Presentation on Web 2.0

Within a few weeks of starting my new job I was asked if I would be willing to provide a session for library staff on Twitter as part of a summer training event (well I could hardly say no) and so last week I delivered an short session to about 20 staff. (My presentation is available on slide share, all 4 slides!)

I decided to broaden the topic to web 2.0 and as part of my preparation I tweeted asking advice on what I should cover.  As usual people on twitter were more than helpful with plenty of good suggestions and useful resources.

Following their advice I decided to focus on why I use web 2.0 tools and as I sat listing various reasons such as communcication and collaboration (my two key points regarding web 2.0) I realised the most important one was enjoyment. I don’t deny that it took me a while to feel comfortable sharing my thoughts and ideas with people I didn’t know, however the payback was worth it. I also soon learned that you get what you put into it and contributing and collaborating will pay dividends.

An example was in starting this job. Owing to space, I was located in a different building to my team and although I made sure to arrange plenty of meetings I still spent a lot of the time alone in my office. Twitter however proved to be a great method of making contact with some of my new team  and having an exsisting online community helped with any feelings of isolation and lone working while settling in. (I am pleased to say I have now finally moved into the library)

After talking about my own experience and showing colleagues my own accounts to provide them with real examples of use I then highlighted a few reasons as to why libraries are using web 2.0 tools. It was easy to find some great examples out there which was really encouraging.  I also wanted to make sure the session was a practical one, so I set up a demo Delicious account with a handful of interesting links for people to browse and a Bloglines account in order that they could have a go at adding feeds or adding a blog post. This  also gave me an opportunity to walk round and talk to everyone and answer any specific questions.

I was keen to stress, in my session, that these tools are not for everyone and they are not an instant fix to all communication problems there is however invaluable experience to be gained from having a go and engaging with these new developments.

A week after my session I found Dave Patten (University of Huddersfield) was to give a presentation on web 2.0 at the Engaing our Digital Natives conference, wish I could have stolen it