Every Dog Has Its Day

Well, that's it. Learning 2.0 over and out.
It's been lots of fun. I have a whole suite of new passwords and expanded my vocabulary. I've learnt some skills that I can actually use and apply.
It's really been the most interesting learning experience for as long as I can remember. Inspiring, informative, educational and entertaining.
It's also been great to have been part of a blogging community.
So long, and thanks for reading.

Mashup using cover art from one of the fab library career romances highlighted here:
http://loveliestlib.wordpress.com/category/career-romance/

Is the writing on the wall?

OK, after getting quite enthused about a lot of the Web 2.0 applications we've looked at, I'm going to be brave and admit to being a Facebook / Myspace sceptic. Sure, I have nothing against libraries and cultural institutions setting up camp on social networking sites - though I have a niggling worry that to native facebookers it might look as cool as parents taking to the floor at a school disco.
It’s great if libraries and museums can make it work for them. The BL example looked good.
It's just that it's not for me.
When a colleague with cutting edge tendencies invited me to be her friend on Facebook a little while ago, I just couldn't get past the registration hurdle. Facebook seemed to want a lot of information and I do like my cyber privacy. So I retreated and apologetically offered the pale substitute of real-life friendship instead.
Ironically, in eschewing "social networking", it seems I might not be alone. A recent article from the UK Guardian charted what they termed "facebook fatigue" noting that a number of the social networking sites had witnessed a drop in participation with security concerns as one of the reasons.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/feb/22/facebook.facebook
I left Facebook before even joining - how cutting edge is that? I am an early unadopter!

I guess this new development raises issues regarding the safety of the investment for the institutions like libraries who have staked territory on these sites. Will we follow those fleeing Facebook to their next destination? Which is…..?

I liked the way Tom Hodgkinson summed it up in another Guardian article:


"For my own part, I am going to retreat from the whole thing, remain as unplugged as possible, and spend the time I save by not going on Facebook doing something useful, such as reading books. Why would I want to waste my time on Facebook when I still haven't read Keats' Endymion? And when there are seeds to be sown in my own back yard? I don't want to retreat from nature, I want to reconnect with it. Damn air-conditioning! And if I want to connect with the people around me, I will revert to an old piece of technology. It's free, it's easy and it delivers a uniquely individual experience in sharing information: it's called talking."

Tom Hodgkinson, "With Friends Like These", The Guardian January 14, 2008, for the whole article see:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/14/facebook

And, as for Second Life - I’ll think about it when the ironing basket is empty in my First.

"In the past you were what you owned, now you are what you share"

I thought the above quote from Charles Leadbeater a pertinent one for discussing collaborative tools.

It's from a little animation on YouTube to promote his book We Think. More on the book here:
http://www.wethinkthebook.net/home.aspx




While you watch the video, I'll play with Google Docs, Slideshare and Zoho and report back.

I'm back.
Google docs rocks? Well, I think it might! That little gmail password opens quite a few doors, doesn't it?
The applications for online collaboration tools for us are obvious and many.
No more (or fewer) version control and conversion problems. I'm converted.
I believe that sharing and collaborating is more than technological - it's behavioural - but with some of these emerging free technologies, it looks like where's there's a will to collaborate and work together, there'll also be a way!