And really, there were a number of people (not you) who talked about that session two days before who were already out for blood then. I’d never had such a negative reaction to SWIFT before the conference. It sucks. I don’t use it. But I did tell Kathleen some of the things I saw that were wrong with it and in a way that I didn’t think sounded angry (nor wishy washy either). I know that when someone talks to me the way people were shouting at her, I shut down. I don’t respond well to anger and I literally will not hear what they say. When someone offers me constructive criticism or advice, I will listen. I will take it to heart.

And I agree with you that the comments were good advice, but they didn’t have to be delivered in such an angry tone. If I’d been up there, I wouldn’t have heard it. I’d just have gone to the place I go when I’m being yelled at. But maybe that’s just me. Hopefully she heard the criticism and took it to heart.

I went in thinking I had the least to say and ended up sounding the most I angry I suppose. What I was experiencing was not anger though, but a sense of “let’s cut to the chase here.” In talking to customers, there’s no excuses. In the end, I feel I did a favor — honest angry sounding criticism is always better than polite, sweet waving while you watch someone’s ship go down. Frankly, I think the discussion at that session was worth alot. The comments were relevant, succinct, and damn good advice in my view.

Perhaps a more informal venue, earlier time, or wine and cheese would have helped; it just felt odd. I stayed after to talk a bit and hope that I conveyed the sentiment that we really do want to help. There were a few suggestions made at the end that I hope that Otter and ITI–and we, the attendees and presenters–will benefit from.

After thinking about this more, I think that the failures were due to an intersection of unfortunate circumstances: those who tried it have high expectations for web functionality and low tolerance for failure; we are intensely self-sufficient; we have little time to devote to something that adds no perceived value to what we already do. As Steve Lawson put it so succinctly, we already are in the habit of aggregating our own information feeds; no one in the room saw the need for a site that would do this for us, given the fact that we’ve already got our routines worked out. However, a fully-functioning Swift or a product like it might be useful for attendees who don’t have time or inclination to follow their own flickr, delicious or blog post RSS feeds. The key there will be unveiling the product in just the right way and providing the *right* information to the *right* group of potential users at the *right* time. …and we weren’t it, but we’re willing to help. Honestly, how many other conference planners would have provided this forum for us?

Have to echo that Computers in Libraries and Internet Librarian are the best conferences that I go to. The content is always fresh, relevant and exciting; nowhere else can I go to connect with so many like minds. This year’s CiL was simply amazing for me. Kudos to Jane Dysart and her crew for another stellar event, soup to nuts.

I like your idea! Not sure I could architect it, but it is a neat idea. And Steven Cohen would certainly be one of the top keywords. That and “hoochie coochie.” Yeah, it would be like Flickr’s hot tags feature.

Jeff, I totally agree that sometimes ideas should be killed and that this is probably one of them. I also agree that librarians tend to be demanding. There’s nothing wrong with demanding better products, but people will listen much better to criticism when it comes from a constructive place rather than a place of anger. Sometimes, librarians come at vendors in a state of extreme frustration and with few suggestions as to how to make it better.