wtscils598x08

Of Second Life and Libraries

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:00:00 -0400

Second Life has been an interesting experience for me. Before I signed up for an account, I never understood what the big fuss was about and why people were spending so much time and money working on their SL property and avatars. I hardly have time for my first life, let alone a second one.

But I was wrong. It wasn't long before I got immersed in the richness of this virtual world, albeit an empty one. Although it was fun exploring the various islands, I hardly met or interacted with other avatars. Some SL locations were fun -- my previous employer even had a presence there, though it had been vandalized before. My favorite SL locations are Sony BMG where you can listen and purchase music, as well as Dell, where you're able to customize a PC and send your orders directly to the vendor.

I was also impressed by the work done by folks from the Second Life Library Project on Info Island. The objects in the Second Life Library were all nicely sculpted to resemble a real library. There's a reference service as well as subject resources that you can access using the built-in media browser. Regular events such as book discussions are also held in-world.

Overall, I think SL is just one of the ways in which libraries can offer their services to SL residents. I do question the amount of time and effort that goes into creating these services on a proprietary virtual world platform. While Linden Lab claims SL has about 14 million residents today, the number of active users pales in comparison. There are companies like Mercedes Benz that have pulled out of Second Life because of limited activity.

Moreover, SL is unlike the public Internet which is built on open standards. Who is to say that SL will continue to be around 10 years down the road? There are also other virtual worlds out there -- should libraries also create a virtual presence in each of them to avoid discriminating users? What about users who can't afford the higher end hardware that's required to run these virtual worlds? What about non-English speaking users? While SL isn't the only way for these users to access library services, I think a disproportionate amount of attention has been paid to serve a privileged group of information seekers.

Class reflections

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:38:00 -0400

Overall, this class has been a positive experience for me. Apart from learning how to apply Web 2.0 tools in a library setting, the diversity of the class also brings fresh new perspectives on what libraries should focus on as they move into the age of participation. If I was Steve, I'd continue to incorporate tools like IM, Twitter and wikis which really gives students a chance to experience what online collaboration across time and space is like if they haven't done it before.

Perhaps enrollment numbers for the summer session should be capped so that it's easier to keep up with everyone's thoughts and ideas. The short duration of the summer session leaves very little time for contemplation and discussion over one another's blog posts. Also, while gaming can be a social process, I don't see it as part of social software which is more an area within Library 2.0. For a summer class, I'll probably include screencasting and subtract gaming from the syllabus.

For the section on IM, I will also include issues that libraries are facing in virtual reference such as serving unaffiliated users, question routing, and bibliographic instruction. These may probably be more suited for a reference class, but a look these issues will offer a good perspective on the challenges of IM at work.

I also love the examples of libraries that have implemented the social software covered in this class. But it'll also be great if we can also hear from guest lecturers from some of these libraries, perhaps in a podcast interview! This will give us a better idea of what goes on behind the scenes and provide useful lessons as we take what we've learned into our respective organizations.

If Everything Bad is (really) Good For You..

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:30:00 -0400

...then more libraries should be circulating games.

I generally agree that there is some educational merit in computer and video games. As a long time gamer myself, I do spend hours -- sometimes without sleep -- in front of the console and PC trying to unravel a maze in a role-playing game, or conquering territories in Civilizations and Romance Of The Three Kingdoms. I've benefited from this process in the ways that Johnson described in his book.

However, I have to admit that the educational and literacy merits of some games are not obvious. I'm not a games researcher, but apart from the benefits of hand-eye coordination, it's hard to see any intellectual merit in a game such as Tekken where players engage in virtual arm combat with one another. The choice of games is thus an important consideration to libraries and educational institutions that are thinking of incorporating games into library services and the school curriculum.

I once interviewed a high school in Singapore that got its students to play Microsoft's Flight Simulator during physics classes on speed, velocity, acceleration and projection. The students told me that the game helped to improve their understanding of physics concepts tremendously.

Many library gaming services, however, tend to focus on multi-player games that promote community bonding and the fun factor. These games are usually played on more family oriented consoles such as the Nintendo Wii. For now, the educational benefits of games seem to be a secondary concern in many gaming programs which are really just about attracting teens to the library.

If educational institutions and libraries wish to harness the educational merits of gaming, they would have to consider strategy, role-playing or simulation games, which aren't common in library gaming services, and perhaps start circulating more of these games.

My experience with Yahoo! Pool

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:49:00 -0400

I played a game of pool on Yahoo games in a random game room. I picked this game because I'm also a regular pool player in real life. I wanted to see how the experience was like in a virtual environment.

In Yahoo! Pool, you can simply join an empty table hosted by another Yahoo user and compete with him or her. The game works pretty much the same way as regular pool. There is a chat feature at the bottom of the game screen if you need to speak with your opponent. In most instances, pool players hardly communicate with each other, except to perhaps swear at yourself for missing the shot! I wouldn't use the chat feature to translate my frustrations to my opponent unless I know the person.

My game ended pretty quickly, because my opponent seemed like a seasoned virtual pool player. After it ended, my opponent typed "gg" which meant good game -- it took me a while to figure that out. We later agreed to go for a second set, which I won in the end!

The game got addictive after a while. I wanted to improve my overall score which goes up and down according to the number of wins and losses. Before I knew it, I had spent almost two hours on Yahoo Pool. Overall, it was a great experience, and I can see how this simulated environment can help me improve my game in real life.

Choosing a console for library gaming

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:44:00 -0400

At the Fayetteville Free Library in Fayetteville, New York, a gaming service has been proposed to attract both teens and adults to the library. Since the goal of the library gaming service is to meet the recreational needs of users and facilitate community bonding, the choice of consoles and games must be able to fulfill that goal. Here are some considerations in deciding on a suitable console.

Budget: The amount of money that goes into the gaming service will influence the kind of console that can be purchased. The Nintendo Wii is more affordable than the Sony Playstation 3, although the Playstation may have games that are suitable for a gaming service that are not available on the Wii.

Games: The kind of games to be used in the gaming program is another key factor. In this regard, the library's users should be consulted to determine the kinds of games that will attract them. Also, if entertainment and interaction among users is the desired outcome of gaming events, then a majority of Wii games would fit the purpose.

The cost of the games for a particular console is also a consideration. Can the library's budget sustain the cost of more Playstation games which are more expensive?

Controls: Consoles such as the Nintendo Wii offer a variety of game controllers that will determine the gaming experience. For a game such as Mario Kart Wii, users can either use the Wii remote or the Wii Wheel to play. Is the library willing to purchase the Wii Wheel which may provide a better experience for some users? The cost of game controllers is also a consideration since the library is expected to provide additional controllers for a gaming event.

Online gameplay: Most consoles today allows players to connect with others over the Internet to play on the same game. If the library plans to support interlibrary gameplay across a county-wide library system in a tournament, then a console that supports online gameplay will be necessary.

Based on the criteria above, the Nintendo Wii is the clear choice with the library's limited budget. Popular titles such as Wii Sports and Dance Dance Revolution available on the Wii are also likely to appeal to both teens and adults, thus facilitating intergenerational gameplay and community bonding. The Wii also supports online gameplay should the library decide to collaborate with other libraries in the same system to introduce interlibrary tournaments.

Delivering stupidity through popular culture?

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:38:00 -0400

I won't say that popular culture is just a more sophisticated way of delivering stupidity. There is some merit to Johnson's arguments in some of the examples he gave. I watched Memento recently and it does require the viewer to do some serious information processing to follow the plot. People who would rather sit down and laugh themselves silly would probably watch Kungfu Panda instead.

Of course, there are shows that are just pure brainless entertainment and nothing else. Johnson claims that even shows that cater to the lowest common denominator are getting more sophisticated compared to the early days of TV, and that these shows have trained us to be smarter over the years.

Arguably, this may be true, but people are also getting smarter whether they're watching TV or not. Some have attributed this to better nutrition and an ever-demanding society that pushes our kids to become higher achievers in order to survive in the real world.

Just compare the school curriculum 30 years ago to what we have today. In Singapore, content that used to be taught at higher grade levels are now being taught at lower grades. The examination scores of top students in elementary schools continue to increase every year. I worked as a home tutor during my college years, and I was shocked at how demanding math questions have become since I left high school.

So, instead of being a more sophisticated way of delivering stupidity, I would take the liberal-pluralist approach and argue that popular culture mirrors changes in society. Coupled with more sophisticated media production techniques and technology advancement, games, television programs and movies are merely evolving to meet the needs of an increasingly sophisticated audience.

The promises of Ning

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:08:00 -0400

One of the main advantages of Ning is the ability to form customized social networks around common interests while putting the community in center stage rather than the individual in the case of multipurpose social network sites. There are several reasons why you want to do this rather than forming an interest group on Facebook and MySpace.

First, Ning allows you to create subgroups where users are able to delve into specific areas of their interest that are still within the boundaries of the social network. This is a good way to segment conversations into specific topics rather than one big discussion board which can become hard to follow as the number of conversations increases.

Facebook users tend to sign up for several groups while participating actively in only a few. This may be attributed to the mentality of some Facebook users who really just collect contacts, even those of acquaintances. As a member of several Ning-based networks, I've noticed that the conversations on Ning networks are way more in-depth than similar ones on Facebook groups, even though the latter may have higher membership numbers.

Furthermore, without RSS feeds enabled on the Facebook groups, users are often unable to keep up with interesting updates that keep them coming back. In contrast, Ning provides RSS feeds for different types of user generated content to ensure that users are kept abreast of network activities.

There are also several widgets available to Ning networks such as live chat, group events as well as RSS functionality that allows networks to incorporate related content from elsewhere. Members are also allowed to create their own blogs and profile pages that reside within the social network rather than outside in the case of Facebook groups.

One of the limitations of Ning is the ads that show up on the right side of a social network. They take up space that could otherwise be used for customized widgets or even simplifying the design of a social network. The ads can be removed only if the network is converted to a paid Ning account. Another limitation is the lack of support for RSS feeds for music or podcast content. A workaround is available but it will require access to the PHP source code which can be requested.

In a work environment, Ning will be extremely useful as a peer support network for members of a specific department within an organization. Members could share information directly through this network and engage in conversations related to their work. It could also be an avenue where ideas could be thrown around informally before they get crystallized into formal proposals, but this may require the network to be hosted on the company intranet for security reasons.

Lessons from Boyd

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:04:00 -0400

The main lesson that libraries can glean from the Boyd readings is the fact that libraries, like workplaces, are facing a new generation of workers who are active participants on social network sites (SNS). When this generation enters a new workplace, they expect to be able to use SNS to augment their their real-life personal and business connections.

In order to reach out to this group of users whose numbers are expected to increase, libraries will have to take a more proactive role in reaching out to them. Rather than remaining in their wall gardens, libraries have to maintain an active presence on these social networking sites and be where the users are.

However, as Boyd has pointed out, SNS are mostly used to "maintain existing offline relationships or solidify offline connections, as opposed to meeting new people". This means libraries should not merely provide a convenient way for users to search their collections within SNS as many libraries have done, they should also be genuine participants on these sites.

Creating Facebook and MySpace profiles, as well as widgets and catalog search application that users can add to their own profiles is the easiest part of the job. Being active and genuine participants and understanding how this new generation of information seekers work and play in the context of providing library services on these social networking sites is much harder to achieve.

Why social networks are sticky

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:56:00 -0400

Social network sites (SNS) are sticky simply because they mirror social activities taking place in the real world. Far from being substitutes for real life interaction, the stickiness of SNS hinges upon existing personal relationships. From buying friends a round of drinks to sending gifts, SNS activities such as these are often undertaken by people in person. Additionally, they also help to expose the long-lost connections in our real lives. I'm constantly "rediscovering" old friends whom I've lost touch with for several years after I left school.

As someone who is far away from home, I can't imagine not having something like Facebook. Not only am I able to stay in touch with folks back home, I'm also fed with news and photos from events that my friends have attended and the countries they've visited. During my time here, several of my friends got married and through Facebook, I was able to convey my wishes to them. The pictures they've posted also gave me an idea of how their weddings were like. I guess this urge to know what my friends are doing back home is what makes SNS so sticky.

I have to admit that some applications in SNS such as Facebook have a short shelf life if you will, especially after the novelty wears off. There are many Facebook applications out there trying to capitalize on the popularity of the social network site. Most of them will try to get you to involve your friends in the same application, so you'll see how you rank among your friends in terms of the looks department, for example. This is particularly sticky among people who are obsessed with building their social capital within their circle of friends.

Podcasts and text blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:31:00 -0400

I don't think text blogging and podcasts can be compared on the same terms simply because they are different modes of communication that cater to different needs and situations. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses which I'll touch on.

Podcasts:

* Convenient way of keeping updated on specific topics of interest, and allows you to put together your personalized radio station delivered in an on-demand manner.

* In some ways, podcasts can sound more personable as if the presenter was talking to you.

* You can listen to it anywhere on the go without an Internet connection

* Can be used by libraries and museums to provide self-guided tours

* Requires listener to download podcasts to portable music player before setting out, can't download on the go unless you're at a Wi-Fi hotspot or a own a 3G music cellphone

* Limited interaction between listener and presenter

* URLs announced in podcasts are pretty useless - you have to write it down somewhere and check it out later. Most people don't bother if they can't remember, especially if the URLs are lengthy.

* Podcasts can quickly fill up a hard drive or MP3 player if you don't delete them dutifully.

* Not suitable for topics that require in-depth analysis

Text blogging:

* Focuses on many-to-many conversations, more suitable for community building than podcasts

* Can delve into an idea or topic in greater depth

* Ability to incorporate pictures and videos to tell a story

* Leads readers to related sources through Web links

* Unlike podcasts, contents of blogs can be searched, thus increasing their visibility

* Great for "live blogging" from events - you can't do a live podcast

* Can be edited and updated with new information when necessary - a podcast will have to be remixed in similar situations

* Requires less media production skills than podcasts which require some basic scriptwriting, audio presentation and mixing skills.

Utilizing "long tail" of collections

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:25:00 -0400

I think libraries can effectively utilize the long tail of their collections only when the transaction cost of utilizing library collections is addressed. We often hear of users discovering materials on Amazon before checking if they're available at the local library. Why should this be the case? If libraries on the whole have a long tail collection that can match what Amazon offers, there is no reason why libraries should not be the first point of discovery. The transaction cost of using a library website is just too high at the moment. Users spend an awful lot of time trying to find their way around some of our poorly designed websites and library systems. Oftentimes, librarians are required to "teach" the user about the intricacies of their library systems so that he or she can use it effectively. A well-designed system should not even require a human intermediary in most instances.

Libraries may possess collections that sit in the long tail, but exposing these to the user is not what they have been doing well. Libraries have been wall gardens for too long. Recent efforts by the OCLC to make Worldcat records available in Google book searches are laudable and will definitely broaden access to long tail collections. Some libraries have also created browser plugins based on LibX that allow users to search catalogs directly for specific titles/authors while surfing the Web. The Australia Libraries gateway is another good example of aggregating the long tail and presenting it on a single interface. Libraries need to do these and more, they need to be ubiquitous at the point of need, online and offline, in order to truly utilize the benefits of the long tail.

My LIS experience

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:52:00 -0400

Unlike many of my classmates, I came into the LIS program at Syracuse University knowing specifically what I want to do, that is, to specialize in digital libraries. Perhaps I won't call myself a librarian in the strictest sense, because I don't envision myself sitting at a reference desk and answering questions from users. Neither do I want to be a cataloger, I think it'll bore the hell out of me. I knew that libraries, like many other fields and professions such as business and journalism, needed to move forward in the age of participation. It was something I could connect with, and I wanted to be part of that.

My experience in this LIS program has been extremely fulfilling. I started out knowing a little about things that libraries were doing with technology to engage users in the digital age, but that knowledge wasn't deep enough. I'm glad I was able to customize my program based on areas I think librarians need to focus on, such as knowledge management and service-oriented architecture. These areas are not necessarily traditional library science courses, but they're important areas that warrant attention as libraries shift their focus from connecting people to resources towards facilitating conversations that underpin the knowledge creation process. In that regard, I think the Social Life of Information is a great book that every librarian should read.

I should also point out my initial experience in an online learning environment. I've had undergraduate classes with an online component before I entered this program, but I've never taken a class that's conducted entirely online. It was sometimes tough to keep up with the discussions that were going on, and I felt I was spending more time in online classes than offline ones. Social software tools like those covered in this class do help to make online classes more interactive and engaging. I hope more online instructors will think about integrating these tools in the learning environment.

My LIS experience
Our SCILS598 Summer 2008 experience

A podcast story

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:04:00 -0400

This is a podcast story about my grandmother's struggle with diabetes. You also download the MP3 file at http://www.switchpod.com/users/wtscils598x08/diabetes.mp3

Libraries as new producers and tastemakers?

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:31:00 -0400

Libraries as New Producers: Libraries may not necessarily be new producers per se, but I think they are well-poised to create an environment for amateur producers. Through library spaces that can be used by indie bands to public performances by amateur dance groups, the library can be the place where talent is bred and discovered. Similarly, through teen programs such as social media workshops that some public libraries have organized, libraries are actively seeding the new producers of tomorrow. In addition, a platform spearheaded by libraries for users to showcase their creative works -- such as what Goodreads has done to allow people to share their writing -- is also a potential breeding ground for new producers.

Libraries as New Markets: Traditionally, libraries have focused on physical resources, but that is expected to change with the increasing amount of born-digital content from peer and industrial producers alike. Although this can potentially expand the scope of a library's collection, Chris Anderson tells us that the quality of information in the long tail varies widely. I think the role of the library with the emergence of new markets should be that of an information concierge where quality information can be sought and filtered. I'm reminded of the keynote delivered by Joe Janes, associate dean of the iSchool at the University of Washington, during the Internet Librarian conference last year, where he called for libraries to focus on quality and save the time of the user: "don't worry about information worlds we're not working with; stop chasing things we can't catch - Google is doing a good job already".

Libraries as New Tastemakers: Libraries have been the tastemakers of the old, often depending on book reviews and subject librarians to sift through thousands of new titles produced each month. Collection development as a filtering process will still remain a primary activity for libraries, but that process may have to change. Librarians, who can't accurately predict demand for niches in the long tail, will have to find some way to incorporate collaborative filtering in collection development from the onset rather than as an afterthought.

Blog traffic stats

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:12:00 -0400

In the past month from May 16 to June 15, I've had a total of 132 visits from 62 unique visitors. Although most visitors are presumably our classmates, there is a growing number of people from Google, who searched for terms that were used in my blog entries. Not surprisingly, Firefox is the most popular Web browser used by visitors, with cable broadband being the dominant mode of connection. Here are the details.

Virtual intro

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 23:20:00 -0400

I think delicious is a great way to introduce people to one another in a class by looking at kinds of things that are tagged. There were interesting tidbits revealed about people that weren't present in their formal introductions! Moreover, social bookmarking in some ways creates a peer support network where each student contributes useful resources for the benefit of others. Over time, those tagged items will also serve as the collective memory of the course community.

Comparing Wetpaint and PBwiki

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:23:00 -0400

Compared to PBwiki, Wetpaint offers a more compelling set of features if you can tolerate the ads that show up on your wiki. For starters, you can choose from a wider variety of functional and design templates to get your pages up and running quickly. PBwiki, on the other hand, only offers five skins for you to customize the look and feel of your pages.

In some ways, Wetpaint is more than just a wiki where people collaborate on a a set of documents. With features such as discussion groups and to-do lists, Wetpaint incorporates some functionality found in project management solutions such as Basecamp.

Other features present in Wetpaint that are missing in PBwiki include the ability to assign tags to individual pages. This is useful in promoting serendipitous browsing, especially for potential contributors who may want to get an overall idea of what a particular wiki is about by looking at the tags.

As an advertisement supported service, Wetpaint also includes features such as the ability to point your wiki to a custom domain and access to site statistics. Both features require an upgrade to a paid service in PBwiki. Technically, you could embed tracking code from third-party site trackers in your PBwiki, but without access to the CSS design templates which you'd have to pay for, you will not be able to effectively track site traffic as a whole.

Of libraries and the Long Tail

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:11:00 -0400

Even before Chris Anderson's book was written, libraries have been benefiting from the long tail through the interlibrary loan (ILL) system. This has allowed libraries to meet the local needs of their constituents, while turning to ILL for niche items further down the long tail.

While ILL allows libraries as a whole to develop deep and rich collections, there are still physical restrictions in reaping the full benefits of the long tail. Items have to be stored somewhere on the shelves of ILL member libraries. That means libraries are still required to weed their physical collections from time to time, thus limiting their potential in meeting long tail needs.

The benefits of the long tail may be more pronounced for electronic items that do not take up precious shelf space in libraries. In addition, with technology such as print-on-demand, libraries can now cater to even wider interests along towards the tail end of needs. The Espresso book machine at the New York Public Library, for instance, allows users to print over 200,000 titles from the Open Content Alliance.

But more than just meeting long tail needs, libraries should focus on matching demand and supply. As Lorcan Dempsey from the OCLC pointed out:

"It is not enough for materials to be present within the system: they have to be readily accessible ('every reader his or her book', in Ranganathan's terms), potentially interested readers have to be aware of them ('every book its reader'), and the system for matching supply and demand has to be efficient ('save the time of the user')"

Even if libraries are set to benefit from the long tail, the filters that we have in libraries today aren't ready to provide access to long tail niches. Our Opacs remain clunky, monolithic and difficult to use for most people. This is partly the result of our legacy cataloging practices which need to evolve in order to balance the need for top-down bibliographic control and bottom-up collaborative filtering. With librarians still undecided over the future of bibliographic control, it could take a while before the library world as a whole can benefit from the long tail.

First take on Shelfari

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:17:00 -0400

Shelfari is an social media service that enables book lovers to share their virtual book shelves with others, form a community around book interests or simply discuss a book. Users can rate and tag individual items in their book collection as well as discover what others are reading. It isn't meant to be a service like LibraryThing where you can catalog your books in a comprehensive manner like a librarian. At first sight, Shelfari's clean and uncluttered interface is likely to attract the average first time user who may find LibraryThing overwhelming with the classification numbers and subject headings. Perhaps that's why LibraryThing has managed to attract a huge following among librarians. Having said that, LibraryThing has the same features as Shelfari, and more.

One of the thing that stands out to the first time user of Shelfari is its visually appealing bookshelf. You can choose to organize the shelf based on books you've read, intend to read or currently reading. These can be refined further according to date added and read (who remembers?), ratings, reviews, authors and titles. Users can also create and share favorites and wish lists. The ability for users to organize their bookshelves based on reading status means users do not have to create personal tags such as "to read", which is commonly used by LibraryThing users to tag books that they want to read.

Shelfari's bookshelf is perhaps the only reason why someone will choose it over LibraryThing which has a much bigger community you can connect with. The "Explore" function in Shelfari that lets you discover fellow book lovers and books is skeletal at best. Much of it is based on short popularity lists which really restricts your potential connections to people and books that fall in the "short head" rather than the "long tail".

The social dynamics of learning

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:10:00 -0400

I am not very familiar with the US education system, but having been here for more than a year, it seems that continuing education is a big business. Many US institutions are actively recruiting students from both within the country and internationally. Online education, in particular, seems to be all the rage. Personally, I do not favor asynchronous delivery of courses because as Brown and Duguid noted, effective learning is not a mere act of consuming content. It requires one to engage in conversations with people in both formal and informal settings. Through interactions with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds on a campus, a student is able to develop meaningful constructs pertaining to course content over time. It is through this process that learning occurs.

What this means to providers of online education here and elsewhere is that institutions can no longer focus on delivering information to learners and expect learning to take place. Granted, some people are merely after paper qualifications and couldn't care less about the learning process. As long as he or she does enough rote learning to pass quizzes and exams, nothing else really matters. But for those who truly want to enjoy the intellectual rigor in the learning process, nothing beats sitting down with a classmate over lunch or beer and "talking shop" informally. In most instances, ideas are born and opinions shaped. It's something that Web 2.0 tools and even Cisco's sophisticated telepresence technology can't match. The value of a highly-ranked MBA program lies in the people you'll meet, and not so much about the learning material or the piece of paper you'll earn at the end of it all.

I absolutely concur with Brown and Duguid's suggestions on what universities should do to reorganize the system of higher education. The system of satellite campuses is already implemented by some "degree granting bodies" in the US and a few others in the UK (University of London), France (Insead) and Australia (Monash University and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology). A local campus offers the best option for someone who does not have the financial means or ability to earn a degree at a distant school. The next best option might be online education, but institutions should require some form of residency, at least for a limited period, to allow students to form peer networks that are so important in supporting learning.

Information overload

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Wed, 4 Jun 2008 01:21:00 -0400

I used to think that having a feed reader will mitigate the problem of information overload since I can be more selective about the stuff I read. I monitor over 100 blogs and it's almost impossible to keep up with them. I've become used to unread items numbering in the thousands, and I'm only taking cursory glances to pick up stuff to read in greater depth.

Because it's so convenient to collect feeds, whenever I come across interesting content, I won't hesitate to subscribe to its feed. Over time, I began to realize that I'm spreading my attention thinly over an ever-growing pool of feeds. It became much harder to pick out quality posts worth my time. It's like digital photography. With film cameras, people took time to compose their shots. Today, we've become trigger happy with our digital cameras, snapping photos with the hope that at least one shot will turn out well.

These days, I hardly add new feeds to my feed reader. I'm more selective about subscribing to new content. Rather than filtering stuff myself, I'm relying more on feeds from sites like Digg and StumbleUpon to do the filtering for me especially for popular posts. I no longer subscribe to blogs like Gizmodo and Engadget which churns out more than 100 posts a day!

I don't think aggregators mitigate or aggravate the problem of information overload. They may make the problem more manageable by filtering stuff that we're not interested in, but that's not going to affect the overload in any case. With the explosion of user generated content, there's now a greater need to filter items in our feeds. That's something that aggregators can't do for now.

Preamble to the world of Feed

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Wed, 4 Jun 2008 01:19:00 -0400

One of the first things that struck me about the world of Feed is how superficial and insular people have become. They've lost their sense of self, they're slaves to consumerism, functioning as mere digits to large corporations. People are trapped in their cocoons, scanning feeds that make up their Daily Me's while oblivious to global events. It's a scary situation, but if you look around us, we're inching closer to that reality every day!

I think all that's going on in the last few years is a preamble for things to come. As it is, the narrowing of our worldviews is being accelerated by collaborative filtering and mass customization. The long tail of ideas may provide us with abundant choices, but it also limits discovery and the ability for us to form new tastes.

Chris Anderson disagrees with this in The Long Tail, choosing to put his faith in the recommendation systems to expose us to ideas outside our interests. I remain skeptical. My Amazon recommendations are full of library-related books and stuff related to Internet culture.

It's also uncanny to think that the characters in the world of Feed were able to pick up the feeds of others and know what they're thinking. In some ways, feeds may be the answer to our problems with human memory, but at what cost? The loss to individual privacy far outweighs anything. In retrospect, I'm glad we kicked up a big fuss over Facebook broadcasting user activity on third-party sites to your friends. It's things like this that remind us of the values that we hold dearly.

Making sense of Brown and Duguid

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Tue, 3 Jun 2008 12:59:00 -0400

One of the recurring themes in Brown and Duguid's The Social Life of Information is the social perspective that's often overlooked in an information ecology with the introduction of new technology. Even as users become more independent in information-seeking, librarians can take heart in the fact they will continue to play an important role in the triad of information-seeker, librarian and technology.

While it is true that users are seeking less help for answers that they can easily find on the Internet, giving the user a set of search tools and databases is unlikely to be fruitful for more complex tasks such as market research. The social interaction that takes place during a reference interview is likely to yield more useful results. During the question-negotiation process, the librarian is instrumental in bridging the gap between a user's expressed need (to the librarian who is part of the information system) and his or her actual need in order to establish a search strategy.

Social interactions such as these abound in the information ecology of a library. Rapport and relationships are being built between librarians and users, often leading to repeat visitors. Additionally, reference librarians often turn to fellow colleagues for knowledge in subject areas outside their primary domains.

Social software technologies allow libraries to facilitate those interactions. Wikis allow reference librarians to collectively build a knowledge base of reference information. Blogs and social network sites facilitate conversations among users. Librarians can be assured that technology, for once, isn't focused on delivering mere bits. For the first time, it's about exposing the missing link -- the real-life social networks that are crucial in making sense of the bits that we consume everyday.

Having said that, the use of social software will only complement and not replace face-to-face interaction. Virtual reference conversations are still prone to misinterpretation due to the lack of visual cues. A video conference is not quite the same as a real-life meeting. More importantly, any technology new or old should support -- and not upset -- the delicate balance between the people, practices and values of a library.

Map Builder: a Web 2.0 mashup tool

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Mon, 2 Jun 2008 17:19:00 -0400

Map Builder is a Web 2.0 tool that allows organizations to create mashups using Google and Yahoo maps without any programming know-how. Many small businesses are using it to provide direction assistance for their customers while others have created tourist guides that identity available accommodation within a city.

A mashup is essentially a way for you to combine data from different sources to create new Web applications. A rock band, for instance, may combine information about its tours around the country with geospatial information on a Google map. Such a mashup may allow fans to get an idea of the location of past and remaining legs of the band's tour, together with ticketing and seating information within a single mashup. Other popular mashup tools include Yahoo Pipes, IBM's QEDwiki and Dapper.

But to qualify as a Web 2.0 app, there has to be some kind of collaboration/sharing involved. Map Builder lets you invite people to contribute to your map. A foodie community, for instance, can band together to create a mashup of the best places to eat and present that information on a map, which can also be shared with the larger community. All maps are hosted by Map Builder, and users can subscribe to RSS feeds for map updates. The site makes money by creating customized maps for organizations.

One of the first things that struck me about Map Builder was how easy it is to create a map-based mashup. Traditionally, you'd need to look up API documentation to create something like this. They've done most of the heavy-lifting for you and all you need to do is to provide location information. If you have a CSV file with geocode locations, you can simply import that data into Map Builder.

This tool has a lot of potential in library applications. A library system may create a mashup with all its branch locations and opening hours for its users. If they are more ambitious, they could combine circulation data and census information to identify areas in the library system where service is lacking. These areas, visualized on a map, can also serve as potential areas for a bookmobile service.

Blog reader showdown

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Tan) — Mon, 2 Jun 2008 14:59:00 -0400

Google Reader was my first feed reader when I started subscribing to RSS feeds a few years ago. Since then, Google has introduced several new features related to social networking. However, Bloglines by far is more popular among users, though the gap is closing.

One of the first things you'll notice about Google Reader is its clean interface that resembles several Google products such as Gmail. This is not without a reason. The growing number of Gmail users will feel right at home with Google Reader. The tight integration with Gmail, where you're able to read your feeds alongside your emails, is one way for Google to create "stickiness" among its fan base.

Bloglines, on the other hand, appears cluttered especially when your feeds are loaded up. There is too much unnecessary information at the top of a given feed, like how many items there are, the exact time and date it was last updated, and the blog's subtitle. I don't need to know all of that. Google Reader tells me when the post was updated based on the number of hours/days that have elapsed from now. That gives me a better idea of how old a post is. That's contextualizing information.

Searching for posts in your feeds is a good way for you to dig up something you think you've read before but not sure who wrote it and when. I do this all the time when I need to reference someone's posts in a new article. Google's simple search interface lets you do that easily. In Bloglines, however, you'd think that the search box on the top right hand corner of the screen will let you search for posts in your feeds until you realize you're searching the entire blogosphere. You actually have to click on the search tab to restrict your search to your feeds. Not the most intuitive thing for the user, I would say.

Both Google Reader and Bloglines allow you to share your feeds with others, but in addition, Google Reader lets you share specific posts with your friends on what Google calls a Public Page. You can also assign your own tags to the posts, and choose to share only posts with a particular tag. Bloglines implements sharing through public blogrolls where you can see a list of someone's folders and the feeds he/she subscribes to. It doesn't allow you to add your own tags to each post or share specific posts.

Google's approach to sharing involves more social networking elements. You can add friends to your profile and they'll automatically receive updates of your shared/starred posts. I am not sure how popular this has been among users so far, but I'm not ready to start another social network.

By and large, I'm more drawn to Google Reader than Bloglines for now, because I'm anal about usability. The upcoming version of Bloglines seems promising though. It touts the use of Flickr's API to display images from Flickr feeds in maximum resolution. They're also including mobile support for the iPhone. I've tried the beta, and it appears that they've fixed some of the usability problems with a much cleaner interface.