Facebook: The current controversy

Now, I am not opposed to change. Generally, I am in favor of change. In one of my prior jobs, I redesigned (i.e. changed) the newsletter twice and was about to do it for a third time. I also created a new logo!

Facebook has sowed the seeds of its own destruction with its latest moves. Awhile ago, they introduced a new look. They let users try it. Some liked it. I did not like it. The new design took away the kind of graphic design which design professionals say is most effective in a web site. There was a column on the left with tools, there was a column on the right with tools (and ads). The middle had "the meat" or the content. Look at sites like the new L E Phillips Memorial Public Library. It also has a bar and boxes on the top. It is what a professional graphic designer would have done. (Although I am kind of proud that we had the talent in the building to create it!)

Facebook made a critical mistake this week. They FORCED everyone to the new format. Some developers created a work-around. Now Facebook has blocked/disabled those. Over 1.2 MILLION users have joined a group against the forced move. That is in a matter of days!

If Facebook is not careful, they soon will be replaced in the marketplace by someone else. (If I knew who that would be, I would invest some of my limited resources!!)

The new version asks for input/feedback. Who knows what happens to that feedback. I have offered any number of comments. Have I heard anything? No!! It is not good to build a frustration level with your core constituency and talented users. (I am in the first, but not the second.)

It will be interesting to see how this shakes out.

ALA Councilor Elections

The first thing I noticed, was the number of people running! There are ninety-four (94!) people on the ballot for ALA Council. We get to vote for 35. The top 34 vote getters will have three year terms and the 35th will have a one year term to serve a vacancy (Rochelle Hartman's?). That means that roughly one out of three on the ballot will have the opportunity to serve.

I make my choices differently each year. This year I have broken the names into categories.

Library 2.0 Friends (Blogs, Facebook [primarily]):

Trevor A. Dawes
Aaron W. Dobbs
Christopher G. Harris
Dale K. McNeill (also PUBLIB)
Linda Shippert
Courtney L. Young

PUBLIB:

Diedre (Dee) Conkling (also Current Councilor)
Christine Lind Hage (also former Councilor)
Sally Decker Smith

Current and former Councilors I would like to continue to work with:

Monika J. Antonelli
Barbara A. Genco
Judith A. Gibbons
Marilyn L. Hinshaw
Ling Hwey Jeng
Carol Ritzen Kem
Margaret L. Kirkpatrick
Bonnie L. Kunzel
Norman L. Maas
Stephen L. Matthews
Linda Mielke
Robert R. Newlen
June A. Pinnell-Stephens
Barbara K. Stripling
Bill Turner

Others:

Arlene C. Bielefield (my board chair in a former life, past chair of
the Library School at Southern Connecticut State University, but
don't hold that against her; she has also been on the Committee on
Legislation's Intellectual Property committees)
Wei Jeng-Chu (cataloger, Worcester)
Michael J. Miller (member of the Resolutions Committee with me)
G. Victor Johnson (Trustee)
Mable W. Robertson (Trustee)

Giving Thanks

I know that I am late....but I went away for the Thanksgiving holiday, and turned off electronics for the duration. Yesterday (Monday) was left to catch up -- both at home and at work.

I have been composing this post in my head for some time.

This year I am thankful for:

• Having a job which I enjoy and which has challenges
• Having been accepted into a completely new and different community
• The many adventures I have had over the past year
• For my friends:
• My new Rotary friends in Eau Claire
• My friends from Leadership Eau Claire
• The many friends I have at work
• Friends in "the Cities"
• My many virtual friends who offered support
• My many professional colleagues (especially within ALA)
  
• For my family:
• My mother who survived a health crisis this fall
• My brothers and sisters who are watching over her more carefully and keeping us all better informed
• My kids (even when they don't answer my emails!)
• For being healthy. While I have pus some weight back on, I am still close to my lower band of weight, and feel great because of that!

It has been an interesting and surprising year. It was just a year ago that I left Bridgeport to move to Wisconsin. It was the right decision.

What is Web 2.0?

Andrew Keen has a great article on the seductive nature of Web 2.0 in the Daily Standard. It was actually published some time ago, I noticed as I finally looked at the date. [This is, I guess, the daily on-line version of The Weekly Standard a DC based print and web publication.]

The quote which struck me was these two paragraphs at the end of "page 1."

In his mind, "big media"--the Hollywood studios, the major record labels and international publishing houses--really did represent the enemy. The promised land was user-generated online content. In Marxist terms, the traditional media had become the exploitative "bourgeoisie," and citizen media, those heroic bloggers and podcasters, were the "proletariat."

This outlook is typical of the Web 2.0 movement, which fuses '60s radicalism with the utopian eschatology of digital technology. The ideological outcome may be trouble for all of us.

I think it the "fus[ing] of 60s radicalism with the utopian eschatology of digital technology" which so captivates me. It echoes a phrase I have heard and used in ALA about "unreconstructed 60s radicals."

Thanks to my new Facebook friend Amy Kearns who called my attention to it.