The site is a place for members and potential members of the LITA BIGWIG Interest Group (and interested parties) to gather, talk, and work on stuff. The site is completely open; anyone can create an account and participate (add/edit content). This FINALLY gives us a place to meet virtually and work together on things without having to come together face-to-face. (Not that meeting in New Orleans with beignets isn’t great). It is my fervent hope that this space can be a place where ideas are generated, filtered and implemented. Case in point, we will be working on determining the Showcase topics via this space.

Most of all, we want people to  consider this space a playground where Web 2.0 tools are experimented with to facilitate communication and collaboration among ALA/LITA participants. We will be continually trying out new things. So if you have ideas about what you’d want to see add them to the YourBIGWIG suggestions forum.

Please come participate in conversation.

This is the surprise that I’ve been talking to people about for months now. A full description of the Showcase is available on LITABlog and there will be a lot more to come on the official Showcase wiki.

The Social Software Showcase, in some ways, has been a long time in the making. The PTBs at BIGWIG (myself, Michelle, and Jason) haven’t necessarily been happy with the conference format or planning process at ALA for some time (both as participants and organizers). The policies and procedures for the conference planning process don’t work well for creating innovative and responsive programming on technology. They also disenfranchise ALA members who can’t attend the conference in person or whose conference schedules are jam packed due to face-to-face meetings where the business of ALA is conducted or giving conference presentations.

Projects like HigherEdBlogCon and 5 Weeks to a Social Library have shown that virtual conferences can work and for some people can be a more rewarding experience than traditional conferences. So why not show the world of ALA that a virtual conference can be done and bring different people, ideas and conversations to the table? Beyond that the Showcase is a way for us to reach out to librarians (and maybe even library users) and get them involved in conversations about social software without making a massive personal financial investment.

The Showcase is above all an experiment and a demonstration of social software in action. It was planned and executed using chat, Google Docs, wikis, Twitter, and probably some other tech I’m forgetting to mention. That in itself is worth taking notice of. So is our list of presenters which include some creative, thought-provoking, and unique voices in the library world. The presenters, other organizers and myself are looking forward to your participation in this program.