Week 1

This blog is my learning log for the NSW public libraries Learning 2.0 program. Each week I will be commenting on the exercises that I do, what I have learned from them and how I can see the implications for libraries.

The first week's exercise was to watch two videos on Web 2.0.

The first, Mike Wesch's The Machine is [Using] Us video, blows my mind every time I watch it. I like the ethnographic approach - emersing yourself in the culture that you are studying. Whenever I discuss Web 2.0 with those who doubt its effectiveness in the library world, I can't help but think about Wesch's approach. How can we understand the relevance of new technology and new social behaviour unless we are ourselves familiar with it?

I love that he says in the video that we will have to rethink copyright, privacy, intellectual property, governance etc, but is not negative about this. One of the reasons that I find Web 2.0 exciting is that in a way it makes the internet utopian, a permissive space that allows all people to contribute equally, to free up information and create the beginnings of a new society. What we do on the internet will change society and the way we live our lives, but we have the power and the ability to contribute to those changes.

The second video contained Stephen Fry talking about Web 2.0 and the implications for culture and entertainment. I would have liked to hear a bit more about tagging and the organisational aspect of Web 2.0 content in the Stephen Fry video, because this is where we as the users really have power to make the content that is available relevant and useful, but realise that he was talking about another aspect of the phenomenon.

Next week I will talk about what I hope to get out of this training.

Readers Advisory suggestion for todays exercise: Pattern Recognition by William Gibson.