Well, all in all it has been a learning experience. I've learnt while I'm still fairly oh-fay with technology, it's been a while since I've been on the cutting edge of whats what.
I'm still not so sure about the whole social networking thing; my paranoia of strange and perhaps interesting (or not) people being able create databases of my life (for whatever reason, be it nefarious, marketing or whatever) may just outweigh my desire for conclusiveness into the new digital fold (I consider myself part of an inbetween generation, facilitating and transitioning the world to a new reality but not fully comprehending what is being unleashed).
This program has definitely helped me want to expand my horizons beyond the wee bits of the net that I'm currently occupying.
Friday, 7 December 2007
22. Netlibrary
Well, when I first looked at Netlibrary, I was surprised to discover I didn't need to create an account (where many of my colleagues had difficulty), so obviously I've been on before, and recently.
I can't say I've been a huge fan of reading actual books online; I've read all kinds of manuals, how-to's, faqs, news articles, newspapers and so forth, which may as well be books. But to have a digital representation of a book or such is trial to try to read sitting upright in front of a monitor (or, as in my case, slouched below the monitor). Similarly reading a digital replica of a newspaper (as can be achieved through our website) is difficult on systems lacking in either bandwidth (ala work network) or grunt (ala my home pc).
Still might be useful if I can download the entire book onto my phone or pda or such and take it away in a more portable and tactile format it might get used.
I can't say I've been a huge fan of reading actual books online; I've read all kinds of manuals, how-to's, faqs, news articles, newspapers and so forth, which may as well be books. But to have a digital representation of a book or such is trial to try to read sitting upright in front of a monitor (or, as in my case, slouched below the monitor). Similarly reading a digital replica of a newspaper (as can be achieved through our website) is difficult on systems lacking in either bandwidth (ala work network) or grunt (ala my home pc).
Still might be useful if I can download the entire book onto my phone or pda or such and take it away in a more portable and tactile format it might get used.
21. Podcasts
I've experimented once before with podcasts, downloading some from the BBC website. It was pretty good (I often slumber with the BBC world in the background, catching bits of interesting discussions but wishing I to revisit later), but at the time I was on dialup, and mp3 player would not stop in the middle of a track (it was bought in 1999, lost in late 2006, and still mourned).
One thing I'm going to work on is organising my home pc better, so I can get a podcast every hour or so with the latest news bulletin from bbc (or some simlar celubrious institution) to play in the background as I work. This should be very doable, especially with an broadband connection (when I first got it I was streaming music whenever I was on the computer. Then I got my first bill. It wasn't pretty).
Finding podcasts wasn't too difficult; one issue was that some sites seem to view all their segments of video or audio as podcasts, while others seem to only use it as segments pushed out through rss feeds. Still, all very interesting, and one of the things I'll be experimenting with further.
One thing I'm going to work on is organising my home pc better, so I can get a podcast every hour or so with the latest news bulletin from bbc (or some simlar celubrious institution) to play in the background as I work. This should be very doable, especially with an broadband connection (when I first got it I was streaming music whenever I was on the computer. Then I got my first bill. It wasn't pretty).
Finding podcasts wasn't too difficult; one issue was that some sites seem to view all their segments of video or audio as podcasts, while others seem to only use it as segments pushed out through rss feeds. Still, all very interesting, and one of the things I'll be experimenting with further.
20. Youtube & embedding videos
ROFLMAO - Warcrafts answer to the muppets!
I have this bookmarked on my computer at home, pure GOLD.
I love the idea of having comments rolling off under the video; although why anyone bothers to add a comment of such originality as 'lol' or 'rofl' or 'I love this', much less post a video of them saying 'I love this' is beyond me. This is why there are rateings and the options to make things a favourite and such.
I like the channels idea, with the 'most subscribed this week' channel. It's all about seeing what everyone else is watching, isn't it? As if there wasn't enough to be paranoid about over the web (ooo topic for discussion, Web 2.0 redefining the conecpt of 'privacy' and 'public domain' and such).
I have this bookmarked on my computer at home, pure GOLD.
I love the idea of having comments rolling off under the video; although why anyone bothers to add a comment of such originality as 'lol' or 'rofl' or 'I love this', much less post a video of them saying 'I love this' is beyond me. This is why there are rateings and the options to make things a favourite and such.
I like the channels idea, with the 'most subscribed this week' channel. It's all about seeing what everyone else is watching, isn't it? As if there wasn't enough to be paranoid about over the web (ooo topic for discussion, Web 2.0 redefining the conecpt of 'privacy' and 'public domain' and such).
19. Discovering Web 2.0 tools
I choose to re-discover www.biblio.com for this section. I used this a fair while ago to find some rather obscure trash war novels now well out of print that I remembered reading in my youth.
The web2.0-ness of this site comes into play as an early example of the long-tail theory of retail (this being the idea that because there is no need to display stock, and the ease of searching, web retail enables stores to cheaply house huge catalogues of items which almost nobody wants but that 1 sale in a 1000 makes it worthwhile). Possibly second-hand bookstores were the originator; the web just made such businesses more accessable.
I know it goes against the 2.0 ethic of mash-everything-together, but sometimes I just don't want the purile and inarticulate review of an over-opinionated person I havn't met (and might just be working for the publisher or author anyway) when I'm looking up an author. I just want to see what books are available, quickly, cleanly and without too much hassel. This is what biblio provides; provided you are simply looking for second hand books. Some recent books have reviews, but given the speed of the site and the lack of wiz-bang which usually take so long to load, I can forgive this.
I can see this being helpful if we were looking up what to charge a patron who destroys a book; it may give a reasonable approximation, and generally people have provided descriptions of the condition of the book when it was put up for sale.
The web2.0-ness of this site comes into play as an early example of the long-tail theory of retail (this being the idea that because there is no need to display stock, and the ease of searching, web retail enables stores to cheaply house huge catalogues of items which almost nobody wants but that 1 sale in a 1000 makes it worthwhile). Possibly second-hand bookstores were the originator; the web just made such businesses more accessable.
I know it goes against the 2.0 ethic of mash-everything-together, but sometimes I just don't want the purile and inarticulate review of an over-opinionated person I havn't met (and might just be working for the publisher or author anyway) when I'm looking up an author. I just want to see what books are available, quickly, cleanly and without too much hassel. This is what biblio provides; provided you are simply looking for second hand books. Some recent books have reviews, but given the speed of the site and the lack of wiz-bang which usually take so long to load, I can forgive this.
I can see this being helpful if we were looking up what to charge a patron who destroys a book; it may give a reasonable approximation, and generally people have provided descriptions of the condition of the book when it was put up for sale.
18. Zoho
I am fairly impressed with the polish and the capabilities of this tool. I was expecting something a little more limited, but was pleasently surprised when I uploaded a reasonably complex word document (involving tables, various styles and tabbings). I like the inclusion of New Zealand English in the spell checker.
Just as a test, I uploaded a 23 page document with images, multiple fonts, a contents page and a bunch of other things and it all seemed to come through without any problems (albeit rather slowly which is to be expected when uploading documents), and once uploaded was actually very fast to browse through, which was a happy surprise. An issue I have with it is that it doesn't show page breaks (or possibly I haven't found the option), which makes me think that the reason for it being so smooth is that it doesn't try to work out the paging and such until it is actually getting ready to print (which is a good plan; yay the paperless office).
One other issue is that it seems to need to have a file open all the time; so if the last document you were editing was huge, just getting into the site to quickly open another document could be a problem (well, if you don't have a fast internet connection).
Internet connection is also another issue; the reliability of the connection and such things as proxy or page errors could be troublesome, not to mention if you are on dialup or have a relativly slow computer.
I'd rate this as having potential; but requires better infrastructure than NZ has before it will become the preferred option.
Just as a test, I uploaded a 23 page document with images, multiple fonts, a contents page and a bunch of other things and it all seemed to come through without any problems (albeit rather slowly which is to be expected when uploading documents), and once uploaded was actually very fast to browse through, which was a happy surprise. An issue I have with it is that it doesn't show page breaks (or possibly I haven't found the option), which makes me think that the reason for it being so smooth is that it doesn't try to work out the paging and such until it is actually getting ready to print (which is a good plan; yay the paperless office).
One other issue is that it seems to need to have a file open all the time; so if the last document you were editing was huge, just getting into the site to quickly open another document could be a problem (well, if you don't have a fast internet connection).
Internet connection is also another issue; the reliability of the connection and such things as proxy or page errors could be troublesome, not to mention if you are on dialup or have a relativly slow computer.
I'd rate this as having potential; but requires better infrastructure than NZ has before it will become the preferred option.
Tuesday, 4 December 2007
17. Our PBwiki
It's nice and easy to use; I was worried that it would be another excessivly laggy site, but was plesently surpirsed when it all popped up smooth & easy (I like the colour scheme too, very easy on the eye).
The format is pretty simple; but this one doesn't need complexities. I'd think a full library version would need to include a lot more structure, which might require a while to set up.
Seems like a useful tool, really.
The format is pretty simple; but this one doesn't need complexities. I'd think a full library version would need to include a lot more structure, which might require a while to set up.
Seems like a useful tool, really.
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