I'd been using Wikipedia for some time before I actually understood or realized just exactly what a wiki is. Once the buzz started growing about wikis last year I decided to learn a little more about them by taking the SirsiDynix webinar on wikis, 'Wiki: The Ultimate Tool for Online Collaboration', presented by Meredith Farkas, a.k.a. the Queen of Wikis. I'd highly recommend this archived presentation:
http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/seminar_page.php?sid=66
Wikis differ from websites in that they put the power into the hands of the people. Instead of having to go through one technical gatekeeper at your organization to get something added to the website, you or your co-worker can simply make the post yourselves. This allows you to post information in more timely, effective manner. This is also one of the dangers of a wiki - depending on the type of wiki you choose (and there are many to choose from!), unknown persons can post just about anything they'd like to your site. It seems a lot of libraries are finding inventive ways to use them - staff intranets are a particularly good way to use them, in my opinion. The Allegany County Library System created a wiki to help coordinate one of its grants and could be easily accessed and used by all members of the grant team.
Another great feature of wikis is that you don't really have to know code to post to a wiki. You can just use an interface that looks very similar to a word processing program to type in your information and post. In any case, this topic seems to be quite hot at the moment and a lot of conferences are using wikis for both pre- and post-conference information sharing. The recent MLA 2007 conference featured a wiki that included podcasts of conference attendees sharing their experiences after taking part in workshops. There seem to be so many creative uses for wikis in libraries and I'm sure we'll see even more clever ideas as time goes on - but they're definitely hot right now!
Oh, and I got to see the Queen of All Wikis, Meredith Farkas, at the Computers in Libraries Conference this past April in D.C....pretty neat.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Week 9, Thing #20 - All Eyes on YouTube
I've already posted a few videos from YouTube on my 23 Things blog, ranging from a non-pc Dumb Blonde in the Library video to the eye-opening 'Shift Happens' video. In my mind, all of these Web 2.0 tools share a lot in common - you can share your pictures, podcasts, videos, thoughts, etc., on a site, search for what other people are uploading, and then connect with others, if so desired.
YouTube is probably one of the most well-known Web 2.0 sites out there to the general public. I think they're even talking about letting voters pose questions to presidential candidates via YouTube. Then of course there's the ugly question of the digital divide - what about those voters who don't have access to the Internet or don't have the skills to navigate YouTube? These new technologies are certainly opening up a whole new can of worms.
YouTube is a great way for people to share their videos and to be entertained. But there's certainly a lot of trash on the site. I'd certainly also caution young adults and teens to be wary of putting themselves in situations where potentially embarrassing footage could be taken and posted on the Internet. Think Spring Break photos or pictures taken on a cell phone.
YouTube is probably one of the most well-known Web 2.0 sites out there to the general public. I think they're even talking about letting voters pose questions to presidential candidates via YouTube. Then of course there's the ugly question of the digital divide - what about those voters who don't have access to the Internet or don't have the skills to navigate YouTube? These new technologies are certainly opening up a whole new can of worms.
YouTube is a great way for people to share their videos and to be entertained. But there's certainly a lot of trash on the site. I'd certainly also caution young adults and teens to be wary of putting themselves in situations where potentially embarrassing footage could be taken and posted on the Internet. Think Spring Break photos or pictures taken on a cell phone.
Week 9, Thing #22 - Still Nothing Like a Good Old-Fashioned Book
The creation of the printing press/movable type printing was a revolutionary invention and helped to make the dissemination of information both easier and faster. That was an incredible and hugely significant milestone in the history of humankind and now look what has happened! You can now download books on the Internet with a few clicks of your mouse! We've become so used to all of this technology, but if you sit a moment and reflect on what this actually is, it seems like wizardry!
One of my favorite books, Pride and Prejudice, was available on Project Gutenberg, and I downloaded a portion of it in a pdf file. I don't think I'd ever really want to read this book online; rather I'd probably print it out and then read it at a later time. Call me old-fashioned, but I still like to read with the book in my hand - I find it difficult to fall asleep without a book!
One of my favorite books, Pride and Prejudice, was available on Project Gutenberg, and I downloaded a portion of it in a pdf file. I don't think I'd ever really want to read this book online; rather I'd probably print it out and then read it at a later time. Call me old-fashioned, but I still like to read with the book in my hand - I find it difficult to fall asleep without a book!
Week 9, Thing #21 - So Many Podcasts, So Little Time
I've known about, used, recorded, and listened to podcasts for some time, but I wasn't aware that there were websites that aggregated them and let you easily search for topics or browse. I should have known...
As with taking advantage of all of these technologies, it's just a matter of finding the time to process them all. I did add a feed to my Bloglines account and now can easily go in and listen to the podcast, but it's a matter of me remembering to go in and finding the time to listen to it.
As with taking advantage of all of these technologies, it's just a matter of finding the time to process them all. I did add a feed to my Bloglines account and now can easily go in and listen to the podcast, but it's a matter of me remembering to go in and finding the time to listen to it.
Week 9, Thing #19 - I Opened Pandora's Box...
I selected to take a look at Pandora, which won the number one award in the Music Category. I'd heard a lot about this tool and know some people that use it, so I thought it would be a good time to take a look at it.
When I created my profile, I discovered that I'd actually already created a profile some time ago and added just one artist. Who knows how many accounts I have floating around out there... You're able to create your own radio station(s), which you can listen to from anywhere you have Internet access. Pandora is based on the Radio Genome Project - basically a group of musicians and techies came together to "analyze" music based on a specific criteria - genes of music.
You can search for songs, artists, stations, and listener profiles - so there is a social networking aspect to the site. I searched for Oasis' Wonderwall and its features were described as:
mellow rock instrumentationrepetitive melodic phrasingmixed acoustic and electric instrumentationminor key tonalitymelodic songwritinga dynamic male vocalistacoustic rhythm guitarssubtle use of stringssubtle use of acoustic piano
I can listen to a sample, bookmark it as a favorite, and buy it from iTunes or Amazon.
If you just click on 'Create a New Station', it asks you for one of your favorite songs or artists and it then creates your very own radio station.
This is such a cool tool for all music lovers and its such a cool concept to catalog music by its "genes"!
When I created my profile, I discovered that I'd actually already created a profile some time ago and added just one artist. Who knows how many accounts I have floating around out there... You're able to create your own radio station(s), which you can listen to from anywhere you have Internet access. Pandora is based on the Radio Genome Project - basically a group of musicians and techies came together to "analyze" music based on a specific criteria - genes of music.
You can search for songs, artists, stations, and listener profiles - so there is a social networking aspect to the site. I searched for Oasis' Wonderwall and its features were described as:
mellow rock instrumentationrepetitive melodic phrasingmixed acoustic and electric instrumentationminor key tonalitymelodic songwritinga dynamic male vocalistacoustic rhythm guitarssubtle use of stringssubtle use of acoustic piano
I can listen to a sample, bookmark it as a favorite, and buy it from iTunes or Amazon.
If you just click on 'Create a New Station', it asks you for one of your favorite songs or artists and it then creates your very own radio station.
This is such a cool tool for all music lovers and its such a cool concept to catalog music by its "genes"!
Thing #18 - Microsoft Beware!
This exercise completely blew me away. I had no idea that there were online applications of word processing tools. I feel that I'm pretty familiar with Microsoft Word and the ZohoWriter web-based tool does not pale in comparison to that 200 pound gorilla. There are many advantages to web-based applications - no need to download software, upgrades are done automatically, application can be accessed from any computer, etc.
I created a test document on Zoho Writer and found the interface to be user-friendly and clean. I'm guessing that it doesn't have all the power and bells/whistles of Word, but it had all the basics. I'm also wondering how it might interface with other applications, such as spreadsheets, databases, etc. But I'd definitely recommend this tool to anyone who needed a basic word processor.
I created a test document on Zoho Writer and found the interface to be user-friendly and clean. I'm guessing that it doesn't have all the power and bells/whistles of Word, but it had all the basics. I'm also wondering how it might interface with other applications, such as spreadsheets, databases, etc. But I'd definitely recommend this tool to anyone who needed a basic word processor.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Thing #17 - Playing in the Sandbox
Easy, easy, easy!
Wow - it was so easy to edit using the PB Wiki! I took a basic web skills class back in Library School (over 7 years ago) and had to learn actual html code. Things are so much easier now! What makes this tool so great is that it's collaborative - there's no need for a gatekeeper to control the page - all can add, as they like. Also, you can get information up and out to the world very quickly. It helps to contribute to a lateral organization.
On the sandbox I added the image logos for each county. You can do more than just add simple text in a wiki - you can insert hyperlinks, images, etc., with just a few clicks.
Wow - it was so easy to edit using the PB Wiki! I took a basic web skills class back in Library School (over 7 years ago) and had to learn actual html code. Things are so much easier now! What makes this tool so great is that it's collaborative - there's no need for a gatekeeper to control the page - all can add, as they like. Also, you can get information up and out to the world very quickly. It helps to contribute to a lateral organization.
On the sandbox I added the image logos for each county. You can do more than just add simple text in a wiki - you can insert hyperlinks, images, etc., with just a few clicks.
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