Collaborative Information Systems

& Reference Service

Jessamyn West

http://librarian.net/talks/ei2

"There's a difference between information and knowledge.
It's the difference between Christy Turlington's phone number and Christy Turlington."
PJ O'Rourke

Description of this talk at the EI website.

Introductions

Me, my jobs, the quandary.

What is a Collaborative Information System?

collaborative means a group, iterative information gathering and cycling (folding old knowledge into new)
online usually, but offline can be okay too
examples already: mailing lists, reading groups, conferences. SLOW

Fact Example: what is the population of Bolivia. Now? How about now?

Opinion Example: where is there a good place to get BBQ in Austin Texas? Do you think I need to go to a doctor about this itchy spot on my elbow? I have a long narrow living room, how can I arrange my furniture

Berrypicking or iterative model

Query is constantly shifting
As search continues, new ideas and directions emerge
Value of the search is in bits and pieces picked up along the way

The Library as source: A library gives you SOURCES a blog gives you ANSWERS, maybe
Problems with sources: authority, bias, microcontent

wisdom of crowds: book: http://www.randomhouse.com/features/wisdomofcrowds/; Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds
wisdom of crowds rebuttal: Digital Maoism: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism; http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/lanier06/lanier06_index.html

What are some popular examples?

facts vs opinions, these sites are great for opinions, a lot of what people WANT are opinions, actually....

Google Answers - an early entrant [my questions, my rating]
Yahoo Answers - most popular by far [74%?]
Wikipedia - not questions, but answers
Customer support - Apple, HP, Get Satisfaction
Others: Yedda, Oyogi, Wondir (MetaFilter discusses)

And their usage is increasing, sharply. "U.S. Visits to Question and Answer Websites Increased 118 Percent Year-over-Year"

AskMetaFilter

37K MeFites
9,496 different users have posted one or more AskMe questions
13,485 different users have given one or more AskMe answers
325 of the 9,496 users have not given at least one answer
4,314 users have given answers but never asked a question

More Info and Statistics

Ask MetaFilter: Going Where the Users Are: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6379558.html
MetaFilter Information: http://stuff.metafilter.com/infodump/
Sites that anazlyze this information: http://mssv.net/wiki/index.php/MetaAnalysis
Run your own MySQL queries: http://mefi.from.bz/

Good question examples

Tracking down an address in 1939 Vienna (amazing answer, targeted response)
How can I convince my wife that living in a Yurt would be fun while I'm in medical school? (answer: maybe you can't)
What are some of your absolute favourite online essays, articles and other pieces of non-fiction writing? (reader's advisory, 266 favorites)
How to do a wookie roar? (how would you look that up?)
How much weight could a healthy adult gain in one indulgent weekend of overeating? (idle curiosity, answered with facts!)

AskMe wiki collaborations

What are some features of these sites?

"What distinguishes experts is their ability to support or refute claims with arguments of very high quality, to be extremely well-versed regarding the sources relevant to their case."

Sites have in common

editors and users/commenters
reputation and/or non-anonymous usage
ease of use
throttle control
excellent search & retrieval mechanisms

Strengths

more likely to find an expert
question can get refined on the fly
answers findable for future askers
high Google ranking
aids in community cohesion

Weaknesses

people want to be chatty, people want to be fighty
noisy, or requires moderation
everyone's a comedian
legal, medical, psychological expert help is sometimes needed
format is difficult for those not used to it
Basic level of "type in a box" ability needed

Could libraries could use this idea for reference services?

question boards?

co-op example
UW example

faqs?

Write a FAQ?: http://kk.org/ct2/2008/05/naq-never-asked-questions.php
or a FARQ: http://www.ipl.org/div/farq/
for students: http://faq.library.upenn.edu/
for patrons: http://www.library.cornell.edu/johnson/library/faq/
as a guide: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/faqref.html
about your area: http://www.library.state.ak.us/is/FAQ/FAQref.html

blog?

for staff: http://barnardrefdesk.blogspot.com/
for patrons: https://blogs.cit.cornell.edu/askalib

Collaborative Information Systems & Reference Service