Anniee’s Weblog

I learned so much in this class. I think that most importantly, I learned that once you play around with all of these Web 2.0 things or even technology in general, nothing seems so scary anymore. I enjoyed getting the time to experiment with my peers with all of these applications without the tension of having to get it right every time.

There is so much room for creativity with Web 2.0, my plan for my next step is to fool around some more with podcasting and I have a goal of posting something on YouTube.com as well. Other than that, I am going to work on my ning account, Michigan Village, for Michiganders who live in Chicago, and try to keep up with my del.icio.us.

As I mentioned in class, I do wish we could have had some more academic writing assignments, but I still learned a great deal with the more informal blogging and intend to keep mine up or maybe even start a new one.  I look forward to continuing learning and trying new things and eventually being comfortable with any tech-savvy assignment a future employer may give me. Thanks for the resume cred Library 2.0!

Both Web 2.0 and the movement of the Baby Boomer generation into retirement represent big changes in our society and most certainly in our libraries but are the two phenomenons more intricately connected to each other? In my paper, I discuss the possibilities that Web 2.0 presents for serving the new senior citizens and whether or not this technology should be the ultimate focus of that service.

Boomers are more active and plan on keeping up with their faster-pace lifestyle both physically and mentally (Dempsey 39, 2007). They will have more leisure time and more money which they will want to spend on travel and other leisure activities.
Also, because boomers want to keep their brains active and are already quite familiar with technology having had to work with computers in their careers, they will want to be able to put their skills to work through new jobs or volunteering. In short, the research shows that Boomers want to work, play, connect, and contribute. My paper states that to meet those demands, we will have to rethink everything from collection development to outreach to basic human interaction and so the answer cannot be as simple as one resource or one technique. Web 2.0, though, can be our right-hand man through it all if we know which ways to apply it.

My paper defines specific Web 2.0 applications such as flickr.com, social networking sites such as eons.com, and user contributed sites such as youtube.com and matches them up with the needs Boomers will have to work, play and contribute.

Here is the link to my del.icio.us account where I tagged interesting articles and web pages!: Let’s Go!

Wow.

Although I can take some pride in the fact that I can keep on top of what the trends are, I am not often a participant in them right away, especially when it comes to new technology. I chose the podcast group because it challenged my user-content savvy as well as because I knew that it was bound to come in handy out in the field.

And come to find out, podcasting is so easy! It was and will continue to be challenging because of the thought that needs to go into content, time, and so forth, and I’m sure that there are elements of the more complex podcast that would take more time to grasp.  But I was so surprised that this activity which I assumed had to be difficult to understand because of the equipment and technology involved, turned out to be quite simple.  In fact, a first-timer’s podcast is almost as simple to make as a Word document.

My group was great and I felt we really learned together, which is maybe why it seemed so easy.  We learned by playing around with different programs and tools and figuring out what worked for us. At the end of the time, I really felt like I could take what I had learned and apply it to a job. It taught me also that, intimidating as things may seem, once you play around with it, screw up a couple times, and get it right a couple times, it’s all cake.  Now I can go on to bigger scarier seeming applications and, hopefully, conquer them as well.

The ad for Sony’s new digital reader is a sleek black board with the slogan: “Sexier than a librarian” written in white letters. You can see a picture of the add as well as Sony’s response to angry librarians on flickr.com and you can also see that its top two tags, even below ’sony’ and ‘library’ are ’sexist’ and ’sexism’.

What this slogan even means I have know clue. Is a digital reader supposed to be sexy? Is your local librarian supposed to be sexy? The digital reader, an object, shows books on a screen. The librarian, a human being, can also show you books on a screen or on a page. He or she can even show you the new Sony Digital Reader, not that I think that is going to happen now.

Just by googling the slogan, hundreds of blogs by librarians and non-librarians pop up with their plans to boycott the item or write Sony a letter. So here are my personal problems with it:

1. The assumption that the librarian is a woman

2. The comparison of the human librarian to the object.

3. Either they are implying the stereotype of the female, old maid librarian who is old fashioned and lacking sex appeal or they are implying the stereotype of the sexy “stripper after her day job” librarian who, try as she may, can’t be as sexy as the machine referred to.

4. The fact that Sony’s response is that it was “tongue in cheek” and that whoever the schmuck that wrote the response was has a cousin who is a librarian which really makes me mad because it’s like those people in bars who tell are racist/homophobic/sexist/ageist/etc. joke and then say, “It’s okay, I have a black/gay/feminist/Grandma/etc. friend!”

5. Again, why are either of these things “sexy”?

Phew, glad I got that off my chest.

You guys probably know that I am writing my paper on Web 2.0 for seniors. While I was doing my research, I came across this 80 year old man who has made 96 YouTube videos in the last year! Probably I am the last to hear about this because he is the most subscribed to person on YouTube.
I just think it is amazing, though, that someone that old has grabbed onto a trend that is geared mostly toward young people. Oakley’s videos started out telling about his life story and he has expanded to create videos where he interviews young people about the relationship with an older generation, issues he reads about in the paper, and even a video about how to introduce other seniors who may fear technology to use computers.
Oakley thanks his readers all the comments (he gets thousands per video) and calls his “fellow YouTubers his friends. He said it has changed his life:“This YouTube experience has been one of the major changes and breakthroughs in my life and given me a whole new world to experience”.
This Englishman also got so much press that he stopped making videos for awhile because he had never meant to bring publicity to himself, only to connect with others through his videos. So great! I think if this man can learn on his own to make videos at 80 and is lovin’ it, imagine what we can do at the library for other seniors who want to tell their story.
Check him out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ6B2qOFp7Y

In a Parade newspaper I found lying on the table during my break at work, the cover showed actor Drew Carey surrounded by gadgets and headlines about how to use technology to manage different parts of your life, for instance, how to meet friends online. The most interesting article, though, was called “You Have the Power” and led the reader through tips on how to influence the political climate and opinions through technology. The advice was pretty old hat: email you Senator! start a blog!; but I did find it interesting that they promoted making your own video or political commercial and posting it through sites such as YouTube. The article stated that a homemade video posted for free could potentially be viewed more times than a paid television ad. Can we say viral? Can we say “Obama Girl”? This is an intriguing concept and something to think about. Will a few videos garner much attention and change minds, soften hardened hearts this presidential election season? Or will the web be flooded with home-videos either mud-slinging or praising candidates? More than that, will it actually change anything? In this day where there is so much content that anyone who believes in anything can find a website that agrees with them, will a Republican sit down to watch a Democratic YouTube debate with the intention of actually reconsidering their stances? Will a left-winger read a right-sing blog and suspend judgment for 200 words? Time will tell. In the meantime, look out for more bikini-clad women lip-synching about their favorite presidential hopeful.

This one doesn’t get interesting until about 2 1/2 minutes in…

Last night, whilst I was cooking dinner, I turned on NPR and came in to the middle of a story about technology and whether it was good or bad for us. I have searched and searched and I cannot find this story online or else I would add a link. I could wirte a whole separate blog about how hard it is to find a story when you don’t know the name of the show. So here’s what the story was about:

After a meeting about people addicted to the Internet, a journalist decided to go a certain amount of time (I think a week, gosh, I need to remember more details while I’m cutting broccoli) without using the Internet for any sort of contact or information. Another man went another unspecified amount of time using all Internet for all his contacts or information.  The first gentlemen found it very freeing to be rid of that dependency and found that, after awhile, the urge to look something up the easy way dissappeared.  The second man found himself disconnected from society, except (and this is the interesting part that took so long to get to) when he had been on Second Life for a few days and found himself forgetting that he was not fac to face with the person he was speaking with.

Okay, so once I do find the feed to this show I will link it up and this story will make much much more sense, but I thought it was an interesting study on both sides of the spectrum and something that we need to keep in mind for libraries. I don’t think we need to cast aside all technology or give up our beloved books in favor of virtual libraries. It is somewhere in the middle and all we have to do is find that balance for our specific community. Good? Good. Now let me eat my broccoli.