Trying to make sense of Web 2.0

The 4th thing to do of the 23 things was to register your blog on the program’s tracking log. Because we are just doing this to help prepare us for our own program later, we are not PLCMC staff, and the site is now just used as a resource, I’ll have to keep track of myself!

I wasn’t sure whether to do a replacement post on something, but saw that my fellow champion, roguedubb had, (some data on when Web 2.0/Library 2.0 first appeared on the radar) so I thought why don’t try to write a post about what I think Web 2.0 is. Which is hard. I understand some of the terminology that is associated with it, “participatory web”, “collective intelligence’, “social”, “value-added applications”, “read-write web..”, but to be able to articulate it clearly in a couple of paragraphs, well… here goes.

It seems that Web 2.0 is about people taking more control over what the web can do for them, the web is a powerful medium that connects us to a vast community and has great potential for how we choose to do this and use it for our own needs. In some early reading about Web 2.0 (I now forget the source) an author wrote that the early web (Web 1.0) was just about people gaining access to information, whereas it is now about encouraging participation, building tools that allow us to communicate, collaborate and share in ways that were unthinkable before

I really like the video on YouTube by Michael Wesch, called The Machine is Us/ing us, which I had seen before it was recommended as a background resource to understand Web 2.0. It shows how the creation/communication of information has changed due to Web 2.0 tools. From the written word on paper, to the typed word, to having more control over how content is represented and integrated into valuable applications for our use. No longer are we just consumers of the Web, we are its creators.

Web 2.0 offers many possibilities for libraries to exploit, because the tools are based on “community participation”. Libraries have always had a strong connection with the communities they serve and have always been interested in finding new ways to serve them/reach out to them/gain feedback. Tools such as blogs, rss feeds, tagging and applets allow us to try new ways to do this. Book group blogs, ways to deliver library news, advertising new materials, providing more valuable catalogue records...

The last thing to do is to let the other champions know that my blog is up, via the 21 Lunges blog.

Merry Christmas all.

P.S. If you like the image above go to icondrawer.com to find some more.