Unless you’ve lived Ted Kaczynski style this past year, nobody in their right mind would say it’s been a harmonious one – politically, socially, or economically. I guess you can say a lot of people are pissed off. They’re pissed at heathcare reform, they’re pissed at the economy, and they’re pissed at a gazillion other little things like the I-Pad. Let’s face it, in America righteous indignation is in.

With information as accessible as it ever was, current news spreads fast.  But, is that a good thing? Is there a dark side to having quick access to information? I don’t doubt that there are many, many benefits,  but it’s also plausible that a universal acceptance of new media can lead to an inevitable playing toward the lowest common denominator?

Like sex, anger and frustration sell remarkably well.

Now, to be fair there’s a long tradition in journalism of people playing to others feelings, and new media doesn’t change that, but it’s also realistic to believe we are witnessing a sort of megaphone effect. People naturally look to validate their own beliefs and we all have source biases. But, given that there are so many sources out there the promulgation of information means that today it’s possible to validate anything. Once upon a time objective research was considered to be important. Today it garners CNN’s ratings.

As time goes on and the general public “backs up” their arguments using easily found resources, I suspect, they will also come to more rigidly defend them. After all if you can find it quickly then it must be true, right? The more rigidly the general public defends their arguments, of course, the more likely we are to see an increase in the volume of national discourse.

If this is the case, then the free flow of information may actually come at a cost. Blogs, Twitter,  and the changing technology driving shifts in information seeking behaviors… I see them as partially to blaim.

Roy Tennant, the Senior Program Manager for OCLC Programs and Research, wrote an article that as someone interested in digital libraries, and as someone who appreciates the Neitzsche derived reference, just… plain… owns! Yes, that’s right. I referred to an article from the Library Journal as “owning.”

Spurred on by a book titled “Print is Dead,” Tennant makes the point that print dosen’t seem to be going anywhere. Instead he notes that we are moving to a mixed media environment. I’ve has suspicions as much for a while, but the fact that Jeff Gomez’s book was printed in PRINT seems to make the title either one of two things: 1. suspect (or) 2. an obvious attention grabber.

The full post can be found at here.

I’m almost absolutely convinced of it.

Based off of the “23 Things,”  SLA’s Transportation Division is in the process of encouraging it’s members to try “7 Things.” That is, seven things that librarians should know about online tools and resources. I’m already familiar with them, but in the spirit of sharing I’m going to try and help others through the process by displaying my work.

Blogging - This is my blog. In case you are interested, I bought some server space last summer (2008) and installed WordPress using PHP and a MySQL database. WordPress is free open source software . My “microblog”  (Twitter account)  feeds into my “Currently” page. You can visit it separately for a more detail view.

RSS Feeds – Personally, I’m less interested in RSS feeds as a tool to keep updated with than I am in using them to build websites and other cool stuff. RSS stands for “really simple syndication” and is basically data formatted in XML. The cool thing about XML is that it is awesome for data interchange. My point? Well, not only does RSS let you update information using feed readers but it also lets you pull out information  from other RSS feeds… and manipulate it! My blog’s RSS feed is available here.

Photo Sharing – I have a mixed relationship with photo sharing. On one hand I like photos and they are an ideal media format for sprucing things  up (like my blog). On the other hand, since digital cameras are so easy to get a hold of many people just slap random content online. Case in point: here. Sorry Mr. Powell. You’re usually more photogenic.

Social Bookmarking – Social bookmarking is a handy tool for people “on the go.” Delicious lets you create an account, save hyperlinks, login, and share information from computer to computer. It also allows you to view items by popularity. As part of the “7 Things” I created a Delicious account (my second one in two years), but dunno if I’ll keep using it.

Social Networking – I am on Facebook. You can visit me there. You can also visit MoDOT too. :)

Wikis – For those of you unaware, “Wiki” is Hawaiian for “fast.” Publishing online usually requires HTML and other markup languages, but a wiki doesn’t even need that. Wiki’s simplified markup make it where almost anyone can use them. They’re also very useful for collaboration. The SLA Transportation Wiki serves as the SLA Transportation Division’s webpage, and I personally use a password protected one to document my daily work.

Working in the Cloud – Cloud computing refers to working with Web 2.o tools. Originally the web was static. Now, it’s much more interactive. Things that were desktop based several years ago are now online. This can be a little daunting, but once people realize that working in a “cloud” envrionment is a more transparent than most people seem to adapt.