Exercise#6
I have created a Screencast video of Delicious, the online social bookmarking site for this assignment.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
1. Which of the online communities that you viewed in the past 2 weeks were you the most drawn to (pick 1 or 2)? Why?
Of all the examples of online community that I looked into this week, I found TechSoup to be very unique. TechSoup provides technology product donations to libraries and non-profit organizations so that these non-profit organizations can get adequate technology support to serve their community. I felt particularly drawn to it, because in this economic downturn, I think TechSoup is providing an invaluable support and service to the non-profits, and also building a sense of community among its members. The qualified members of TechSoup can have access to more than 400 technology products, and there are more than 40 Companies as donor partners of TechSoup, including Cisco, Microsoft, Adobe, Symantec and Intuit. There is small administrative fee that is charged for each product donations, which is used to support the running expenses of TechSoup in USA as well as around the world.
In addition to the technical product support, TechSoup also has a active online forum which offers great reviews, feedback, and instant help on any questions asked posted by the members. I was impressed to the quick responses that were made by the members to one of the questions someone asked about choosing the right database for their company. I would definitely suggest TechSoup for Technical product support, if ever my library need any. Also, TechSoup blog is a great place to look for news on recent happenings in the global society.
Of all the examples of online community that I looked into this week, I found TechSoup to be very unique. TechSoup provides technology product donations to libraries and non-profit organizations so that these non-profit organizations can get adequate technology support to serve their community. I felt particularly drawn to it, because in this economic downturn, I think TechSoup is providing an invaluable support and service to the non-profits, and also building a sense of community among its members. The qualified members of TechSoup can have access to more than 400 technology products, and there are more than 40 Companies as donor partners of TechSoup, including Cisco, Microsoft, Adobe, Symantec and Intuit. There is small administrative fee that is charged for each product donations, which is used to support the running expenses of TechSoup in USA as well as around the world.
In addition to the technical product support, TechSoup also has a active online forum which offers great reviews, feedback, and instant help on any questions asked posted by the members. I was impressed to the quick responses that were made by the members to one of the questions someone asked about choosing the right database for their company. I would definitely suggest TechSoup for Technical product support, if ever my library need any. Also, TechSoup blog is a great place to look for news on recent happenings in the global society.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Exercise#5
This exercise has given me the opportunity to explore delicious, the most popular social bookmarking site. Now I have a much better understanding of how the bookmarking sites work, how the contents can be saved, organized and shared through a centralized source, that can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection. The only bookmarking I knew all my life prior to this class, was the browser based one, which can be accessed only from the particular computer it is saved into. But with the increase in online activities, with the heavy load of information available through the internet, it has become absolutely necessary to store them centrally, by adding self explanatory tags to them so that they can be easily retrievable whenever the user is willing to access the information. Delicious and other social media sites have brought a 'portable solution' (Farkas, 2007) to information sharing through bookmarking, and this assignment has successfully introduced that portable solution to me.
This exercise has given me the opportunity to explore delicious, the most popular social bookmarking site. Now I have a much better understanding of how the bookmarking sites work, how the contents can be saved, organized and shared through a centralized source, that can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection. The only bookmarking I knew all my life prior to this class, was the browser based one, which can be accessed only from the particular computer it is saved into. But with the increase in online activities, with the heavy load of information available through the internet, it has become absolutely necessary to store them centrally, by adding self explanatory tags to them so that they can be easily retrievable whenever the user is willing to access the information. Delicious and other social media sites have brought a 'portable solution' (Farkas, 2007) to information sharing through bookmarking, and this assignment has successfully introduced that portable solution to me.
1. What are some of the possible barriers to internal collaboration in organizations?
I think the most common barrier to internal collaboration, especially in library setting, is the lack of technical expertise among the staff members, and also lack of exposure and knowledge of the various web 2.0 social media tools that are available today to communicate effectively within the organization. Most of the staff are not comfortable to use any other means of exchange except telephone and emails, and there is a strong inertia to learn and accept any new technology, as long as it is not absolutely necessary. This trend is particularly common in the older generation (with due respect to them), as I witness at my work everyday. This is probably because most libraries have not reached that height yet where internal communication has to be solely based on technologies and interactive communication.
Another possible barrier to internal communication I think is that everyone involved in entire communication process do not always have the same the level of understanding and experiences on the message that is being transmitted, so that receiver can fully comprehend exact meaning of the information. This can not be possible where there is a difference in the level communication abilities among all the participants, often resulting in failure of internal communication within the organization.
Also, the absence of 'Corporate Culture', as Kelly mentioned in his article is another important reason why internal collaboration fails in some organizations. Every workplace has its own culture, depending on the nature of the services they provide, employee work schedule and the level of interaction required among the employees. In organizations, where employee 'presence beyond office hours' are not expected, everyone works a set schedule everyday without much variation, internal collaboration do not constitute to be an integral part of that work culture, and can not thrive as a successful means for organizational communication process.
I think the most common barrier to internal collaboration, especially in library setting, is the lack of technical expertise among the staff members, and also lack of exposure and knowledge of the various web 2.0 social media tools that are available today to communicate effectively within the organization. Most of the staff are not comfortable to use any other means of exchange except telephone and emails, and there is a strong inertia to learn and accept any new technology, as long as it is not absolutely necessary. This trend is particularly common in the older generation (with due respect to them), as I witness at my work everyday. This is probably because most libraries have not reached that height yet where internal communication has to be solely based on technologies and interactive communication.
Another possible barrier to internal communication I think is that everyone involved in entire communication process do not always have the same the level of understanding and experiences on the message that is being transmitted, so that receiver can fully comprehend exact meaning of the information. This can not be possible where there is a difference in the level communication abilities among all the participants, often resulting in failure of internal communication within the organization.
Also, the absence of 'Corporate Culture', as Kelly mentioned in his article is another important reason why internal collaboration fails in some organizations. Every workplace has its own culture, depending on the nature of the services they provide, employee work schedule and the level of interaction required among the employees. In organizations, where employee 'presence beyond office hours' are not expected, everyone works a set schedule everyday without much variation, internal collaboration do not constitute to be an integral part of that work culture, and can not thrive as a successful means for organizational communication process.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Library Success: the best...
Of all the wiki examples that I have explored for this week, the one that impressed me the most was the Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki which seems to be a one stop shop for all the information and useful resources for Library Professional or staff working in any type of libraries. This wiki offers a wealth of information in a familiar Wikipedia style, with clearly visible content section on the right side box giving the user a hyper-linked list of topics that are available in the wiki, which definitely saved me from wandering aimlessly and helped me find the topics I found of interest to me.
The first thing I checked in this wiki is the Recent Changes Page , I found it very fascinating to be able to see who made what changes and when so easily, in fact I had edited/added a resource in the wiki recently, and there it was, the entry showing the date time and content I added with a link to the actual page it is listed. All the Categories offer great resources on a wide number of topics, the one I was really impressed was the Job searching resources under the Professional Category, which offers success stories, websites, blogs and lot of tips on interviews and successful resume writing techniques that will be very helpful for anyone looking for jobs in the library field. I also explored the Technology Category, which I found very rich with relevant and up to date information, especially the Information Sharing and Education section, where I could find some very handy resources on children's services which I am going to use at my library.
Overall, it can be said that I Found this wiki to be very authoritative and well organized, covering a wide range of topics that are highly relevant to the library world, both traditional and digital.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Marketing Critique
New York Public Library using web 2.0...
The New York Public Library (NYPL) consists of 4 Research libraries and 85 branch libraries, with over 2.21 million card holders and a collection of over 50 million items. The library has incorporated a host of web 2.0 tools in their website to facilitate information sharing and foster collaboration and contact with the online community. NYPL website offers link to Facebook, Twitter and their blog, along with links to Flickr photos and YouTube to share photos and videos of various library events and programs.
Facebook- The library system successfully uses Facebook to market the events, programs and library materials, especially the new items as and when added in their collection. NYPL seems to have a pretty consistent presence in Facebook with few entries everyday. However, as of March, 2011, there are only 29, 851 people who follow the library system in Facebook, which is definitely not a very significant number given its total number of cardholders.
Twitter- NYPL's twitter page has 109, 484 followers and 4046 tweet as of March, 2011. But most of the postings are written by the librarians and staff, interaction with the followers are not that visible.
NYPL Blog- New York Public Library's blog is located under a section named Blogs, Videos and Publication and is organized by Channels, which offers RSS feeds on various topics, programs and services across the library system, and posts by Subjects. It is created following the same design pattern as of all other pages in their website. The header and footer offer links to library's home page, hours and location, online catalog and some other useful sites. The blog posts are in the middle with one graphic relevant to the subject per entry.The blog appears to be pretty current, with at least 2 posts each day from librarians from different departments from all over the library system. Again, no reader comments were seen on the posts, although there is an option to add a comment.
The NYPL system is moving into the right direction in their branding efforts, by choosing the popular social software platforms like Facebook, twitter and a blog to market their programs and services to the internet community. These social networking sites allow free flowing interaction with the patrons, which, if effectively utilized, can immensely boost the library's online presence and increase user participation while building a consistent organizational brand.
Suggestion - As it is evident from the statistics, the library has over 2.21 million card holders, whereas only 29, 851 follow the library system in Facebook. Same is true with their twitter account. The library system definitely needs to improve on their marketing and outreach strategies to attract more followers to join their online existence. I would suggest adding more interesting features, like Book Discussion in the library blog, where patrons can share their ideas and comments, postings on the Facebook and twitter that encourages patron interactions as well as adding pictures of library's events on the Facebook wall more often to tell people about programs and services the library offers. Although the library has an online presence through the most popular social networking platforms, it still needs to review the online marketing strategies more carefully to identify the reasons why they are unable to draw more traffic into their social networking sites.
The New York Public Library (NYPL) consists of 4 Research libraries and 85 branch libraries, with over 2.21 million card holders and a collection of over 50 million items. The library has incorporated a host of web 2.0 tools in their website to facilitate information sharing and foster collaboration and contact with the online community. NYPL website offers link to Facebook, Twitter and their blog, along with links to Flickr photos and YouTube to share photos and videos of various library events and programs.
Facebook- The library system successfully uses Facebook to market the events, programs and library materials, especially the new items as and when added in their collection. NYPL seems to have a pretty consistent presence in Facebook with few entries everyday. However, as of March, 2011, there are only 29, 851 people who follow the library system in Facebook, which is definitely not a very significant number given its total number of cardholders.
Twitter- NYPL's twitter page has 109, 484 followers and 4046 tweet as of March, 2011. But most of the postings are written by the librarians and staff, interaction with the followers are not that visible.
NYPL Blog- New York Public Library's blog is located under a section named Blogs, Videos and Publication and is organized by Channels, which offers RSS feeds on various topics, programs and services across the library system, and posts by Subjects. It is created following the same design pattern as of all other pages in their website. The header and footer offer links to library's home page, hours and location, online catalog and some other useful sites. The blog posts are in the middle with one graphic relevant to the subject per entry.The blog appears to be pretty current, with at least 2 posts each day from librarians from different departments from all over the library system. Again, no reader comments were seen on the posts, although there is an option to add a comment.
The NYPL system is moving into the right direction in their branding efforts, by choosing the popular social software platforms like Facebook, twitter and a blog to market their programs and services to the internet community. These social networking sites allow free flowing interaction with the patrons, which, if effectively utilized, can immensely boost the library's online presence and increase user participation while building a consistent organizational brand.
Suggestion - As it is evident from the statistics, the library has over 2.21 million card holders, whereas only 29, 851 follow the library system in Facebook. Same is true with their twitter account. The library system definitely needs to improve on their marketing and outreach strategies to attract more followers to join their online existence. I would suggest adding more interesting features, like Book Discussion in the library blog, where patrons can share their ideas and comments, postings on the Facebook and twitter that encourages patron interactions as well as adding pictures of library's events on the Facebook wall more often to tell people about programs and services the library offers. Although the library has an online presence through the most popular social networking platforms, it still needs to review the online marketing strategies more carefully to identify the reasons why they are unable to draw more traffic into their social networking sites.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Libraries reaching out to students online
I think by reaching out to students in an online environment, libraries can offer a service which is much beyond its traditional role as a custodian of knowledge and will be able to provide access to a wealth of new resources to the patrons that would not have been possible otherwise. By connecting with students in an online space through various popular social networking sites, libraries can become aware of the information needs and trends of the student population in a community and be able to identify the resources required to meet those information need.
Especially in Academic libraries, collaborating with students in a online space will enable them to market their resources and reference services in a more effective way. Also, since the online space fosters a friendly, informal atmosphere, students can feel more comfortable while interacting with the library even while giving feedback on the library services. So it would be a very successful outreach service by the libraries if they can connect with the student community online and offer a much richer, faster and personalized learning experience to the students through the online spaces.
I think by reaching out to students in an online environment, libraries can offer a service which is much beyond its traditional role as a custodian of knowledge and will be able to provide access to a wealth of new resources to the patrons that would not have been possible otherwise. By connecting with students in an online space through various popular social networking sites, libraries can become aware of the information needs and trends of the student population in a community and be able to identify the resources required to meet those information need.
Especially in Academic libraries, collaborating with students in a online space will enable them to market their resources and reference services in a more effective way. Also, since the online space fosters a friendly, informal atmosphere, students can feel more comfortable while interacting with the library even while giving feedback on the library services. So it would be a very successful outreach service by the libraries if they can connect with the student community online and offer a much richer, faster and personalized learning experience to the students through the online spaces.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Twitter- positives/negatives
What do you think of Twitter? What are some of the positives and negatives of the medium?
Frankly speaking, I have a very limited experience with twitter to form any opinion about it. To me, any form of social networking takes up a lot of time which can very well be spent interacting with the immediate society around us. Twitter, as far as I understand is a quick messaging service, like text messaging, only difference being it can reach an unlimited number of people all at the same time. The short messages showing the status updates reflects a sense urgency, which i felt was not necessary in most cases. Unless it is of utmost importance, I can wait till the next morning to get the news, neither I feel that many people will be interested in the changes in my personal status unless it changes dramatically overnight.
Positives of twitter- It has definitely changed the way public interactions and transactions take place in the business organizations and institutions where a constant changes are taking place every moment. For businesses like airlines, celebrities who need constant public attention, news media channels competing with each other to be the first to break the news, twitter is undoubtedly an excellent platform, connecting the world in an amazing way, serving as a great marketing niche.
Negatives of twitter- It can create information overload, with the constant stream of updates from the people you follow, which can be pretty overwhelming to many. There are a lot of limitations, like postings are limited to only 140 characters, which are often not enough to express ones views clearly, resulting in meaningless tweets. Also, there are other forms of social networking tools available that offer much more flexibility and functionality, that can make your postings more dynamic and attractive with pictures, videos and texts and more complete two way communication between both the parties, person writing the posts and his/her followers, which is not possible in twitter.
Frankly speaking, I have a very limited experience with twitter to form any opinion about it. To me, any form of social networking takes up a lot of time which can very well be spent interacting with the immediate society around us. Twitter, as far as I understand is a quick messaging service, like text messaging, only difference being it can reach an unlimited number of people all at the same time. The short messages showing the status updates reflects a sense urgency, which i felt was not necessary in most cases. Unless it is of utmost importance, I can wait till the next morning to get the news, neither I feel that many people will be interested in the changes in my personal status unless it changes dramatically overnight.
Positives of twitter- It has definitely changed the way public interactions and transactions take place in the business organizations and institutions where a constant changes are taking place every moment. For businesses like airlines, celebrities who need constant public attention, news media channels competing with each other to be the first to break the news, twitter is undoubtedly an excellent platform, connecting the world in an amazing way, serving as a great marketing niche.
Negatives of twitter- It can create information overload, with the constant stream of updates from the people you follow, which can be pretty overwhelming to many. There are a lot of limitations, like postings are limited to only 140 characters, which are often not enough to express ones views clearly, resulting in meaningless tweets. Also, there are other forms of social networking tools available that offer much more flexibility and functionality, that can make your postings more dynamic and attractive with pictures, videos and texts and more complete two way communication between both the parties, person writing the posts and his/her followers, which is not possible in twitter.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
RSS in libraries
1. Why should libraries care about RSS?
What better way there can be than RSS to get all the information you want delivered into your desktop everyday? RSS or Really Simple Syndication makes it all possible and the more I read and explore the possibilities RSS offers, I am getting more and more amazed to find how fabulous it is. No more of spending hours to browse through the websites, just subscribing to the RSS feeds on the topic of interests will keep me informed on all the news and happenings on those fields, what a blessing!
How can the libraries benefit from RSS? Options are endless. Libraries can offer RSS feeds for the users to subscribe to, enabling them to stay informed on the updated information on the catalog, news on the library blog, Reader's Advisory, programs, events and services offered at the library, even a feed for the account information that will alert the patrons of overdue items can be very useful to all the library users. The library where I work is not quite there yet on web 2.0, it has a blog which is not very active at this point, mostly because of the lack of staff time to dedicate to maintain it, but I am sure it will catch up pretty soon to connect with the online community which is ever increasing. A feed for video and podcasts of the children's storytime could be another excellent RSS service the libraries can offer. The more variety of feeds libraries can offer, better it will serve to attract different user group, thus reaching out to a much larger clientele. Hence it goes without much saying that RSS is an extremely valuable tool for libraries to provide extraordinary services to its users.
How can the libraries benefit from RSS? Options are endless. Libraries can offer RSS feeds for the users to subscribe to, enabling them to stay informed on the updated information on the catalog, news on the library blog, Reader's Advisory, programs, events and services offered at the library, even a feed for the account information that will alert the patrons of overdue items can be very useful to all the library users. The library where I work is not quite there yet on web 2.0, it has a blog which is not very active at this point, mostly because of the lack of staff time to dedicate to maintain it, but I am sure it will catch up pretty soon to connect with the online community which is ever increasing. A feed for video and podcasts of the children's storytime could be another excellent RSS service the libraries can offer. The more variety of feeds libraries can offer, better it will serve to attract different user group, thus reaching out to a much larger clientele. Hence it goes without much saying that RSS is an extremely valuable tool for libraries to provide extraordinary services to its users.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Points to ponder ...
Library blogs
Even though blogs are becoming a library priority as more and more libraries are creating effective and attractive blogs to connect with their virtual users, still there are some issues concerning the creation and maintenance of library blogs that the authorities need to ponder before committing to any kind of expression through the web environment. First of all, is the library comfortable sharing information through this type of informal sources that can not be controlled at all levels? Library blogs need to be updated on a daily basis, which will give the users a solid reason to make regular visits to the blog, and to make it happen, is the library ready to allocate enough personnel time that is required to create and update the content of the blog? Also, another very important point libraries should consider before starting a blog is that, it should be designed in a way that will facilitate interactive communication with the user, rather than a one-way channel between the library staff and the user. An evaluation of the library blog on a regular basis is very important to measure the extent if it is meeting the user needs, which will determine the success rate of the blog, whether or not it is meeting its purpose public relation terms. A library blog should be a reflection of the image of the physical library to its online patrons, hence all the measures should be taken to maintain the institution's reputation and credibility.
Even though blogs are becoming a library priority as more and more libraries are creating effective and attractive blogs to connect with their virtual users, still there are some issues concerning the creation and maintenance of library blogs that the authorities need to ponder before committing to any kind of expression through the web environment. First of all, is the library comfortable sharing information through this type of informal sources that can not be controlled at all levels? Library blogs need to be updated on a daily basis, which will give the users a solid reason to make regular visits to the blog, and to make it happen, is the library ready to allocate enough personnel time that is required to create and update the content of the blog? Also, another very important point libraries should consider before starting a blog is that, it should be designed in a way that will facilitate interactive communication with the user, rather than a one-way channel between the library staff and the user. An evaluation of the library blog on a regular basis is very important to measure the extent if it is meeting the user needs, which will determine the success rate of the blog, whether or not it is meeting its purpose public relation terms. A library blog should be a reflection of the image of the physical library to its online patrons, hence all the measures should be taken to maintain the institution's reputation and credibility.
Excercise#2
Differences in the style of blog posts...
1. It was pretty interesting to see how the style and approach of writing can differ in the blogs as I read through the five blogs I subscribed to for this assignment. There are some similarities between the blogs that shared the same interests as seen in The Distant Librarian, Librarian by Day and David King, focusing on web 2.0 and recent technology trends in the libraries, but there are also a lot of differences as the content and theme differed. Overall, all the five blogs offered postings that were quite engaging and effectively communicated the messages to the readers.
The first blog that I subscribed to was the Librarian's Commute, written by Olivia Nelllums. Her style of writing resembled more like a personal diary, where she noted down her day to day experiences and happenings around her in a academic library setting. She has also included some pretty images from her surroundings (I guess) which added a sense of 'belonging', a more personalized feeling.
The Distant Librarian by Paul R Pival offers a lot of information on Web 2.0 tools and technologies that are very useful for library professionals, a 'must know' for all librarians in the digital era. The postings included a lot of videos, screenshots, tips and tricks on using technologies that are extremely relevant and handy in the world of Library and Information Science.
The blog Librarian By Day is maintained by Bobbi Newman focuses more on the digital library world, and offer interesting views on the current issues rocking the library land. The readers of this blog can connect to a host of interesting articles and watch videos on topics that are relevant to the libraries and library profession, especially the one article written by Emma Cragg and Katie Birkwood called Beyond books: What It Takes to be a 21st century Librarian: From Connecting With People to Keeping Up With the Latest Technologies, There is a Whole Lot More to the Job Than Stamping Due Dates:
In the Library With Lead Pipe is maintained by a group of writers and the postings are more like essay style on various topic, ranging from social networking tools to welcoming homeless in the libraries. The postings are quite lengthy and include references to the sources that provide authentication of the postings.
David Lee King has a very useful blog where he shares an interesting article on the use of social media in organizations, offers many tips on video cameras and lighting, presentation skills and other interesting topics related to the library. The postings are short,but includes screen shots, video links and images that enhanced the appearance of the blog, making it more engaging and visually appealing.
2. I personally like to read blogs that offers information on the recent trend in technological advancements, that talks about the various tools and applications that can be used in libraries today to proactively communicate with the online community, and also to share and organize knowledge and information in a more efficient and logical order. For example, in one of the five blogs that I subscribed to for this assignment, I leaned about a great tool called 'postpost', which allows you to get the best news and information from Facebook all in one page, which I believe is an excellent tool for managing information and saves a lot of time as it brings together postings by the contacts you are interested in.
3. I have subscribed to three different types of library blogs from the list in the week 3. ACRL stands for Association for College and Research libraries. Its blog is maintained by Academic and Research librarians and the topics revolves around issues related to Academic libraries and librarianship. 'Gargoyles loose in the library' is a blog maintained by a librarian at University Laboratory High School, Urbano-Champagne, and expresses news and views from the high school library. St. Joseph County public library or the SJCPL blog has a pretty engaging and attractive blog, which offers topics ranging from the list of New York Times bestseller to Valentine's Day play list, with active participation from the online community of library users.
4. Library blogs should have interesting and engaging postings, while maintaining consistency in style and approach. Writing posts that sparks discussion or a debate also is a good way of making a library blog successful as there are usually certain number of people in every community who follow the local community library's blog in a regular basis, or in the case of academic or special libraries, faculty and students can be drawn into the blog if a discussion is started on a current and interesting topic.
4. Library blogs should have interesting and engaging postings, while maintaining consistency in style and approach. Writing posts that sparks discussion or a debate also is a good way of making a library blog successful as there are usually certain number of people in every community who follow the local community library's blog in a regular basis, or in the case of academic or special libraries, faculty and students can be drawn into the blog if a discussion is started on a current and interesting topic.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Excercise#1
TaskRabbit
TaskRabbit is a web and mobile marketplace that connects "senders and runners", providing people and businesses an easy and trusted way to get everyday Tasks done in their own communities. It is pretty interesting what they can do for you, starting from dropping off Goodwill donations (that also includes mailing you your tax receipt), grocery shopping, cook dinner, organize your garage, walk your dog, weed your garden, exchange a purchase, organize your iTunes library, pick up from Ikea and assemble the furniture for you, you name it, they do it for you!
1. People have mixed opinion about TaskRabbit services. While most people are happy with their service, some are disappointed because their tasks were not completed. I could find these reviews through Yelp, www.businesspundit.com, sfweekly.com and webupon.com. One person commented about TaskRabbit on businesspundit:
"Are things really so bad here in the States that wealthy people are employing the unemployed masses on command, to run errands for a little change? Worse yet, have all those transactions on record so that they can be taxed? As neat and effective as TaskRabbit is, I can’t help but see it as symbol of our own society’s economic degredation. There aren’t enough jobs to go around, so those of us who are better off are employing “the help” through the Internet."
2. No, TaskRabbit does not seem to respond to these reviews, their online presence were seen only in Facebbok, twitter, their blog, and their website through which they communicate with their customers and earn businesses.
3. TaskRabbit has a strong online presence through Facebook, twitter, and their blog. In fact their TaskRabbit fanbase in Facebook has almost 2000 followers, and they are offering a FREE task to the 2000th fan and also to the first five fans liking this post. Here is the TaskRabbit in Facebook:
TaskRabbit's Facebook has a simple, straight to the point landing page that encourages everyone ‘like’ and get involved. They have connected the entire community through their fan page by integrating youTube channel, blog, and even community polls all in one spot. They are pretty interactive with their customer base, and through their twitter and Facebook page, they are able to effectively communicate share useful tips and notify TaskRabbit followers about upcoming errand trips in the locality in case someone else is interested for a similar task.
TaskRabbit's CEO and founder, Leah Busque, was on the Laura Ingraham radio show on Feb 2nd. Check this out!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3986643/020111_hour3blockC.mp3
Also, check out the video about TaskRabbit:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/38573156#38573156
TaskRabbit is a web and mobile marketplace that connects "senders and runners", providing people and businesses an easy and trusted way to get everyday Tasks done in their own communities. It is pretty interesting what they can do for you, starting from dropping off Goodwill donations (that also includes mailing you your tax receipt), grocery shopping, cook dinner, organize your garage, walk your dog, weed your garden, exchange a purchase, organize your iTunes library, pick up from Ikea and assemble the furniture for you, you name it, they do it for you!
1. People have mixed opinion about TaskRabbit services. While most people are happy with their service, some are disappointed because their tasks were not completed. I could find these reviews through Yelp, www.businesspundit.com, sfweekly.com and webupon.com. One person commented about TaskRabbit on businesspundit:
"Are things really so bad here in the States that wealthy people are employing the unemployed masses on command, to run errands for a little change? Worse yet, have all those transactions on record so that they can be taxed? As neat and effective as TaskRabbit is, I can’t help but see it as symbol of our own society’s economic degredation. There aren’t enough jobs to go around, so those of us who are better off are employing “the help” through the Internet."
2. No, TaskRabbit does not seem to respond to these reviews, their online presence were seen only in Facebbok, twitter, their blog, and their website through which they communicate with their customers and earn businesses.
3. TaskRabbit has a strong online presence through Facebook, twitter, and their blog. In fact their TaskRabbit fanbase in Facebook has almost 2000 followers, and they are offering a FREE task to the 2000th fan and also to the first five fans liking this post. Here is the TaskRabbit in Facebook:
TaskRabbit's Facebook has a simple, straight to the point landing page that encourages everyone ‘like’ and get involved. They have connected the entire community through their fan page by integrating youTube channel, blog, and even community polls all in one spot. They are pretty interactive with their customer base, and through their twitter and Facebook page, they are able to effectively communicate share useful tips and notify TaskRabbit followers about upcoming errand trips in the locality in case someone else is interested for a similar task.
TaskRabbit's CEO and founder, Leah Busque, was on the Laura Ingraham radio show on Feb 2nd. Check this out!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3986643/020111_hour3blockC.mp3
Also, check out the video about TaskRabbit:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/38573156#38573156
Friday, February 4, 2011
Q 6. What organization you find inspirational in their use of social media and why?
In the light of the current economic downturn, it has become increasingly challenging for companies and organizations to maintain their reputation, quality of service they provide to the customers, quality of the products they produce etc. Due to the advent of web 2.0 technology, it is has become one the most successful survival tool for the organizations to have a strong presence online and monitor their reputation and views of the customers using their services.
As I was browsing through the Southwest airlines website, I got really impressed to see how well connected they are with their customers, reaching out to people every hour through online forums, Facebook, twitter, youtube and flickr. In their website, there is forum where Southwest airline customers express and exchange their views on their experiences, which is often pretty useful for frequent fliers. SW has a strong presence in Facebook, with 1,308,144 fans and also maintain a twitter account, youtube and flikr account where SW airline customers can upload pictures of the places they visited flying with SW airlines. Overall, this airline is definitely making the best use of the web 2.0 technologies to successfully run the business and give the website a strong online presence.
blogpostwk2, blogpostwk2n6
In the light of the current economic downturn, it has become increasingly challenging for companies and organizations to maintain their reputation, quality of service they provide to the customers, quality of the products they produce etc. Due to the advent of web 2.0 technology, it is has become one the most successful survival tool for the organizations to have a strong presence online and monitor their reputation and views of the customers using their services.
As I was browsing through the Southwest airlines website, I got really impressed to see how well connected they are with their customers, reaching out to people every hour through online forums, Facebook, twitter, youtube and flickr. In their website, there is forum where Southwest airline customers express and exchange their views on their experiences, which is often pretty useful for frequent fliers. SW has a strong presence in Facebook, with 1,308,144 fans and also maintain a twitter account, youtube and flikr account where SW airline customers can upload pictures of the places they visited flying with SW airlines. Overall, this airline is definitely making the best use of the web 2.0 technologies to successfully run the business and give the website a strong online presence.
blogpostwk2, blogpostwk2n6
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
2. How have social software tools had an effect on your life or work?
My experience with Web 2.0 technologies has been pretty limited, only using Facebook to post library programs and events and watching Youtube once in a while. Personally, I like to stay away from Facebook as much as I can, because of the privacy factor I am sure many of us will agree. I feel it is more useful to the younger generation, who prefer to socialize over the net for the convenience of it. I see my teenage son spending hours on Facebook, even sharing homework information and working on school projects. I have to admit that I enjoy to share the photos with my family and friends through FB which is a lot faster than sharing them through email or by any other means. Other than that, I don't see much use of Facebook in my life.
As far as work is concerned, we have a strong user base of 522 monthly active users, over 2000 daily post views and 15-20 people commenting on the library's postings every day. We have a blog which is pretty active, gaining popularity with time, as more and more patrons are taking part in the discussion on various topics related to the library.
I have used google docs for the group work in one of the MLIS class, which I enjoyed a great deal. LibraryThing is another very useful tool that I use occasionally. It is really amazing how convenient it is now to collaborate, cooperate and share resources nowadays due to web 2.0 technology, I am ready to learn more about magic of the various tools available to serve the online library community.
My experience with Web 2.0 technologies has been pretty limited, only using Facebook to post library programs and events and watching Youtube once in a while. Personally, I like to stay away from Facebook as much as I can, because of the privacy factor I am sure many of us will agree. I feel it is more useful to the younger generation, who prefer to socialize over the net for the convenience of it. I see my teenage son spending hours on Facebook, even sharing homework information and working on school projects. I have to admit that I enjoy to share the photos with my family and friends through FB which is a lot faster than sharing them through email or by any other means. Other than that, I don't see much use of Facebook in my life.
As far as work is concerned, we have a strong user base of 522 monthly active users, over 2000 daily post views and 15-20 people commenting on the library's postings every day. We have a blog which is pretty active, gaining popularity with time, as more and more patrons are taking part in the discussion on various topics related to the library.
I have used google docs for the group work in one of the MLIS class, which I enjoyed a great deal. LibraryThing is another very useful tool that I use occasionally. It is really amazing how convenient it is now to collaborate, cooperate and share resources nowadays due to web 2.0 technology, I am ready to learn more about magic of the various tools available to serve the online library community.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
A little about me
I have started SLIS in Spring 2008, and finished 10 classes so far (sigh). I live in Irvine, CA and work as a Library Assistant in children's department in a public library. As part of my job responsibilities, I update and maintain the kid's webpage, and post news about the upcoming programs and events in the Facebook as an adminstrator on behalf of the library. I have been always interested to now more about the social networking sites, but always found myself hard pressed against time to explore into web 2.0 world in more elaborate way. Hence I signed up for this class, hoping to learn a lot about the recent trend and how libraries can benefit by adapting the web 2.0 technology to better serve the online community. As it is clearly evident, it is not going to be a smooth ride for the libraries in California with the proposed $30.4 million cut in library funding, I wonder if incorporating web 2.0 technologies to replace some of the existing services will be an option for libraries in near future?
Monday, January 31, 2011
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