Why 2.0?

I came across an interesting post made by Steven Harris on his blog about the why of 2.0:

"I think it is really healthy to ask “why” when you think about innovation. I think it is really healthy to do the same when you want to maintain the status quo. Here are some of my responses to, why 2.0?

Information technology is changing. We can let corporations do everything and lead us down paths that we don’t like, or we can take an active role in the design and implementation. We can also give our users more opportunities to provide input. There is no status quo to stand on here.

2.0 is about giving people greater control over the information and the data they want (and have found). It makes sense to give them that power. It doesn’t make sense to withhold it.

2.0 makes doing research and finding things easier and more effective. It provides people with more related data about topics they are interested in. It gives people better results and therefore saves them time (money).

2.0 gives me more data about user behavior and interests. It improves my collection development and curatorial skills. But, in accordance with another old (well, not so old) library principle, I only use data that is anonymously or freely given.

2.0 makes people feel engaged in a process and an organization, in this case libraries. The people I speak of are both the user and the librarian.

2.0 isn’t just a blog and a wiki.

2.0 doesn’t mean library services like collections and reference go away. 2.0 makes the provision of these better.

If 2.0 can make the current beast we call an OPAC go away…it is a good thing."