Month: December 2008

When asked by close friends and colleagues, I answer without hesitation: Twitter is the hottest social media tool of 2008. And yet, Twitter seems to continue to perplex many who try it. Why is that, do you suppose?

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For me, what’s really surprising is how few Canadian academic librarians have joined the conversation on Twitter. And what’s with the low numbers of Canadian librarians in general on Twitter? We introduced Twitter to our LIBR534 students, and only 20% of the class seemed really enthusiastic about the “bibliotwitosphere”.

Why do I use Twitter? For one, I enjoy the ping-pong of ideas on Twitter, and because it feels good to be social. In addition, tweets are useful links to information I need to stay informed. In short (because everything is short in microblogging), Twitter gets me to think about emerging media and what I need to do to stay media-literate — so crucial to my work as a librarian in the information age.

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The state of the Canadian ‘twitosphere’ is one that has occupied my thinking for months – at least since joining in spring ’08. Again, I’ve wondered why so few librarians find their way to Twitter. Is it because I have a web 2.0 addiction, do you think?

That said, on my Twitter feed, I’ve got a bunch of Canadian librarians I pay attention to such as Torontonian Connie Crosby (who signs off each night with a lovely ‘adieu’), Haligonian Ryan Deschamps and Vancouverite Steve Matthews. There are also American medical librarian folks such as EagleDawg and Krafty. In addition, I’ve really enjoyed getting to know master educators such as HRheingold and DWarlick.

Two of my favourite physicians on Twitter are Berci and AllergyNotes. They are both terrific gentlemen, kind to a fault and always well-informed. I just like them; my digital life is richer by knowing them.

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HubSpot released a fourth quarter report of Twitter 2008, which I found worth more than a quick look. Toronto tops the Canadian twitosphere (highest number of users in Canada); no surprise there, but my hometown, Vancouver, is way down the list.

Nice to see VPL – Vancouver Public Library is on Twitter. Happy new year – see you in 2009 (hopefully, on Twitter).

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References

1. “Of Canadian librarians and Twitter”. MeldInMed blog, January 1st, 2009.

2. “Toronto tops the Twittersphere” – Globe and Mail, December 2008

3. “First State of the Twitosphere in Canada” – December 2007, Twitterfacts blog

4. Twitter – UBC Health Library wiki entry

Nine (9) groups or categories, seventy-five (75+) medical web 2.0 services of note in 2008. Not necessarily by importance, influence, utility or value – merely mentioned ‘most often’ by bloggers & traditional media (see this easy-to-print version).

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1. Academic science 2.0 (social networking) (8 services)
i. BioCrowd – http://www.biocrowd.com/
ii. BioMedExperts – http://www.biomedexperts.com/
iii. LabRoots – http://www.labroots.com/
iv. MyExperiment – http://www.myexperiment.org/
v. NatureNetwork – http://network.nature.com/
vi. phLab – http://phlab.org/
vii. ResearchGATE – https://www.researchgate.net/
viii. SciWeavers – http://sciweavers.org/

2. Bookmarking & infomanagement (12 services)
i. Amedico – http://amedico.com/
ii. CiteMD – http://citemd.com/cms/
iii. CiteULike – http://citeulike.com/
iv. Connotea – http://connotea.org/
v. Delicious – http://delicious.com
vi. Digg – http://digg.com
vii. Diigo – http://www.diigo.com/
viii. LabMeeting – http://www.labmeeting.com/
ix. Mendeley – http://www.mendeley.com/
x. Ologeez – http://ologeez.stanford.edu/
xi. PeerClip – http://www.peerclip.com/
xii. 2Collab – http://www.2collab.com/

3. Consumer health 2.0 (social networking) (12 services)
i. CareFlash – http://www.careflash.com/
ii. Curetogether – http://www.curetogether.com/
iii. DailyStrength – http://dailystrength.org/
iv. Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/
v. HealthChapter – http://healthchapter.com/
vi. HelloHealth – http://www.hellohealth.com/
vii. Inspire – http://www.inspire.com/
viii. PatientsLikeMe – http://patientslikeme.com/
ix. PsychCentral – http://psychcentral.com/
x. RevolutionHealth – http://www.revolutionhealth.com/
xi. SecondLife – http://secondlife.com/
xii. SoberCircle – http://www.sobercircle.com/

4. Medicine 2.0 (social networking) (8 services)
i. Doc2Doc – http://doc2doc.bmj.com/
ii. DoctorsHangout – http://doctorshangout.com/
iii. MedicalPlexus – http//medicalplexus.com/
iv. MedXCentral – http://medxcentral.ning.com/
v. Ozmosis – http://ozmosis.com/
vi. Sermo – http://www.sermo.com/
vii. SocialMD – http://www.socialmd.com/
viii. Within3 – http://within3.com/

5. Micro-blogging, -searching & -aggregation (7 services)
i. FriendFeed – http://friendfeed.com/rooms/medicine-2-0-microcarnival/ (microcarnival for docs)
ii. Identi.ca – http://identi.ca/
iii. Monitter – http://monitter.com/
iv. Twittersearch – http://search.twitter.com/
v. Twitter – http://twitter.com /
vi. List of 69 Twitter services – http://smartech.blogetery.com/2008/05/16/69-twitter-web-services-you-should-know/
vii. Yammer – http://www.yammer.com/

6. Open knowledge-sharing sites (8 services)
i. AskDrWiki – http://askdr.wiki.com/
ii. e-Meducation – http://www.e-meducation.org/
iii. HealthMash – http://healthmash.com/
iv. InfoMedMD – http://www.infomedmd.com
v. Knol – http://knol.google.com/k
vi. Medpedia – http://www.medpedia.com
vii. Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/
viii. UBC Health Library wiki (list of medical wikis) – http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php/Medical_wikis

7. Personal life 2.0 & genetics tracking (13 services)
i. eHealthMe – http://www.ehealthme.com/
ii. FitBit – http://www.fitbit.com/
iii. GenePartner – http://www.genepartner.com/
iv. Geni – http://www.geni.com/
v. GoogleHealth – http://www.google.com/health/
vi. Keyose.com – http://keyose.com/
vii. LifeMojo – http://www.lifemojo.com/
viii. Medsphere – http://medsphere.org/
ix. Microsoft HealthVault – http://www.healthvault.com/
x. Medziva – http://www.medziva.com/
xi. My Digital Health – http://www.mydigitalhealth.com/
xii. MyFamilyHealth – http://www.myfamilyhealth.com/home/
xiii. 23andMe – https://www.23andme.com/

8. Search 2.0 tools (10 services)
i. Google Coop Health – http://google.com/coop/
ii. Hakia – http://hakia.com
iii. Healia – http://www.healia.com/
iv. Healthline – http://healthline.com/
v. iMedix – http://www.imedix.com/
vi. MEDgle – http://medgle.com/
vii. MeraMD – http://meramd.com/
viii. OrganizedWisdom – http://organizedwisdom.com/
ix. RightHealth – http://www.righthealth.com/
x. TRIPAnswers – http://www.tripanswers.org/

9. Slide & video sharing sites (10 services)
i. bliptv – http://blip.tv/
ii. DNATube – http://www.dnatube.com/
iii. LabAction – http://www.labaction.com/
iv. MEDTing – http://medting.com/
v. SciVee – http://www.scivee.com/
vi. SecondSlide – https://www.secondslide.com/
vii. SlideShare – http://www.slideshare.net/
viii. TeacherTube – http://www.teachertube.com/
ix. WebMed Technology – http://www.webmedtechnology.com/physician/video.htm/l
x. YouTube – https://youtube.com/

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For regular updates on how web 2.0 is changing medicine, and to track trends throughout the year, see Ves Dimov’s blog or Bertalan Mesko’s blog.

I’ve decided I ‘whitter’ on a bit too much all year about learning theories, searching and Google scholar… so throughout December, I’m going on a blog hiatus. I’m on holidays, I’m sorting out a bunch of things, working on a book and some other writing.

But come back regularly and engage me on Twitter. Or, if you want, check out the latest ‘tweet’ or nugget of information on my Twitter widget on the far left… See you in ’09. Happy Holidays ~Dean