RSS

The task in Module 2 is to write 350 words regarding how RSS can “enhance a library or information service’s ability to meet the information needs of its users.” 

OK, to be perfectly honest I have never used RSS before and have had just a brief explore using the links listed, plus a few Queensland libraries.  So what I say is very inexperienced.  And I have not yet found 2 more examples of RSS in action – I will add those when I find them.

What immediately springs to mind is the immediacy and the current-ness of the information.  One feed was the opening hours of the ANU library – great for students.  Many were about events at libraries- great for a quick check.

How does this help the libraries?  Well it certainly increases their profile.  They are there, right at your digital fingertips, and here is what they are offering today.  The alternative is for the user to have to have the need and drive to go through a different avenue and instantly there are a number of barriers the user has to be committed to overcome:

• Call - but then only in business hours. 
• Email – but then have to wait for a reply.
• Check the website – but then you have to search through pages until you find what you want.

If the user doesn't want to go through the steps or doesn't want the information that badly, odds on they will give up.

RSS has the advantage of delivering straight to the user exactly what they want, and keeps the library in the forefront of the user’s mind.  The user has done the filtering and created their own link with the library. 

So THATS what Creative Commons is!

So in one of my other subjects I learnt all about copyright and this thing called Creative Commons.  Never really understood what this Creative Commons thing was, apart from the fact it had cc in a circle where copyright had just the single c.

But after watching the video Creative Commons had on their About page, it got a lot clearer.
Apparently, anything you create - music, poetry, writing, photos - all automatically become subject to copyright.  No-one can use or change them without your permission.

However, what if you WANTED people to use your stuff but not to go overboard?  Here is where Creative Commons comes in.  You get to create a more flexible licence.  You get a free, easy to create licence and you select the boundaries - whether businesses can use your stuff, can they modify it at all.  And you put the cc instead of the c at the bottom of your work. 

Cool. Makes sense in a social media type world where its all about sharing. 

Technology adoption defines us

Just read 2 articles from Module 1 that were fascinating and rang a few bells for me.  Both by a gentleman called Kevin Kelly. 

The first, Ethnic Technology, is about the uneven adoption of technology around the world.  I had assumed that when you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door.  However, to my great surprise, technology improvements do not naturally spread based on their usefulness.  Whole countries do or do not adopt technology based on cultural influence or some other mysterious force.  And by doing so this creates and reinforces an identity.

The second was an interview with Kevin Kelly.  Apart from other interesting things what struck me was that we form and shape our identify not so much by the technology we choose to adopt, but more so by the technology we refuse to adopt.  We define ourselves, build our identity more and more by what technology we refuse to use rather than what we do use.

How true this is for me. I have made several conscious decisions refusing to buy or use technology. I resisted mobile phones for ages, didn't see the point in an iPhone until my brother gave me his old one, and am still trying to find a use for Twitter and the iPad my employer gave every teacher.  Yet I love my laptop WiFi. 

Hmm....I wonder what my technology choices and refusals reveal........

Could Twitter actually be useful..........?

One of the biggest mysteries to me as I started my voyage of digital discovery was Twitter - why is it so popular?  However now a little of this mystery is beginning to be revealed.
 
Learning about micro-blogging in Module 1 explained a little that what Twitter can be used for is a place to post some thing quick - like texting for computers.  So now it has name - micro-blogging.

Plus a link from the CSU library gave a bit more relevance as to the potential uses of Twitter with lots of relevant links:  Twitter for Librarians: the ultimate guide.

So to my delight I am moving away from digital obscurity to digital master.  Long way to go but it starts with a single step.....

Not so much about technology as about being human

OK so I am already changing my definition of social networking.
New updated version:

Social networking – when people communicate with each other around a common goal or interest. 

This may be done with or without technology or physical contact. 

Why the change? 

It had never occurred to me that social networking is not dependent on technology.  People have been doing it for centuries.  We are social animals after all and will form groups based on commonalities – friendships, sporting clubs, sewing circles, choirs, drinking buddies.  Technology has given us another mean of doing this without having to be limited by geography or language.  So we’re just doing what we’ve always been doing, but now the tools exist to do it on a much bigger scale.

Now it makes a bit more sense.

Assessment item 1

What is social networking?

At this point I don't have a very well formed idea of social networking.  I expect my definition here will be quite simplistic and a starting point for development. 

Using technology to communicate and be part of online communities.

 

Current social networking sites

1. Several Wikis for work, personal, study and church purposes.
2. A blog I created at the beginning of my Masters for ETL401
3. Drop box - an online cloud storage system for work purposes.
4. Twitter - created as a requirement for a teaching workshop.  I have not used it at all.

Expectations from INF506

To become educated and experienced in various forms of social networking.  I am astounded and mystified by the explosion in the popularity in social networking sites.  I do not understand the attraction.  Yet it is used by so many and I have no idea what I am missing out on.  Some workmates tell me it is useful for keeping on top of current professional trends and research. 

The fact is that social networking is becoming a normal part of many lives, and it is these people who will be coming into libraries.  If I am to be working in the industry where the clientele's main form of preferred communication is social networking, then I need to understand and use these forms as well.