Blogging Thing #23

This Discovery Program was really enlightening to experience because while I'm familiar with most of the applications as a user who learns as she goes, it was really good to get an overview of what's out there and what it's used for by other organisations/libraries. It was good to glimpse the underbelly of these highly technical yet highly useable applications.

My favourite and the most useful thing was cloud computing. The most unexpected thing was Library Thing; it's really fantastic when you think about it - I can't wait until all my books are up there!

Thanks so much and I'm really looking forward to the next 23 Things ... and then the next and the next ...

Blogging Thing #22

Yarra Plenty in collaboration with Brisbane City Council have an audiobooks service, which I am so lucky (being a BCC library member) to take advantage of. I've listened to a couple of books on my iPod but many of the audiobooks I want to listen to are only available for PC or to download onto disc - which is Ok until the book you want is 27 discs long!! There are some great titles available that are really easy to download. The most interesting part is the licensing which prevents you from "borrowing" the book for any longer than 3 weeks. I'm not sure how it works but it does stop working after 21 days. I just wonder if it also happens to the 27 discs??

Blogging Thing #21

My iPod is the best gift I've ever been given. I listen to podcasts all the time, especially the ABC Radio National variety. They have spoilt me because I have trouble listening to the radio now; I want to pause or rewind and listen again - it's become frustrating. iTunes is my preferred directory because I am an apple iMac tragic but it's been very interesting to check out the other podcast providers especially Yahoo. You get use to just going to the one place for podcasts; it's so good to know that there are many other podcast directories.

Since I updated to my iPod Touch, my new raison d'etre is Vodcasts. I love TED talks and the Flight of the Conchords - but I have to be careful as they soak up so much of our data allowance. I want to practice making my own - not that I have anything to say that is as worthy as the talks from TED or as funny as FotC!!

Blogging Thing #20

This week I'm going to do the things separately. Let's start with Kate Bush & Wuthering Heights - 'cause no-one does it quite like her!



YouTube is fantastic. We used it to study the music of the 1980's for the College quiz night and ended up making the Wham "Wake me up before you Go-go" costumes. But I loved this film clip of the very young Kate Bush doing all those kooky ballet moves. Well they didn't look so kooky back then (1979 I think) when I was even younger than her but copied her every move and the falsetto - I think I could still do it now.

As I am transferring all these across to my original blog, I feel I want to share another fantastic YouTube clip (it's on Google video too), not that anyone will see it here now but I want to practice this Thing - it will be useful to me. This version of Toto's Africa is worth sharing & that's what Web 2 is all about.



Now wasn't that worth it.

Blogging Thing #18 & #19

Cloud computing is one of my most favourite things. Online apps are great for sharing documents and I use them for sharing docs at the soccer club and for rosters, minutes, agendas and subcommittee reports at the P&C. While I used Zoho in this exercise, my favorite is Google docs. It is admittedly still Beta affected but it's advantages out-weigh the disadvantages. No longer do I end up with 20 versions of the same document/ss emailed to a fro from one person to another; it has streamlined all the voluntary work I do and made it so much simpler to negotiate.

YouTube, iGoogle and Twitter were three that I looked at from the award winning list. YouTube is a lot of fun with lots of wonderful clips that I'm so glad I've been able to view (there are many dodgy ones too but thankfully we can easily avoid them). iGoogle is so wonderful; I use it at work and at home it's my take anywhere desktop. In addition to work & home, I have tabs for the P&C, Music Supporters group and Newmarket Soccer - everything's covered. It's also my way into gmail.com and google docs; unbelievably convenient and so connected (no matter where I am or what computer I'm on).

... and now the one I don't quite get - Twitter. It's Ok, a bit like sms I suppose but can be a bit creepy. I signed on elected to follow Life and the onion (2 news services I like) and then 2 strange women followed me. Then the next time I logged on Kevin Rudd was following me (weird!). Not sure why the PM wanted to follow me. Anyway I deleted all of them and made myself follow-able by invitation only. I'm going to have to use it more to see if it's something I want to be part of.

Blogging Thing #16 & 17

Wiki are so easy to publish to, a bit like blogging really! No html or other mark up language and instantaneous - great improvement on Web 1. The Sandbox is a good name for what it is. I really like the naming conventions in Web 2, they tell it as it is.

As for collaborative website development using a really simple syntax structure wikis look like a fabulous idea for events and conferences - they'd be great for reporting on conferences, adding posts etc. I don't know how successful they would be in there encyclopedic function as we'd need a huge buy in from users. Wikipedia has millions of users but only 1% of those users post or are known as Wikipedian. (I'm proud to know a great Wikipedian of vast historic knowledge - James Hurst posts to History pages from Ancient through the Middle ages to more recent times too.) Perhaps as with most KM tools the buy in has to be monitored through performance and attached to bonuses - who knows. But I believe there will have to be great incentive for users to contribute.

Blogging Thing #13, #14 & #15

Del.ici.ous has devised a simple way to categorise and save my ever-growing bookmarks! It is great for getting some order into the world of social bookmarking but the librarian deep inside (who use to catalogue) is a little worried about the lack of control. However it is an easy process for our users who aren't interested in controlled vocab and just want to find stuff. Those users often know their subject well and just have to tease out a few keywords to find a world of resource once closed to them.

And then of course there's Technorati to help out with finding resources discussed and listed in blogs. It looks so slick too. Plus you see it on so many authoritative websites now. I don't think the ATO would use Technorati but the tagging concept will eventually take off. Once our users think of tagging as a normal ordinary tool to use - a little like sms, when it first emerged many people weren't interested, didn't understand it and didn't want to know how to use it ... but now it is just the normal way of life. Even those who were initially disinterested have taken to it. Much of the Web 2 and emerging technologies will be viewed similarly by those reluctant users; if the technology is truly useful.

The posts on Web 2, Library 2 and the future of libraries were interesting especially in noting how Librarianship is inherently collaborative so the "2" phenomenon will be easy for us. ;) Most professions today have to be adaptive and so with librarianship but that is something the profession has know (if a profession can know something) since before I entered it.