21-Flickr Power

Ok, after readnig the two posts by Micael Stevens my mind is all-a-twitter. I can see the importance of protecting children by alowing the filtering; however,it has been my experince that the library community does tend to go for the worst case scenario first when deciding about whether or not to use new technology. Bad instances will happen but those will probably be few and far between and we can't prevent all bad things from happening. Some people are going to circum-navigate filters, rules and protocol for their own means. The bad tends to leave a stronger more lasting impression unfortunately. Why can't we have our cake and eat it too? If we can turn off the filtering for children with parental supervison and afults why can't we advertise that customers can access these sites with that caveat. I know that people in my library system, myslef included, are finding the new filtering is saving us from having to replace so many computer chairs, if you know what I mean. I think because of this nice change of events there has been a reluctance to tell people that the filtering can be turned off for adults or those children with parental supervision. Maybe I don't know enough about the law and there is some part of it that says we can't "advertise" that the filters can be turned off. But if there is nothing preventing that then we should use it to our advantage with some careful signage/advertising that will attract teens and adults who would like to use social networking sites like flikcr and others-IMHO. As for tagging, yes it is important for the site and many others in finding things and even people you may or may not be looking for.

Additionally, just by browsing the flickr posts that Michael Stevens listed I found my mind racing with a lot of new ideas for programs and acitivities just by seeing what other libraries are doing. I believe that is one of the many benefits social networking sites can provide to all..idea-generating/sharing.