Hello and week one

I have always been an early adopter of new
technology. I remember seeing the Internet back in the days of the BBS and
the 14.4K dial-up modem. It was only a year or so after the CD amazed me
with a whopping 650 Mb of disk space. Now I use the Internet on a daily basis
as a source of information from tomorrow's weather, to this course, to whether
or not there is anything good on at the movies. I have some knowledge
regarding blogs, forums, chat and VOIP. I also have some knowledge of gOS, a new Linux-based
operating system that utilizes Google applications that are web 2.0 based.

To prepare for this course I read a number
of articles including Social
Software and the Politics of Groups and A Group Is
Its Own Worst Enemy by Clay Shirky.

What I found interesting is how these
articles echoed my own experience with the web and technology in general
regarding the development of a number of forums I have visited. There is always
an inner circle of administrators and senior members, a large number of average
users, with a sprinkling of jokers. Often a new development, such as the
release of a computer program, will see an in-flux of new members, many of whom
do not respect the rules of the group and cause problems. Without proper
administration these forums degenerate into spam-central, driving new and older
members away.

While I look forward to the day when I can
get easy access to whatever information I need anywhere as described in Wade Roush's article Social Machines: Computing Means Connecting, I don't
believe we have quite arrived. For starters, I have yet to see a light,
portable, web-connected, handheld device that combines the ease of viewing
and editing information of a notebook with a battery that lasts longer than two
hours.

I look forward to learning more about web 2.0 and how to utilize it in a
library context.