social networking tools

For the next three days, I'll be attending the American Library Association Midwinter meeting in Seattle, Washington.

I'm currently participating in an OCLC sponsored session on social networking. Michael Stephens (at podium) spoke on the opportunities available to libraries thru social networking tools. The real-time surveys conducted during the session (using TurningPoint devices) indicated that the application of these tools in libraries is disappointing. At this moment, Howard Rheingold is speaking on social networking from his perspective as a researcher of the personal computer era. He just emphasized the window of opportunity that exists to enable young people to become digital producers and not just digital consumers. My thoughts went immediately to Lessig's book Free Culture, and the reality that conservative copyright law will discourage this transition. More to come....