Post 10.2: Wrap It Up Just in Time for the Holidays.

Because I had LIS_753 with Michael, a lot of what we did in this class was review, albeit more thorough and comprehensive. One assignment I was anticipating (and looing forward to) was done with the LIS_768 class during the Spring 2008 semester where groups worked to synthsize a podcast and post it on the web. Unfortunately, this project was taken off the agenda.

Something I really appreciated was being able to listen to and learn from the group projects. While my group’s project was conceptual and abstract, many were very concrete. Learning from the presentations about how to navigate various social networking software was extremely helpful. Because these tools are so intuitive, sometimes all it takes is watching someone else do it to inspire me to experiment.

For me, the desire to experiment and the support to do it is the theme of these classes. Working through these tools and programs in a class setting is as necessary to me as reading critical and cultural theory with the benefit of group synthesis and discussion. I get so much more out of a supportive setting than I would attempting to do it on my own. Not only that, alone I would be stifled by ignorance (of programming and of operation). Experiential classes give me ideas to explore and the confidence to effectively navigate.

Post 9.2: Social Networking Neglect

I believe the week we were supposed to author a post about social networking, I went off on a tangent about the usability of band websites. You give me an inch, I’ll stretch it a mile.

To make up for lost time, I’ve decided to write about my sister. She’s 20, a college junior, well-informed, willing, and able. The perfect candidate for social networking.

She’s also a model citizen: majoring in special education; entirely passionate about social justice; president of her university’s feminist association; scholarship queen; soon-to-be volunteer at Indian orphanages; singularly responsible. I’m so proud of her it makes me want to puke. Our entire family is. However, that did not leave her immune from the imposition of our father’s fear of Facebook.

She began her Facebook account in high school. Her senior year, she published a rather funny picture of herself with two balloons shoved into her shirt, laughing with her friends. Considering the photos that some people willingly put on the internet for all to see, this was, and is, rather innocuous. At least, that’s what we thought, until our father stepped forward and told her this sort of behavior was entirely unacceptable and she was to discontinue her account. He didn’t have a problem with the act of stuffing balloons in one’s shirt, per se. Rather, he took issue with the picture’s publication on the World Wide Web.

This story does have a happy ending. Our father joined Facebook. I don’t think he uses it for its intended “create-a-social-network” purpose, although, after watching “Social Networking in Plain English” I admit that neither do I. Maybe his page was created for the express intention of checking up on us. However, now that he’s a victim of my sister’s limited profile (no pictures please), I think he’s just having fun and trying to keep his vast knowledge base relevant.

Group Project

In terms of our group communication using social software, I have to say Google Docs saved us. During our last in class meeting on the second weekend, we made an outline and divided the work. Over the course of the next five weeks, we posted all our thoughts onto a Google Doc. A few days before the presentation, I started getting really worried. Were we ready? Were we organized? Were we thorough? Because we all did such a good job of sharing out information with each other via this tool, a more complete outline was a cinch to put together. It literally came together in minutes.

Thanks Google Docs!

In terms of our group’s use of social software for our presentation, I can’t really say how absolutely necessary it was to make a blog because we were so focused on transparency concepts, rather than practices. I think it was good for us to put our thoughts on “paper,” but the majority of our presentation was about the theory behind effective transparency and the elements it involves. Perhaps we could have made a blog that libraries could refer to when implementing transparency plans, rather than a prototype.

Transparency Slides

Per Michael’s request, here are the PowerPoint slides for our project on transparency.

The gist is: Useful & Valuable, Easy & Effective, Participatory & Equal

transparency slides

Also, here are the links I addressed in class:

Participatory Democracy

MetaGovernment

Blog for sale.

I did those LibraryBytes tests that Carrie sent out and was shocked to find out that my blog is worth $564.54.

Any takers?

Post 8.2: Tentative Radical Trust

Perhaps it’s the concept. Perhaps it’s because the word “radical” appeals to me. Whatever the reason, I plan to write my paper about Radical Trust in the online sense and extrapolate it to Library 2.0 and how Radical Trust plays into relationships with patrons — especially our next generation of library users: teens and youth — creating a peer-based environment.

Clearly I need to flesh this idea out a little more. I may not end where I am beginning.

11/21/08- I think this idea may be evolving into a thesis:

Information access is a basic human right.

I plan on linking this assertion to the concept of Participatory Democracy and the role technology will be expected to play in broadening people’s ability to authentically participate in truly democratic societies.

Post 7.2: The TERROR of complexity…starring Me

The library I worked at in Colorado had a self-checkout policy based on the honor system. Needless to say, this poised issues as no student ever (literally, ever) checked out their books. This lack of participation led to our system saying a book was on the shelves, even when it had been gathering dust under a bed for the last year. Very annoying, to say the least.

This is a movie my colleague and I made about how to check out books. While it was fun to make the movie, it didn’t help our cause. Take a look at why. (Hint-When the number of steps exceeds 7 and involves multiple screens, no teenager, or adult for that matter, will willingly participate.) Feel free to watch all 6 minutes. Or, skip to 2:40 for the actual check-out process.

Context Book: If you don’t “Blink,” you might miss something.

I do not consider getting a degree in Library Science to be an intellectual pursuit. I do think an epistemological understanding is the required disposition for anyone in this field. However, seeking my MLIS is more a vocational exercise than anything else. The pursuit of an MLIS involves the mastery of authority; it involves honing one’s sense of judgment with regard to information; it also involves refining one’s unconscious through the constant, conscious analysis of the reams of data with which we interact daily.

This idea is heavily reinforced in the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. Throughout the text, Gladwell posits that instinct and intuition are better and more effective tools than activating one’s knowledge of a situation. He, in many anecdotal and scientific scenarios, proves that, in fact, too much knowledge can be detrimental to the instantaneous process of decision-making. “The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter” (265). Unfortunately, and counterintuitively, it is the kind of knowledge we can hold in our hands (i.e. analysis, data, spreadsheets, charts, polls) that interferes with our unconscious mind’s ability to act correctly and accurately.

Fortunately, we can develop our unconscious to turn knowledge into understanding. In this way, Gladwell likens the unconscious mind to a database we can draw upon in situations that require immediacy (272). This is what I feel my 12 classes in this program have implicitly encouraged me to do. While the pursuit of information is a characteristic that comes naturally to people entering this field, what I – as a born left-brainer – need to do is practice “understand[ing] how to combine rational analysis with instinctive judgment” (272). Perhaps library programs should be more assertive in promoting this ideology. It appears to marry better to the fast-paced world technology has allowed us to become.

Post 6.2: Election 2.0 or “Listen up, Rick Davis.”

Ordinarily, I try to avoid partisan politics. The bickering over issues upsets me. Unfortunately, as election-related happenings appear to be ubiquitous, I have no choice but to be a passive consumer of this information. Currently, my drinks of choice are MSNBC and the Daily Show.

Listening to Keith Olbermann drone on the other night about his frustration with John McCain’s repetitious campaign, I had a eureka moment.

The reason McCain is so behind is because he doesn’t appear to understand the power of the 24-hour news cycle. Because he does not understand this power, bestowed by the internet and the constant, fluctuating dialogue that is taking place, he can only react to information. This opposed to creating new, interesting, thought-provoking information.

And isn’t that what Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and, subsequently, Election 2.0 are all about? Creating information and participating in a global dialogue?

In the article “A Dialogue: Culture, Language, and Race,” Paulo Freire, the father of critical theory, writes, “Dialogue is a way of knowing and should never be viewed as a mere tactic to involve [people] in a particular task….In this sense, dialogue presents itself as an indispensable component of the process of both learning and knowing.”

Because John McCain does not seem to realize that “dialogue” is more than him talking to people instead of with them, his campaign will continue to falter. He will persist in stasis, remaining both unknowing and unlearning. As we have seen and experienced, his brand of reactionary politics is not winning him any friends. More so, it is not winning him any new constituents with his old, stale, and, frankly, useless information.

8-year-old Pundit

Last night I found my journal from third grade in my parents’ basement.

The year was 1988. A less than heated presidential race had just wrapped. This is my entry from 11/8/88, the day after election day:

“Last night Bush won. Bush LIES. His own mother is voteing [sic] for DUKAKIS because she knows that Bush is LIEING [sic]! I hate BUSH!”

Kids say the darndest things.