Another conference...another day of great conversation. Had a wonderful dinner with some colleagues, making the conference extend beyond the walls of the convention center. If you'd like to follow the blogs from METC check out Dave Warlick's Hitchhikr site.
For me the big idea has been about networks. Not necessarily social networks, but people connecting with people. The unofficial theme is "how many Web 2.0 tools can you fit into one sectional."
During Warlick's sectional helped me reach the conclusion that what Web 2.0 tools do is connect people. The biggest issue I hear from people about sites like Wikipedia is, "Can you trust the people who edit that encyclopedia?" Interesting, that the arguments start out with objections to the content, but eventually are left with wanting to know more about the author.
When it comes to the information landscape, we are so used to not having to question the veracity of content that it didn't matter who the author was. Did you ever wonder who the author of the Encyclopedia Brittanica was?? But with everyone and their "cousins uncle" producing content these days, discernment is the key to successful research and online living. Reinforcing the idea that Web 2.0 is simply and plainly about people and their connections to each other. We can pretend it's about information, but we are brought back to the "social" nature of the web.
This was kind of a revelation to me today after listening and reading a couple of resources earlier in the week:
- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118460229729267677.html-- An exchange between Andrew Keen and David Weinberger about the nature of Web 2.0. Keen, author of
The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing Our Culture hates Web 2.0. Weinberger makes many excellent points about the truth and beauty inside the read/write web - http://connect.educause.edu/blog/gbayne/eliannualvideoconnectivis/46016--George Siemeens sectional from Educause Learning Initiative Annual Meeting on the theory of connectivism: learning is nothing more than a connection of networks.
Each of these sources within themselves are individual topics for a blog. They've begun to inform my view of how our world is being put together online.
image:
by ~Aphrodite (Creative Commons License: Attribution, No Derivatives, Non-Commercial) http://www.flickr.com/photos/57054262@N00/66231929
No comments:
Post a Comment