#Follow Any Day

More and more people are getting on board the Twitter train.  One thing that I hear from  people who are either new to Twitter or aren’t sure about it – who do I follow?  A trend that got started is the perfect solution to the answer and it’s known as FollowFriday.   Every Friday you are encouraged to suggest to your Tweeps who you consider follow worthy.  I love this idea and have contributed to it each and every Friday since I’ve learned about it.  Only flaw I’ve seen is there was no real way to know why I should follow one person vs. another.  When I’ve tweeted my #followfriday recommendations I’ve always tried to include what these people have in common.  So in other words I categorized my Tweeps (gee, I do work in a library you know – sorry no Dewey decimal or LOC subject headings just basic tagging here).

My list of who I am following is growing.  I have lots of different groups (library folks, Linux people, business, news, etc).  So I decided to break down my groups and list them here on my blog then you can follow these fine folks any day of the week.  Listed in order as they appear in my Twitter account.

Libraries, Library people and trainers to follow: yalescilib / YaleScienceLibraries HCLDayintheLife / HowardCo Lib Staff HiRecommended/HCL Highly Recommended geekegrrl / Sarah Auger / Brian Auger beccalovesbooks / Becca Johnson weelibrarian / Krista Godfrey vargasruth / Ruth Vargas dbouman / Danny Bouman jdelagardelle / Jody Delagardelle typealibrarian / Jennifer Hrusch glenhorton / Glen Horton chattylibrarian / Joan CanuckLibrarian / Jennifer C FrontierLibrary / Sarah Baldwin kgs / K.G. Schneider SBULibrary / Stony Brook Library Kaess / Katrin Kropf libraryfuture / Joe Murphy cdm014 Lee_Martin skiddjohnson / Suzanne Kidd Johnson LibraryGuy / Craig Anderson infowidget / Amy Harmon Jill_HW / Jill Hurst-Wahl cclibrarian / JMS library_chan / Melissa Houlroyd billcompugeek / Bill Sara_Mooney / Sara Mooney jaimebc / jaime corris hammond sclapp / Sharon Clapp lagina jenother / Jen Spisak pollyalida / polly gspadoni / Gina Spadoni hbraum / Heather Braum calimae / Cindy Bowen ashlieconway / Ashlie Conway Slzimm1 / Stephanie Zimmerman LorreS / Lorre Smith griffey / Jason Griffey walkingpaper / aaron schmidt awd / Aaron W. Dobbs cindi librarysteve rtennant / Roy Tennant stevelawson / Steve Lawson ZenLibrarian / Annette Jones infosciphi / Chadwick Seagraves bckhough / Brenda Hough aarontay ALA_LITA ellbeecee / Laura ashuping / Andrew Shuping caro6302 / Caroline Ramsden james3neal / James Neal webmaster_ref / Brent Ferguson librarygary libkitty / Freya Anderson WebJunction brewinlibrarian / Matt Hamilton erindowney lorireed hblowers / Helene librarianmer / Meredith libraryman / Michael Porter akearns / Amy Kearns askusnow / Maryland AskUsNow! s_francoeur / Stephen Francoeur LibraryJournal / Library Journal talkingbooks / Talking Books tisfortraining joshuamneff / Joshua M. Neff MLx / Marianne Lenox librarianbyday / Bobbi Newman crankylibrarian / Kaia tattp / Valerie Beyers LibraryChica / Stacey Aldrich shifted / Jenny Levine RyanDeschamps / Ryan Deschamps victoriaptersen / Victoria Petersen library_chic / Courtney S. pfanderson / P. F. Anderson cjburns / Christa Burns gregschwartz / Greg Schwartz conniecrosby / Connie Crosby strnglibrarian / Julie Strange rachelrapp / Rachel Rappaport TheLiB / Sarah Houghton-Jan mbreeding / Marshall Breeding mstephens7 / Michael Stephens adegroff jessamyn / jessamyn west msauers / Michael Sauers baldgeekinmd / MC aka baldgeekinmd

Web 2.0 or Social Media/Networking: hootsuite / HootSuite Topify FirstDigg / FirstDigg / Urgo TwitZap adamostrow / Adam Ostrow Gripwire / Brett Polonsky mattsingley / matt singley bobrobboy / Bob Robertson-Boyd rww / Richard MacManus socialmedian / Jason Goldberg ashleylomas / Ashley Lomas TheNextWeb / The Next Web kanter / Beth Kanter adamhirsch / Adam Hirsch digitalnatives / Digital Natives jowyang / Jeremiah Owyang mashable / Pete Cashmore SocialMedia411 / Social Media Insider socialmention slqotd / SLQOTD TiffanyStrobel / Tiffany Strobel socialmediaclub / Social Media Club

Open Source related : ranginui / Chris Cormack- Koha joetho / Joe Tho- Koha wizzyrea / Liz Rea- Koha Miromurr / Thomas Brevik- Koha gmcharlt / Galen – Koha magnusenger – Koha corephp / ‘corePHP’ nirak / Karin Dalziel- Linux LinuxVoices galaxiecruzin / Alex B- Linux nengard / Nicole Engard – Koha linuxjournal Linux

Companies or  Web Sites: momentile / Momentile wefollow engadget / Engadget google / A Googler Twitter_Tips / Tips, Tools, Status facebook / Facebook nytimes / The New York Times TwistenFM / Twisten.FM WebReference firefox / Firefox BreakingNewz / Breaking News Grooveshark TalkShoe wordpress / WordPress BreakingNews / BNO News google_us_news / Google News US bbctech / BBC Technology cnnbrk / CNN Breaking News

Twitter About Friendfeed So Facebook Can Flickr YouTube aka CIL2009 presentation

Now that I’ve had a chance to decompress, find my notes and get some email dealt with I thought I’d post about my presentation at CIL2009.  I had the sincere pleasure of working with not only two talented professionals but two people I now consider good friends – Michael Sauers and Bobbi Newman.   Our presentation dealt with training both staff and customers in regards to the wild, wonderful world of Web 2.0.  More portion of the trilogy dealt with training the customer.

Here are a few links I promised I’d share with people – hope these help you to educate your customers about Web 2.0.

Presentations:

My portion of the presentation

Entire presentation (including Michael and Bobbi’s slides)

My presentation for the public (customers) on Web 2.0 overview

Handouts:

Overview of Web 2.0 class

Photo/video sharing class

Music sharing class

Social Networking class

Next Best Thing To Being There

I tweeted this morning that I was working on more photos from #CIL2009 (Computers in Libraries) and #JointSpringConference (Joint Spring Conference).  I got a reply to my tweet from @webmaster_ref asking to let him know when I had uploaded them.  He appreciated seeing all the tweets that were hashtagged #CIL2009 and the photos that were going up on Flickr.

I too have felt like the only one NOT attending a conference that my peers were attending.  Their blogs, tweets, YouTube videos and Flickr photos help to feel not totally out of the loop.  Of course nothing can replace the actual benefits of attending a conference (all the ideas you are exposed to, learns you learn to do and not to do regarding presenting, networking you do and friends you make).  One friend only Twittered during the conference and even setup a separate Twitter account so his other followers weren’t bombarded with #CIL2009 stuff.

What started as just a way to for me to record my experience at a conference, I’m now seeing in a different light.  With economic times hitting libraries hard these days I think it’s almost a duty of those who do attend to inform those of us who are left behind.  So if I can’t go to Internet Librarian 2009 I hope all my tweeps, freeps, fbookers and blog friends will do their best to make me like I’m there.

Photography Leads to Micro-Blogging

Last night I volunteered to help my photography mentor with a class she was instructing in how to use Flickr.  With a hands-on class it always helps to have an extra set of eyes, hands and legs to walk the room and help students.  I was more than happy to help.  Not only did I coerce…umm, suggest that she teach the class but it gave me yet another chance for her to impart her years of photography experience on me.

When the class was over I wound up talking to several people and registering them for her next class (sure sign things went well).  She had billed me as “the web 2.0 guru”, a name I wear proudly and several ladies asked me when I was going to teach my web 2.0 class.  One woman in particular wanted to know if I would teach about Twitter.  I was thrilled to hear that word (one of my favorite web 2.0 sites that I feel has such potential).  So when I got a tweet from Mashable, I thought how timely.

10 Ways to Build Your Blog Community with Twitter stressed many of the points I would have made.  The first 3 bolded paragraphs are just a start but each of the ten bullet points bring home good reasons to use Twitter as well.  I’ll be passing this blog post along to my photography mentor.  Why you may ask?  Because she is also the editor of our readers advisory blog at the Library, Highly Recommended.

Who Moved My Facebook?

I must be the exception to the norm.  I have yet to be phased by any of the changes that Facebook has made to their site.  That’s not to say that I think all their changes have been needed or even warranted.  It is the one site where I seem to just go with the flow.

There are enough people, however, each time change comes that get upset when someone moves their cheese.  They create pages, groups, applications to announce their displeasure.  Is this such a bad thing?  At first I would have said yes but then I got to thinking.  What better way to get feedback from your users?!  Most web sites are lucky if someone takes the time to fill out a contact us form.  Facebook fans take full advantage of Web 2.0.  Maybe the rest of the web could take a page from Facebook and think of more ways to allow our users to express pleasure or displeasure.

I hardly see Facebook changing back (but you never know enough of an uproar might make a difference).  It will be interesting to monitor this.  I am one for change and don’t mind just going with the flow.  All I ask is just don’t expect me to comment, start a group or create an application – unless it is “I Went With the Flow – Facebook Changes Don’t Phase Me” flair. 

On a Wing and a Prayer

I was asked by my boss to fill in for her filling in for the original speaker at the Third Annual ACS Conference.  I was happy to do so even if I didn’t have much notice.  I had to take slides from the original presenter and talk about how Howard County Library has implemented 4 different Web 2.0 applications (blogs, Facebook, Wiki and Google Docs).  Web 2.0, right up my alley!  I wrote up some quick notes this morning and knew that my passion would carry me through “winging it”.

It was great to be part of a panel that presented how our different organizations were using Web 2.0 to reach their customers or constituents.  Sites like Digg, Technorati, Facebook, My Space, Google, StumbleUpon, SlideShare, Delicious, Scribd, Yahoo, and Issuu were mentioned.  Tools such as widgets, wikis  and Twitter were also mentioned.  I loved hearing how The Horizon Foundation was using widgets to important Yahoo feed or Delicious bookmark feed into their CERN site.  Columbia Festival for the Arts uses YouTube and the Internet to research artists instead of being inundated by tons of press releases, cds and dvds.  The participants asked lots of questions and they appeared to eagerly lap up all the information the presenters had to give.  I walked away with a warm fuzzy knowing all that Web 2.0 can do for non-profits organizations was shared today.

Although I’m sorry for the family emergency that kept the original presenter from being here today, I was thrilled for the opportunity.  Not only to present about my favorite topic (Web 2.0) but to see what others in our community are doing with it.

Photos from ACS Conference

Talk To Me

Web 1.0 would have to be considered a monologue and web 2.0 definitely a dialog.  Social  networking is suppose to be putting consumers/customers/users in control of the conversation.  Yet I there are times I wonder what should be considered conversation.

Love my Twitter but if there isn’t some give and take (replies) then Twitter is a fancy way to have a monologue? Certainly comments on blogs (minus the spam) are a great vehicle for having a dialog (as long as the blogger responds and doesn’t leave comments hanging out there).  But what bugs me are the comments on sites like Facebook.  Are they really establishing a conversation between two entities?  I’ve seen some comments that leave me scratching my head and asking “why did they bother to type?”  The type that appear that the commenter either didn’t read or understand the post/article/video posted by the original person.

Is my objection to these kind of comments going against the whole reason behind Web 2.0?  To me Web 2.0 is about YOU.  It’s about you – no matter who YOU are – being able to contribute, participate, communicate with others like YOU.  Web 2.0 is peer to peer which really appeals to me.

After mulling this over what I’ve come to realize  is that some Web 2.0 conversations are like a 4 star meal from a top French chef while others are McDonald’s french fries.  There is room for both on my Web 2.0  culinary conversation menu.

Another Chance to Sell My Soul

Update on my previous post.  Turns out that a clerical error kept me from being part of the silent auction at Evening in the Stacks: Along the Silk Road and NOT because the community just didn’t get Web 2.0.  WHEW!  That made me feel so much better.  I’ve been offered to be number 1 silent auction item next year to make up for the error.  So stay tuned it will be interesting to see how we can word the copy so that the business community will understand and bid lots of money.

Sold My Soul to Web 2.0 (or I tried)

I was beginning to wonder if Web 2.0 is just a library thing.  Many of my colleagues across the country have embraced the read/write web but I’ve found that few of my friends or old classmates have.

My series of Web 2.0 classes that I and my fellow co-workers presented at the library were well received.  So I offered myself and another co-worker to be part of the silent auction at our big fund raising event, Evening in the Stacks: Along the Silk Road.  But  I was seriously disappointed to find out that no one from the business community bid on our offer of to come to their business and suggest which Web 2.0 features they could use to promote their business.

Why aren’t people getting it?  I think part of the problem is people are using the read/write web they just don’t know it.  They don’t know that Twitter, Facebook, a blog, uploading to Flickr or Youtube is Web 2.0.  They just use those sites.  They might want to learn more about the features these sites have but they are already using the sites.

Then I open my Google Reader and see feeds like this Yes, We Plan: How Altruism and Advertising Could Change the World or Companies turn to web 2.0 to recruit for trials.   I know I’m finding more and more sites that have Twitter, Facebook or other Web 2.0 badges on them saying “follow me”.   So someone is obviously getting it.   So I guess I just need to figure out how to sell myself better next year so the bids come flying in.  Sorry that I couldn’t help to raise any money for my library – I really thought the idea had merit and wings.

Using Web 2.0 to Team Build

What started as a “you don’t know who The Who is?!” has now turned into a fun way for our IT department to get to know each other just a little better.  Let me explain.  On Friday our web programmer and I were in our boss’s office.  I forget just how she brought up The Who (incidentally Roger and Pete were recently honored at the Kennedy Center).  Now keep in mind that our web programmer wasn’t born until the mid-80’s so a group even as famous as The Who just wasn’t part of his musical vernacular.  My boss and I started ticking off titles of great Who songs but alas only two were familiar to our programmer.  Who Are You thanks to CSI using at it as their theme song and Behind Blue Eyes because Limp Bizkit had covered it.

After our meeting when I got to my desk I had a brain storm – create a playlist to expose/educate someone about a particular artist or group.  So I immediately went to one of my current favorite music sharing-social networking web sites – Grooveshark.   I created a list of songs I felt might span their career.  When stumped I even enlisted the other Web 2.0/social networking sites (Friendfeed, Twitter and Facebook).  I shared it with my boss and our programmer.  We decided wouldn’t this be a fun and educational way to not only be exposed to all types of music but to learn a  bit more about our co-workers.

So as a team building project once a week one person from our department will have 1 week to create a playlist and then share it with the group.  This could highlight a particular artist or group (e.g. The Who), glorify a particular decade (e.g. 80’s) or even try to represent a genre (P Funk).  It is up to the creator of the playlist.  To make it easier on our group I created a common shared username/password so each of us doesn’t have to signup to use Grooveshark (unless they want to).  I’ll be interested in seeing what playlists come out of this project over the next several months.