I don't remember the first wiki I ever stumbled upon, but I do remember the first wiki I edited.
On September 15, 2006, my favorite-amazingly-awesome-Internet-Indie Rock radio station, WOXY, went dark. Incredibly depressed, I logged onto their Wikipedia page and edited it to add a list of the final three songs the DJs played before silence. Songs by Oasis, Public Enemy, MC5...
WOXY has since returned, having risen Phoenix-like from the ashes after being saved by a kind-hearted business person. And I've noticed that people have edited the page, removing my edits, and have added all sorts of new information.
This is the beauty of wikis. They are collaborative and social and anyone can edit them. I think it's very difficult to add wrong information. There are too many hardcore wiki editors out there who will swoop in and make things right. And another beauty is, wikis can revert to their previous state before edits. So if anyone completely destroys a wiki, you can time travel back to before the destruction.
So wikis can be fun. I just edited the Neflin 23 Things wiki to add that I think peanut butter wikis are yummy.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Thing the Eleventh
You know, the whole idea behind blogging is for people to be social and to share what excites us with other people. So it's only natural for us to want to share news articles, blog posts, videos, and whatever else with friends, too.
My only experience with this kind of thing is when I share articles or blogs I like. It's so simple to click on the little Share button to zoom something cool to my Mom or my BFF. Have I read about a tasty recipe at The Kitchn? Click it and send it to my hubby so he can pick up ingredients at Publix on his way home from work. Did I read something feministy at Jezebel? Digg it up, ladies!
I'm not sure about using this bit of Web 2.0 in the library. If we had an official library blog, we could post about events or new books and provide a Share link or a Digg link so patrons could alert friends to anything interesting.
That's about all I can imagine right now. It's very dreary out and my coffee is too weak this morning...
My only experience with this kind of thing is when I share articles or blogs I like. It's so simple to click on the little Share button to zoom something cool to my Mom or my BFF. Have I read about a tasty recipe at The Kitchn? Click it and send it to my hubby so he can pick up ingredients at Publix on his way home from work. Did I read something feministy at Jezebel? Digg it up, ladies!
I'm not sure about using this bit of Web 2.0 in the library. If we had an official library blog, we could post about events or new books and provide a Share link or a Digg link so patrons could alert friends to anything interesting.
That's about all I can imagine right now. It's very dreary out and my coffee is too weak this morning...
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Thing the Tenth
Tagging and stuff...
I'm a fan of tagging. On my LJ, I began to use tags as soon as the developers added the option. I even spent what seemed like a month going back through four years (at the time) of my blog archives to tag old posts. It's fun for me to go back and see what I wrote about a topic.
Por ejemplo:
Bad Idea Bears - 1 use
Conspiracies - 23 uses
Librarians - 7 uses
Mitzvot - 1 use
Nerds - 43 uses
Why I Hate the Dentist - 1 use
Yay- 99 uses
So, yes, tags are cool. And Delicious?
I like the social networking aspect of Delicious. I think it could be a handy way to share web resources without having to print out a list of links for someone, which sort of seems like an extra step in the process that puts you on paper and then back on the computer.
I created an account, which was easy enough. Then I had a brain fart. I followed the instructions for importing my favorites. It wasn't moving them over. Suddenly, my brain decided to kick on. "Dummy," said my brain, "You don't have Favorites, you have Google bookmarks!" So, click click, point, click, a-ha! and my bookmarks now live on Delicious and Google.
I'm thinking about creating Delicious lists for students in my computer classes. They can apply what I've taught them and do some homework.
I'm a fan of tagging. On my LJ, I began to use tags as soon as the developers added the option. I even spent what seemed like a month going back through four years (at the time) of my blog archives to tag old posts. It's fun for me to go back and see what I wrote about a topic.
Por ejemplo:
Bad Idea Bears - 1 use
Conspiracies - 23 uses
Librarians - 7 uses
Mitzvot - 1 use
Nerds - 43 uses
Why I Hate the Dentist - 1 use
Yay- 99 uses
So, yes, tags are cool. And Delicious?
I like the social networking aspect of Delicious. I think it could be a handy way to share web resources without having to print out a list of links for someone, which sort of seems like an extra step in the process that puts you on paper and then back on the computer.
I created an account, which was easy enough. Then I had a brain fart. I followed the instructions for importing my favorites. It wasn't moving them over. Suddenly, my brain decided to kick on. "Dummy," said my brain, "You don't have Favorites, you have Google bookmarks!" So, click click, point, click, a-ha! and my bookmarks now live on Delicious and Google.
I'm thinking about creating Delicious lists for students in my computer classes. They can apply what I've taught them and do some homework.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
My Own Things
Here are a couple sites I think are worth your time...
Pageflakes is a social homepage site. I stumbled upon that one during a search I had to do for library school homework. It's a pretty cool alternative to something like GoogleReader. I might set one up.
Ping.fm allows me to update all of my accounts like Livejournal, Facebook, Twitter, etc, at once. I've enabled my GChat so that I can send a ping to update everything. Very cool.
Pageflakes is a social homepage site. I stumbled upon that one during a search I had to do for library school homework. It's a pretty cool alternative to something like GoogleReader. I might set one up.
Ping.fm allows me to update all of my accounts like Livejournal, Facebook, Twitter, etc, at once. I've enabled my GChat so that I can send a ping to update everything. Very cool.
Thing the Ninth
Again, I'm becoming a big huge fan of Big Huge Labs. I used their mosaic maker to create an image using some old photos I had in my Flickr account. It was easy to link my BHL account with my Flickr account for some seamless sharing.
I had fun going through my old photos. So many good memories of my former life in DC. I miss that town.
I think these tools could be used to present photos taken at library events in a really fun way. Photo albums? Please. Those are so 1.0.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Thing the Eighth
Keeping in touch through Web 2.0...
Email!
I teach the computer classes out here at my branch. One of my classes is called Next Step: The Internet and in it, I cover the anatomy of the web browser, basic web searching using Google, and I help anyone who wants one to set up an email address. I give them the options of any of the major free services, but I personally use GMail, so I like it best.
I like that you never have to delete anything in GMail and I like how it organizes emails in a chain of conversation. I also love GChat.
Chat/IM
GChat is simple and I like that it's browser-based, so it's always there when GMail is open. I recently found out that I could import my AOL messenger list into it, so I have even more contacts in the same place.
At a former job, we used IM for inter-office communication. Rather than pick up the phone or walk across the building to speak to coworkers, we would communicate by IM. I think we were more productive that way. It cut out a lot of wasted time.
I think it would be cool if we could use IM in the libraries this way. I imagine sending an IM to the Children's department at HQ to ask if they have a book or to quickly find out about storytime schedules. It would be so quick and easy!
We do have Windows Messenger installed on all the staff computers, but I never sign on and I don't even know how many of my coworkers actually use it. Does anyone who reads this post want to chime in on that?
Texting
I'm skeptical about using SMS for reference help, but I can see how it would be cool to broadcast library information via text. My university uses texts to send out emergency alerts. I think that is brilliant. Why don't we text patrons if they have overdue books?
PLZ BRNG YR L8 BK 2 D MC LIB. KTHX.
Twitter Challenge
Already did it. I'm ahead of the game. :P
Email!
I teach the computer classes out here at my branch. One of my classes is called Next Step: The Internet and in it, I cover the anatomy of the web browser, basic web searching using Google, and I help anyone who wants one to set up an email address. I give them the options of any of the major free services, but I personally use GMail, so I like it best.
I like that you never have to delete anything in GMail and I like how it organizes emails in a chain of conversation. I also love GChat.
Chat/IM
GChat is simple and I like that it's browser-based, so it's always there when GMail is open. I recently found out that I could import my AOL messenger list into it, so I have even more contacts in the same place.
At a former job, we used IM for inter-office communication. Rather than pick up the phone or walk across the building to speak to coworkers, we would communicate by IM. I think we were more productive that way. It cut out a lot of wasted time.
I think it would be cool if we could use IM in the libraries this way. I imagine sending an IM to the Children's department at HQ to ask if they have a book or to quickly find out about storytime schedules. It would be so quick and easy!
We do have Windows Messenger installed on all the staff computers, but I never sign on and I don't even know how many of my coworkers actually use it. Does anyone who reads this post want to chime in on that?
Texting
I'm skeptical about using SMS for reference help, but I can see how it would be cool to broadcast library information via text. My university uses texts to send out emergency alerts. I think that is brilliant. Why don't we text patrons if they have overdue books?
PLZ BRNG YR L8 BK 2 D MC LIB. KTHX.
Twitter Challenge
Already did it. I'm ahead of the game. :P
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