2.0 Thoughts

We looked at a series of articles, entitled Web 2.0: Where will the next generation Web take libraries? My thoughts percolated over Dr. Wendy Schultz’s response, “To A Temporary Place in Time.” Schultz traces the library parallel for an economic chain of meaning, from commodity to product, to service to experience. Library 1.0 was the commodity (akin to coffee beans), while Library 4.0 will be the experience (akin to Starbucks). In between lies the buzz-crowned 2.0, a mere waystation in flux.

I like that analogy. I do believe the social experience folk are crowing over is a Platonic shadow of the experience humans crave, a virtual substitute for direct, genuine interaction. Genuine interaction tilts to a spiritual level; it is transcendent. Virtual interaction leans to a shadowy plane; it is mutative. Participants are leveraged and commodified.

A problem with Schultz’s end-state library Shangri-la: it, too, is economics-driven. It is unlikely that disadvantaged segments of society will find easy access to the luxurious thought-salons so delightfully described, especially as those hyper-refined settings will rely heavily on the largesse of private partners. Makes a good case for revisiting the Maxwell House, or whole grain Library 1.5.