WiLS World - Day 2 -- Tom Peters

The morning began with the member breakfast which included an update on the scenario planning process for WiLS and then a report on the member survey which was done over the winter. Interesting stuff for those in WiLS and concerned with its governance.

Now on to Tom Peters and his talk Brave New Online Worlds: Social Networks, Online Communities, MUVEs, and the Future of Libraries.

Thesis: as we think about the future relationship between libraries and social networks, online communities, and virtual worlds, many of us do not see an important relationship. But this will have a profound effect on librarianship in the 21st century and beyond.

Need to do some scenario planning to figure out the relationship between individuals, communities, and libraries and how that is changing. What is a community? It has:

• shared environment
• shared interest
• shared needs

Continuum: individual, family, communities, societies

Communities support "public goods" and there has been a change in support for public goods. Trend is away from high value for public goods. Public good institutions have had erosion in support. For example National Parks need to generate revenue through charging entry fees.

Libraries serve communities.

Can libraries create communities.

[My attention was diverted by a series of phone calls related to events in my personal life. I got back in time to hear Tom recommend that we read this post by David Weinberg.]

Correction/expansion: see my post on 7/29