Nancy White, Full Circle Associates, gave today’s keynote address. She was fantastic – content and delivery – and I was fortunate to have been invited to have breakfast at her table (John Baker invited me). Her address ‘Technologies for/and/by community’ can be found at:
http://onlinefacilitation.wikispaces.com/Technology+and+-+or+Communities
Naturally I was extremely pleased when she said that the one professioanl group that has cracked the technology/people interface was librarians. She called them/us/me ‘Technology Stewards’. I like that term very much.
Her research has shown how tools developed for a purpose can be interpreted and used in different ways than originally intended. There were many references to Web 2.0, especially blogs and wikis which she describes as allowing individuals to make the technologies ‘work for me’.
She described 3 polarities:
- togetherness … separateness
- interacting … publishing
- individual … group
I won’t make a great deal of sense of the complex issues described, so see her presentation.
Another site she recommended on this topic is:
http://www.technologyforcommunities.com/
Sue, it was great to meet you. As they say, “Librarians Rock!”
Hm, the tiny URL seems off. Here is the direct link: http://onlinefacilitation.wikispaces.com/Technology+and+-+or+Communities
The slides are also on my blog http://www.fullcirc.com/weblog/onfacblog.htm