Week 8 Mashups

I have been looking at all the possiblities with Mash-ups out there. WOW. I could get lost in all the information. I am now subscribing to the library 2.0 gang and I hope this monthly discussion can help me understand all the new applications coming out.

One Mashup I explored was Songza, http://www.songza.com/. I loved that once you found a song, the engine linked you to Youtube where you could watch the video as well.

I searched for the term privacy in the librarianblog searchroll. http://rollyo.com/search.html?q=privacy&sid=338806

the blog entries on this topic were quite varied as were the bloggers. I checked out the Annoyed Librarian, and the shifted librarian. I read this entry from the shifted librarian. http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/archives/2007/05/30/how_public_is_your_privacy.html

Through this course, I have been exploring new technologies, and I think my age and computer experience are shaping my views more than I realized. My younger colleagues are very comfortable putting up all kinds of images that I am not. However, this article is about the other side where the images are posted without the choice that accompanied such things as posted images in a facebook profile. And that is what is at the root of the invasion of privacy.

On-line Videos

I love youtube. I have enjoyed the library posts I have found. But I am especially enjoying the old Julie Andrew clips I am finding.

As far the library videos I have seen, I find this web tool very useful for generating interest in a library. I have been very impressed with the creativity of different libraries in capturing their library's unique features and the humor of their staff.

As a tool for instruction, Youtube is also a great tool. It helps preserve lessons for students and makes ideas very accessible. One exampe is the capture the converstion videos we have been watching.

photo 1 for blog

photo 1 for blog
Originally uploaded by amy.koshoffer

Week 6: Online Photo Sharing (April 14 - 20) entry

I found this week's exercise not as intuitive as I expected. To post the image, I had to email it to my unique email address within Flickr. I had expected that I would just create a web address like I do for my blog entries. It will take some playing around with flickr to get the rhythm. And I would probably have to expand to a level of flickr that I must pay for. It is interesting to think about uploading versus just emailing the image to one individual. Emailing directs the image to specific individuals, but the power of this tool is to get an image out to many people at once. And images in a blog can really help to clarify an point one is making.

Google Docs presentation

I have been working on this week's exercise This is a link to my presentation.




As for this week's question, "Is this the future of all software products? What do you think?",
it is an interesting idea. I think companies, research groups and libraries can make good use of this technology as long as they can keep items secure. That is a big concern for everything we have been learning about in the class. And the providers have to make sure there is a functioning business model to support this evolution. I read a comment about being able to work offline and then resubmit to the web afterwards. I think this will be a necessary aspect of the web office tools. The only concern I have is the permanence of the documents. Users would still have to make sure that they are backing up documents on their own computers so that they have access to a hard copy as well as the on-line version.

It seems that at my institution, we have done this already in having shared drives. Web Office tools do this on a larger scale.

Week 4 Social Bookmarking

This week's tool has been the tool I have heard most about before starting the course. I can see how it could be used by researchers in the basic sciences, especially when it is linked to a blog or a wiki. It can tailor you web surfing by seeing what someone who is writing or creating a resource is saving as relevant websites. It can be used as a lauching pad for someone who found the starting blog or wiki. And it could be the place to find the wiki or blog that leads you to other resources.

In addition, a tool like this can give information that might have been obtained through something like a user's survey. If you have links on your website, you could see how many others are saving the same link. The big draw back is trying to gather this information from your unique user population, since del.icio.us is showing you all world wide web users.

I find that I am still using my favorites folder on my browser because most sites I visit frequently are already there. I will have to add bookmarked sites from my favorites folder to my de.lico.us account so I can access these sites from anywhere. But this is also a place where I can choose to leave out websites that I may not want to share out of privacy concerns, or a feeling that these sites do not contribute to a blog or a wiki that is designed to be more work oriented.

This week, my time is quite limited and so I have really only explored Facebook. This is a completely new realm for me, and I find that my personality is such that a social network that does not have a face to face component to it is very foreign for me and somehow awkward. But I think that younger generations are more familiar with this technology and it is something that could be useful if applied in a thoughtful way. I have explore much more, but it could be helpful to have a professional area and a personal area to one's facebook account. I think that the networking is useful however it occurs. But the skills needed to do it on-line are different than in the usual way. One has to be more careful in protecting privacy. It is harder to know what information we are putting out on to the web and how it will be used, either for good or for bad. And the networking that occurs may not be as specific as one would like it since Facebook is now including anyone that wishes to join.

But I think that if MLA is using Facebook or some other website to connect members, then reluctant participatants will learn these skills. And many emerging librarians will have these skills already. I am wondering how email and websites combined differ from the facebook path. I am not sure I see yet how this method is better than using websites and email. Perhaps it is a lack of knowledge about Facebook and MySpace. I feel that I have much more to learn.

How can social networking be used by MLA to connect members?



Should your library have a Facebook or MySpace page?



Are there privacy concerns for individuals when using social networking sites?



What did you like or not like about your experience with Facebook or MySpace.

I am posting these questions in my blog. I will address them after I have explored social networking sites.

How can social networking be used by MLA to connect members
Should your library have a Facebook or MySpace page?
Are there privacy concerns for individuals when using social networking sites.
What did you like or not like about your experience with Facebook or MySpace.

We are asked to describe the difference between a blog and a wiki and think about applications for these two Web 2.0 technologies. I think of the blog as having one source. It is the thoughts recorded from one individual which are then put out on the web for others to comment on. A wiki has a group source. It is intended for several individuals to collaborate and exchange information, and the wiki is the lastest state of this group interacation. I think blogs are great ways for one person to get information out, i.e. a liason librarian letting readers know about new programs or ways to use the libraries services. A wiki would work well in a case where researchers in different locations are working on a paper or a grant together. Each contributor can access the grant and make changes. One draw back to the blog is that your intended readers or target need to receiving the blog feed and reading the blog. A draw back to the wiki would be if changes remove data that one collaborator wanted maintained. I am a novice to these ideas, so perhaps the problems I foresee are not problems at all.

Ups and Downs

I have successfully added page elements to my blog. I feel great about that. I had the sense that I am missing points of the course. It is difficult to keep up with the readings and everyone else's posts. I keep thinking there must be a good way to organize all of the information we are collecting together. Are the blogs searchable? In one way a webpage seems more organized. But I really enjoyed the article on how wikis work and how Mind Hack was created http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2006/07/07/what-is-a-wiki.html?

I struggle to keep on top of everything I am learning, but it is a great and informative course.

This is a link to the wiki I am creating. I have an interest in creating an on-line resource for research assistants at the University of Cincinnati. In my wiki, I will add information that will facilitate better research and provide access to resources that will help research assistants do their work.

http://researchassistantwiki.wetpaint.com/

Recommended blogs for my Web 2.0 class

Today I asked my practicum mentor for some suggestions for interesting blogs to add to my reader list. There are so many blogs out there that it can be overwhelming to chose. I have added the Krafty Librarian, David Rothman, the Cornflower, http://nnlm.gov/gmr/blog/ and Brainstorm, http://chronicle.com/review/brainstorm/ as recommended by my mentor. I can already see that, even using a reader, keeping up will require an a great effort. But there is much to be learned and I am enjoying the course so far.

Day 1 of Web 2.0 101

Today starts the first class of Web 2.0 101. I have created my blog and the web journey begins.