23 Things – The Last Round-up

It has taken me a while to get to the last round-up of 23 Things but in the intervening time I have continued to learn more and use many of the things I learned about while doing the program.

Overall I found it interesting, informative and I learned more than I thought I would. However, I did find the program time consuming. Maybe that was because I was on sick leave at the time and tended to explore some of the things more than was necessary.  I was pleased to have the distraction, though.  I discovered that there is a Web 2 community in cyberspace that is constantly evolving.

Some of the things that I explored I have continued to use every day. Things like social networking and Bloglines. Other things like podcasts, I find I don’t use as much. I thought I would use Del.icio.us more than I do. One tip about Del.icio.us, don’t forget your password!

Creating a map in Google maps and inserting icons and photographs was fun. However my favourite thing was Picasa. I have used it much more than I thought I would. I created an album of the highlights of my trip to Europe and was able to share it with family and friends.

I am pleased that I had the opportunity to participate in 23 Thing - and my iGoogle pet hamster also continues to thrive.

Social Network Butterfly

My first introduction to social networking many years ago was receiving invitations in emails from friends to join social networking sites like MySpace, Bebo, Tagged and Linkedin. I had a cursory glance at these sites but didn't really get involved in the social network scene until I joined Facebook. At first I thought Facebook was messy and disjointed with a lot of annoying 'apps'. In fact, I still do. Despite this my family and friends seemed to be able to find me there, and before I knew it I was part of the Facebook network. I became a convert when I realised that it was an easy way to share news, photos and other information with family and friends scattered all over the world.

Although, I still have mixed feelings about Facebook. There are issues with privacy and security. However, the main issue I have with it is the fact that some people are not very nice when posting comments. I believe that we should think carefully before we post comments about ourselves or others on Facebook - or any social networking site. Maybe some old fashioned manners would not go amiss. I found the video below, Facebook Manners and You, that just about sums it up.

Twitter, Twitter - Tweet, Tweet

What's happening? Twitter knows. Out of curiosity, I set up an account with Twitter some time ago. Just to see what all the fuss was about. At first, I wasn't quite sure. I followed a few humourous tweets, and some TV shows but soon lost interest. I doubt I would be constantly logged in to Twitter, and I doubt I would ever tweet. In spite of this, I did find some informative and useful tweets. Including one called snarlbrisbane which tweets up to date information about traffic in and around Brisbane.

I think a site like Twitter is something that seems to blend in more with the mobile computing age, like iPhones and PDAs, where people are constantly keeping in touch wherever they may be. There are several Twitter Client applications you can download for these devices. I found a free one in iTunes for my iPod Touch called Tweeterena.

Podcasts

Searching the podcast directories, I discovered that this media is much more interesting than I previously thought. For libraries, this media could be used to promote, inform, entertain and train. Searching Podcast Alley for some free library related podcasts, I found a podcast of book reviews at The Great Read, which I thought sounded quite interesting and subscribed to it Bloglines.

YouTube

YouTube is big - really big! It is an incredible site. There is so much there that you could spend hours searching, clicking on links and viewing and hardly scrape the surface. I have used it many times to rediscover some song, movie or TV show. There are also training videos of all descriptions. I have often been amazed at what I could find there. Of course, there is the other side of YouTube where people use it to grab their 15 minutes of fame, or in some cases infamy.

Love it or hate it, YouTube could be a great tool a library could use to promote its services or host training vodcasts. The video below, Pink Glove Dance, was created to raise awareness of breast cancer. Check out the cleaner dancing with his mop in the hall - that guy has all the moves!

iGoogle - iSurrender

Google has invaded my computer, captured my browser and is in control of my life - well almost. It tells me the time, the date, the weather, and the phases of the moon. It helps me to find friends to chat to and email. I can search the web, YouTube and more. It advises me how I am feeling emotionally, physically and intellectually with my personalised biorhythms. Apparently I am currently physically great but a bit low in the other two. I now even have a Google pet, a hampster - a very hungry hampster that will eat out of my hand, (mouse). The invasion was subtle, starting with creating this blog in Blogger, then gradually Picassa, Google Books, Google Maps, Google Docs and finally iGoogle.

I can end this invasion if I want to. I can just sign out of my Google account. However, it is nice to have all those things in one page. Besides, who would feed my hampster.

Google Maps and Google Docs

I would be lost without Google Maps - literally. Every journey to anywhere, whether in Australia or another country, seems to start with a visit to Google Maps. I didn't think there was anything I didn't know about Google maps, but this time I found a nice little feature that allows you to create your own map of directions, places or features. You can add icons, photos and videos and then save the map and share it with others. I managed to quickly make a simple map of a walk from the Gatton Civic Centre to the new public library near Lake Apex - amazing. You can view it here.

Google Docs is something I should have known about, but didn't. You can use it to create word documents, spreadsheets and even presentations wherever you may be as long as you have a computer and access to the internet. You can also save documents into Google Docs and access them again from anywhere in the world - good one Google!