WEEK 7: Wikis

OK, I see the advantages of using a wiki to collaborate with people.  Quite frankly, though, nobody in my Luddite circle has invited me.  We’re all still using e-mails (which, as the Common Craft video points out, can be an inefficient way to communicate).  

In neither my professional life (office/work/school/library) nor in my personal life (community organizations/family) are people using wikis.  Once I did take a course where we all posted our projects to a class wiki, but we never edited them or worked together to produce anything. 

It’s unusual for me to simultaneously feel behind the times – because the truly hip people are already using wikis – and ahead of all my own contacts - because I would know how to create and edit a wiki if others were willing to participate.

Week 6: Tagging & Folksonomies

      I’m not a 23 Things dropout – I’ve just gotten out of sequence and failed to keep up with my blogging!  During recent sessions with my laptop, I’ve been exploring del.icio.us and Twitter.  Since Twitter is officially Thing 20 in Week 10, I’ll postpone my comments and insights about it.  Besides, there’s plenty to say about social bookmarking.

     I’m turning into a del.icio.us maniac.   I’m so excited to be able to have a way to organize all the webpages I’ve been trying to note or save.  How did I fail to find it before? 

     Although Library of Congress Subject Headings can seem intimidating, they’re also comforting.  I’m somewhat hesitant about my own cataloging (tagging) skills.  For instance, it seems to me that my one-word tags (even in a string) aren’t sufficiently descriptive.  Because my tags tend to be general I imagine they’ll be useful for browsing purposes, but not necessarily for specific searches. 

     While I appreciate the participatory aspects of having everyone tagging books in Library Thing or the Ann Arbor District Library catalog, a different take can be seen on the webpage for teens of the Nashville Public Library.  (http://www.library.nashville.org/teens/teenweb.asp)  There’s a webcloud, and when you click on one of the terms you come to the del.icio.us bookmarks the librarians think teens might like to access about that topic.  It’s almost like tagging and using del.icio.us for reference purposes.  (The Nashville teen page also has librarian avatars.  And they’re on Facebook and Flickr.  Plenty to emulate, as the webpage for my own library has no web 2.0 features.)

     Am I just a control freak, distrustful of unstructured folksonomies, and more comfortable with a system where expert librarians serve as gatekeepers?  I have yet to exploit the social aspects of of del.icio.us; when I do perhaps I’ll expand my horizons enough to embrace Library 2.0 even more fully .

#9: RSS Feeds for Library Blogs

Using Bloglines, I set up RSS feeds for School Library blogs and Open Access blogs.  These will supplement my Google Reader account, where I’m trying to read regularly on  the topics of Library 2.0 and Digital Preservation.  The question is how I’ll follow 5-10 more blogs in addition to the 5-10 that I was already trying to keep up with.    

Now, a confession.  Each of these blogs were recommended in workshops or articles.  It’s nerdy, but I actually kept lists of blogs I’ve intended to read when I got the chance!  So, I haven’t actually “searched” on my own as Thing #9 might anticipate, and I haven’t yet practiced using the blog search tools.

It took me all afternoon to do the initial project of setting up and reading the new RSS feeds.  I’ve run out of steam for further exploration at the moment. 

Thank goodness I have the opportunity to experience “23 Things” during summer break when I have larger chunks of time available.   On the other hand, I lose the benefit of doing it with colleagues in physical proximity who might be able to demonstrate what they’re doing or answer questions.  Does the NELINET blogroll serve as the summer support group, or is there a simpler way to communicate with Moodle classmates?

#7: Something of technological interest

Is it a little naughty that my item of technological interest is a book?  BLOG BLAZERS by Stephane Grenier seems intriguing for those of us who have been blogging for a week or two through “23 Things”.  

If one of the Amazon commenters is correct, this book could serve as a best practices manual about blogging.  A group of 40 famous bloggers give their expert opinions on 24 topics including tips for writing a successful post, how to make money from a blog, and (this one would command my special attention) the most common mistake of new bloggers.  

I came across this book while reading another blog, but it sounds like a must read.  BLOG BLAZERS  makes me realize that I’m not only behind the times as far as experiencing the 2.0 technologies themselves, but I’m also failing to keep current with the growing literature about the technologies!    

Here is the link to the Amazon page, so you can see the Product Description and Customer Reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Blog-Blazers-Stephane-Grenier/dp/0981085202/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245682809&sr=1-1

WEEK 3: EXPLORE FLICKR

I may have just added a photo blog post from Flickr.  (We’ll see if it worked.) 

It seems to take a long time to “explore” as in this week’s assignment.  Why is my attention span shorter when I’m “playing”, compared to when I have a specific assignment like posting a photo.  I’ll plug away when I’m trying to accomplish something.  When I’m exploring, I can’t help but feel guilty thinking of other things I need to be doing besides sitting in front of a screen.  I don’t recall feeling so restless or unproductive when I’m reading a real book.  How retro is that?

My realm

My realm

Originally uploaded by Periodical Princess

This is a test post, direct from Flickr.
I used “NELINET learning 2.0″ as a tag, but I’m having trouble locating everyone else’s photos. Is there a NELINET group? Should I search without the quotes, perhaps eliminating the spaces? Am I having fun yet?

WEEK 1

Of the Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners, the most foreign to me is #1/2: Play.  Until now, I haven’t had the patience to design an avatar for Second Life, nor the spare time to  be tweeting or updating my Facebook status.  Although I am curious about the 2.0 world, my natural inclination would be more towards lurking than actively participating.

23 Things certainly gets me out of my comfort zone!.  Yikes - instead of just reading blogs I have to create one!  Let me admit upfront my nagging worry that there might NOT be anyone who wants to hear my musings.  Still, I can try to offer some nuggests of knowledge.  

For example, the library blogs I’ve been reading have been “national” ones, and it was only recently that I found a local blogger to follow.  She is Cheryl Bryan of SEMLS, and the blog is at www.semls.org/communityt/forager

Luckily this program comes at a time when I am not as busy as usual.  I actually have time to explore and I’m looking forward to doing so with a community of like-minded people.  Are you really out there?