Can You Keep Up With The Stream?

Through the use of their cybernetic implants, the Borg interacted by sharing one another's thoughts in a hive mind. Upon assimilation, these trillions of "voices" would overwhelm the drone, stifling individual thought and resistance to the Collective's will. (TNG: "Family") To some drones these voices could eventually become a source of comfort, and their absence a source of pain. (TNG: "I Borg"; VOY: "The Gift") – Memory Alpha

“Erin of One, Tertiary Adjunct of Library Unimatrix Zero-One. You will be Assimilated into The Stream Collective. Resistance is Futile.”

This week I'm bringing the discussion back to Star Trek, and The Borg. The name origins of this blog are rooted in Star Trek and its connection to the world today. When thinking about social networking and the amount we are all connected to one another the first thing that popped into my head was The Borg. Perhaps that's because I've been watching all the shows again, but as I see it humans are heading towards a very Borg like existence. The Borg are of one mind and millions at the same time. When one ship is attacked, all the rest know about it instantly. There are no language barriers to overcome for once a humanoid is assimilated their language becomes part of the collective. While The Borg are able to have the information instantly downloaded into their minds, how different is this from our interaction with information today? With microblogging, site check-ins, social networking, and smart phones anything happening around the world is online as it happens. This new web is being called “The Stream”.

Blogger Erick Schonfeld defines The Stream

A stream. A real time, flowing, dynamic stream of information — that we as users and participants can dip in and out of and whether we participate in them or simply observe we are a part of this flow.

While Nova Spivack explains that:

Streams are rapidly changing sequences of information around a topic. They may be microblogs, hashtages, feeds, multimedia services, or even data streams via APIs.

Whichever definition you prefer The Stream is dynamic and ever changing; not static like the old Web. Until recently if you wanted to find out the latest headlines or see what new books the library has in its collection you would visit the company website and navigate until you found what you were looking for. Now the information is instantly delivered to you in a variety of formats.

Not too long ago blogs and bloggers changed the face of the Web and crushed the field of journalism. Instead of getting our news from network reporters, people started reading news from every day people. And these every day people were reporting about everything! They were discussing issues of national security, their favorite breakfast cereals, or even their sexual escapades. As more people got connected and started engaging the wealth of knowledge on the Web grew and is still growing. Yet, people were still asking for more. They wanted to be even more connected.

Enter the smart phone and apps. Now people had the capability to be truly connected. This increased level of connectivity really paved the way for sites such as Twitter to exist and prosper. For me Twitter starts to push my stress level up a bit, but I think this is because I don't have a smart phone yet and can't stay connected all the time. By the time I'm done with reading my RSS feeds, Facebook posts, school discussion boards etc I have no more time left in my day! If I was connected via phone then I could look at the information as it came in more easily instead of experiencing information overload.

So I wonder, what is the next step in The Stream? How much more connected can we get and can we handle it all? What are libraries going to do with all this change? It seems to me as if humans are keeping up pretty well and getting close to that collective consciousness. We're breaking down barriers and in many ways becoming a more unified world. I'm not sure what's in store for libraries if they don't keep up with The Stream, though it seems like for larger branches they would have to hire someone full time to keep up. Not only is it important to utilize current technologies, but librarians should be looking towards the future ones as well and try their best to keep up with new trends.

Many of these new technologies can actually be used to keep up with future trends. Subscribe to technology blogs, follow trendsetters on Twitter, but most of all when in doubt try it out! Since the start of this class I've begun trying out new ways to access all my “information”. One new tool that I'm trying is called TweetDeck. Through here I can see all my Twitter feeds, Facebook posts, FourSquare check-ins (not that I have any yet w/o a smart phone) and even email. I just started playing around with it in Google Chrome and it seems to function much like an RSS reader, pulling all the content into one portal for easy access. Seems to make sense that if we check our blogs through an aggregator we would do the same with our social networking information. This is a relatively new idea though, but I think we'll soon see great products on the market for keeping track of all that data coming in... that is until we receive our cortical implants of course ;)

Brining RSS to Your Library

I think there are a plethora of ways that libraries can begin using RSS Feeds to enhance their service. Recently I spoke with a staff member at my local library about incorporating a feed into the main website for news and events. By having a feed set up like this it would be simple to notify large amounts of patrons about goings on at the library, but also notify them when an event is modified in some way. The other day while I was volunteering I noticed staff printing out flyers with a programming location change. They were placed around the library, but what about patrons who were planning on attending the event but not coming into the library beforehand? A feed to their inbox or aggregator could instantly notify every subscriber. The nice thing about setting up a feed to publish on the main website is that is simple to do and requires next to no programming experience. If the library has a blog set up they need only to visit a site such as Feed2JS and copy and paste into the source code. I did this in my Javascript class and it was very simple.

The real question becomes, how do you get your patrons to start subscribing? In much the same vain as a library blog, no one will read it if they don't know it's there. One idea would be to make an announcement on the library homepage with a link to more information about what kinds of feeds you can subscribe too through the library. Though for patrons who have no idea what a blog or RSS is you might see confusion or patrons will just ignore the information presented on the website.

I think the first thing that should be done is a staff training session or finding some way to familiarize all staff with the new technology. Once the staff is comfortable then it can be easier to move onto patron involvement. The library will need to think about what kinds of feed they want to offer. Do they want patrons to be able to see all the new books as they are posted? What about events? Should there be a separate teen feed? Once this is all decided they can begin bringing the technology to their patrons.

I've often believed that when someone gets their library card they should be either given an instructional packet or directed to a section of the main website where they can learn about all the library has to offer them. Here the librarians can make short videos about services, links to more information, and even screencast tutorials showing how to use the services provided. A library may even want to set up a LibGuide covering their own library system. I don't know that there has ever been a time when I signed up for a library card where the librarian even showed me where things were located at in the building. Think about most other types of memberships you have. When you signed up at the gym did they give you a calender and show you all their facilities? I've always been so curious as to why this doesn't happen at the library. I think you'd see a lot more use of services and higher attendance at events if patrons were notified on how to find the information from the beginning. If your library does add new information or being to offer RSS Feeds, email current patrons the new information. Let them know you've updated the website and direct them to the new services. Add a comment or suggestion box to the site and encourage patrons to let you know what they think. Often times your patrons can let you know about things that may have slipped your mind and can offer great suggestions.

There are lots of ways to bring new technologies into the library and RSS is an easy one that can provide a great service to many patrons. Your site may experience less traffic, but you may see attendance rise at events now that patrons can be notified via feed rather than checking the site.  

A Blogging Community

One great example of a community forming in the “blogosphere” is in the Offbeat Bride community. The Offbeat Bride blog was started by Ariel Meadow Stallings in 2007 as an addition to her (at the time) recently published book, Offbeat Bride: Creative Alternative for Independent Brides. As stated on the Offbeat Bride blog's “About” section, the “blog [is] updated daily with tons of “wedding porn” (photos from real people's really offbeat weddings), advice, and inspiration for couples who are working their asses off to create authentic weddings full of intention and personality.” Stallings can now boast having over 200,000 readers every month!

What began as just Stallings writing wedding related posts grew into much more. As people began to follow her blog the comment sections grew generating great conversations, but more than the blog itself could handle; though the comment sections are still ripe with good conversation. Women (primarily) wanted to share their ideas with one another, post photos, give out recommendations, sell dresses or other wedding items, or even just bitch about their own wedding drama. From the blog the Offbeat Bride Tribe was born.

Utilizing the social networking software, Ning, Stallings created a hugely popular site where her readers could become even more involved with one another. Anjewierden, Efimova, and Hendrick tell their readers in the paper “Finding 'the life between buildings': An approach for defining a weblog community” that “weblog communities emerge from connections between weblogs and their authors, and not around a single shared space.” The Offbeat Bride community broke these barriers becoming an online presence, rather than just a single blog, connecting not just other bloggers but the readers as well. The Tribe is a “single shared space” where people can meet and discuss all their offbeat wedding ideas.

The blog itself also expanded with Stallings bringing in guest bloggers to vary the tone and type of posts written. Readers gain ideas from the blog and implement them in their own weddings, showcasing their progress on the Tribe site; and the blog writers pay close attention to the Tribe site and often times feature reader ideas and projects on the blog. The two communities help one another and at this point the two limbs would not function as well independently.

Stallings has further expanded her blog community as well. Couples who had followed the Offbeat Bride blog were yearning for more and hated leaving the community after their weddings. Seeing the need, the Offbeat Mama blog was started giving couples who had started having children a chance to rejoin the community again. Yet many wanted more. As it goes in catering to an offbeat community, many readers had chosen to remain childless or wait years until venturing into parenthood. So currently in the works is the newest blog in the Offbeat chain, Offbeat Home.

I think the Offbeat community that Stallings and her staff have created is a testament to the ability of blogs to create a real online community. No longer do they have to be limited to the comment section, but instead can expand to create much more. Much of the success of the Offbeat Bride blog came from adding the Tribe site and both the blog and Tribe community pulling resources from each other. When authoring a blog that is highly interactive in nature look for other ways to expand the community. Can a blog also have a Facebook page? What about chat rooms or message boards where your readers can interact with one another? Can a blog be a community and not just a blog?

Efimova, L. et al. (2005). "Finding 'the life between buildings': An approach for defining a weblog community." AOIR Internet Research 6.0: Internet Generations, Chicago, 2005.

Exercise 2

In the Library with the Lead Pipe

Formatted in a scholarly manner this blog is unlike the other four I subscribed to. While the posts often stem from personal issues the authors (posts are written by multiple authors and the website has submission guidelines) have performed a great deal of research for each post. The entries are long with lots of links to other resources and further readings. Each of the posts shows multiple points of view regarding the subject at hand. For example when discussing part-time employment, the author looked at it from both the employer's standpoint and the employee's. When taking a look at Facebook the author included both the pros and cons as well as general information about the service. All the topics address important issues which would be relevant to a librarian today.

The Librarian's Commute

This blog is personal in nature dealing directly with what is happening in the author's library and world. Posts are short and not at all scholarly in nature. Instead the author provides real world examples of problem solving through example. While there are sometimes links to other resources, there is no bibliography like there is for In the Library with the Lead Pipe.

The Distant Librarian

Fairly short posts covering a wide range of topics including: general technology, book reviews, and videos. The author writes from a personal perspective and only provides a few links to other resources. The posts are not directly linked to library services, but instead offer items that might be of interest to librarians.

Librarian By Day

This is a resource oriented blog dealing with issues effecting libraries. The posts look at products, software, websites, and other technology that could be beneficial to librarians. There are lots of additional resources and links to further reading. The lengths of the posts tends to vary, but is generally on the shorter side.

David Lee King

A web and technology based blog with fairly short posts. King advertises his blog as being about “Social Web, Emerging Trends, and Libraries” and that's exactly what it is about. Posts are generally based on personal experience and are giving helpful advise to others. King has tried out everything he posts and is therefore able to give tips to readers. The actual website for the blog has more information and features than just the RSS feed, including lists of presentations, books, and even a videoblog. King even used his blog to effectively apologize for misinformation given and a post that was not received well by his readers. He used his experience as a learning tool for others.

YALSA

The official blog for the Young Adult Library Services Association. Posts from many different authors addressing relevant issues in YA Library Service and libraries in general. Also includes information about conferences, elections, and voting. Posts often contain great resources for librarians to utilize at their libraries or at home.

The Hub

This is a sister to the main YALSA blog. The Hub focuses on teen materials and posts book and manga reviews, interviews with authors, Tweets of the Week, and top book lists. Posts are written by multiple authors and are usually quick and easy to read.

Stephen's Lighthouse

A technology and information blog, Stephen includes infographics, lists, presentations, and generally lots and lots of data. Subject matter is all relevant in some way to libraries. The blog gives lots of information regarding e-books, social networking, and any other technology resource viewed as relevant. Posts vary in length but often get straight to the point. Lots of links and other resources for further reading are almost always available. Blog also includes “Friday Fun” posts which gives readers videos, photos, or other infographics that usually still deal with technology but in a more humorous manner.

I personally enjoy reading posts that include a bit of humor and the author's personality, while still ensuring the important information is given. Photos, videos, and links to more information is always a positive for me as well. It's important when reading a blog that you trust the author is giving you information that is accurate. I love to see an author apologizing and correcting mistakes in the public format. While it might be embarrassing it lets me know that they are concerned about disseminating the correct information regardless of their own personal discomfort.

For me a successful blog will not just give me two or three sentences about a new technology and then a link to their website. I want to know why they find it of value, what they've learned from trying it, and any information about how it's being used by the general public. Another aspect that I find important is the personal nature of blogs. In the Library with the Lead Pipe is a great example of combining both scholarly information with a personal writing style. While the posts on this blog may be a bit long for me to read in the morning with the rest of my RSS feeds, it contains a great deal of valuable information that doesn't read like a boring research paper.

I also think it's important to note that library blogs don't have to only be about what's going on in the library. Instead most of the library blogs I've subscribed to talk about technology, resources, and general topics that would be of interest to any information professional. The blogs that are the most popular for me not only give information about these new resources but then also discuss how they might be valuable in the library.

Library Social Networking Policies

Having a social media policy is important for any business, including libraries. Ellysa Kroski explains in her 2009 article that “a social media policy can help establish clear guidelines for staff members who are posting on behalf of the organization as well as employees with personal social media accounts.” It's important that employee's are aware of what they post not only on company affiliated sites, but on their own personal pages as well. Think about Clint McCance the Arkansas school board member who recently let loose a slew of homophobic comments on his Facebook page. Within hours of his post the news media and public were in an uproar calling for his resignation. If a school board member from a rural town in Arkansas can cause a huge national debacle, imagine what would happen to a CEO of a major corporation. The whole business could fail costing many people their jobs and livelihoods... all because of an ill thought out comment on a social networking site.

So what should libraries be doing to prevent social networking disasters? What kind of policies should they be creating for their own and employee's sites? The first thing to realize is that you're not going to be able to (nor should you) totally control what your employees put on the Web. Instead encourage all your employees to post a disclaimer on their blogs or social networking pages explaining that their views are their own and do not represent the company in any way. You may also suggest that things like Facebook, Live Journal, and MySpace be kept set to private settings.

Library staff should also be reminded not to disclose any patron information without express consent. This also goes for photographs and is especially true for photos or information about patrons under 18. If your library is having an event for teens, get parental permission before putting photos up on the library blog.

Kathryn Greenhill and Jean Hing Fay from Fremantle Western Australia have created a great basic outline for a library's social media policy. They have licensed it through Creative Commons for librarians all over the world to share and benefit from. Many of the ideas listed below could be of great help in creating your own policies.

One important aspect that they included is policies on moderation. While you may be able to have some control over what your employees are posting, patrons and the general Internet population might not always write what you want to see. Set your blog comments to not post automatically, instead allowing someone to read the posts first. This is not an excuse to only publish comments that show your library or company in a good light. Patrons will catch on fast if they only see highly filtered comments. Instead only filter out comments that includes unnecessary profanity, abuse, plagiarism or one of the other items listed below.

Social networking policies are always going to differ from business to business and from library to library. Though at the heart of every set of policies is the bottom line of be respectful. Be respectful to yourself, your organization, and others in the community. If you're being respectful then you'll be posting accurate and interesting information, you'll respond to negative feedback in a constructive manner, you won't share patron data, and overall you'll have a successful social networking policy that all your employees can understand and use.

Social Media Do’s

1. Be Professional – Talk the way you would talk to real people in professional situations.
2. Be Courteous – Be sure to listen & ask questions.
3. Be Accurate – Check your facts before you post and provide supporting sources if necessary.
4. Be Useful – Add content because you have something interesting to say, not for the sake of regular posting.
5. Be Intelligent – Provide some value. Don’t talk down. Offer insight.
6. Be Conversational –  Avoid overly pedantic or “composed” language. Don’t be afraid to bring in your own personality.
7. Be Non-confrontational – If you disagree, do so respectfully
8. Be Prompt – If you need to moderate or respond to a comment do so as quickly as possible
9. Be Identifiable – Use your real name and do not post anonymously.
10. Be Transparent – Disclose that you work for the library if this is relevant and be honest & truthful.

Social Media Don'ts

1. Don’t Share Secrets –If you aren’t sure you can disclose something, just don’t do it. Think about privacy, confidentiality and permission to use other people’s content.
2. Don’t Bad Mouth – Keep the language clean & avoid slamming people or companies.
3. Don’t Complain – If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
4. Don’t do Stupid Things – If it doesn’t help the Library or our community, don’t do it.
5. Don’t Defame – Show everyone respect.
6. Don’t Forget your day job –Social Media can consume you so don’t forget your other duties. Moderate, balanced use is essential.

Responsible moderation

Moderation is the act of reviewing and approving content from others. Our aim is to promote community conversation, so we will only remove content that:

• is abusive
• is off-topic
• contains personal and/or cultural attacks or insults
• promotes hate of any kind
• is offensive in nature or contains offensive language
• is spam
• is potentially libelous
• contains plagiarized material
• contains commercial content
• is detrimental in any way

Greenhill, K. (2010, September 10). A social media policy for a one branch public library [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://librariansmatter.com/blog/2010/09/10/a-social-media- policy-for- a-one-branch-public-library/

Kroski, E. (2009). Should your library have a social media policy?. School Library Journal, Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6699104.html

Exercise 1 - ThinkGeek

ThinkGeek has a huge online presence, and they have to. If you've never visited the Web Store before, I invite you to take a tour; it's where all us geeks shop for toys! Since ThinkGeek is marketing products to tech savvy clientele it makes sense that they would be taking advantage of everything social networking and the web has to offer.

Upon visiting ThinkGeek's website you can click on the heading “OMGWTFUN!”, which brings you to all the ways to follow the store online. So where do they have an online presence? The store has it's own blog, multiple Twitter feeds, Flickr page, YouTube channel, Facebook page, and a Ustream channel. ThinkGeek has the largest online presence of any retailer I've ever encountered. With all of these different outlets, you'd think you would see the same information repeated over and over again, but you'd be wrong. Instead each tentacle of it's social networking beast gives customers unique information and insight into ThinkGeek's inner workings. Also, unlike many other retailers the information provided in these different places often doesn't have anything to do with their merchandising, but instead deals with the geek and technology culture, creating a hardcore and loyal following.

So what are people saying about ThinkGeek? Taking a look at Tweet Scan you see lots of positive reactions to receiving or purchasing products from ThinkGeek. Most tweets sound a lot like mojojay's comment “@thinkgeek: Got the a-ok email today! Looking forward to getting' my loots!” Other people are sharing links to products through their feeds and still others are posting comments to @thinkgeek telling them about geek facts or how much they love shopping at their store.

ThinkGeek's Facebook page tends to be the most interactive of all the social networking tools. Not only is it constantly updated, but someone (Timmy the ThinkGeek monkey) almost always replies to posts on left of their wall. The replies usually aren't sent 2 or 3 days after, but instead within hours (weekends excluded). Also, the ThinkGeek monkeys don't just reply to customer complaints. When a customer posted: “I am so beyond excited to order from you guys! Can't tell you how glad I am I found you before V-day...my husband is going to freak! YAY!” ThinkGeek replied: “Hope he likes it!! ♥”. On the few occasions that a customer does have an issue with a product, ThinkGeek replies with helpful information. When one customer posted a warning to other customers about receiving a broken watch, twice, ThinkGeek replied:

So sorry for all the trouble, Ian! It definitely sounds like you got a dud--twice--and of course we'll set you up with a refund if you don't want to try another replacement. You've probably already taken care of it, but if you still need to contact us about the refund, you can call 1888GEEKSTUFF or start a live chat on the site. Again, our apologies!

As I mentioned earlier the social networking that ThinkGeek employs is not about pushing their products or driving sales, but is instead about creating strong customer loyalty. They post information about geek holidays, science news, and more! The store also has ongoing customer contests, such as the “Customer Action Shot” where customers take photos of themselves wearing or using ThinkGeek products. Another contest involves writing geeky haikus. Winners are then selected and given gift certificates. ThinkGeek will even take customer suggestions for products, which often become the real deal or if it already exists will start to be sold through the site. Every April Fools Day the company launches fake products and if customers make enough noise they too often become real products. Talk about listening to your customers wants and desires!

I think ThinkGeek does an amazing job building relationships and engaging customers online. Through the Facebook and Twitter pages customers and interact with staff and many people feel as if the ThinkGeek staff were friends. People share fun videos and links with staff as well as praise for their products. Even when you see negative comments about products they usually also include things like “AND I STILL LOVE YOU THINKGEEK!!!!!!!!!” Customers know their problems will be handled and that if they receive a not so great product, the next thing they buy will be awesome.

Myself and many of my friends have been loyal ThinkGeek shoppers for years. We love their products, service, and all the fun things that they post online. ThinkGeek cares about its customers and has invested a huge amount of time and staff to create an awe inspiring online presence. Many other retailers can learn from their example. Social networking doesn't and probably shouldn't be just about announcing new products, but instead connecting with customers on a personal level. The more connected they feel the more likely they will continue buying from your store.

ThinkGeek Office Staff Battles it out with Harry Potter Wands

Social Software and Me

First off, I love technology and really love the Web. Ever since I can remember I've been on the computer. My father would often build his own computers and we always had at least one in the house. I remember playing games on my 5 1/2" floppy disks on green screens and printing with my dot matrix printer. Gaming was soon a family activity as my dad and I sat playing Myst writing detailed maps. I joined the computer club in junior high working with Lego Mindstorm and Logo Writer.

Yet, as much as I loved computers and technology it was nothing compared to when I got my first computer with a modem. Before I had one my best friend had a 2400 baud modem. We would sit on the phone together and she would read X-Files Fan Fiction over the phone; though it took about five minutes for each page to load. Soon enough I was connected with AOL and over joyed at the prospect of connecting with friends online. At the time I was a huge X-Files fan and joined message boards, UseNet Groups, and even created a few websites. I had a Hotmail and Yahoo email address and would often create my own websites for friends using GeoCities. My friends and I would create our own private chat rooms in AOL or use the IM service. By 1999 I had a lot of friends that I only knew online and chatted with on a regular basis. It was a dream world for a information hungry and social teenager such as myself. This was near the beginning of what we today call social networking. It was a lot more work 10+ years ago, but functioned on the same principals.

MySpace then launched in 2003 and I joined just a few months after it got started. It was great to be able to essentially design my own webpage, have chat and stay connected with my friends all through one user interface (UI). I was already a member on Friendster, but never liked their UI and didn't have very many friends on there anyway. However, MySpace was a hit! I soon started blogging nearly every day, spent time filling out silly surveys, and commenting on my friend's pages. Then Facebook began and again I joined right away. Yet Facebook lacked the numbers and personalization that I loved about MySpace. It actually wasn't until last year that I finally downloaded my entire MySpace page and deleted my account. As I've gotten older my friends have all made the switch over to Facebook and I too followed suit. 

Social networking today is an essential part of my every day life. When I get up in the morning I check my email, Facebook, and then Google Reader. When I moved to California I met a huge group of friends who I then added to my Facebook page. Doing so allowed me to put a face with a name and assisted me in learning 60 or more names. My friends talk about posts on Facebook when we meet in real life, we share links to new stories, funny videos and more! I have friends on my page from Kindergarten, people I may have never had the chance to find much less keep up with on a daily basis. Social networking has created a world where we can all stay connected and benefit from the collective knowledge. 

I don't know what I would do without the Web. I'm itching for a smart phone now so that I can be even more connected. My boyfriend recently got one and anytime we disagree about something, no matter where we are, we just pull out the phone and find out the answer. Wikipedia, Google, Facebook, all of these are amazing services allow the human race to get closer to each other. Thanks to Stumbleupon I find new and fun recipes to share with friends, I see photographs and artwork, video, learn about ancient civilizations and so much more. 

I never want to be an older person who has been left behind by technology. I often jump at the chance to try new products and services or at the very least read all about them. It's even more important as an information professional to be well versed in all that technology has to offer. Farkas states that "libraries should be aware of their patrons' online social worlds" (8) and I couldn't agree more. By understanding where and how people are interacting we can tailor our services to provide what they can't get online. Or we can tailor our service to provide in these online environments. 

Social networking and the Web have been life changing for me. I'm excited to see what the future has to offer. How much more connected can we get? The Web is breaking down all of the barriers that once separated people. My hope is that the more connected we become the less we will tolerate corruption in the government, senseless wars, and religious intolerance. Where we once read about conflicts in a paper about distant far off people, we now read blogs from people who are directly involved. These people are our friends on social networking sites they are real and not so very far off anymore. It's a lot harder to ignore the atrocities happening in our world when it is streaming right into your living room.