The Machine and Web 2.0

After watching the Machine video, it strikes me that the web is becoming more user friendly and that a lot of the structural restrictions are breaking down. It used to be that organizations depended on the one or two people who knew HTML or could crack the code of the computer language to accomplish work. Now, anyone can create and collaborate without having to hold a 800 page manual in front of them.

The web and information as a result seem like they going to skyrocket in volume, with the users and collaborators dictating what gets put out there. What role will librarians play in all of this? Will we be willing to take on new roles, ones that have less control? The revolution of Web 2.0 may not give us a choice, as the world will steamroll right over us if we do not jump on board and become leaders in the new age of technology, rather than reacting to trends that are already happening.

Technorati

I just happened to access the Technorati website today, on their 3 year anniversary. Evidently, it was a good thing to be a couple of weeks behind on my 23 things, since they are debuting a new look and features to Technorati. The video was very informative and it makes me want to use the site to organize and search my blogging.

Technorati is great from a beginning blogger's perspective (like myself) because it lets users browse subjects of blogs to get started. Very user friendly as all of these Web 2.0 tools seem to be, Technorati is no exception. Tagging and adding to favorites couldn't be easier.

Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us is a tool that I think I may need to take more advantage of. Although it is great to be able to access bookmarks from anywhere I am, I like the idea of using it for projects. For instance, since Del.icio.us can be a place to hold links to informational websites, as well as supplies that might be needed, I can see this as a virtual file of all the things I might need to keep organized.

Searchroll on Rollyo

Creating a searchroll on Rollyo. The idea of being able to create a customized search engine that returns results for the web sites I decide on! The best part about this web 2.0 stuff is that you don't have to be a technological genius to take advantage of them. Hey, if it's good enough for Diane Von Furstenburg, it's got to be good enough for me, right?

The New Meez: Leeza Meeza

It was cool to explore around creating an avatar on Meez. In a way, it reminded me of playing dress up dolls as a child. You get to choose what the avatar wears--I can't believe people are paying money to do that!

Library Thing is easy to use and very cool

LibraryThing is such a neat site for readers and libraries. Giving each person the ability to add 200 books for free is very generous. I think this goes to show that the public has certain needs that maybe our catalog records don't currently provide. Tagging the books with terms that they would use to find them vs. MARC records with the structured subject terminology will be an interesting thing to monitor in the future. LibraryThing for libraries will probably be the answer to that tug-of-war: merging the two together--MARC and tagging in our PACs.