random thoughts

I feel as if I don't want to give up this blog just yet, or at all. I have come a long way and don't want to lose my thoughts about what I have learned. Last night at a book club I belong to, I was able to share with the folks information about blogging, twittering, and wikis and more. Many of us are quite new to the technology and it felt great to be able to share some of my newfound knowldge with these friends.

However, I have not yet used these much at work. I did tell a patron about Zoho, for saving his work. I have seen numerous patrons come in, type up information and then have no way to save it. Even though I have not yet shared much of the information I have learned with patrons, I feel grateful that I have become aware of these technologies and am not in the complete dark ages. I think my Goodreads link will be helpful for me when recommending to a patron a book I've read and can't remember the title. I haven't decided if it will replace my paper and pen journal for listing books I've read, but I am giving it a go.

The December 2008 issue of Money Magazine had a great article called "How Not to Act Your Age at Work," by Dan Kadlec. He discusses these new (new for some of us) technologies, and I understood what he was talking about. Everyone is talking about Facebook. Twittering, texting, wikis, and blogging are becoming staples of online business communicaton. You can actually glean important information from others twittering. He states that these are becoming more useful and quite necessary in the workplace. I am still wondering how folks get their work done, but it seems they must be doing both.

I was a reluctant joiner into this world, but I now can see the value for those who participate.

last but not least

I have completed the last exploration and must say, that although I started out reluctantly, and with very little knowledge of Web 2.0, once I got started, I enjoyed learning about these new technologies. I did need more that the posted suggested time to explore all the variables of each exploration, and had to do some at home. However, in the end, I am very glad I had the opportunity to learn about sites and activities that are being used and talked about daily.

The video we watched in Exploration 1 became much clearer and I can see where 2.0 continues to evolve daily. I enjoyed exploring the web 2.0 winners site, and found more that I hadn't heard of at all, so that exposed me to more interactive tools. I thought wetpaint.com was interesting because it combines features of a wiki, blog, social networking sites and forums. This could be useful for some patrons who would like it all in one location, or who might find it easier this way. I did recognize a few sites, like Craigslist, Monster, and Careerbuilder. I have come a long way, and my exploration is far from over, but I think I got a good start with this assignment.

stiki wiki

I spent quite a while exploring wikis today. I can see where they could be useful in a business setting, especially ones with multiple locations. The staffs could collaborate on any number of projects, programs, meeting topics and who's bringing what for snack to a face to face meeting.

Library websites can be set up so that patrons could add book reviews or comment about a book they have read. These personal thoughts on a book can be included with professional reviews.
The library system could provide a wiki on their website for local community use, as a gathering place of thoughts, ideas, lists of meetings, etc. similar to a business wiki. However, communities could also start their own wiki, and since it is web based and needs no webmaster, might it be difficult to keep the information current if not checked often by members? A group's web page has to be updated, but if done on a wiki, when the project is completed, no one need do anything.

I think as items are added and revised on wikkis, copyright issues could be a factor. Sticky situations have the potential to develop, and can pose challenges to the rightful writer or idea provider.

Online Office Tooling

After finally getting zoho.com to load once I signed in, and it seemed to take forever, I had a great time playing with all the buttons, changing fonts, using bullets and creating a table, loading a pic from the internet, and just tooling around the site. This could come in very handy for patrons who come without disks or flash drives, or money to purchase a disk from us. Although I have not yet directed a patron to try the site, I expect to in the near future. What a great way to save your materials and your work and be able to access it from any computer. I can see where some patrons would definitely like learning about this site.
I think site users still need to print out a hard copy of their work just in case of a who-knows-what. Maybe that's just my mindset, but I like having a hard copy of my work along with the computer saved version.

social bookmarking sites

I skipped ahead a bit, to Exploration 8. I explored del.icio.us and I am intrigued by the concept. I can see where this could be helpful to librarians, teachers, and even business people. Grouping favorite websites and links to one internet location, and tagging so that you can find ones that share the same or similar subjects, could be quite helpful. That you can even retrieve if your computer crashes, because it's saved on the web is a definite plus. This would be better than saving all your favorites on your computer. You label with your tags and then you can search for the ones you might want to use or search for the site you saved, but yet don't exactly remember which site it was. Patrons could benefit by knowing about this concept, and there are many sites now available for keeping your bookmarking info.
In the library, this could replace the old notebooks we organized for patrons on different subjects. Staff could save great sites for homework help, business and health help and so many more. I hope it does not, however, replace our recommended sites, which I find so helpful for patrons. Or perhaps, these could be added to the recommended sites.

youtubeing

Well if life doesn't imitate art.
Here I am just learning about all the new web2.0 information sharing, and my father shows up on you tube. This is amazing. He got interviewed for Veterans Day and spoke about World War II, his training, the D Day invasion, in which he participated, and other recollections of that time in his life. Now he is on youtube for the world to see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1EBexdLb3o

I still have a lot to learn.

Social Networking

Social Networking sites are appealing to all ages, it seems, and many people seem to be connecting and reconnecting via Facebook, MySpace and others. Folks find others, long lost friends and relatives this way. It has been an exciting time for some when they reconnect. This creates new friendships, renews old aquaintances, and for some, is a lot of fun. My grown children are on Facebook and have been encouraging me to give it a try. I am thinking about it as it would be great to catch up with old friends if they were posting also.

One of the benefits could be communicating with staff, if everyone had a link to the same social networking site. I guess if patrons are using these networking sites anyway, why not add library information into the mix. We know kids are definitely using the sites, and why not use this as a way of informing students about all the library has to offer.