goblin cartoons

Jennimi says Web 2.0 is like jazz. Being a fan of both, I sure do dig how she draws the comparison!

As I’ve written before, when I first started blogging, I picked the name “goblin cartoons” because it seemed to sum up my writing and my approach to writing, particularly when it came to poetry. I used to write quite a bit of poetry, but I haven’t written any in ages. When it comes to poetry, I have a confession: I didn’t really write because I loved the art of poetry (although there is a lot of poetry that I like); I wrote because the medium of poetry seemed like one of the better ones to express my love of words.

I’ve always loved words and the magic of words, the way you can practice “word alchemy”–combining two or more words that don’t usually go together to evoke images and feelings of mystery and wonder.

The new website Wordie is a natural site for me, then. It’s brilliant in all kinds of ways. You can create lists of words you like, which is cool enough. (I’ve done that on my own anyway, but it’s nifty to be able to put them up on the web and share them with other people.) Signing up and creating a profile automatically generates an hCard–cool! Your word lists generate RSS feeds–cool! And let me say that I wholeheartedly approve of this trend of being able to link to your profiles on other social sites in your profile. LibraryThing does this, too, and I think it latches right onto the magic of the social interweb.

Here’s my profile. My word lists will probably update frequently. Like I said, I love words. And so I love Wordie.

The “Library 2.0” entry on Wikipedia is being considered for deletion. I’ve joined Steven Cohen, David Lee King and others in voting to have it kept. If you have a Wikipedia account, log in and voice your opinion. If you don’t have a Wikipedia account…it’ll take you two seconds to create one. And why shouldn’t you have a Wikipedia account?

The MySpace page I started a while back is lost to me. About a month ago, I changed the email address for my login. Unfortunately, I must have mistyped the new email address, because I soon found that I couldn’t log in no matter what email address I typed. I finally emailed the MySpace support and asked for help. First, I got an automated response giving me a solution that was no solution. I emailed them back, explaining further what the problem was. That was over a week ago. I just got a new response telling me that whatever my problem is, it can’t be fixed.

Maybe if I feel like it, I’ll make a new page. But right now, I can’t be bothered.

This weekend, my house fell eerily silent, even as my entire family communicated and collaborated with each other.

My daughter was chatting with me on IM. At the same time, she was chatting with my wife on IM. At the same time, my wife was chatting with me on IM. At the same time, my wife and I were having a discussion by co-editing a document on Google Docs.

It was awfully cool.

It was sort of like the whole family getting together to watch TV. Except we could each watch whatever channel we wanted. In fact, we could each watch as many channels as we wanted. We could each listen to whatever music we wanted, write, create or edit images, play games, and create and edit content on those channels we were watching. And we could have conversations with each other (and other people, if we wanted and they were available) while we were doing all of this. I think that’s amazing.

I do love it when we all get together in the living room and watch TV or a movie. But in many ways, this beats watching TV all to hell.

“Ask MetaFilter is part of the world-wide information tool kit that includes the library, Google, NPR, cereal boxes, people on the bus, and flyers stapled to telephone poles.”

–one of the best quotes I’ve read in a long time, from Jessamyn West, in the latest issue of Library Journal.

I’ve been blogging for 5 years now, and I’ve only just started to really think about why. No, that’s not entirely right. In 2001, you didn’t need a good reason to blog. In 2006, I think you do, and with the premiere of MPOW’s blogs, I’ve been thinking about my reasons and the reasons for libraries to blog. Allow me to elaborate. (Or bail out now and go read someone else’s blog.)

I originally started blogging because…well, because I had friends with blogs who were egging me on to start a blog myself. I’d been wanting a website of my own, having no less vanity than most people you’d meet (and a finger or two more at certain times of the year). I wanted to post poetry and prose I was writing at the time (or, more often the case, planning to write at some point), which meant a website with changing content. Blogs were the easiest way to do that, so I got my own domain (www.goblin-cartoons.com, and the reason why I chose that name is a whole nother not very interesting story), signed up with free, not-yet-owned-by-the-Google-Monster Blogger, and gave the whole thing a go.

Flash forward to today and look at all the tools we have to create and manage dynamic content on the internet: blogs, wikis, mashups, etc. We’re positively swimming in dynamic content! If you know your onions, you use the right tool for the job.

So, why keep up a blog? What’s a blog good for that other tools aren’t?

I don’t write much poetry these days, but over the years I’ve found that I like writing short rants and raves, ponderings, narrative sketches, feuilletons. A blog is berries for that–but you could do that with a wiki, too, right? Where blogs really shine is in the pairing of posts and comments. Like peanut butter and jelly, blog posts and comments are a delicious and delightful combination, and one is not nearly as good without the other. When you have blog posts and comments, you don’t just get to publish your blatherings, you get feedback from friends and strangers. You get conversations. Ephemeral, yet archived and preserved for posterity, conversations. I’m something of a nut for conversations. And you get these posts and conversations delivered in a hot-off-the-presses fashion. When a blog is updated, it’s immediately obvious. “This just in: Josh has more to say about Library 2.0! Wait, we’ve got another update: someone’s commented on yesterday’s rant, calling Josh a lamebrained gasbag!” Being impatient, I’m a fan of immediacy, too.

What does this mean for libraries? Blogs are immediate conversations between the library and the public, ephemeral but preserved. Wow! You can have conversations with your public face-to-face, over the telephone, through snailmail and email and instant messaging. With blogs, you can have conversations that are preserved and on display, immediate and eternal, like a fly in amber.

And what does this mean for me? I get to have immediate, ephemeral, preserved conversations with friends, with family, with fellow librarians who I’ve never met face-to-face. It’s something I love to do, and blogs are the tops for that.

So here I am, saying my piece. Anyone want to join in on the conversation? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Jessica the Cool Librarian is closing down her Library Talk forum due to lack of participation. I feel bad about this because I’ve been meaning to register there and start posting, but I simply kept forgetting about it. The thing is, I quite like bulletin board forums. I’m a member of some others (not library-related) and find them to be quite good in terms of facilitating conversations between many participants. Much better than, say, email lists, which I am not a fan of.

I told her I’d try to think of some other ways of building a web community for librarians, a platform that lends itself well to fostering conversations. If anyone else has any bright ideas, she and I would love to hear them.

I’m feeling sluggish and spacey this morning, and that’s not a good thing. It’s usually not a good thing, but today it’s a particularly not-a-good thing. This afternoon, I need to be energetic and…gee, what’s the opposite of “spacey”? “Earthy”? (What happens when Kevin Spacey meets Eartha Kitt? Wait, nevermind.)

This afternoon, I’ll be making a short presentation to the Library Board, informing them and seeking their approval of the forthcoming public blogs on my library’s website. Now, I realize the Library Board is just a group of reg’lar folks, Abbie an’ Slats types. At the same time, I get nervous making presentations at the best of times, and this is the Library Board we’re talking about!

Oh, well, nothing to be done for it, I suppose. I’ll just stick to my usual tactics of guzzling loads of coffee and muddling through myopically like Mr. Magoo.

UPDATE: The presentation went well. The boardmembers asked good questions and were very appreciative. And they liked my bowtie.

Last week, I sent an email to everyone on MPOW’s Administration Advisory Committee, giving them the link to Meredith Farkas‘ SirsiDynix talk on wikis. I suggested that they watch it, especially the Adult Services selectors who will be selecting and maintaining the resources on our proposed wiki.

My coworkers said they really liked Meredith’s talk. When I started my presentation at the meeting by asking if everyone knew what a wiki was, one Children’s librarian who had previously known absolute zilch about wikis stated proudly, “I do now!”

So, kudos and mad props to Meredith! And also thanks, because not only did you educate some librarians, you made my presentation and proposal much easier.