Practicing what many a technology pundit preaches, the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) used a number of social networking tools to conduct its Top Technology Trends forum yesterday.
A web-based poll of LITA blog readers in July was used by emcee Maurice York (N. Carolina State University) to lead the expert panel in a discussion of trends to watch.
Results of the LITA Poll
The event was video-streamed live, and both remote and local audience members commented throughout the event, within the LITA blog.
The running blog script, which also includes a stream of messages posted by audience members using Twitter, contains some gems, though, as these things go, you may need to mine for them.
Participants and remote observers commented throughout the forum
To search our your own nuggets in the thread, access the session blog/Twitter archive within the LITA blog.
Greg Schwartz: Tips to manage your identity: Own your username (look at checkusernames to see if your name has been taken). Join the conversation (if the conversation is about you, you need to say something). Listen to what others are saying about you (follow your username). Be authentic (connect your digital identity with your real one).
Amanda Clay Powers: Teaches 2.0 in Mississippi. Social networks are just another way to let people tell their stories. Disconnect between what people know and don’t know. Why are librarians are on social networks? Creating and managing identity is tied into information management and metadata. Our place is to educate people about what they’re doing with information about themselves. Facebook – upper left hand has feeds that you can manage to control what you see – privacy settings for profile.
Sarah Houghton-Jan: Library social network profiles: managing your identity as a library. Sarah’s Rules: Identity: Register with uniform user names, Register with uniform generic email, Profile information on site should be current. Communication: Quick replies to users’ messages, Personal in tone when posting, speaking, Keep it open to everyone. What not to do: Identity: Register with random strange usernames, Register with individual emails, Outdated profile informaiotn. Communication: Slow ow no replies to users, Institutional in tone, Restricting access. Watch our for over- and under-management. Look at CheckUsernames.com, Open ID and ClaimID, Ping.fm or Hellowtet, AtomKeep.
Michael Porter: Making sure that WebJunction’s presence on social networks is appropriate and there. He’s LibraryMan. Online resume for the company. Search Twitter for WebJunction. Flickr pictures. Photos of swag. Tweet about workshop. Show personality through photos. But don’t be too goofy because might be interpreted as insensitive. Have fun with tools. Don’t post nearly naked pictures. Do share success stories. Don’t put embarassing pictures.
Start of conversation. Should you have separate identities for personal and professional uses? They will bleed together over time. Functionality is more important than brand. What happens when your boss friends you? Your personal identity and your professional identity are intertwined. You don’t have to post everything. Creating institutional profiles versus personal profiles. Apps you can add to institutional identity on Facebook. Cross pollinating from one social network site to another is important for marketing your library.
Marydee
Marydee Ojala
Editor, ONLINE: Exploring Technology & Resources for Information Professionals
Lee Rainie, Director Pew Internet & American Life Project, starting to discuss some new research on how people are using social networks. He’s already put up his slides on the Pew website. You can follow him on Twitter @lrainie. Now he’s mentioning hash tags and I’m sure hoping people will use #cil09 not what he’s recommending, which is #cil2009 (that’s an extra 2 characters). He’s searching Twitter on the hash tag #cil2009 to show who’s live tweeting.
Latest data (2008) on “internet is the asteroid” – 75% of adults use internet, 5% have broadband at home, 6% connect wirelessly, and over 53% use “cloud” (whatever that is). The ecosystem has changed in terms of volume/variety of info. Changes behavior of searchers. Plus, there’s more stuff (velocity speeds up). You can experience media when you want to and where you want to. Time and place shifting. You can dig more deeply into subjects (his data shows this is particulary important for health questions) but there’s also a contraction in vigilance for information (people set up more rigorous screenings). It’s continuous partial attention. Media is immersive — and ‘we ain’t seen nothing yet’ — think virtual worlds. Changes how people interact with media. Improvements in relevance will lead to “The Daily Me” (that comes from the MIT Media Lab from years ago). There’s more information voices and info is more findable. Half of adults are content creators, 75% of teens have. Voting and ventilating are enabled. You can make your own preferences known in the world and can add their own tags, ranking and rating interactions with institutions. Social networks are most vivid. People are falling back on ‘real’ social networks. When they encounter new things, they ping their networks.
Personal activitis and media have joined together. Institutions can be nodes in peoples’ social networks, be reliable information sense makers.
Behold Homo Connectus, a brand new species, which has different expectations about access to information, changes in place and distance affects how people view interactions with others. There are more opportunities to play.
New tech-user typology: He’s showing data Pew released last Thursday. Did inventory on what gadgets they used, actions they did with those gadgets, and their attitudes toward their gadgets. The latter is really important. 39% are motivated by mobility, while the rest (61%, if your math is shaky) are tied to stationary media. Wireless encourages content creation. The stationary group have technology as more peripheral in their lives (they’ve plateaued in internet use).
5 groups in each. Those who are motivated by mobility: 1. Digital collaborators (8% of population) lead the pack, top of the food chain, geek squad, cutting edge of technology adopters (the ones who are tweeting right now about Rainie). But they’re GenX not GenY. They’re influencers. (I’m looking at the people sitting in the front of the room with laptops open and we meet Rainie’s demographics for this particular demographic.) 2. Ambivalent networkers (7%) resemble group 1, but not so sure about all this, expres worry about connectivity and want to take a break from technology. They feel obligated to be always on, but they’d rather not. It’s younger, male-dominated, and texters rather than emailers. 3. Media movers (7%) send links all the time to snapshots and YouTube videos. Information sharing is social currency. It’s non-work sharing, though. 4. Roving nodes (9%) actively manage social and work lives using mobile device. They love email and are mainly women. Help them be efficient is how you reach this group and teach them about cloud apps. 5. Mobile newbies (8%) just got mobile device and its a conversion experience. Cell phone is central gadget in lives, but don’t necessarily use internet. They need tech support, how to materials, coacing and mentoring.
Stationary media majority: 1. Desktop veterans (13%) want to sit at their desks and surf the internet. All they need is a good connection. 2. Drifting surfers (14%) are “just not into it.” Their attitudes toward technology have worsened. 3. Information encumbered (10%) are really mad; they don’t like what technology does to their lives. Feel overloaded rather than extra productive. Minds blow up with gadgets don’t work. They need a hug. Offer them sanctuary. 4. Tech indifferent (10%) can take it or leave it. Might need basic tutorial, internet 101. 5. Off the network (14%) speaks for itself. They see no lifestyle improvements with technology. Newfangled stuff just doesn’t work for them.
Checking in with the Twittershere to see who’s said what.
Roles for libraries in friending activities.
1. Pathways to problems solving information – be validator
2. Pathways to personal enrichment – “most lovely thing about libraries” libraries as life enhancer
3. Pathways to entertainment
4. Pathways to new kinds of social networks built around people, media, and institutions – help folks build communities
5. Pathways to the wisdom of crowds, so you fill in your own future here …
Use hashtag to participate in new worlds of social networks.
Marydee Ojala
Editior, ONLINE: Exploring Technology & Resources for Information Professionals
