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!
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Social Networking Sites
I'm a fan of social networking, and hoping to stay that way - without becoming obsessed. I used to have a bebo account, but currently have a facebook account for friends etc, and a MySpace account to follow bands/music.
I like the remote contact aspect the social networking allows; you can keep in contact with people who live 5km or 5000km away. I also like the 'post & reply' (or not) operation, rather than being in a real-time chat room (although I have used the chat facility on facebook myself). It's a good way to keep up with people and stay as close/distant as you like, without the personal 'closed' aspect of email. It's good to be able to use other tools - such as linking a picture or video to your profile - and say more than could have been expressed in text. Social networking sites also a good way to gauge what's happening in the world via the online community - just imagine if 9/11 had happened in this age of intense social networking.
As much as I like social networking, I do think there is a danger of liking them a little too much. One of my friends on facebook posts 5+ links etc EVERY DAY. I prefer quality, not quantity...
I also dislike the vapidity that can pervade these sites - I don't really need to know what so-and-so had for breakfast.
And one more thing I don't like lately is that some of the functions seem to change every time I login. A lot of the operations of the photo albums/comments, and how much access external private enterprise have to your account seem to change fairly regularly.
On the other hand, it's all free, so as long as you understand the privacy risks you shouldn't complain!
I like the remote contact aspect the social networking allows; you can keep in contact with people who live 5km or 5000km away. I also like the 'post & reply' (or not) operation, rather than being in a real-time chat room (although I have used the chat facility on facebook myself). It's a good way to keep up with people and stay as close/distant as you like, without the personal 'closed' aspect of email. It's good to be able to use other tools - such as linking a picture or video to your profile - and say more than could have been expressed in text. Social networking sites also a good way to gauge what's happening in the world via the online community - just imagine if 9/11 had happened in this age of intense social networking.
As much as I like social networking, I do think there is a danger of liking them a little too much. One of my friends on facebook posts 5+ links etc EVERY DAY. I prefer quality, not quantity...
I also dislike the vapidity that can pervade these sites - I don't really need to know what so-and-so had for breakfast.
And one more thing I don't like lately is that some of the functions seem to change every time I login. A lot of the operations of the photo albums/comments, and how much access external private enterprise have to your account seem to change fairly regularly.
On the other hand, it's all free, so as long as you understand the privacy risks you shouldn't complain!
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Embedded Video
This one has been 'doing the rounds' lately, so you may have seen it already.
It's a neat little snapshot of the good, the bad and a lot of other stuff in 2010.
And as someone said, it's good for librarians to know what the information needs of the people are!
It's a neat little snapshot of the good, the bad and a lot of other stuff in 2010.
And as someone said, it's good for librarians to know what the information needs of the people are!
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Local and social bookmarking
Local bookmarking
Local bookmarks are those that are stored on a local pc, under a login id recognised by the network. Commonly, these are organised in the 'favourites' menu and can be divided into folders.
It's an advantage to bookmark this way because of the ease in accessing it. It doesn't matter which page you are currently on, you just open the 'favourites' tab in your browser and follow the folder path. If you are the only user of that browser, or are extremely familiar with it, this works ok.
If many people use the browser, confusion can arise. You might know a site is bookmarked in favourites, but not exactly where - a mad folder hunt can ensue. If many people need to bookmark many things, the favourites and its folders can get quite messy. Another disadvantage of local bookmarking is that you can only access the bookmarks using the local id; from an external network you cannot access your bookmarks through favourites.
Social bookmarking
Social bookmarks are those that are stored in the cloud, using a tool such as Delicious. With a Delicious login, you can access all your bookmarks from anywhere that is connected to the internet. Instead of using folders, delicious organises the bookmarks with 'tags' - words used to describe the bookmark. A single bookmark can have many tags. By dispensing with folders, Delicious makes the task of organising many bookmarks easier. Instead of trawling through folders, users can search using the tags they think would have been used with the bookmark.
In a library environment, Delicious can be useful as often many different staff serve customers using the same workstation at different times. Use of a favourites menu could be an efficient task for a few, and a laborious trial-and-error process for everyone else. With a Delicous account, users need only search using tags and hopefully reach what they are looking for. For example, access to the official site of the NZ Government may be required, but the user can't find it in favourites...is it in the 'Government' folder? Or the 'Law and Legislation' folder?
With Delicious, one could search for tags such as 'government' and 'parliament' and bring up a list of bookmarks, one of which is the desired one http://www.beehive.govt.nz/
Also specific to libraries could be the efficient tagging of the many, many reader's advisory sites.
The Delicious account makes it easy for all staff to access and add to bookmarks from any pc that is connected to the internet.
A disadvantage for me personally is that Delicious is yet another program to have open and running all the time, whereas the fovourites are just there in the menu bar of whatever window you are viewing.
Local bookmarks are those that are stored on a local pc, under a login id recognised by the network. Commonly, these are organised in the 'favourites' menu and can be divided into folders.
It's an advantage to bookmark this way because of the ease in accessing it. It doesn't matter which page you are currently on, you just open the 'favourites' tab in your browser and follow the folder path. If you are the only user of that browser, or are extremely familiar with it, this works ok.
If many people use the browser, confusion can arise. You might know a site is bookmarked in favourites, but not exactly where - a mad folder hunt can ensue. If many people need to bookmark many things, the favourites and its folders can get quite messy. Another disadvantage of local bookmarking is that you can only access the bookmarks using the local id; from an external network you cannot access your bookmarks through favourites.
Social bookmarking
Social bookmarks are those that are stored in the cloud, using a tool such as Delicious. With a Delicious login, you can access all your bookmarks from anywhere that is connected to the internet. Instead of using folders, delicious organises the bookmarks with 'tags' - words used to describe the bookmark. A single bookmark can have many tags. By dispensing with folders, Delicious makes the task of organising many bookmarks easier. Instead of trawling through folders, users can search using the tags they think would have been used with the bookmark.
In a library environment, Delicious can be useful as often many different staff serve customers using the same workstation at different times. Use of a favourites menu could be an efficient task for a few, and a laborious trial-and-error process for everyone else. With a Delicous account, users need only search using tags and hopefully reach what they are looking for. For example, access to the official site of the NZ Government may be required, but the user can't find it in favourites...is it in the 'Government' folder? Or the 'Law and Legislation' folder?
With Delicious, one could search for tags such as 'government' and 'parliament' and bring up a list of bookmarks, one of which is the desired one http://www.beehive.govt.nz/
Also specific to libraries could be the efficient tagging of the many, many reader's advisory sites.
The Delicious account makes it easy for all staff to access and add to bookmarks from any pc that is connected to the internet.
A disadvantage for me personally is that Delicious is yet another program to have open and running all the time, whereas the fovourites are just there in the menu bar of whatever window you are viewing.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Other Web 2.0 Applications
I had a play with last.fm - http://www.last.fm/home - as a Web 2.0 tool. It won 1st place in the 'music' category of SEOmoz's Web 2.0 awards 2007 (a little old now, but I hoped it was still good).
Last.fm is a social networking music recommendation service. You create an account profile, enter some of your favourite music artists, and start playing some tunes through the last.fm player.
Last.fm can recommend other artists you may enjoy based on what you have listed, but the service really gets specific through use of 'The Scrobbler', last.fm's own music tracking tool. By downloading The Scrobbler, last.fm can then keep track of every song you play, how often you play it, how often you play similar artists, how similar your tastes are to your friends etc, and then recommend other music you may like based on the results. Use of the The Scrobbler makes last.fm's music recommendation service quite specialised to each profile, and bases it on 'hard evidence'.
You can also import your listening history to The Scrobbler's 'memory' using your iPod or PC media player.
The social networking part is that you can join discussions, comment on artist pages, and make 'friends' with others who are like-minded.
The biggest thing to like about this service is that hopefully you can uncover some awesome new music you didn't know you liked, based on what you've been listening to. It's fairly easy to use and download The Scrobbler. I'm still not clear about licensing for all the tunes you are able to play...perhaps worry about that later.
Overall it's a cool idea, and you probably end up with things closer to your personal tastes than if someone was to say "oh, you like this & I do too, so you should also like this because I do too".
But therein lies the other side of music discovery - you sort of lose the magic of stumbling onto something that someone suggests, or you randomly hear in the music store, or read about an artist that seems like they might be your cup of tea.
Also regarding how last.fm makes recommendations based on what you have already listened to - if my real music-listening life had followed that pattern, I'd have missed out on some good stuff. Just because I've been lost in a sea of alternative-rock/metal stuff for days, doesn't mean I can't appreciate some more ambient/synth-based/roots or whatever now and then.
I would recommend this to others, therefore, who have a love for specific genres, and want to know if there are any uncovered gems they don't know about (and keep your last.fm player to that genre).
How could I use this in my job - um...
I guess if there was a similar book-reading tool? Put in the books you love, and the service will make recommendations based on what you're read? Again, good if you're into a narrow literary field, maybe not so good if you're quite eclectic.
Last.fm is a social networking music recommendation service. You create an account profile, enter some of your favourite music artists, and start playing some tunes through the last.fm player.
Last.fm can recommend other artists you may enjoy based on what you have listed, but the service really gets specific through use of 'The Scrobbler', last.fm's own music tracking tool. By downloading The Scrobbler, last.fm can then keep track of every song you play, how often you play it, how often you play similar artists, how similar your tastes are to your friends etc, and then recommend other music you may like based on the results. Use of the The Scrobbler makes last.fm's music recommendation service quite specialised to each profile, and bases it on 'hard evidence'.
You can also import your listening history to The Scrobbler's 'memory' using your iPod or PC media player.
The social networking part is that you can join discussions, comment on artist pages, and make 'friends' with others who are like-minded.
The biggest thing to like about this service is that hopefully you can uncover some awesome new music you didn't know you liked, based on what you've been listening to. It's fairly easy to use and download The Scrobbler. I'm still not clear about licensing for all the tunes you are able to play...perhaps worry about that later.
Overall it's a cool idea, and you probably end up with things closer to your personal tastes than if someone was to say "oh, you like this & I do too, so you should also like this because I do too".
But therein lies the other side of music discovery - you sort of lose the magic of stumbling onto something that someone suggests, or you randomly hear in the music store, or read about an artist that seems like they might be your cup of tea.
Also regarding how last.fm makes recommendations based on what you have already listened to - if my real music-listening life had followed that pattern, I'd have missed out on some good stuff. Just because I've been lost in a sea of alternative-rock/metal stuff for days, doesn't mean I can't appreciate some more ambient/synth-based/roots or whatever now and then.
I would recommend this to others, therefore, who have a love for specific genres, and want to know if there are any uncovered gems they don't know about (and keep your last.fm player to that genre).
How could I use this in my job - um...
I guess if there was a similar book-reading tool? Put in the books you love, and the service will make recommendations based on what you're read? Again, good if you're into a narrow literary field, maybe not so good if you're quite eclectic.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
RSS and Newsreaders
What do you like, or not like about RSS feeds and newsreaders?
I like that it's a quick way to see if there's anything 'new' on what you are interested in...
Overall, however, I dislike that a reader account is just another thing to keep track of. I can see how if there were news/info sites that contained information that was critical to one's job or lifestyle, it would be a big advantage to get updates in a reader, rather than methodically chasing websites around.
But I am not in the position yet of being a very important person with very important things to keep up with - any feeds I would subscribe to are really entertainment/personal interest based, and having feeds to all of them would quickly pile up. I'd probably need another 'reader' to remind me of what's happening in the reader itself.
I also dislike that a blog I subscribed to would show updates from the blog in the Google Reader reading list, but not the number of comments on each post. I consider this to be important in looking at a blog - not only is it interesting to see other opinions, but even a simple tally of comments gives a good reflection of how relevant the blog-reading public finds the blog topic.
Personally...yeah, I could subscribe to things that I'm into, but I prefer to leave them for when I've got time for browsing. Having it all filtered into a reader makes it seem like a job almost, having to check your reader all the time to see what's up. Somehow I think I prefer the random nature of 'recreational' interests.
Not to knock people who love their readers - I'm sure they get a lot out of them.
There are a few things that I 'need' to keep track of, but they're more niche than general news/updates e.g. for a rare vinyl record I'm after, I have signed up to a couple of sites to get them to email me when someone offers the record for sale. And that format of updating is all I think I need at present.
How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this technology?
Libraries could offer RSS feeds on when their site is updated with news items (like our new Film Archive viewer) or upcoming events (like Teen Mean Reads). There could be updates for new items that have been added to the collection, or for book reviews.
It would be a useful way of informing people who do not visit the physical library very often; rather than periodically checking the library website, people who subscribed could see if there was anything that interested them through the reading list.
I like that it's a quick way to see if there's anything 'new' on what you are interested in...
Overall, however, I dislike that a reader account is just another thing to keep track of. I can see how if there were news/info sites that contained information that was critical to one's job or lifestyle, it would be a big advantage to get updates in a reader, rather than methodically chasing websites around.
But I am not in the position yet of being a very important person with very important things to keep up with - any feeds I would subscribe to are really entertainment/personal interest based, and having feeds to all of them would quickly pile up. I'd probably need another 'reader' to remind me of what's happening in the reader itself.
I also dislike that a blog I subscribed to would show updates from the blog in the Google Reader reading list, but not the number of comments on each post. I consider this to be important in looking at a blog - not only is it interesting to see other opinions, but even a simple tally of comments gives a good reflection of how relevant the blog-reading public finds the blog topic.
Personally...yeah, I could subscribe to things that I'm into, but I prefer to leave them for when I've got time for browsing. Having it all filtered into a reader makes it seem like a job almost, having to check your reader all the time to see what's up. Somehow I think I prefer the random nature of 'recreational' interests.
Not to knock people who love their readers - I'm sure they get a lot out of them.
There are a few things that I 'need' to keep track of, but they're more niche than general news/updates e.g. for a rare vinyl record I'm after, I have signed up to a couple of sites to get them to email me when someone offers the record for sale. And that format of updating is all I think I need at present.
How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this technology?
Libraries could offer RSS feeds on when their site is updated with news items (like our new Film Archive viewer) or upcoming events (like Teen Mean Reads). There could be updates for new items that have been added to the collection, or for book reviews.
It would be a useful way of informing people who do not visit the physical library very often; rather than periodically checking the library website, people who subscribed could see if there was anything that interested them through the reading list.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Photo - Pygmy Hippo
This will link to a picture of a pygmy hippo calf on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobby-jo/3067208810/in/pool-ilovehippos
It was taken by someone calling themselves 'meercat woman.'
I found the picture interesting and slightly disturbing at the same time.
Though it looks like it could make a good pet - it would probably eat any veges you didn't want.
Another thing I found interesting and disturbing was the discription of the group - ***Pygmy Hippos*** - on Flickr:
" For sharing photographs of pygmy hippos ONLY. No other types of hippo or other animals. No toy, ornamental or dead hippos. All photographs that do not comply with these rules will be deleted."
They sound like they mean business.
I took my leave of Flickr before I began to dwell overmuch on the prospect of pictures of dead hippos.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobby-jo/3067208810/in/pool-ilovehippos
It was taken by someone calling themselves 'meercat woman.'
I found the picture interesting and slightly disturbing at the same time.
Though it looks like it could make a good pet - it would probably eat any veges you didn't want.
Another thing I found interesting and disturbing was the discription of the group - ***Pygmy Hippos*** - on Flickr:
" For sharing photographs of pygmy hippos ONLY. No other types of hippo or other animals. No toy, ornamental or dead hippos. All photographs that do not comply with these rules will be deleted."
They sound like they mean business.
I took my leave of Flickr before I began to dwell overmuch on the prospect of pictures of dead hippos.
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