HYPE CYCLE & CULTURE MAKING

Below is a link to an article from American Libraries magazine that references the "Hype Cycle" in regards to new technologies. The hype cycle, as you might imagine, is the process of getting past both the initial hype and the ensuing disillusionment of an innovation to understanding how to use it and making it work on a longer term. The article notes that "a concept rarely performs to expectations. What matters is how you learn from yourself and others in order to improve your own implementation experience. Instead of taking a new application and running with it blindly, we can create a layered perspective on how and why it suits our local needs:
- Utility—First understand a product’s technical foundation.
- Application—Then, examine how it is hyped, adopted, adapted, and rejected.
- Insight—Finally, implement with a critical understanding of its capabilities and caveats."

http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/columns/dispatches-field/hope-hype-and-voip-riding-library-technology-cycle

I think I'll keep those three points of perspective in mind when using and writing about technology for this project. I also like to go through Andy Crouch's questions from his book Culture Making. (http://www.culture-making.com/)
- What does X assume about the world?
- What does X assume about the way the world should be?
- What does X make possible?
- What does X make impossible (or at least a lot more difficult)?
- What new culture is created in response to X?

HELLO WORLD!

Hello world!

Here are two things I want the world to know right away:

1. I'm a dual-career woman: I work as a full-time children's librarian in Los Angeles and I am also a homemaker. Wendell Berry is one of my heroes (though the shout-out is ironic because he eschews computers and most modern technology); I love his essay about the household as an economy. I also love both my jobs... most days.

2. I am leaving for a week's vacation in 1 hour and 18 minutes so I've got to do my homework for http://21thingsforkidlibs.blogspot.com/ very quickly and probably very incompletely! That means no time for jokes and probably no time for deep thoughts. If you want to laugh, I'll include a link to a funny Youtube video below, and if you want deep thoughts, try Wendell Berry. In print.

I am of that generation which can't remember ever NOT having a computer at home, even if said computer was an Apple II clone with a monochrome monitor, and (not to brag) but I was one of the first users of Facebook since it started at my alma mater. Yep, been a part since day 8, baby! That said, I'm not particularly familiar with many more Web 2.0 technologies and I'm looking forward to learning a lot this summer. I do most of my Web browsing on the reference desk at the quiet neighborhood library where I work, although at home I happily log into http://www.ravelry.com/ (I'm learning to knit). Ravelry's an exemplary online community, and during my vacation from vacation this week, I hope to delineate some of the reasons I think it's great--how it works well and gives me hope that the Web isn't all junk. So does http://www.freerice.com/

But as far as using Web 2.0 at my job, I have only gone so far as to start browsing Youtube for good preschool storytime songs. I love singing at storytime (and the kids don't seem to mind too much) but I didn't grow up listening to Raffi songs (remember, I was busy "playing the computer"!) so I sometimes need a quick source to find a tune. I also browse to find songs to use with some of our varied themes. Most recently, I was doing a toy storytime. Here's what I found:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3__t7HT9tdI

Stuff like that not only changes my job, it changed my life! And it will change yours if you take a look.