Thing 4: Please Feed My RSS, It Looks Hungry

Thing 4, this was enblogening. So now I understand how to actually do RSS feeds, and I listed the blogs I am following on my blog. And I began a blog reader in my new Google blog reader account, which interacts with my blog and the blogs I have now decided to blog about in a list of blogs, that is now presented (as previously mentioned) on my blog.

But seriously, it is good to gain an understanding of how all this works. It is possible that I can find a good use for all this here in the library. For me personally, as stated before, I have no interest in most things bloggy. There is one blog that I like to read, and that is Christopher Moore’s. I have it listed to the left there. He is one of my favorite writers, very funny, and has a well rounded perspective on life, at least as far as I am concerned. Other than that, I just don’t find most of the blogs that I have run across in the huge realm of the www to be interesting. What I have noticed is a strong inclination of many bloggers to take themselves way too seriously. I might find one or two that could be of interest through this program, but I’m not really all that concerned if I don’t.

That said, I am enjoying the sharing environment that we have going here in 23 Things, and I like to read through other participants thoughts. This is a nice setting for asynchronous learning. So now I am following some of the other 23 Thingers, and look forward to continue to draw from all of our experiences.

Thing 3, Oh to Find A Blog

Blogging, blogging, blogging on this bloggy of all bloggy days. Yes, I am blogging about blogging and I am just about blogged out for now. It has been a virtual bloggorama.

So in looking at this Thing, I have now been exposed to blog search engines. I initially tried the suggested Technorati search engine, and found it fairly clean and easy to use. I used several search terms on topics I find interesting, and only received a few results that interested me. The search engine did what it was designed to do though, and seems like an effective tool. I did not find the Top Blogs very interesting, but that is a matter of opinion and taste. So I think it works pretty well.

From Technorati, I ventured into more suggested search engines listed on the About article. They need to update that article. OpinMind has dropped their blog search tool, which took me a minute to figure out. Blogdex is apparently being rethought. Sphere doesn’t appear to have any kind of search engine, but seemed to be selling various web based products. Maybe they did at one time, have a search engine that is. The next link on that article I tried was titled “Search Blogs with Ask.com” and I never actually found anything that provided access to the search engine mentioned. It does claim to work with something called Bloglines, but this sub article did not give access to even that. So I gave up on this and tried Google’s Blog Search.

Google’s product worked fairly well. It was clean and simple. Whether or not you like Google, they make good products, so I think it was the only one I looked at that was comparable with Technorati. As far as which was better, well I think they are fairly close in functionality. I have no preference.

So, I think the experience of see the blog search engines has been good. Now I know that they exist, and if a student asks, I can direct them to at least two decent search tools. Cool. I’m ready for thing 4.

Thing 2: Or, So That's What All the Fuss Is About

So here we go on to thing 2! Web 2.0, and all things Web 2.0 related. How bloggy.

In reading through the articles that were provided on the main NEFLIN’s 23 blog, I noticed that they were all (with the exception of the article from Library Technology Reports) from 2006. That is three years ago. Not that the info is obsolete, or even not relevant-I found all the articles to be informative-but the web world has moved in the last three years. The introduction of more Web 2.0 content has increased, as well as the use of that content. I am not in the least Web 2.0 savvy, or even have much of a personal interest in most of what 23 Things is examining, but I am very interested in being proactive towards my professional education and development. So with that, I read three articles which were published in the last six months.

The first article is:

Hawkins, Donald T. “All Things 2.0: The Fall of 2008 ASIDIC Meeting.” Information Today 25.10 (2008): 32-3. Library Literature & Information Science Full Text. Wilson. SJRCC Library. 22 Jan 2009

As the title states, this article came out of The Association for Information and Dissemination Centers’ (ASIDIC) fall conference. Much of the content is looking at how business and industry are addressing Web 2.0 opportunities, and the challenges of the change that is coming with this new environment. Consumers (or users to most of use) have become expectant of interaction with products. In recognizing this, providing that interaction can also provide opportunities to track how much specific areas, or even documents, on a web site are being interacted with. Tag clouds, word trees, and bubble charts are all ways for users to interact with the content being presented, and there are tangible and scalable results that are produced and can be captured.
Libraries can create accounts using Web 2.0 applications already available that could be used in similar ways. Instead of looking at raw statistics and some surveys, implementation of a user interactive environment could provide feedback by analyzing the cloud tags.
The article continues into how business models are shifting for some companies. Now in the library world, this does not apply as much, but the idea of cloud computing is brought up, and could have elements of interest to us. This concept is also explored in the next article I read:

Hempel, Jessi. “Web 2.0 Is So Over. Welcome to Web 3.0.” Fortune 19 Jan. 2009: 36. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. SJRCC Library. 22 Jan. 2009

This article brought up some very interesting perspectives, but for the moment let’s stay with the concept of cloud computing. Cloud computing allows entire organizations to create remote environments, where all shared applications, files, and even “desktops” are stored through an online service. These applications are then accessible to the employees/participants from any where with internet access; a true wall-less environment that removes the need for an intense infrastructure. How could libraries utilize such capabilities? That requires some understanding of what can be used and some imagination. I don’t have answers right now, but I think it is important to see how these developments are coming around and pay attention to how different companies/organizations are utilizing them. Ideas could spring up anywhere.

The rest of this second article I found very interesting, in that it covers how the initial promise of e-commerce through Web 2.0 applications is not being readily realized. Many of the most popular social-networking websites are a bust in terms of commercial viability. Millions use Myspace and Facebook, but profits aren’t being generated. Though tools like these may draw huge users, newer and more dynamic tools will not be developed until a way to make a profit can be realized. The ad revenue that Google can generate is not being translated to these other applications, where users just aren’t interested in the products presented. If this persists, the development of these Web 2.0 products will slide into oblivion, regardless of how much the users like the connectivity. Some kind of shift is going to happen in the next few years, and the current face of Web 2.0 is going to change. How it will change and how we may be able to gain advantage from it remains to be seen.

The next article I read is:

Thompson, John. “Don’t Be Afraid to Explore Web 2.0.” Education Digest 74.4 (Dec 2008): 19-22. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. SJRCC Library. 22 Jan. 2009

This article is taken from an educational perspective, and suggests using the different Web 2.0 applications to create educational sharing environments. I like this idea. It gives me something to really ponder over the next few months as we explore all this information. Not just for the promotion of library materials, but in a dynamic and collaborative learning atmosphere that could allow users direct input into how we shape the use of the resources that are available. Much to think on.

So that is about as bloggy as I am getting on this topic. On to thing 3…

So, I guess it begins! Thing 1

Hello Stephanie and everyone at NEFLIN, and everyone who is participating, and Patty, and Brad, and Jeannie, and the CE Committee, and the NEFLIN Board, and any one who might happen to stumble upon this, and the academy, and the directors of all my favorite films, who most likely will never see this, but thanks any way. So I'm blogging, huh? Blog, blog, blog. Blog is kind of a funny word, don't you think? Kind of like smurf. You know the little blue things that had a cartoon in the '80s?

In fact, I think it is the new smurf. You know how no matter what was going on, the smurfs used their own name to describe it? Like:

"Ohh, how smurfy."
"You don't smurf like that everyday."
"You'll have to smurf pretty early in the morning to smurf old papa smurf!"

These aren't really quotes, I just made them up, but you remember. So now we can just use blog to describe everything.

"Ohh, how bloggy."
"You don't blog like that everyday."
"You'll have to blog pretty early in the morning to blog old papa blog!"

I think it works. Anyway,this is exciting and I can't wait to learn all the bloggy new stuff 23Things@NEFLIN is going to cover.

Have a bloggolicous day.

UT