WLA 2007: The New Media Ecology

The New Media Ecology: How the Growth of the Internet and Cell Phones Have Changed the Way People Deal with Each Other, Receive Information, and Create and Share Media
a presentation by Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, Washington D.C. http://www.pewinternet.org/

Five hallmarks of the new digital ecosystem:

1. media and gadgets are ubiquitous in everyday life
2. the internet -- especially broadband --is at the center of the revolution
3. new gadgets allow people to enjoy media, gather info, and carry on communication anywhere; wireless; mobile devices; the Internet is part of everyday life; no sense of being "online"
   
4. ordinary citizens have a chance to be publishers, movie-makers, artists, song creators, and storytellers
5. different people use these technologies in different ways
   

MySpace and Facebook ="dashboards for social life"

19% of online young adults have created an avatar that interacts with others online
9% of all adult internet users have done this

A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/213/report_display.asp :

• omnivores - they have the most gadgets and services, which they use voraciously to participate and express themselves online, and do a range of Web 2.0 activities
• connectors - they connect to people and manage digital content using internet-connected technology
• lackluster veterans - they have all the gadgets, but they aren't nearly as happy with it as groups 1 and 2; more bothered about the number of interruptions in their life from being connected
• productivity enhancers - willing to use tech in their job, but not in the rest of their lives
• mobile centrics - have a decent array of gadgetry and fully embrace all that their phone can do; "absence presence"
  
• connected but hassled - they're connected, but they really don't like it; find connectivity intrusive and a burden
• inexperienced experimenters - occasionally take advantage of interactivity, the gadgets they have they really like; go with the flow
• light but satisfied - they have some tech, but it doesn't play a central role in their daily lives
• indifferents - proudly anti-technology; find technology annoying
• off the network - have neihter cell phones nor internet access; off the grid

Take the typology "Where Do I Fit?" quiz at http://www.pewinternet.org/quiz/quiz.asp

large low-tech crowd - 49%
small technophile group - 8%

"this is the age of amateur experts"

what does all this connectivity do to us?

• it changes our relationship to information
• it changes our relationship to each other

Life changes in 10 important ways:

1. volume of information grows -- the "long tail" expands
2. velocity of information increases -- "smart mobs" emerge; people learn stuff more quickly through RSS, social networks; instantaneous conversation; word of mouth is a more powerful way to transmit information than mass media
3. venues of intersecting with information and people multiply -- place-shifting and time-shifting occurs; "absent presence" occurs
4. venturing for information changes -- search strategies and search expectations spread in the Google era; librarians get fewer queries that are much more complicated
   
5. vigilance for information transforms -- attention is truncated ("continuous partial attention") and elongated ("deep dives"); multi-tasking more crazily
   
6. valence (relevance) of information improves -- the "daily me" is the customized version of the daily newspaper (RSS feeds, iGoogle, email alerts, etc.); the "daily us" (Facebook groups)
7. vetting of info becomes more "social" -- credibility tests change as people ping their social networks
   
8. viewing of info is dis-aggregated and becomes more "horizontal" -- new reading strategies emerge as coping mechanisms; people scan the abstracts but don't do deep reading as much (a headline-reader)
9. voting on and ventilating about info proliferates -- tagging, rating, and commenting on material is enabled -- collective intelligence emerges
10. inVention of info and the visibility of new creators is enabled -- the read/write Web 2.0 is about participation

Action items:

• think of yourself and your library as a news node for information and interaction -- find a way to be a part of peoples' social networks
• think of yourself as an information hub -- an aggregator and a linker to others who have useful information
• embrace channels of information that feed each other, interact, and blur
• experiment with Web 2.0 applications
• listen to your youngest employees, the "digital natives" who can translate for and teach older "digital immigrants"
• monitor the pushback against technology as a time sink and interruption enabler; become participants in new conversations about etiquette and social norms in the digital age
• become confident in what you already know about how to meet people's reference and entertainment (enlightenment) needs
  
• 
  

Tasha explains Library 2.0 for you

• Menasha Public Library Director Tasha Saecker's Wednesday afternoon presentation, Library 2.0: The Movement Explained, was one of those lively, inspiring conference events that make you walk out thinking to yourself, "I'm sure glad I caught that one!"
  
  She was incredibly engaging and very persuasive in her promotion of this new, customer-oriented approach to library services. The term is a spinoff of Web 2.0, the subject of another breakout session at this conference and, as Tasha explains it, "simply means making your library space - both physical and virtual - more interactive, collaborative, and driven by community needs."
  
  Library 2.0 represents a dramatic departure from the way some of us have traditionally done library service, which explains why we may be reluctant to embrace it, she said. But ultimately, it offers perhaps the best opportunity for librarians to attract more users and make our libraries the community hubs they are meant to be.
  
  Simply defined, Library 2.0 is two-way communication between libraries and the communities they serve. "It's a way of inviting input from the public ... and a lot of us aren't all that used to doing that." It requires flexibility, transparency, openness, decentralized control and participation from all sectors. Common tools include blogs, wikis, instant messaging, email, mashups, social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, and interactive websites. But she stressed that Library 2.0 goes deeper than new technologies.
  
  "It's more about the theory and philosophy and approach that you take with your staff, your patrons and your community," she said. "You can do it even if you're not a techno-geek."
  
  You're still living in the Library 1.0 world if you:
• believe that rules rule (i.e. you find yourself saying "no" to patrons a lot)
• take pride in creating parameters for users (such as "no cell phones in the library")
• see librarians as the experts
• see the library as an "institution" rather than a provider of services
• use technology reluctantly and see it as anti-library
• assume that patrons know nothing

Essential elements of Library 2.0, on the other hand, include:

• User-centered, not library- or librarian-centered service


• Socially rich physical and virtual spaces.


• Communal approaches


• Egalitarian attitudes and behaviors


• More acceptance of non-textual content


• Trust between librarians and the public and between management and staff

She discussed the concept of radical trust, which she said forces acceptance and tolerance. She challenged us to reach out and try to "radically trust" our most irritating, cringe-inducing patrons, hard as that may be. Chances are those people will surprise us, and they may just have the most useful suggestions.

One way to encourage skeptical or reluctant library employees to embrace change is to provide them ample access to technology, and to provide time for them to play with it. Menasha Public Library employees are encouraged to blog and IM each other to communicate, and all are invited to publish on the library's website.

To those who say they just don't have time to experiment with Library 2.0 or learn new technological tools, Tasha says that's only acceptable if you don't care about serving your patrons. We have to meet them where they are, she said, and right now they are already all over the web, leaving some of us behind.

"We promote lifelong learning for our patrons, and we must embrace it as well."

After the session Ms. Seacker consented to a brief interview, which I've posted below. If the video doesn't work, that's either because Google Video's publishing time delay is still in place or (more likely) I missed a step in my uploading process.

Some of us need more time to play than others.

WAPL 2007: Wiretapping the Internet

Wiretapping the Internet: Coming Soon to Your Library's Internet Provider
a presentation by Bob Bocher, Public Library Technology Consultant, Wisconsin Division for Libraries, Technology, and Community Learning

Topics that Bob covered:

• Wisconsin privacy statutes
• Historical background on wiretaps
• Federal DOJ activity
• NSA activity
• PATRIOT ACT and National Security Letters
• Net Neutrality

Any Wisconsin library that's supported by public funds is covered by the Wisconsin Library Privacy Law 43.30. Exemptions to statutory protections:

• consent of individual library user
• court order
• National Security Letters (NSL)
• administration of library services
• Internet browser cache & history
• patron behavior
  

Staff at every level need to know what to do if someone approaches them asking for patron information.

Bob will soon be posting his PowerPoint slides, and I'll link to them from here when they appear.