Buzz Words 2007

Web 2.0 and all things “social networking” were among the buzz words I heard repeatedly at Internet Librarian 2007. I’ve also listed a few former buzz words that have now basically become commonplace–even as we continue to learn more and experiment with them!

In my list below, I’ve also included web applications that were frequently mentioned during the course of the conference, too:

Buzz Words

• Second Life
• Avatar
• Content creators (as opposed to strictly Internet users)
• Mash-ups
• Drilling down (navigation) vs. upfront Boolean or Advanced Searching in WebOPACs
• Viral Marketing

Mainstream Words (formerly Buzz words)

• Wiki
• Blog
• RSS

Web Applications Frequently Mentioned

• CSS Zengarden
  • Of interest to budding web developers
• Slideshare.net
  • Fantastic site for displaying, sharing your Powerpoint presentations with others, and commenting on each other’s Powerpoints (i.e. essentially enabling Powerpoint blogs); this is only one of a number of such free web sites offering this type of capability)
• bliptv.com
  • This seems to becoming an increasingly used site; has downloading ability, something YouTube doesn’t offer. Audio and video hosting capabilities

Reviewed by:
Polly (SDCL Online)

Conference Discussion Nuggets 2007

The following are some ideas/opinions that seemed to particularly reflect the themes and discussions occurring at this year’s conference:

From keynote by the Director of Pew Internet and American Life Project “2.0 and the Internet World”:

• Internet has penetrated about 93% of US households.
• 77% of college students play games online.

From “Online Outreach: Marketing for Libraries” presentation:

• Library web sites need to be marketing something worthwhile.
• Interaction is needed on library web sites. The rest of the Internet is interactive; users expect this on web sites.
• There is a blurring of jurisdictions on the Web. Basically, online, everyone’s customers are your customers, too.

From “New Rules of Web Design” presentation:

• Content is king on web sites….but design matters a lot!
  • Professional design = credibility
• The 3 click rule is dead. Users will happily click, as long as they feel they are on the right path.
• Scrolling is not bad…as long as there is some sort of clue that there is content below the top half of the web page (i.e. above the fold).

From “Cranky? Boomers & Older Adults Are Greying the Internet” presentation:

• With the increase in the older population, libraries need to teach Web 2.0 technologies in their customer classes. Move beyond just intro to email and intro to computers.

Reviewed by:
Polly (SDCL Online)