I thought it was fun going back in time to see the Twelve Techie Things for Libraries in 2005, which, technologically speaking, is like 15 years instead of just 5. More interesting to me was that all those trends can be seen in use today. I don't think anyone can argue the value of keeping up with tech trends, especially as it a) becomes more mainstream, and b) provides easier access to information, and c) is just fun and cool. There is no escaping technology. So goes the saying, if you can't beat 'em...
I've got a story about technology. Before too long ago, I didn't have Twitter and didn't really understand the point of it. This past weekend I really wanted a great recipe for braised short ribs for my husband's birthday dinner. I googled like you wouldn't believe. I just still kept coming up with the same old results and wasn't finding the exact thing I wanted. So, I took it to Twitter. I remember reading somewhere for this class that you could just post a question and people will give you all sorts of interesting feedback. Problem is, I've only got 18 followers-you guys, so my pool is quite small. I put "braised short ribs recipe" into the Twitter search thingy and voila! I got exactly what I was looking for. I never even conceived that Twitter could be used as a search engine, but I really learned a lot from that experiment. I now am following this weird blog called The Pioneer Woman because she's got amazing recipes that include step by step photos which I love when trying new recipes. Anyway, it just opened up this whole new world to me by accident really, and I understand the value of being part of a community where you can have human interaction and human feedback; not just Google algorithm results. Pretty pleased with that.
On another techie note, I helped my non-techie friend design her business website and taught her how to add links, video, gadgets, Twitter, Facebook, etc... I am now her consultant. I get paid in compliments, though. It's okay-it's my first practice teaching. More than just knowing how to physically do these things, though, I was able to show her the value of these tools. Originally she was just going to have a very basic website with little extraneous information on it. She is a therapist with a private practice. From being her friend for over 20 years, I know that teaching her clients how to help themselves is very important to her. I got her to re-think the purpose of her website. She will now have an educational area of her website where she can post videos, articles, etc... for that purpose. People will also be able to connect with her via RSS, Twitter, Facebook. Even though she will still have to build her business by word of mouth, it will be easier for her to spread her tentacles and reach a broader audience. (SOCIAL NETWORKING!)
For me, technology has to be convenient for the user, convenient to the user, and easy to learn. Technological trends that have a steep learning curve are just not going to make it. Example-Second Life. It's just too complicated to learn to be effective in more than a few specific realms. Personally, I am completely on the bandwagon when it comes to mobile devices and augmented reality. I can't tell you how many times I wished I knew an area better so that I could eat at a good local restaurant. Like that hilarious video we all saw about the girl losing her phone (a fate worse than her cat dying), I live by my phone too. I read books, I look up information, I text people, I blog, I upload videos to YouTube, I use the Layar app to find cool stuff. I like that information is now at our fingertips. It leaves more time to Twitter...
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