Week 10 - The last Post?!

These Web 2.0 exercises have been a big learning curve for me, even though I was in some ways already familiar with some web 2.0 aspects (e.g. Facebook and Youtube).

My favourite discoveries have been: seeing how many of these online tools operate together (e.g. being able to post a blog from flickr); realizing how easy all of this online stuff is if you try; Bloglines and Lastfm; and understanding that you can be truly portable now and that even word processing is no longer tied to a specific computer in a fixed location.

The best thing for about this course is that it has got me looking at this web 2.0 stuff which I had always wanted to do but had never got around to it. I am pleased I made the effort now. Note - without the prize incentive I may not have ever finished - sad but true!

I think the course as it was was excellent in terms of its format and content. For me it was pitched at the right level. As an introductory course I wouldn't change it. The only thing I suggest is clarifying at the outset what the purpose of having the blog is (i.e. Is it there purely to document our answers to the excerises? Do we have to strictly answer every question?) and how much work time can be spent on it.

I would definitely be happy do another programme like this in the future. It was FUN! Thank you!

PS - finished with 30 minutes to spare!!!

Week 10 - Inspector Gadget

I added the Socrates 'Quote of the Day" which was a gadget provided by Blogger. I like the idea of reading quotes by Socrates but I don't like the fact it doesn't fit neatly in the sidebar of the blog - so I might change it if/when I find something I like better. I tried to get an online-radio widget from yourminis but for some reason it hasn't arrived on my blog even though it said it was "sent".

As a library I guess we could use widgets a light information/entertainment/distraction for people when they visit our website. For example, we could have the local weather forecast or some funny quotes. This might make people have a more pleasant experience when they visit our website.

However, it would be very cool if we could get some custom-made widgets for our website that promoted our library and our stock. I imagine we could have "book of the day" or "DVD of the day" where the widget displays a book/DVD cover along with it's title, author etc. It would, of course, be a book/DVD that we stock in our library. We could encourage people to request the item by having some text saying something like Request this here. What would then be even cooler would be if people could - with one click - be taken to our library catalogue to request the book/DVD of the day.

It wouldn't just have to be book covers. We could have daily quotes from classic literature or great movies in our widget. We would, once again, stock in our library the items from which these quotes come and make it possible for people to request them.

That's my inspector gadget ideas anyway!

Week 9 - Survey Tools

Goodness me! Here are more online tools that I didn't no existed prior to this web 2.0 exercise. I looked at SurveyMonkey and signed up for it. As a library we could use such survey tool to ask about:
- what customers think about our website, what they use our website for, how easy it is for them to find information (there was already a sample website survey on SurveyMonkey.
- how our online library customers use the internet (i.e do they email, chat, social network etc) and what they expect from us in terms of online services
- how and why our customers use electronic databases

Basically it seems to me we could use these online survey tools to ask about anything we want ... it would just be up to us to work out what it is we want/need to know and to formulate questions that will give meaningful answers. That, I think will be the hard part!

Week 9 - Life is no Picnik?

I liked Picnik and the fact I could completely obliterate a normal looking wedding photo in a few easy steps. For me the photo looks a bit like an Andy Warhol piece, then again that may just be the acid tab I popped for afternoon tea.

To get the photo you see above I experimented a bit with cropping before altering the saturation of colour and sharpness. By the way, that's me on the left being groomsman at a friend's wedding.

I like the photo effect, even if "The Wheel" aka Leanne Ferris looked dubious when I said it looked Warhol-ish.

With Picnik I liked the fact you could send photos off via email/facebook etc but was a bit disappointed not to see an option to upload direct to my blog. Was I not looking in the right place? Did anyone else upload a photo from picnik direct to their blog? Am I now expecting too much of these web 2.0 services? Am I becoming ungrateful? Will I complete this Web 2.0 training by midnight tonight??? Stay tuned ...

Week 9 - Zoho Writer

I am writing today's blog entry on Zoho Writer. I didn't actually know you could get web-based word processing software so this is a pleasant surpise. It's a great idea because it's free but, it seems to me, most of its benefit comes from the fact that its portable. One possible downside that it might have is compatibility: can it be opened by other word processing software such as MS Word? I will do some investigating ...

Week 8 - Wikis

Wikis could be useful for building subject guides for customers ... and perhaps also staff. Perhaps we could have a "useful reference sources" type wiki where we record useful websites etc that helped answer certain reference queries.

Like it said in the readings wikis are great for doing a shared project (i.e to save lots of emails between multiple people) but I don't personally see the need for it in my day to day work here.

I do like the of making a wiki available for the whole community to build it's own community database. I say, put the technology up there and let the people do it how they want. We would just be the hosts. Done properly it could be a place to go for information about all kinds of things about Whangarei and its communities. The only way to find out if it would work would be to put the technology up there and let people loose!

Get down James Brown!!!

Here are a couple of my favourite clips showing just what a funky chicken he was on the dancefloor! If I was there in the 1960's I would have been up the front screaming just as loud as the girls!

Week 7 - Video Sites

I totally luuuurrrvvvvve YouTube. I rate it highly as having both entertainment and educational value. I frequently use it to show my kids all kinds of things they are curious about: anything from polar bears to sumo wrestling to Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk. I personally use Youtube a lot to watch music and comedy.

I like it's layout and I will sometimes watch things featured on the homepage. I like the fact that similar clips are suggested as you look at a particular video. I generally avoid reading people's comments as, for some reason, people that comment on YouTube manage to say the dumbest most inane things.

Whangarei Libraries could use embedded video on its website in the following ways:

• Tutorials and guides e.g. tour of the library, how to search the catalogue
  
• Promote upcoming events such as funtimes by showing a video of them
  
• Record events that happen in the library (e.g. school holiday programmes, funtimes, festive days, cultural events) so people can view what happened in the library even if they weren't there.

Now, onto more serious matters. Here is a clip from YouTube that I find particularly worthwhile. I think that if the Library were to take heed of this educational video, then all things (including Library 2.0) would go very smoothly indeed. I look forward to receiving your comments.

An explanation of the previous blog ...

I just wanted to prove to all of you that it is possible for me to write a short blog entry.

What else could one have said but fart?

I am awaiting conformation from the Guinness (book of records) that it is, in fact, the shortest blog entry of all time. I will keep you posted (lame pun intended).

Anyway, pardon me.

We interupt this programme to bring you ...

Fart.

Week 6 - Tagging my fence

Matauri Bay Maori Reserve, originally uploaded by majordomo1976.

Here is a photo I took while we were at Matauri Bay a few years ago. I uploaded it to Flickr and tagged with all kinds of descriptors.

I searched Technorati for "learning 2.0" and got quite different results: when I did a simple search I got 6719 hits; when I looked for an exact phrase I got 270 hits; and when I seached for it as a tag I got 540 hits. What I found interesting was, when I did the tag search, I could see an anlaysis of the use of the tag (i.e. frequency used) over time. I liked that and I also liked the suggested other tags that people had used when they had tagged with "learning 2.0".

I guess searching by tags was the best method - although I can imagine that different search tactics would be useful in different situations.

The other thing I figure is that you might as well tag your work if you want it found ... with as many tags as possible. Also I think now it's a good idea to be aware of what tags other people use if you want to be found too. So I'm going to pay attention to the tag clouds from now on after initially despising their skylarking existence!

I have tagged this with the Teachnorati HTM as Matauri Bay. Hope it works!
matauri bay

Week 5: Revisiting Web 2.0

Prior to this web 2.0 training I have not been in the habit of looking at websites etc and considering whether they are web-2.0-ish. So, I actually found it quite hard to think of any favourite sites that fit the definition of web 2.0. I think the only web 2.0 type site I use on the regular is Youtube.

The first web 2.0 nominee site I looked at was a very cool music site called Last.fm. Last.fm describes itself as working in the following way:

Every track you play will tell your Last.fm profile something about what you like. It can connect you to other people who like what you like - and recommend songs from their music collections and yours too ...
... When you recommend some music to a friend, or you tag it, or you write about it - even just listening to it - you shift the song's importance on the site. It'll be recommended to different people, because you've listened to it. It'll move up our music charts and maybe more people will hear it because you thought it was good.

With a free 30 song trial I explored. Last.fm will stream "radio" for you based on your music tastes. You can also browse genres, watch videos, read bio details about artists, find out about coming music concerts. There are links to buy music too. All in all, a big number of services this site provides which was exciting albeit a bit overwhelming for an impatient-to-see-it-all novice. The layout is nice even though they cram a lot of features in. I got the sense it required a bit of practice to get comfortable with all it has to offer. I will definitely visit again in order to discover more music I've never heard of before. Gotta love that! All I need now is some better speakers for my computer so I can really enjoy it.

I came away thinking Library OPACS could take a few lessons from Last.fm. I think Last.fm aims to be a music-hub giving you personalised "radio" based on your tastes, as well as access to discover different music genres, video etc. Could library OPACS could aim to be such an information hub? Perhaps even when our library users log in they could leave comments, tags etc to rate their favourite books etc as Last.fm users do to music. These are not new ideas for OPACs, I know, but after seeing Last.fm I can see how it might work now.

I treid to check out Pandora - an internet radio site - but couldn't get access to it because it is no longer able to operate outside of the U.S. Bummer!

I also checked out MOG. MOG describes itself as "web's best daily music newspaper". I can't dispute its "daily" tag because I looked at it two days in a row and the content on its homepage was quite different from one day to the next. So, my first impression was that it holds a lot of content and that it is supra-quickly updated. In fact it has so much much information that I found it overwhelming at first (again) and I struggled a bit to figure out what the site was actually trying to be. Like Last.fm you can sign-in an receive a personalised service but I got a lot out of it just by looking around without signing in.

Can any of MOG be applied to a library setting? Yes! Perhaps library websites could be updated daily with links to relevant web-content (blogs, news, music). Perhaps we could personalise our library service so our signed-up users receive messages from us recomending books/blogs/reviews/publishing news/author news etc they would be interested in?

In light of these brief explorations there seems to be so much more library OPACS and websites could do: personalisation is in the front of my mind right now as a future online service libraries could offer as well as giving users the ability to comment and tag.

Week 4 - Social Networking: part two

I don't have a Myspace Page. I started to sign up for it but decided against it. I don't feel I have the space in my life for a Myspace page. I mean, I have my Facebook page and I feel that is enough for me for now.

I have been wanting to set up a Myspace page for a while but I feel a need a good moniker first. I notice that a lot of people have a moniker. I have a DJ friend who uses Myspace under the guise of Bro 90. Sometimes when he DJs he is just simply 90 and other times he is Nyntee.

I get moniker envy just thinking about it.

When I get a good moniker I might join the Myspace community ... but in the back of my mind I just feel like that one thing too many to do in my lfe.

Do other people feel that having a Facebook page and a Myspace page is excessive or is that just me? Does anyone else out there feel they need to rename themselves first before they venture onto Myspace?

I wonder if these questions plague me only because:

• I am a librarian (ok I've admitted it)
• I am currently going through a 1/3rd life crisis.

I am reminded that a guy I used to work with at a Medical Library entered into an epitaph comptetition on National Radio (and subsequently had it published in a book). It was an epitaph for Bill Clinton who was then still the President. The epitaph as I remember it was:

Here lies Bill Clinton. Willy will forever be your moniker.

Week 4 - Social Networking: part one

I have been using Facebook off and on for a couple of years now. This year since I got broadband at home I have been using it more. On average I log on a few times a week.

It could be exciting and very beneficial for Whangarei Libraries to be on Facebook. It could be a useful way of getting Whangarei Libraries in people's faces (excuse the pun ;-)) and of marketing the library.

The way to do it would be by regularly using the "what's on your mind" feature. Many of my friends use this feature every day - sometimes several times a day e.g. "I'm so pleased it's Friday". This then displays on my wall. It is possible for friends to make comments and get a sort of a brief dialogue going. The effect of this is that, whenever I log onto facebook, I can check out my wall and - at a glance - see what my friends have been up to in the last day or so.

Imagine if Whangarei Libraries did this. When we had a busy day we might say: "Whew! 1000 customers today" or after a funtime we might say "Just had 50 kids smiling at funtime!". The effect of these short messages would communicate to our friends that the library is a busy, happening place and also keep them informed about the different services we offer.

More importantly I think, Facebook could be used in this way to promote upcoming events. Short messages like: "getting ready the school holiday programme which starts Monday 13th" could be put up every day.

While I think having a Facebook presence is a good idea I do see a number of issues around setting it up and keeping it going.

• How to attract friends in the first place? This is a key problem I think. Would people want to be friends with a library? I'm not sure. How would we get friends? We could advertise the library's Facebook in the library, on a bookmark etc and get people to seek us or we could actively seek out friends in our area. Are we prepared to push ourselves out there like that?
• Are Facebook users likely to be the library users we are trying to market to and vice versa?
• Who would be responsible for maintaining our Facebook?
• Is it a duplication of resources to do Facebook and maintain a website?

Despite these issues (and probably many more) I think Facebook is worth a go for our library.

I see the end vision being: Whangarei Libraries on Facebook with lots of friends getting regular updates about what we are doing ... and us getting lots of feedback from our friends about the good (and hopefully not bad) expereinces they have here

Week 3 - RSS Feeds

Finding out about RSS was an enjoyable discovery for me. I have absolutely loved setting up a Bloglines account and having multiple blogs viewable in one place. This is for me. This makes me more inclined to follow blogs now.

Setting up the bloglines account was simple. I already had some blogs in mind that I new I wanted to follow such as Seth's Blog which is one of a few blogs I have frequently dipped into up until now.

Probably the easiest method of finding feeds was to look at the "top 100" type lists featured on sites such as Bloglines and Technorati. I looked at Topix and found myself unexpectedly reading about Paula Abdul's apparent departure from the American Idol Family but I didn't really like the Topix site much. Didn't like the layout. But that's me and knowing me, if I look at again a week's time that might change.

I used the search feature on Bloglines a bit and in my travels I was surprised to find quite a few feeds related to libraries some of which (e.g. The Shifted Librarian) were in the Top 1000 list. I made sure I added a few work related feeds to my account because I am a good boy and do as I'm told!

How will I discover new blogs in the future? Search tools and and web sites have their place but at this stage I feel that I'm gonna seek out a new blog if and when somebody recomends it to me - either in real or virtual life over the radio or whatever.


All in all feeds are cool and I think I'm gonna keep using them. I'll be back on tomorrow checking for new posts and I'll be back on Technorati too to try and find some new stuff.

Week 2 - Using Flickr

pet soundz cover
Originally uploaded by Majordomo1

Here is the cover of Pet Soundz (greatest Rock album of all time?). This image is actually coming from my Flickr account using the blogging tool.

Settting up Flickr wasn't hard. I have personally never had a need/want to use Flickr before but as I'm writing this I have become excited by the way that Flickr can interact with my blog. Amazing!

I had to search a while to figure out how to use the blogging tool. I did do the Flickr tour last week but that seems to be out of my brain right now. Anyway I prefer just to get into things and play around with them until I figure it out. I suspect that's what most people do, right?

Actually I did check out the help info about "blogging tool" and it helped a bit ... and I learned some other unrelated stuff too.

BTW there are plenty of pet sounds covers already loaded into Flickr.

So far it's Flickr good!

Week 2 - Using Picasa

The photo above is of a corner of a quad bike courtesy of Russell Gow. The photo below is the same photo enhanced by Picasa. Picasa was easy to use (I shunned all instructions) and I just played around with it. Okay, I'm not telling the whole truth ... Jenny(ology) was with me and helped me out but together we shunned intructions and played around until we worked it out.

I really liked Picasa. It was intuitive and easy to use. On my computer at home I have some photo editing software that came with my digital camera, but it's not as good as Picasa. I'll definitely be getting Picasa on my home computer. It was greatfun creating a new image and I can see myself using it quite a bit. I'll be downloading it tonight once rugrats are sleeping.

Take two!

Now that the two specks of dust have settled from my initial blog post ... I can see that it does make sense to have a blog as a means of sharing my thoughts about the discovery of this Web 2.0 stuff. I have actually got inspired by looking at some of the blogs done by people in our library and also from those done by people at North Shore Libraries. Were the blogs not there I would not have seen what others had done.

I get it now.

The other thing that has got me inspired is the threat of a deadline to complete this training and the prospect of a prize. Perhaps a virtual pay increase?

Who am I? What am I doing here?

Welcome to my world! Come on in and find out about my pet sounds (i.e. my favourite music), my pet books, my pet bus, my pet peeves and other pets that I have that you and I don't know about yet.

If you haven't already guessed, the name of this blog refers to one of the all-time great pop records - Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys. More about that later ...

As I write this I ask my myself: Why in 2009 am I bothering to start up a blog? What do I have to say to the world that is new, interesting and relevant? Why am I bothering when experienced bloggers such as J.C Loophole (see May 20 entry) are themsleves questioning their blogging existence?

Surely the world is too full of blogs already. Why bother to create a new one? Of course, the same can be said about children ... and I think that is where the answer lies.

The world doesn't need any more children but, people keep having them. Why? Because people enjoy making them. And so it is with blogs. We don't really need any more blogs but everybody enjoys making them.

And so, here is my blog. You might not like it. You might not like what it has to say or the way it behaves. But, it's been made.

That's life.