As a librarian, I used to deal exclusively in public/published information while private/proprietary information was generally out of my reach. Now all kinds of previously private information is public, if one only knows where to look, and my ability to access that information depends more on my technical skills than on legal or financial barriers. David Brin argued that if information is not private it must be public to everyone. If no one can see the security/traffic cams but police, we can have a police state with abuses of our privacy but if everyone can watch through a these cameras from a web site, everyone has equal access to the information.

I remember hearing that there was a study by Congress in the late 80s or early 90s into the growing backlog of classified government documents awaiting declassification. It was learned that the level of one’s security clearance was an indicator of one’s clout, and power is currency in DC. Consequently, a great many documents were needlessly classified so that people with clearance to read them had an advantage over people who didn’t have clearance. Congress classified the study, until they were shamed into releasing it. Today, the current administration tries to suppress and distort government information for political reasons, but the information leaks out and is published anyway. A recent example of this is the CDC report on the effects of climate change on worldwide disease and injury.

So, I love the ability to get more information and the inability of certain interests to successfully suppress information that should be public, but I am dismayed that everything I search on the web or everything I buy or everything I do while walking down the street can become part of a potentially published repository that other people can access without my knowledge, much less consent. And I wish I could believe that once the Net Gen realizes that their whole lives are being lived in a fishbowl and that has consequences it would inspire better behavior, but the jury is still out on that topic.

Well, this will be my final post for the Web 2.0 class. I may try the optional task later, but I have run out of time. I hope the course will remain up on the web for a while, because I would like to revisit some of the lessons when I have more time. The past two months I had so many other commitments, deadlines, and other classes (Intro to Molecular Biology databases was especially challenging for me) that I didn’t have enough time to play with these apps, think about all the readings, and generally reflect on what I had learned. Nevertheless, I did learn by working through the readings and exercises. This was a good course. Thanks!

I really don’t see how I will use this in my library.  Especially since, so far, I can’t even use it in the blog or facebook!  I will try again tomorrow to upload the picture in the hope that somehow it will work.  If I can get it to work, maybe I could develop a flickr album of pictures from our hospital’s archives and link it to our web site.  Of course, I don’t really have the time for another project . . . .

I am reminded of my sister when she was in high school.  She spent long hours talking to strangers on the CB radio.  It seemed a collosal waste of time to me then, and most of what was said on the airwaves was boring and worthless.   Much of the MySpace and FaceBook traffic seems equally purposeless.  Linked In, on the other hand, seemed almost too purposeful, with members on the make.  I was approached quickly by a couple of people who want me in their virtual rolodex. 

 My hospital’s network blocks MySpace and FaceBook so employees won’t waste time on them.  Some of our patients don’t appreciate that, because they are very dependent on their MySpace page for social connections.  We encourage the use of CarePages instead.