Monday Keynote: Info Fluency & Imagining the Internet

Here’s my notes from the keynote. They are quite lengthy, and unformatted; will try to come back later and do so.

Technology is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts w one hand, and stabs you in the back with the other. -CP Snow.

Lew Rainie, PEW Internet. They are like Internet archaelogists – study it, but don’t make judgments.

@lrainie –

@Pew_Internet

Tweckle: heckling a speaker on Twitter.

The Internet is the change agent: THEN and now

2000

46% of adults use internet

5% w broadband at home

50% own a cell phone

0% connect to internet wirelessly

less than 10% use “cloud”

=Slow, stationary connection built around my computer

2010

75% of adults use internet

62% w broadband at home

80% own a cell phone

53% connect to internet wirelessly

greater than two-thirds use “cloud”

= fast mobile connections built around outside servers and storage.

Librarians can teach & make pple more comfortable with these tools.

Those not using the Internet so far, they feel uncomfortable with the tools, with the devices, and uncomfortable with the risks that are out there. Librarians can handhold and show these people that there’s not much to be afraid of.

25% of American adults don’t use internet: say don’t want/need to, many uncomfortable w/tools & environment. Librarians can help. #cil2010 –@annehaines

Media ecology – now (information age)

48% of adults own laptops – up from 30% in 2006

43% of adults own MP3 players – up from 11 % in 05

37% of adults own game consoles

18% of adults own gaming devices.

All mobile devices.

All of these can be connected to the Internet and can reach the cloud.

Networked creator universe:

57% are social networking site users

Kids think adults have encroached on their space.

No exodus of the teenagers; continues to grow

37% share photos

life blogging

30% share personal creations

30% contribute rankings and ratings

ratemyprofessor.com

28% create content tags

26% post comments on sites and blogs

19% use Twitter / other status update features

15 % have personal website

15 % are content remixers

14 % are bloggers

haven’t found compelling ways to talk to bloggers; some of the blogging has migrated to social networking sites. Pple don’t think of this as blogging. Talk about it as social networking experience.

Manuel Castells – The Internet Galaxy

Four cultures shaped the Internet

Creators of online culture

1.Techno-elites

1.Scientific method enshrined;

1.openness,

2.peer review,

3.meritocracy

2.Hackers

1.Stallman: “Free speech in the computer age”

1.Freedom to creat

2.to appropriate

3.to redistribute

3.Virtual communitarians: Early Usenet groups

1.Horizontal free communication

2.Primacy of self-directing networks

3.“Whole Earth ‘Lectronic link – well.com

4.Entrepreneurs – Netscape IPO

1.Tech know-how

2.can generate lots of money

Lee Rainie sees NEW One:

5.Networked creators

1.Democratized the voices in media

2.Challenged traditional media gatekeepers

3.Inserted themselves in “expert” affairs

4.Enhanced their civic and community roles – much more engaged.

1.37% of internet users contributed to the news

2.20% contributed to health content

3.19% contributed to civic and political activities

New community-building activities that online content creation enables

1.Produce content that helps them expand their social network and increase their social standing – audience

1.“Beyond Reality” –Janet and Maddie Video Channel – http://beyondreality.blip.tv/ & http://www.itsbeyondreality.com

2.Daughter wanted to be social commenter; she’s now achieved her dream.

Advantages to creators – conclusions of MacArthur Foundation team – www.macfound.org

negotiating friendship, status, identity (teenagers have been doing this, always)

creating spaces for building social networks among friends And those who share their interests

creating learning opportunities

gaining reputational capital – Maddie got into college in part because of this stuff

2.Produce content to create social posses to solve problems.

Acura TSX – Car thief posse – An epic thread yields rapid internet justice.

_____ book begins with a story like this.

Love the mob as long as we don’t become one mind and don’t think first before acting in regards to @lrainie keynote story #CIL2010 –#mlibrarianus

Advantages to creators in posse situations

1.fact checking and transparency

2.crowdsourcing wisdom, especially among “strangers” who share a common purpose

3.production and accumulation of evidence that is easily search-able

3.Produce content to construct “just-in-time-just-like-me” support groups

Karen Parles material; lung-onc listserv; www.caringbridge.org/visit/karenparles/mystory

Esther Schreurs comment: another cancner

Just-in-time-just-like-me communities

1.communities of just-in-time information and support – ad hoc and “on the fly”

2.communities of “rare species”

1.Homophily par excellence (“birds of a feather”)

3.communities of practice that are “space-less”

1.just-in-time-just-like-me communities: communities of practice that are “space-less”: #cil2010 teachers, librarians have greatly used this –@hbraum

2.@lrainie “Birds of a feather” Communities can form for support/understanding i.e. I need someone who is going through what I am. #cil2010 –@ma1ja

3.Cool new word “homophily”. Birds of a feather. Internet lets groups form for any specific interest imaginable. #cil2010.–@quinnrosie

4.Also, librarians have ALWAYS known that ppl/organizations are information resources. This is that – faster & on steroids! #cil2010 –@annehaines

4.Produce content unlike traditional news organizations

Social-media-sphere is the “5th estate”

Week of March 30-April 5, 2009:

1.Trad’l press focus on Obama and Economy

1.G20 Europe Trip

2.Economic Crisis

3.Auto industry

4.ny hostages

5.afghanistan

2.Blogosphere is filled w an eclectic mix of stories

1.guardian prank (Twitter)

2.Torture

3.Actress Comments

4.Earth Hour – gorgeous pics on Boston Globe website: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/earth_hour_2009.html

5.Online Security

Lee ramie @ #cil2010 traditional media vs blogosphere PEJ analysis http://www.journalism.org/ –@peacekaat

5th estate publishing tastes

1.technology developments, esp activites in the social media environment

1.bloggers as rocket boosters

2.links as social currency

2.off-beat stories, especially those with quirky humor

3.American exceptionalism stories

4.Cultural cleavages and social issues more than economic issues

#cil2010 Rainie: The social media realm is the fifth estate. –@julian2

Implications for libraries

1.“You can be a node in people’s social networks as they seek information to help them solve problems and meet their needs.” Libraries are pple’s smarter friends, the expert friends, we’re the master teachers – don’t know the answer, but know how to find the answer. Pple can’t keep up with info, need people in networks who can dig through the stream and find the right info quickly.

2.You can teach new literacies

1.screen literacy – graphics and symbols

2.navigation literacy

3.connections and context literacy

4.skepticism

5.value of contemplative time

6.how to create content

7.ethical behavior in new world

3.need to re-vision your role in a world where much has changed

1.access to information

2.value of information

3.curating info means more than collections

4.creating media – networked creators should be your allies.

Rainie has no answers for this as to what the revision should look like.

Librarians have become more powerful in the past 6 months – Knight Foundation & Aspen Institue – communities’ information needs. Assessing needs of communities – libraries are central to this. As journalistic resources are shrinking, pple are bombarded with lots more info, libraries are an anchor institute that can respond to their communities’ better than anybody else.