Sunday, February 10, 2008
#23 the Alpha and the Omega , or, the Spiral
This is neither the beginning nor the end, but a continuum. Thanks for the 23 things. I had a great time. What did I like best? I thought the image generator tools were fun to play with. They made me giddy and in the mood for a good laugh. LibraryThing is another thing. I am excited to work with it more. I haven't found the time yet, but it's a delightful way to keep track of favorite books. I also loved Zoho, because it indulges the design lover in me. It also lets me gloat at Google, a rare opportunity. I also enjoyed reading everybody else's blogs, or at least skimming them from time to time. You all found some really neat stuff! Before the 23 things, I already loved del.icio.us, YouTube, RSS feeds, and podcasts, but this activity keeps them fresh and in mind.
Believe it or not, this endeavor also helped me to improve upon some of my learning tendencies. For example, it helped make experimenting with technology fun for me, when it's sometimes scary. I was able to use my ease with playing to leverage my unease with technology. Additionally, 23 things made it easier for me to keep a Web 2.0 "learning toolbox," because everything I learned about is saved on my blog, so I can return to it later when I need it.
Happy Surprises?--Rollyo! I'd seen Rollyo mentioned around the Web, but I had been too lazy to check it out. Now that I've used it, I can't believe how powerful it is. There's so much potential, and I really loved Jackie's suggestion to use Rollyo to search our Best Bets guides. Cool that Devin put a Rollyo search box on his blog!
How can you improve this experience? Do it again in 2 years, with new and different tools for us to learn. I loved it the way you did it, thank you! I would definitely participate again.
#22 Pass it On.
I helped our part time Reference Librarian, Jo-Anne, to use del.icio.us to catalog "ready reference," or "quick information" websites for use by our patrons. She learned quickly. At first, del.icio.us can be confusing for newbies, because the navigational links are on the right instead of the left (bad design, I think). Also, if tagging is a new concept, the logic behind it may not seem obvious at first. Del.icio.us also takes a little while to update itself sometimes, especially once a new bundle has been added. At first, this problem caused some difficulty, because it made it look like the work we'd done to bundle our tags didn't really work. Once I showed Jo-Anne that all she had to do was reload her page (sometimes, 2 or 3 times), it made sense. A lot of del.icio.us users don't use bundles to group tags into clear categories, and I know why--bundling can be tedious, but it is useful, especially for what Jo-Ann and I are attempting here. The most important thing when teaching Jo-Ann to bundle was to let her know that a tag to be grouped into a bundle should already exist, before the bundle is created, because a bundle won't show up unless tagged items have been categorized within it. Take a look at Jo-Anne's work here: http://del.icio.us/Quick_Information.
I also taught some members of the faculty about del.icio.us, and I pointed them to our DNLworkshops del.icio.us page at http://del.icio.us/dnlworkshops. I learned something from them in doing this. First, that we always need to include the name of whatever resource we're teaching about AS A TAG, and second, that we have too many descriptive tags, which they find confusing. KISS is the rule here.
I look forward to teaching more people about various web 2.0 tools, and I'm sure I'll get the chance!
#21 Podcasts
I mozied around in the suggested podcast directories, but I like even better NPR's Podcast Directory. Check it out! NPR has a great section in their directory for books (look under "podcast topics"). I have subscribed to the NY Times Book Review Podcasts, as well as our own lovely Nancy Pearl's book review podcasts. Check out my blogroll (under "podcasts," at the bottom), at http://rpc.bloglines.com/blogroll?html=1&id=monaleeislam&target=blank
if you'd like to see. Do I think these are useful?--HeAL yeah! Do I think these are awesome, you betcha I do. Listening to these may be a fun alternative to reading book reviews, whenever the inclination strikes. Hello library collection development. Yee-haw!!!
if you'd like to see. Do I think these are useful?--HeAL yeah! Do I think these are awesome, you betcha I do. Listening to these may be a fun alternative to reading book reviews, whenever the inclination strikes. Hello library collection development. Yee-haw!!!
#20 YouTube of Toothpaste
I LOVE Prangstgrup, so I had to post one of these videos. Most of you are probably familiar with their "Library Musical: Reading on a Dream." If you haven't seen that, then WATCH it, you won't regret it. I found their "Public Hygiene" (getting to work on time at any cost) quite amusing, too. Watch it below:
What's not to love about YouTube, other than the videos that really are a waste of time? Many of the videos are very funny, and this is a revolution, whereby people can self-publish their videos. I love the fact that YouTube makes it easy to share videos through e-mail and blogs like this. It's also cool that you can join a discussion about a video you liked or couldn't stand, and you can search by topic or keyword for videos. YouTube also hosts contests for those submitting videos. A library might adapt these ideas on their website by highlighting particular materials owned by the library and asking patrons to make a video to "advertise" the book/movie/whatever, then give an award out to the best one. Or, the library could link to users' research inspired videos hosted on YouTube. I'm just brainstorming here--so far, I'm not really big on these ideas, but it's something worth mulling over and maybe something will develop over time and discussion, or just fall from the sky one day.
What's not to love about YouTube, other than the videos that really are a waste of time? Many of the videos are very funny, and this is a revolution, whereby people can self-publish their videos. I love the fact that YouTube makes it easy to share videos through e-mail and blogs like this. It's also cool that you can join a discussion about a video you liked or couldn't stand, and you can search by topic or keyword for videos. YouTube also hosts contests for those submitting videos. A library might adapt these ideas on their website by highlighting particular materials owned by the library and asking patrons to make a video to "advertise" the book/movie/whatever, then give an award out to the best one. Or, the library could link to users' research inspired videos hosted on YouTube. I'm just brainstorming here--so far, I'm not really big on these ideas, but it's something worth mulling over and maybe something will develop over time and discussion, or just fall from the sky one day.
#19 Web 2.0 Awards
After examining several of the Web 2.0 award winners, I settled on 
.
That's an image link, so go ahead and click it if you want to visit the site. Upcoming is a fantastic concept in action: Join a community of people interested in catching the best events in their favorite locations and areas of interest. It's neat that you can register a location, then search by a topic, such as gardening. I did this, and found out about the CT Flower and Garden show coming up in Hartford on February 23rd. If you'd like to meet up with folks in a particular interest group visiting the same event as you, this tool connects you. In some cases, you can subscribe to RSS feeds. For example, someone registered the Cloisters in this tool, and there was an RSS feed for Cloisters events. The only problem was that that person registered it in 2004, and no events were ever loaded, apparently, so it's a dead area in the site (and while the Cloisters lists upcoming events on their web site, there is no convenient RSS feed there, either). You can also monitor a particular location. Doing so for Fairfield, CT, is easy, because not much is in there. The Fairfield Theater Company is listed though.
I wish every cultural institution/park/venue/community group would become a member of this tool. I don't care if it would amount to a lot of self-promotion--at least it would be very convenient and useful. I for one need some easy help with planning events on the fly. With a busy life, it's hard to keep track of all the great things going on and pick one before it all passes by. This tool isn't that useful to me yet, because so much isn't in there, but the potential is great. Of course, I could by-pass this tool entirely if places like the Cloisters would just publish an RSS feed. On the other hand, this tool offers something extra: serendipity and social networking. You can join groups, add your own events, tag things by topic, and connect with others who share your interests.
Library applications? Who has time, but if we had time, we might keep track of local events of interest in our liaison areas, post them in here, and guide students to them--some extracurricular learning for the kids! I don't see why we couldn't also post philanthropic activities in the local area. That reminds me, there was a whole category for philanthropy on the Web 2.0 Awards page.
.That's an image link, so go ahead and click it if you want to visit the site. Upcoming is a fantastic concept in action: Join a community of people interested in catching the best events in their favorite locations and areas of interest. It's neat that you can register a location, then search by a topic, such as gardening. I did this, and found out about the CT Flower and Garden show coming up in Hartford on February 23rd. If you'd like to meet up with folks in a particular interest group visiting the same event as you, this tool connects you. In some cases, you can subscribe to RSS feeds. For example, someone registered the Cloisters in this tool, and there was an RSS feed for Cloisters events. The only problem was that that person registered it in 2004, and no events were ever loaded, apparently, so it's a dead area in the site (and while the Cloisters lists upcoming events on their web site, there is no convenient RSS feed there, either). You can also monitor a particular location. Doing so for Fairfield, CT, is easy, because not much is in there. The Fairfield Theater Company is listed though.
I wish every cultural institution/park/venue/community group would become a member of this tool. I don't care if it would amount to a lot of self-promotion--at least it would be very convenient and useful. I for one need some easy help with planning events on the fly. With a busy life, it's hard to keep track of all the great things going on and pick one before it all passes by. This tool isn't that useful to me yet, because so much isn't in there, but the potential is great. Of course, I could by-pass this tool entirely if places like the Cloisters would just publish an RSS feed. On the other hand, this tool offers something extra: serendipity and social networking. You can join groups, add your own events, tag things by topic, and connect with others who share your interests.
Library applications? Who has time, but if we had time, we might keep track of local events of interest in our liaison areas, post them in here, and guide students to them--some extracurricular learning for the kids! I don't see why we couldn't also post philanthropic activities in the local area. That reminds me, there was a whole category for philanthropy on the Web 2.0 Awards page.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
zohonobozo
No Kidding Zoho, You're no Bozo!
by Ray of Hype
I almost took the easiest route and used Google Docs & Spreadsheets, because I already have an account in that. I'm glad I tried Zoho, instead!
Yeah, this document was published FROM ZOHO DIRECTLY TO THIS BLOG!! Wow. I'm impressed with Zoho. It offers more features than Goole Docs & Spreadsheets. Nice formatting! Zoho is NO BOZO. Very exciting.
Zoho Writer is what this document is. But Zoho also offers an online meeting tool. I downloaded the Zoho Meeting thing. I played with the spreadsheet, too. Wow! It does so much of what Excel offers. This blows me away. The notebook feature is pretty cool, too, because you can upload images and sound and share it! This almost makes Google Docs look clownish. I have to revisit this!
Yeah, this document was published FROM ZOHO DIRECTLY TO THIS BLOG!! Wow. I'm impressed with Zoho. It offers more features than Goole Docs & Spreadsheets. Nice formatting! Zoho is NO BOZO. Very exciting.
Zoho Writer is what this document is. But Zoho also offers an online meeting tool. I downloaded the Zoho Meeting thing. I played with the spreadsheet, too. Wow! It does so much of what Excel offers. This blows me away. The notebook feature is pretty cool, too, because you can upload images and sound and share it! This almost makes Google Docs look clownish. I have to revisit this!
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