Connection, concentration and diffusion: mobilizing library services

1. Connection, concentration and diffusion: mobilizing library services 2nd M-Libraries Conference, Opening Keynote, UBC, Vancouver, 23 June 2009 Lorcan Dempsey, VP OCLC

2. Dave225 4:00am thought about conference keynotes - if you get more than a few nuggets of wisdom from a keynote, you need to read more.7:13 AM May 27th from web Dave225 @lorcanD … My 4am point was that a keynote can only speak broadly & can rarely connect to your needs11:38 AM May 27th from TwitterFox

3. Prelude:normalif unevenly distributed

4. http://www.annelyjudafineart.co.uk/

5. Presidential election 08/09 Brownpau. http://www.flickr.com/photos/brownpau/2788253333/

6. American Idol Voting participation

8. Acquired by Amazon “We are an image recognition based mobile marketing company. Our Snap.Send.Get™ solution converts any image into a 100% opt-in interactive mobile ad”

11. http://www.freshlymobile.com/uw-mobile-usage-statistics/UW%20Mobile%20Stats-Details/http://www.freshlymobile.com/uw-mobile-usage-statistics/UW%20Mobile%20Stats-Details/ David Morton, U Washington

15. Three related thoughts 1. Expectations 2. Consumer switch Greater investment and innovation in consumer/retail space than in education/work space. Gmail? PLE? 3. Workflow switch You need to fit into my workflow. I won’t fit into yours.

16. Mobile communications is more about communications than about mobility

18. Diffusion of communications andcomputational capacity into a growing part of our research, learning and social lives.

20. Mobile communications more widely adopted more quickly than any other technology.Manuel Castells

21. Generations … Youth culture that finds in mobile communications an adequate form of expression and reinforcement … There is a clear correspondence between the emergence of a global youth culture, the networking of social relationships, and the connectivity potential provided by wireless communications …Manuel Castells et al

22. Safe autonomy: management of autonomy and security Changed pattern of sociability: selective construction of peer groupssupported by accessibility and micro-coordination Collective and individual identityHigh value associated with consumption, fashion, … Games and entertainment Based on Castells et al

23. Networks 1 Clouds and crowds Concentration and diffusion

24. Mesh Multiple connection points Offer different grades of experience (the desktop, cell phone, xBox or Wii, GPS system, smartphone, netbook, …). Optimized for different purposes.

25. Cloud Move to the cloud a natural accompaniment of a mesh of connection points. Available on the network across multiple devices and environments. 

26. Concentration – network level

27. Diffusion - workflow

28. This means that an exclusive focus on the institutional Web site as the primary delivery mechanism and the browser as the primary consumption environment is increasingly partial.

29. BBC From a conceptual point of view, the widgetization adopted by Facebook, iGoogle and netvibesweighed strongly on our initial thinking. We wanted to build the foundation and DNA of the new site in line with the ongoing trend and evolution of the Internet towards dynamically generated and syndicable content through technologies like RSS, atom and xml. This trend essentially abstracts the content from its presentation and distribution, atomizing content into a feed-based universe. Browsers, devices, etc therefore become lenses through which this content can be collected, tailored and consumed by the audience. [BBC Internet Blog]

30. American Idol Community Voting participation ‘Consumable’ site Downloads Games Videos Links to youtube, iTunes etc

31. Features Atomization Action-oriented Find out Get - Pay Vote – rank, relate, recommend Share - with selective social network • Snippets, ringtones, tags, ratings, feeds, abstracts, … Attention • Rank, relate, recommend • Specialized (course) • Get to relevance quickly • At point of need • Location aware Aggregate • Use other platforms as appropriate

32. Networks 2 Change how we coordinate ourresources to achieve goals.

33. Incremental social synchronization: micro-coordination But they’re really nice! OK .. See you there at 3 … Ad hoc rendezvous On demand space: the example of Starbucks

34. Timeshifting Bristol University survey: More video on network http://ancientgeeks.wordpress.com/2007/03/30/ what-do-students-use-the-internet-for/#more-8

35. Space In the 20th Century architecture was about specialized structures – offices for working, cafeterias for eating, and so forth. The fact that people are no longer tied to specific places for functions such as studying or learning, says Mr. Mitchell, means there is a ‘huge drop in demand for traditional, private, enclosed spaces’ such as offices or classrooms, and simultaneously ‘a huge rise in demand for semi-public spaces that can be informally appropriated to ad hoc workspaces’. William Mitchell, Economist, Apr 10th 2008  http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10950463 (pay wall)

36. zipcar Zipcar’s available vehicles report their positions to a control centre so that members of the scheme can find nearby vehicles through a web or phone interface. Cars are unlocked by holding a card, containing a wireless chip, up against the windscreen. Integrating cars and back-office systems via wireless links allows Zipcar to repackage cars as a flexible transport service. Each vehicle operated by Zipcar is equivalent to taking 20 cars off the road, says Mr Griffith, and an average Zipcar member saves more than $5,000 dollars a year compared with owning a car. Connected cars “Connected cars”, which sport links to navigation satellites and communications networks—and, before long, directly to other vehicles—could transform driving, preventing motorists from getting lost, stuck in traffic or involved in accidents. And connectivity can improve entertainment and productivity for both driver and passengers… There is also scope for new business models built around connected cars, from dynamic insurance and road pricing to car pooling and location-based advertising. “We can stop looking ata car as one system,” says Rahul Mangharam, an engineer at the University of Pennsylvania, “and look at it as a node in a network.” Economist June 6-12 2009 http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13725743

37. Fragmentation • Behaviors • Residents and visitors • Grades of experience • Phone, Desktop, … • Preferred communication channels • FB, Twitter, Texting, email, …. For residents and visitors see Dave White http://tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk/index.php/2008/07/23/not-natives-immigrants-but-visitors-residents/

38. Libraries

39. Space Expertise • Then: vertically integrated around collection • Now: moving apart in network environment Collections Systems and services

40. SpaceInfrastructure <> customer relations • Opportunity cost • Changes in social and academic aspects of learning require space. Value Connaway et al: data from an ongoing study of Virtual Reference Servicesindicate that even where people are physically in the library they mayprefer to use chat reference than seek out a f2f encounter. Personal communication from Lynn Silipigni Connaway (29 July 2008) based on unpublished analysis of telephone interviews in the Seeking synchronicity: Evaluating virtual reference services from user, non–user, and librarian perspectives project, athttp://www.oclc.org/research/projects/synchronicity/default.htm.

41. Open? • Ad hoc rendezvous • Manage academic and social aspects of learning • Higher value activity • Access to scarce resources – people, equipment, specialist advice, exhibition, … • Cognate activities – GIS, reading, .. Gleason Lib, U Rochester, S Gibbons

42. People: a signed network presence The challenge for libraries is to make themselves invisible, by delivering services into user workflows in network environments. Libraries must also demonstrate value in the context of growing competition for resources. This suggests that it is important for the library itself, its people, to become more visible .

44. Marketing and assessment • Physical presence and engagement • Interact with research and learning practices • Available when the work is happening • 2 am? • A ‘signed’ network presence

45. Indiana U U Washington Case Western Reserve U

46. Collections, systems and services Mobilize into workflow Add community What is the record?

47. Collections Licensed Books Increasing digital availability – Amazon, Google, … • Commoditization of journal literature – get what you want from 3 or 4 suppliers? Institutional outputs Personal • Video, podcast, … • Digitized materials, … • Location: institution, network level • Photos, presentations, coursework, … • Institutional responsibility? …

48. Books in 20 years?Mike Shatzkin • Publishers: connect databases to networks • Publishers: understand communities of content consumers • Publishing skills applied to aggregations – niche or nugget • All in the cloud. Tethered. • Subscription models common; per-item sales relatively rare • Crowd-sourced content; crowd-sourced editing and curation; tagging organizing • Multiple reading devices • POD http://www.idealog.com/stay-ahead-of-the-shift-what-publishers-can-do-to-flourish-in-a-community-centric-web-world

49. Services and systems Reconfigure Enhance

50. Mobilize existing services • Reference/enquiry • Collections to go (on a drive etc) • Presentations/visibility (videos and podcasts about library activity) • Alerting/current awareness • Mobile sites • Communications and referral • Booking(rooms, equipment, …) • Syndication(FB, Twitter, RSS, widgets, toolbars, …)