On my usual quest for my next blog subject, I was searching Michael Stephens' "Tame the Web." The first article that popped up was a picture of Michael and his dog, Jake.
Side note: I love dogs... love them. When we are talking in class about some people in this world being more comfortable communicating in a virtual setting... I relate that to my life and the fact that sometimes I wish I could just live my life surrounded by dogs and hanging out with them. People are so complicated and dogs are so simple. I love them.
Needless-to-say, I had to click on the link in order to read the article. Basically, Michael had to put his dog to sleep. After spending some 13 years with the dog, Michael found this difficult to do (big surprise there). So... he created a FLICKr page with photos and stories to sort of commemorate the dog's life. The really cool part is that other people have been leaving comments and stories of their own about their dogs.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelsphotos/564463388/
I know that this is not really library 2.0 based, but it is an example of how library 2.0 technologies and ideas can help to create a community. All of these people know what it is like to love and care for and lose a pet... Michael Stephens is using that very personal experience to bring people together through this medium. I can just imagine this experience leading to a display, a book group, a virtual community, etc. in libraries based on this shared experience. It's really cool to me. Not just because I love dogs, but because communities are created and people are supporting each other. I dig it.
-Amber
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2 comments:
What a tear jerker! Emotions aside, you're right on with the idea of how the virtual world can be used to create communities. The trick for libraries is to find the mode that works for their patrons.
I agree that a lot of these new technologies are just new ways of building community. I think more and more people are going to turn to virtual means of communication just because it is so much easier than physically going from place to place for person to person communication. My hope is that these virtual users will still value the library, even if they never step foot in the physical building.
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