Split in three, add two components, stir…

Thanks Magnus for yesterdays comment on the web 2.0 ness of the LibLab project. Thinking and writing furiously last night and this morning I think I may have a solution. The project aims to achieve three things:

1. Build a network of library hackers
2. Support “microprojects” that adds value to library services (like widgets, toolbars etc)
3. Open up the norwegian libary systems for use in mashups etc.

Initially I wanted to achieve all three goals within the framework of a Web 2.0 ideology, but practical considerations keep popping up and derail this. To avard financial support to people who work on library widgets ect. you have to have an administration to handle the paperwork. Immediately that means either you have to build up a new administration, or use an existing one. Opening up the library systems will be a task that requires a LOT of meetings, and a lot of persuasion and political work. Again you need either to build up an organization, or use an existing one.

So, the solution, I hope, to these challenges was to split the project into three independent bits and farm the administrative and organizational bits out to those who already have this.

My proposal is to start immediately with the establishment of the LibraryLab net presence with a social network and start collecting resources and network people who have an interest. Secondly to approach one of the large libraries or regional library authorities to see if they could manage the “microproject” part of the project. Thirdly ask the Norwegian Library Association special interest group for ICT to handle the organizational and political part of the project. This is something they are working on already, but if the LibLab project can fund the process, maybe it can be speeded up.

Thats the general idea so far. It remains to be seen how the Norwegian Digital Library people reacts:-)

Filed under: Library 2.0, Library lab

On the nature of 2.0

I have worked hard on my Library Lab project, but had a nagging feeling that something was wrong. There was two problems with how I first envisioned it. And as my feeling of discomfort with the work increased I started to look at It was top-down and centrally managed and funded, and secondly it did not take into account the “nature of 2.0″ as I now see it. First of all, let’s try to define 2.0-ness:

Web 2.0 and Library 2.0, and any other 2.0 you care to mention, rests on the basis of participation and development that starts from the ground. Social networks of people who all invest a little of their time, intelligence/knowledge and effort to make something that is greater than the sum of the parts.

Forgetting this, or just letting old habits rule, led me into the trap of trying to organize a project from the top. The Library Lab I envisioned would have a salaried project manager, a lot of management and organization, and would try to “make” people work on “approved” projects. How wrong is that?

So hopefully I have learned a lesson or two, and the New Library Lab project proposal will contain more 2.0-ness. Basically I now see a network that is supported but left to grow from the interest and abilities of the people in the network. Initially I think it will be important to have a critical mass of people and projects, so I thnk that the main effort will be in connecting people and spreading the word. The project manager is replaced with a facillitator who smoothes the way for the participants by setting up a CMS, getting in touch with people, finding and destroying bottlenecs (Bottleneck terminator – that is a title I want on my business card:-)), and lastly challenging the network and hope that something happens.

The thing is, I really want this network to incorporate people from outside the library sector. Not just library system vendors, or the odd friend of the library, but real library users and non-users, people from local Linux User Groups, students, High-school teachers and any other interested person. The main challenge will be connecting to the people who are interested. Sounds like marketing might be a greater challenge than the technical stuff.

Filed under: Librarian 2.0, Library 2.0, Library lab, OPAC, Users, Web 2.0

Sold out – to the Man!

Yes, I have sould out. Really! To the Man! The norwegian national agency for archives, libraries and museums have asked me to write a proposal for a library 2.0 project, they’ll even pay me to do so! So, I’m sold, soul and body to the people who might let library 2.0 really happen here in Norway. If they accept my proposal it will be a project under the Norwegian Digital Library (NDL). I have long critizised the NDL for beeing to concerned with underlying structural issues (not that they are not important, but…) and forgetting the everyday lives of library users and workers. I have repeatedly asked for a more 2.0 approach where NDL invites people to participate and make the whole project visible and useful for library users.

I have proposed that NDL initiates and runs a blogging tool for libraries, a wiki like the Library success, widgets and toolbars, and just try to tap into all that energy and lively creativity that just sits around and waits for a challenge.

Anyway, as they say here in Norway: He who shouts in the woods gets pine needles in his mouth:-) So they challenged me back, saying that if I think all this is so important then I should write up a proposal and if the like it they’ll fund it! Wow, talk about challenge.

So these days I’m hard at work writing a proposal which have the working title: The library lab. The concept is a network and clearinghouse of small Web 2.0 projects which will try to collect and network all library hackers, librarians or users, who are interested in contributing. If somebody needs funding to do a small web 2.0 thing, the library lab can contribute with something e.g. funds for people to take time off from work or buy some piece of equipment.

The project also has a fairly large educational component, where the aim is to spread the word on library 2.0 and make more people able to use the basics to improve the services at their libraries, and even enable a few more hackers if possible. There will be conferences to kick this off and hopefully we can get a scandinavian feel to this as time passes.

My mind is bursting with ideas and I’m trying to get them down on screen as soon as possible, then get everything into a passable project proposal and then wait for the desicion. No matter the outcome it has been great to meet and communicate with people so high up in the system who gets the idea of Library 2.0. If this fails I probably was not the right person to write the proposal, but others will come who will do the job better and the, whatch out!

Filed under: Library 2.0, Library lab, Users, Web 2.0