CIL - Social Software

Social software was a new term to me, and the presentation this morning by Matthew Dames introduced me to a lot of new ideas. (He actually prefers the term digital collaboration which makes more sense to me. He defines it as a system of software and social interaction that allows people to work efficiently across distances. It's browsers like Safari and del.icio.us that allow for collaboration and sharing of bookmarks. It's RSS feeds and blogs, Instant Messaging systems and P2P file sharing. It's VoIP, Mp3, gaming consoles and smart phones. It's all those new techie things my grandson understands and patiently explains to me. Matthew believes libraries as places will not be funded in the future - a pretty scary thought to me! - and that librarians will be needed to help create digital communities and to provide context for information that is floating around loose.

I still like to curl up with a physical book, so some of this seems a little extreme to me. But the idea of being to work with someone whose brain I need to pick, no matter where they are, is very attractive!