Judith Pearce presented her User collaboration in websites paper at the Framing the Future, ARLIS/ANZ Conference, 21-23 September 2006. In this paper, Pearce discusses what is meant by “Web 2.0 and the Internet as platform”, she then goes on to discuss two current services of the National Library of Australia (NLA) – Picture Australia and Australia Dancing – and the proposed new service People Australia. The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief introduction to the concept of Web 2.0 technologies and how the NLA are using those technologies to promote these services.
Pearce presents a useful introduction to the Web 2.0 phenomenon, albeit with some shortcomings. The discussion on Web 2.0 itself is brief, but it is enhanced and further developed when discussed in context of examples of the NLA’s use of these technologies.
As the pinnacle library in Australia, the NLA (through its actions) steers the direction or focus for all libraries in Australia, especially State libraries and subsequently public libraries. At the time this paper was presented, the Web 2.0 concept was starting to amass a groundswell of support worldwide and its potential was becoming obvious. Given this background, the brevity of Pearce’s discussion of the Web 2.0 phenomenon may have left the audience with more questions than answers. Although this is not necessarily a bad outcome, as it may encourage further personal research, but given the innovative nature of the subject and the influence of the NLA, more in-depth discussion would have been beneficial, especially discussion on how libraries worldwide were harnessing the technologies.
Pearce’s mention of user participation is focused on the user interacting with existing services “thorough tagging, comments, ratings and reviews” and does not consider the vast amount of user generated content (UGC) published on the Internet independently, for example, personal blogs. Despite advances in technology, such as Ajax, sites such as flickr and Wikipedia would not exist without UGC. UGC is the true essence of Web 2.0 technologies.
Complex topics such as Ajax and Application Program Interface (API), are given concise and clear treatment by Pearce that is well suited to a Web 2.0 newcomer. Explanations are supported by excellent references for further information (web addresses to “Ajax (Programming)” on Wikipedia and “Put Google Maps on Your Own Web Site” at Google).
Pearce’s choice in examples demonstrating Web 2.0 technologies are excellent, flickr and Wikipedia embody all the elements that characterise the phenomenon. These choices also support her later discussion on Web 2.0 and the NLA.
The bulk of the paper is devoted to the NLA’s experience with Web 2.0 through its projects Picture Australia, Australia Dancing and the proposed People Australia project. Pearce’s discussion is frank and highlights the important issues such as “quality and consistency of metadata” when tagging and the collection of all forms of annotations (“tags, comments, notes, ratings and reviews”) to improve functions such as ranking and grouping to enhance search results.
The Wikipedia model is put to the test by the NLA in its Australia Dancing project. Pearce provides convincing arguments for steering away from a completely open model when a “scholarly biographical entry” is required. Pearce points out that a completely open model is subject to mythologising and political agendas, and by limiting authors to registered users and subjecting entries to peer review a “more balanced assessment of the subject’s life” can be achieved.
Given the benefit of hindsight, the subject matter of Pearce’s paper and the approach of the NLA demonstrate great insightfulness. Wikipedia has continued to grow and has now reached 5 million entries and has proven itself to be a useful reference tool for definitions and references to further research. Flickr is being used by many libraries now and is proving to be a popular tool for local studies collections and marketing. The problems discussed continue to be problematic and therefore relevant to libraries today.
In conclusion, although the general introductory comments on Web 2.0 were brief, the discussion on applications such as flickr and Wikipedia in the NLA context provide excellent insight into how emergent technologies can be harnessed by libraries and the real problems associated with them, which are still relevant today.
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