Web 2.0 and Beyond

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Web 2.0 and Beyond

• Marshall Breeding
• Director for Innovative Technologies and Research
• Vanderbilt University
• http//staffweb.library.vanderbilt.edu/breeding

Redefining Libraries Web 2.0 and other
Challenges May 2007 Xiamen, China
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Part II Web 2.0 and Beyond

• How to incorporate computer based resources and
  new technology in library services.
• This section will include a discussion of
  libraries can take advantage of some of the Web
  2.0 technologies such as blogs, wikis and other
  social software to enhance the services they
  deliver to their user.

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Evolution and advancement

• Technology
• Society
• Generational shifts
• Boomer gt gen X gt Millennials

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Heightened User Expectations

• Library users come with expectations set by their
  experiences of the Web
• Conventions for navigating and exploring
  Web-based resources well established
• Dealing with large and complex bodies of
  information nothing new to incoming library
  users.
• Sophisticated Web skills
• Low tolerance for clunky and ineffective Web
  sites
• Confident in their ability reluctant to ask for
  help

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Problems with the Status Quo

• A look and feel that may not meet the
  expectations of the current generation of
  Web-savvy users.
• The conventional library environment requires
  users to interact with many different interfaces,
  and search many different resources.
• Overly complex
• Not always intuitive
• Users have to go to different places to find
  different kinds of information on a given topic
  Library OPAC for books, Article and E-journal
  locators for articles.

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An urgent need

• Baby boomers and Gen Xrs are happier with
  traditional forms of content and existing modes
  of service
• Millennials will move on to non-library provided
  information sources and services if not readily
  satisfied
• There is a lot at stake for the future of
  libraries in adapting to generational
  transitions.
• Web 2.0 provides a metaphor and model for
  adapting library services to todays Web-savvy
  users.

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Web 1.0

• Static Web
• Information silos
• One-way communication

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Web 2.0

• Coined by ORielly Media in 2004
• Web Social Computing
• Dynamic Content
• Highly interactive
• Collaborative
• Focus on the user
• Focus on communities

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Web 2.0 examples

• RSS delivery of content
• Blogs Web logs comments
• Wikis content created in community
• Instant Messaging, SMS,
• Voice over IP Skype
• Podcasting
• vlogs

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Web 2.0 supporting technologies

• Web services
• XML APIs
• AJAX (asynchronous JavaScript and XML)
• Microformats
• OpenSearch vs SRU/SRW

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Web 2.0 media

• Rich media beyond text
• Music and audio
• Well experienced File swapping, p2p, iPod, MP3
• Video
• Recreational and academic youtube.com,
  myspace.com/video, yahoo! Video, bittorrent
• Opportunities to remix. Usually recreational,
  but explore ways to tap this interest with an
  academic slant.

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The sprit of Web 2.0

• YouTube
• Facebook
• MySpace
• Flickr

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Web 3.0

• Web 2.0 artificial intelligence
• Semantic Web
• Web 2.0 enterprise computing

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Library 2.0

• First mentioned by Michael Casey
• Web 2.0 Library Library 2.0
• Apply Web 2.0 concepts to library applications

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Examples

• Library Blogs
• New book lists through RSS
• Wikis
• Intranets for staff documentation
• Collaborative resources for library users
• Enriched library catalogs
• User participation in library resources
• User tagging in catalog
• Reviews
• Ratings

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Evolution

• The Web has been evolving since its very
  beginning
• Web 2.0 didnt happen all at once
• Many of the concepts behind Web 2.0 trace back to
  its inception
• Eg Amazon embraced user participation, open
  APIs, etc long before Web 2.0 brand.
• Evolution and maturation of Web technologies
  continues

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Caveats

• Apply when appropriate
• Not a plateau
• Evolution continues
• Web 2.0 can create isolated silos of information
• Must evolve into an organized fabric of
  interrelated Web services.
• Too many dead blogs and wikis already

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Web 2.0 a good start

• A more social and collaborative approach
• Web Tools and technology that foster
  collaboration
• Blogs, wiki, blogs, tagging, social bookmarking,
  user rating, user reviews

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Interface expectations

• Increasingly library users are well acclimated to
  current Web technologies and like it.
• Used to relevancy ranking
• The good stuff should be listed first
• Users tend not to delve deep into a result list
• Good relevancy requires a sophisticated approach,
  including objective matching criteria
  supplemented by popularity and relatedness
  factors.

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Interface expectations (cont)

• Very rapid response. Users have a low tolerance
  for slow systems
• Rich visual information book jacket images,
  rating scores, etc.
• Let users drill down through the result set
  incrementally narrowing the field
• Faceted Browsing
• Drill-down vs up-front Boolean or Advanced
  Search
• gives the users clues about the number of hits in
  each sub topic.
• Navigational Bread crumbs
• Ratings and rankings