Thing 16

I had no idea what a Wiki was before reading about it in this exercise. I had experience with Wikipedia but never understood the full extent of what Wiki is all about. Even though I am a bit of a stickler for wanting information to be confirmed by a reliable source, I have a great appreciation for Wiki and what it is all about. I believe in the philosophy that "two heads are better than one..." so it would stand to reason that even more heads would be even better, when working toward information-gathering and dissemination. I like the concept of a large group of people collaborating on ideas together, each person bringing in his/her own expertise and varied, updated knowledge.

I really liked the Book Lovers Wiki, developed by Princeton Public. It is cool that site visitors can read not only book content but get personal reviews and ratings.

I also looked at Libraryoutreach Wiki, which seemed a clever way to interact with other librarians, share ideas about outreach programs, etc. It sounds like SJPL is working toward creating something like this which librarians throughout our system can share ideas and strategies on outreach programs and inhouse programs/events, too.

Thing 15

I read "Web 2.0" and was fascinated by the "Away from the Iceburgs" and "Into a new world of librarianship" sections/perspectives. I find that it is soooo true that the library is constantly needing to change and adapt with the advances in technology. I couldn't have imagined how much our jobs and how much the needs of the communities would be changing when I first started back in the 80's. I am so glad that we are in an industry that acknowledges (somewhat begrudgingly at times, I'll admit) the continual needs for change. I agree that while it is important to preserve some of the philosophies behind our services, it is equally important to embrace and explore the ever-changing needs of a technologically savvy public. I think that "Learning 2.0" is a wonderful way to introduce SJPL and SJSU staffs to some of the "cutting edge" technologies that are becoming mainstream. And while there are some disadvantages to some of the newer technologies that are out there, there are many, many great things about all the information sharing that is now prevalant.

WEEK SIX - Thing 14

I had already familiarized myself with Technorati, but I did more research into it. I did the exercise where I typed “Learning 2.0” as a keyword search into Blog posts, tags, and in the Blog Directory. The results were each different from one another although some of the information did overlap and repeat. I think that "Learning 2.0" as a tag search provided the least information / hits.

As an aside, while browsing through Technorati, I read a fascinating blog article from a person who apparently caused many people a lot of stress/upset with his April 1st blog (the content of which he has erased and didn't want to talk about). He had written the blog as an April Fool's Day joke, and hoped/assumed his regular readers would understand that his tone was tongue-in-cheek. Instead, many feathers were ruffled and people were very, very upset. I wish I'd been able to read his April Fool's blog! In any case, I am continuing to enjoy more of what I learn from this learning series.

WEEK SIX - Del.icio.us

I listened to the tutorial about Del.icio.us and found it pretty interesting. Then I went to Del.icio.us and checked out the Hotlist and clicked on various links with titles I found intriguing. I enjoyed looking at sites that people had bookmarked, this one in particular:

http://static.iftk.com.br/mt/2007/03/4_years_of_persistent_training.html

It's a bit of a visual chronicling of a man's journey into fitness. LOL.

Tagging and bookmarking will provide for me greater access to subject matter that appeals to me, and will connect me with other people who are equally interested in such subjects.

I think this covers "THING 13," and I have done all the exercised up through Week Six now, so my next blog will be titled THING 14 and my remaining blogs in 2.0 will progress in that manner. I had tried to go into my earlier blogs and alter them so that it would be clear that I had done all the things for each week to date, but I couldn't figure out how to alter old blogs.

WEEK SIX

I Explored Technorati and really loved it. I went to "WTF" because I was intrigued by the anacronym, LOL. It means "Where's the Fire." From there I read blogs from people talking about American Idol and about one of the contestants, Sanjaya Malakar, who many people feel doesn't have enough talent to remain in the competition. It was fun to read people's comments about him, and from people's blogs I was able to click on links to articles published about the topic. I also was able to watch him sing "Bathwater," which was on a video clip. Pretty funny :)

WEEK FIVE

I'm really starting to get the hang of this (I think)... Week Five stuff has been lots of fun ~ I went to SignGenerator.org and made the cartoon of Stewie from Family Guy, chastizing all the non-readers out there.

:)

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Then I had a leprechaun name created fro myself from Quizopolis.com:

(My Leprechaun Name is
Bonzi O'Reilly)

Get Your Leprechaun Name at Quizopolis.com
http://www.quizopolis.com/leprechaun_name.php

Then I went to Image Chef and created this:

WEEK FOUR

I have calmed down a bit and I'm trying to better understand RSS and Bloglines. After just 2 tries I was able to successfully listen to my first Podcast, which was exciting (That "Hans" one). I have created an account with Bloglines and I clicked on some links to explore. I tried to mark off my areas of interest when I first created the account, by clicking the boxes of subject matter that I found appealing, but there was a problem with the server or something so it didn't accept my checked boxes. I will work on this more from home tonight, or tomorrow (so that Mana can assist me).... I do appreciate all the hard work that went into creating this tutorial.