Category: Recommendations

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Recommendations Reflections Wired World

The End of the Beginning

I won’t lie. It is a great relief that the summer courses have ended. The compressed nature of such courses makes taking two courses less than ideal and not everyone has the luxury of taking a break or just taking one course. My leave from work ends in May next year and in order for me to finish in time, I had to take the maximum courses offered in summer. That is why I didn’t agree with the disclaimer that our instructor Dean put up in response to some of the gripes the students have about the course on two counts but firstly the disclaimer:

“This is a graduate-level course on social media. As such, it is very software-intensive and some students have found that the course content and structure (use of blogs, tweets and navigating Vista) and the sheer number of social tools that are examined during the term causes considerable information overload. If you are unfamiliar with social media or are planning to take other courses while taking LIBR559M, please speak to the instructor first to determine your suitability for the class.”

Firstly, as I have mentioned, not everyone has the luxury of taking one course.

Secondly, knowledge of social media tools is important for information professionals and therefore, I think this is an important class. However, some people may not be comfortable due to the lack of familiarity but that is precisely why they would be taking the course in the first place – to learn and discover. To have a disclaimer that discourages those who are unfamiliar with social media is not productive and undermines the learning value this course has to offer.

I am a frequent user of social media prior to this course, except Twitter, but I still found this course valuable to me. I was delighted to discover plenty of new tools that can be used. It has been a springboard for me to think about social media related plans that libraries can adopt, all in all, I would still take this class again, given a choice, if only for the tools that it had allowed me to discover.

If this class is offered again, these are the things that I imagine would make it better (but this is of course only my opinion)

1) A wiki of social media tools (not definitions) that students are expected to go out and discover and when they discover new ones, they can add to it. This also makes it clear the amount of tool exploration they are required to do and they can better plan their time.

2) Assignments shouldn’t be a treasure hunt: it should be clear to quell anxieties of missed work and again, it allows students to plan their time around the assignment due dates/ expectations more efficiently.

3) I understand that the blog and forum have their uses but it was never clear to me what topics go on the forum and what goes on the blog and given that both forum and blog postings are requirements, then there is a potential that one may become redundant. I acknowledge that the forums are better for discussions and the blog is better for open topics and reflections so maybe what can be done is to have a specific discussion question or two for the forum for students to post in related to the module topic and leave the blog for open reflections, discoveries that are not tied to the module. This will give students the flexibility to explore areas of interest even more, from marketing to tools like (in my case), digital storytelling. The fact is that there are so many social media tools available and different ones will appeal to different people, giving students the luxury to explore whatever they want and helping them to discover what they find works best for themselves at the end of the day.

To be absolutely fair, the course probably does some of this but if it did, it wasn’t clear to me. This course has a lot of value to information professionals and I would like to see it offered again to a warmer reception. It has been an interesting journey for me, sometimes frustrating, sometimes delightful but one thing for certain is that I did take away good knowledge from it.

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Recommendations Virtual Reality Wired World

An Immersive World for Libraries

I have never got far enough in Second Life to experience using a library within it but I imagine what would be most valuable would be the reference services and maybe digital resources but my question is this, if virtual library services can be delivered without the platform of an immersive world – from a webpage with links to digital resources to IM chats with librarians for reference questions – then what exactly makes the immersive world more attractive?

I like to think that the aspects that make it attractive, is how much it simulates a role playing game (RPG), where you can imagine that you are a physical being entering a library with something to discover. Done well, it can be a powerful and rewarding experience and this where I think Second Life falls short. The technical controls get in the way of the experience (at least for me and I am certainly not a stranger to RPGs, what more someone who has little experience with immersive worlds) that you never actually get round to enjoying the simulated experience. Additionally, without a “quest”, Second Life seems dull, other than discovering new places which becomes stale after a while.

This is where I think Quest Alantis that is used for educational purposes does way better. Information that is discovered within fulfills an objective and provides motivation for the user to explore the immersive world fully. This is not to say that immersive worlds, educational or otherwise, can only be used as a game setting. There is still potential for the library to use immersive worlds but there must be a real outcome for the user, otherwise, it would mostly be redundant. Here are some ways I can see it being used (and hopefully on a more intuitive platform than Second Life):

1) Staff training: virtual worlds can be used to train front-line library staff on customer service. Not unlike the border guards training example for Second Life.

2) Workshops for teens conducted by the library can be done over a virtual platform – how to find books, navigate the library, things that can be incorporated in a quest-like format to make the experience more engaging. These can be done without the stigma of being seen in the library (i.e. uncool)

3) Bookclubs, activity sessions with teens can also be done virtually for those who would prefer not to come to the library.

4) If a library is being built or upgraded, the community can be invited to add their vision of the ideal library on a virtual platform (would require some knowledge of online creation tools) or they can be invited to visit the virtual version of the library before the physical library is ready. This creates anticipation for the real thing.

5) An “after hours” library – should a library ever see a need to extend its service hours. A virtual one is always an option because only one virtual branch needs to be open as opposed to many branches.

At this point, I am still skeptical but should the whole virtual experience become seamless one day, providing services in immersive worlds or exploiting its affordances is something that needs to be seriously considered by libraries.

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Blogging Recommendations

When Government Agencies Meet Social Media

A part of me thinks government agencies (especially those with higher state functions like defense and finance) and social media is somewhat of an oxymoron. On the other hand, libraries, media, cultural departments and anything to do with the arts and information are perfect matches for social media. However, regardless of the function of the agency, I believe that social media can benefit government agencies.

The first reason would be transparency. Maybe not quite a Facebook account but a blog by the agency explaining policy decisions can go a long way in reaching out to the public as well as getting their buy-in, especially if it is an unpopular policy change. But policy changes do not happen all the time so the blog can be used to, for example, give tips on tax filing, “inside information” on how to get the most out of a call and generic information pertaining to the agency that is useful for people to know. If there is value in the information provided, there will be readers.

The second reason would engagement with the public. With feedback channels that are properly serviced by employees in place – like the comment sections in blogs – agencies appear less bureaucratic and reflect the core principle of the civil service which is to serve the public.

However, if government agencies are going to do this, it cannot be token – there must be a genuine desire to engage the public. The danger of course is that comments from members of the public can easily overwhelm the staff maintaining the blog but done well, it can a long way in getting the people’s support. There is no unreasonable person, there is only an ignorant one.

I remember our former health minister had a blog which he used to explain some policy decisions. It was an unpopular policy but the unpopularity was a result of people not understanding it fully. The blog reached out to those who were social media literate. In turn, they explained what they read to others who did not follow the health minister’s blog. Useful entries were shared on other social media platforms like Facebook so people did not actually have to follow everything that he wrote because the important ones do filter to the community. Eventually, when the policy was approved, there was considerably less resistance than there was at the beginning. But of course, the blog wasn’t all of it. It was a conscious and continuous effort of the health ministry to reach out to the people.

Social media can of course be used internally within agencies for information sharing and to meet organisational communication needs. However, at this point, it seems that it is mostly internal blogs from where I come from, which are primarily for communication. Due to the sensitivity of government information, free social media platforms are not really used and unless these platforms can be commissioned securely, I don’t see it happening as yet.

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