Tame The Web

Profiles have great potential, writes David Warlick:

I’ve mentioned this in some of my presentations, that I do not believe that we - educators older than 30 (arbitrarily chosen age) - truly understand social networks yet.  For instance, we’re trying to grow individual and independent social networks out of every discipline, school level, and just about any other probable community of educational interest.  I’ll bet I’ve been contaced by e-mail or phone call by no fewer than ten people over the past month, each wanting me to see their social network.  “This social network is going to revolutionize physical education!”

What strikes me is that our students make it work with just one.  The three main choices, as far as I know, are MySpace, Bebo, and Facebook, the later seeming to be the one of choice at present.  So why didn’t we figure out how to use Facebook as the social network for NECC.  I looked there for a group for NECC.  I probably won’t do that again :-/

So, anyway, I keep wondering about this.  What’s the point, beyond costing time, which I guess many of our students have more to spend.  It seems to me, that the true potential for all of this, and something that I don’t even think Facebook has truly captured yet, is the profile.  What bothers me about social networks is that they have walls.  It’s a weekness of Ning, in my opinion, that there do not seem to be easy and logical ways for us to connect to each other, based on common interests, regardless of the networks we’ve joined.  There are certainly security issues.  But for me to learn, to grow, to solve problems, and accomplish goals, I need to connect to people and resources that help me do that.

Creating one profile that extends to all of my networks - to all of my spaces intrigues me. Is this the next step? One place? One profile? Many extensions?

Will all of these eventually be one:

• Del.icio.us
• Facebook
• Flickr
• Last.fm
• LibraryThing
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• YouTube

David Pogue writes:

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/07/

A few months ago, I blogged about my mixed feelings toward Facebook, LinkedIn and the like. I get about 15 invitations a day, from people I don’t know, asking to be friends. It’s flattering, of course, but there’s an etiquette problem: Do I accept them all, just to be friendly — but thereby defeat the purpose of building a true social network? Or do I reject or ignore them, hurting their feelings and making me seem like an ingrate?

Little did I know that I’m not alone — and that my affliction actually has a name. It’s Social Networking Anxiety Disorder (SNAD), as I discovered in this tongue-in-cheek, but dead-on, blog post.

  

A Year in the Life (via iTunes), originally uploaded by mstephens7.

When I do talks, I always try to relate changes in technology to how they can impact, enhance or chronicle people’s lives. I’ve been highlighting LastFM in The Hyperlinked Libraries and other presentations since 2006. I was pleased to discover a new site called lastgraph - which takes LastFM data and creates graphs and charts. 

Looking at the graph above, I can see major milestones in the last 12 months. It blows my mind how a “year in the life” can be represented by music tracks played, or by Flickr streams, by Facebook statuses, etc. I wonder what stories the graph will tell in ten years?

If you are so inclined to peruse my listening habits (including the huge Xanadu fixation last fall), here’s the full PDF of the graph: lastfmgraph

Via Michael Casey:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7325019.stm

The Ofcom report looks into the impact of social networks on people’s lives in the UK as part of a wider media literacy campaign and surveyed 5,000 adults and more than 3,000 children.

Its statistics suggest that around 19% of all UK youngsters have a presence on a social networking site.

“Social networks are clearly a very important part of people’s lives and are having an impact on how people live their lives,” said James Thickett, director of market research at Ofcom.

http://curtisrogers.blogspot.com

Check out this article. Shouldn’t libraries be included in this equation?

Every Company Should Use Social Media | Employee Evolution

Social media is changing everything. Business Week recently published an article about the power of social media and how companies are beginning to embrace it, because they really don’t have a choice. Not everyone has a blog, or wants to blog, but you would be hard pressed to find many people who aren’t on some type of social network. Now it’s time for corporate America to follow suit and meet their potential customers on their own turf, or risk falling behind the times.

The article says, “It’s as if the walls around our companies are vanishing and old org charts are lying on their sides.”

This concluding section of the article is great:

Controlling the conversation

Social media is a constant conversation and because of this, business is now a constant conversation. It’s a comment string on Brazen Careerist, its someone’s Facebook wall, and it’s a Linked In recommendation. Someone, somewhere is out there talking about your company, and they can say whatever they want. All you can do is control the conversation.

Controlling the conversation does not mean telling people how to talk about your company or spamming a couple bloggers with job postings or company descriptions. It means creating a presence where you can initiate and continue a conversation.

What social media requires is authenticity, because even a newbie social media user can sniff out a phony quickly. But authentic conversation isn’t what most companies do naturally. So when corporations want to initiate a conversation, they have to find the right people, and they better empower those people to tell the truth, which isn’t always great news to deliver.

Starbucks is a great example. When things started going south, they publicly admitted to being at fault. They started a social networking site to ask for help from the customers. And we all remember when they shut down the stores across the country for an afternoon to address some fundamental problems. Smart decisions like that come when you take the time to start a conversation and then remember to listen, too.

It’s not easy. It takes a ton of time and it may even consist of a couple full time hires, but establishing a social media presence is worth it. Sooner or later every company will be actively using social media, but the trendsetters are the one’s who will get the most out of it. Don’t be left behind.

It fascinates me to see these discussions playing out in business, education, non-profits and more. Read the comments as well for more opinion and viewpoints.

Fred Stutzman writes:http://chimprawk.blogspot.com

For the past two semesters, I’ve taught a course on Online Social Networks at UNC’s School of Information and Library Science. It has been a great experience, and I’ve had an incredible bunch of students. This course has also been an experiment, both in subject matter and instructional technologies. Using Facebook, Del.icio.us,YouTube and a wiki, we created courseware from Web 2.0 tools. Now that the course is over, I’ve had some time to reflect on the challenges, pros and cons of integrating these types of tools into instruction. Integrating Web 2.0 Technologies in the Instructional Process (download PDF) is an early manuscript documenting and reflecting on the process.

The manuscript is a case study of the integration; it combines a survey with analysis of some of the benefits, risks and challenges. I’ll be submitting the manuscript, but I wanted to post a draft here for other instructors. If you’re thinking about integrating Facebook into your course, or you’ve been paying attention to products like Blackboard Sync, this manuscript may be worth your time. This paper focuses on the contextual privacy issues of moving instruction into student spaces of sociality - a complex issue indeed.

I’m planning for two sections of LIS768 this fall. This draft article will be a great help in making sure I’m integrating the most useful technologies. Last semester I learned a lot about using del.icio.us to share/network — it didn’t work as well as I thought.

What did work were the student blogs. The occurrence of commenting and actual conversation was higher than it had ever been before. The caliber of posting was incredible.

I’m impressed as well with the high caliber of research coming out of the scholarly community around Web 2.0 and social networks.

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2008/05/17/news/walker051708.txt

Walker’s latest venture seems a mixture of those two. It’s an online forum called RottenNeighbor.com, and it allows residents of a neighborhood to complain about the noise, dogs, midnight habits or lawn-mowing antics of the folks next door. Launched last summer, the site was first based entirely out of Walker’s UTC apartment until a portion was purchased by Attenunit, a venture capital firm, and most of the work moved to Austin, Texas.

From the site:

Rotten Neighbor is the first real estate search engine of its kind allowing you to rate and review good and bad neighbors before and after you move so you can make a smart real estate decision. How? By user contributed information on millions of neighbors and neighborhoods in Indiana and nationwide as well as helping you understand Granger neighborhood trends.

I was curious so I searched my hometown of Mishawaka, Indiana.  And I found just a few reviews - some very mean, others were like this:

actually shovel your sidewalk in the snow when u have no shovel!

Some thoughts:

• Will folks rate libraries?
• Will library users want to access the site in libraries - they certainly should be able to!
• Shouldn’t this be added to our classes for the public on info literacy in this new world?

Arlington Heights Memorial Library rolls out “A Baker’s Dozen” - a 13 part, 13 month learning program for library users. It’s nice to see Helene Blowers ultra-successful model adapted for patrons. I’ll be watching this one closely.

You may have seen the phrase “social networking,” along with mention of sites such as MySpace and FaceBook. Do you watch or even upload videos to YouTube? Do you read blogs and subscribe to RSS feeds? Maybe you’ve added some photos to Flickr. All of the aforementioned sites are part of the Web 2.0 craze.

Please join AHML for the next year and 1 month for a Baker’s Dozen; each month this series will highlight a Web 2.0 topic and tool as well as feature a brief assignment (designed to take no more than a few minutes).

Most lessons will require that you create a free account on a specific website; AHML recommends that you use the same (or, at least similar) username and password for each. You can always change them at a later date!

Have other libraries started this type of program? How about academic libraries?

Finally got to Michael’s tag for A Day in the Life of …

These are my daily shots, a full-time MLIS student & working library professional. Was plotting to do something else until I saw Steve Campion’s post on Animoto which I mashed-up into a Day in the Life post. This let me finish that overdue blog item. Thanks Steve.
“…Here’s a sample library promo video I made yesterday. It’s a draft and I’ll have to finish a little stronger next time but I hope I caught the spirit of an active library system. Whattya think?
[UPDATE (Apr 17): I've been told that the widget sometimes says the video is no longer available. I don't know why this has been happening. If you have trouble accessing the YouTube version below, try this one.]…“

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9937956-7.html

A Republican congressman who has sponsored legislation banning access to social-networking Web sites in schools and libraries has found a new target of displeasure: Second Life.

Rep. Mark Kirk, who is seeking re-election this year, staged a press conference at a library in his suburban Chicago district on Tuesday to highlight what he called the “dangers” of the virtual world to children. Flanked by local officials, he also released a letter asking Federal Trade Commission Chairman William E. Kovacic to “take action to warn parents of the similar dangers and sexually explicit content found on Second Life.”

Kirk said he was appalled that Second Life has no age verification features built into its registration process, and he claimed that there are “countless locations” outside of the service’s teen-designated area where virtual prostitution, drug deals, and “other wholly inappropriate activities” occur.

According to a Chicago Tribune report, Kirk recounted an aide’s failed attempt to create an avatar on the site as a 10-year-old–and a subsequently successful attempt to log in as an 18-year-old.

“Sites like Second Life offer no protections to keep kids from virtual “rape rooms,” brothels, and drug stores,” Kirk said, according to a press release. “If sites like Second Life won’t protect kids from obviously inappropriate content, the Congress will.”

And David Warlick hits the nail on the head:

History has shown that this kind of fear-mongering can be quite successful in getting elected. SecondLife is certainly no place for kids, and I do not believe that I have encountered a single school that doesn’t block the service — except where there are well moderated instructional programs in place that utilize the MUSE.

But Kirk’s approach is to protect children from danger by further walling up their classrooms, and I just don’t see the logic, especially when children spend most of their online time at home.

And I don’t see the logic in denying access in libraries, where folks should be able to explore social networks and virtual environments. Librarians can play a useful role here as well: guide, educator, and collaborator. 

Ryan Deschamps writes:

• Public Libraries use gaming to attract teens

That’s not precisely true. If we have public computers, the teens are already there — gaming. Gaming programs are an attempt to channel the gaming energy into a community building experience. It’s noisy; it’s not books; it’s probably more fun than your average taxpayer would like to think a teen should be having in a library — but it does some very important things: a) it builds trust with teens, helping them to see the library as a positive place to be b) it engages them toward other positive — not necessarily toward books, no — but if it is staffed properly, lots of progress can be made toward strong research skills, safe internet use, respect for property, respect for each other and so on and c) it builds community support around the library. Police, Fire Fighters, Health Professionals, Recreation Professionals, Social Workers and more have got behind some of the activities we put on for teens — and that’s because they know libraries play their part to help young people grow into productive, healthy and happy adults.

In a nutshell, teens are in the library anyway — we might as well say “hello” on their terms. If I can go back to my “made-of-straw” non-public librarian again, we cannot forget the essential role (no, responsibility) that public libraries play in community development.

I’m still trying to get a grip on the Mishawaka Penn Harris Library banning of MySpace/Facebook and Ryan’s argument fits here as well. Trust building should be a key goal for working with young people in libraries. Where did the trust go?

http://www.librarian.net/stax/2266/why-should-libraries-be-socially-networking/

The reason I think it’s important to show good examples and best paractices is because we’re still dealing with libraries like Mishawaka Library which thinks that blocking social software sites in their library because they can’t manage unruly teens is some sort of solution to a problem. I’m not saying there aren’t problems surrounding public computer and internet use in libraries generally, maybe there are even sometimes problems with teens, but really responding to the problem by blocking wide swaths of the Internet is not really going to help anyone understand the problem better. It just makes libraries look hostile and librarians look reactive. I’m sure there’s a larger post here about dealing with teens + comptuers + internet + understaffing + the fear factor of unknown online socializing, but I feel that it’s all of our responsbility as online community members of various stripes, to provide positive examples of social software online. This is mine.

| View | Upload your own

Run don’t walk to checkout this talk from CIL2008 about Facebook, libraries and the possibilities. I think my brain exploded a little when I read:

Library catalogs are social networks for ideas.

From Jason, in my LIS753 Class:

Here’s an article I came across on this topic.

Lexington County Library Bans Social Networking Sites -
http://www.thestate.com/154/story/304545.html

It’s from TheState.com, South Carolina. They include an online poll asking readers if they think such social software should be banned. As of this morning (3/29) of 101 votes, 52 votes for yes and 49 for no.

Here’s part of the article:

The primary reason for the decision was research that shows social networking sites can make computer systems vulnerable to viruses, said Dan MacNeill, executive director of the Lexington County Public Library.

“It is a legitimate concern,” Hastings said.

Viruses? Viruses?

I just voted. This will be interesting to watch.

Lots of discussion on the Twitter and at various blogs about SWIFT, a conference social networking platform. Don’t miss these posts and the comments too:

Karen Schneider: http://freerangelibrarian.com/2008/03/21/moving-swiftly-on/

Jessamyn West: http://www.librarian.net/stax/2261/not-so-swift/ 

David Lee King: http://www.davidleeking.com/2008/03/14/not-using-swift-for-computers-in-libraries/ 

Personally, I don’t get why I would put my slides, blog posts, photos etc. anywhere but here at TTW. I also agree with Karen: I’d rather see wifi at the conferences long before a contracted, vendor-based solution for social networking. I know that the amazing folks attending CIL could have whipped up similar grass roots systems in a heartbeat. My vote will always go for the open, transparent and community-grown solution first.

And Karen made my day with this bit of insight, that’s probably happening in more corporate offices than we know: “I can see the boardroom meeting now: “2.0: ka-ching, ka-ching! It’s gonna be big, big BIG!” 

Thanks for the LOL, kgs!

Stopped by Mishawaka Penn Harris Public Library to see for Myself

Originally uploaded by mstephens7

An SJCPL Librarian comments on the Mishawaka Ban:

I work in the reference department at SJCPL and yes - we’re getting the overflow from Mishawaka now that MySpace and Facebook have been restricted. Our computers are basically full with a queue all of the time. I’ll share some thoughts…

First, we have a limit of 2 persons per computer. We were hesitant to do that, but found that things were just getting too loud. We do still get complaints about the noise level and we try to keep the peace as much as we can. We don’t have our computers in a special room - they are all at circular stations in front of the reference desk.

Second, we have security. Lots of security. We have over 20 cameras and no fewer than 4 security staff in the building at all times. This is a luxury that some libraries may feel that they cannot afford, but I question that. It is a matter of priorities. Patrons have to feel safe. Staff has to feel safe. If patrons don’t feel safe they stop coming - except for the patrons who are contributing to the problem - so you have a situation that grows exponentially worse.

Finally, we have an administration that will back up their staff. We have been told that if we need to intervene in a Code of Conduct violation that we should act with the confidence that administration will support our decision. Fortunately this is not often necessary, because we can simply call security, but there have been a few instances where threatening language has been used and library staff stepped in to address the issue before it came to blows.

It is a difficult balance to strike. Discouraging troublemakers is important, but discouraging an entire demographic from using library services seems like something that will contribute to future problems for the library system. I get annoyed by teens. You bet. But isn’t that their job? Sometimes it is a good day when we get them to keep their pants up and their tops down. lol But they seem to like it here and they’ll remember that when, someday, they need information in addition to that entertainment.

Via the South Bend Tribune and a bunch of folks who emailed me:

You can no longer use MySpace, Facebook or other “social networking sites” at Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library.

Fights, lewd language and cars being blocked in the parking lot by teenagers are among the problems Director Dave Eisen said have plagued the downtown library lately.

He told library board members that adults have complained about not feeling safe at the library. Eisen and his staff believe the teenagers are there to use MySpace, Facebook and other social sites.

Oh boy. This is my hometown library. It saddens me that the space between “social networking sites” to “not feeling safe” seems so short. The article notes the ban is probably working:

It might have worked, as there were few teenagers going to the computer room by 3:30 p.m. Friday, a half hour after it normally begins to fill up. There were few teenagers even coming in to the computer room at the library.

I wonder where the teens will go? Maybe to SJCPL, which has wifi and computers at all locations.  I wonder how the library will be perceived in a few years as these young people grow up, graduate Mishawaka High and begin the next chapter of their lives. Will they remember the library later? Will they care about it? If you remember, this is where I got my first library card. Will they bring their kids? Will they rather go to the Panera, Starbucks, Martins Supermarkets (which has free wifi), the Info Commons at IUSB, etc.

Shouldn’t the library be participating in offering access to these spaces while actively intervening and educating these digital citizens?

I reminded of Maplewood. It’s a similar thing really: locking the doors of the library or blocking access to sites. Are there alternatives? I think there are but it depends so much on the library. I’d take a long look at services to teens at the library. Isn’t this a perfect time for engagement and education? I know some libraries have been successful with “Rock my MySpace” classes for teens while parents get “Social Networking & Your Kids” style learning opportunities. I’d love to hear what the teen librarians have done at MPL - have there been classes? Is there a teen advisory board?

I think I have some questions about this ban as well. Are the sites blocked via wifi too? Is it just teens or everyone? I communicate with my students via Facebook and just joined the Dominican group there. Could I check in on my students via Facebook if I happened to be at the library? I’m also wondering about sites like Flickr. What if I was home for a few days and my Comcast went down? Would I be able to upload pics to Flickr at MPL? Or maybe I could just head to Panera. The teens, however, might not have a laptop to take to Panera.

My former employer, the SJCPL is mentioned:

Don Napoli, director of the St. Joseph County Public Library, said the staff there has discussed problems with teenagers but decided to try to get them into the library instead of trying to get them to leave.

“They do cause problems,” he said. “But that’s life.”

Amen. I think my heart would break a little if a library system so progressive as SJCPL banned access to social sites.

I’d love some feedback and inspiration here to help me understand. What has worked for you, TTW readers, when encountering young people who cause “all kinds of disturbances” as Mishawaka Public Library Director David Eisen states. Have you banned and blocked? Have you intervened and educated? Please share.

And if anyone from Mishawaka Public Library can offer more insight, please do.

Further reading for Mishawaka Public Library folk: http://www.librarycrunch.com/2007/01/responding_to_teens.html

Update — see also:

A Musical Interpretation of this post

http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelsphotos/2352012465/

http://www.web2learning.net/archives/1643

http://librarychicken.blogspot.com/2008/03/public-library-bans-myspace-facebook.html

http://lauraslibraryblog.wordpress.com/2008/03/30/if-a-problem-comes-along-you-must-ban-it/

http://mryknx.wordpress.com/2008/04/04/mishawaka-public-intent-to-ban-myspace-or-yas/

http://www.librarian.net/stax/2266/why-should-libraries-be-socially-networking/

I gave a second presentation on Thursday for the State Library of Vistoria. You may download the slides here:

http://www.tametheweb.com/aus08/BestPracticeWeb2.0.pdf

We also discussed creating policies for library blogs etc.

Policies for Social Software: http://www.web2learning.net/archives/1250 and http://www.webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=18650

Run don’t walk to this incredible presentation and list of resources.

http://www.librarian.net/stax/2244/social-software-in-libraries-a-presentation/ 

 I decided that part of really getting the idea of social software or technology generally is that many people confuse tools and brands and examples and I think people will feel more in charge of technology if they know how to explain it. From working with novice users, I know they use turns of phrases like “My Yahoo s broken” and don’t even realize that they’re not really speaking sensically to someone who understands the terms. On the other hand, I can understand how the idea of “a browser” can be pretty transparent and ethereal to someone who only knows that you click the blue E and you get the Internet. I had an Internet before web browsing, many people haven’t. 

One thing that Jessamyn and the commentors bring up is the fact that showing some sites live opens up privacy issues. I’m careful with my screenshots but sometimes I’ve caught some things that my Facebook friends might not want out there. Even a screenshot of Netflix tripped me up once!

Here’s a direct link to the presentation: http://www.librarian.net/talks/semls/

I drove back to Indiana Wednesday night (yes, in our awful weather) to work on my Australia talks and get caught up with some outstanding writing. I’ve found I am super-productive in my home workspace!

On the drive back, as I often do, I got caught up on my favorite podcasts, including one I’d been meaning to listen to for a while: Merlin Mann’s “In Box Zero” Talk at Goggle from last year. I’m a fan of Mann’s take on productivity, mac use and technology. In the talk he discusses how he manages his email with some practices based on “getting Things Done” by David Allen. It’s rather fascinating how he hones in on how some of us “live in our inboxes.”

I realized while listening that I wanted to blog about this, and then yesterday I catch a tweet from Cliff Landis that he was “struggling with too many RSS feeds.” In a bit of synchronicity, Merlin Mann also discusses RSS feeds toward the end of the talk. The tips for dealing with clutter also carries to feeds and other work technologies.

His summary tips:

• Do email less.
• Schedule email dashes - once per hour.
• Use filters to control email/RSS

His blog series on “In Box Zero” is here: http://www.43folders.com/izero

Checkout the video here: http://www.43folders.com/2007/07/25/merlins-inbox-zero-talk

How do TTW readers deal with email? With “too many feeds?”

Update: Are there too many social sites? 

http://blog.last.fm/2008/01/23/free-the-music

As of today, you can play full-length tracks and entire albums for free on the Last.fm website.

Something we’ve wanted for years—for people who visit Last.fm to be able to play any track for free—is now possible. With the support of the folks behind EMI, Sony BMG, Universal and Warner—and the artists they work with—plus thousands of independent artists and labels, we’ve made the biggest legal collection of music available to play online for free, the way we believe it should be.

Full-length tracks are now available in the US, UK, and Germany, and we’re hard at work broadening our coverage into other countries. During this initial public beta period, each track can be played up to 3 times for free before a notice appears telling you about our upcoming subscription service. The soon-to-be announced subscription service will give you unlimited plays and some other useful things. We’re also working on bringing full-length tracks to the desktop client and beyond.

I enjoy LastFM - especially the charts of my quirky listening habits. This announcement actually sweetens the experience. I can hear full-length tracks and decide if I might want to purchase them from iTunes or Amazon MP3. Looking at my top play, however, only a few tracks are available in full so far.

I’m wondering: how might a library use LastFM? Could we access the site as a sort of listening station on public computers?

Brian McConnell writes:

As Facebook enjoys its moment in the sun, we should take a moment to step back and look at the history of computers and social communication. Some historical perspective is in order, both to assess the real value of social networks as businesses, and to anticipate how they are likely to evolve in the future. 

Take a look for a concise timeline of social networks through the years. This is perfect for my social networking class as well as the Internet Fundamentals class I just started this weekend,

His final thoughts about the future of social networks and tools are thought-provoking, including:

If I had to pick a category to start a company in, I’d pick authoring tools. There’s real long-term value there, as people tend to pick a publishing tool and stick with it — and they’ll more for higher-end tools. If I were Facebook, I’d be thinking about how to participate in this trend — in other words, deal with change before it deals with you. 

yelp sticker on a library

Originally uploaded by aaron schmidt

Aaron Schmidt offers the details here:

http://www.walkingpaper.org/548

I’m pleased to see libraries such as this one proudly displaying their Yelp sticker.