Rambling Librarian :: Incidental Thoughts of a Singapore Liblogarian

My journey towards bicycling zen (or, "How I am overcoming my fear of riding on the roads")

2012-05-20T23:49:00.002+08:00

I've been hitting the roads and Park Connectors on a foldable bike the past four Sundays, thanks to the cycling friends at ZenDogs 2.0.

My initiation ride was 57km.

Prior to that, I had stopped cycling for about two years. After that 57km ride, I got such a kick I continued for another three straight weeks thereafter.

Recently I've even taken time off from work to cycle and explore my neighbourhood. Or just cycle down to visit my parents (they live about 10km away).

It's been a blast so far, to say the least. I'm seeing familiar places with new perspectives. And discovering new vistas of Singapore that I would not have seen on my own.

I get to meet people, new and old (talk about community-bonding). I see my aging parents a lot more often, as I make it a point to drop by their place on most rides. I'm not surprised that my recent blood pressure reading has gone down from borderline-high to normal.

WHAT MADE ME JOIN THE GROUP
Two years ago I rode on my neighbourhood PCN quite regularly. But quickly got bored of that. The PCN near my home wasn't (and still isn't) fully connected with other PCNs. After some months, each ride on my neighbourhood PCN felt like I was a hamster powering a wheel that turned but got nowhere. I could ride on pavements but pavements are for pedestrians after all.

In short, I craved to see outside my neighborhood.

DECONSTRUCTING & TACKLING MY 'FEAR' OF THE ROADS
Before I joined my cycling friends, I had to overcome my fear of riding on roads.

Even though I was assured that the Sunday morning traffic would be light and the group would avoid busy roads, I still had concerns. "Fear" might be too strong a word. I am not paralysed into inaction. Just that there was a nagging sense of self-doubt and uncertainty about riding on roads with traffic. I've ridden on roads when I was younger. But I was never properly educated on the Dos and Don'ts. Now that I'm much older, I'm less reckless or perhaps more risk adverse.

The root cause for me was not being 100% sure how I should behave as a cyclist on the road. That uncertainty translated into being a danger to myself and to others. It was that sense of 'danger' that made me hesitant.

TURNING POINT
One step towards joining my cycling friends (I knew their routes took them on roads) was when Kevin assured me they had road safety in mind at all times. That much I was convinced, as the core group of riders were my friends. It also helped that I knew them as friends first, rather than cyclists. They were a thoughtful and considered bunch.

I've also read their cycling adventures and escapades from time to time -- dutifully documented by Siva.

Actually, those two posts with the "thrills and spills" should have discouraged me from joining them! But they made me think of why cycling accidents might have happened. Probably because of:

Insufficient physical preparation and/ or fitness of the cyclist (fatigue)
Insufficient practice on handling the bicycle (the senses can't cope with too many new variables)

That helped me identify areas that I needed to work on.

From that first 57km initiation ride to the last one (fourth ride), I've distilled the learning points into what I'd pretentiously call a 'FRAMEWORK FOR CYCLING ZEN', roughly in accordance to the ease of preparing for them:

Equipment readiness (including road safety gear, cycling gear)
Physical conditioning (fitness and balance)
Mental conditioning (including road safety)

In the next few posts, I'll blog about my preparation in tackling the roads, and to be able to join the ZenDogs for their 60-plus km rides.

p.s. If you've been following my blog regularly (I know there's maybe one or two of you), you'll be asking why I seem to have shifted from blogging about librarianship to cycling. Why not? There's much to read and learn about cycling. And this blog is about how I'm educating myself, and sharing in the process. :)

Dear Tern Bicycles: I love your Link P9 but...

2012-05-11T02:06:00.001+08:00

Bought a Tern Link P9 foldable bicycle about four weeks ago. Just posted to the Tern Bicycles forum:

[thread starts here]
Link P9 chain falls constantly
Same problem here. Got my P9 about 4 weeks ago. Rode it slow first week and never went on gear 9. Then second, third and fourth week, I rode with my friends on the roads and park connectors. Each ride, the chain would drop at the front. Each ride, at least once. What's consistent is the drop occurring when I engage 8th to 9th gear.

I took the P9 to the retailer for a check. The bike tech spent an hour trying to fix the problem. I have no reason to doubt his skills. In the end, it was a compromise. The chain tended to pop out but he lowered the top plastic piece near enough to make sure it guides the chain back. Is the P9 designed like this? I'm not sure.

I asked if I could trade the P9 back to offset and get a P18 (I'm still a Tern fan!) but was told not possible. Which disappointed me. A lot. I now ride with a sense of uncertainty with my P9, which I really adore if not for the chain drop problem. And frankly I don't feel safe riding on the roads now.

Tern Bicycles please do something about this. I wanted to sell my P9 even taking a loss but cannot do so without feeling guilty. Feel like I'm passing on a defective bike. And could you make my Christmas come early? Please convince my dealer to accept my P9 as a trade-in so that I can buy the P18. As I mentioned, I'm still your fan. But right now I'm also telling people not to get the P9 at all. Until Tern manages to address the problem.

I'm still a fan of Tern foldies. But less so of the P9 now. If they can help me with my P9 and/ or help me get a trade-in, I'd be their raving fan.

P. Krishnan: His literary Journey

2012-04-13T12:58:00.000+08:00

Now that I'm with the National Library (office is at the NL building, Victoria Street), I get to see all the exhibitions that have been put up for the public. I also thought I should 'archive' them or at least have a simple pictorial record that they once existed. Hence this blog post.

Here's an exhibition that will end on 22 Apr, 2012: "P. Krishnan: His literary Journey".

P. Krishnan is one of Singapore’s illustrious Literary Pioneers who writes under the pseudonym of Puthumaithasan. Focusing on social issues, his writings are peppered with a tinge of sarcasm and a dash of comedy. Visitors to this exhibition will have a chance to listen to excerpts of his famous radio play “Adukkuveetu Annasamy”, about life in the HDB heartlands as well as view excerpts from the Tamil adaptation of the TV drama, Macbeth. This showcase is an opportunity for the younger generation to know about this pioneer and appreciate his contributions to Singapore Tamil literature.

Date: Saturday Mar 10, 2012 - Sunday Apr 22, 2012
Time: 10:00 AM - 09:00 PM
Venue: Level 9 - Promenade in National Library Building
Lang: English

Source: golibrary.nlb.gov.sg/Exhibitions/41106/P__Krishnan__His_literary_Journey.aspx (last accessed 13 Apr 2012)

iremember my childhood: Being caned by my father

2012-04-01T02:54:00.000+08:00

For the Singapore Memory Project. I guess it's really for myself:

(Original Twitter sequence has been edited slightly)

"@ramblinglib: As a kid, being canned by pa almost every day. For slightest thing. Didn't know why but resolved not to show emotions #sgMemory”

“@ramblinglib: The caning was so bad I had obvious welt marks. One day in Pri Sch a nurse asked how I got it. I kept quiet #sgMemory”

“@ramblinglib: In pri sch, when pa came home I'd pretend to be asleep. So that he won't have any excuse to cane me #sgMemory”

“@ramblinglib: After some time, my strategy was to remain still & let pa cane me. I discovered in doing so, he relented faster #sgMemory”

“@ramblinglib: One time the caning got so bad I imagined myself going to the tallest block in AMK and jumping #sgMemory”

“@ramblinglib: Obviously I didn't jump. My left brain got the better of my right #sgMemory”

“@ramblinglib: I remember being scorned by pa as a kid. He said I was fat and lazy. That hurt. #sgMemory”

“@ramblinglib: As a teen, I refused to speak to my pa unless i had to. I started to defy & rebel in silent ways #sgMemory”

“@ramblinglib: Strangely my pa mellowed & took in all my teen defiance with stride. He took it in & gave me space #sgMemory”

“@ramblinglib: After NS I asked my pa if we had money to send me to study overseas. He asked how much. I told him. He said don't have that money #sgMemory”

“@ramblinglib: Pa asked if there was another way. I told him how much for local external degree. He wrote me the cheque immediately #sgMemory”

“@ramblinglib: In spite of being canned by pa & hating him then, one thing he never did was abandon his family responsibilities. Thanks pa #sgMemory”

“@ramblinglib: Decades later, after i got married, my pa said sorry. Said he also didn't know why he took out his anger on me #sgMemory”

“@ramblinglib: The day I saw my pa lying in the hospital bed, after a stroke, was the day I couldn't hate him anymore #sgMemory”

“@ramblinglib: My pa http://t.co/LB9WVUNa He's now 77 #sgMemory”

“@ramblinglib: My pa will probably never get to read these tweets. I'll never have courage to say it to him F2F. This is my catharsis #sgMemory”

Full story:
I suppose it was this tweet that made me remember a particular childhood episode, when I was around 10 years old. Remembering about my father and a period where he seemed to viciously cane me for the slightest reason.

My father used the thin rattan cane (the defacto tool of corporal discipline Asian parents used at that generation). It wasn't just "tough parental love", for the frequency of me being caned was almost daily. My younger brother and sister were spared mostly, I recalled.

I can't remember how long that caning went. I'm not sure when it stopped. I still recall pretending to be asleep when I heard my father come home. So that he won't find an excuse to cane me.

The caning was serious enough to break skin, result in bleeding and noticeable welts. Bad enough that my mum had to apply some ointment to cover up the broken skin. I would go to school with visible cane marks.

When I was 10, my father was in his 40s (he was considered to have married late, for his generation). My father was a strong man. And it didn't help that I was an emotionally sensitive child. At 10 years old, I once even thought of ending my life just to spite him.

My father seemed to have focused his anger on me. I was not naughty as a child at all. I attended school, came straight home, did my homework, never talked back to my elders (kids my generation were spoken of, but not spoken to). OK I cant say I was a perfect child, but I was far from being a bad one.

In truth, my father was not a cruel man. He was generous to his friends, our neighbours, and our relatives. Maybe that was why it hurt me, in more than the physical sense. The 10 year old me never understood why he couldn't be generous and forgiving to his own firstborn.

There were negative consequences, in that I deliberately became a very morose and serious child. I remember "experimenting" with not saying anything to my father for days. Days became weeks. And then it became natural.

In my teenage years, that refusal to talk to my father (other than functional statements) became little rebellious acts. Part of it was the teen angst and the onset of hormonal changes. One time, it occured to me why young lions were chased out of the pride. They would otherwise kill the top male lion, their sire, because there was no room to maneuvour.

My father and I didn't have a destructive relationship but we were never close. I knew he tried to be better towards me, and there was an episode where I was very gateful to him for supporting my contiuning education. But even so, my feelings towards him never quite swung completely towards the good. There was always that shadow of resentment.

It took decades before those childhood scars could truly start healing. One poignant point was when my father said something close to an apology for that childhood caning episode. A self-admission.

I was with my wife and my parents, at a hawker centre eating desserts. My parents were in their 60s by then. I had moved out of my parent's apartment after getting married. It was a home visit with my wife.

We talked about how some things had changed, or remained the same, in the neighbourhood. My father started sharing, with my wife, how I was as a child: that I liked to draw and read. He remembered that I was a good boy, even as a toddler.

Out of the blue, he said how at one point he would come home and cane me for any reason. He was not sure why he was that angry. A part of him knew he had been too harsh. And yet he could not stop himself and he continued to take his anger out on me. He recalled not caning me only when he saw me asleep (when I heard that, I had goosebumps -- and I also secretly congratulated myself for displaying some smarts as a 10 year old).

With his relevation, or confession even, there came an awkward pause.

There was my father, sounding apologetic. All my life, I've not seen that side of him. I looked at my wife. I looked anywhere except at my father. I said nothing then, or after.

I guess this is my way of saying it now.

P.S. Perhaps to you reading this, I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. Strange that I cannot speak of this with my father now. All I can say is that the resentment has been real for much of my life.

It's not so traumatic that I can't talk about it. I just can't talk to my father of it. Or won't. In truth, there is cowardice and irrational fear at work. I fear that I would cry, and he would cry. Or maybe it all doesn't matter now, and I'm merely post this to share a (good) story.

Whatever it is, it's been enough that I know my father knows. And vice versa. That's as good as I wish for things to be.

Remembering ECP McDonald’s

2012-03-25T03:09:00.000+08:00

This served as a draft for this blog post I wrote for work, i.e. for the Singapore Memory Project:

"Remembering a place like a fast food outlet is overdoing the whole nostalgia thing, isn’t it?"

No it isn't, IMO.

Not all places are equal in terms of hertiage value. But to think that it is merely about nostalgia is to miss the point.

My colleague, Yeong Chong, said it best in the Colourbars Media clip:

The danger in thinking that a place like McDonald’s is not worth remembering is that these are the places you spent your formative years in. They actually form a stronger foundation for your personhood than a religious or heritage site that you may have only known about through history textbooks.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to remember a McDonald’s outlet.

Nostalgia isn’t about objectivity. It is about us celebrating the personal experiences that make up who we are.

It struck me that in a world that we have less control over, it is some people’s attempt to create despite what is about to be lost, as more important.

So what if it romanticises? Don’t all myths, legends and stories do that?

And I think there is nothing wrong -- and everything right -- in remembering what has been good.

Blast from the Past: My presentation on "Web 2.0 & library services to young adults: An introduction"

2012-03-18T19:24:00.002+08:00

Yikes. This is a really late post. Back in June 2011, I gave a presentation at the 5th National Library for Children & Young Adults Symposium, 2011, South Korea. The symposium was held at Duksan Resom Resort, South Korea.

OK, so this is a "blast from the past" post then.

Here's my presentation, which was an update and also an extension of this 2009 IFLA document of the same title. The organisers found that document and wanted me to present a condensed version.

Web 2.0 & library services to young adults: An introduction

View more presentations from Ivan Chew.

It might have sounded easy. Just reduce the original 78-pages to 30mins and deliver what's in the paper, right?

Umm, that would bore the heck out of me if I were the audience. So while in the plane to Seoul, I was still thinking about how to deliver the 30min talk. I wanted to be able to "tell a story" in a practical way. So I delivered what one of the delegate described later as a "workshop-style" talk.

The essence of my talk was how a Web 2.0. approach and mindset could be applied to librarians serving teens. But the presentations I enjoy are those that "told a story". And in the end, after brainstorming with a colleague, I did just that. I shared what I thought was a possible "day in the life of" a Teens Services librarian, straddling between online and offline engagement efforts.

My ego received a little boost when I was told it was like a TED talk. Heh.

It was also the first time I presented using an iPad. It was a calculated risk, as I've not delivered a talk using the iPad. I'd seen it used as a presentation tool but never actually used it. I rehearsed in the iPad, mentally went through backup plans. Arranged to test the iPad connection with their presentation equipment the day before my speaking slot. Phew, it worked beautifully.

So much so that I was confident enough, by then, to even take a "live" picture of the attendees. I directed my iPad camera towards them as the iPad was hooked up to the projector. The audience saw their "live" video capture on screen. Neat (it worked to start the 'show', as I could see the attendees smiling and being amazed -- and South Koreans were pretty IT-savvy folks!)

What was new for me as a presenter was having a simultaneous translation (in Korean) of my talk. Luckily, I chatted with the translators the day before. They advised me that I should just deliver my talk normally, as in I should not try to wait for them to catch up between words. It was easier for them if my pace of speaking was consistent (not too fast nor too slow). I did what they advised and it worked well. Trust the experts, I say!

In preparing for my talk, I had excellent help from Daryl Tay, who pointed to this excellent source of information on Digital Media stats in South Korea (I understand it was initiated by Prof Netzley).

I also got in touch with Creative Commons contacts in South Korea, who gave me a concise background on the social media and IP scene in South Korea. Not directly applicable in my talk in the end, but gave me that additional layer of verification and background information.

My Facebook post also drew several good suggestions from friends (rats, I can't seem to find that Facebook thread).

Here's a very nice quote from Shel, that I didn't get to use at the presentation:

I had a fantastic time. The South Korean organisers were (famously) excellent hosts and the programme was also one of the better ones I've attended.

Related post:
Your ideas on "Using social media as part of library services for Children or Teens", 1 June 2011.

Behind the scenes: Towards the launch of the Singapore Memory Project's flagship portal, SingaporeMemory.sg

2012-02-28T13:01:00.001+08:00

[Views expressed here are strictly my own. I am straddling between writing in my personal capacity, as well as my official role as the head for Digital Engagement for the project. Just so you know :)]

By tomorrow, all the intense efforts for the past six months (in developing the website) will come to fruition The flagship website for the Singapore Memory Project will finally be unveiled.

Before its official launch, there will be a pre-launch party. It's called a "party" for good reason. If you didn't sign up for the party, you'll probably have to read about it later :)

The publicity efforts for the party was two-prong: social media channels and the "traditional" way.

The traditional way was to write formal invites to specific people, such as e representatives of partner agencies and VIPs. The social media way, which my team was responsible for, had a more organic approach.

SOCIAL MEDIA INVITES
Our overall "framework" started off with a target in mind, as well as specific aims for inviting people. We set a target of 40 guests invited through social media circles (a check around suggested the average turnout for 'blogger events' was about 20 people).

We didn't want to limit to just "bloggers". I've probably mentioned it before (haven't I?) that in today's context, if you are active on Facebook, you're practically a 'blogger' in a general sense. We referred to our social media guests as 'social media users'.

CONSIDERATIONS
The main criteria was that they were active in their respective social media circles. We had some guidelines, though not hard rules on what was 'active'. They certainly need not be Singaporeans only. The project was not limited to citizens.

We sought out active social media users, particularly those who were seen to be enthused about heritage and memory-like activities. We felt such guests would also be more likely to be comfortable with our portal. If all worked out well, we would like guests to be one of the first few people in Singapore (nay, the world!) to create a 'Memory Account' and publish a memory there.

There were a few key influencers and social media guests in mind. We had already been in touch with a few of them in the preceding months. Our team members intuitively understood that we had to cultivate relationships early on.

Invited guests included people like (what I call) the hardcore heritage bloggers. Then there were the active Hertiage groups on Facebook's, as well as enthusiasts on twitter. These specific people, we wrote personal emails/ messages to them.

They weren't a focus group as such. We'd already conducted a few runs for that purpose weeks earlier.

THE CALL
Then we issued an open call for registrants to the party.

This was also an experiment, where we tried both Evenbrite and Facebook event page.

SNEAK PEAKS
Concurrently, a series of 'Sneak Peeks' were posted:

~~Sneak Peeks (Part 1)~~
~~Sneak Peeks (Part 2)~~
~~Sneak Peeks (Part 3)~~

Update: The posts have been consolidated into one post, with a refresh of the iRememberSG blog.

I would have liked to provide a set of "social media press kits", made available online. But details of the portal and the party was still pretty fluid at that time. Everyone was working on very, very tight deadlines. The Sneak Peeks was, I suppose, the next best thing we could offer.

The 'sneak peeks' was also our way of answering the question, "Why should I attend the pre-launch party?". I know I would ask that question if I were on the receiving end.

Rather than answer that question directly, I guess we presumed users could assess for themselves from the sneak peeks.

The posts also served to ease the regular iRemember.SG visitors into the upcoming portal. One obvious question to address was the difference between the SingaporeMemory.sg portal and the iRemember.SG site. As explained from Sneak Peek, Part 3:

As many of your will remember, the irememberSG blog began as our placeholder for stories submitted from the public. It was indeed an honour to be featured during the National Day Rally speech on 14 Aug 2011, and PM Lee Hsien Loong shared memories from James Seah and Muhammad Raydza as captured here. Six months on, we have taken some of our users' feedback for a more readable site and the ability to submit memories and view them instantaneously.

As already mentioned last week, we will port the memory submission and display functions to the new Singapore memory portal, while irememberSG will evolve into a staff blog. Here's how it will look like:

REACTIONS TO THE PARTY INVITES
From my own experience organising meetups for creative commons Singapore, theres always -- always -- a sense of trepidation and uncertainty when issuing open invites. The very human fear was that no one would give a hoot about your event.

But we were quickly assured that there was some positive response.

Within two hours of posting the open invite in twitter and Facebook, about ten people signed up on their own accord. About half were NLB staff, but they were not involved in the project. They signed up as guests, not as staff. It's nice when co-workers -- outside of the project -- show interest in it.

We didn't stop at that just posting the online invites. There was more work to be done.

My colleagues and I started issuing individual messages in ernest. I posted to several groups, and had help from a very active memory corp volunteer and a Hertiage influencer to get one foot into the group.

I can't really track when was the exact tipping point, if any. My colleague might have a day to day statistical report of the signups. We might analyse that a little more closely when we have time. I think we had very gradual steay daily build ups. The twitter community was fast and sort of peaked within two or three hours. Im not sure if there was a long tail. Seeing my RTs, I think it might have gotten three days worth of publicity before the tweets we overwhelmed.

The last count I was told was ~~150~~ 219 unique individuals signed up. Just under 10 days after announcing the event via online channels. I must say part of the positive response is for the project itself. There's a certain draw to something like a national memory initiative.

Nonetheless, pretty good results for a fledging social media unit of the project.

Even if half don't show up, we would still have a very good crowd. I thought at least we reached our to those who had sign up, and they might have passed the message onwards indirectly.

This is just the start of a an ongoing relationship, for sure.

HAIRY & AUDACIOUS
The scale of the project is huge. For one, there's a hairy and audacious goal of five million memories to be collected by 2015.

Given its scale, the team behind the project is also a large one, where project teams go in the NLB. Just to give you a peek (and also my way of acknowledging the unsung heroes and heroines):

There's another team working on marketing, publicity, and partnerships.

My team of four are responsible for the web development for the portal as well as a mobile app. Even so, we're really cogs in the larger machine. We're not web developers or coders.

There's another inter-divisional team comprising of a Information Solutions Architect, a web project manager, a mobile app project manager, an IT project manager who in turns manages a team of about ten coders.

Then there are colleagues working on legal documentation, liaison with our funding ministry, interfacing with NLB senior management.

The Singapore Memory project is the most ambitious project I've been involved. Certainly a most meaningful one. Or else I wouldn't have volunteered for it.

Dealing with negative comments in social media

2012-02-12T22:00:00.000+08:00

Ever since joining the Singapore Memory Project full-time in Nov 2011, I've been taking a closer look at social media strategies.

Being a social media practitioner, as I had for the past seven years, does not necessarily make me a good "social media strategist". It definitely helped that I was "part of the scene" but that did not automatically mean I could instantly formalise plans and approaches to fit a broader perspective.

It took me a few weeks of thinking, reading, and bouncing ideas with the team. I've paid closer attention to articles and posts relating to social media plans, strategies and so on. I intend to share more about my thoughts of the social media plan for the Singapore Memory Project. But that'll be for later posts.

Today, I came across this post today (hat-tip to @criagthomler), which led me to this diagram on the "8 responses to criticisms in online communities", by Laurel Papworth.

NegativeComments in Social Media. CC-CY-NC-ND. Originally uploaded by Laurel Papworth.

I thought the diagram summed up the various scenarios beautifully. A fuller explanation is at her post.

Here's the eight approaches to negative online comments, according to Laurel's (I've paraphrased them somewhat):

Ignoring the negative commenter
Taking legal measures
Attempt to deflect the negative comment to a positive one
Remove and/ or ban the commenter
Attempt to educate the commenter
Adopt a confessionary/ apologetic tone
Defend the organisation's position
Use humour; adopt a self-depreciative stand

FORMAL VS INFORMAL
Approach one through five involves more of the formal organisational tone, while six to eight shifts the tone towards a more personable one. That's according to the diagram. Which made sense, though I think in practice, the "Formal Organisational Tone" and "Personal Tone" could be flexibly used, depending on the situation.

But come to think of it, I think "Personal Tone" probably starts at three and would not be effective if attempting to convince the other party that you're serious about taking legal measures. In the same regards, it would be very difficult -- and weird -- if one employes a formal organisational tone while attempting at humour. Well, unless you want to brand your organisation that way.

The diagram makes a lot of sense. It acknowledges that sometimes, perhaps on rare occasions, a formal tone has to be adopted. The crux is in how the organisation recognises and decides when would be appropriate to switch between formality and informality.

Most would agree a credible social media plan should have a "Response Strategy". Critically, an organisation need to be able to ascertain whether it should choose to respond or not, in addition to knowing how to formulate appropriate responses. Especially for 'crisis communications' or negative sentiments. Plenty of case studies out there, detailing how organisations were seen to be caught with their pants down, with regards to "social media crisis management".

OWNERSHIP
I've realised even more that an orgainsation's social media department should have a full-time staff heading it. This may sound like a self-reinforcing statement, given that I'm tasked to head the Singapore Memory Project's social media functions. Heh. It's just that taking on this role has convinced me of this.

An organisation's social media team could have a large part of its function outsourced. But decisions on communications should flow back to a staff with the appropriate level of accountability and discretionary authority.

I suppose it's possible that certain level of authority could be conferred to the outsourced staff. But if communications is key, is it then a good call to outsource a key function? Probably not.

It's not so much that one has to be a "full time staff". The closer truth is that the staffers in charge -- whether the one fronting the Twitter feed, or the department head -- have to take ownership of being the social media voice for the project/ organisation. With it comes the risk and responsibilities too.

Staffers need to have the confidence and gumption (i.e. guts and balls) in communicating with the online public.

LICENSE TO SOCIALISE
Staff competencies come with training and staff development, in addition to the innate abilities of the staffers. Then there has to be empowerment, either through the appropriate staff appointments. Or the organisation's policy on social media engagement (which is often related to its corporate communications policy).

You can't be an effective social media staffer if you feel the need to check with your supervisor on how to respond. It's equally true that you can't do your job effectively if your supervisor requires you to clear every response before it is posted.

One of the competencies would be the ability to read correctly the sentiments expressed by the online community. And then being able to decide on the appropriate response. Or perhaps a conscious decision not to respond at all.

Simply put, the social media team has to be empowered to speak for the organisation, to varying degrees.

The speed of the organisation's response has proved to be critical factor in how the online community perceives its "social media street creds". The perceived lack of response, often just a lag of a day or two, may do equal damage to the organisation compared to saying something that the community does not agree with.

Remixes, Attribution, Creative Alchemies: The Long Tail in Acts of Kindness (part 2)

2012-02-05T17:56:00.000+08:00

Continued from Part 1:

THE 'WHY' QUESTION
I get a kick out of the creative process.

I've come to realise that's the basis of why I create. Of having seemingly created something out of nothing; moulding ideas into something that can be seen/ heard/ experienced.

But beyond the initial post-creative euphoria, I will wonder if all my time and effort was worth it. The inevitable “What’s the point” rhetoric.

Luckily, once in a while, something like this comes along. Reminding me that it's worth it.

It's not new to have a video using my CC-licensed music as the soundtrack.

But what's new to me was the user being a company rather than an individual hobbyist.

Red Maps seem like a start-up firm. At least, not a huge conglomerate with a global household brand name (I do hope they become one though).

Still, to have a for-profit company using my work meant that my work had to be of a certain quality. No company worth their salt would want to be associated with low-quality music in their video. For a for-profit outfit to use my work, I consider that as affirmation of something.

REDEFINING WHAT IS 'BEING PAID'
When I started posting my work online, I haboured hopes that my talents might be discovered. And that I'd earn big bucks.

But the idea of "being paid" has become, to me, less about money. It is more about affirmation from others, which serves as a yardstick for my journey of self-expression.

The skeptic in me would say that all that is merely an exercise in self-massaging the ego. Nonetheless, we all have our own reasons for sharing and giving. And expectations as well.

I can't speak for everyone else who share their works under Creative Commons licenses. My primary motivation, if you can call it that, can be summed up as follows:

I create, as part of my journey towards self-actualisation.
Since the work already here, I might as well let others benefit.

Creative Commons provided that framework for sharing. A framework that I understood and was comfortable with.

LONG TAIL TO ACTS OF KINDNESS
I believe there might be a Long Tail to acts of kindness.

"An example of a power law graph showing popularity ranking. To the right is the long tail; to the left are the few that dominate. Notice that the areas of both regions match."

Can we really apply the true statistical definition of the Long Tail to "an act of kindness"?

What if the X-axis was Time and the Y-axis (vertical) was "the number of people who benefited from that one single act of kindness"? That "act of kindness" could be that one piece of work, which you and I release online (this might be interesting conversational fodder with David).

Whimsical, perhaps.

But I've come to believe that sharing my work online -- and allowing others to use -- is one of the simplest act of kindness I can do.

There's opportunity costs but it's of a very low probability. Sure, I could have been paid for my work. But I'm not likely nor willing to invest that sort of time and energy, to perfect my craft to the level of being able to make serious money on a regular basis. Such opportunity costs are low.

GENEROSITY ON A SPECTRUM
The extreme end of generosity would be to share the work as 'Public Domain'. You need not seek permission at all, nor are credits needed; absolutely no strings attached.

At the other end would be for people to pay money if they want to use my creations.

In-between, I think, are differing levels of generosity:

Creative Commons, where the owner has already given the world permission to use the work. One need not seek explicit permission, though attribution is required. Receiving monetary payment is often not the main intent of the owner.
'All Rights Reserved' Copyright, where explicit permission is needed from the creator. The creator may agree to your request without any form of payment (if payment is required, it's not really sharing).

HELPING MYSELF
I've also come to realise that when I share, I hope to be entertained and learn from other people's self-expressions. I'm definitely a beneficiary, when people use my work and transform it into something that I cannot do for myself.

Sometimes, what is transformed fits exactly the vision I had.

I discovered two videos (here, and here) that seem to be part of a class assignment.

The second one is my absolute favorite, to date (thanks, LukeD):

KIB 105 Animation and Motion Graphics Assessment 3 - Luke Daly from Luke D on Vimeo.

LukeD's creative interpretation matched the sort of mental imagery I had, when I posted those words. Honestly, I would not have spent time making such a video. Nor would I have been able to produce an illustration-based work.

The best part is that my spoken poetry, that LukeD used, weren't even mine. The creator was kind enough to let me post them as a spoken piece.

The Long Tail of kindness indeed.

Source: creativecommons.org.au/content/attributingccmaterials.pdf. CC-BY. Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (www.cci.edu.au) in partnership with Creative Commons Australia(creativecommons.org.au).

Singapore Memory Project: Focus group session with Memory Corp volunteers

2012-02-02T23:30:00.000+08:00

My Digital Engagement team mates and I conducted a series of focus group sessions today. For the upcoming Singapore Memory website.

Here's one with volunteers from the Memory Corp: Tuck Chong (third from the left), James (first from the right), and Philip (not in the picture).

We'll be posting more behind-the-scenes updates regularly. At the official blog, that is (which is also scheduled for a facelift in a few weeks).

Busy busy busy.

Remixes, Attribution, Creative Alchemies: The Long Tail in Acts of Kindness (part 1)

2012-01-29T18:01:00.000+08:00

Here's a few recent videos that used my songs from my ccMixter.org uploads.

Remixed with: Beyond Jupiter III

Remixed with: Dreaming of the Ocean

Remixed with: Island Journey Reprise

Typically, my songs are used in "hobbyist videos". Not surprising, as the need and demand for royalty-free works generally come from hobbyists. I think it's also the increasingly popularity of ccMixter.org as the source for CC-licensed music.

ATTRIBUTION
I love how people are crediting my music, in full, in their video descriptions. By "full", I mean describing the title, indicating my name, and including the relevant URL to link back to the source.

This wasn't necessarily the case a few years back, at least for those remixes that use my music. My impression, at least. I don't have hard evidence to prove that the level of attribution has improved. Unless I trace back all the remixes and compile the way they have been cited (... hmm).

Anyway, about two years ago, most remixes tend to unwittingly omitted the credits entirely. People email me to thank me for sharing the music, and to let me know how they have used my music. For those cases where I find that credits were not made, I ask nicely that they include my name and the relevant URL. If they have already uploaded a video, I ask that the credit is included in the description, which was easily done rather than asking them to include in the video and re-upload again.

I would add that the attribution requirement was the stated condition for using the work:

"For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the licence terms of this work"

I didn't want them to think I was asking for something extra. In all cases, they happily made the change. Some went the extra step of amending their video and re-uploading it. Which was very gracious on their part.

How do I properly attribute a work offered under a Creative Commons license?
All CC licenses require users to attribute the original creator(s) of a work, unless the creator has waived that requirement or asked that her name be removed from an adaptation or collection.

CC licenses have a sophisticated and flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner, although in the case of an adaptation or collection the credit needs to be as prominent as credits for other contributors.

The CC website offers some best practices to help you attribute works, and the CC Australia team has developed a helpful guide to attributing works in different formats.
Source: Creative Commons FAQ

Rather than say that Creative Commons "does not provide clarity on the proper way to cite", it's more accurate to say that Creative Commons allows flexibility in how attribution can be presented. The manner of attribution depends on the medium. For instance, a "live" hyperlink is only possible for an online media, whereas for a print media the URL is obviously not "live".

It's more important that people -- users and creators -- understand the spirit and philosophy of Creative Commons. But that's not to say there cannot be clarity in how to attribute properly when making use of Creative Commons licensed materials.

HOW TO CITE EQUITABLY
I highly recommend this PDF guide to attributing works by CC Australia. It's both comprehensive and concise:

What to include when attributingAll Creative Commons (CC) licences require that users of the work attribute the creator... ...The same principles apply to providing attribution across all CC licences. You should:
credit the creator;
provide the title of the work;
provide the URL where the work is hosted;
indicate the type of licence it is available under and provide a link to the licence (so others can find out the licence terms); and
keep intact any copyright notice associated with the work

It's not so much about "proper citation" but more of crediting the source adequately and equitably. If I'm using a CC-licensed work, I try to put myself in the other person's shoes and ask how I would want to be credited. Also, I believe that "payment" can be the form of reciprocity. Any one who uses my work, and provides equitable attribution, is my publicist.

In the digital economy, a "live" hyperlink is currency.

Admittedly, I don't always follow the last two points, i.e. indicating the CC license type and copyright notice. But I always state the creator's name and provide a "live" link back to the CC-licensed works. I try to adhere to this when listing the credits in my videos, but if it's not possible to do so fully, the "live" links are definitely in the description section.

That said, if the creator indicates very clearly how they would like to be attributed, I will always adhere to it. It helps if creators state their preferences upfront and/ or in an obvious location next to the work.

My own practice, in licensing my own work, is to state how I would like to be credited. I state this near or just below the download link. Basically in a way that others won't miss it.

I didn't always do that in the beginning. I used to assume others knew how to properly cite my work.

As creators, we can help others help us, by providing clear, simple/ hassle-free instructions and requirements. Most people will respect and adhere to that.

To be continued: Part 2.

My 2011 read list

2012-01-18T22:14:00.000+08:00

The start of 2012 seems, for me, just as busy as 2011. Might as well just start with the annual read list.

Total items read since 2004:

2011 = 70 items (25 items were eBooks)
2010 = 93 items
2009 = 79
2008 = 72
2007 = 104 items
2006 = 67 items
2005 = 91 items
2004 = 100 items

Will do a more detailed breakdown, if I get the chance (ha!)

What's obvious is that my 2011 reading volume has decreased, reversing the increasing trend for the last two years.

2011 was a particularly busy and hectic year for me. I'm still having flashbacks of bringing work home, after office hours -- on a regular basis from January 2011 all the way to maybe July. *shudder*

But I believe I read far more graphic novels in 2010 compared to 2011. So in terms of reading depth, 2011 might be better. Maybe (I might be wrong).

The purchase of an iPad, and seriously using the NLB's Overdrive collection on a regular basis, has given me more reading options. I think my reading volume might have hit 40 or 50 items only, if not for the iPad. And those 40 to 50 items might comprise of mostly graphic novels.

A snapshot of my reading genre tag-cloud so far (wished I'd done a snapshot each year... ah well)

My overall perception was that I was reading more non-fiction (not graphic novels) compared with previous years. In anycase, I'm rather intrigued to discover any particular shifts in reading patterns, beyond volume read. We shall see.

Will leave you with a re-post of my 2011 list (first posted at RoughNotes)

Aftermath: Prepare for and survive apocalypse 2012/ Lawrence E. Joseph
Aliens: Female war/ Mark Verheiden
Asimov’s Science Fiction/ March 2011
Battlestar Galactica: Complete Omnibus V1
Battlestar Galactica: Ghosts
Between water and song: New poets for the twenty-first century/ edited by Norman Minnick
Bicycles: Love poems
Bloomberg Businessweek/ June 27 – July 3, 2011
Blue Beetle: Black and blue/ Matthew Sturges & Mike Norton
Brevity 2: Another collection of comics by Guy & Rodd/ Guy Endore-Kaiser & Rodd Perry
Buy me: new ways to get customers to choose your products and ignore the rest/ Marshall Cohen
Buying time: trading your retirement income for income and lifestyle in your retirement years/ Daryl Diamond
Coach Wooden: The seven principles that changed his life and will change yours/ Pat Williams
Core strength for dummies, pocketbook edition/ LaReine Chabut
Digital animation
Dog fancy/ natural dog (2 issues in 1)/ Aug 2011
Freakonomics
Fundsupermart/ 4Q 2009
Futurama: The time bender trilogy/ created by Matt Groening; story by Ian Boothby
Gone case/ Dave Chua
Happiness at the end of the world/ Happy smiley and friends
Heroes vol 1
How an economy works and why it crashes/ Peter D. Schiff
Jack Doe: Anonymous/ Shawn Yap, Gabriel Chua, Xander Lee
James Robinson’s complete WildCATS
Jia: a story of North Korea/ Hyejin Kim
Kato vol 1: Not my father’s daughter/ Ande Parks
Liquid thinking: Inspirational thinking from the world’s greatest achievers/ Damian Hughes
Lost Squad/ written by Chris Kirby; art by Alan Robinson; lettered by Kel Nuttall
Love is the best medicine: what two dogs taught a veterinarian about hope, humility, and everyday miracles/ Dr. Nick Trout
Mac Life/ May 2010
Macworld/ April 2011
Macworld/ May 2011
Mental floss: genius instruction manual
Myspace Darkhorse Presents (MDHP) vol 4.
Northlanders. Book one: Sven the returned/ Brian Wood
Northlanders. Book two: The cross and the hammer/ Brain Wood
Relational intelligence: how leaders can expand their influence through a new way of being smart/ Steve Saccone
Return on engagement: content, strategy, and design techniques for digital marketing/ Tim Frick – Standard
Six degrees of expatriation/ Maida Pineda
Small message, big impact: how to put the power of the elevator speech effect to work for you/ Terri L. Sjodin
Social media metrics/ Jim Sterne
StarCraft: Frontline. Volume 1.
Story structure architect: A writer’s guide to building dramatic situations & compelling characters/ Victoria Lynn Schmidt
Stranded vol 1/ Mike Carey & Siddharth Kotian
Strategic thinking: a nine step approach to tragedy for marketeers and managers/ Simon Wootten & Terry Horne
Strength for life: the fitness plan for the rest of your life/ Shawn Philips
Teenage as a second language
Terminator: revolution
The agile enterprise
The appeal/ John Grisham
The brain fitness workout: brain training puzzles to improve your memory, concentration, decision-making skills, and mental flexibility/ Philip Carter
The collected stories of Arthur C. Clarke. Short stories/ Arthur C. Clarke
The crown and other stories/ Rabindranath Tagore; translated by Ranjita Basu
The digital handshake: seven proven strategies to grow your business using social media/ Paul Chaney
The genius machine: the eleven steps that turns raw ideas into brilliance/ Gary Sindell
The home and the world
The immortal iron fist
The past and the punishments
The Question: The five books of blood/ Greg Rucka et al.
The right decision
The tarnished angel
The unwritten: Inside man/ Mike Carey & Peter Gross
The war that time forgot: Vol 1
Twitterville: how businesses can thrive in the new global neighborhoods/ shel israel
What should I do with the rest of my life? True stories of finding success, passion and new meaning in the second half of life/ Bruce Frankel – Standard
What the dog saw, and other adventures/ Malcolm Gladwell
Why we run: a natural history/ Bernd Heinrich
Work’s intimacy/ Melissa Greg
Yes! 50 secrets from the science of persuasion/ Noah Goldstein, Steve J. Martin, Robert B. Caildini

When Nations Remember II - 28 Nov 2011

2011-12-01T17:16:00.001+08:00

Here's my very belated take on the "When Nations Remember II" event, held on 28 Nov 2011. The event was part of the Singapore Memory Project (mentioned in this 2011 MICA speech; also mentioned in PM Lee's 2011 National Day Rally speech), to thank partners and give various partners and stakeholders a sense of the goodwill and buzz that has been built up in the past months. Also, it was to pay tribute to about 100 volunteer "Memory Corps" members for their support and contribution to this national project.

I took a few notes that day, but got caught up with stuff, i.e. more procrastination. Add a dose of laziness. This largely photo "essay" is the result.

Luckily, there are published perspectives of some people who attended the event. Here's Dexterine, Lizzy and James (see here, here and here). Chun See also blogged about it (he wasn't a Memory Corps volunteer at the time of the event, but glad to say he has subsequently volunteered to be part of the movement).

Of the presenters that day (several interesting ones), the person who stood out was the young lady, Lizzy. I thought she gave a fantastic presentation that morning. Your passion and enthusiasm was very real. I remember thinking to myself, "Listening to a young person like that makes me proud to be Singaporean". Would have wanted to tell her and her friends all what an awesome thing they did with their Unseen/Unsaid series.

Alright then.

My version of a post-event blog post.

Monday morning. Asian Civilisation Museum (how apt!) Colleagues reported at 7am. Quite a few were involved on the rehearsal on Sunday.

Preparations at the registration table.

Another dry-run before the actual stuff.

At the back of the hall was a wall, inviting people to share their memories.

Participants were invited to write their stories on a card and clip it to a clothes line strung across the wall.

Here's mine (fuzzy image from my camera phone). Essentially, I shared what came to mind first. Oddly enough it was about a memory when I was about 10 years old. I remember waking up at 5.30am and walking to school. Staring up at the dark dawn sky, I wondered to myself (I'm not making this up) just how many more years of this routine I've to go through at such unearthly hours. Heh.

At about 9am, guests started streaming in.

Dr. Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister MICA, spicing his speech with some of his personal memories.

There was a screening of this video, about the handover of the Gunong Pulai waterworks (see this CNA article). The video featured some of the Memory Corps volunteers like Mr TC Lai (he has some really interesting stories/ personal memories, here and here).

He was given this token of appreciation: a framed poster from Singapore's first ever water campaign. A very apt token, for he was the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources (2004 - 2011).

A shot of my colleagues from the 'Engage' division, National Library. They were the division responsible for organising this event.

At the conclusion of the morning's segment, the Memory Corps volunteers were invited to take a group photo. Essentially, the Memory Corps are people who volunteer their time and effort to write memories for the Singapore Memory Project (you can read some of their stories at iRemember.SG). Or they may interview other people for their stories.

A buffet lunch awaits.

Before the start of the afternoon session, I had the pleasure of speaking to Mr Hillary Francis ("call me Francis"). A very nice gentleman, who can be said to be one of the pioneers of the Singapore music scene. BTW, check out his LinkedIn profile.

The afternoon session featured some pretty interesting presentations. One was on the architectural designs of Malay houses in colonial times Singapore, plus dispelling the myths about what a 'Malay Village' should look like. Darn it, where are the YouTube videos?

I had to leave the event earlier, for another work appointment. Managed to snap a few (unfortunately rather badly focused) images of the memories-on-cards that some participants shared on the wall.

The event also saw the launch of the PictureSG web service, pictures.nl.sg (see this CNA article also).

Incidentally, I've recently transferred to the National Library, after a good 12 years in the public libraries. Have joined the Singapore Memory Project and heading the Online Engagement department. Will blog more about the project, and about my new work scope, in the months to come.

The persistent social media notice board (or "Singapore Police Force's first 'Facebook Arrest'")

2011-11-26T16:55:00.001+08:00

In my view, the Singapore Police Force's (SPF) Facebook page is a very successful social media initiative by a government agency, in terms of public awareness, receptivity and amount of consistent "chatter" (i.e. comments).

I've not done any recent environment scan, let alone a comprehensive survey. But looking at the comments and number of congratulatory Likes for its recent "win", it's easy to conclude that the SPF Facebook page is certainly a popular one:

The "win" was this, as reported by ChannelNewsAsia, 25 Nov 2011 (emphasis are mine):

SINGAPORE: Police have arrested two loanshark suspects based on a lead that came from a photo that was posted on the police Facebook page in July 2009.

A netizen called the 999 number on November 11 after seeing the photo, saying he could identify the suspect.

Fuller details over at the SPF press release, "Singapore Police Makes Its First “Facebook Arrest", 25 Nov 2011:

This significant development came about on 11 Nov 2011 when a public-spirited person called 999 and informed that he could identify a loanshark suspect from a photo posted on the Police Facebook Page since July 2009. This has led to the arrest of the suspect and another suspect, both 19 years old, for suspected involvement in loanshark harassment activities in the Bukit Merah area. Investigations are ongoing.

THE PERSISTENT NOTICE BOARD
At first I missed the part about the initial public appeal for information posted in July 2009 (ASIDE: for a skimmer like me, maybe the post could have said something like "Facebook breakthrough for a two-year old unsolved crime..." or something to that effect).

Anyway, I understood why the SPF considered it a significant "operational breakthrough". The inference was that traditional channels (newspapers or TV) tend to have a limited duration before information fades from public awareness. Even if people remember something, verifying it via the source would be hard beyond a few weeks.

I'm reminded of the "Think Before You Post" advisory video, warning young people about the persistent nature of the Internet. For fighting crime, that quality is a good thing.

VIRAL EFFECT (?)
I also noted that the SPF Press Release stated that one of their aims, for starting their Facebook Page in 2009, was to "(take) advantage of the viral nature of social media".

I'm not entirely clear how much of the cascading effect took place. Reading the press release, I understood the sequence of events to be:

SPF posts the information on the suspects on Facebook in 2009.
Fast-forward to 2011, a member of the public recognised the suspect and contacted the SPF.

I wonder how that member spotted the FB photos of the suspects. Scrolled all the way to earlier posts? Heard about it through a friend, who heard it from a friend? Maybe even a fall-out among gang members and using the FB post to disguise the fact that the caller already knew the suspects?

But the above is moot (and probably suggests I've too active an imagination).

What's important is that the case was resolved, with the help of the public. This "Facebook Arrest" is also likely to send a strong signal to would-be-criminals about the even longer arm of the law.

THE RISK OF SOCIAL MEDIA WITCH HUNTS
Of course the downside of a "social media cascading effect" would be called a social media witch-hunt, or Internet Vigilantism. The viral nature of social media works both ways.

Having said that, I don't recall a case of a social media witch-hunt in Singapore. Which may suggest that for something as serious as identifying suspects to the police, Singaporeans are a calm and rational lot on the whole.

Which also suggests to me that the public has a very high level of trust in the SPF's thoroughness and professionalism.

I certainly have.

SOCIAL MEDIA AMPLIFIES TRUST. OR DISTRUST
The SPF would not receive any public tip-offs at all, never mind through a social media channel, if it did not have the trust of the populace.

I think that's one reason for it being a successful on Facebook.

When the SPF identifies someone as a suspect, intuitively I do not question that. I would have assumed the SPF has enough evidence to make that charge (it's not a small thing to be publicly announced as a suspect in a police investigation, even if subsequently proven to be innocent).

That sort of trust is like Internet reputations: Slow to earn, fast to destroy.

Gladly, the SPF has maintained that social trust for as long as I can remember. Its efforts in maintaining its Facebook page does a good job of reinforcing that, and probably enhancing it. I've always admired was the consistent level of chatter over at their Facebook page. I don't get a sense of it being an echo chamber effect.

It's not just my view about the SPF being successful on social media:

On the topic of strategies, and agencies needing to know what they want to use social media for, the Singapore Police Force was brought up as a role model that knew exactly what they wanted to use the social platforms for—information sharing and recruitment—and used it well.

Via www.FutureGov.asia

I was told the above was an unsolicited comment about the SPF. Yet another win.

SPF DOES NOT NEED TO BLOG (OR DOES IT?)
Back in May 2008, I wrote a three-parter on whether the SPF should have a blog (part 1, part 2, part 3).

They started their Facebook page in July 2009. Some people feel Facebook makes blogs redundant, but I've a different opinion -- perhaps for another post.

I wonder if SPF is planning for "the next step" wrt social media engagement. In my view, they are doing a darn good job already. I don't forsee the SPF embarking on the level of engagement like this last case study I blogged about, here and here).

But then again, maybe the SPF will lead the way. Again :)

UPDATE: Walter blogs about it, here.

The "No Bed Bugs Essential Spray"

2011-11-17T23:58:00.000+08:00

My wife concocted a homemade essential oil spray. She did a bit of research over the Internet. To get rid of bed bugs. She says it works.

I thought it made our home smell like a classy boutique hotel. I asked her what name she's calling the fragrance.

"No Bed Bugs Essential Spray", she says.

Recipe:

Reuse a 120ml spray bottle or perfume atomiser.

Fill it up slightly more than 3 quarters full with boiled water (in lieu of distilled water).

Add:

Cedar wood essential oil x 10 drops

Clove essential oil x 5 drops

Lavender essential oil x 20 drops

Rosemary essential oil x 5 drops
Shake like mad.

Red Potion
Originally uploaded by Artform Canada

BTW, you can freely copy the above. A mere listing of ingredients and procedures cannot be copyrighted. Unless the listings have "substantial literary expression-—a description, explanation, or illustration, for example-—that accompanies a recipe or formula or to a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook". Source: U.S. Copyright office (Singapore follows U.S. Copyright law pretty closely).

Wired.com Goes Creative Commons

2011-11-09T00:00:00.000+08:00

Announced on 7 Nov 2011. Wired.com's statement:

"Beginning today, we’re releasing all Wired.com staff-produced photos under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC) license and making them available in high-res format on a newly launched public Flickr stream."

More info, from the CreativeCommons.org blog:
"... Wired.com’s announcement that from now on all Wired.com staff-produced photos will be released under a CC Attribution-Noncommercial license (CC BY-NC)! Wired.com’s Editor in Chief Evan Hansen says,

“Creative Commons turns ten years old next year, and the simple idea of releasing content with “some rights reserved” has revolutionized online sharing and fueled a thriving remix culture. At Wired.com, we’ve benefited from CC-licensed photos for years — thank you sharers! Now we’re going to start sharing ourselves.”"

Here's Wired.com's CC-BY-NC Flickr stream, at www.flickr.com/photos/wiredphotostream.

What's significant to me was that Wired.com is a recognisable brandname. Their very public statement on CC was also very clear to me (see quote at the beginning of this post).

They have made a long-term commitment rather than a one-off publicity stunt (some people might think this was a one-off thing if they only noticed the selected 50 images).

Their Flickr stream would be one good resource to get CC-BY-NC photos of people in the tech industry (since Wired.com covers that sort of news extensively).

Probably images of gadgets, events and tech stuff.

(Which reminds me: I've not blogged about YouTube's "hybrid" adoption of Creative Commons; check this and this out).

Social media Twitter interview: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan

2011-11-08T14:33:00.003+08:00

The level of competency and the manner of response, shown by the organisation's social media manager/ staff, says something about the overall competency of the organisation.

This recap, of what happened two weeks ago, illustrated that to me.

Minutes after I blogged and tweeted about this post, I received a twitter reply from @ShannonPaul, Social Media Manager of Blue Cross Blue Shield Michigan. With an offer to answer questions.

Got to admit, the speed of response was impressive. But even more so, it was the unsolicited offer to answer questions.

I replied that I'll think of good questions to ask. But before that I corrected my mistake on the blog post. Sorry, Shannon, I really thought "Shannon" was a guy's name. Forgive this librarian's ignorance.

Before asking my questions, I decided to do some homework. Read up Shannon's blog (was humbled by her About Page, subscribed!) plus her current work at A Healthier Michigan.

Decided on my five questions, tweeted to Shannon, to which she replied almost immediately as well.

Here it is (in actuality, I tweeted all five questions in a continuous thread, and perfectly happy if Shannon only answered some of them. But she graciously answered all; in between she was also responding to other tweets):

Me: Q1: how did you discover my post about BCBSM? I tweeted it but neither the tweet nor url mentioned BCBSM directly.

Shannon: We use @Radian6 to monitor brand mentions. They're usually really fast, especially at picking up tweets :)

Me: Q2: how did that YouTube comment episode turn out? Happy customer? Satisfied? Still cheesed? both parties met objectives?

Shannon: I don't believe that person ever followed up with me, but I can't be 100% sure in this case.

Me: Q3: what's the top 3 goals for @bcbsm's social media forays/ strategy?

Shannon: Top 3, eh? Build/strengthen relationships with consumers and business customers, gather feedback, provide quality health info

(Shannon managed to answer coherently within 140 characters. Fwah! Talk about being concise.)

Me: Q4: apart from an overall social media plan, does @bcbsm social media team have specific goals for the week/ month?

Shannon: Q4: Of course, but they're a bit granular and vary from week to week :)

Me: Q5: what would ur employer consider as 'success' for @bcbsm and @HealthierMI?

Shannon: Q5: Goals vary by business area. For @HealthierMI 2011 is about building an audience, 2012 will be about loyalty/engagement.

That's the five. I honestly felt like asking 50! Found the responses very useful. It corroborated with some ideas I had in mind for my new work scope (updates in another post).

Thanks again, Shannon.

Here's the other thing: Shannon's responses were also examples where the Social Media Manager/ staff can respond off the cuff and still keep their jobs!

Obviously she did not have to obtain clearance from Blue Shield Michigan's official corp comms department for some of the responses (for instance, the one about their success criteria). Unless, their corp comms staff was sitting right next to her. I doubt that.

To recap what I mentioned at the start of the post:

Perhaps the more subtle part was this -- the level of competency and the manner of response, shown by the organisation's social media manager/ staff, says something about the overall competency of the organisation.

To me, it says a heck of a lot about the organisation's understanding and approach to online engagement. Particularly their intent and the service potential.

Social media response example: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (or, "Re-thinking Customer Service in the Social Media world")

2011-10-25T23:35:00.001+08:00

OK, here's more of my rambly disconnected thoughts, this time about Customer Service Vs Social Media Engagement.

AN EXAMPLE
I came across this Youtube video (posted 25 Jun 2011), put up by a US health insurer the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. The video showed the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan employees, their friends and family performing a "flash-mob" style dance segment.

What caught my eye was this comment posted by an apparent customer: "My premium goes up 27% on 8/1. Glad it pays for nonsense like this."

Plus, the following response by the company's Social Media manager:

"I'm sorry you're frustrated about a pending rate increase. Please let me know if there is anything we can do to help. You can email me directly at spaul3@bcbsm.com with the 800# on the back of your card and I'll do my best to see if there is anything we can do.

Shannon Paul
Social Media Manager
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan"

Cool. They have a social media manager (perhaps a team?) who knew what he she was doing. Appropriate tone and all that.

Was obvious they took ownership of their YouTube channel and took immediate charge of the response (it seemed to be posted at the same time as the comment).

(Re)STRUCTURING the CUSTOMER SERVICE UNIT
That example got me thinking:

Did Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan have two separate customer service units? A traditional one and a social media unit? Perhaps more likely that their social media unit was part of the larger customer service unit, or the company corporate communications department. (Maybe they're monitoring the blogs and might post a comment here. Or someone might pass the message along to them). UPDATE: Check this out. A tweet response just minutes after I tweeted!

I'm wondering if the new norm might be for two independent customer service units -- at least independent in terms of their specific function, though their overall aim was still about customer management and relations.

One unit might handle the "traditional" channels like snail-mail, emails, and telephone calls. More reactive, in the sense that it's the customer who initiates the customer service transaction.

Then the Social Media unit would be in charge of trawling for social media mentions. This could be channels set up and managed by the organisation (e.g. an organisation Facebook page), or the broader social media-sphere (e.g. Facebook). Part of the scope might be to also engage in conversations with the customer. Particularly in the case of the latter scenario, where the customer may post a complaint on their own social media space rather than the organisation's. A mix of the reactive and proactive.

SERVICE Vs ENGAGEMENT
Extending that idea further, it's less about customer service using social media but more of customer engagement through social media channels. This may allow for easier distinction between a Customer Service department and a Customer Engagement department.

BTW, the term "service" makes me think of a production line. i.e. I bring my wonky TV set to be serviced. But as a customer, increasingly I'd expected to be engaged rather than to be serviced like a piece of equipment.

ROI
If having two channels is the "new normal", then there would inevitably be issue of ROI for the organisation.

I suspect at face-value, the traditional customer service unit would be more cost-efficient compared to the dedicated social media unit. Afterall, the traditional customer service unit is structured to be efficient. Basically, the customer service staff are like the production line, handling calls as they come in. Customers tend to be the ones waiting to be served.

The social media unit has to be accessed slightly differently. When we're talking about "engagement", I think we're talking about measuring in terms of customer satisfaction -- or the quality -- rather than efficiency of a customer encounter.

You can be efficient with the customer, but it doesn't necessarily mean the customer is more satisfied with what has taken place.

I think "engagement" is really about "reputation" and "goodwill". If the organisation has a way to measure the worth of its reputation and goodwill (which you can, in accounting terms), then I think that's a way to measure social media engagement.

What's harder to measure is linking the ultimate outcome -- which is sales or the customer's repeated use of the service -- to the amount of staff time expended. But that's the whole point about a social media engagement unit: you can't expect a causal relationship from engagement to 'sales'. That's seems more like a sales department function, in my view.

Well, you can chart trends or try and derive correlations.

But that's the other point: Mapping out trends means we need to take a longer time.

Can't expect instant wins where social media engagement is concerned.

p.s. Feel free to comment/ agree/ disagree. I'd appreciate any insights to help refine my thoughts on this matter.
p.p.s. How do you measure this? :)

RELATED: Social media Twitter interview: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan

What has kept me busy, work-wise

2011-10-09T23:25:00.000+08:00

My blogging frequency has decreased sharply since the beginning of this year. A big reason was that work had eaten into my personal time. First three months was just crazy.

A bit of that work, slogged over with several other colleagues, is finally in the open. It's reflected in the draft plans for the Arts and Culture Strategic Review (ACSR), under the part for "Communities for Reading, Writing and Storytelling":

From: www.acsr.sg/REC_PP6_CommunitiesforReading.aspx

We hope to build on the existing network of reading communities to nurture a vibrant reading culture and cultivate an understanding and appreciation of the literary arts.

While the National Library Board (NLB) manages about 100 reading communities (which organise monthly book discussions), only a small number of such communities integrate all three elements of reading, writing and storytelling. Writing, and the appreciation of local writing, is still a very niche activity that has yet to take root.

Singaporeans could be encouraged to come forward and contribute their personal stories (e.g. with old photos, letters) through communities for reading, writing and storytelling. These communities could be set up all over Singapore, in libraries, community clubs and even the places where we work and live. Besides enjoying books together, participants could be encouraged to write, share their stories, experiences and interests, and even produce creative works in both physical and online forms (such as blogs, video clips and audio recordings). These works could then be shared with their friends, family and online communities.

The entire ACSR plans (still a draft as of this post, at the post-public consultation stage) has several components, and will be a mutli-MICA-agency effort. The National Library Board is one of those MICA agencies.

The ACSR was initiated by the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA) in 2010 and aims to chart Singapore’s next phase of cultural development until 2025. This review would also aim for twice as many Singaporeans – from 40% to 80% – to attend and benefit from at least one arts and culture event a year by 2025, and to encourage Singaporeans’ active engagement in arts and culture activities, up from the current 20% to 50% by 2025. This could include taking up or volunteering for arts and heritage activities in their personal time.

Source: www.acsr.sg/introduction.aspx

You can download the 50-page draft report here, at www.acsr.sg/download.aspx (public consultation just ended recently). Or you can scan through the summary list if recommendations, here.

There will be some other changes to my work scope. It's not a state-secret but I'll share more when it's finalised in a few weeks' time.

Remembering Project Gutenberg's Michael Hart (1947-2011)

2011-09-26T01:34:00.002+08:00

Earlier this September, the world focused on the 10-year anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. Not surprising, for the events on 11th September of 2001 was a world-changing event.

I thought what seems to have slipped the world's attention was the passing of Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg.

Hart's project might not be world-changing on the scale of 9-11, but it certainly spanned the World Wide Web.

Project Gutenberg is, without a doubt for me, the precursor of ebooks.

Hart was best known for his 1971 invention of electronic books, or eBooks. He founded Project Gutenberg, which is recognized as one of the earliest and longest-lasting online literary projects. He often told this story of how he had the idea for eBooks. He had been granted access to significant computing power at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. On July 4 1971, after being inspired by a free printed copy of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, he decided to type the text into a computer, and to transmit it to other users on the computer network. From this beginning, the digitization and distribution of literature was to be Hart's life's work, spanning over 40 years.

~ Dr. Gregory B. Newby, Obituary for Michael Stern Hart.

I only learned about Project Gutenberg after I entered the library profession in 1996. That was also the year I had any real practical experience with the World Wide Web and the Internet. I also did not realise -- until much, much later -- that Project Gutenberg was started in 1971 (I'm almost as old as it was).

Project Gutenberg, at that time, it was a no-frills website. It still is, by today's standards.

Then, and like now, you basically searched for titles and downloaded digital texts for free. Almost all 'books' in Project Gutenberg were texts from public domain.

However, it was not an online bookstore the way Amazon was. In terms of popular appeal, the public domain texts could never compare.

Still, I found Project Gutenberg impressive. I still do. It may seem a simple idea: converting texts from printed book form to digital files, then making the digital works available to the world. For free.

But for a 'simple idea' to be sustained since 1971, that alone has to impress.

The reading experience
Michael Hart's project didn't revolutionise the reading experience, not in the way Amazon's Kindle and Apple's iPad did.

Of course, I don't think he sought to do that.

I thought Project Gutenberg had two issues that prevented it from becoming truly world-changing. One, the reading experience wasn't 'wow'. Reading large volume of texts on desktop or laptop computer screens was impractical for most. It was more of 'reading off a computer' rather 'reading an ebook', not to mention the print resolution and several well-discussed issues.

Two, the content wasn't 'wow' either. Not when the rage was Tom Clancy and John Grisham etc.

I have an impression that when the world's reading experience was transformed with the appearance of Kindle and iPad (along with their respective supply of eBooks with modern and popular appeal), Project Gutenberg fell even more out of the public eye. Relatively speaking.

In the 90s, when the World Wide Web was a nebulous thing and librarians met it with calls of doom and gloom, I think librarians saw Project Gutenberg as a positive thing, but not a remedy.

Project Gutenberg was not a search engine. It wasn't an online reference (come to think of it: if it were, it would be seen as yet another threat!)

Renewed relevance?
I think with eReading devices becoming more accessible and affordable, an initiative like Project Gutenberg's Mission Statement may be well poised to take on the future:

The mission of Project Gutenberg is simple: To encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks.

This mission is, as much as possible, to encourage all those who are interested in making eBooks and helping to give them away.

Project Gutenberg has moved with the times. They have backed up their intent (of encouraging eBook distribution) by providing formats like EPUB and for Kindle.

And who knows? Perhaps a successful contemporary author, whose works have current mass appeal, may bequeath his works to Project Gutenberg. Or a philanthropist who decides to acquire the rights of popular works and make them available through the Project.

Or some one may leverage on Project Gutenberg's collection, add a new twist to its eBooks content or reading experience, and make it available as an Apple or Android app. Which might transform the world's reading experience.

Well, all are just conjectures.

Most of us did not see 9-11 coming. On a more positive note, neither did we foresee the Kindle or iPad. For that matter, did we anticipate a relatively simple idea like Project Gutenberg?

So who knows?

Thank you, Michael Hart.

Teaching racial harmony

2011-09-21T01:00:00.000+08:00

The train doors opened.

An old man stepped in. I could tell he was quite elderly: his wrinkled skin; his unsure footing as the train moved off.

A much younger man noticed him too. The young man got up from his seat. The younger person's body language and eye contact was enough to signal his intent to the elder.

The old man shuffled towards the vacated seat. "Thank you, thank you," he said.

A few seats away, a young girl took it all in, glancing between the two.

Singapore MRT Cabin
Originally uploaded by xcode

The old man and young person were of two different races.

[Note: The above happened just the way I saw it. I was inspired to recount the above after reading Lucian's post. No where as elegant as Lucian's though.]

Singapore Wins Bid to Host 2013 IFLA General Conference and Assembly

2011-08-19T22:00:00.000+08:00

There's about two years to prepare. This should be interesting for librarians in Singapore :)

I hope to see some of my IFLA friends and colleagues again.

From NLB's media release, dated 19 Aug 2011:

Singapore Wins Bid to Host Prestigious International Library Congress in 2013

Release Date : 19 Aug 2011

Singapore, 19 August 2011 – Singapore has won the bid to host the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) World Library and Information Congress to be held in August 2013. This announcement was made officially at the closing session of the IFLA World Library and Information Congress 2011 on 18 August 2011 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

This marks the first time that Singapore is hosting the Congress, which is the flagship professional and trade event for the international library and information sector. The Congress takes place in August each year in a city selected through a competitive three-stage bidding process that is overseen by the IFLA Governing Board. The hosting of the Congress rotates among the IFLA regions of Asia and Oceania, Europe, Africa, North America and Latin America and Caribbean. Previous host cities included Gothenburg, Sweden in 2010 and Milan, Italy in 2009. The last Asian host city was Seoul, South Korea in 2006.

Singapore's bid to host the 2013 edition of the Congress was jointly submitted by National Library Board (NLB) and the Library Association of Singapore and supported by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The international convention in August 2013 is expected to attract over 3,000 participants from over 100 countries who will converge in Singapore to discuss the developments and new trends in the library arena. The programme will run over eight days, including three days of business meetings, a five-day conference programme, and three and half days of exhibition.

“Our successful bid to host the IFLA World Library and Information Congress will place us firmly on the world map of the library and information sector as the Congress offers a unique platform to promote knowledge sharing and exchange best practices within the international community. This will also pave the way for us to deepen relations and facilitate future collaborations with our global counterparts,” said Mrs Elaine Ng, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), NLB.

“We are very pleased to be the city of choice for the 2013 IFLA World Library and Information Congress. Singapore's vibrant and pro-business environment, bolstered by quality infrastructure, and a strong global network of strategic partnerships, will provide an ideal platform for the exchange of ideas and collaboration among delegates,” commented Ms Melissa Ow, Assistant Chief Executive, Industry Development (II) Group, STB.

“Further, Singapore's rich multi-cultural heritage, diversity of business and leisure offerings, and upcoming developments such as Gardens by the Bay, and the world's first River Safari, look set to provide guests and delegates with a differentiated experience of our constantly evolving city.”

A national committee, chaired by CEO of NLB, comprising representatives from the local library and information sector will be set up to oversee the organising of the Congress.

Here's more, from the current Library Association of Singapore president.

Celebrating Singaporeana: Happy 46th

2011-08-09T22:50:00.003+08:00

In my friend Lucian's post, he admitted having the sort of prejudice some Singaporeans might have towards things made or achieved by Singaporeans:

It is true that for some obscure reason, Singaporeans look down on other Singaporeans. “Made in America” comes with the notion that the product is heavy-duty; “made in Japan”, quality; “made in the UK”, quaint. But when you talk about something that is “made in Singapore”, it is always the Singaporeans who’ll be first in line to pull it down. You’ll often hear things like “trying too hard to be [insert name of western country]” or “cannot make it”. Best of all, these criticisms are uttered by the ones who’ve never had the guts to even try.

I know, because I’m guilty of it.

(Btw the context of his post was Inch Chua's Open Letter to Singapore; her facebook post has been removed but you can read a repost here).

Lucian's admission struck a chord with me. I, too, displayed a similar sort of prejudice a few weeks earlier.

I was reading a book containing stories written by Singaporeans. The title of the book isn't the point. The point was my unconscious judgement, comparing those stories with my favourite non-Singaporean authors. I felt the "made in Singapore" stories were not "good enough".

On one hand, I desperately wanted to like the stories. On the other, I wanted to admit the stories didn't appeal to me. I even tried to rationalise why those stories weren't appealing to my tastes. My reasoning came up short.

I was torn between wanting the stories to be great, and having to acknowledge they were not.

Then I realised something else.

Even though I would not consider those stories to be 'great', I had managed to read the entire book from cover to cover. I read every single story. That was already an achievement. There have been contemporary best-selling authors whose works I can never read past chapter one, or less.

Once I got past my mental literary-hang up, it was easy to see what else was good about those stories. They were technically competent. There were no glaring spelling or grammatical errors. The story ideas may not have made me go "wow" (actually, very few stories can) but they were not run-of-the-mill ones. It was clear the authors put in what they were worth, and not out to insult the intelligence of the reader.

I also realised I didn't have to like every single story in that "made by Singaporeans" book.

Perhaps this sort of reader reaction is part of the literary territory. We all have our personal yardsticks against what we consider as 'best'. And I think it's healthy to compare, so that there's some specific literary target to aim for.

However, I think we Singaporean readers have to be mindful not to confuse "setting a goal" with "expecting every Singaporean author to write like [insert name of your favorite author]".

Another friend of mine is fond of saying, "Don't celebrate mediocrity".

I agree.

I'm not suggesting we endorse or embrace, by default, everything "made in Singapore" or "by Singaporeans". If the works are shoddy, we should say so. But I believe we should not impose undue expectations or comparisons. Enjoy the work -- a play, music, a piece of creative fiction -- for what they are worth.

We should not confuse "not being unique" with "not good".

If we have a flower that smells like a rose, it's OK to compare with another blossom in the next yard. But let's not forget: that very flower, grown in our garden, still smells sweet.

Happy 46th, Singapore.

App How-To: EBSCOhost iPhone/ iPod Touch app

2011-06-26T17:38:00.004+08:00

If you access EBSCOhost resources regularly, you might want to give this EBSCOhost app a try (even if you don't it's still worth giving this a spin if you own an Apple mobile device).

It's compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad (though, the design/ app display size is more for the iPhone and iPod Touch than the iPad).

NOTE: After you've installed the app on your iPhone or iPad, you can't use it right away. You have to obtain and activate an Authentication Key from the EBSCOhost database page, which has to be done via logging into the library's eresources website. It seems you do this step once and it's valid for 9 months. It's also valid only for the individual database, which means you have to do the same authentication process for each of the EBSCOhost that you want to access via the App

Here's a step-by-step guide (btw, the steps were done via my iPad):

SETTING UP
Download the app from the App Store (keyword search "ebscohost").

After installing the app, there's a few more preparatory steps. You need to obtain and activate the authentication key (if not, you won't see any menu options on the app).

To get the key, you first login to eResources.nlb.gov.sg in order to get to an EBSOhost database (I'm assuming you've already signed up for a digital library account, or you're registered as a NLB library member. The site's How To section has details of how to sign up/ access the resources).

After logging in, browse through the database listings and click on the EBSCOhost database you prefer. The list is in alphabetical order, so you've to scroll the page to entries starting with "E".

In this example, I clicked on an EBSCOhost database called "MAS Ultra - Public Library Editition". On the database page, scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click on the link "EBSCOhost iPhone/ iPod Touch Application":

You will be prompted to enter your email address, where the authentication link will be sent.

The authentication mail looks like this. Follow the instructions (the link has to be accessed via your iPhone/ iPod Touch/ iPad).

After that, you're done. When you open the EBSCOhost app, the menu appears.

EXPLORING THE APP
Under the Settings option, I can specify the databases I'd like to access (note: you have to repeat the authentication process for every individual database. But

You can specify what results to display (e.g. show you full-text articles only, or filter by date ranges):

To search for articles, you type your keywords (there's no Advanced Search option in this app, but you can filter the results under the Settings option, as explained above)

Results are displayed like this.

The default display is by articles that the system deems as most relevant based on the keywords. In the above screenshot, the first article was published in 2006. is You can display the most recent articles by tapping on the Date tab (the following screen now shows the first listed article published in 2011).

READING (on and offline)
Tapping on the displayed article title brings you to a screen like this. It gives you the abstract, the link to save the article to your mobile device, or download the PDF or email.

Scrolling down the page shows information like the author, article source, subject headings, database name (tapping on them does an automatic search and display, based on those links):

When I tapped on the PDF icon, the app starts to download the PDF document:

The PDF document shows the scanned article, with all other contextual information (e.g. sidebar, ads) preserved on the page.

The display can be expanded by dragging. But the display window is definitely not as large as the iPad, so reading the PDF was a bit tedious (the app works on an iPad but resolution tends to become grainy when enlarged).

I was able to access my saved articles from the "Saved" tab.

The saved articles can be read off-line, which was great. When I disconnected from my WIFI, the app says as much.

The NLB libraries subscribes to the EBSCOhost databases, which you can access at eresources.nlb.gov.sg.

There are 14 EBSCOhost databases, out of which 11 are accessible from home (and hence via the app). The 11 are:

EBSCOHost CINAHL
EBSCOHost ERIC
EBSCOHost Funk & Wagnall's new world encyclopedia
EBSCOHost kids search
EBSCOHost MAS ultra : public library edition
EBSCOHost MasterFILE premier
EBSCOHost military and government collection
EBSCOHost novelist
EBSCOHost primary search
EBSCOHost regional business news
EBSCOHost searchasaurus

Of the 11, the ones in bold are accessible via the EBSCOhost app (at least, it's listed in the app).

What others shared: Their ideas on ideas on using social media as part of library services for Children or Teens

2011-06-05T05:31:00.001+08:00

[From this earlier post]

Thanks for the responses, people!

"We are having our teen advisory groups make videos that we post on blogs, facebook and Twitter. I am sure thus isn't anything new though." ~ Jessica, who works for Seattle Public Library.

[I quickly commented that it wasn't necessary to be new or earth shaking. Being consistent and being genuine in engaging customers were more important]

"you can make them post impressions of what they read on facebook. It helps to introduce others to particular books and rate them. When I go to the library, I see shelves of books that might not be good to read rather than shelves of books that may be good to read. Maybe if there is a rating system using social media, it might help." ~ This was from my band-buddy, Adrian (a teacher and a biologist). I think his comment about "seeing shelves of books that I might not like to read" was something worth looking into.

"Maybe this is already done. Set up target group specific twitter alerts. For example for pre-school kids, encourage parents to follow "twitter tots" for updates on bks suitable for their kids" ~ From Mui Lin, an ex-colleague of mine and now a stay-at-home mommy. She also adds:

"I'm a SAHM, am planning to set up a book club in the online forum that I'm a member. What prompted me to do this is I'm stressed out looking after my 3 young kids and want to reach out to other parents who love to read. We do not need to meet and can share anytime of the day :). Not sure how it will work out or if anyone will join" [I think she should just give it a go! :)]

"Make catalogue.nlb.gov.sg facebook friendly. You have almost the entire population of kids on facebook (short of a couple of non-facebookers). Tag a discussion board to the end of the listing and allow posting by people. Policing the discussion boards would be a challenge but I don't see how technology can't overcome it." ~ from Say Hong. [Hmm... nice idea; the online catalogue is probably the most visited page/ site of the library so it makes a lot of sense to make it more social]

What's interesting for me was that in all their ideas, there's a strong social element and about people-to-people-to-content connections. There's also implied or explicit roles for the librarians.

It's also about simplicity.

It's definitely less about the tech.

Thanks again, people!