Web 2.0 Services: A Rich Toolbox for Information Professionals

Mihir Mahajanmihir.mahajan@gmail.com

8 February 2008 1

8 February 2008 2

Web circa 1995

• Content publishers– Portals – Yahoo!, AOL– Websites and homepages

• Finding content– Search engines – AltaVista, Ask Jeeves– Directory services – Yahoo!, Lycos

• One way traffic from information providers to viewers

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What the Web does: Help connect people to information and other

people• People are not just information

consumers but also information producers

• People are social• People want open access to information

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Web 2.0: An Interactive and Social Web

• Open– Provide open access to information

• Social– Develop, recognize and utilize connections

between people

• Participatory– User contributed content

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… but so were parts of the older Web!

• Amazon.com product reviews• eBay feedback system• Commenting features on web sites

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Web 2.0 uses better tools…

• Open interfaces make the Internet a platform– Maps – Google Maps– Metadata – Amazon.com, IMDB– Site APIs – eBay

• RSS (Really Simple Syndication)• XML (eXtensible Markup Language)• JavaScript client side scripting

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… to develop better services!Application Web 1.0 Web 2.0

Photo sharing Yahoo! Photos Flickr, Picasa, Facebook Photos

Music / content distribution

mp3.com iTunes, Pandora, Joost

Reference Britannica Online Wikipedia

Library management Custom databases Facebook Books iRead, Librarything.com

Personal pages Personal websites Blogging

Event planning-RSVP Evite/ Email invites Upcoming.org, Facebook Events

Content management/ publication

Custom websites Drupal

Content classification systems

Taxonomy-based - Yahoo! directory

Tagging – Flickr, del.icio.us

Bookmarking Browser bookmarks del.icio.us, Digg.com

Citation databases Procite, EndNote bibsonomy.org

and many more…

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How are these services better?

• Easy to set up, easy to learn, easy to use• Customizable, adapt to user needs• Open access, often open source• Fun to use!

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How you can use Web 2.0: Publish!

• Blog is an easy-to-use publication medium– Reverse chronological posts– Can include text, images, multimedia– Can be tagged by topic, author, and other metadata

• What can you use it for? – Organization wide news and announcements– Industry news updates– Training materials– .. blogs are flexible, use your imagination!

• How?– Blog sites: Blogger, LiveJournal, Typepad– Blogging software: MovableType, WordPress

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How you can use Web 2.0: Share!

• Share your recommendations– Bookmarking – del.icio.us– Bibliography – bibsonomy.org– Bookshelves – librarything.com

• Set up collections, then share!– Photos – Flickr, Picasaweb– Videos – Youtube

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How you can use Web 2.0: Collaborate!

• Set up your own wiki– Wiki hosting sites– Wiki software – MediaWiki, TikiWiki

• Collaborate online– Google Apps– Google Calendar

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What others have done

• Wikis for research collaboration• Facebook Causes• Google Maps + US Elections• Google Maps to show real-time updates

of natural disasters– Hurricane Katrina– San Diego fires

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Web 2.0 is not a panacea

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Topic Issue Strategies for resolution

Lack of permanence

Most of Web 2.0 is new and evolving

Tools you use today may not exist tomorrow

Use popular tools backed by a strong user community

Set up archival practices

PrivacyInadvertent sharing of private information

Implement a clear and consistent privacy practice

Set user expectations of privacy

Reliability of sources

User contributed content not a substitute for a primary source

Rely on primary sources

Create user awareness about relative merits of different sources

CopyrightContent contributors may not hold/ assert copyright

Be aware of online copyright issues and follow best practices