LibraryTechtonics

Information Superhighway Four: The Construct Additional Pylons Edition

FableVision, Boston Games For Change, Harvard Free Culture, and the Public Radio Exchange Proudly Present…

INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY FOUR: THE CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS EDITION
A Gathering Of Boston Tech

January 31st, 2009, 8:00 – 12:00
Berkman Squared, 50 Church Street, Cambridge MA
RSVP on Upcoming

Boston is full of cool Internet people. Why aren’t they meeting each other?

INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY is Boston’s monthly party gathering hackers, activists, artists, designers, nonprofits, startups, academics and general geekery to hang out and connect with one another.

* No agenda, no “networking,” no presentations. Just beverages, food, ideas and cool people.
* Best of all the price is free, just like the current market value for the Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker.

* This time: come out and meet Boston’s gaming peeps! We’re gathering startups, nonprofit game developers, researchers, and (as usual) a few awesome curveball guests for the mix.

* Also, come and play games! We’ll have some cool newer fare set up on big screen and projector — but will also be working the nostalgia circuit (read: Sam and Max, Doom, Chrono Trigger, NetHack) with a bank of slick XOs courtesy One Laptop Per Child.

With Featured Guests and Organizations:
* Gary Goldberger (FableVision)
* Gene Koo (The Berkman Center for Internet and Society)
* Jon Radoff (GamerDNA)
* Josh Diaz (CMS / GAMBIT)
* Scott MacMillan (Macguffin Games) and Darius Kazemi (Orbus Gameworks) (Boston Post Mortem)
* MacKenzie Sigalos and Katelyn Foley (One-For-All)
* Keith Hopper (Hopper Analytical / NPR)
* Andrea Mercado (Technologist)

Also Sponsored By Information Superhighway Alumni:
Beth Coleman and Kevin Driscoll (CMS), Mel Chua (Hello Silo), Steve Garfield (Founder, Boston Media Makers), Nate Aune, Brian Del Vecchio and Jon Pierce (Betahouse), Brett Stilwell (Pecha Kucha Boston), Mac Cowell and Jason Bobe (DIYBio)

ISFour Theme Song

Website: http://twitter.com/infosuperhiway

First, let me address the “how’s the job hunt?” question: in short, it’s not.

Right now, I’m not actively spending my days pouring over job listings and sending out cover letters, and I won’t be anytime soon.  Instead, I’m spending way more of my time just talking to people, not in the “I want a job from you” kind of way, but in a “hey, we both do interesting things, and I have the time, so let’s chat” kind of way. If jobs come out of these relationships, then that’s super. If not, that’s totally fine, since the relationships are more important to me. If a job falls in my lap in the midst of everything I’m doing right now, and it’s the right job at the right place, I won’t say no. People I know are sending me links and leads to jobs, which is always helpful, as long as they fit what I’m looking for. But otherwise, I’ve eschewed the traditional job search for now.  More importantly, I’m resting, spending my time doing things I’ve needed and wanted to do, and just enjoying life.  I’ll let you know when things change in that respect.

So what am I looking for?

Better time: First and foremost, regaining and maintaining a sense of work/life balance is of the highest priority.  When I was freelancing in technology many ages ago, I did a much better job managing my time and preventing work time scope creep, but it was still a bit crazy. When I was working in librarianship, the freelance work seemed to never end, and between the crazy library hours schedule and side work, I was working all the time, and I could never do things at night (which I really like to do).  So, a more normal workday (Monday through Friday, 9am-ish to 5pm-ish, occasional nights and weekends), is my ideal situation.

Not in a library:  I don’t want to work in a library or for a library vendor.  If you want clarification on this, you’re welcome to leave a comment.  (As a side note, at some point soon, I may be changing the name of the blog, so that it will no longer be a misnomer.)

Easier commute: This includes walking distance, T (Boston area public transit subway), bus, or any combination thereof, at less than 45 minutes one-way.  I’ve done the driving commute in the Boston area, and it’s really just a stress generator for me.  I think I’d do it for the right job, though.

Excellent organizational culture: I’m looking for a place full of a good number of people who are smarter than me, with a professional, collaborative nature.  I want to work with people who understand technology, and I’d love to work with some geeks again.

My position? Well, that’s the interesting bit.  At this point, my firm belief is that I’ll know it when I see it, but I’m open to suggestions.  I think that I’d do well in a consultant (internal or with a consulting company, not on my own) or client services position, and tech support/management, but I’m not limiting my options to that. My nature is to be a problem solver.  I can plan, I get human behavior, I can Geek-English translate, I work well with others in a team or as an individual and/or leader, and l learn quickly.  I have hands-on tech skills, everything from configuring and tinkering with WordPress (although I will admit there are a few things I haven’t gotten around to fixing with my theme, too busy living ;D) to fixing computer problems, and I’m a natural tinkerer.  I’m never afraid to say “I don’t know.”  I’m really good at using, planning, teaching, and counseling on social networking technologies.  You can get a full run-down on my experience and skills on my LinkedIn profile.

That’s where it’s at.

It’s been very quiet around here, because I’ve been doing lots and lots of thinking.

Out of that thinking came a decision: I’m leaving.

So wait, what does that mean?
I’ve given a month’s notice at my library. My last day is September 5, 2008.

What are you going to be doing next?
Something different. My goal is to head towards some sort of client or project management role, in the Metro Boston area, with a preference for technology and social networking/media/software. But really, I’m open to just about anything that strikes my fancy, pays a decent wage, and excites me intellectually (I have a few irons in the fire already). In an ideal world, I’ll be back at work somewhere as early as October, since I’m looking forward to a month off before I do anything real.

But why?
After a long, hard assessment of my professional life, I’ve found that library profession is not a cultural fit for me. I’m a lifelong patron and a fan of libraries, but I’d like to be in a different work culture where people are truly, deeply tech- and geek-minded, because I miss that a lot. I’ll definitely be able to apply the valuable skills I’ve acquired from my 5+ years in the library world to future professional endeavors.

Is this a permanent goodbye to libraries?
I’m not sure yet. We’ll see.

What will happen to your blog?
I’m still thinking about that. I am interested in using it to launch a social networking experiment to help me find a job, much like this one, since this is a shift that might be interesting to carefully and diplomatically document. Other than that, I’m not sure if I’ll just keep posting to it as-is, leave it up as an archive somehow, move myself to a new domain altogether, or hand it over to someone else. Figuring it out will be its own adventure.

I’m feeling confident about my decision, and I’m looking forward to what the future will bring. I’m in a debt of gratitude to the people who helped me throughout my decision making and exit strategy formulating process, which has been many months in the making. You kids know who you are, and you rock my socks. I’m also hoping to keep in touch with the many colleagues who have become friends.

When I present about social networking, I approach the state of harping on how each site and technology has a culture, with a population, etiquette, mores, and all the other social trappings of any culture. Users are attracted to specific social networking sites usually because something in the culture speaks to them. True social networking site participants — regular daily visits, active participation, constantly in touch with contacts — are “residents” in the culture, not just acting, pushing the buttons, or going through the motions, but really fitting into the culture.

I tend to be pretty selective about which sites I use, because I only use social networking tools that I really need. I’ll create an account on a new site, fuss around, check out the help, see who else is using it and why, and then decide if I want to pursue adding contacts and otherwise integrating it into my everyday digital life, or keep it on my mental shelf as a possible solution for something else later. Sometimes just a review from a trusted source is enough to tell me whether or not a social networking site is for me.

Once I’m there, my habits will depend on the site. I basically have different layers of stranger and privacy tolerance on different sites, and I tend to stay pretty true to the purpose, and culture, of the site, and my purpose for it.

• Twitter: I’m most likely to follow people I don’t know, or don’t know very well, on Twitter. My stream is open because the point of Twitter is sharing. Everything I say on Twitter is no-regrets, honest, and something that I would say out loud anywhere. I respect the right of people to lock their streams for whatever reason, but I feel it’s counter to the culture. I used to add locked streams all the time, but now I tend not too. I automatically block spam streams (all links, only there to advertise/pimp/push some site or service, no real interest in relationships, only half-duplex in content), so that I don’t appear in their following list (which helps deter other spammers), and they can’t try to add me again.
• LinkedIn: I only ever add people I can actually vouch for professionally. This means I know you, I’ve known you a while, I’ve worked with you, seen/appreciated your work, and/or I have some other evidence that you are a trustworthy source for *professional* networking and referral. I don’t add people who I’ve just met, who I’ve never worked with, or based on reputation. It’s a professional space, and I take it seriously.
• Facebook: I add friends. Actual, real, dyed-in-the-wool *friends*. We know each other, we’ve met, I like you, I want to get to know you better. You call, you write, you care. We might even get together on occasion, if it’s geographically possible. We have somewhat common interests, or differing interests that I find intriguing. It’s personal. It’s not about professional networking, business card adds, third grade classmates, numbers, or random people.
• Flickr: If I like your photos, I’ll add you as a contact. Pretty simple. You get family or friend status if you fit into one or the other. I do lock photos as I see fit, and for some of my photos, geotagging can only be seen by friends and family, or only by me.
• Yelp: If I like your reviews, if we’re friends, or if we hang on a regular basis, I’ll definitely add you as a friend.
• del.icio.us: I have a small network, but it’s mostly because I don’t talk about my del.icio.us account much. I don’t add too many people proactively, I will add people reactively if I know them, or if they have really interesting linkage.

The simple point is that I don’t use these sites to find people, or to make friends with people, or to network with people. If it happens, it happens. However, overall, they serve as forums to interact with, or to foster relationships with, people I know. Also, it varies on how well I know you, because I’m not a perfunctory about relationships.

After every conference, I find that I receive a flood of add requests, and they always seem to be on sites where, generally, I’m not going to add people I’ve just met. After every conference, I want to write this post, and it just doesn’t happen for one reason or another, probably because, despite the many requests I receive, a post like this just seems so self-serving and egotistical. Truth is, I prefer to get to know people, and if you have my business card or my blog address, you can send me an email, tell me about yourself, and we can take it from there. Sometimes I get busy, and it takes time, but what real relationship doesn’t?

I finally got off my butt to write it because I’ve got a new account on Brightkite, a site that takes the Twitter microblogging concept to a whole new level by adding more robust geographic locating features, and allowing for cross-posting to Twitter. (Honestly, I think it would be totally hot to see some partnership between Brightkite and Yelp, so that there can be an update on an event’s page to see which Yelpers are there, but that’s just an idea.)

The same way that geotagging is sometimes personal, and I don’t give out my exact location on Twitter if I’m alone or at home, I’m going to be very selective on Brightkite. It behooved me to finally get around to explaining why.

Conversants (ISSN: 1940-5022), “a limited-run, open-access journal about participatory networks,” did a soft launch on Friday, with Participatory Librarianship rock star R. David Lankes at the helm as editor. When Dave emailed me just after ALA Midwinter and asked me to write an editorial on “how library school can be better” for the new journal as a from-the-field view of what technology should be included in library school education, I was more than happy to oblige. As you’ll read, my article isn’t just about knowing about the latest social networking site, or having the latest tech toys in the library; it’s a more holistic approach to technology that keeps service and customer behaviors at the forefront.

The articles in Conversants are on the academic side, but are not limited to the academic library point of view. They raise interesting questions, and I hope they’ll promote interesting discussions about the truly conversation- and sharing-based nature of the web and emerging web technologies. The journal also sports an interesting comments format, and I’m interested to see how it works out: readers can leave comments on individual paragraphs as well as on the entire page.

It’s an innovative publication with a comparatively unique approach to the technology side of things, examining the human element more than the toys, bells, and whistles. I can only hope that smart library school professors will include this journal in their class readings, and library school curriculum developers will take notice!