End of the Road

or is it really the beginning? I've learned a lot, some of which will support my work life, and some of which will support my other life. I will definitely continue to use del.icio.us and bloglines to organize my information, and Flickr to organize and share my pictures. I had fun with mashups and image generators. It's helpful to be aware of these new technologies even if they don't have an immediate impact on my life, in order to assist customers who may be interested in them, or need help. Since technologies tend to build on each other, being familiar with these will help with learning about future ones. If we had the option to explore other discovery exercises, I would do so, but it'd be nice if they didn't conflict with Summer Reading LOL!

Technorati

I tried out Technorati, and found it about as useful as the other search engines. Some of the keywords I used linked me to what I was looking for, but others led me astray. I can't imagine that what I was looking for doesn't exist in blog form, so I just need to keep working to find the right keywords. Since this is time consuming, I can't see myself using this tool on a regular basis.

del.icio.us

I could really get to like this site. I know Annette is thinking "I told you so" right now :). I created an account and have added a few of my favorites to get started. This will great so I can have access to my favorites no matter where I'm working (or playing!).

http://del.icio.us/pmg755

Podcasts

This has been the most frustrating exercise of this whole project. I found the search engines less than useful. Of the ones I tried, Yahoo Podcasts came closest to my searches, but it says at the top of their page they are closing the site soon. When I did finally find a podcast interesting enough to subscribe to, I didn't have the right software on my computer. Quite a few of the choices I selected were also that way. Some I could listen to, but not subscribe to. For now, I give up. If I have time at home, where I have itunes and several other listening choices, I may try again.

Library 2.0

I read several of the articles about library 2.0 and the future of libraries. I'm still processing what I think the libraries of the future will hold, but it seems that some of what is mentioned as forward thinking we're already doing here. I definitely see applications for 2.0 technologies in our libraries, but I guess I don't see some of our reasons for being changing, only the method of providing it. While the articles I read all seemed to talk anly about the technology aspects, I still see the need for traditional services--pleasure reading and viewing, programming, literacy support.

Web 2.0 Awards

I checked out the 2.0 Award Winner for City Guides: Yelp http://www.yelp.com. First I looked for MD locations and found nothing close by--not even Baltimore, so I searched Pittsburgh. I liked the links to the "best of" categories, allowing browsing. Maps were useful as well. This site would be useful for people relocating to new areas and wanting overviews of services available, or for people trying to decide where to relocate. The site is easy to use, making it possible for people with fewer computer skills to navigate.

Google docs

This seems easy to use, the functions are all familiar. The benefit is being able to store documents, etc, making them available on any computer, without resorting to the use of floppies or CDs.

I created this test on Google Docs and it was easy to publish to my blog. I also tried out Zoho Writer, with similar results.

RSS searching

I tried out several of the RSS search engines and came away mostly dissatisfied. I was looking for whole blogs on subjects and mostly was getting linked to specific blog entries that had little to do with my interests. Changing the keywords around didn't help much. I found it much more effective to go to some favorite sites and subscribe from there. However, I did like Topix.net, and it's concentration on localities. It was easy to use to find items about Baltimore and Harford.

Sandbox Wiki

I checked out how to create a wiki, and went to the MD Sandbox to check things out. I added my blog to the favorite blogs page, and enjoyed reading and adding to the favorite vacation spots page. I also checked out some of the favorite books/ reads pages, but haven't added anything there yet.

Flickr Mashups

Carnival Circle
Originally uploaded by pmg755

This was fun! I used www.dumpr.net to create a new view of the cruise ship. Very cool!

Flckr

Cruise 042
Originally uploaded by pmg755

I did it! I took the picture, uploaded it to my computer and Flickr, and posted it to my blog. Whew!

Wikis

Before this exercise, I was somewhat familiar with wikis, mainly from using Wikipedia. It is interesting to see all the applications that are possible with this format, and some of the challenges that come with ceding control. Some of us on the Reference Training team have talked about the possibility of using a wiki for portions of the training modules, but this will go slowly as we revamp.

Avatars, etc

I was checking the links to various image generators on the 2.0 blog. When I clicked on the Yahoo avatars link, I started to create one for fun. I was called away and it asked me if I wanted to save it. I did, not really thinking it through, that I hadn't logged in to my Yahoo account first. Imagine my surprise when I next opened my Yahoo mail to see my avatar there. I was a little freaked out--how did it know me?--until I remembered I'm always logged in to Yahoo on my desk PC. Whew.

I also checked out http://www.becomeanmm.com/, spent time creating an M + M, went to save it to export it to my blog, only to find out their server was experiencing difficulties and I couldn't save it. If I have time, I'll try again later...

Overdrive

I checked out Overdrive's site, it has been quite awhile since I've searched for anything there. I'm not much of an audio book fan, I prefer the written format, and my only source for listening to downloads is the computer itself, not the most comfortable. I was keeping up with it mainly to assist customers needs. I decided to spend some time with the childrens and YA titles. I was surprised by the variety available, and was very surprised with how many of the titles seemed to be checked out, needing holds to be placed. I assumed the adult titles would be well used, and that proves to be true, as everything new that I checked was not available.

Rollyo

I created my account on Rollyo, and created a small search roll for children's authors and illustrators. Doing a keyword search for other similar rolls didn't turn up anything (even mine, go figure). To me, this is only useful if you need to access the info from more than one computer. For me, it's just as easy to bookmark the sites I want and put them in folders by subject. I suppose for research purposes, checking what other people find important could be useful, but I find it too cumbersome.

Library Thing

I tried out Library Thing, created my account and added a few of my most recent titles. This could be fun, and help me keep track of my books. Eventually, I'll spend more time seeing who else shares my reading interests, but for now it's enough to know I can keep track of what I have.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/pmg755

My New Camera

A wonderful friend despaired of me ever giving up my trusty 35mm camera, and gave me her digital when she upgraded. I took it on a trip and have enjoyed learning all it can do. Biggest advantage for me is the obvious one--being able to see and delete the duds right away. I could share the photos I had taken with family, without any development. My next step is to learn how to upload and organize. Flikr here I come!

RSS feeds

I signed up for my bloglines account and added a few feeds to my list. This will be very handy for the blogs I read daily, and for notification of new entries for the ones that are updated occassionally. My next challenge--how to find time to read the new ones I'm finding!

7 1/2 Habits

I just finished the 7 1/2 Habits tutorial. In thinking about the habits listed, I feel I exhibit most of them in my learning life. The one that's easiest for me is the confidence in myself as a learner. I enjoy learning, whether it be by reading, watching or doing. The hardest of these habits is seeing problems as challenges, at least at first. I tend to hit the negative before I work it all out in my head, as if I'm my own devil's advocate. Eventually though, I work through it. I like the idea of play, and it's good to have the OK to go with it when learning new things.

YouTube

I'm not really this far along in my journey, but something happened last week that applied to the YouTube exercise, and I wanted to share while it was fresh in my mind. My sister was telling me about a video clip she received in her email, but it didn't have any info about it other than the subject line of the mail. She wanted to know the comic's name, etc, but didn't know what to do. I said it's probably on YouTube, I'd check. She was skeptical since there was no info. I pulled up the site, typed the words from the subject line into the search function, and voila, there it was with the info she wanted. She was impressed (sometimes its fun to amaze folks!). It's good to kill two birds--help a family member and work on an exercise, too!

I have several friends who post videos on YouTube, so it was good to check out what they've added lately.

Whew!

Who knew it would take me three months after setting up this blog to get back to it? Who knew that summer reading would so overwhelm us? Hopefully, before the full fall onslaught I can make some headway on my 2.0 journey.

PG-Cruiser, hmmm? I like it!

This is new!

My first blog...