Quest 12: Media 2.0 November 7, 2007

YouTube:  I don’t use YouTube nearly as much as some of the other things we’ve looked at during Tech Trek, but I think it may be one of the most important/influential of all these sites in terms of culture/media saturation.  It doesn’t require registration, or any sort of posting–all you have to do is watch, and most of us are very good at that.  I don’t watch television, so I occasionally watch YouTube videos that relate to something I’ve heard about in the news.  This morning I heard on the radio that someone who had killed a number of people in a school in Finland posted a video on YouTube about 6 hours earlier.  I don’t plan to watch that one, but I was struck by how pervasive this particular medium has become.

Podcasts:  I have previously avoided podcasts–I listen to talk radio on NPR pretty constantly at home so I don’t really need more audio commentary in my life.  Also, I spend enough time online (or I did before my computer died) that I didn’t want one more thing pulling me in.  I still may not listen to many, but I enjoyed browsing through some of the podcast directories–it wasn’t as overwhelming as I had feared.  I even added one to my Google Reader account, and look forward to finding the time to listen.

Quest 10: Online Apps November 6, 2007

These applications are really neat–I love that they work cross-platform so you don’t even need to have Microsoft Office.  Another advantage to online applications that mimic desktop software is the opportunity for instant upgrading–you don’t have to buy the latest version because when you go to the site you are always using the most current version.

I just looked at the Zoho site for the first time, and while I had some questions (I didn’t want to create an account and I couldn’t figure out how much some of the programs cost), I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of programs available.  Someday maybe I’ll take a look at the database program.  Something like that would have made my life much easier in grad school, when I was doing database work in MS Access, which isn’t available for Macintosh.

The online productivity product I have used is Google Docs, and only minimally.  I set up a spreadsheet so that my siblings and I can keep track of some items from our family house.  It was super easy to set up and invite collaborators, only no one else has used it yet.    Are there any online motivational tools?

Quest 9: Wiki October 30, 2007

One thing that interests me about wikis is the wide variety of uses they have. They aren’t just used for one kind of information-sharing, even in similar types of settings like libraries. Some people see the format and think “Collaborative book lists!” while others see “Event planning!” And while generally we think of wikis as reflective of a group process, I noticed that the Bull Run Library’s wiki contained a statement that the wiki was the work of a single library patron. Actually that kind of relieved me–I don’t much care for PBWiki’s format (although it is free and easy), and I would hope that an actual library would devote a little more money and design time to their site, but it is a nice effort to keep current and of-interest information available online. That is a big advantage for smaller systems without strong websites. For libraries with a strong web presence already, wikis still make it easy for staff to quickly share information with patrons and each other–especially nice for reference and reader’s advisory departments.

Quest 8: Social Networking October 10, 2007

I was a very reluctant user of social networking sites, but over the last several years I have at some point created accounts on Friendster, MySpace, Facebook, and I think even Bebo although I’ve never used that one.   It really wasn’t until Facebook that I found much of anything worthwhile in social networking,  and by then I was so annoyed with all the hype I almost didn’t sign up.  I am really glad I did, though–I LOVE Facebook.

You might hear me talking a lot about MySpace, because I developed the TLC’s staff class on MySpace, and in class I think I do a pretty good job of keeping my opinion on MySpace to myself (which is that it is a badly designed site that users make look even worse with their profile designs, and unless you follow a lot of musicians there isn’t much of value on the site).  It has been a very influential website, and I do think it is important to understand how it works and why people like it (I think many young people are drawn to the chaotic design that I personally can’t stand).

But Facebook is different.  I’ve only used it for a few months, but virtually all of my friends are now using it, and living far away from my friends it has been a great, fun way of seeing what they are up to.  The applications are really fun, some of them even useful, and the site itself is fairly clean.  I have gotten back in touch with several people I hadn’t spoken to in years, some of whom are living in different countries, and it also seems good for professional networking with the large numbers of librarians on Facebook and the related applications and groups.

I suspect that my friends and I might eventually get bored with Facebook and stop using it, but for now, it has even replaced email with many of my friends and I am really enjoying it.

Quest 7: Photosharing October 10, 2007

alphabet_book

Originally uploaded by gretchens
I have used Flickr on and off for a couple years. I signed up after I bought a digital camera and took a trip to Europe, so I would have someplace to put all my photos. Now I am glad I got the Pro account, because all those photos would probably be lost now that my hard drive has died.

I learned some new things in the State Library’s Flickr class, including geotagging and some of the more social aspects of the site. I didn’t have any Flickr contacts before this class, but now I have found several friends on Flickr.

I recently explored lots of photo sharing sites for a TLC class I developed, and my favorite new photo site is Picnik. It pulls photos in right from Flickr or Facebook and has tons of great editing tools. It is also really easy to use. Unfortunately, it crashes my work computer so I don’t use it too much! Another new site I found with features similar to Flickr but completely free is Zooomr (yes, that’s with 3 o’s).

Weird, while I was writing this post I got a new email, and one of my friends has added me as a contact on Flickr!

Quest 6: Part 1 (del.icio.us) September 27, 2007

I am gscronce on del.icio.us. I mostly use del.icio.us as a personal tool for bookmarking articles and sites of interest, and when I’m using the web on a computer that has the toolbar buttons, I find myself tagging things fairly frequently if I’m doing any sort of research. Since my laptop just died, it’s nice to know that I am increasingly storing my web preferences and results in places like del.icio.us and flickr, so that if all the data on my computer is lost I can still access some things, and they will all be organized with the tags I have given them. I don’t have contacts on del.icio.us and don’t use it much for networking in that sense, but it can be interesting to look at other peoples’ lists.

Quest 6: Part 2 (technorati) September 27, 2007

I have never used Technorati very much. I think this says something about how I incorporate blogs into my information-seeking behavior online. I usually learn about blogs that I want to read from other blogs, or else I have a particular author in mind and I track down their blog (again, usually froma a link or general web search). Technorati’s concept of Authority is interesting–the more other people link to your blog, the more authority you have on Technorati. To me, this sounds like popularity as much as anything else–interesting that in the blogosphere, popularity is very akin to authority. Is it that there are so many blogs out there that only the ones really worth their weight will end up with lots of links, and therefore they really do have more authority?

ps-I discovered that to add my technorati tags, I needed to look at my post in code view–otherwise WordPress added some code to my code that messed up how it came out.

techtrek 2.0

technorati

Quest 4: RSS feeds August 30, 2007

I signed up for a Bloglines account after staff day, and I was immediately hooked! I don’t know why I waited so long. I love that I can go to one place and keep up with almost all the sites I want to follow. I mostly use it to keep up with library news, but there are several general news and a couple personal blogs I can follow here as well.  My Bloglines URL is:  http://www.bloglines.com/public/gscronce
I have heard some good things about Google Reader, so I’m considering trying that platform instead of Bloglines. Jenny Levine was raving about Google Gears and how great it is for laptop users, because it lets you download feeds and read them even when you’re offline. That sounds pretty cool to me!

Quest 3: IM August 29, 2007

I’ve been using instant messaging for several years now, and while it can be a time-waster, it is also an easy, low-pressure way to communicate with people. I like that it is so quick, and you can have an in-depth conversation, but you can also just walk away from a chat when you need to go and it’s understood that that is fine. I mostly use my AIM account, although occasionally I use gmail chat with a few people. I chat less these days than I used to–most of the friends I chat with live far away now, and I don’t really like it for keeping up with long-distance friends. It feels both too immediate and too distant at the same time (I know that doesn’t make any sense!). For example, last night, I was about to go to bed when a friend IM’d me to invite me to play scrabble with her on Facebook. So I played scrabble with her and occasionally exchanged a chat message, and we never even did the “hey, how’s it going?” talk. At the same time, I was able to play scrabble with someone I haven’t seen in a month. The contradictions of the digital age…

Quest 2: Blogging August 29, 2007

Here is my blog. The name of my blog is a line from a poem by one of my favorite poets, Muriel Rukeyser (entitled “Poem”). She used the phrase to describe the mid-twentieth century, when world wars, telephones and the constant availability of news were changing people’s lives and mental states. Maybe the same could be said for some of today’s new technologies?