WOW - the 23rd thing...

Oh dear - I feel as though I have finished in a bit of a rush, but there was a lot of learning in there!
Loved: Blogs. Even if someone said - "What are you doing that for, it's just a diary online?" Well, yes it is, and it is a huge time waster, but it was a great way to discover the various aspects of dear old Web 2.0. I also enjoyed the formatting side of the blogging business. Making things "pretty"... and I am absolutely stunned by some of the fantastic blogs out there! Creativity rules! And not one the same.
I also enjoyed finding out more about Flickr and Picasa, and using pictures ... How much of it I have retained is another question, of course.
And del.ici.ous to sort out our untidy generic computers! Whew!

Bloglines. This is a side I think I will return to. For my own benefit. I have only a few sites that I visit for 'updates', and this is one way to go. I realise that there are other ways of getting feeds to one's internet toolbar (my computer at home keeps on suggesting Firefox's Bookmarks) but at least I am now aware of that. I always wondered what RSS was like...

Didn't enjoy: The Time it all took. It does take time, and I don't know how we are going to avoid that when we start doing more of this with our library work. I have commented on this before. Enough said. One can only type so fast. (except maybe Catatonia...)

Thoughts: I can see ways in which each of the aspects we looked at could be used in our work - even zoho or google docs... Library 2.0 is another way of communicating, and is evolving all the time. The danger in that is not being wide-awake enough to the trends, and perhaps catching the wrong bus... but nothing ventured...!

Podcasts....

I did it - I found Nancy Pearl and put a feed in my Bloglines so that I can keep up with what she has to say about books she's read! I do enjoy using Bloglines to do this sort of thing, and I just need to find out how to get Kim Hill on there too... because my Reading Group all listen to her...!

It's a Wiki world we live in...putting my blog on our wiki.

This exercise was a little full of trial and error.

I have - once - in the long distant past - had access to a Wiki, after a course we went on run by James Herring in 2006. It was a rushed thing, done at the end of the day, and kind of tumbled into non-use fairly soon, I believe. The old address is still there, from the emails we used to receive: nzworkshops wiki. I must admit, his whole course was fascinating, but we never had enough time... (isn't this always the way...?)

I am happy with Wikipedia. It is often a great way to at least find out a little about the thing you're looking for, if you know nothing about it. Then you can at least spell it correctly when you go looking for it in the more 'reputable' resources.
By the way...here is an article from PC Pro magazine, 9th June 2008, about Encyclopaedia Britannica in which it describes
"rolling out a new system allowing readers to potentially contribute to articles....

Britannica has long been a vocal critic of Wikipedia's user-generated content, and has repeatedly attacked the accuracy of its articles. Unsurprisingly then, it is keen to stress that its new website will not be following the Wiki-model, describing it "as a collaborative process but not a democratic one.""

This could be a little more like it. An idea similar to the update on the Library Success wiki we have been directed to:

"Update! Because of vandalism problems, e-mail confirmation is now required. Please enter your e-mail address when you create an account and you will be sent a link to confirm your address (after which you will be able to edit the wiki). .... Sorry for the inconvenience."

Perhaps this is the way for wikis to go, if they want to improve their general reception and use? Or else it is the way for reputable sources to go, as EB has done. I like their comment, taken from the same PC Pro article:

"At the new Britannica site, we will welcome and facilitate the increased participation of our contributors, scholars, and regular users, but we will continue to accept all responsibility of what we write under our name. We are not abdicating our responsibility as publishers or burying it under the now-fashionable wisdom of the crowds."

So - I have been onto the Manukau Libraries wiki, and entered my blog address under the favourite blogs page, and taken a link from the Library Success wiki to my Bloglines account, and I'll see if we ourselves have the time to develop anything worthwhile of our own in the future. You see, it is DEFINITELY a "time and commitment" thing. It's not worth doing in a half-hearted fashion, like the "practice wiki" for that course way back in 2006...

Bloglines?

Well, let's hope this is what is required:
http://www.bloglines.com/public/floccinauci
Like my friend Chinese Annie, I hope you like what I have chosen so far...