Phew! The last couple of days have brought up a number of interesting points. Blog titles of course can’t be copyrighted, but all the same, I’d rather not take the chance of stepping on anyone’s toes. Steven was very happy to share, but I wasn’t entirely sure based on his first posting. I admit: I incorrectly assumed the worst.
This brings me to the more interesting issue that Steven raised today about assumptions made over Web postings. He’s absolutely right – it is “the nature of the beast”. It’s also a fascinating topic given our increasing encouragement to library users to share their thoughts electronically.
As we promote social networking, it’s vital that we as librarians also think about educating users on how to communicate effectively over the Web, how to reduce the chance for misinterpretation, and how to better judge personal comments without assuming the worst (if that course comes about, I think I’ll be first to sign up!) 
How do you make up for the loss of visual cues over the Web? Do you say things differently in the blogworld than you do with face-to-face chats? Do you promote the use of smiley face emoticons? Or is clear and effective writing enough in the blog world?
Filed under: Blogs, Social Networking
Very hard, isn’t it, with all these different blog providers. I have one called Librarian’s Place (as a not very good play on “Place-ism”. But after I’d named it, someone came up with the far more appropriate title of OWL. In any event, I keep thinking someone is going to get cross becuase “Librarian’s place” seems like such a common title I am sure someone must have it.
My main blog is called petrona, and that is a whole other story as to how I came to have that title. Now I am truly stuck with it.
[...] Interpreting tone and inferring meaning in written communications is not an easy task – it is especially difficult in electronic communications. We all seem to jump to conclusions about what somebody really meant, and for some reason automatically seem to assume the worst. Listservs seem to be particularly plagued by this problem – and often conversations go downhill quickly. Blogs, of course, are also prone to these types of incorrect assumptions. Marie Palmer, in her newly renamed blog – Library Journeys . . ., discusses these issues in a post titled Assumptions in the Blogosphere. Marie writes: “As we promote social networking, it’s vital that we as librarians also think about educating users on how to communicate effectively over the Web, how to reduce the chance for misinterpretation, and how to better judge personal comments without assuming the worst (if that course comes about, I think I’ll be first to sign up!) How do you make up for the loss of visual cues over the Web? Do you say things differently in the blogworld than you do with face-to-face chats? Do you promote the use of smiley face emoticons? Or is clear and effective writing enough in the blog world?” [...]
Hi there!
It’s at:
Well, you’re now added to my no subscription required page of librarian weblogs, and you’re all fitted in nice and alphabetically, so please don’t change the name again!
http://www.pageflakes.com/philipbradley.ashx?page=4541261
Rgds,
Phil.
I am necessary wish to find