Data as a social space.
A change is happening in how we relate to our documents and data. We’re moving toward using them as social spaces.
At conferences, where the presentations and papers (the “data”) are the ostensible reason for people to be there, I’ve always found the informal exchange (the “social”) much more fun and beneficial. This is now happening online. Here’s some examples of what I mean…
1. Adding a “meebo me” widget to your library home page. Users don’t have to leave the site to connect with a librarian.
2. A “discuss” function in google docs. Ryan, the Other Librarian, and I have been sharing a couple of google docs while we work on a library related something. Last night I noticed the “discuss” tab on a shared spreadsheet and emailed him so we could test it out. While “in” the document, we were chatting, and uploading and amending the document. We could have opened another document and continued our chat there. He’s in Canada, and - while I can pretend to be a jaded, 2.0 kind of gal, used to the way the net has shrunk the world - I still found it novel and it gave me a buzz.
3. A couple of weeks ago I blogged on VLINT about visiting the Michigan Library Consortium’s library in Second Life and climbing all over a 3D graph they had, representing library membership.
4. Distance learning in Second Life. I can imagine a building set up with all the resources needed for a class…links to external sites and cached documents..video presentations available on a player. The difference between that and a tradtional web site is that students can send their avs. to that “place” and see who else is there. While accessing the info, they can discuss their experience of the course and are more likely to ask each other for help once they have made that casual contact. More like the intangible social and academic benefits gained by going to lectures or tutes on campus.
TODAY’S HIPPIE CARD: Up until now
Though I think...
For sure it is amazing how productive Web 2.0 productivity tools can be! It’s this sort of stuff that makes me think cross-national collaborations are possible in research (for me).
Great post. I like some of the enhancements Meebo made to their interface as well. It seemed to me that one of the big barriers to a library using meebo was the difficulty of integrating it into a website color scheme. I think this is possible (or soon will be possible) now.
You also reminded me of my promise to visit SL at least once a month. Up-up-and-away!
Hi Ryan. It would make it sweeter if the colours could be customised…like I could do to the feedburner counter on the sidebar and you can do to a google CSE results search.
A couple days after this post, I wote this one linking to Christian Long’s Future of Learning Manifesto . It tells us that millenials are not impressed by our “penpals in Bangledesh”, they’re kind of used ot it and we should get over it. After 16 years or so on the ‘net, I can still be thrilled by this kind of thing. “Get over it Kathryn”