Thing 18: MyFaceSpaceBook, So Now I am Virtually Connected, Virtually.

So I have gone and done it and am now apart of the social web. I created a Facebook account.I even found two of my oldest friends in there and asked them if we could be friends, which we already are, but I need friends so I begged my friends to be those friends. No, not that kind of friend, the other kind. I hope they will be my friends. Kind of like the whale that falls to that planet in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy because he was pulled from his real existence by the probability drive on the Heat of Gold. Yeah, like that.

I am not going to create a Myspace page though. One social website presence is enough for me in this life time. I have seen Myspace before, and I think I can draw distinctions between the two mega social sites.

Myspace is a very put yourself out there and see who you can meet in the ether kind of a place. Facebook is more controlled and requires a level of agreement in the socail connecting that goes on. Myspace is wild and woolly, a free for all romp. Face book is much more cold and calculated, and the background is always white, very sterile.

I can see how Facebook could be used in a professional capacity, much more so than Myspace. It is also less likely to be a stalking ground for under aged children than Myspace. Somewhat more control.

In the end, I see no real attraction to either in my personal life. As for professionally, well I can see some applications that could pan out.

Thing 19 is what, the alternative to these? Ok, lets go explore.

Thing 17: Spring is Upon Us, and My Break Is Over.

So last week was good, but on to Thing 17. POD CASTS (echo echo echo)

These are basically a lot like You Tube without the visual element. I am familiar with MP3s, and yes that is a loss compression file format, and I would like to see the rise of FLAC, but we are not hear to argue that thread of thought.

I looked at Podcast and liked the format. It provided the user with on online streaming utilities, which is ideal. There is no need for a specific software to handle an one extension or another. There have been countless times where I have been stopped from listening to an audio clip because I didn't have Quicktime or RealAudio or whatever. I do happen to have the Windows Media Player, and it is okay, but not everything will play in it. MP3s will though. FLAC will not.So I like the online streaming utilities some sites provide. For better information about the pod casts, I did find out that a subscription is required, and since I am not that interested right now in setting up another account, I have no idea if it is a pay thing or not.

Next I looked at Podcast Alley. It did not provide the streaming utility. Instead it only allowed me to download the file, which played through my Media Player. The access was a little more limiting than Podcast for that reason, but the site was fairly easy to navigate, so I don't think I have too much of a preference between the two, other than the streaming.

Last I looked at Yahoo. I liked this least of all. It really seemed more like a store than a web 2.0 utility. It's ok.

So, what do I think about these? Well, if a student, and lets remember that my focus is academic, was looking for primary resources such as an interview, I think these are an excellent resource. It might be very possible to find interviews in some of these podcasts that are not available anywhere else. I really like the utility. As for creating podcasts for students to use, it could be useful. I'll have to think on that.

Next, Thing 18.

Thing 16: Part 1, section A, paragraph@ and so on...

So we get to YouTube, huh? I am in this site all the time, to find really good library related videos and stuff, I swear. Not to find awesome videos of music and funny things to pass the time. Nope. Only work realated. Like this:



I think it's work related. Also this:



I am planning to make a little video and put it on there very soon, so more to come on this Thing in the future.

U_T

Thing 15: Rollyo-e-o-e-o (Sorry Morris Day and the Time)

So Rollyo. Rollyo, Rollyo, where for art thou Rollyo?

Right here on the internet, where do you think? Juliet can be just a tad dense at times, even though she is my sun.

But really, this Thing is yet another that I don’t have a personal need for and can see still how it could be used to advantage. If I was a subject librarian and answered a narrower line of questions on a regular basis, this might be very useful. Since I am not, my needs range a little too wide for this to be of any regular use. In my personal life, I just don’t spend that much item on the internet to have a need for this. If I was to go back to school and was studying a specific subject, then I would see the relevance.

So in a quick conclusion, Rollyo has no particular draw for me, but I think it is a neat idea.

Thing 16, Thing 16, YOU TUBE

Thing 14: I Need a Time Managing Tool to Help Me Manage to Write My Blog Entries on Time!

So what can I say about these tools? A few of them are absolutely incredible! Most don’t do much for me, but hey, it’s good to know they exist!
I created an iGoogle account because….I already have a bunch of stuff in Google, so why not. One stop shopping, right? I added a bunch of widget type things into the account that will never be of any use because I will never log in to iGoogle to look at them. But they are there just in case I go wild one day and decide to live my whole life through my computer. It could happen. I did get to pick a groovy image for the banner. I tried to create my own banner image using my Flickr account and an image off of my hard drive, but both avenues were cut short by Google not accepting them for whatever reason. I prefer to think the new system is buggy. Ohh well, I did find a fractal banner, and I just loves me a fractal, so it’s cool. Adding the rest of the widgets was very easy. I did have to configure the one for current weather to my area of the world, but that’s ok. I was also able to remove the cnn link and a few other that I have no interest in. Now I iGoogle.

The file converting sites are just too cool, and very useful. I am glad to know about them, so when students come in with whatever they have from home, they can always use our programs here at the school.

Beyond all this, no I don’t see a need to use online calendars and planners. I would spend half of my time updating them, instead of getting things done. Completely organized, and always one step behind.

Time for Thing 15.

I Made an Update to the Wiki Page on the 23 Things Wiki

Here is a website of music created through taking a bunch of unrelated video clips from You Tube, and layering them back together in a surprising and cool new way.

Thru-You

or

here

Enjoy, I did.

Thing 13: The Thing That Is a Thing in Name and Action, Library Thing

So here I go, blogging about Library Thing. It is blogolicious by the way. I have my Library Thing Widget on my widget bar now, and I finally figured out how to properly and easily install the Javascript so I'm not getting error messages. I had to put my widget into a widget so I could blog about blogging. Un-huh.

So, Library Thing.I am again not sure why I would want to make lists of my own books. I already own them you see, and I know which ones I own, so a catalogue of them is not really going to help me very much.

On a library related level, i can actually see many applications that make this an attractive application. I think it could be a very powerful presentation tool for a library's web presence, even in embedded class situations. Yes, I do believe that I think that is a great resource.One of the more useful so far. Used in conjunction with a small and well thought out wiki, I think I might just be able to...TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or not. It is hard to tell about these things.

So in poking around Library Thing, I enjoyed the Thingology section. I may just frequent that particular space in the future. Some of the social connection utilities in this Thing are yet again lost on me. I don't really see the point.To each his/her own though, and on-ward and upward in the list of Things, all the way to:


Thing 14!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thing 12: Wikis for the Wicked!

Now I know I can come off as rather non-Web 2.0 in my thoughts on these Things. Wikis are one of the Web 2.0 applications that I think are really cool. The Wikipedia is a great place to get general information for a feel on a subject. It is a horrible place to do research. I always discuss the Wikipedia with students during Information Literacy sessions. They need to know not only that wikis are bad for research, but why. Without the why, students tend to ignore what they are told. So I understand why many teachers and professors have banned these really cool tools from the class room.

I did recently see a video that explained how some students use the wiki world to begin research, to use it as a launching pad if you will. But that is where the usefulness ends. I can get behind that, as long as the students are being very evaluative in using sources posted there. Anyone can source materials on the wikis, and sometimes the sources seem legitimate, but tend to support an agenda or point of view that is not necessarily unbiased. Of course the argument that all info is presented with some kind of bias is valid, but some are overtly biased and make poor resources for a basis.

So for research wikis are limited in usefulness, but over all I think they are really cool. I can see how using this type of web structure could be realized to great advantage within a small team or organization. It is very versatile and dynamic. More so than relying on just a web site with limited access to who can change the content within the team. I can see how it could become problematic if you have a control freak involved, or you are not all on the same page. Cohesion in vision would be necessary.

I have edited the Wikipedia before, because I found an entry that I knew was wrong, and dig the concept. I use it for general knowledge all of the time. So I had no reservations in logging into the 23 things @ NEFLIN wiki and making a page, which is called:

Uptown_Toodeloo's Page of Random Thoughts

Anyone who might read this is welcome to go that page and put some random thoughts together. I encourage it. So in conclusion, I like Wikis and the overall concept of them.

Thing 13, here I come.

Thing 11: All the News That Is Fit to Print, and Then Some

Alright, so I check out the 4 suggested news sites for this Thing. I am not personally a news junkie, so I hadn’t looked at this type of site before. It is interesting. I can see how this might help when the need of current events rears its head. Instead of running away in fear, I can now go and find all the relevant, and not so relevant, breaking news for those events. Or maybe not. Apparently the story needs to be popular to be relevant, not necessarily informative. It could just be entertaining.

So we come to the crux of why many people find Web 2.0 applications to be non research tools; too much user input with little or no authority control. Hmmmm. I can see sites like this as being good spring boards in moving towards breaking news and events. The stories are decent and mostly from reputable sources, but whether or not a story that provides more precise information and coverage on a topic will not necessarily be a determining factor in it being prevalent on one of these sites. Further exploration of a topic would need to be recommended.

In looking at the 4 sites, I did them in order listed on the 23 Things blog. So first I looked at Digg. I found this fairly easy to navigate. When you click on an article title, you are brought straight to the article, which I liked. The site’s navigation is broken into tabs, which is very easy to move through. The screen is a little cluttered, but not to the point of distraction.

Next I looked at Reddit. It is very similar in function with Digg, but I found it unappealing aesthetically. Is that a good reason to like it less? Why not, I’ve got to draw a line somewhere. It is not cluttered, but the navigation felt kind of 10 years ago. Small point to be sure. One thing that I did get out of looking at the 4 different sites is that there is some cross over in stories, not complete cross over. So how does one find the best source or evaluate which site is more productive for him/her? I suppose that since everything is user derived that it depends on the range of participants on any given site. Would one age group be more drawn to one design over another? Or is there a base line bias in the users, like on the cable news networks. Hmmm.

Third, I looked at the third site listed. Shocking, I know. So Newsvine was very much like the first two. I found two main differences. The first is that I really liked the look and feel of the site better. It used better colors and had a nice layout. Second is that the articles I tried to access did not go directly to the articles, but to synopsis pages written by the people who found and are calling attention to the article on the site. At least one article did provide the full text, but it was still on the Newsvine site. I wasn’t as hip on that aspect.

The fourth and final site was Mixx. It didn’t really add or detract form the whole experience. I found it adequate. Again the site did not bring you directly to the story, but kept you on the same site with a link. Since I liked the colors and the feel of Newsvine better, I think it is the nicer of the two. Overall, I liked Digg the best. Newsvine looked more appealing, but I prefer to link directly to the story and not need to click again to get it.

That is it for Thing 11. It is good to know that these exist and how they work, but I don’t see them as crucial for research. They are worth looking at from time to time.

U_T