I feel like this was only an introduction. Suddenly I find myself with an urge to going back to previous steps and checking whether I forgot to save any of the URLs taking to those useful sites. I really needed to get in contact with the social networking web trend that's going on for some time now, as I never got a chance to do it before this Learning 2.0 program. Being a web professional, it's important to know what's being used out there, other than regular web sites.
My mind now is all turned to doing the library's sites make use of at least some of the Web 2.0 resources, but for me personally, life is going to be a little better with audio books for my long commute, online editors to ease my day and tags to help with my searches.
For librarians in general it is essential to keep updated on what patrons are using/will use and to even understand what's being said. Ultimately, librarians may be the ones referring Web 2.0 tools to patrons.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Exploring Web 2.0 Awards nominees
Although I am always trying to find new songs and musicians that I may like, I invariably get tired and go for the ones my brain already assimilated, specially when I want just background music while I'm doing something else. That's when Pandora, an Internet radio station, comes handy -- I can choose the music I want and it finds songs with similar styles. It asks you to vote (yes or no) on the songs so it can build a "private catalog" with your preferred style(s), using what they call the "music genome". Most of the times it does a perfect job, and now it is the only Internet radio station I use.
Among the features it offers: it shows the album cover containing the song currently being (or recently) played; you can share your "station" and find other shared ones, and you can send them to friends; you can listen to it on a mobile device for some carriers; you can bookmark songs or artists, and even print someone else's list and use RSS to get updates to it; and you can do searches for songs.
As for a use for it on a library, I guess one could find new artists and songs and build a list of prospective CDs to borrow. The album cover image can help when browsing through the actual CDs to look for a specific song.
Among the features it offers: it shows the album cover containing the song currently being (or recently) played; you can share your "station" and find other shared ones, and you can send them to friends; you can listen to it on a mobile device for some carriers; you can bookmark songs or artists, and even print someone else's list and use RSS to get updates to it; and you can do searches for songs.
As for a use for it on a library, I guess one could find new artists and songs and build a list of prospective CDs to borrow. The album cover image can help when browsing through the actual CDs to look for a specific song.
Friday, May 2, 2008
My First Zoho
Zoho Writer -- online text editor
I immediately thought of how many times I needed to open a document in someone else's computer just to find that there wasn't a program associated with that file extension. That is in addition to all the other support problems that Murphy's Law is all about, and in the middle of which the need for a word processor/text editor came up. And for collaborative work, I can't see a better way to do things. It will probably be a while until people get used to online editors and the idea behind them, but I can see why they may soon be replacing the traditional locally installed software.
It took me some time to figure out how to publish to this blog, but then I found it among the menu options... "Publish", what else? In general, it looks as easy as a desktop editor with added collaborative resources.
Wikis
The first idea that came to my mind when I first heard of wikis was the possibility of vandalism and addition of incorrect information. That is probably the biggest issue since the first wiki came up, and I noticed some of them now require registration or identification in order to be edited. I can't see it any other way, if one wants a trustful wiki.
I heard news that a huge German wiki is being put to print media and will go to bookstores. There were talks on how each collaborator would receive their share of the sales, and the answer was that they would be collaborating not only online, but also in the physical world, to the wiki in question. I'm not sure there would be another way of doing it, but I also suspect someone is having more than his/her fair share of the cake.
Our library has a wiki on our SharePoint server. The IT staff has been using its own wiki site to store and share all the tech and web support documentation and also useful files. It's so much simpler to find what we need this way, instead of having to find pieces of info in several different physical folders. We are only beginning to explore SharePoint's capabilities, but we will certainly implement wikis for other departments in the future.
I heard news that a huge German wiki is being put to print media and will go to bookstores. There were talks on how each collaborator would receive their share of the sales, and the answer was that they would be collaborating not only online, but also in the physical world, to the wiki in question. I'm not sure there would be another way of doing it, but I also suspect someone is having more than his/her fair share of the cake.
Our library has a wiki on our SharePoint server. The IT staff has been using its own wiki site to store and share all the tech and web support documentation and also useful files. It's so much simpler to find what we need this way, instead of having to find pieces of info in several different physical folders. We are only beginning to explore SharePoint's capabilities, but we will certainly implement wikis for other departments in the future.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
On Web 2.0, libraries and what's next
Web professionals are surely ones that know what it is to deal with technology changes. We also know that not keeping up with technology means certain extiction. I am not rarely trying to find my profession under a different designation, because as web technologies change, so does the range of knowledge involved and the main function that used to name my job. Right now I am a Web Specialist, and although I could still be a Web Designer, at some point I had the clear impression that designers were not needed for the web anymore -- at least not graphic designers. But throughout the years I became aware that not every technology, for more upstream, sensational and innovative it looks, gets promoted to the next level. Expectations change, and the new technologies that boosts some sites may very well bury them later on.
The print media has been greatly affected (mostly, improved) by every wave of new technology, but for several reasons not yet replaced. Nevertheless books will soon have their electronic equivalent improved to the point that there will be no advantage in having paper books. I foresee a day when authors will have to deal with the same problems musicians have with the distribution of their songs. By that time (and now we can already see it coming), the greatest technological challenge will be to manage the information available in a useful way. Web 2.0 is the start of this process, along with the social networking trend.
Librarians are having the chance to learn and apply what's being already used by patrons. If the libraries of the future will become just IT staff updating websites and databases, that's a good question (currently we are frequently understaffed and undervalued), but in any case, not learning what's new carries the risk of loosing the chance to survive.
A sign of the times: while exploring Library Thing, I found the complete (free) electronic version of an old book I loved and once lended to a friend that never returned it. I will finally have a chance to read it again.
The print media has been greatly affected (mostly, improved) by every wave of new technology, but for several reasons not yet replaced. Nevertheless books will soon have their electronic equivalent improved to the point that there will be no advantage in having paper books. I foresee a day when authors will have to deal with the same problems musicians have with the distribution of their songs. By that time (and now we can already see it coming), the greatest technological challenge will be to manage the information available in a useful way. Web 2.0 is the start of this process, along with the social networking trend.
Librarians are having the chance to learn and apply what's being already used by patrons. If the libraries of the future will become just IT staff updating websites and databases, that's a good question (currently we are frequently understaffed and undervalued), but in any case, not learning what's new carries the risk of loosing the chance to survive.
A sign of the times: while exploring Library Thing, I found the complete (free) electronic version of an old book I loved and once lended to a friend that never returned it. I will finally have a chance to read it again.
Two wonderful things
Talking about family and things, these are my kids at Universal Studios last week.
Using Technorati
Definitely, there's no one using HPL as a tag -- at least not at Hartford Public Library. The first HPL tag I found on a search was from baldingblog.com, which wasn't so pleasant, considering the existent solutions aren't really what they look like and I could surely make use of working ones... Anyway, I couldn't find a connection between the tag and the result.
This tag thing is a new idea for me, I still have to get used to it, and certainly I have to convince myself that I should use it. My searches are invariably done through Google, and that's still the best way to get what I need, I think, unless I am looking specifically for blogs -- and I'm not really sure why I would do it.
It may be a good social tool to be exchanging tags and comments on other people's blogs, but that's probably too much social (virtual) life for me. Besides, I have a family and my time is limited...
This tag thing is a new idea for me, I still have to get used to it, and certainly I have to convince myself that I should use it. My searches are invariably done through Google, and that's still the best way to get what I need, I think, unless I am looking specifically for blogs -- and I'm not really sure why I would do it.
It may be a good social tool to be exchanging tags and comments on other people's blogs, but that's probably too much social (virtual) life for me. Besides, I have a family and my time is limited...
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