Blogs, Wikis and more: Web 2.0 demystified for information professionals

UKOLN is supported by: Blogs, Wikis and more: Web 2.0 demystified for information professionals Eastern RSC event Monday 23rd February from 11:00 - 12:00. Marieke Guy Research Officer www.bath.ac.uk This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat)

Introduction to UKOLN
UKOLN is a National centre of expertise in digital information management
Library and cataloguing background
Located at the University of Bath
Funded by JISC and MLA to advise UK HE and FE communities and the cultural heritage sector
Many areas of work including:
Digital preservation: DCC
Metadata, registry work
Repositories: eBank, Intute, SWORD, DRIVER
Dissemination: Ariadne, International Journal of Digital Curation
eScience: eCrystals….etc.

Introduction to Me
Been at UKOLN 9 years
Now a remote worker
Member of the Community & Outreach Team
Currently working on:
Good APIs project
Chair of the Institutional Web Management Workshop
Cultural heritage work
Previous roles/projects include:
JISC-PoWR, JISC Standards Catalogue, QA Focus, SPP Project Manager, ePrints UK project manager, Public Library Focus work, NOF-digitise, Web Magazines

Workshop Programme
Presentation on Blogs, Wikis and more
20 minutes
Do It Yourself - A chance for you to try out some of the tools
20 minutes
Discussion - A chance for you to think about the challenges
5/10 minutes
Presentation/Discussion on Challenges of Web 2.0 for the Information Professional
10 minutes
Final Feedback -Any final questions, comments etc.
5 minutes
Will use this logo when it’s time for questions

Workshop Resources
All resources (and more) linked with Delicious tag: http://delicious.com/mariekeguy/rsc-eastern-200802
Wiki for you to work on

So…What is Web 2.0?
Marketing term (derived from observing 'patterns') rather than technical standards - “an attitude not a technology”
Web2MemeMap, Tim O’Reilly, 2005
Characteristics Of Web 2.0
Network as platform
Always beta
Clean URIs
Remix and mash-ups
Syndication (RSS)
Architecture of participation
Blogs & Wikis
Social networking
Social tagging (folksonomies)
Trust and openness

Blogs Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cecio/259559422/

Blogs
A blog is a Web log, online diary
Professionals are increasingly using blogs to describe what they are doing
A social phenomenon of the 21 st Century
Key characteristics are openess, collaboration and syndication
There is a need for information professionals to:
Understand blogging and related technologies (e.g. RSS, Technorati)
Be able to find resources in the 'Bloggosphere'
Explore how to use blogs to support business functions (support users, staff & organisation)

Why Blog?
Community of library professionals
Long tradition of sharing experiences and knowledge
New issues – need to find new communities
Blogs can be a timely way to
Offer advice and commentary
Make new connections
Record discussion over time
Also provide a different view to email discussion threads

Reading Blogs
There are lots of dedicated blog readers
You can sign up for RSS feeds to be alerted to changes
Try not to be distracted by adverts etc
Web 2.0 Bloglines – a Web-based Blog reader. You are informed of changes since you last viewed the page. http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs

Library Blogs
Lots of Individuals creating blogs: Phil Bradley’s, Peter Scott, Technobiblio, Library Techtronics, Shifted Librarian, Free Range Librarian, DIY Librarian
Lots of themed blogs: Going Green at your library, Librarians for Human Rights, The ‘M’ Word - Marketing Libraries
Lots of branch specific blogs: i Know Gateshead Libraries, Oxford University Library, Manchester Lit List
Some subject specialist and medical blogs, moving more towards library teams
British Librarian Bloggers list (lis-bloggers)
Hot Stuff 2.0 – great list of library blogs (over 800) collated by Dave Pattern

Spineless? http://hwlibrary.wordpress.com/

Paige Turner http://swansealibraries.blogspot.com/

The Unquiet Librarian - http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/

Using Blogs
Blogs are very interconnected with each other (bloggers discuss other blog postings, blogrolls etc.).
This can help to provide feedback; measure impact; engage in discussions; etc.
Web Monkey extension can give blog comments on your pages
Technorati can help find Blog articles, etc.
A search for “Oxford University Library Services” returns 87 hits, was mainly student blogs, now many others
The comments field can allow you to engage in discussions
Time for you to establish a blog?

Ideas for Blogs
A News Blog
New branches, stock areas, user services, service changes, opening hours, fines, event information
From the Librarian’s Desk
Blogging about your daily work, provides transparency and openness
Library Resources Blog
Special collections
Special Projects Blog/ Task Groups Blog
Reflective Blog
Use as a ‘try it out’ experience
Professional Development Blog
Chronicle your daily activities, identify progression, achievements, use it for annual appraisal

A Few Issues…
Institutional Issues – e.g. Can you have a corporate voice, do you want one?
Technical Issues – e.g. What software will you use?
Barriers to making the decision to blog e.g. Do you want all your thoughts to be accessible to all? What about an internal blog?
Barriers to getting started
Gaining momentum e.g. A huge number of blogs are not read and become deserted by their writers
Keeping your momentum! e.g. Will you be able to come up with content?
Stopping?
Right person for the job!

Gaining Momentum
Participate: embed yourself in the community, social networks e.g. Ning, Facebook (need to be aware of privacy issues, ownership of data, dangers of data lock-in)
Identify and follow other blogs
Get a great feed reader like Google Reader
Link, a lot, especially to other blogs
Comment, and use your URL when you do
Be fairly shameless in self-promoting: “I like what you’re saying but over on our library blog we’ve taken a different approach..”
Spread the URL around

Keeping Momentum
Use Technorati, Google Blog search, etc
Start to embed these in people’s lives by reporting
Make sure you post regularly, and with high quality:
Don’t post because you haven’t done one in a while...
Do post because you’ve got something to say
If you’re losing momentum, maybe there’s a reason?
Do some evaluation of your blog: ask readers
Look for co-authors. Guest posts. You may be surprised!
if it’s getting stale, try some alternative approaches:
Interviews, podcasts, surveys or polls
Video or other media embedding, live blogging
...be creative, and copy other people

Wikis Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/1627257/

Wikis
Wikis are collaborative Web-based authoring tools –read state and write state
They can be used for:
team work and collaborative papers (avoiding emailed MS Word file around)
Note-taking and social discussions at events
As an easy way to set up a group Web site
A great e-learning tool
Uses a simple markup language (wikitext or wikisyntax)
Ability to compare previous versions of a page, revert back and track who edited the page
Many allow users to discuss issues prior to making changes
Increasing popularity in the public sector

Wikipedia
Easy to create
Provides high-profile information (Google-friendly)
Allows the community to enhance and develop content
Is time your library had an entry?
Who will edit it?

Wiki Issues
Vandalism, spam
Wiki etiquette
Searching (more tagging needed), archiving (ephemeral), organisation of pages – no heirarchy
Mark up – no standardisation…yet – training implications
Stopping your wiki from becoming an unmaintained storehouse of out-of-date information!
Organisational Culture - Freedom to move away from usual design, protocols, habits
Resources - Staff training, time, costs
How will librarians add wikis and blogs to their collections?

Potential for Libraries
“ At their best, they can become true community resources that can position the library as a an online hub of their local community”
Meredith Farkas
Book reviews, FAQs
Comments section, suggestion box
Commonly asked questions (reference or general library)
Local history, personal stories
Course collaboration, e-portfolios
Library project work, input for research work
Workshops

Social Web

Social Networks
Sharing and community are what Web 2.0 is all about
Some of the most famous networks are MySpace, Facebook, del.icio.us, Frappr and Flickr
Library is a social network in itself so the implications for it are huge
Tagging – allows users to add keywords to items
Created by groups/communities who are the resource users
Natural language – common understanding
No hierarchy, feedback
RSS Feeds

Sharing - Flickr
Web 2.0 includes community-building
You can help support your community-building by making it easy to share photos at events (e.g. this seminar)
Simply suggest a tag and encourage delegates to upload their photos with this tag
Flickr Commons
Web 2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/westmontlibrary/176505152/

Sharing – Delicious
Another aspect of sharing is sharing bookmarks
This can be used to:
Manage your bookmarks
Allow others to contribute resources
Allow lists of bookmarks to be repurposed
Carry out impact analysis
Web 2.0 Who else has bookmarked this resources? What are their interests? (I may have similar interests) How many have bookmarked my resource? http://del.icio.us/mariekeguy/rsc-eastern-200802/

Sharing - Slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/MariekeGuy
Many other resources can be shared e.g.:
Slides
Photos
Maps
Video
Travel info
Events info
Music
Etc.

Google Maps/Mashups
Web 2.0 provides valuable opportunity to provide mapping & location services:
Embedding Google maps on your Web sites
Developing rich services using this
Providing location metadata / microformats which can be processed by simple browser tools
Web 2.0 http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/ workshops/webmaster-2007/maps/ http://www.talis.com/tdn/competition

Creative Commons
Creative Commons offers copyright holders licences to assign to their work
The licences aim to clarify the conditions of use and avoid many of the problems current copyright laws pose when attempting to share information.
CC maximises impact of work
Web 2.0 Openess is a key aspect of Web 2.0: open source; open standards and open content can all help to bring benefits through maximising usage of services

Facebook
The Facebook platform provides access to (a) Skype (b) Twitter micro-blogging service (c) mini-questions
Facebook:
A social networking Web site
Had the largest number of registered users among college-focused sites with over 30 million members worldwide
Ranked between top 10–20 Web sites
Seventh most visited site in the US

Podcasts
Podcasts are syndicated MP3 files
New items in a podcast can appear automatically in your Podcast client (e.g. iPod) or RSS reader
Resources can be accessed via iTunes
Web 2.0 http://www.podanza.com/podcast/... The University of Bath won a European award for its podcasts from guest lecturers, etc. We can regard this as maximising impacts of the ideas and promoting the University, at little cost

Communication
Realtime discussion is a key part of the Web 2.0 and the .net generation (IM, SMS…)
Can be used by patrons, chat reference services with transcript
How much effort does it take to provide an instant messaging service for your library?
Try Gabbly.com
What about Skype?
Web 2.0 http://www.gabbly.com/

Twitter Micro Blogs
Twitter:
Best known of the micro-blogging applications
Web application, with desktop & mobile clients
Uses:
Community-building
Support from your peers
Answers to questions
Ideas
Marketing
…

Do It Yourself (20 Minutes)
Time try out some of the applications that have been mentioned
Try to keep in mind how this could be applied in your working environment
Any problems just communicate in the chat area
http://rsc-eastern-200802.wetpaint.com/page/Tasks

Discussion (10 Minutes)
So what are the challenges of Web 2.0 for information
professionals?
The top 5 challenges for the information Professionals community?
Possible ways that you can meet these challenges
Best to write thoughts in notepad, refresh wiki page, paste
onto wiki then save
http://rsc-eastern200802.wetpaint.com/page/Challenges http://rsc-eastern200802.wetpaint.com/page/Meeting_Challenges

Librarian/IP Stereotypes
They think they know better than the user e.g. they don't like people using Google Scholar; they should use Web of Knowledge
They think that users should be forced to learn boolean searching and other formal search techniques because this is good for them
They don't want the users to search for themselves ( folksonomies) because they won't get it right.
They want to classify the entire Web - despite the fact that users don't use their lists of Web links
They want services to be perfect before they release them to users. They are uneasy with the concept of 'forever beta' (they don't believe that users have the ability to figure things out themselves and work around the bugs).

Web 2.0 Backlash
When significant new things appear:
Enthusiasts / early adopters predict a transformation of society
Sceptics outline the limitations & deficiencies
There’s a need to:
Promote the benefits to the wider community (esp. those willing to try if convinced of benefits)
Be realistic and recognise limitations
Address inappropriate criticisms, avoid the chasm in the Gartner curve

Library 2.0
Paul Miller stated that he saw Web 2.0 as being about:
freeing of data, remixing and the opening up of the long tail
the building of virtual applications,
participation, sharing, communication and facilitating community
applications that work for the user, are modular and are smart
Web 2.0 + Library = Library 2.0
With Web 2.0 libraries have an opportunity to work their wealth of data harder and serve their existing audiences better
Warning: Users will bypass processes and institutions that they perceive to be slow, unresponsive, unappealing and irrelevant in favour of a more direct approach to services offered by others that just might be 'good enough' for what they need to do.

Safe Experimentation
Are you interested in using Web 2.0 in your organisation?
Worried about corporate inertia, power struggles, etc?
What you need is a deployment strategy:
Addressing business needs
Low-hanging fruits
Encouraging the enthusiasts
Gain experience of the browser tools – and see what you’re missing!
Staff training and development
Address areas you feel comfortable with
Risk management strategy
…

Staff Development
There's a need for your staff to:
Understand what Web 2.0 is about
Learn how to make use of Web 2.0
This is all subject to constraints of lack of time; resources; etc.
The Library 2.0 Podcasts Web sites provides a useful resources for learning about new tools, techniques, etc.
Deployment Challenges http://podcasts.alablog.org/blog/ _archives/2006/4/12/1881517.html

Some Low Hanging Fruit…
Librarything provides a good example of a Web 2.0 service:
Catalogue your books
AJAX interface
Exploit data provided by the community
Export capabilities
Other books you may like
Implications for reader recommendations
…
http://www.librarything.com/

Other Ideas
RSS feeds, create them and use them
Wikipedia
Secondlife, Cybrary city
Slideshare
Bookmarks - del.icio.us, citeulike, connotea
Librarylookup – Library mashups
Folksonomies – different ways of organising information
YouTube – video, streaming of video OPACs - Think of your library system as “an interlocking set of functional components rather than a monolithic black box” – Plinkit (Public Library Interface Kit)

Risk Managment
Take a risk management approach to your evaluation of Web 2.0 technologies (as we do with IWMW)
Establish Agreements
Use well-established services: Google & Delicious are well-established and have financial security.
Notification: warnings that services could be lost.
Engagement: with the user community: users actively engage in the evaluation of the services.
Provision of alternative services
Use in non-mission critical areas: not for bookings!
Long term experiences of services: usage stats
Availability of alternative sources of data: e.g. standard Web server log files.
Data export and aggregation: RSS feeds, aggregated in Suprglu, OPML viewers, etc.

Conclusions
Web 2.0 can provide real benefits for our users, however organisations tend to be conservative
We therefore need:
Advocacy
To listen to users' concerns
To address users' concerns e.g. risk management
A change of culture
We can all benefit by adopting Web 2.0 principles of openness and sharing. So let us
Share our advocacy resources, risk management techniques, etc.
Develop your own social network based on openness, trust, collaboration, ..

Questions?

Blogs, Wikis and more: Web 2.0 demystified for information professionals

by Marieke Guy on Feb 23, 2009

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Blogs, Wikis and more: Web 2.0 demystified for information professionals — Presentation Transcript