Relevance to me as a future information professional

I approached each week’s technology focus with an open mind, and this meant that I did not limit my use or understanding of the applications in terms of library and non-library suitability. However, after exploring the features of many web 2.0 technologies I did engage in research about how the main ‘category’ of technology could be used (e.g. social networking and bookmarking). Most are used socially as well as for scholarly purposes, but not everything that can be used in a library context must be to do with books or educational materials. I enjoyed the flexibility and creativity with which information professionals can incorporate wikis or blogs into their service portfolios, and use social networking sites to maintain and promote library services online.

The web 2.0 applications that have been of particular professional relevance to me are:

• RSS feeds (learning to make a blog or post available for subscription, subscribing to feeds)
• Blogs and wikis (ways to update information and have a current presence, or create a group forum for working on a project)
• Social bookmarking (being able to tag and share recommendations)
• YouTube videos (there are so many explanatory resources online about computing topics)
• Maps and mashups (locating library facilities and creating resources online; also making a mashup by drawing on data from external sources to enrich services)

I also found it beneficial to learn about and ‘play’ with sites like Twitter. Even though I, personally, cannot see the relevance of this social ‘updating’ site to library context. It was interesting to discuss issues like this with my blogging group, as well as seeking other perspectives from professional literature.

This assignment has increased my confidence when it comes to technology. I have to admit that I thought I was technologically incompetent, and had to overcome personal barriers in order to freely explore and experiment without holding myself back. It would be wonderful if this assessment task could be continued in the future, as it seemed to help us to define and work within the transformative space between ‘student’ and ‘information professional’. There is still much to learn, but I am further along that journey than six weeks ago. It also helped me to build on my collaborative skills. The girls in my group and I assisted each other with understanding and using the different web 2.0 technologies. An example was how my recent post helped Katie, in particular, to consolidate her idea of what a mashup is through looking at examples.

Evaluating the experience

From my perspective, this assignment has been both challenging and immensely rewarding. I have to say, that I knew almost nothing about any of the technologies that I have learnt to use/navigate through the web 2.0 tutorial. I initially felt that it was too much, too fast and that we were thrown into the deep end. I struggled throughout the assignment in terms of having to spend a lot of time understanding, using and then blogging about my experiences with the technology. In regard to the learning outcomes of this assignment, I believe it was a success in terms of my ongoing and self-directed learning of new technologies and skills.

The small tasks each week were an excellent way to learn. I felt that each week’s tutorial task had just the right amount of content (theory), and guidance (the suggestions for what to blog about). The only downside that my entire tutorial class found was the intensity of the web 2.0 tutorial in conjunction with the other course-related work. The workload became difficult to manage because we did not finish all of the tutorial tasks in class. This meant that we had to catch up with these tasks, stay up to date with readings, while maintaining our progress through web 2.0.

Possible improvements that could facilitate better learning outcomes for next year’s students would depend on whether the course co-ordinators would prefer depth and breadth, or a more broad and superficial focus on current technologies. The assignment effectively engaged us in contemporary technologies through the weekly tasks, but the time constraints have meant that my understanding and ability is at an introductory (low/medium) level rather than a high level of skill. Basically, if students are expected to demonstrate a higher level of skill and understanding than we have (collectively) shown – changes should be made to the work load of the course so that the tutorial tasks and web 2.0 assignment clash less in the early stages of the semester. Similarly, focusing on fewer technologies in greater depth could assist students in learning at a deeper level.

Thinking in terms of assessment

We have been advised to look at the assessment criteria for our blog assignments in order to reflect on our own learning. I would say that our group has fulfilled the collaborative and interactive elements of this assignment almost without thinking about them. Personally, I have read each post contributed by the members of my buddy group, and tried to comment on those where my feedback could be helpful or relevant. I only commented and interacted on the blogs of my buddy group, but I did discuss issues with people from other blogging groups and view their blogs through the ‘student blogs’ part of the Blackboard site. As a group, our communication was both positive and constructive. For example, the latest entries on the topic of mashups illustrate how we have engaged in online discussions, suggested resources from individual research on the subject, and presented our own ideas (attempting to synthesise definitions) in order to improve our collective understanding of what has been confusing us.

I found that my group fostered a productive and supportive atmosphere which encouraged experimentation. This factored into my own willingness to persist with tasks that seemed daunting or difficult (e.g. Google Maps and social bookmarking difficulties). Whenever I encountered a problem I would research and test solutions, either by using the internet or in the case of my delicious difficulties (with the add-ons on my IE7 browser) contacting the site itself. Other people would comment on my posts and advise possible solutions to my problems, and relate their own experiences with the technology/software. This was a mutual process that my group members and I would engage in – try, try again, blog about it, get advice, keep on trying…evaluate the problem and/or the usefulness of the application.

Since all of the technologies and applications we have been introduced to through the web 2.0 tutorial have been unfamiliar (and some…darn intimidating!), my focus has been on understanding first and applicability second. This was necessary for me, as I could not discuss the potential value of these technologies in a library context without adequately understanding the functions and features of each application. This assignment aimed to equip us with the knowledge and skills to be better information professionals, and I feel I am in an improved position to suggest possible resources in a library and help users of the resources to try and problem-solve their difficulties. On a personal level, this has been a fantastic confidence building experience for me. Despite only briefly exploring these new technologies, I feel like I know ‘what is happening’ in the web 2.0 environment. I did not even know what web 2.0 was before I started.

My blog has, seemingly, become organic in the way it has changed and developed through what I have been learning. You probably cannot see all the ways I have grown in my knowledge – I know I still have a long way to go – but I have become far more tolerant of myself experimenting and making mistakes. This is a far more forgiving medium for learning than prescriptive exercises from a textbook, as each person can work at their own pace and choose from a variety of options within a task.

An unfinished journey…initial reflections

I have been thinking about how I could encapsulate all that I have learnt about web 2.0 technologies into one final blog entry. However, I do not believe that this is the intention of the final blog reflective task. For me, this has been a personal journey of discovery that will not end with a mark being given to me for my blog at the end of this assignment. I will continue to learn and grow in my skills-base as an information professional long after this course is over.

I feel that doing this task through the medium of a blog established a platform upon which to build a familiarity with contemporary web 2.0 technologies and applications. For example, through personalising and managing my blog I learnt how to:

-manage privacy settings, time settings, choose basic layouts, and become a follower of my buddies’ blogs

-add gadgets to give my readers access to other information that would enhance their experience when reading my blog (e.g. RSS feeds from library blogs through the ‘blog list’, subscription to YouTube Lee Lefever’s channel, etc)

-use Google Reader (as Blogger is part of the Google network of applications) and share items on my blog, subscribe to my buddies’ blogs and receive updates from other library/technology blogs and websites.

I found the social interactivity of this group assignment to be invaluable to my learning process. I would not have made half of the progress in my individual learning if my buddies had not been there to explain, give technical advice or simply to understand my frustrations. I still feel like a novice when it comes to this technology, and most of the applications we have been exposed to will require a lot more time to learn and actually apply to a library setting.

All mashed up...

It seems that mashups are our confused tech. topic of the week. I thought that I would try to find some information about them by seeking to answer a few key questions.

What is a mashup? What is its purpose?

'A mashup is a web application that combines data from multiple external sources' (from the web 2.0 online tutorial: Week 6A task)

'Mashups are an exciting genre of interactive Web applications that draw upon content retrieved from external data sources to create entirely new and innovative services.' (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-mashups.html)

Mashups seem to be created in order to fulfil a need (see examples), and combine data sources in new and innovative ways to make information more accessible and convenient for users. The data or content for these mashups can be in the form of RSS Feeds, which are like what we subscribe to on Google reader, and similar applications.

What are some examples of mashups?
http://www.programmableweb.com/ Search this site for mashups. It also has a mashup of the day, as well as information about the new mashups that have been put on the web.

In the YouTube video that I have embedded below, the video's creator explains in simple (Loretta-friendly) language about what a mashup is - and he gives examples! I have listed a few of the examples that are mentioned in the video (with links), in case you are interested.

• AnthemsOnMap
• Map your buddies (a mashup of Facebook, Google Maps and Amazon)
• Twittervision 3D
• Cloudme.com (searches Yahoo, Flickr and YouTube by using these three APIs at once)
• Tuneglue (very cool, creates a sort of visual web of music and similar artists)
• VDiddy (combines many APIs)
• Yahoo v Google (compares the results of both search engines, leaving you to take the best ones)
  
  
  

As he says in the video, mashups utilise the functionality of other APIs, and lots of these mashups seem to be map-based in their core concepts. Mashups ( to be legitimately considered a mashup) should have more than one API involved.

I hope this has helped everyone, it certainly clarified my understanding of mashups.

YouTube delight

I am very surprised how I have taken to YouTube as a website! I always avoided it because I thought its main demographic was teenage boys who wanted to share random videos about themselves (remember that boy who wanted people to "LEAVE Britney alone!"). But YouTube has become a favourite site of mine, and I really like having my own account. It lets me share videos with friends through my inbox, save videos to my favourites when I view them, subscribe to different channels and have videos recommended to me based on my predilections (on the customised homepage). This morning I discovered two new things:

1) I can create a playlist (which I made into a Library and Technology videos playlist) and move videos there from my favourites, or save a video I like straight into it after viewing. That is, as long as I am logged in to my account at the time.

2) I saw on my home page a link to YouTube Edu. This is fantastic because it lets you search the videos and channels from colleges and universities affiliated with YouTube. They had some interesting lectures on web 2.0 and libraries. Check it out if you're interested (they are a little too long to embed, they would slow the blog down...).

Below is a mocumentary about a (fake) application called Flutter, it really shows that people are thinking and talking so much about the possibilities of Twitter that the mocking inevitably follows! Seriously, though, it shows that the possible advantages of a new technology need to be balanced with the possible downsides of using it (suitability and purpose). I know that we blogged about whether twitter could truly be useful for libraries or whether this is just trying to adopt a new fad. The jury is still out on that one, in my opinion.

You inspire me too!

I decided to re-examine the template, layout and style options for my blog, as everybody this week seems to be getting a new cyber-look! I perused the available templates, but I quite like this green version of the tick tack template that I currently have. Instead, I changed some of the font colours of the headings and post titles. It's a subtle change, but it adds a little colour where there was grey.

A bit of a shout-out of appreciation: thanks for always sharing your ideas, tips and strategies for getting through both the content and the blog set-up of this course. It's been invaluable to me and I appreciate that everyone is always so open-minded and helpful. Almost a shame that this assignment will be over soon...well, maybe :-)

Trouble using delicious browser buttons

I know it's off the topic for this week, but I was wondering if anyone had any advice for me in regards to my trouble using delicious. I (finally) got access to broadband from home. Yay! But, I have been trying to save bookmarks using the tag icon on the internet explorer toolbar I downloaded from delicious and it keeps needing me to type in my password and log in each time. I don't mean to be showing techno-rage here, but it has the temerity to display on the screen 'saving bookmarks would be much easier with delicious browser icons'!!!

Please let me know how you would go about sovling this problem. I have even tried downloading the toolbar again. No change.

Thanks.

Mashups: Helpful videos and a mashup I use

I found two YouTube videos which helped me to further understand what mashups and APIs are: the first has a lot of technical language (which went a bit over my head) but it illustrates how the people who use APIs for data exchange with other sites (like Amazon.com and YouTube) can use this to make money from people who use these applications (e.g. a search) through their site.



The second video is from YouTube itself, and shows the viewer how to create data and player APIs on your website. It turns out that the video bar added to my site is a type of data API! Another type of data API would be having a search function for YouTube videos on your site, or a way to upload data from your site to YouTube. I used the player API function to make the ‘skin’ of the player match the green colour scheme of my blog.



According to Programmable Web I already use a mashup in the form of my Facebook profile. This mashup has become very useful to me because I can link to my favourite YouTube videos through the ‘box’ I recently created on my profile, and I am discovering many other ways to add data to my profile from external sources. The Programmable Web article http://www.programmableweb.com/api/facebook/mashups has a list of the applications available through Facebook which can be added on to your profile page, and thus create a mashup. I searched through the applications available from my own account on Facebook and even found one called ‘flickr2facebook’ which is a bookmarklet that can add a Flickr photo straight into your Facebook album. I think that mashups are valuable tools for web users because it makes data available to access in one place, even if the data is from multiple sources.

Mashups… another unknown

I did find the articles about mashups to be very technical, but my basic understanding is that a mashup is a website that draws on lots of different types of web content (e.g. pictures from Flickr or videos from YouTube, etc). These require APIs, which are Application Programming Interfaces that are “a set of functions that can be called from an application program to access features of another program” (http://www.gravityfree.com/resources/glossary.cfm). From reading the articles on Blackboard, I would agree that APIs are complicated and require a high degree of technical knowledge to work with. When trying to find some examples of APIs that I could relate to, I discovered the Twitter API is one of the most popular APIs used on the web today. Here is the link to the Programmable Web article on this topic. It includes some information on the latest Twitter applications – you’d appreciate this Amy! Check out Cursebird: Real-time feed of people swearing on Twitter.

http://blog.programmableweb.com/2009/02/19/120-twitter-mashups-and-growing-fast/

Apparently social networking sites have led to the development of interesting mashups because people integrate pictures, videos and RSS feeds (among other data sources) into their personal pages. Do you think this shows that people are creating mashups almost without thinking about it, as sites are providing ways of doing this without needing expertise?

I took a look at http://www.gurulib.com/, but I could only gain access to the small portion of public data (without having created an account). It has images of book covers, ads/links to Amzon.com to buy books, links to ‘read a sample’ of a particular book as an e-book, as well as profile pages for members with links to Facebook applications, etc. I am unsure how to figure out ‘where the data is coming from’ as this week’s task asks. But, I would say that integrating the (above) listed data from external sites makes it a mashup. What do you think?

Going further with Google Maps

I went to this Google Maps help site because I wanted to know how to add pictures into my placemarker description. I then typed in the following instruction in HTML language, I was so proud of myself! I actually applied what we learnt in this week’s tutorial, and it worked. (PS: I included the actual command here, but clicking 'publish post' meant that it turned into the actual picture - even though I wrote the command in 'compose' view).



I added pictures of the destinations onto Zagreb, Paris, Niagra Falls (Canada) and Las Vegas. I also experimented with the order of height and width in the HTML language, and discovered that it does not work if you put height before width. Strange, order really is important. I liked the freedom of being able to decide with a few key strokes how big the pictures would appear.

I also found out how to embed a YouTube video into a placemark description. You are meant to paste the 'embed' link into the Edit HTML part of the description box. However, I did this in the Miami description box and it the video kept disappearing when I would try to go out and view the map again (even though I saved it and everything). I have added the URL into the rich text on my map, so you can paste it into your browser and view The Golden Girls clip. If anyone finds out how to embed a video and make it stay there, please let me know.

My Dream holiday desti­natio­ns! map is embedded below. Fingers crossed it will stay there!

View Larger Map

The link to the URL of my map is this http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=100839570829396594239.0004668831d927f190d1e&z=2, in case you can't quite click on everything in the embedded map.

Problem solving with the Google Maps task

Ahh, I found out how to get the icons for markers and lines back! It turns out that you have to be in edit mode in order to do anything. It seems simple enough…now.

It also turns out that you just have to be in edit mode in order to drag your placemarks around, too! I feel a little daft, but I’m learning!

I keep, though, encountering problems when I try to draw a line. It keeps ‘grabbing’ my map with the hand and not drawing anything, even thought I have clearly selected this option and the screen is displaying the prompt ‘click to draw a line’.

I did, however, find an easier way to placemark destinations. I searched the name of places, such as Paris in France and then clicked on the option ‘save to my maps’ and this placemark (now) accurately shows the location of this city on my map.

Taking a look at the Google Maps task

I was a bit overwhelmed by this week’s task, as I have only perused Google Maps twice (ever!) and one of those times was in our other course this semester. So, understandably I was daunted. I fount the tutorials on the Google Maps site to be quite helpful, even if they were not entirely related to what we are doing this week, I certainly found them to be comforting.

I changed the Privacy and Sharing settings from public to private, as I would prefer to keep this map between me and people who read my blog (not the whole world). I am glad that Google always gives 'privacy setting' options is easily accessible places, as this enables users to customise the features of their applications (be it blogger or maps, etc).

I found a small ‘box’ in the lower right hand corner of my Google map screen, and this helped me to change the location being displayed from Australia to Europe for my first lot of placemarkers. I was able to place a marker in Croatia, but it did not zoom in like it does on places in Victoria. I could only find a way to placemark the entire country, and then write the places I would visit in the position description. This would not be helpful if I was actually trying to plan a route on a real holiday. I am frustrated. I wonder why this happened. If anyone finds a different way to do this, please let me know. Now the locations are showing up. This is after I refreshed and logged in again. However, I am wondering how to move a placemarker I have set. Now the Croatia one seems to be in the wrong place. Oh well, it is kind of close to Zagreb! I will try to place them more accurately from now on. Now my icons for drawing lines and creating placemarkers seem to have disappeared!

I will come back and attempt this later. Arrggh!

YouTube reflections

I have discovered that subscribing to Lee Lefever through my YouTube account has meant that other web 2.0 clips have been ‘recommended’ on my homepage. Also, other clips to do with computer lectures are being displayed because of my recent search activity.

YouTube is an innovative way of creating an online community through the sharing of videos and comments in a public space. However, it is often in the media because of its less positive ramifications. For example, I was searching for articles about YouTube and came across many which confronted the issue of cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is a disturbing and prevalent concern in many schools all over the world, especially in secondary schools. Interestingly, Froese-Germain’s article Bullying gets digital shot-in-the-arm contends that ‘Online bullying or cyberbullying is one of the changes spawned by the Internet and social networking sites’. He continues to say that social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube are making it easier for students to engage in cyber-bullying against educators and their peers.

I see the potential benefits of YouTube as an online community for people to share amusing videos, as well as educational content (e.g. UC Berkley’s online lectures), but there are also dangers inherent in social networking technologies. User-generated media needs to be monitored, but it also has many benefits in terms of the equitable access to news and other information by anyone with an Internet connection. People are able to build a community in YouTube, and other similar social networking applications. Three ways in which this is made possible is the production and consumption of user-generated media, as well as the inbuilt features enabling social interaction and participation. For more see this article by Guosong Shao.

Victory!

It must have been the computer I was using in the IT lab because I am on a different computer now and both the slideshow and the embedded slideshow from flickr seem to work. Likewise, my YouTube embedded videos weren't working this morning (no audio) and I checked them and they are now. So it's all good to go! I hope you guys enjoy it - I can't wait to see yours.

my discoveries on Flickr

Searching the site
I searched Flickr for ‘roses’ first, and found there were a lot of cakes featured in the results. I refined my search to ‘rose’ and this seemed to be more relevant, with only a few cupcakes! I chose to search for pictures of roses because they are a bit of an obsession of mine. I have drawn, coloured and painted roses of all types and but I prefer to do this by looking at images rather than the roses in my garden (mine are kind of small and shrivelled because of water-restrictions). This has given me an entirely new source of visual data, which will be great when I finally get time to get back into my art. I also enjoyed the different photographic styles that were used (e.g. some black and white roses, and another in a sepia hue).

Below is a link to my search, if you want to take a look at what I found.
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=rose+&m=text

Creating my account & adding a contact
I have created an account on Flickr, and the process required me to sign-up for a Yahoo email account as my ID. I was surprised, as many of the sites we have signed up for (e.g. blogger, reader and YouTube allow people to sign in using Google accounts). It just made realise how dominant Google is on the World Wide Web. I have uploaded a few photos that I took with a digital camera. Here is the link to my site – aren’t my cats cute!

I added Candy as a contact by following the link from her blog entry 'learning new gadgets'. I also sent her a Flickrmail message asking her to please help me add my photos as a slideshow to my blog like she did. Candy, if you're reading this, maybe put your tips into a comment on this post? I tried using the 'add a gadget' function but it kept malfunctioning and didn't seem to have a place to put the link. Below I have also tried to use the embedded link to my Flickr photostream (fingers crossed!). I have changed all the photo privacy settings to public but it hasn't helped.

YouTube Exploration

Interestingly, as I am writing this I am at my local library where I have booked a computer because my own attempts to get broadband at home have been delayed (yet again by administrative mishaps at a company who will remain nameless). I am glad that there are public facilities available for general use and access to Internet resources.

Back to the central theme of this entry, though, YouTube. I explored YouTube and found this clip about twitter, it’s a bit of social commentary through comedy. Twitter, with all of its social networking advantages, does have the potential downsides presented in this short cartoon. I think, like any technology, it is a good resource if used with a definite purpose in mind that is relevant to the user. I found creating an account on YouTube quite simple, it just means I need to remember yet another password and user-name! I look forward to using the facilities, as I have perused the videos on YouTube previously – but from now on I will be able to comment, save my favourite videos, subscribe to channels (like on Google Reader) and upload my own videos.



I was also thinking about what would be a valuable addition to my blog, and complement what we have been learning in this course. I located a very brief clip of Tim O’Reilly answering the question ‘What is web 2.0?’. It is not strictly a definition, but it gives much needed perspective in a field where meanings shift with the advent of new technologies.




I also searched for the online lectures from UC Berkley that were mentioned in the online tutorial for this week. These are a wonderful resource; however, as they are quite long (e.g. nearly two hours) I would not suggest downloading them because it takes so much memory. Watch them online, if you are lucky enough to have a broadband or wireless connection that is. If you are interested in the one I found about ‘How search engine’s work’ follow this link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8D5uL0y7ho

Social bookmarking & group discussion

I just signed up for delicious, and investigated it's applications (including whether it has the ability to export references to endnote). I discovered that only connotea seems to have to option to export to your endnote library, so I signed up for this as well. It seems that both have a different perspective/use when it comes to bookmarking your favourite sites. Although you can share bookmarks on connotea, the network and inbox functions on delicious seem to allow a more informal sharing of bookmarks. I will keep both and explore them further.

On another note, our group discussion in the break after out tutorial was quite helpful in clarifying my ideas about social bookmarking technologies. From what my blog buddies were saying, they thought that delicious was slightly more personal than professional in its application. However, we did raise the point that delicious could be used as a library bookmarking page with tags acting as informal subject headings. As with the other Web 2.0 technologies we have explored, the utility of each one will depend on the intention/purpose with which you set out to use it.

As for the differences between social bookmarking technologies and endnote software, both keep track of references/websites for you, but delicious (especially) is not a citation tracker. You still need to reference them yourself. However, connotea does enable you to export bookmarks to endnote. I will investigate how this works when I begin to add assignment references tio my bookmarks.

Adding a video bar

I added a video bar to my blog which subscribes to Lee Lefever's channel. I love his simple 'in plain English' videos about technology, and it turns out he explains other things as well. I guess this is in anticipation of week 5's video task. It means you guys can view the videos by just clicking on them. Let me know what you think.

Exploring social bookmarking - 1st instalment

I know that we are going to be discussing various social bookmarking tools as a group (next time we meet), but I thought I would explore a few on my own seeing I know so little about this technology. I looked at delicious and diigo in depth, and connotea as a comparison to delicious when I was deciding what I should join when I get home.

Diigo
You can create a Diigo account for free, either adding in your details from scratch or using your Facebook profile to create an account. No software apart from an internet browser is needed.

The creators claim diigo enables you to ‘highlight and search the web’. It is a research tool and a ‘knowledge sharing community’. You can highlight part of pages on the internet, and make a comment (great for reading online) which will remain on the page. You can bookmark the page for later, add tags. You can also organise, share and display your bookmarks. You can book you’re and other people’s annotations in the side bar, as well as view your saved bookmarks (search by keywords). Diigo claims to set itself apart from other social bookmarking services because it has a facebook type feature to help you stay in touch with friends or others that share your same interests and see what they are tagging. Diigo groups means that colleagues can collaborate and share their findings (group bookmarks, sticky notes, forum discussions). You can also send message or bookmarks to your contacts. Other community tools include participating in larger networks that form around a particular site or tag (e.g. the New York Times). Diigo can display recommended bookmarks that align with your interests from other users. I found this information on this YouTube video.

The tools on diigo are used mainly to tag free websites. The Web 2.0 tutorial stated that ‘There are several other tools which are intended more for scholarly resources on the web and on proprietary databases. The best known of these are probably CiteULike and Connotea’. So this is probably more of a social interest and bookmarking website, rather than scholarly or academic, many of our lecturers and tutors seem to use delicious or connotea for more simple social bookmarking (without the facebook like networking options). All your bookmarks are stored in the Diigo account that you create, and so it is accessible from any computer with Internet access (any browser).

What similarities / differences can you see with bookmarking/ favourites?
Similarities: your bookmarks are stored and can be accessed from your own computer. The bookmarks can be organised according to their subject through tagging, although tagging offers more flexibility in terms of searching and retrieving bookmarks (you can search your bookmarks by keyword rather than remembering which folder you saved into on your favourites).

Differences: Diigo is a social networking and bookmarking site, with the facility to join networks and stay up to date with your friends and contacts’ latest internet finds. The idea that colleagues could co-ordinate their research on a topic and create a group forum is interesting, but I am not sure whether LinkedIn would serve that purpose better. It is just different. The professional use of Diigo would be resource-centred and that might be better for a group project.

Delicious
Delicious allows users to make bookmarks more portable and useful by accessing them from browser rather than just one computer. The creators of delicious describe it as “All your stuff in one place. Get to your bookmarks from any computer, anytime, anywhere.”

To get started you need to enter your details and sign up for your free account, then you need to add the delicious buttons/icons to your browser so you can add bookmarks to your account easily. You can install add-ons for whatever browser you are using (this is optional). You can import existing bookmarks too. Then will come making your account more personalised and join/create a network.

- Tagging a site that you have decided to save as a bookmark can help the user find it more easily later, and creates a personalised site-organisation system to avoid a chaotic list of sites from all subjects. You search through your saved bookmarks using key words (tags).
- It is a type of social bookmarking because your bookmarks are public, and your colleagues or friends can view your bookmarks (you can also view theirs). You can add them as friends and browse through their bookmarks. This establishes a network which can broaden the range of resources available to all of you on common topics.
- Delicious supports Internet Explorer 5 or 6, Firefox, and Safari; but you still save bookmarks on a browser that delicious does not support like AOL or MSN by using the ‘Save a new bookmark" link in the top right corner of most pages, or visiting delicious.com/save directly. The FAQ page advises that ‘You may want to add that page to your browser's bookmarks/favorites for easy access’. (Information from http://delicious.com/help/faq#tools)

What similarities / differences can you see with bookmarking/ favourites?
Similarities: You still save bookmarks so you can return to the site later. In the favourites section of your browser you can still organise the bookmarks in folders and sub-folders.

Differences: You can access the delicious bookmarks from any computer, not just your own PC or MAC. The system of tagging means you can search for bookmarks (and find them) under a number of different key word categories, and not simply in one folder. The traditional favourites bookmarks on your computer cannot be shared or viewed by other people unless they use your computer.

Delicious includes the social features of creating a ‘network’ which connects you to other users of delicious, and this feature collects your favourite users bookmarks in one place. Delicious has an Inbox link that you to send and receive bookmarks directly to/from other users who are part of your network (or to anyone else in delicious). Delicious states that “Delicious can be easier and quicker than email or instant messaging, and your friend or coworker will have a permanent copy of the link that's easy to add to their own bookmarks.” (http://delicious.com/help/faq#socialbookmarking)

Trying to decide between delicious and connotea…
After having explored the merits of both delicious and diigo, I am seeking to join a simple bookmarking site without all of the additional tools offered by diigo (at this time). I looked at connotea as another possible alternative. It seems to be more professional as it is marketed at a demographic who wants to share references with ‘colleagues’. They claim that it is easy to save and organise references with one click, and access these references from any computer. You can click on related tags to explore other users’ libraries. The references you post can be public, private or shared with a group. There is no storage limit, and it has the ability to save bibliographic information from sites (especially journal sites) which allow it. Even if you cannot do this, you can bookmark and save any page you find on the web. I really like the sound of this! It seems to be suited to students for academic research purposes.

I look foward to talking about the different social bookmarking sites that you either use or are thinking of joining. Particularly, what they are like compared to endnote, also how to integrate the features with that software. I haven't been able to download it at home because of the dial up connection, it keeps timing out.

Stumble upon

Stumble upon is a great idea. I explored the website and found that you choose topics of interest to you, and that clicking the ‘stumble’ button (when added to your browser) will keep taking you to different websites on those topics. You can then rate the websites so that future ‘stumbles’ become more tailored to your individual needs and interests. The subjects appear to be categorised, and I am unsure whether there would be enough of a refined searching ability to end up with professional sites on libraries and technology. The only apparent downside of stumbling onto websites you like is that it will probably take a while before you find anything useful. However, stumble upon does bring together a wide range of personalised sources in one place, in a similar manner to Google Reader.

tweet, tweet

I must admit that I was concerned about the appropriateness and, perhaps, limited value of twitteroutside of social networking, but Phil Bradley's blog entry on the usefulness of twitter in a library context is really insightful. I would recommend that everyone take a look at it. His ideas about using twitter to give general updates about opening/closing times, staff information, providing news alerts through RSS feeds directed to twitter, and sharing best practice with other libraries are inspiring. Personally, I was thinking about not joining twitter because of the constant need to update my status, and the sluggish nature of my dial up internet connection. However, I will investigate this and possibly try to be as tech-savvy as Amy and add the RSS feed to my blog.

Facebook revisited

I have now been on Facebook for about a week, and I can see how people spend so much time online. There is so much to do and update, but I have overcome my feeling of 'information overload' now that I am used to the display. I have learned how to add a link to a YouTube video, upload photos and create albums, as well as using tagging to label people in my photos. I think that Facebook is a good resource for social networking of a personal nature, but I took a quick look at LinkedIn and it seems to be more effective at professional networking. Facebook is far more informal and has more details about people's personal lives, interests and hobbies (e.g. becoming a fan of celebrities, sharing holiday photos, etc); whereas, LinkedIn is focused on professional identity and making new contacts.

Facebook: To boldy go...

I am amazed with how much the task for week 3 has motivated me to overcome my irrational fear of social networking! I talked to Katie a lot about how Facebook works, as well as exploring for myself, and it turns out that there are a lot of safety features. It seems to be one of the best options on the web for creating a profile and staying in touch with friends. I have reached out to a few friends of mine in another state, and I feel that this could be one of the best decisions I have made in terms of staying in touch.

I would rate the Facebook site as medium-level difficulty to navigate, as I found it difficult (and still do) to figure out how to keep updated with my friends news (is this just the news feed?) and send private messages. There is just such an information overload when you log in, and I am still struggling to navigate and find all of the features that I have seen on other people's pages.

Privacy settings were straightforward: friends can see my profile, and everyone can search me to 'link me as a friend' and 'link to send a message to me'. What I want to learn to use is the features that were mentioned in this Facebook features article:
- how to fully utilise the wall
- find out if I need to visit each one of my friend's pages in order to see what's new with them, or will this show up on my page?
-mainly notes, status, networks and groups
- making comments?

I'm a bit uncertain...as you may have guessed. But it feels good to be getting out of my comfort zone, and possibly in the 'loop' again with people I've lost touch with.

Podcasting & RSS Feeds…and a bit of Wiki

I downloaded the podcast of Dr Karl’s triple JJJ show from the 12th of March because I am interested in science facts, and finding out more about the world. This podcast covered the current issue of the oil spill off the coast of Brisbane, among other topics. It was interesting to hear about the possible environmental costs: Dr Karl guesses it could be about five years before the damage could be repaired in our climate. More interesting still… what is behind the zombie phenomena? It turns out that a zombie can be ‘made’ by giving a person drugs to appear dead and then drugs to make them mad – so they have no will of their own. There is a good story that Karl tells that involves three brothers and a witch doctor, but you’ll have to download it to find out!

About the process of getting the RSS feed, I elaborated on it in my post on the 14th of March. It was quite simple to paste the URL into the subscribe box and receive the feed. However, as Cath and I discussed out of class, I was not able to receive this feed in Google Reader when logged in at uni. I also think something might be being blocked by the server.

I had never even heard of RSS feeds, and am still learning how to use them. They are very useful and efficient, as it saves me from going onto all the different blogs I am interested in to find updates. I would like to know if RSS feeds can be put onto this (our) blog pages. Does anyone know? Or, is that what is already on the dashboard page – I wonder if we can add other feeds to it?

I found that Farkas’ article about wikis was particularly helpful in clarifying my ideas about this technology. Wiki technology is both democratic and collaborative, in that anyone can participate in creating and editing content online. The section on how libraries could implement wikis gave me some good ideas and guidelines for their use. I have been finding that people are saying ‘Yay! wikis’ but it is more difficult to find articles giving practical advice. I will need to research this topic further.

PS: I just went on the version of the Web 2.0 adventure that we can edit. It was far more simple than I thought, and there is such pride seeing your words on something official. I added a link to an article that cautions people about the privacy of social networking sites. This is more to do with next week's task - I am exploring my feelings about Facebook ...

Wikis

I went on Wikipedia to try and find an article that could use improving, and decided to search for an area in which I have some sort of (freakily obsessive) expertise. It ended up being on the television show Charmed . However, I was quite surprised to find an advice bar at the top of the page from Wikipedia itself (one I have never seen before), it said:

"This article may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail which may only interest a specific audience. Please relocate any relevant information, and remove excessive trivia, praise, criticism, lists and collections of links."

I tried to find a section which could use editing, but it was already extremely comprehensive. So, I investigated what would be required to edit a section. I think if I were serious about editing, I would create an account because if you don't your IP address is recorded publicly in the page's edit history. I also found out that there is a name for the 'intricate detail' that is so esoteric as not to be useful to anyone other than a fan - fancruft. Not that there's anything wrong with Charmedcruft!

Podcasts and Google Reader

Katie posted a query about whether podcasts could be subscribed to and accessed via Google Reader. It is possible to subscribe to podcasts because they are on an RSS feed like the other blogs that we subscribed to - thanks to Cath for commenting on how she found the link. What I have done is subscribe to the doctor Karl science podcasts (from TrippleJ) on the ABC website. Maybe if you try following the steps I took, you can transfer these to other sites you want podcasts from:

- Go to this link, which is an ABC site with podcasts http://www.abc.net.au/services/podcasting/
- Choose the 'science' tab under 'podcasting by subject' on the left hand side of the screen
- Scroll down until you find Dr Karl, tripple J
- See the 'pod' icon and the URL next to it? Copy this URL into the box that appears in Google Reader to subscribe to a feed

This worked for me, let me know if it works for you as well.

I finally did it!

I discovered how to change my settings as a follower to make myself visible on other people's blog pages. I had originally selected 'follow privately' without realising that this would affect my status on the pages that I chose to follow and have 'see me'. You just need to sign in on the link next to 'follow' on anyone's blog to alter the settings (e.g. following publically or privately, your picture, etc). Hope that helps anyone who's having trouble with being a follower.

New photo & trouble finding Catherine

I decided to alter my profile and found out how to add a picture. I know that Katie is our group's professionally accredited fairy, but I thought this image was cool.

Also, I was wondering if everyone could access Catherine's blog? She emailed me the URL but it keeps giving me the message that it can't be found. Cath, if you are reading this post could you reply to it so I can find you?

Thanks

My feelings/reflections on starting this assignment

I have to admit that I was intimidated about creating a blog from ‘scratch’. It turned out to be a simple, 3-step process on blogger.com . Looking at the schedule and activities (a different theme each week) was also overwhelming, but then I tend to stress-out easily! However, I have managed to have success this week in many ways:

- Being able to make a post on my blog (this will be my third)
- I found a way to insert an ‘image’ (really a table) in my first post “What I've learned: Difference between Web 1.0 & Web 2.0”.
- Overcoming my perceived problem with blogging (privacy). I altered my settings to prevent people on the internet and blogger listings from finding me.
- I also discovered that you can only make comments on another person’s blog if you ‘follow’ it. Convenienly, there are updates on your own blog about others you follow.

I feel that this subject will be challenging for me, as most of the Web 2.0 technologies that we will be using are foreign to me... Despite this trepidation, I am approaching Doc. Man. 1 with an open mind and an eagerness to go from technoapprentice to technowiz (hence, the URL and title for this blog).

Library & technology related blogs

I visited http://librarianinblack.typepad.com/ , which has the title of “LibrarianInBlack.net resources and discussions for the “tech-librarians-by-default” among us...

The author of the blog, Sarah Houghton-Jan, states on her “about me” page that the site was “born out of displeasure” in an attempt to create a one-stop-shop for tech-librarians to be able to find the latest information without needing to trawl the internet. Despite being an American based librarian, she posts concise comments about resources, information and current reports on library trends, as well as more fun sites which could be recommended to younger library patrons. Examples of the resources that Sarah links to and reviews are:

- A report from the ‘Secure enterprise 2.0 Forum’ , which explains that Web 2.0 is a term describing a “new paradigm for using the web” rather than a specific technology. Furthermore, that some new technologies such as blogs, wikis and social networks are vulnerable to security threats because of their widespread usage.
http://www.secure-enterprise20.org/files/Top%20Web%202%200%20Security%20Threats.pdf

-Whoditty and AllMusic.com for information related to music, lyrics and musicians.

This library and technology themed blog was informative, written clearly and in a user-friendly manner, as well as being entertaining to read.

What I've learned: Difference between Web 1.0 & Web 2.0

In order to understand the difference between the Web forms pre- and post- the dot.com bust, I have synthesised some of the information learned in this subject and Info. Centre Managment.

- Web 1.0 involved people going directly to the source of information that they wanted (e.g. for news reports they could use BBC or CNN websites, etc), which implies that information was authoritative, and more likely to be accurate because it came from the source.

- Web 2.0 is interactive and open to editing / transformation by the user of the application(s).

Do you (my blog buddies) think this definition of each Web form is correct?
Please help me to come up with a working definition, and make a comment on this post.