LibraryTechtonics

A friend and fellow tweeter, Laura Fitton of Pistachio Consulting (she’s a consultant who “makes presentations suck less/rock more,” so if you need that sort of thing, check her out, she’s a rock star) tweeted an excellent blog post that serves as a reminder to every industry and organization that while social networking can be a boon of communication and user data, it’s *really* about people interacting.  A few points of note:

Stop worrying about how you can use social sites and tools to draw attention to yourself.

…

Stop focusing on metrics, start focusing on people.

Stop thinking that YOUR way is always the RIGHT way (looking for mirror on this one).

…

Stop trying to control how interactions happen and focus on facilitating them.

For libraries, I see some of the commentary applying beyond the use of social networking, and speaking to our industry’s culture, but of course I would ;).  Check out the whole post, and the comments.  It’s awesome.

What are you doing to participate with the population at large?  Have you been able to see outside of the view of social networking as advertising and attention getting, and to the core of connecting with people?  Is all of social networking getting a sanity check (thanks to lbraun2000 for the tweet on this article), or are the markets and organizations that are trying to capitalize/benefit from/perform outreach through on social networking getting the sanity check?

The best way to ameliorate the Me Me Me syndrome that comes from diving head first into social networking is participation.  While putting content out there is part of the process, it’s a full-duplex conversation, which means that you need to do some listening, too.  Chris Brogan, in this morning’s edition of his twice-monthly newsletter (you *need* to subscribe to his newsletter, seriously, here’s a sample so you can see why), communicates this so well:

Why Listening is the First Step

People want to get involved with social media. Why wouldn’t you? It’s inexpensive, has the capacity to bring more customers to your shores, provides a powerful set of tools (again, mostly free!) where you can express yourself, build reputation, and develop awareness. But MAKING media isn’t the first step in the journey, really. I propose that listening comes first, and here’s why.

People are talking about you. They are discussing your company, your products, your industry. No matter if the senior team wants you to start blogging because meanies might comment, there are meanies already out there saying things about you. But if you’re not listening, and not building a methodology to HOW you listen, and what you do with the information, what good is it?

So build your searches in Technorati, Blogpulse, Google Blogsearch, and Summize. Get your ears open, and start finding ways to report this back to the team so that they understand the pulse. And once this is fully understood and evolved, I believe the exercise of listening alone will give you ideas on how you might build a social media strategy for your organization.

Are people talking about your library? Why or why not? Where? What are they saying? Have you asked them about it?  Is it because of information you put out there, or are they talking about it without your starter content?  Put your ear to the ground, have the face-to-face and interactive online conversations (not just lurking!), and listen.  You might find that you aren’t in the places or having the conversations you need to be, or you might find that you’re right on target without even knowing it.  Let me know what you find, I’d love to hear it.

In an effort to encourage commentary on the PLA Blog (I have a theory that reactions to existing comments are easier to get from public librarians than being the one to post the first comment, so this is a test, kinda), I’m posting a link to the Summer Picks and Plans post I wrote a few days ago. If you’ve got recommendations for stuff to read, or if you want to say great and wonderful things about your summer program plans, hit the post on the PLA Blog and leave a comment, eh?

Boston Media Makers is sponsoring its second Tech Tonic (101 sessions on media tech) on Seesmic. It’s FREE, and anyone can go, but you do need to register because space is limited. Sadly, I can’t go (I work Wednesday nights), but if you do go, I’d love to hear what you think of the session.

Deets–

Topic: This session will cover social networking with video and the uses of seesmic for communication and art.

Philippe Lejeune has been experimenting with novel uses of seesmic and will discusses how he’s been using this fascinating service.

Location: MassArt, Alumni Conference Room, Tower Building, 11th Floor [directions]

Date/Time: Wednesday, June 18, 2008, 6:30pm - 9:30pm

Access: Free and open to the public, however, seating is limited

Notes: Bring a laptop w/ 802.11 wireless and/or Ethernet port if you want to follow along with parts of the seminar.

For more info contact David Tamés at Kino-Eye [contact form].

See also:

• Blog post about the session
• Register at Upcoming

Also note:
Next Boston Media Makers Meeting
Sunday July 6th at 10:00 AM
Doyle’s Cafe, Jamaica Plain, MA

Bentley College - The Bentley Conference Center
LaCava Building, Third Floor, 175 Forest Street, Waltham, MA 02452

This is where I am today. I bartered my time as a volunteer for free registration, which meant that my library didn’t need to pay for it, but I did get time off from work to come, since it applies to my job, which is awesome.

You can view the entire schedule online, but this is how my schedule shakes out for the day:

9:15-10am:  Web Apps: The Collision of Design and Business - Jared Spool

10-11am: Volunteer at the registration desk

11am-12pm: Floater volunteer, just make sure everyone’s happy, well, and working properly

12-12:30pm: Lunch

12:30-1pm: Registration desk

1-1:45pm: Winning the Case for Usability-Tonya Price

2-2:45pm: Innovative Interfaces–Transforming Data Into Insight-Eva Kaniasty

3-3:45pm: Metaverses & User Experience-Stephen Denning

4-4:45pm: Moving Up the Usability Food Chain: A Cross-Disciplinary Holistic Viewpoint-Alex Conn

5-6pm:  Registration desk

6-7pm: Cocktail hour & networking

Should make for some very interesting postage later, when I have more time to iron out the wrinkled notes in my WordPress drafts.

There are several sessions that, upon reviewing the schedule, I decided I really wanted to go to because of their applicability to my job, and especially the project of redesigning the library’s web site.  However, upon reviewing the spiral-bound presentations book (which is brilliant, by the way), I decided on the better way to pick the sessions I would go to: sessions where the slides with the *least* text.  I want to see a presentation, and if you’re slides have so much text on them, what’s the point in going when I can just read your slides?

If you work for a library or other non-profit in Massachusetts, and you wouldn’t mind 3-15 FREE extra hands on deck to help you get things done, consider submitting a proposal to the new Commonwealth Corp program:

The mission of the Commonwealth Corps is to engage Massachusetts residents of all ages and backgrounds in direct service to rebuild communities and address unmet community needs. The Corps will provide opportunities for skill building and leadership development and will encourage and enhance a lifelong civic vocation for Corps members. Corps members will provide direct service, build capacity, and recruit, organize and mobilize additional volunteers, thus building a grassroots movement of volunteers dedicated to service.

Nonprofit organizations and public entities are encouraged to apply to become Corps sponsors and host a team of 3 to 15 Corps members. The RFP provides Commonwealth Corps sponsoring organizations with the flexibility to structure service opportunities for full-time, part-time and flex-time members based on an annual service commitment.

A deadline for applications is not posted, but I’m guessing “the sooner, the better” is a good guideline to follow. There will be a series of free presentations to cover the program and application process in detail, as well as to offer an opportunity for questions. See the site for the schedule and how to register.