Having had such a big break since I last looked at the training I had to go back over it a bit, just to make sure I new what I was doing. Not sure I do but I know that there's at least one thing I want to go and work with properly again, and that the RSS feed reader. I can see that I can be utilising that a lot more for work purposes rather than the random sites I added to it at my first go around.
I'm actually up to the wiki section and I had read it all and had a look at the Learning 2.0 favourites wiki, then got caught up in other stuff, before I commented on it and registered as completing. I found this one to be a bit pointless, of course it was just for the exercise, but have used iread and another one since for finding information I've found useful.
Will need to add a few to my feed reader so I can keep track of them properly. I 'm sure they are now the way to work on anything collaboratively. Being able to see all the documents, every body's comments, the progression of ideas through the comments, definitely helps to move things on quickly without going over old ground.
Wikipedia, however, is something I'm taking a long time to feel comfortable about. I think this stems from, my nieces and nephews, studying at University level tell me that all you need is Wikipedia to find out anything. This is despite me telling them how unreliable it truly can be. Hopefully they are just winding me up! But somehow I don't think so.
I know that it is moderated and a close eye is kept on the information and many people help to notify of errors, but I am sure there is much unverified material on it that others are taking as if it were written in stone. I suppose I just need to think of it, as The Daily Telegraph, instead of expecting it to be The Australian.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Tagging, Del.icio.us etc. - The possibilities are endless, cost saving but potentially skewed.
These new technologies provide a new and interesting way of making connections between people and between ideas and between people and ideas!
Del.icio.us is great the way it is used for the library website. It's instananeousness(?) Ability for many people to add to the general content of the site. There is also the ability for staff to create groupings of links that they think will be of use/interest to the public, but which don't have a high priority for our web guru! Thus taking the pressure off.
Having looked at Ann Arbor's use of bookmarking for their catalogue, I'm ambivalent about customer tagging. I can see that there is the potential for some excellent links to be created between items you wouldn't instantly think of. Take the tag 'Environmentalism', I know you are thinking you'll be lead to heavy tomes on saving water, salinity, climate change and the like. Wrong!! Try Simpson's movie, The Lorax and The Omnivore's dilemma. There was another on living in a post carbon world, but these first few were a refreshing surprise, totally correct in their labelling but not what I would have thought of myself. An excellent use of the technology to value add.
However....there are also plenty of customer tags for many things which would bring up bigger and better hit lists, had the customer used the boring old catalog search. The Bob Dylan tag provided 26 hits. The catalog, keyword search, however brought up 111 items. There is a danger here of people duplicating what is already possible with the catalog search, instead of using tagging to create something new and illuminating. Not really a problem as long as people remember to search via both options.
The other reservation with this usage is skewing of library content. Ann Arbor obviously has a few GenYer's who are very Web2.0 savy and are using the library's del.icio.us account to create their own personal catalogue. Music, graphic novels, anime and fantasy themes dominate the tags in the Cloud. These are all, if you like recreational topics. I think it is more likely that taggers will tag when exhibiting recreational behaviour, rather than when studying, so the more academic topics will be left behind.
It's concievable that library funder's will see tags as a way of tailoring collections to the subjects that 'library users' are using most frequently. This would have implications for all those who are not Web2.0 savy, or who do not have the time to waste adding content to the net generally. Or know nothing about the Net at all, and really don't care! Just give them library shelves to browse, they'll make their choices on their own.
Oh my Goodness, haven't I raved here. That's enough. Tags are good, tags could be bad.
Del.icio.us is great the way it is used for the library website. It's instananeousness(?) Ability for many people to add to the general content of the site. There is also the ability for staff to create groupings of links that they think will be of use/interest to the public, but which don't have a high priority for our web guru! Thus taking the pressure off.
Having looked at Ann Arbor's use of bookmarking for their catalogue, I'm ambivalent about customer tagging. I can see that there is the potential for some excellent links to be created between items you wouldn't instantly think of. Take the tag 'Environmentalism', I know you are thinking you'll be lead to heavy tomes on saving water, salinity, climate change and the like. Wrong!! Try Simpson's movie, The Lorax and The Omnivore's dilemma. There was another on living in a post carbon world, but these first few were a refreshing surprise, totally correct in their labelling but not what I would have thought of myself. An excellent use of the technology to value add.
However....there are also plenty of customer tags for many things which would bring up bigger and better hit lists, had the customer used the boring old catalog search. The Bob Dylan tag provided 26 hits. The catalog, keyword search, however brought up 111 items. There is a danger here of people duplicating what is already possible with the catalog search, instead of using tagging to create something new and illuminating. Not really a problem as long as people remember to search via both options.
The other reservation with this usage is skewing of library content. Ann Arbor obviously has a few GenYer's who are very Web2.0 savy and are using the library's del.icio.us account to create their own personal catalogue. Music, graphic novels, anime and fantasy themes dominate the tags in the Cloud. These are all, if you like recreational topics. I think it is more likely that taggers will tag when exhibiting recreational behaviour, rather than when studying, so the more academic topics will be left behind.
It's concievable that library funder's will see tags as a way of tailoring collections to the subjects that 'library users' are using most frequently. This would have implications for all those who are not Web2.0 savy, or who do not have the time to waste adding content to the net generally. Or know nothing about the Net at all, and really don't care! Just give them library shelves to browse, they'll make their choices on their own.
Oh my Goodness, haven't I raved here. That's enough. Tags are good, tags could be bad.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
I have found flickr interesting. Some absolutely wonderful photos and some very boring ones. Can't seem to get the using the photos for my blog bit right though. But I'm keeping on trying, maybe this time.
Yeah! It worked!
This photo is called Fracture and it's by Dave Apple.
Guess what? Accepting the terms and conditions of the use of the photo really makes a difference. I suppose doing this not right on closing time and being too rushed probably helps too! Gee it takes a bit of time to get your head around these websites. There is too much information or chance to go off on a tangent and lose the original thread.
Not too sure how we would use Flickr as a tool for the library. Except as an archive of all our photos, but not sure that staff would be too happy with that. Local Studies photos maybe?
Since I did so well uploading this photo. I tired to do another in this same blog and couldn't get it to go where I wanted, so gave up. Don't think I have enough patience left!
Friday, February 1, 2008
Fantastic Photos
I think I've just uploaded a picture, but can't be sure so and since it's just about closing time I'll think I'll leave this now and tidy up!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
RSS Feeds and Aggregators
Ok so now I have a fair idea of what these tools are all about and how to use one if I want to. They are a good way of getting the latest info on a topic you are passionate about being up to date with. I do think they could be another way of wasting time, along the lines of email. I suppose it depends on if you try and read everything that comes through from the sites you have added to your aggregator or if you just skim it for the truly interesting bits.
I now have an idea how all the State Library consultants seem to have endless time to browse the web for interesting articles to send out to all, on topics which appeal to many, who do not have the time to read them let alone act upon the content. At least I think this is how they are doing it!
I will continue to add to my aggregator as sites of interest pop up, but I know my problem will be remembering to check it out. Is there a way to link it to your email? Google yes I presume,no time now to explore (going home!) but not to council email for work related material??
I now have an idea how all the State Library consultants seem to have endless time to browse the web for interesting articles to send out to all, on topics which appeal to many, who do not have the time to read them let alone act upon the content. At least I think this is how they are doing it!
I will continue to add to my aggregator as sites of interest pop up, but I know my problem will be remembering to check it out. Is there a way to link it to your email? Google yes I presume,no time now to explore (going home!) but not to council email for work related material??
Writing for the sake of writing
As the exercise is to try out a blog and see what it's all about, I have to have more than one posting apparently. This is harder than you think for a person who is not a talker for the sake of talking.
I've started to realise that those who find it hard not to fill in silences, are the ones who can write creatively with very little trouble. They can come up with something to say in any instance because, as long as they are saying something all appears right with the world.
Therefore the blogging world is probably filled with people who feel the need to talk even when they have no-one to talk to. The advent of the web and blogging has probably saved a few from being thought 'nutter's', as they are not seen to be talking to themselves! Or on the otherhand maybe those who may have become authors in order to be heard, will get stuck online and never progress to conventional publishing. Then again, is this an outdated concept?!
I've started to realise that those who find it hard not to fill in silences, are the ones who can write creatively with very little trouble. They can come up with something to say in any instance because, as long as they are saying something all appears right with the world.
Therefore the blogging world is probably filled with people who feel the need to talk even when they have no-one to talk to. The advent of the web and blogging has probably saved a few from being thought 'nutter's', as they are not seen to be talking to themselves! Or on the otherhand maybe those who may have become authors in order to be heard, will get stuck online and never progress to conventional publishing. Then again, is this an outdated concept?!
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
What am I doing here?!
Never been very good at expressing myself in print or at sharing my opinions, even with friends. Yet here I am, creating a Blog which potentially could be read by multitudes. More realistically... just by a few, and that will be too many.
I'm being dragged into this 21st Century method of communication for the good of my professional health, which is not a bad thing. It will, I'm sure, be of use in my other life as well, just knowing how communication methods develop and evolve will stand me in good stead with the children, when they start going mad with this type of thing.
I also don't want to be one of those persons, whether young or old, who say, oh I don't know how to XXXX and I can't be bothered knowing. For XXXX insert anything from SMS to, I suppose, Blogging!
There is only going to be more methods of communication which will evolve from each other, and if I at least dabble in each one as it comes along then I'll have a better chance of a relationship with any potential grandkids, than I otherwise would.
I've never given much credance to the idea of virtual lives, as in Second Life, thinking that sort of thing is basically for those who don't want to change themselves, they just want to give up and start again. After reading the KPMG report, and Cory Ondrejka's section Second - Real - Life, however, I can see that it has a great deal of potenial for people to try things first anonomously, that they wouldn't dare to in real life. Thus the online life could actually enhance the real life, once confidence and knowledge is gained.
Not thinking of going there myself...yet. But have certainly changed my thinking. And that was just Task 1 of the training program. Imagine where I could be by the end of Task 9, if I can keep my mind open that long!
I'm being dragged into this 21st Century method of communication for the good of my professional health, which is not a bad thing. It will, I'm sure, be of use in my other life as well, just knowing how communication methods develop and evolve will stand me in good stead with the children, when they start going mad with this type of thing.
I also don't want to be one of those persons, whether young or old, who say, oh I don't know how to XXXX and I can't be bothered knowing. For XXXX insert anything from SMS to, I suppose, Blogging!
There is only going to be more methods of communication which will evolve from each other, and if I at least dabble in each one as it comes along then I'll have a better chance of a relationship with any potential grandkids, than I otherwise would.
I've never given much credance to the idea of virtual lives, as in Second Life, thinking that sort of thing is basically for those who don't want to change themselves, they just want to give up and start again. After reading the KPMG report, and Cory Ondrejka's section Second - Real - Life, however, I can see that it has a great deal of potenial for people to try things first anonomously, that they wouldn't dare to in real life. Thus the online life could actually enhance the real life, once confidence and knowledge is gained.
Not thinking of going there myself...yet. But have certainly changed my thinking. And that was just Task 1 of the training program. Imagine where I could be by the end of Task 9, if I can keep my mind open that long!
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