Thing 22

Looking back at one of the first things I posted, I can see how 23 things has changed my view of 2.0. Here is what I posted in Thing 2:

1974 Ford Mustang
Microsoft Vista
Caddyshack 2

What do these items have in common? Other than things I own, they are also examples of when the successor is inferior to the predecessor. Version 2.0 if you will…

I originally thought 2.0 referred to a newer and improved version of the previous one. Thanks to Neflin’s 23 things, however, I realize it can also refer to the extra—and often unnecessary—steps that web 2.0 tools and utilities introduce. Subscribing to RSS feeds, creating tags for Delicious, and “rolling” websites together using Rollyo are just a few examples of web 2.0 tools that I believe fall into this category. Give me the internets (sic), Google, and a set of commonly used reference books and you can keep the others. Most of these 2.0 tools are just another username and password to memorize as far as I’m concerned.

I don’t believe, however, that all of the tools we used are unnecessary. Flickr is a great way for libraries to share their images with patrons without hosting them on their servers. Similarly, YouTube is a good public relations tool for libraries to embed video in their websites. But these tools are about promotion and not about helping librarians find accurate information quicker. For that I guess we will have to wait for web 3.0…or for robots to rule the world.