Thing #5 Microblogging

Last Spring we opened a Facebook account and got a few surprises. We immediately got about 20 invitations to open up communications with friends and family already in Facebook. The web browser combed through our e-mail addresses and hooked them up with matches already in Facebook. It was surprising and a bit disconcerting.

Twittering is also interesting. It lets you tune into all the conversations and keep abreast with minimal effort. You have the choice to jump in or just learn and absorb. Sometimes that’s all a person has time to do. Just observe and absorb what you can.

We librarians seem to twitter a lot on e-mail without formally twittering. Just practicing I guess. When those chatty conversations get going, I always learn something. Maybe instead of using the e-mail we should set up a permanent twitter open all the time. Then we could all choose when and where to tune in.

All the blackberries and remote access stuff: this will only increase through the years. We have gone from hard-wired computers to laptops, and now the laptops are shrinking into the blackberries.

I really like this backchanneling idea. Many people are unwilling to take up time to ask questions, or feel their questions are not that important. Being able to shoot an instant message off to the speaker about a clarification would be welcome to most. Even better, having the speaker structure their presentation around the needs of the audience … wow! Wish our staff development could proceed like that.