Brian Kelly- Managing new technologies
Web 2.0 offers a lot of potential. Facebook can be used for marketing. Lightweight chat clients can be used for reference. Wikis can be used to make notes in group sessions- as Brian did!
There are some concerns; reliability, sustainability, movement of users from service to service. Nevertheless, there is a need to engage with these technologies. Good planning will help avoid some of the pitfalls. Brian looked at some of these planning issues and ways in which we can manage them, such as scenario planning.
We need to take risks; if the head of the BL can do it so should we.
A failure is a failure however. Brian pointed out that the head of a BL will fail in a more obvious way than, say, my head of IT. But failure is failure, I feel. And the sack is the sack ;) I accept what Brian is saying here, but am not sure that the head of a national library is the best example of 'just doing it' with regard to technology.
Update: following some
blogging by Brian on this issue I have reflected a little on this.
I do wonder if the debate has moved on for all people, users included; we may still have advocacy work in that area. I still think that there is a need to be careful with words, but that is a political issue in a broad sense and should not distract from the need to engage with new technologies and services. What we need is collaboration- sharing examples of 'just doing it', particularly in areas where that is seen as difficult.
This was a good session. Brian is an engaging speaker- this is the second time I’ve seen him in action.
Pete Smith