Wednesday 21 May 2008

On Social Networking...

I'm having such a good time with Facebook! I've caught up with friends and people I never really liked that much anyway... But how would I use it for work?
We're struggling with this now. The vital questions are: Are we providing a static link and encouraging our customers to use and participate in the community? Or, are we metaphorically hammering our stake in and sectioning off a little corner that is Liverpool City Library?
If so, who is responsible for the content, upkeep and overall look? There is a immediacy to these sites which is almost scary. I assume all libraries would want to keep a modicum of editorial control - how is this possible? How does my manager ensure that everything I say about Liverpool City Library is something he, the Council and everyone would agree with?
In a climate where staff cannot talk to local media and all information must be routed through Marketing people and Publicity teams?
It seems to me this requires more trust in individuals than we have had up to now.
Then I think about what customers might add!
I can see more applications for creating groups of people. Maybe a group of our, for example, romance readers might like to get together using a tool like Second Life or Facebook? Perhaps we could be the ones who facilitate these groups in the beginning before pulling back and letting the group exist in it's own right.
Once again having a population which has low computer ownership and usage is a bit frustrating. I suspect haing to use public computers is a hinderance to using many of these geat tools.

Monday 5 May 2008

On Google Docs

Google Docs could be very useful for us at Liverpool

Rates of computer ownership in Liverpool are quite low. Families that do own computers often lack access to important peripherals like printers. They come to us to help them.

Unfortunately, we have had two major virus issues in the past year. The second occasion seemed to be a deliberate attack. It seems the virus was spread via a USB memory stick. These attacks left the community without Internet access for long periods of time.

These attacks forced us to decide that customers couldn't use disks or memory sticks in any of out networked computers. Our customers of course wonder how they can possibly work on their documents. Google Docs could be the answer.

I will certainly suggest that our customers use Google Docs as it solves several of our major problems:

Universal access from any computer
Not subject to the fragility and fallibility of floppy disks
Can't be lost or left behind like USB's
Shouldn't be responsible for spreading viruses
And most importantly... allows to users to work on documents over a period of time

I suspect it may also help with a problem we have experienced. Our customers have more up-to-date software than we do. Many of our customers are using later versions of Word than we are. We could use Google Docs to help them rather than having to send them away to re-save their documents.