www.yourbigwig.com

What is YourBIGWIG? Straight from the site itself:

BIGWIG has created this website in order to facilitate communication between BIGWIG members, potential members and interested parties. We hope to use this site to enable BIGWIG to be more efficient and effective in the work we do, allow for virtual participation, and solicit feedback and commentary on our activities.

So: head on over and check us out. Sign up for an account, and make yourself part of the process of making LITA a more efficient, effective, and forward-thinking division of ALA.

Part II of the Social Software Showcase. It’s tres cool that the Showcase is via a wiki.

A group of library 2.0 users sat at different tables and discussed and demo-ed different software. It was hard to take it all in. I spent most of my time at the LibraryThing table.

LibraryThing for Libraries uses JavaScript. It grabs ISBN, title and author, and links to an outside page. Pages generated are more accessible than the usual OPAC pages, which suck on so many levels.

There was a table for Meebo which interested me, but no one seemed to be addressing it. Here’s the link about it on the page–looks interesting.

There was also a table about the Facebook developer’s platform, which didn’t interest me much.

The Twitter group got the largest crowd. Twitter with David Free and David Lee King. There were “too many daves” jokes. I did not join the table, but found the videos and web links very interesting afterwards.

Some of the presenters couldn’t be there due to other obligations. The Showcase was set-up in such a way that you did not need to be a “meat attendee”, but could participate virtually, from any distance. I thought it was really great I could watch videos on the site, such as one about LOCKSS by Karen Schneider.

This group of presenters presupposed some experience with Web 2.0 or Library 2.0. There was kind of an “in crowd” feeling, which I didn’t share. All of the attendees I spoke to were from academic libraries, which was rather disappointing to me. The issues around Web 2.0 seem very different at public libraries. I am going to explore some of the links to public libraries more thoroughly.

I think some of the most interesting ideas around Web 2.0 are reaching nontraditional library users in new ways. I like the idea that the physical library provides a third space for its users. I would like to see Web 2.0 create a virtual third space. I think the various interactive social softwares are leading the way. We need to explore all of them, and coopt the best for library uses. I am not at all sure about Twitter feeds for events, but I love the idea of libraries being part of something fun.

More Showcase information coming throughout the day. If you are in DC for Annual, please join BIGWIG today Saturday, June 23rd, from 1:30-2:30 in the Renaissance Mayflower Cabinet Room for discussion and conversation during the Social Software Showcase.

In addition to being thought provoking, Casey has used the Showcase as a place to announce a new project: OpenLibrary. Read up, and feel free to discuss the project here, within the Showcase Forum, or on the Showcase Wiki Discussion pages. We have lots of venues for the virtual world to participate with us here at ALA Annual, so please, join in.

More Showcase information coming throughout the day. If you are in DC for Annual, please join BIGWIG today Saturday, June 23rd, from 1:30-2:30 in the Renaissance Mayflower Cabinet Room for discussion and conversation during the Social Software Showcase.