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.
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.
16. Wikiring
I like the concept of the wiki; harnessing the abilities (and, more importantly the time) of the random people in the world. It appeals to my sense of chaos. Everyone who is interested enough to be looking up a subject will have their own information they can add to the mix, something not thought of by the originator of the article; and if nothing else, when one must refute anothers misinformation, one often needs to reflect on their own ideas.
As a tool for collaboration, wikis are pretty amazing. They combine the ease of communication shown in online forums and listservs with the read-only 'final product' of a web page. As emails fly about, new document versions get passed around and such, it is easy to lose track of what the 'last word' on an issue actually was, and to disseminate that information easily.
And I was always curious as to why our reference desks in Central don't have a book of general knowledge (which are readily available; we have a couple in our collection, even) at the desk. We have Fitch which is along the lines of a wiki, but doesn't seem as easily editable.
There is always in my mind the issue of non-experts and opinionated posts. The consensus of wiki faithful seems to be that the community of contributors will spot and edit obvious misinformation, but does this require a large community of posters? It seems the size of the wiki will scale with the size of the community (a wiki should, perhaps, start small so a large community can expand it as the community requires), but if there are few posters how much time can they spend editing things? Unless editing and publishing rights are enforced, in which case the word 'encyclopedia' come to mind...
But yeah, a library wiki for policy, procedures and such forth would be useful; with editing and posting rights etc it would help to get things standardised across the system. Especially if video posts were allowed.
As a tool for collaboration, wikis are pretty amazing. They combine the ease of communication shown in online forums and listservs with the read-only 'final product' of a web page. As emails fly about, new document versions get passed around and such, it is easy to lose track of what the 'last word' on an issue actually was, and to disseminate that information easily.
And I was always curious as to why our reference desks in Central don't have a book of general knowledge (which are readily available; we have a couple in our collection, even) at the desk. We have Fitch which is along the lines of a wiki, but doesn't seem as easily editable.
There is always in my mind the issue of non-experts and opinionated posts. The consensus of wiki faithful seems to be that the community of contributors will spot and edit obvious misinformation, but does this require a large community of posters? It seems the size of the wiki will scale with the size of the community (a wiki should, perhaps, start small so a large community can expand it as the community requires), but if there are few posters how much time can they spend editing things? Unless editing and publishing rights are enforced, in which case the word 'encyclopedia' come to mind...
But yeah, a library wiki for policy, procedures and such forth would be useful; with editing and posting rights etc it would help to get things standardised across the system. Especially if video posts were allowed.
Monday, 3 December 2007
15. On Library 2.0...
Web 2.0 seems provide people not only the ability to communicate across streams and media, but with little or no cost other than that involved in production and getting online. A lot of it feels like people communicating because they can; the 'Hey look at what I can do' factor.
The ability to put things like technorati tags onto an article or blog alerts others to what you consider the blog to be about; but perhaps you have missed the point of the blog entirely? Or you follow a tag to a 20 page blog where only the last paragraph has anything to do with the tag? What I am wondering about here is the aspect of moderation. At least with librarian generated subject headings, you can be certain that the item in question does have some form of relevance.
So looks like the role of a librarian in the up coming library 2.0 future will be one of a guide; of being knowledgable enough to be able to swim the many different streams of the web, evaluating the content and accuracy of information sources to help their patrons not only discover content but also create their own and collate their own information.
The ability to put things like technorati tags onto an article or blog alerts others to what you consider the blog to be about; but perhaps you have missed the point of the blog entirely? Or you follow a tag to a 20 page blog where only the last paragraph has anything to do with the tag? What I am wondering about here is the aspect of moderation. At least with librarian generated subject headings, you can be certain that the item in question does have some form of relevance.
So looks like the role of a librarian in the up coming library 2.0 future will be one of a guide; of being knowledgable enough to be able to swim the many different streams of the web, evaluating the content and accuracy of information sources to help their patrons not only discover content but also create their own and collate their own information.
14. Technorati
A very good FAQ section on here, gives an extremely good explantion of blog paradigm and like concepts. Just putting in a couple of search terms netted me interesting posts and blogs to look at on the very first page; something that hasn't happened with other blog searches thus far.
I don't like the changing sidebar; at one point there was a really cool wordmap with the most popular searches and hot topics - the size of the word indicated the popularity of the term (or it might be tag). However when I went back to the page I thought it was on, the bar had changed.
I very much like the idea of the wordmap though. The Listener has (or had - it's been a while
since I picked up a copy) where they listed various current affairs topics against two axises, hot vs not and bored vs exciting (or something similar). How they got their data I'm not sure (I think they had a website one could play with - or now I think on it, the SEEK website might have been involved). It's one thing to see '500 people have used this tag', it's quite another to see how the tag compares to other tags.
I don't like the changing sidebar; at one point there was a really cool wordmap with the most popular searches and hot topics - the size of the word indicated the popularity of the term (or it might be tag). However when I went back to the page I thought it was on, the bar had changed.
I very much like the idea of the wordmap though. The Listener has (or had - it's been a while
since I picked up a copy) where they listed various current affairs topics against two axises, hot vs not and bored vs exciting (or something similar). How they got their data I'm not sure (I think they had a website one could play with - or now I think on it, the SEEK website might have been involved). It's one thing to see '500 people have used this tag', it's quite another to see how the tag compares to other tags.
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