Is Arena a social web? Part 1
Published on 2009-07-14
Wikipedia: The Social Web is currently used to describe how people socialize or interact with each other throughout the World Wide Web.
I have discussed with and listen to many librarians and web professionals and I still do not have the whole picture, but here some of my thoughts on the subject.
The social interactions on the web have many shapes and in the discussions about them, about the social web we are not always clear and foresighted. From my point of view the dialogue about social media is still immature. Even if the “media is the message” you have to know what you are doing and why. There is a tendency to mix means (solutions) with goals (purposes). We are mesmerized by the techniques and we are combining that with an addiction to an overall idea that nothing counts if it is not instant and interactive. Instant interactivity seems to be the implied norm. When mixing these two views of “instant” and “interactivity” it is possible that we miss the next possible solution (or the one before) in our sometimes opportunistic hailing of the existent. The basic view of being instant is attractive but is not always satisfactory. Techniques like blogs, twitter and Facebook comments are “instant” in a way that if you do not add or comment in a couple of hours (minutes?) your input is irrelevant and as dead as anything virtual can be. Interactivity comes in many forms one-one (mail, chat), one-many (review, blog, twitter), many-many (forums, Second Life) and of course some mixing in between. There is nothing here that is better than anything else per se. It all depends.
The debate of social media to me also seems smitten by the notion that social media is the new Klondyke, a vast gold mine. This can be contra productive if we thread that path in the wrong way. We should, of course, always be open for a better solution to our needs. What are our needs then? Why is this many headed creature, the social web, on the rise? I think it may be a combination of
- maturing internet techniques
- innovative entrepreneurs
- basic social needs
The basic social needs could be divided in
- we are all enriched by any social context
- we can see the altruistic point of sharing our competences
- we are lovers of self exposure and self confirmation
I think that it is all a mix of good things, otherwise it would not have been that successful in establishing itself as a concept, both technically and up till now strongly addressed as lucrative.
We should use social media when
- it addresses the library´s core values. One example is Oak Park Library (Chicago) local bar literature circles which are blogged and therefore has a broad virtual community as well.
- it has personal value (it is a good thing to tap in to special interests among the library staff)
- it shows off the local talent of your communities (do this in large scale if possible)
- it gives you the opportunity to listen and communicate
If you need some technical or graphical and whatever assistance you can use professional help in the community but there are maybe also volunteers for some. I heard of one library using volunteers to check scanned materials. Another one gets volunteer help with their posters (virtual and on paper).
Engagement, some passion, is probably a needed spice. Some (or all) of this goes for almost all businesses (like ours).
More in part 2.
