#19 Dicovering Any Site from Web 2.0 Awards

First I played and explored YouTube some more since it was the first place video winner under 2007 Web 2.0 Awards. I have used this site before and I thoroughly enjoy it. Today I searched "babies" and saw some of the funniest laughing babies videos you could ever want to see. Someone even condensed the top three laughing babies into one video. What a hoot! YouTube's useful features are that you can search easily, see how long each video is before you view it, and see the rating for each video and how many rated it. You have to be a member to rate a video but you don't have to be a member just to view a video.

The second place winner under the visual arts category was Swivel, which rather surprised me when I explored it. It surprised me that it was under the visual arts category because it incuded much information that I didn't think was actually related to visual arts. I found the sight rather fascinating because of the factual, numerical data that included statistics and graphs! The following was one of the articles featured on the home page. Unfortunately, I cannot show you the photo or graph here, however.

Spotlight Aviators and accidents

Source: Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association
July 24 commemorates the 110th birthday of famed female pilot Amelia Earhart. She is internationally celebrated for her accomplishments as a pilot; she was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic and the first woman to fly across the US. However, she may be even more famed for her legendary disappearance in July 1937 near Howland Island in an attempt to fly around the globe. Today, most fatal accidents are caused by pilots; in 2005, pilots were responsible for 75 percent of total accidents and 83 percent of fatal accidents. This graph shows the causes for the deadliest pilot related accidents.

I think this site could be very useful for students or anyone researching a subject where they need facts, figures and/or photos. I like statistics and graphs because they show a great deal of factual information in a relatively small space. Often times students can't find this kind of information readily but they might like to use a user friendly site such as this one.

#18: Online Productivity Tools

The following is my first document from Google Docs. After I copied and pasted it, I realized the photo didn't copy because it isn't a jpg format so I'll have to do another for this blog to look attractive! The one to the left is another photo of Bermuda.

From what I have read about Google Docs & Spreadsheets, I think I am going to like it. This is actually my first document and I am experimenting with it at this point. I don't see where I can set margins or where the page actually begins and ends like you can with Word, but I like the fact that this "app" is available on every computer without different versions. I think I will try and insert a photo here of one of my favorite places, Bermuda. It worked! This seems fairly user friendly so far.

Now this is my second document and it's a spreadsheet. Can you figure out the simple pattern I created? It's like one of those math SAT questions!

First Heading Second Heading Third Heading Fourth Heading Fifth Heading$456 524 759 143 679$567 243 486 239 876$1023 767 1245 382 1555$2046 1534 2490 764 3110

Well, obviosly, the spreadsheet format couldn't be copied and pasted to look like a spreadsheet here, but you get the idea. I feel more comfortable using Word and Excel but I'm sure that's only because I am use to them and this is a change for me. But they are very similar and with practice, trial and error I can see where these "apps" could become very popular and Bill Gates may have some stiffer competition!

#17: Playing in the Sandbox Wiki

As with week 5, I liked this activity because I got to "play." I enjoy the freedom of expressing my own thoughts and writing comes easily to me, as does talking! I created an account and thanks to the advice of Paulette, I unchecked the box that said to send me new emails when new info was added. I already receive enough email and don't need hourly reminders of changes. I added a new page entitled Favorite Activity into the Sandbox Wiki so please feel free to add to this newly created link on the homepage. A also made a comment in the Favorite Vacation link, which required editing a page. Finally, I added my blog to the Favorite Blogs page. It all wasn't too complicated, just new, like most of these 23 Things are to me.

#16: Learn about Wikis

The reason for the Hawaiian dancer is because I discovered "Wiki" means quick in Hawaiian!

One of the things I found interesting about Library 2.0 in 15 Minutes a Day is the method of completing this task in 15 minutes a day! At first it seemed like a great idea but upon further introspection, I realized it wouldn't work for me. When I really get into learning something such as 23 Things, I tend to go deeper and deeper into the "lesson plan" clicking link after link and time can fly into a few hours at a time to explore the many facets of the "Thing!" An aspect about this wiki that I liked was the fact that one has self-created goals that one can pick out of a total of 43 Things. This way one is only learning what one really want to learn. One then shares with others that have the same goals.

Book Lovers Wiki was very entertaining to me but then again I am a book lover! I loved the idea of a SRP for adults where great prizes(certificates for dinners, lunches, salons, books and even bagels) were donated by local merchants. This wiki was VERY user friendly. Anyone could register for the SRP by email, phone or in person at the Princeton Public Library. A person would then receive one raffle ticket for each review written, which could be submitted by email or handwritten where a technical person at that library would then put into the wiki. Reviews were encouraged to be posted with abbreviated names. Another feature I liked was the "guestbook" so that you could view the wiki without being registered. I loved the entire concept! I know HCPL has a blog on Readers Place which is very nice too. I'm not sure which method works better for readers advisory, i.e., blogs or wikis. What do you think?

After reviewing the Bull Run Library Wiki, I was somewhat dumbfounded. It was explained to be a wiki in progress and boy did they mean it! Although it had some great reference sources (I especially liked the math resource and online dictionary with english-spanish translation), the entire site was disjointed in my humble opionion. But then that's what a work in progress is I guess! I saw it has having potential but a good technical organizer needs to put things in their place and not just list things without rhyme or reason.

#15 Read a Few Perspectives on Web & Library 2.0

If you didn't take the time to watch the YouTube video "The Machine Is Us/ing Us", you might want to. The music alone is worth the watch. This professor from Kansas State U. ought to be in the marketing business instead of cultural anthropology!

After reading several of the perspectives on Web and Library 2.0, I found many interesting opinions. Rick Anderson at the Univ. of Nevada, Reno Libraries, said there was a 55% drop in circulation drop in his library. Well sure, he works for a university library where most of its customers are 18+ year old young adult students who are all products of the technological era! I agee that libraries no longer have the monopoly power they once held, however, I can't say that the Web is the preferred environment (yet) for ALL public library customers. I believe he is speaking from a purely academic view. I also agree that we need to be integrating our services into user's daily patterns of work, study and PLAY.

The perspective that seemed least biased was actually the one from Wikipedia because it mentioned different points of view for Library 2.0 in the "debate" section. It mentions that some librarian bloggers argue that the key principles of Library 2.0 are not new and have been a part of the service philosophies of many library reformers since the 19th century. For example, Library 2.0 comprises a combination of tools and attitudes which are excellent ideas but not new, a few business and tool-focused attitudes which will not serve all users and incorrectly places libraries as the sole source for all users to gather all information. Others, who have spoken to these criticisms argue that while pieces of Library 2.0 are not entirely new, the convergence of these service goals and ideas with many new Web 2.0 technologies has led to a new generation of library service. I happen to agree with both statements!

#14: Technorati

Technorati, in my opinion, was a little more user friendly that del.icio.us. This videocast I could actually view too, unlike the del.icio.us one. When I tried looking at Technorati doing a keyword search for "Learning 2.0" in blogs, posts and tags, I did get different results. I'm not sure where the Blog Directory search was but my guess is that would be different as well. I explored the top favorited blogs, top searches and top blogs. I was not surprised that the top search was YouTube and not really surprised that the favorite blog was Boing Boing since it is about world cultural curiosities and interesting technologies. I was surprised that Engadget was the top blog with over 30,000 postings making Boing Boing the #2 blog. Evidently, people like to post about gadgets and list cultural curiosites as their personal favorites. The Engadget site to me is for all those geeky techies out there.... no offense intended. I wish I were more "geeky" myself!

#13: Tagging and Discover Del.icio.us

Berries and cream mean delicious!


Yesterday I registered an account with del.icio.us and installed the buttons on my computer at work. Today I decided to continue Thing 13 by tagging at my home PC and realized I didn't have the buttons installed on my home PC. I read the FAQ and discovered that I needed to go back to step 2 of the registration process to install the buttons on my home PC. I guess it's the little things like this that aggravate me the most. It seems to take so long to figure out something so simple. My understanding is one of the main purposes of having del.icio.us is so our favorite bookmarks can be on multiple computers. But in order to do this, the buttons have to be installed on those PCs so that's why I'm writing about this in my blog today. Once I installed the buttons, it was quite easy to bookmark my favorite websites and tag them before saving them. Here they are so far:

my del.icio.us
KDL What's Next Database
Blogger: Dashboard
PLANET M&M'S
July
Maryland Libraries Learning 2.0
Passport: HCPL's Staff Connection
Harford County Public Library Home Page
del.icio.us/register I am pmkap on del.icio.us Add me to your network

I don't necessarily see this as an easy tool for research assistance. Maybe if I used it regularly, I would become more comfortable with it like anything else. However, I can see del.icio.us as an easy way to access bookmarks from anywhere.