Blogs, Mashups, & Wikis . . . Oh My!

This article by Bruce W. Dearstyne, Ph.D. provides a good overview of how Web 2.0 applies to information professionals. I especially appreciated the detail Dearstyne went into regarding management issues and challenges. I think he did a good job stressing the fact that a lot of work goes into making Web 2.0 a part of the workplace. It's not all just fun and games.

Within the article he also mentioned a few Web 2.0 experts to and their blogs that information professionals can use for guidance as we move into the future. One of these was a blog by Tim O'Reilly, who writes on trends in technology. In one of his posts he tackles the issue of privacy settings within Facebook. In this post O'Reilly explains why users should not always get angry over the way policies evolve at companies like Facebook, even though he agrees their privacy settings are needlessly complex. He suggests that it is more important to let these companies be fully innovative, even if it leads to mistakes, than to pressure them into adopting conservative measures only to miss out on the benefits of their ingenuity. While I certainly do not fault Facebook for implementing, I would appreciate a little warning about the changes they implement. I understand it would be tedious to receive messages concerning every little item they alter, so perhaps a wiki or centralized location where all updates are recorder would be a suitable compromise.

Another blogger Dearstyne mentioned was Andrew McAfee. During his trip to India in March, McAfee wrote a frightening post about why it is becoming increasingly difficult to find employment as a knowledge worker. (Read: Librarian.) One reason he cited was the digitization taking place which makes completing tasks more efficient in general. We've certainly seen this in effect in libraries as more and more is handles by computers. McAfee also thinks outsourcing plays a role in the shortage of positions available to knowledge workers. Libraries have yet to be greatly affected by this, but as our world becomes increasingly virtual, I see it as a distinct possibility. I fully expect many librarians to be working from home to respond to reference questions in the future. Who's to say those answers won't be coming from an overseas professional willing to work for less?