Thing 7. Web 2.0 Communication Tools

Email. Email is useful but I don't consider it to be an instantaneous form of communication. I was in the Internet business long enough to know that there are many things that can hold up your email. I also believe it can be a productivity killer as much as a productivity enhancer. I try not to look at my email more than once per hour. Generally any requests that come in will have been taken care of already by someone who looks at every email the minute it shows up in there mailbox. It keeps me from being interrupted, I can continue to get things done. If you want something done immediately, don't send me an email, call my extension. If its an emergency, call my cell.

IM. Instant Messaging is a great tool. I use an internal IM server at work all the time. If I'm working with a developer or database administrator, we can copy and paste snippets of code, configs, and logs back and forth. Much more precise than a voice call. And I can be doing other things while interacting with IM. IM combined with a webcam and microphone has also been a good tool for saying good nite to X when I'm traveling on business. IM is also how I get most of my books. If I run across something that looks interesting to me, I instant message it to my favorite librarian(who also happens to be my wife) and she'll find it for me. Plainview does live reference over Instant Messenger, although I don't think many patrons take advantage of it yet.

Text Messaging. I use text messaging in bursts. When its my week to be oncall, our monitoring systems alert via text messages, and we acknowledge them via text message. I use it when traveling with coworkers to coordinate where we are meeting and when. I can see some use for it in library systems especially integrated into the ILS. Overdue notices, notices that a book that was ordered is in, that sort of stuff would all be good choices for text messages. They are short, and somewhat time sensitive. I also use text messaging to Google for definitions, weather, things like that. I suppose that similar queries could be sent to the library, but it seems like a lot of that would be a waste of librarian resources, especially when Google is so good at it.

Web Conference. This is another technology that I use all the time. Many vendors will demo their software using this. Some vendors will use tools like WebEx to do remote support. I used to work with a very geographically disperse organization and we would use web conferencing to bring together employees to get everyone up to speed on a new service we would be providing. I'm not sure I see my local library hosting a lot of web conference meetings, but I do see a definite benefit to it at the consortia level. Everyone wouldn't have to drive to meetings/training. I do agree with most of the tips in the webjunction pdf. Especially the part about distractions. It is very easy to switch to another screen and try to do a little work while in a web meeting. Very tempting, but while you think you are multitasking, you really aren't giving the meeting as much attention as you probably should. Like most things in life, it takes discipline. I watched the webinar "Podcasting 2" as part of this thing. I found it quite interesting and good quality. I won't comment on it too much, but it could be useful for Thing 19.

Challenge. I did sign up for the 23 Things on a Stick Google Group. And have seen a few people post there. As for Meebo, I personally don't have much use for it. I use Pidgin as my IM client and it really does all I need. I have tried Twitter in the past, but I just haven't found it useful. Maybe my mind just isn't open enough about it, or maybe I just haven't found the right things to connect it too. If the Los Angeles Fire Department has found a use for it, I probably haven't been thinking about it creatively enough. One of the blogs I read faithfully is Confused in Calcutta. He's been musing a lot about twitter lately, and other social networking tools in general. A good read if you have time.

And here is a little extra food for thought about Library 2.0 in general. William Gibson has said many times that the future is already here - it is just unevenly distributed. I think he's right and that libraries can have a big part in making sure it is distributed more evenly. I mentioned before that my wife likes to remind me that the library is the great equalizer. Its just as true with Internet access and access to social media as it is with other media.