Reflection

Well, finally made it to the end, and just in time before a new arrival to the Reid family!

I think my favourite part was looking around the photo sharing site, flikr. It's really interesting to see some fantastic images being shared by 'everyday people', rather than professional photographers. The free sharing aspect means you get to see images that people just think look cool (and they are), rather than what's commissioned by a news outlet, publication or organisation.
The technology I found the most interesting was the new web2.0 tool last.fm.
The operation of music recommendation in the cloud was something I had not condsidered with any great depth previously.

Concerning Tauranga City Libraries, I think tools such as delicious, RSS feeds and social networking would all have their place, but are only really supplementary at the present time. In the future, customer demand may mean that these tools will have to be developed further, and could become a pivotal part of how we interact with our patrons.
I think the most important part of the program concerning the library, however, was simply to introduce staff members to the web2.0 world. A program like this is a great way to ease people into exploring new technology, rather than fearing or resenting it. Again, as the general public become more aquainted with web2.0, the more important it will be for staff to keep up.

There were not really any unexpected things that really surprised me! Perhaps that is my own fault for taking so long to complete the program! I am reasonably happy with my own achievements in that I feel a little less apprehensive about new tech than I used to. Anything is worth a try, and if it's not for you, then you haven't lost anything. I didn't do quite so well in my time management goals - still need to work on that - but I have perservered!

I believe the program and the format were well considered and well thought out. The program was well-paced (as in, choose your own pace), relevant and worthwhile. I wouldn't change the format as such, but perhaps add in a few recent technologies such as twitter? Maybe iTunes also? Not quite sure how that could work.

Overall though, it was great, thank you to Elle for her hard work patience, and I'm glad to be finished!