Ethics of Library 2.0

• network effect requires network
• the AJAXifed web requires broadband
• e-government requires tech knowledge/ability
• overcoming the digital divide requires more than a website
  
  
• economies of scale break down with edge cases

our website, fyi

• 55% of US adults have broadband at home (25% low income)
• Half between 50 and 64 have home broadband (19% over 65)
• Dialup is getting more expensive as broadband is getting cheaper.
  
  
• 50% of the people on earth have never made a phone call

cite: Pew Internet Report: Home Broadband 2008

• Who is getting less online?
• Who can do less online?
• Who could benefit from e-government most?
• What are we doing for them? What can we do?

• Local supports us at the library; 2.0 feels like the anti-local
• Friends vs. frenz
• Bowling/typing/creating alone - are we replacing healthy with healthy?
• What motivates? Free motivates. What beats free?
  
  
• Showing people themselves is a good way to make the net a "genuine option"

• Do patrons want to give up their privacy? Do they understand what that means? We sign contracts for them, sort of.
• How do we set expectations?
• What message do we send when we use these tools ourselves?
• Do people who read every word on a page and type slowly ever do anything else is they're still reading the fine print?
  
  
• "Use the Internet. Not too much. Mostly ___________________ ."
  
  
• Mostly what?

Jessamyn West is a community technology librarian in Vermont and the editor of the weblog librarian.net. She teaches email classes for seniors, builds tiny websites for tiny libraries and advocates for sensible technology use for everyone.

IM her at iamthebestartist.

This presentation was created in HTML using CSS. There was no PowerPoint involved in this presentation except as a nagging bad example. The layout and stylesheet are available to borrow via a share and share alike creative commons license. See source code for details.

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