Web 2.0 backlash? January 30, 2008
Posted by Will in libraries, virtual life.Tags: amateurs, Andrew Keen, bloggers, Joe Schallan, Library2.0, professionals, publib, Web2.0
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Here’s another attack from the ”nattering nabobs of negativism” as applied to Web 2.0, taken from a PubLib posting yesterday:
Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 10:51:29 -0800 (PST)
From: Joe Schallan <jschallan@yahoo.com>
Subject: [Publib] 2.0: It cheapens us, it cheapens everyone
To: Publib publib@webjunction.org
This book from last summer got under my radar and I have just discovered it. Since it directly relates to my recent remarks on crowdsourcing, I thought I’d share an excerpt with the list:
Andrew Keen, The Cult of the Amateur — How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting Our Economy, New York: Doubleday/Currency, 2007.
Blurb: In a hard-hitting and provocative polemic, Silicon Valley insider Keen exposes the grave consequences of today’s new participatory Web 2.0. He reveals how amateur, user-generated free content threatens the very innovation and creativity that forms the fabric of American achievement.
‘Google Generation’ is a myth January 24, 2008
Posted by lrobinson in libraries.Tags: Google, info literacy
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New report shows ‘Google Generation’ affirms need for info lit and library advocacy. Report shows generation is almost more lacking in research and analytical skills. Immense choice and less time show a “viewing” rather than “reading” behavior.Scary.
- All age groups revealed to share so-called ‘Google Generation’ traits
- New study argues that libraries will have to adapt to the digital mindset
- Young people seemingly lacking in information skills; strong message to the government and society at large
“A new study overturns the common assumption that the ‘Google Generation’ – youngsters born or brought up in the Internet age – is the most web-literate. The first ever virtual longitudinal study carried out by the CIBER research team at University College London claims that, although young people demonstrate an apparent ease and familiarity with computers, they rely heavily on search engines, view rather than read and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to assess the information that they find on the web.”
An quick interview with the report’s author on LibVibe – you can listen to the story here: http://libvibe.blogspot.com/2008/01/libvibe-24-january-2008.html
Design Thinking and Innovation January 23, 2008
Posted by Will in libraries, technology.Tags: design, development, innovation, services
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Everyone should read the article titled “Design Thinking” by Steven J. Bell in this month’s American Libraries (January/February, 2008, pp. 44-49). You can find the article online in ProQuest: here’s a direct link, but you have to authenticate.
The article focuses on applying the design process (understand, observe, visualize, evaluate, refine, implement) in libraries, and in developing new library services. The article is based at least partly on a book, The Art of Innovation, by Tom Kelley and Jonathan Littman, who write about the experience at IDEO, one of the leading design firms in the country.
Why is this a trend for libraries to watch? On the first page of the book, the authors write that “The biggest single trend we’ve observed [in the past decade or so] is the growing acknowledgment of innovation as a centerpiece of corporate strategies and initiatives. What’s more, we’ve noticed that the more senior the executives, the more likely they are to frame their companies’ needs in the context of innovation.”
On pages 6 and 7, they outline the process that Bell lists in his article, the “method to their madness,” which is the “understand, observe, visualize, evaluate, refine, implement” process I listed earlier.
I’ll be reading this book to see what ideas I can adapt as I work on the brand new statewide downloadable audiobooks project, and I’ll post any especially significant insights here on the Trendspotting Blog.
Wikipedia Usage January 3, 2008
Posted by jeff in online tools, technology.1 comment so far
Wikipedia users
4/24/2007 | 
Report | Lee Rainie Bill Tancer
More than a third of American adult internet users (36%) consult the citizen-generated online encyclopedia Wikipedia, according to a new nationwide survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. And on a typical day in the winter of 2007, 8% of online Americans consulted Wikipedia.
