CC image used courtesy of holeymoon on flickr

My personally selected top 10 from the links I shared on Twitter from 2/12/2010 thru 2/18/2010

1. Why are you for killing libraries? a thought-provoking post from Tim Spalding of LibraryThing questioning why libraries are embracing ebooks, especially when the ebook market is set to cut libraries out of participation.
2. RT @vonburkhardt: New blog post: Ambient Awareness in Twitter for Reference – good suggestions on using Twitter to connect with your community
3. The Future of Media: Framing the Debate – from the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy – “The Federal Communications Commission has launched an examination into the Future of Media and Information Needs of Communities in a Digital Age with a public notice that calls for public input through March 8, 2010.” public input – thats you!
4. RT @VenessaMiemis: people share news online that inspires awe, researchers find – from the New York Times Will You Be E-Mailing This Column? It’s Awesome, we much prefer to share good news than bad news! hurray!
5. Friday Poll: TED Attendees Talk Top Technology Trends – an informal poll from Mashable in which they asked TED attendees – ““What do you think is the most interesting thing happening in technology right now?”
6. 8 Things You Need to Know About Collaboration – great list including number 3. Collaboration is a human process – throwing technology at people won’t magically/automatically create collaboration
7. The 10 Top Reasons Why The 10 Top Reasons Don’t Really Matter - you gotta love a list that debunks lists plus it actually has some good points like number  5. “Not everything that counts can be counted; and not everything that can be counted counts.” (Einstein)
8. Digital Books and Your Rights: A Checklist for Readers – I don’t care if you love or hate ebooks, as a librarian you need to know about ownership rights, they are different from print books.
9. History of media technology scares, from the printing press to Facebook. – fear that the latest popular technology is a sure sign the world is ending isn’t new.   “Conrad Gessner, might have been the first to raise the alarm about the effects of information overload. In a landmark book, he described how the modern world overwhelmed people with data and that this overabundance was both “confusing and harmful” to the mind.  … he died in 1565.”
10. RT @theREALwikiman: RT @LISNews How close is the library to death? The Unspeakable Truth Ned Potter’s essay for the LISnews essay contest takes a hard look at the place of libraries in the future. Be sure to read the comments too

Similar Posts:

• Top Ten Links Week 9
• Top Ten Links Week 24
• Top Ten Links Week 30 – Happiness, Social Media Comptency, eBooks, Digital Natives, Prezi, Facebook Privacy and More!

CC image courtesy of Bill Gracey - Gone to Mexico on flickr

The issue of control comes up over and over again when we talk about the online world. It recently it came up at Internet Librarian in many different ways, including:

• How do I stop a staff member from wasting time on Facebook?
• How do we control what staff are saying online?
• Management wants everything posted online (Twitter, Facebook, blogs etc) to go through PR.
• We don’t want employees to be able to access social networking sites?
• What about privacy?
• We can’t allow just anyone to post a comment without approving it first.
• How do we know a student is who they say they are?

I have answers to all of these questions, but these questions aren’t what this is about, what they represent is, control. Or the illusion of control.

The desire for control comes from fear. Fear of change, of the unknown, of doing things differently, of a situation not created by us, of taking risks. It is human nature to fear these things, it’s how we’ve survived.  So is adaptation and times are changing, just as they always do, and we need to adapt.

In the internet age your image/brand no longer belongs to you. It belongs to your customers. The things they have always been saying are now online for the whole world to see. The content and commentary they post about you may rank higher in search engines than your site or content. You can’t stop them. Every attempt you make will be like fighting the Hydra, cut off a head, two will grow back. I promise.

Prevent comments on your website? They’ll start their own blog or Twitter account or website. Implement a filter to block social networking sites? They will find a way around it (and you’re cutting off your nose to spite your face).

Stop wasting time trying to get control, you might be fooling your boss or the board or yourself, but you are not fooling your staff or more importantly your customers. Better yet, when you stop spending time trying to get control or pretending that you have it, it frees you and your time to address the real issues.

Still not ready to let go? Think about these questions from Andrew McAfee :

• Are you ready and willing to let more internal voices communicate and shape your brand over time?
• If not, why not?
• Is it that you don’t trust your people, or your customers?
• Is it that you don’t want any negativity at all to appear on your digital properties?
• Or is it that you’re afraid there might be too much negativity?

Still not convinced? Or need to convince someone else? Try reading these:

• The Illusion of Brand Control
• Power And The Illusion Of Control
• M.I.T. Taking Student Blogs to Nth Degree
• Case Study: Setting Content Free at Ford Motor Company
• What you can control and what you can’t.
• Social Media and The Reality of Control
• On Social Media And Culture Shift
• Why the 54% of companies blocking access to social media should unblock
• The Hazards of Leading Culture Change

*Up Next – What you can do after you’ve accepted control is an illusion.Similar Posts:

• How to Monitor Your Personal Brand (For Free)
• How social media can hurt your library
• The Hazards of Leading Culture Change