The Library - Participatory

Question: What is the potential of the Web 2.0 in a radical conception of the Library and School and can these institutions enable the normative possibility of emancipation.The Web 2.0 act as a platform which allows the interconnectivity and interactivity of the proliferated range of content in the World Wide Web. It thus facilitates communication, information sharing, interoperability and collaboration for users, and development of services and applications through social-networking , video-sharing, wikis, blogs and folksonomy sites. In this manner it has become an 'architecture of participation'.Such a participatory architecture has implications for the Library and through employing instructional technologies in Education to enhance learning.
The idea of 'architecture of participation' resonates with Jenkins notion of 'convergence culture'. Jenkins three central concepts 'media convergence', 'participatory culture' and 'collective intelligence' descriptively explain the cultural logic of media and how media congruity has occured.
Similarly The Web 2.0 can be viewed as a convergence culture with a critical function in the Library and for Instructional technologies. The technological and cultural shifts have changed the relationships between technologies, market, genres and audiences to the level in which human communication and learning can be furthered and facilitated.
However, particpation leads to critical questions such as the digital divide. Can every individual access information in the converged borderless culture and hence the idea of 'participation gap'. The 21st Century Library and Schools can address the critical issue of participation and fill the normative role of democratic rights egalitarianism through the concerns of emancipation through education.
It is the Library and Schools central role in enhancing the democratic culture through the technological and cultural shifts affecting communication world wide. The issue of 'participation gap' is crucial therefore to the institutions of culture and learning.