Session D104 — MySpace & Facebook: Pros & Cons October 29, 2007

Aaron Schmidt, Director, North Plains Public Library, & Author, walkingpaper.org

“WhoseSpace?”

Presentation

• Putting ourselves out there in social networking sites puts us in the user’s realm.
• Libraries are unfriendly in our web spaces, as well as our physical spaces
• Google doesn’t yell at you, it gives you good suggestions
• Social networks take “story time” to the digital stage
• Newsflash: MySpace is teaming up with Skype? Wow - big news!
• MySpace accounts by different libraries:

Brooklyn College Library
Denver Public Library
UIUC Undergradute Library
London Public Library (if you like the way your site looks, teens probably don’t.)
ALA

• It’s not just enough to have a profile - you have to have content! This is the most important point.
• Have a plan before you announce your profile
• facing resistance from administration about setting up a profile? It’s an intellectual freedom issue.
• Senator Matt Murphy of IL, wanted to block all social networking sites in IL libraries. He used a blog to get out the word! Doesn’t get it.
• Yalsa has a good page on social networking sites and DOPA.
• Bookspace - MySpace for books and adults

******************************

Susan Herzog, Information Literacy Librarian & Meredith K. James, Assistant Professor, Eastern Connecticut State University

“The Facebook Phenomenon: What Our Students Need to Know”

• How do students use facebook? (80% of college students use it because their friends do, 1/4 of students who use it say that their personal information is more private than it was two years ago, 22% say that such data is less secure)
• Facebook is 8 times better read than the New York Times
• Good blogs about Facebook: fbTown, Global Neighbourhood
• Statistics show that a lot of students accept friend requests uncritically
• How do students use facebook? party notices, embarrass friends with pictures, procrastinate, people watch, post announcements. Why? funny, sexy, for attention, easy, free, part of their culture
• So many security issues with Facebook - graduate schools, administrators & professors reading profiles, students posting inappropriate pictures
• University of New Mexico (?) has banned access to the site
• Our job is to educate students about the dangers and uses of putting up personal information on Facebook - this is her main point.

*********************

Ok, I would have liked to hear more about what university libraries can be doing with Facebook, if anything. The Facebook session was more about “Ooh, how dangerous! Let’s warn them of the dangers…” and that’s about it.

Ha! October 29, 2007

From the Librarian’s Guide to Etiquette:

Library 2.0, Embracing
A new version of the Internet (version 2.0) is now available. Libraries are now free to abandon the first one.

– Posted from Internet Librarian 2007.

IL2007 - The New Rules of Web Design October 29, 2007

Jeff Wisniewski, University of Pittsburg

Rule of Seven

• Limit your content categories to 7 +/- 2
• This isn’t necessarily true
• Very context-dependent; if your content is well-organized, you may be fine with more than 7

Three clicks rule

• …is dead
• Users will click through on a longer path, as long as they feel that they are really getting to their desired page

Design for 800×600?

• No
• Nielsen says optimize for 1024×768 now
• Focus on flexible, rather than fixed width designs

Don’t look at other library websites for redesign inspiration (this is sad)

Banner blindness

• Users are used to seeing ads at the top of web pages, so don’t put mission-critical information there
• You can put information there, but make sure it’s also linked elswhere

Pop Up windows

• No

Flash

• It’s not taboo anymore, but the technology has to be used properly (I’d like more information on this)

Mouseover menus

• Slower and not scannable

Opening links in new window can be okay, but let people know you’re doing it

Keep it above the fold?

• You don’t really have to, research indicates that users will scroll — still, it’s best to keep your most important info above the fold

Put pictures of people on the website, but not if they’re too good-looking. people don’t trust them

“It’s never a bad thing to delight users”

IL 2007 - Opening Keynote October 29, 2007

Lee Rainie from the Pew Internet and the American Life

2.0 and the Internet World

*****

Notes:

Eight hallmarks of the new digital ecosystems
1) ubiquitous
the web is a storage device
2) internet at the center of the revolutions
73% adults 93% teenagers use internet
broadband at about 50%
broadband users are content creators
3) wirelessness is it’s own adventure - carry on internet use anywhere
wireless users use the internet differently than non-wireless users
more likely to be content creators
college students are living in the future
4) ordinary citizens have the chance to be content creators
no longer in a broadcast era
“Facebook is the dashboard for social life”
content creation (even if in fact blogging) -isn’t considered blogging any more
hard to capture who is writing and who is reading blogs
19% of young people have created avatars in virtual worlds
5) content creators have a large audience
54% of college students read blogs
36% of adults read blogs
older people are delighted to get a larger audience for blogs
younger people are horrified to get a larger audience for blogs
44% of young adult internet users read Wikipedia
6) internet users are sharing what they know
using the internet to rate things
34% of young internet users have “tagged” things
7) americans are customizing their online experience
(iGoogle, rss aggregators, etc.)
“myLibrary” - would this be even something to consider?
8 ) different people use these technologies in different ways
Gadgets
Actions (w/ gadgets)
Attitudes
9 different technology user groups (1 non-users)
1) high end - OMNIVORES (8%)
into web 2.0, blog, make and share stuff online
young, male, late 20s, racially diverse, broadband, students
2) high end - CONNECTORS (7%)
connect, don’t create as much as the Omnivores
late 30s, female dominant, email, IM
3) high end - LACKLUSTER VETERANS (8%)
male, 40ish, more white, more upscale
not thrilled with ICT enabled connectivity, being “always on”
4) high end - PRODUCTIVITY ENHANCERS (8%)
like tech for what it can help them do
40ish, diverse, upscale, full-time workers
5) middle end MOBILE CENTRICS (10%)
early 30s, gender parity, minorities rule, middle income
love their phones, functionality
6) middle end CONNECTED BUT HASSLED (10%)
more female, mid-40s, to go online is a hassle, white, middle income
experience information overload
7) low end INEXPERIENCE EXPERIMENTERS (8%)
50ish, female dominant, diverse, occasionally take advantage of interactivity
8 ) low end LIGHT BUT SATISFIED (15%)
mid-50s, fine with what they have, don’t need much more
call them to check their email, love TV and radio
9) low end INDIFFERENTS (11%)
lifestyle choice - I don’t like this stuff
late 40s, whites, don’t need the internet
10) low end OFF THE NETWORK (15%)
mid-60s, no cell phone, no internet, female dominant
tend to be poorer

large low-tech crowd (49%)
small technophile group (8%)
lots of tech capability idle in people’s hands and homes
not yet in a mature phase of ICT adoption in the US

connectivity changes our relation to information, and to each other
1) volume of information is growing (long tail)
2) velocity of information is increasing (smart mobs)
3) venues of intersection with info and people multiply - place and time shifing occurs “absent presence” “present absence”
4) venturing for information has changed - search strategies and expectations have changed (very quickly)
5) vigilance for information transforms - attention is truncated “continuous partial attention” and elongated “deep dives”
6) valence (relevance) of information improves - “daily me” for news
7) vetting of information becomes more social
8 ) viewing of information becomes more horizontal, less vertical, new reading strategies emerge as coping mechanisms
9) Voting on and ventilating about infomration proliferates, people feel more powerful
10) inVention of info and visibility is greater

*****

My thoughts:

The Pew Internet and the American Life project has provided so much great data about who is using the internet and why. I think it’s interesting that the number of technophiles is a lot smaller than made out by the media. However, many of these technophiles are students, so what does that mean for academic libraries. If these high-end internet users are content creating all over the web, what does that mean for libraries and library websites? Libraries are good (and getting better) at providing access to content, but not necessarily creating content. How can this change? Should it?

We’re in UR conference, bloggin UR talkz October 29, 2007

Sorry folks for the lack of live-blogging. Despite Jenny and I being at Internet Librarian 2007, the conference has a shameful lack of internet connectivity. Jenny also has a computer which likes to delete her notetaking on a whim. Stay with us for future developments…