January 4th, 2008 Posted in Libraries | No Comments »
So what makes for a 2.0 experience in a physical space?
Old values (high-touch) re-emerge. Conversation. Contact. Quality.
2.0 has made the Web more like we want our RL to be… alienated post-industrial folk want friends too. So a 2.0 “place” (like, say, a library) might use social Web tools as a shot of ether into the latent social engine that already exists in the community.
You drive the old folks out for a quilting bee on the 4th Saturday.
Invite the local comics illustrator out for a how-to for the kids.
Establish a Hyde Park style soapbox in the corner of the side lot… you know, there by the azalea bushes and the bus stop.
Programs. Social programs. This ain’t new, folks. Programs for your patrons to do more than listen to a lecture. Programs where people come to participate, have say, and where they have a stake in the outcome of the program and the direction of the community/library.
In building a 2.0 house, we’ve gotta remember why people want 2.0 tools like Facebook. They want to connect and participate.