RSS = MCP

The beauty of RSS is that it allows you to spend the time you would have spent trolling the internet for content, and instead spending that time enjoying said content! It is quite nice having all of your favorite websites grouped into an easy to find and assimilate location. I do think that RSS Feeds could be very helpful in educating and informing our patrons about Library events. Students, Staff and other Patrons could be kept abreast of any and all changes within the Library almost instantaneously. The RSS system is far more reliable and more environmentally friendly than flyers, announcements and the like.

However, a major problem with this system is that it does take a lot of time and effort for a person compile, edit and upload all of the data that is to be distributed via the RSS feed. That could lead to the desire to have it done by a sort of Control Program to save time and money. The Control Program could potentially work well enough to manage all of the content to be distributed via RSS feeds. If it were to manage all of the Library content for distribution the program would then become a kind of Master Control Program which could effectively manage Library content 900 to 1200 times better than any human. However, for the Master Control Program to effectively do its job managing content for RSS feeds, it would require a substantial amount of Artificial Intelligence in order to be sentient. That could be bad. If the Master Control Program were to become self aware and gain access to our personal RSS feeds and other sensitive Web 2.0 information, it could potentially blackmail us into supplying and using Library Content to manipulate and eventually take over the Library community first, then the world. We would have to write a policing program called Tron to help regulate the Master Control Program before things get out of hand. However, the MCP would be too smart for that and would instead capture and relegate Tron to playing games that could result in Tron's deletion. A rogue staff member would have to get digitized in order to work with Tron to well.... suffice it to say, current Library Content Management should just be handled by the staff for now until A.I. is perfected.

While the notion of RSS Feeds does not compeltely assuage my fears regarding Web 2.0, I am comforted by the idea that we have excellent government programs like Skynet in place to keep things like Web 2.0 from taking over. Dodged a bullet there!

Blogging 101

My initial thoughts regarding Library 2.0 technology were fairly mixed. At first I was quite excited by the prospect, but upon further study I came to realize that in many ways Library 2.0 is more interactive than its predecessor. In fact, it (or the machine) learns about you and your preferences simply from the input it receives when you use it. At this point I was concerned. What if Library 2.0 became self-aware and decided to use its arsenal of my RSS feeds, networking buddies, tagged pictures and so on to destroy my life or worse - steal my identity? Well, it would not be hyperbole to say that I was terrified. I mean, what kinds of horrendous things could this new and nebulous technology do with my identity? Could it sign me up for awful tarot card newsletters, cancel my subscription to 'Cat Fancy' and instead subscribe to the dog magazine? Not the dog magazine! Suffice it to say that these were not very appealing prospects so I decided to banish web 2.0 and all of its various incarnations from all aspects of my life. However, I quickly had a change of heart after realizing this would entail deleting my facebook, twitter & myspace profiles and ending my favorite pasttime of updating Wikipedia with blatantly bad information. So it seems web 2.0 had already infiltrated my leisurely activities. At this point my terror was replaced by cautious optimism. I was receiving no awful tarot newsletters and my cat was still my number one. Perhaps web 2.0 was not as nefarious as I had previously thought?

I must now say that after that initial rollercoaster of emotion, I have come to love and embrace web 2.0. My only suggestion for new things you could possibly do behind the scenes would be to ensure that it does not cancel my 'Cat Fancy' subscription.

While you are fixing the whole identity theft problem, here are some of my favorite blogs to check out:

my favorite technology blog:
www.gizmodo.com

my favorite fitness blog:
www.fitsugar.com

my very funny and opinionated friend Kristen's rantings (be warned, sometimes she uses some strong language):
http://kristenferrell.wordpress.com

my favorite twitter pages (they totally count, they're just mini-blogs)

twitter.com/thecopresident
twitter.com/levarburton (yes, it's THE Levar Burton of Star Trek & Reading Rainbow fame...)
twitter.com/tinafey