Web 2.0 - Setting the stage

Slide 1: Setting the stage for Web 2.0 Phil Bradley Internet Consultant philb@philb.com

Slide 2: What is this ‘2.0’ stuff? • Web 2.0 is a term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applications to end users. Ultimately Web 2.0 services are expected to replace desktop computing applications for many purposes. – Wikipedia entry

Slide 3: Yes… and? • It’s a platform • It harnesses collective intelligence • Data can be used and re-used in many ways • Users are directly involved with development • It’s not limited to a single device • A rich user experience – Tim O’Reilly ‘What is Web 2.0?’

Slide 4: Yes… but? • “It’s vacuous marketing hype” • “Web 2.0 is totally silly” • “Meaningless” • “is made entirely of pretentious self serving morons.” • “a lot of thin but very hot air blown at you by those who are convinced that having nothing to say is by no means a good reason to shut up.”

Slide 5: So what do I think?

Slide 6: •I don’t care!

Slide 7: Seriously… • I want things that work • That allow me to do a job better • More quickly • More effectively • Easier • So… let’s look at what we can do, starting with better ways of doing what we do now

Slide 8: Let’s go through a normal day • Updates and news on your subject areas of interest • Checking to see if any pages have changed since you last looked at them • Re-running searches for new information

Slide 9: RSS is your friend

Slide 10: News reports from the BBC

Slide 11: Watching pages

Slide 12: Searching with MSN

Slide 13: Incorporate that into your work

Slide 14: Bookmarking • Limited to a specific machine • Not informative • Difficult to find what you wan • Inflexible • Cannot easily share bookmarks

Slide 16: What are the alternatives? • Del.icio.us • Diigo • Raw Sugar …

Slide 17: You can: • Share your bookmarks – Between computers – Between colleagues – Between users • Create bookmark sets – To supplement projects – To assist users • Annotate (or tag) bookmarks

Slide 18: More options • FURL • SPURL • SQUIDOO – All ‘bookmarks on speed’ – Indepth collections of your own material – Not just limited to the URL or tags – More flexibility

Slide 20: Talking to users • Face to face – Excellent, but limited • Telephone – Good, but limited • Email – Good, but limited • Written – I have no idea!

Slide 21: Consider Instant Messaging • Always on • Always available • Can demonstrate an online search with Messenger • Easy to point to/link to resources • Incorporate video for face to face element

Slide 22: Creating communities 1 • Start or Community pages – GROU.PS • Share bookmarks, files, photographs, weblogs, locations, to do lists – almost anything! – Plum • As above

Slide 23: Creating communities 2 • Share photographs with Flickr et al – A record of an event – A tour around the library – An introduction to/for staff – Popularising the library – Create fun things • Posters • Trading cards

Slide 24: Creating communities 3 • Create your own search engines – Rollyo – Eurekster Swicki • For general use • For specific topics • For specific groups

Slide 25: Creating communities 4 • Create your own wiki – Peanut Butter wiki – Jotspot • Allow users to add content, edit, amend etc • Your users become your colleagues • Your colleagues become your publishing partners

Slide 26: Creating communities 5 • Weblogs – Update colleagues and users – A central repository of information – A resource to be repackaged and recombined elsewhere (eg on a home page) – A place to add your Swicki – Links to other useful resources – Outreach

Slide 27: Collaborate • On documents - Writely • On spreadsheets - NumSum • With calendars - Planzo • With training - Jybe • With projects – MyWebDesktop • With To Do lists – TaDaList • With webpages – Conversate

Slide 28: Discover things! • New books – Chainreading • New music – Pandora • Movies - Liveplasma

Slide 29: Podcasting and Video • Create aural presentations • Fun, new, easy to create • Update users on the latest library news • Library tours • Create video presentations, share them on YouTube

Slide 30: In summary • Outreach, outreach, outreach • Users become partners • Librarians become facilitators • The library becomes a publisher • Information becomes dynamic • Change should be embraced • Take control!

Slide 31: Thank you for listening! • Phil Bradley • http://www.philb.com • philb@philb.com • http://www.philbradley.typepad.com/ • http://philbradley.typepad.com/i_want_to/