As I mentioned before (more than once for some reason), I was at the CLA Emerging Technologies Pre-conference and did a presentation called “Library 2.0 is the Answer! Now what are the questions again?”
In my presentation, I wanted to come up with a definition for L2 that focussed on strategy or actions rather than theory and buzzwords. This is my list of “L2 decisions.”
1. Understand social aspects of the web (Web 2.0), and exploit them to build community.
2. Emphasize innovation over elbow grease.
3. Be intolerant of institutional barriers.
4. Favor the wisdom of diverse, independent and decentralized “crowds” over the authority of elites.
5. Empathize (obsessively) with the user’s experience, and invite their participation.
I really invite anyone to comment on the accuracy/clarity of these items, in case I want to bring them up again in another presentation. One change I thought about was that “intolerant” of institutional barriers is not quite the right L2 thing. Maybe I mean “don’t let institutional barriers get in the way” or something like that.
Jessamyn West has a presentation and a resource list that might help alot in this discussion as well. Not that it hasn’t existed before, but I like that people are talking about actions to take toward L2, rather than dealing with theory. The theory stuff is neat, but people on all sides get bogged down over principles, values and nomenclature. When you recommend actions to go along with the theory, then everything becomes so much clearer.
Punctuated Equilibrium: A Librarian's View of Public Policy 