Shushing Action

I went into ROFLCon interested in how communities form online, how they regulate themselves, and how they thrive. Here’s what I saw at ROFLCon with this goal in mind.

1. Community members need to be involved. In most online communities the majority of users are passive; they read, they generate hits on a page, but they aren’t contributing content. People who comment on posts, rate items, post on forums, etc.; these folks contribute content. Communities survive just fine with a mostly passive user base; without the active users, however, it’s a one man show and not a community.

2. Each community is unique. There’s no secret formula for success or some must-have app that is necessary for a community to succeed.

3. Being on MySpace and Facebook is good, but it doesn’t mean you have a community! Sure, it’s possible to build your community entirely within one of these, but what often happens is that pages become broadcast channels rather than back and forth communication tools. As a library system, having the ability to post a MySpace bulletin is great; it lets people know about your programs that may not know otherwise. That’s one way, though.

Libraries have to find what makes them special if they want to continue on and mean something to their constituency (I’ve no doubt libraries will survive in some form, but it’s that last part that should hit home.) What makes a public library special is the community that surrounds it. As librarians, engaging the local community can only help us; the community is more energized in us and we are more aware of the wants and needs of our patrons. Libraries can and should provide opportunities for their communities to participate; an online community is just one way to do so.

I’ve been slowly gathering thoughts about ROFLCon for a whole series of posts; now that I see I’m linked over at Librarian.net and I found out my boss reads this (!!!). So, I figured I should write up something of the ROFLCon experience.

Here’s something I noticed at the pre-party for the event (call it Lesson 1 if you like); Internet people like librarians! I’m not what you would typically call an extrovert, so parties are not always the first place you’ll find me. However, this particular event stood because of the warm response I received when I told people my profession. Keep in mind, many of these folks were college students (undergrad to post-doc) or technology professionals. Some said they loved the profession because they loved books, but most talked about how progressive some of us are! Sure, maybe they’re reading about how “hip” we are from the New York Times but it still surprises me.

Here’s why; the sorts of people I just mentioned who like librarians are not the kind that I see when I’m behind a reference desk at a public library. These are people who are sometimes assumed to not need the library. Guess what; these folks LIKE the library! Let’s get to know these people within our communities! Let’s get them involved!

The benefits for both sides are high; and hey, in the right situation (say, a pre-party for an Internet conference with an open bar) you may even get hugs out of the deal. Apparently, librarians are huggable. Call that Lesson 1A.

Picture of the pre-party from NPR (I’m the pixel-y bearded guy with glasses towards the top right):

I’ve been intrigued by the service over at cinch.blogtalkradio.com for some time now. Set up an account with 3 questions including your phone number, call the service, talk, hang up. The service creates an rss feed and places a recording of your message there in seconds. My only qualm so far is that I can’t edit the metadata (or even the title and filename) of the recording and I can’t delete posts. It’s not a censorship issue; the first podcast you’ll see on my list is about 30 seconds long before it was accidentally cut off. Stuff like that I wouldn’t mind dumping off the feed.

So, attached for your listening pleasure is the first Shushing Action podcast! It’s playing double duty; one is to start the ROFLCon recap that will likely take a few days to complete. The second is that it (and probably the next couple of recordings) will also geared towards the library system I’m working for currently to demonstrate how easy it can be to record a fairly decent sounding podcast.

Let me know what you think!

ROFLCon recap - Part 1

I’m just starting the site; initially I’ll probably throw in some content from my other places around the web. I’ve blogged on a number of sites before, but never consistently. I’ll include a regular schedule on the site as it develops.

The big news for now is that I’ll be at ROFLCon next week. I’ve never been to Massachusetts before and I’ll be there for a great Internet conference and the Boston Independent Film Festival! I’m excited to go, though I’ll have to balance fun with work and school; I’ll be at the con looking for possible library marketing and web presence ideas AND I’m working on my last two papers before I get my MLIS!

Of course, this means it’s the best time to make another go at blogging. More to come.