Wikis = Freedom of speech?

In this doctored video, Nixon and Kennedy debate the issue of whether wikis are better than blogs. Blogs usually highlight one voice and one viewpoint, that of the creator versus the wiki which can be a combined effort of voices and perspectives. Both, of course, are mediums of expression and promote free speech, but whether one is better than the other I think is a moot point. I think the better question is "which medium carries your message most effectively?"

A blog is obviously more one-sided and guided by the person(s) posting whereas the wiki invites a variety of perspectives and can be as interactive as you make it. Although a blog is not entirely one-sided as it does give opportunity for repartee via the "comments" feature where visitors to the blog can respond to postings. However the wiki does not rely so much on comments as its structure relies on the scaffolding of ideas through constant discussion based on the premise that all parties have equal footing in said discussion.

In that sense, the wiki has a more social feel to it which may be interpreted as being more flexible and equitable.

My Friends on Facebook

Having a relationship with people over the internet is not new. From chat rooms to message boards to dating sites, people have used these mediums to construct a variety of social interactions that suit their needs. Being social online may appeal to those who don't necessarily want to engage in real physical contact or those who are trying to simulate contact with friends who are far away. The growing popularity of social network sites (SNS) e.g. Facebook, MySpace is symbolic of people's desires to personalize the abstract space that is the world wide web.

There are opportunities within these SNS's to express oneself and fashion an identity through various applications and features e.g. photo albums, group affiliations, song lists, to name a few for the benefit of one's targeted audience. In essence, this is your chance to tell a story about yourself and your life using customized details to connect to your imagined audience.

Being friends with people who did not live in the same city or even country used to mean that your modes of connecting with them were usually letter writing and/or long distance phone calls, but with the advent of SNS's we are able to take our communique to the next level: sharing info online gives us quicker gratification and, more importantly, a forum for interactive communication. On Facebook where we can comment on our friends photos or status, we are creating a sense of closeness and intimacy that is harder to conjure via just letters. When I am able to make a comment to my friend Brigit who lives in Sydney, Australia about something we've done in the past or read about current events in her life, I'm validating and continuing our friendship despite our living on separate continents. I can remain an active part of her life and vice versa even from afar. Or my friend, Clare, a South African who made her way to Williamsburg, Bklyn.

As members of a SNS community, we all, if only informally, agree to follow the presets and rules of posting, sharing, and participating within that community. We also understand that some of the terms and ideas that may mean something in the physical world takes on a different flavor in the virtual, a good example is the word "friend". In the real world, we all have a definitive understanding of what that means based on our past and current experiences, but in the world of Facebook, we have to make some adjustments of understanding on the idea of "friend". Not only are our best friends our friends on Facebook, but so are the friends of our friends whom we might have met just a few times or someone with whom you were friendly in college, but haven't seen in over ten years, and don't forget about the mother of a former student. These people can all be considered your friends in a virtual community.

You learn to be more flexible about these seemingly finite terms.

Information, civic engagement, and the library

What sort of information do people need to stay connected to their world? And once they have it, what do they do with it? These two questions whirl about in my head from my initial readings from Henry Jenkins' CONVERGENCE CULTURE and lead me to wonder: Information as commodity or catalyst?

We have seen information taken at face value in a passive manner à la Paulo Freire's "banking system" where the student is the receptacle for status quo concepts and bits of "knowledge". This dynamic relies solely on the assumption that the receptacles will remain forever content with absorbing information that is neither relevant nor beneficial to bettering their lives, creating a static relationship with information as commodity rather than catalyst.

But we know that information, when harnessed to be informative and relevant, does move people to action--from grassroots organizing to stop destructive real estate developments in one neighborhood to gathering en masse in Washington to protest a presidential inauguration, information and civic engagement are natural companions.

In the 21st century, some have taken to proclaiming the death of books-in-print, crushed in the giant footprint of the internet, while others remain strong in their conviction that the book will outlast any technological trend that rear its slick and monolithic head. While questions of which output method will prove the more pertinent and viable plod on, libraries are fighting to keep their footing in their respective communities in the face of budget cuts and economic crisis. Philadelphia's Free Library branches are under fire from that city's mayor who views them as expendable in his quest to balance the city's budget and libraries in the New York City public school system are being used as staff lunch rooms and storage spaces.

One way to stop the library from being viewed as excess weight to be cut when balancing city budgets is to highlight how indispensable it is in the lives of everyday people. Why not promote the idea of the library as accessible in cyberspace just as it is in person? For those of us who are attracted to hunting and gathering information (or knowledge) via the Internet, library databases are an excellent place to begin. And for those of us who crave the heft of ink and pages upon pages, our nearest branch awaits us.

Next month National Library Week (April 12-18) is celebrating its 50th birthday. An opportunity for all of us to think about how we can make sure it's not its last.