Did the user and the world change in Spike City (Spijkernisse)?

Did the user and the world change in Spike City (Spijkernisse)? Not if I look at the somewhat passive attitude of the specialists and gp’s gathered around for a CEC-like event in the Ruwaard van Putten Hospital, organised by the library of that hospital. Probably, it was the long working day ánd the long staff meeting they had just before the meeting, that prevented them from massively engaging themselves in active discussions. Or was it the buffet and wine;-)

And no, their world has not changed that much, restricted they are by hospital rules concerning computer access and confidential data. Their workflow requires the most easy access to ejournals, ebooks and databases. That’s their primary concern, and that’s what triggered them to ask questions on occasion, while presented with new ways of searching and accessing MD Consult, OVIDSP and their local version of the Digital Library, developed by Ingressus.

My presentation about what has been going on óutside their scope, on the internet, with various web2.0 items, the next generation of users ready to step into their organisation, was maybe too irrelevant for them and it was my mistake not to have realised this before. Maybe it was good for them to see something of what is happening, but I should have made a bit more down-to earth. And again my old pitfall, trying to put too much in just too little time.

Most promising of this evening was their reaction to the various RSS services that will become available for them.

Tags: spike city, spijkernisse, rpz, mdconsult, ovidsp, web2.0, library2.0, ruwaard van putten, ingressus