LITERANISTA Dialogue on Multicultural Books, Tech & Life

Literanista December 18, 2010

NYPL façade lit by klieg lights (Photo: oinonio)

On Wednesday, I attended a technology panel at the New York Public Library hosted by author and journalist Jenny 8 Lee, with Perry Chen (co-founder of Kickstarter), Chris Hughes (co-founder of Facebook, coordinator of Barak Obama‘s groundbreaking 2008 presidential campaign, and founder of Jumo), Roo Rogers (co-author of What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption, director of
Redscout Ventures), and Naveen Selvadurai (co-founder of Foursquare).

One of the things, that I really enjoy about attending discussions like this one is that the passion, innovation, and creativity held by the folks on the stage becomes palpable and you get to take home with you – gotta love the library!

Roo Rogers kicked off the discussion by noting how humanity as a whole is kind and generous, people want to share, and that is integral to the whole social component of the web.

He also spoke about how before consumption become a widespread phenomena within society about 50-60 years ago, institutions such as the NYPL were a font of collective knowledge that was shared publicly, and that we are witnessing a shift back to that sort of public access of information online and IRL. (Wikileaks, anyone?)

Naveen Selvadurai ascertained that the distinction between online and offline (or IRL) is no longer applicable. We are constantly plugged in. Networks like Foursquare, Facebook, and smartphones have made the boundary between the two blurred.

Another thing he noted is that while many people poke fun at the game aspect of Foursquare or trivialize it, it is after all, only one layer built on top of a service that is fundamentally about “social,” connecting with others off the web — the game is just a fun incentive or token to get users to engage and partake in the community.

Kickstarter and Jumo are both very inspiring in that the offer access to movements in a very easy and simple way. (Check out:  How To Use Kickstarter to Fund Your Publishing Project).

You can learn more about the cool events and year-long benefits of being a NYPL Young Lion member (such as movie screenings, panel discussions, private tours of the Library, the Young Lions Fiction Award ceremony and more) at nypl.org, and in addition to that,  you will will help the Library provide free access to the tens of millions of visitors in New York and worldwide who visit both online and in person.