Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Does 2.0 matter?

There's a running debate in the library world about the features and benefits of "library 2.0." It's a somewhat nebulous concept cribbed from the "Web 2.0" movement in the broader tech world. In a nutshell, the most vocal proponents say those resisting Web 2.0 are obstinate dinosaurs, while the extreme on the other side claims Web 2.0's backers are naive technophiles.
Personally, I think both groups are right. But it's not just librarians having this debate. Given that the Web is now pretty much ubiquitous, there's no escaping the new-fangled tools, whether they're useful or not. The blog Lifehacker is conducting a poll on whether readers see Web 2.0 as a problem invented for geeks to be solved by geeks. It's at http://tinyurl.com/573smf. The comments are so far echoing the huge range of emotions surrounding the issue that have been on display in the more insular library world.

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