Library where I subscribed to the feed on biographies and received 124 items immediately. However, I returned to the feed to check them again and they had disappeared. So I am not sure where they went. This practice of posting new titles as an RSS feed must prove to be a lot of extra work for staff. The list for the new arrivals by category for Tacoma Public Library is very long and one needs to be very selective before subscribing to the RSS feeds. The library also makes this information available online for those who do not wish to use the feeds.
The North Harris Montgomery Community College has set up a series of RSS feeds for students to access journals and keep current on new articles of interest. I could not test this as it is only available to students of the college.
The University of Oklahoma offers RSS feeds for new books based on the library of congress classification subject headings. Users can chose more specific subjects within each broad category. This way of providing information about new books especialy in a university setting makes for a very efficient use of time for both students and staff who usually research only their topics and would waste too much time looking at the 'normal' new book lists where a lot of information would be of no interest to them.
As shown here all types of libraries are using social software more and more to bring information out to the community by setting up blogs with broad community information and also by using RSS feeds to include lists of subject guides and new books. In both cases the search for information must be initiated by the user. In the former on a continual basis by going to the library blog and in the latter only once to set up the feed which is then in control of the provider, the library.
Libraries will continue to be proactive in offering RSS feeds and it will be interesting to see how many users subscribe to receiving information in this format. As the technology increases, the number of users may decrease as they reach the satiation limit of more and more technology and an unwillingness to conquer yet another innovation.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
More on RSS
Working at the National Research Council this summer in Ottawa, the 'Information Specialists' (reference librarians) frequently set up 'alerts' for new scientific information in the databases they search mostly. When anything new is added to the database from a journal, the librarian will receive an alert sent to their e-mail indicating that there is something of potential interest to their clients. Rosenberger mentions this in his RSS tutorial and notes that Ebsco and ProQuest provides this service. Steve Cohen emphasises that to 'perform our jobs to the best of our abilities, currency is the key' and this is one way to stay on top of content retrieval and provide the best service to the clients.
It is obvious that the sites that have not yet supported RSS feeds will be left behind in the business world and need to get on the 'bandwagon' to keep up with the 'pack'. Cohen also says that the news aggregators need to be smarter and mentions the 'information overload' being a problem. This comment was supported by my previous blog where I guess I was being a little cynical about RSS feeds. Some news tracking services use keywords to limit the amount of information and Cohen stresses that the feeds will need to be more focuses if RSS is to remain competitive as a 'content delivery method'.
J.D. Lasica talks about the RSS technology being part of the 'push wave' that is based 'on technology, money and a receptive public' and coming from the online publishers. They know that people don' t always return to their sites every day and to ensure that their information is reaching the consumers they provide the RSS feeds for eager subscribers.
I found Robin Good's list of the postive and negative aspects of RSS over the traditional e-mail to be very useful and clarified some aspects that I was not too sure about. I see now the advantages of e-mail newsletters now being sent by RSS directly the user instead of being bounced back by regular e-mail as they are considered 'spam'. However, personal e-mail still has a place in our inboxes of our e-mail or is that slowly being replaced by 'Facebook?'
It is obvious that the sites that have not yet supported RSS feeds will be left behind in the business world and need to get on the 'bandwagon' to keep up with the 'pack'. Cohen also says that the news aggregators need to be smarter and mentions the 'information overload' being a problem. This comment was supported by my previous blog where I guess I was being a little cynical about RSS feeds. Some news tracking services use keywords to limit the amount of information and Cohen stresses that the feeds will need to be more focuses if RSS is to remain competitive as a 'content delivery method'.
J.D. Lasica talks about the RSS technology being part of the 'push wave' that is based 'on technology, money and a receptive public' and coming from the online publishers. They know that people don' t always return to their sites every day and to ensure that their information is reaching the consumers they provide the RSS feeds for eager subscribers.
I found Robin Good's list of the postive and negative aspects of RSS over the traditional e-mail to be very useful and clarified some aspects that I was not too sure about. I see now the advantages of e-mail newsletters now being sent by RSS directly the user instead of being bounced back by regular e-mail as they are considered 'spam'. However, personal e-mail still has a place in our inboxes of our e-mail or is that slowly being replaced by 'Facebook?'
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
I know what I want, and I want it now!
Reading and thinking about the whole RSS experience brings to mind a parallel activity that I usually do support my reading habit..that is reading of books. My practice is to read reviews and from there search the library catalogue for what I am interested in and either add the title to a 'My List' feature or directly reserve the title and ask the library to send it to my nearest branch.
I do very little browsing of the shelves in a library now and go directly to the titles that interest me and place a hold.
I see simimilarities in the world of RSS where fewer users actually browse for information on websites and instead go directly to the information or links of interest and organise a delivery method which is convenient to them.
Robin Good asks 'is e-mail publishing dead?' and I would ask instead is the website approaching it's demise, or the well designed and interesting website? Why would web designers place any emphasis on creating an attactive websites when many users are only interested in headlines and getting to their information as fast as they can and no longer taking any time to browse a site or explore and go off on a tangent to somewhere unplanned ?
To support the busy lives of users of people, they are only concerned with receiving exactly what they want as efficiently as possible. They do not want to be bothered with erroneous information and time wasting irrelevancies. They need it now and and only the exact information that they want. While I can see the importance of this in the business world, where time is money, I am not so sure that this is where many other users want to be.
From my own limited experience with RSS feeds to the Google aggregator I can sense a pressure to visit this site and read all the feeds that are arriving daily. I do not do this as I don't have the time, but the information is there building and building daily as I have set it up to do.
For many users who subscribe to many RSS feeds, I can see a pressure to read everything that is sent, after all, that is what they are interested in and have organised to happen and need to stay current and on top of the latest news. I don't know the practice of the subscribers of many feeds, but maybe they are selective in their reading, but then why subscribe to something that they are not going to read.
I do not want to be seen as criticising the practice of those receiving many RSS feeds, but I just wanted to step back and look at it from a distance and see it as part of the speeding up of 'life' especially in this age where there is no way that most of us can keep up with the daily advances of technology. The Internet is so vast that any way to pick and chose information of interest is an enormous time saver but lets hope that there will still be a way to take the 'scenic route'!
I do very little browsing of the shelves in a library now and go directly to the titles that interest me and place a hold.
I see simimilarities in the world of RSS where fewer users actually browse for information on websites and instead go directly to the information or links of interest and organise a delivery method which is convenient to them.
Robin Good asks 'is e-mail publishing dead?' and I would ask instead is the website approaching it's demise, or the well designed and interesting website? Why would web designers place any emphasis on creating an attactive websites when many users are only interested in headlines and getting to their information as fast as they can and no longer taking any time to browse a site or explore and go off on a tangent to somewhere unplanned ?
To support the busy lives of users of people, they are only concerned with receiving exactly what they want as efficiently as possible. They do not want to be bothered with erroneous information and time wasting irrelevancies. They need it now and and only the exact information that they want. While I can see the importance of this in the business world, where time is money, I am not so sure that this is where many other users want to be.
From my own limited experience with RSS feeds to the Google aggregator I can sense a pressure to visit this site and read all the feeds that are arriving daily. I do not do this as I don't have the time, but the information is there building and building daily as I have set it up to do.
For many users who subscribe to many RSS feeds, I can see a pressure to read everything that is sent, after all, that is what they are interested in and have organised to happen and need to stay current and on top of the latest news. I don't know the practice of the subscribers of many feeds, but maybe they are selective in their reading, but then why subscribe to something that they are not going to read.
I do not want to be seen as criticising the practice of those receiving many RSS feeds, but I just wanted to step back and look at it from a distance and see it as part of the speeding up of 'life' especially in this age where there is no way that most of us can keep up with the daily advances of technology. The Internet is so vast that any way to pick and chose information of interest is an enormous time saver but lets hope that there will still be a way to take the 'scenic route'!
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Finally the 'real' librarian exposed to the world!
From reading the articles for this week it is obvious that in order to maintain an interesting and inviting blog there are certain guidelines that need to be adhered to. All four authors of the articles, Scout, Neilson, Schneider and Blood stress the importance of establishing rules that need to be followed to post interesting articles and produce a well informed blog with relevant links and one that readers will want to keep re-visiting.
The word 'credibility' was mentioned frequently in the articles and this suggests that many posts and blogs lack credibility and therefore owners of blogs need to affirm the authority of information posted, provide relevant links, stay focused and create a blogging policy and set guidelines which will avoid any bad publicity and protect their credibility.
Above all the blog needs to maintain interest, be informative and provide enjoyment to the reader. Grammer, spelling and punctuation are important and the tone and style of the blog need to develop and remain consistent throughout the blog.
Schneider notes that this is especially important when the blogger is representing a library and is the 'standard bearer' of librarianship for the world.
Darlene Fichter gives some good advice for anyone wishing to start a library blog and advises that the blogger should understand the audience and decide if they would like short newsy items or longer in depth items. Maybe a combination of the two would work the best. The content and scope of the blog needs to be decided especially the key messages. Is the blog trying to promote awareness of the services and resources, encourage use of the virtual library, provide book news and information or is it trying to reach certain community groups?
In the case of the Darien Public Library blogs it seems that all of the above is accomplished.
The blogs are well maintained, interesting, well organised, posted to frequently and come across as a single voice despite being authored by several different staff members. A well developed policy with rules and regulations established and adhered to is the key to a successful library blog. Each person posting to the blogs represents the library in a professional and authoritative manner.
One of the aspects I liked about this blog was that it provided a 'behind the scenes' look at what librarians actually do and posted photos of staff taking part in a fiction collection development
workshop and the use of publisher's catalogues as a tool. Another photo showed a staff member celebrating after she had published an article in Library Journal. There is a general lack of knowledge within the general public as to the roles and responsibilites of librarians and all too often we are seen to be circulation clerks and nothing else. Blogs offer a chance finally to change the view of the stereotypical librarian and bring us all into the twenty first century of the technological age and show the world exactly what are roles are and elevate our expertise to its rightful place.
The Darien library reaches out to the community in many ways from requesting user input for a new identity, posting financial statements on line, reports of staff meetings, photos of trustees and even providing podcasts of interview with various members of the construction crew who are building the new library as well as the architect and town officials.
This blog has the three ingredients that Darlene Fichter emphasized, that of inspiration, motivation and dedication. It is a very interesting blog and extremely informative and makes one want to continue reading and revisiting the site.
The visual layout of the blog is very important and it needs to be appealing. The blog from the Garfield County Public Library is disorganised, unattractive and not very user friendly. It is not apparent who the blog is aimed at and whoever does look at it will not be encouraged to look further especially when they see blurry YouTube pictures on the site. Many of the categories have not been updated since March 2007 and the one that had posted an item which was about Denver Public Library having a countdown to the release of the next Harry Potter book. This is not very informative to the users of the Garfield County Public Library and does not encourage readers to further explore the site. The photo of a railway line going off into the bush seems to be a little strange too.
The next three case studies highlight the new ways that blogs can be used for different purposes. They all appear to be successful in their own way and reach out to a limited audience and clientele.
The Mabry online site is a blog for teachers, staff, students and parents of a particular school. The teachers can post lessons, homework, student accomplishments and activities and events held at the school. Students can set up RSS feeds from particular teachers and keep up to date with posts. It appears that no one can make comments and also anyone reaching the site can read anything posted. There is no login required.
The St. Joseph County Public Library Gameblog is directed towards a very small clientele of the community who play online games. This blog would not be of any interest to anyone not into online gaming. This site does not encourage library visits, does not appear to support the library and does not need to be connected to the library so I am wondering why it is associated with the library.
For anyone contemplating applying to the Virginia Commonwealth University it might be worthwhile to check out this Library suggestion blog. This blog encourages comments and criticisms on various aspects of the library. Most of the comments are negative and criticise the collection, the general untidiness of the library with garbage laying around, the shelves being disorganised and books not being shelved, the unclean bathrooms, the computer and wireless problems and the 'quiet' floors being too noisy. One positive point is that the staff have attempted to reply to each of the comments but must feel overwhelmed at the negativity.
Maybe public libraries could also use this method of blogs to conduct surveys and encourage both positive and negative comments from users. Readers of library blogs can only reply to or make comments on something already posted. However if there was an opportunity for readers to post a comment on a 'free for all' post in which they could log in and voice an opinion on anything library related, this could prove a useful way to uncover any suggestions and problems.
The word 'credibility' was mentioned frequently in the articles and this suggests that many posts and blogs lack credibility and therefore owners of blogs need to affirm the authority of information posted, provide relevant links, stay focused and create a blogging policy and set guidelines which will avoid any bad publicity and protect their credibility.
Above all the blog needs to maintain interest, be informative and provide enjoyment to the reader. Grammer, spelling and punctuation are important and the tone and style of the blog need to develop and remain consistent throughout the blog.
Schneider notes that this is especially important when the blogger is representing a library and is the 'standard bearer' of librarianship for the world.
Darlene Fichter gives some good advice for anyone wishing to start a library blog and advises that the blogger should understand the audience and decide if they would like short newsy items or longer in depth items. Maybe a combination of the two would work the best. The content and scope of the blog needs to be decided especially the key messages. Is the blog trying to promote awareness of the services and resources, encourage use of the virtual library, provide book news and information or is it trying to reach certain community groups?
In the case of the Darien Public Library blogs it seems that all of the above is accomplished.
The blogs are well maintained, interesting, well organised, posted to frequently and come across as a single voice despite being authored by several different staff members. A well developed policy with rules and regulations established and adhered to is the key to a successful library blog. Each person posting to the blogs represents the library in a professional and authoritative manner.
One of the aspects I liked about this blog was that it provided a 'behind the scenes' look at what librarians actually do and posted photos of staff taking part in a fiction collection development
workshop and the use of publisher's catalogues as a tool. Another photo showed a staff member celebrating after she had published an article in Library Journal. There is a general lack of knowledge within the general public as to the roles and responsibilites of librarians and all too often we are seen to be circulation clerks and nothing else. Blogs offer a chance finally to change the view of the stereotypical librarian and bring us all into the twenty first century of the technological age and show the world exactly what are roles are and elevate our expertise to its rightful place.
The Darien library reaches out to the community in many ways from requesting user input for a new identity, posting financial statements on line, reports of staff meetings, photos of trustees and even providing podcasts of interview with various members of the construction crew who are building the new library as well as the architect and town officials.
This blog has the three ingredients that Darlene Fichter emphasized, that of inspiration, motivation and dedication. It is a very interesting blog and extremely informative and makes one want to continue reading and revisiting the site.
The visual layout of the blog is very important and it needs to be appealing. The blog from the Garfield County Public Library is disorganised, unattractive and not very user friendly. It is not apparent who the blog is aimed at and whoever does look at it will not be encouraged to look further especially when they see blurry YouTube pictures on the site. Many of the categories have not been updated since March 2007 and the one that had posted an item which was about Denver Public Library having a countdown to the release of the next Harry Potter book. This is not very informative to the users of the Garfield County Public Library and does not encourage readers to further explore the site. The photo of a railway line going off into the bush seems to be a little strange too.
The next three case studies highlight the new ways that blogs can be used for different purposes. They all appear to be successful in their own way and reach out to a limited audience and clientele.
The Mabry online site is a blog for teachers, staff, students and parents of a particular school. The teachers can post lessons, homework, student accomplishments and activities and events held at the school. Students can set up RSS feeds from particular teachers and keep up to date with posts. It appears that no one can make comments and also anyone reaching the site can read anything posted. There is no login required.
The St. Joseph County Public Library Gameblog is directed towards a very small clientele of the community who play online games. This blog would not be of any interest to anyone not into online gaming. This site does not encourage library visits, does not appear to support the library and does not need to be connected to the library so I am wondering why it is associated with the library.
For anyone contemplating applying to the Virginia Commonwealth University it might be worthwhile to check out this Library suggestion blog. This blog encourages comments and criticisms on various aspects of the library. Most of the comments are negative and criticise the collection, the general untidiness of the library with garbage laying around, the shelves being disorganised and books not being shelved, the unclean bathrooms, the computer and wireless problems and the 'quiet' floors being too noisy. One positive point is that the staff have attempted to reply to each of the comments but must feel overwhelmed at the negativity.
Maybe public libraries could also use this method of blogs to conduct surveys and encourage both positive and negative comments from users. Readers of library blogs can only reply to or make comments on something already posted. However if there was an opportunity for readers to post a comment on a 'free for all' post in which they could log in and voice an opinion on anything library related, this could prove a useful way to uncover any suggestions and problems.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Hear ye! Hear ye! get the latest.......
I was interested in the public library blogs in the case studies and see them as great way to reach out to the community with the latest activities and news about the library and other related subjects. In the case of the Ann Arbor library the director is responsible for the posting to the blog. People will enjoy reading small snippets of information such as is normal for a blog and often don't want to get too involved in the smaller details. By providing just the basics to the reader, this will encourage more readers and a following of existing readers.
The blog for libraries can be likened to a continuous newsletter for anyone who is interested in the latest aquisitions, book news, programming and associated fundraising activities.
In the case of the Madison-Jefferson county library there are many links to anything that is related to the item within certain parameters. It is knowing where to draw these parameters that must be remembered and maintained otherwise users can go off on a tangent and get easily side tracked. In some cases this is good, but if the purpose of the blog is to inform about library activities, then there must be limitations.
The 'Buzz' blog from the Madison-Jefferson county library is very attractive with many colourful graphics and would attract users of all ages to read the posts. There is also a youth and kids 'Buzz' with relevant information for those groups.
Librarians are gradually taking over from the IT department and reclaiming some ares of influence and expertise and making themselves more indispensible than they have possibly been perceived in the recent past. Librarians also need to demonstrate their value to the organisation and need to develop skills to manipulate the social software tools available to them.
Blogs in libraries can also be used for communication inside the library with staff members in any location in the system. Where a library is spread geographically a blog can be a central place for staff to check on any new activity, training or ideas that need to be exchanged.
The Ann Arbor District Library provides numerous links from it's blog to not just the library catalogue, but also people, such as authors and illustrators, publishing companies, local government websites, bands and musicians who will be performing as a library sponsored activity.
In this way the library is giving the users the 'whole picture' with relevant links and allowing the user to go as far as he or she wishes for total information. The blog also provides numerous RSS feeds under a variety of subjects for the users to obtain up to the minute information on new posts.
As for any library procedureI would imagine that there is a policy on the kind of information that is posted to each individual library blog. The staff in charge of the blog need to maintain a certain level of professionalism in the eyes of the users and readers as this form of communication can now be seen as the gateway to the library and as such it must maintain its reputation as a pillar in the community.
The blog for libraries can be likened to a continuous newsletter for anyone who is interested in the latest aquisitions, book news, programming and associated fundraising activities.
In the case of the Madison-Jefferson county library there are many links to anything that is related to the item within certain parameters. It is knowing where to draw these parameters that must be remembered and maintained otherwise users can go off on a tangent and get easily side tracked. In some cases this is good, but if the purpose of the blog is to inform about library activities, then there must be limitations.
The 'Buzz' blog from the Madison-Jefferson county library is very attractive with many colourful graphics and would attract users of all ages to read the posts. There is also a youth and kids 'Buzz' with relevant information for those groups.
Librarians are gradually taking over from the IT department and reclaiming some ares of influence and expertise and making themselves more indispensible than they have possibly been perceived in the recent past. Librarians also need to demonstrate their value to the organisation and need to develop skills to manipulate the social software tools available to them.
Blogs in libraries can also be used for communication inside the library with staff members in any location in the system. Where a library is spread geographically a blog can be a central place for staff to check on any new activity, training or ideas that need to be exchanged.
The Ann Arbor District Library provides numerous links from it's blog to not just the library catalogue, but also people, such as authors and illustrators, publishing companies, local government websites, bands and musicians who will be performing as a library sponsored activity.
In this way the library is giving the users the 'whole picture' with relevant links and allowing the user to go as far as he or she wishes for total information. The blog also provides numerous RSS feeds under a variety of subjects for the users to obtain up to the minute information on new posts.
As for any library procedureI would imagine that there is a policy on the kind of information that is posted to each individual library blog. The staff in charge of the blog need to maintain a certain level of professionalism in the eyes of the users and readers as this form of communication can now be seen as the gateway to the library and as such it must maintain its reputation as a pillar in the community.
Blogs - the connections that bind us
In the short period of six or seven years blogs have evolved from being personal online diaries of interest to a handful of people to a medium for newsbreaking stories of interest to millions.
Online journals were more of interest and use to the writer than the reader in general and as diaries in any medium, provided an outlet for personal commentaries, records of thoughts and quick reflections of the owner's life. They were not of interest to anyone outside of an immediate circle of friends. However it was easy to pour out one's thoughts when you were never sure if anyone would read them. Diaries in any form are therapeutic and form an outlet for pent up feelings and emotions and by recording information this can be emotionally healing.
Rebecca Blood noted that by reading and writing blogs, people gained two important aspects; firstly they realised previously unknown interests and secondly their level of confidance and self esteem increased as they saw readers agreeing with their comments and taking them seriously.
Obviously at this point in time, blogs were for the user and not so much the reader.
According to Catherine Seipp, after September 11, blogs evolved into sites which commented on news stories often with links to criticising the media. Today anyone can have a blog and sites have been set up so that the user does not need to know HTML or any web design knowledge.
Blogs can still be personal, are often opinionated, topic oriented and are often disrespectful.
They still appear to be an outlet for people with strong opinions and who need to tell someone their views on different subjects. Blogs are link based and usually include a blogroll which is a series of links to other sites and blogs. It is not difficult to link and link and forget where you originally began as you go off on many tangents to many different subjects. RSS feeds are an important aspect of blogs and as you post articles on a blog this will be sent to anyone with a who has set up a RSS feed from your blog.
Matt Welch in 2001 coined the phrase 'warblog' and today troops in Afghanistan and Iraq are blogging their experiences. The US government has warned that this activity could prove to be
dangerous to the safety of the troops and could be accessible by the enemy.
Blogs have been the downfall of many people who have written about their personal lives and employment and have lost their jobs as a consequence. It must never be forgotten that what is written on a blog can and might be read by anyone with access to the world wide web.
In 2007, Tim O'Reilly suggested that a code of conduct be written for bloggers. This is for self protection as much as anything and will try and rein in some of the bloggers who feel that anything goes!.
By 2007 it is estimated that over 100 million writers will maintain a blog. However, it is estimated that this year will be a peak for bloggers and many will become bored and abandon their blogs. The phrase 'dotsam and netsam' has been coined for the estimated 200 million blogs which have been abandoned and are 'floating around the web' unwanted and untended.
Blogs have become an important medium for keeping up to date with any organisation or activity that is web based. Many libraries have began posting information on a blog with links to their homepage. I will look at examples of this in my next post.
Online journals were more of interest and use to the writer than the reader in general and as diaries in any medium, provided an outlet for personal commentaries, records of thoughts and quick reflections of the owner's life. They were not of interest to anyone outside of an immediate circle of friends. However it was easy to pour out one's thoughts when you were never sure if anyone would read them. Diaries in any form are therapeutic and form an outlet for pent up feelings and emotions and by recording information this can be emotionally healing.
Rebecca Blood noted that by reading and writing blogs, people gained two important aspects; firstly they realised previously unknown interests and secondly their level of confidance and self esteem increased as they saw readers agreeing with their comments and taking them seriously.
Obviously at this point in time, blogs were for the user and not so much the reader.
According to Catherine Seipp, after September 11, blogs evolved into sites which commented on news stories often with links to criticising the media. Today anyone can have a blog and sites have been set up so that the user does not need to know HTML or any web design knowledge.
Blogs can still be personal, are often opinionated, topic oriented and are often disrespectful.
They still appear to be an outlet for people with strong opinions and who need to tell someone their views on different subjects. Blogs are link based and usually include a blogroll which is a series of links to other sites and blogs. It is not difficult to link and link and forget where you originally began as you go off on many tangents to many different subjects. RSS feeds are an important aspect of blogs and as you post articles on a blog this will be sent to anyone with a who has set up a RSS feed from your blog.
Matt Welch in 2001 coined the phrase 'warblog' and today troops in Afghanistan and Iraq are blogging their experiences. The US government has warned that this activity could prove to be
dangerous to the safety of the troops and could be accessible by the enemy.
Blogs have been the downfall of many people who have written about their personal lives and employment and have lost their jobs as a consequence. It must never be forgotten that what is written on a blog can and might be read by anyone with access to the world wide web.
In 2007, Tim O'Reilly suggested that a code of conduct be written for bloggers. This is for self protection as much as anything and will try and rein in some of the bloggers who feel that anything goes!.
By 2007 it is estimated that over 100 million writers will maintain a blog. However, it is estimated that this year will be a peak for bloggers and many will become bored and abandon their blogs. The phrase 'dotsam and netsam' has been coined for the estimated 200 million blogs which have been abandoned and are 'floating around the web' unwanted and untended.
Blogs have become an important medium for keeping up to date with any organisation or activity that is web based. Many libraries have began posting information on a blog with links to their homepage. I will look at examples of this in my next post.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Social Software - People who need people....
Reading through the articles on social software in this weeks readings, I have noticed an interesting theme in the desire and need for individuals to gather in groups based on a common interest or activity. This seems to be a human need, be it on the plains, on the village green or local pub or in cyberspace. In the 1990s and up until recently software was designed for the individual and time and effort was spent on ensuring that the technological aspects functioned to satisfy individual needs. Clay Shirkey seems to have been instrumental in defining social software as now 'treating groups as first class objects in the system.
People need to connect to people and joining groups in cyberspace and Adina Levin suggested that people being social creatures are 'compelled to write blogs and journals to show off and to share and to contribute to wikipedia and open source software projects for the joy of building things with other people.'
However there seem to still be rules to be conformed to when belonging to and interacting in a group; rules of admittance, rules of order and rules for remaining in the group. When designing social software technicians will need to be aware of some basic psychological characteristics of human nature. Clay Shirkey notes that tension can result when individuals go against group goals so when joining any group it might be important to state the 'mission' and reason for being of the group so as to ensure common goals. He makes another interesting point when he says that groups change their behaviour in response to changes in software and this shows that software designers have an enourmous amount of power to control and steer group behaviour.
A user can only do what the system allows him to do in such a way as the system is designed. Kenneth Boulding says 'we make tools and then they shape us'.
However users have the ultimate control in the success of a system on line as they can take it or leave it and the number of users is an indication of the success and user friendliness of the system.
Within large groups, 'conversational clusters' can evolve as being smaller groups of people who are drawn together based on something they have in common and once again this is human nature to want and need to belong to a group even as part of a larger entity.
Steve Boyd says that social software allows us to create new social groupings which result in new social conventions arising which cannot be predicted. We are really on the brink of a new social organisation and it is exciting to be part of this cyber socialisation.
People need to connect to people and joining groups in cyberspace and Adina Levin suggested that people being social creatures are 'compelled to write blogs and journals to show off and to share and to contribute to wikipedia and open source software projects for the joy of building things with other people.'
However there seem to still be rules to be conformed to when belonging to and interacting in a group; rules of admittance, rules of order and rules for remaining in the group. When designing social software technicians will need to be aware of some basic psychological characteristics of human nature. Clay Shirkey notes that tension can result when individuals go against group goals so when joining any group it might be important to state the 'mission' and reason for being of the group so as to ensure common goals. He makes another interesting point when he says that groups change their behaviour in response to changes in software and this shows that software designers have an enourmous amount of power to control and steer group behaviour.
A user can only do what the system allows him to do in such a way as the system is designed. Kenneth Boulding says 'we make tools and then they shape us'.
However users have the ultimate control in the success of a system on line as they can take it or leave it and the number of users is an indication of the success and user friendliness of the system.
Within large groups, 'conversational clusters' can evolve as being smaller groups of people who are drawn together based on something they have in common and once again this is human nature to want and need to belong to a group even as part of a larger entity.
Steve Boyd says that social software allows us to create new social groupings which result in new social conventions arising which cannot be predicted. We are really on the brink of a new social organisation and it is exciting to be part of this cyber socialisation.
Monday, May 7, 2007
Introduction to LIS 757
Hi everybody in LIS 757
My name is Jane McGann and I am currently working at the National Research Council in Ottawa as a co-op position for the summer. I have completed 2 terms of the MLIS at Western and enjoying some work experience at CISTI (Canadian Institute for Scientific and Technical Information).
My experience with social software is limited. I do have a Facebook which I set up about a month ago and I am amalgamating various groups and enjoying keeping up with my kids who post all sorts of interesting stuff and photos etc.
I have also set up this blog. I am completely new to the world of blogs and RSS feeds and RSS aggregator and know nothing about the latter.
So all of this will be a learning experience for me and I look forward to understanding how this social software can be of use to libraries and the library community.
My name is Jane McGann and I am currently working at the National Research Council in Ottawa as a co-op position for the summer. I have completed 2 terms of the MLIS at Western and enjoying some work experience at CISTI (Canadian Institute for Scientific and Technical Information).
My experience with social software is limited. I do have a Facebook which I set up about a month ago and I am amalgamating various groups and enjoying keeping up with my kids who post all sorts of interesting stuff and photos etc.
I have also set up this blog. I am completely new to the world of blogs and RSS feeds and RSS aggregator and know nothing about the latter.
So all of this will be a learning experience for me and I look forward to understanding how this social software can be of use to libraries and the library community.
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