Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Week 8: Online Applications & Tools

#19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

I'm cheating. I'm doing my blog on facebook, my absolute favourite new website where I have been throwing food, looking at pics, playing scrabble, growing gifts, playing tetris and meeting up with friends and family I haven't seen in ages. My lovely computer geek says that I am living in a virtual world, and wonders why I can't just socialise with these people off line. I reminded him that most of my facebook friends (almost 60 now - I feel very popular) are living in Italy, U.S, Germany and South Africa, and in fact about 30% are his cousins. It is fantastic that site that encompasses email, picture sharing, video hosting, games, calendering etc., etc., in one spot. I love my it.


# 18 Web-based Apps: They're not just for desktops

Hey. I've had a play with Zoho, and have to admit I'm not really a fan. I've been using similar free web-based applications for a while (remember my lovely computer geek? - need I say more). I can see why these applications may be a threat to microsoft in the future - why pay $x for a piece of software and licensing which can only be used on certain computers, when you can use a similar piece of software for free. But from my experience, these apps can be very cumbersome and clunky. My husband says it's because I have been "microsoftified". Perhaps it is.

It is nice to have your document sitting there waiting for you though. I remember when I was studying at uni - as well as saving my work to disk (all you youngens can replace this with USB), I would also email documents to myself so that I can access them from my web-based email on any computer anywhere. Isn't it fantastic that things can sit out there in the ether, for us to access whenever we need. Fantastic - but a bit wierd and scary if I think about it too much. hmmm ...

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Week 7 - Wikis

# 17 Playing around with PBWiki

Yay Hoorah. I've added my post to Favourite tv shows. I'm a contributor to a wiki! It's a very nice easy way to share information and resources. Although I am still a bit concerned about the quality of the information input! It may sound authoritarian, but is it really. I agree with the comment that it is nice to look at the references attached to pages on wiki's such as wikipedia. Alot of times that will give you a nice site to go to, that makes you more comfortable as to the quality and accuracy of information on the site.


#16 So What's in a Wiki

I had a head start on this one, because I know a little about Wiki's. Not only do I use wikipedia all the time, but also Lostpedia, which is a wiki on LOST. (yes, I am a Lostie - sue me!).

Library wiki's are great. Collaborative efforts by libraries with regard to resources, issues and procedures. I am still uncertain sometimes of the authenticy of the information placed on wikis and I wonder if they are policed in any manner?

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Week 6: Tagging, Folksonomies & Technorati

#15 Library 2.0 and Web 2.0

I know that a lot of the older Librarians in the field were very scared on the internet when it first gained huge popularity. Suddenly, there was a very big fear that the need for Librarians and Libraries w0uld become extinct. Why would anyone come into the library when they could just access information from their internet at home? What happened in reality however, was that the role of the Librarian changed from Information provider to Information facilitor, assisting library patrons to access and filter through the mounds of information available. I see the change happening again with Library 2.0 and web 2.0, Librarians will, must, need to be involved in the creation, collation, dissemination of information through these new technologies which are evolving. By keeping abreast of the evolution of these technologies, we will ensure that we don't become extinct.

#14 Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

I've been having a look around Technorati. A nice little site to browse and find bloggs. I see the difference between searching for the term Learning 2.0. Refined search to only searching for tags, gives us a lot less hits.

I equate the popular sites, to browsing the fiction/non-fiction trolleys at the library. You know how we do this to see what other people have been reading? Same with popular bloggs. Who has been reading what? Don't want to miss out so get onto that band wagon!!!!

# 13: Tagging, folksomonies & social bookmarking in Del.icio.us

Well, straight off the bat, I can tell you I'm going to be using Del.icio.us at home. I already see the benefit of it. Want to know why? Well, being married to a computer geek who only will use open source software, I often log onto my computer to find it has a new o.s. Last week it was SuseLinux (very green looking). This week it is Ubuntu (very brown looking). Anyway ... I digress. Granted my computer geek always asks me to save my documents to our network drive so nothing important gets lost. Nothing important except for ... my millions of favourite websites bookmarked and saved locally! Yay hoorah! Now I don't have to retype in my websites. They will be here at Del.icio.us no matter what my lovely computer geek does with the operating system. Delicious! I've been thinking about the extended uses also. The hard work in finding reputable sites on certain subjects - all at your finger tips. Other people have done the hard work and as long you think along the same lines as them in terms of "subject terms". Delicious!

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Week 5 - Play Week

# 12 Roll your own search engine with Rollyo.

Amazing! How exciting as a new mum, to be able to search my favourite kids information sites all in one spot! I created a search which enables me to search across ask dr sears, betterhealth and the baby whisperer. Very convenient .. and imagine the other applications we could use it for: searching for book information, events, subjects all across various popular sites. Saves our digits from doing the hard yards over and over and over again!

# 11 All about Librarything.

Here is a link to my Librarything catalogue:

http://http://www.librarything.com/catalog/bellakarmela

How cool. Now I can find other people who like the same books as me, discover books similar to what I like and check out what other people are reading! Also get to browse books by cover ... although what was that old saying ... never judge a book by its ....

# 10 - Online Image Generators: Here is a Warholized pic of some duckies!