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