Is Library 2.0 dead?

With the closure today of Ning Library 2.0 happening today, the decrease in blog posts and increase in micro blogging, it seems that library 2.0 as a meme is on the demise. In some ways this is true.
This maybe seen in the closure of the Ning site, in which Bill Drew said of its closure:-

The network has not seen much traffic the last few months and most people requesting to join are posting profiles full of link spam. The return is no longer worth the work. I am not transferring it to anyone else......... It grew far beyond my wildest hopes. At one point it got over 50 posts a day but is now getting less than 4 posts a month.

It seems that library 2.0 had lost its cadre of zest for many users. Although Bill points out many users and post joined at first this dropped. Without a conversation (and too much spam), people would disappear.

Other area's where there seems a decline in what has been termed web 2.0 is a decline or at least change in blogging, especially with some of the early library 2.0 bloggers. Jenny Levine's Shifted Librarian has changed her blog into a lifestream rather than a blog. This she describes as:-

lets me run a stripped-down version of my own personal Friend Feed (but without the comments on individual items). It totally rocks.

Michael Casey's influential Librarycrunch has become the Michael Casey blog, therefore its become an individual blog, rather than a more group/borg blog.

Brian Mathews blog the Ubiquitous librarian said recently:-

However I’ve noticed a steady overall decline in post quantity in 2009. Walt probably has an algorithm to measure that. I think the probable cause is that many of us were moving past the newbie stage of librarianship and were really starting to sink our teeth into the profession. Now we’re just too busy for constant online reflection. Additionally, Facebook and Twitter have evolved to replace the long form narrative (blog posts) in favor of quick bursts of ideas.

In many ways, the Library 2.0 seems a fallacy of the past. A word we used to start a conversation about. A word we used to bind us and throw around idea's. It was something new at the time.

Now, even the word library 2.0 seems dated, and we are now in the realm of semantic web/web 3.0.

Its a shame the ning site has closed, but that shows the speed of change in the digital/library world. Anyway, library 2.0 is not dead, as I would have to change my blog and thats not likely to happen.

Techdirt articles

Techdirt have a story today called College Libraries: Forget The Books, Host LAN Parties. This loos at how o get more users through the door. Although I do feel Jenny Levine has been doing this for ages!!!!!!!

More on DOPA and Social Networking Web Site Prohibition Act

Having discussed DOPA previously (1, 2, and that it had failed, but returned in a new guise when Senator Matt Murphy (Illinois) had introduced a new bill called Social Networking Web Site Prohibition Act, I was interested in Jenny Levine's article over on the shifted librarian blog called Senator Matt Murphy of Illinois Set to Ban His Own Blog from Libraries?.

She points out that in his blog that :-

In the blog post itself, Murphy sounds fairly reasonable and balanced, saying he filed the bill "to raise awareness of the threat predators on these sites pose to our kids" and "to advance a dialogue on how we can minimize this threat." Neither of these reasons really explains why he chose to introduce a full ban on a class of sites he can't even define (nowhere does the legislation explain what is meant by the term), but I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt as I read his responses anyway.

Unfortunately, I got as far as the 12th comment, in which Detective Bob Riordan, who is working with Murphy on this legislation, notes that Blogger is in the list of "top 10 social networking sites."

Crikey. How funny is that. You would have thought he would have at least checked his own blog out beforehand wouldn't you?

What site is Murphy's blog on? Blogger. So apparently, Murphy's current bill would ban his own site - where he hosted the "live chat" to discuss banning social networking sites in libraries - from being accessed in libraries, even by adults.in