I didn't start the fire

If we could do it all over again...

2008-04-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

It might be good to randomly pair people together (or 2 or 3 together depending upon the size of the group of participants) so that there is required interaction.

With few participants actually progressing in working in the 23 things, there are very few comments available to read plus no real incentive to read others UNLESS forced to do so.

So, grouping people together and requiring commenting on your partner's blog entries would increase the social networking aspect of this.

Everett Rogers in his classic book "Diffusion of Innovations" (1962) mentions several factors that are needed for most people to accept a new idea, product or service.

Why did very few (to date) of our library folks participate fully in the 23 things?

They probably did NOT see any "relative advantage" to learning these things. This is one of Roger's keys for acceptance of an innovation.

People have been doing their jobs just fine (they think) and did not see that learning any of this could offer an advantage. So, it may be important to make sure folks see and feel a relative advantage to accepting these new technologies and services.

I am glad I participated and have used some of the online image generators in teaching sessions.

Thank you for teaching us.

Tomi E.

Teach someone else to fish

2008-04-25T14:53:00.000-07:00

I chose Spell with Flickr as the technology.

I taught someone via social network software.

It is pretty straightforward how to use it so not much was needed except the url.

She did not know intuitively what to do with the images or how to save them.

I suggested to print them out (one by one) after saving them (I taught her) to use as signs: rummage sales, bake sales, signs in her business, etc.

She did not like my choice of images for her name as my example but liked hers as she changed them several times.

cool tool for graphic presentations.

tomi e.

anti-social networking?

2008-04-25T14:16:00.000-07:00

It's funny,

myspace and facebook now seem old to me.

I guess I am not into vanity publishing of pictures and sharing my thoughts (good, bad and ugly) with whomever might visit.

social networking can be a way to be noticed. would-be actors, models and those looking for lovers or mates seem to want to post pictures, tag lines and diary entries about themselves.

as libraries, maybe some honest-to-goodness users who are not looking for love in all the wrong places will visit our social sites and actually learn of our "measurements" in terms of what services and products we offer.

this is good.

so, libraries do need to use these for marketing purposes and to obtain feedback, look cool but high class (not 8th grade,) and socially integrate with our users and potential ones.

tomi e.

Number 20!!!!!!

2008-04-25T11:56:00.000-07:00

i like notesharing with notemesh but not for library.

backpackit was easy to follow and use but not free.

web 2.0 technology is being used to collaborate but people are charging for it.

mindmapping was a little weird. i have used a different mindmapping tool before web 2.0 days that worked better.

google docs is really the only one of these #20 tools that i link the library can use for sharing info in a common place (other than our existing wiki).

but these tools are nice to have out there if we need them.

tomi e.

Wikimania

2008-04-23T17:48:00.000-07:00

Some wikis look like websites.

They look too much like websites.

I think the frontpage should be off the wall (within reason) so that it is not the same old thing.

Wikis seem to be overused or underused.

Let's keep it positive and use it/them.

By the way, I made a wiki on the FC Library wiki called Praise Corner.

tomi e.

podcasting in vain

2008-04-23T11:24:00.000-07:00

It is amazing the amount of content that is available via odeo and yahoo.

When do people sleep? I do not get enough sleep and I am not creating or listening/watching podcasts!

Podcasts are the new radio. People like to see themselves on YouTube and GoogleVideos and probably more than that, they like to hear themselves talk and dream of others actually listening to what they have recorded.

Dream on and keep on podcasting.

tomi e.

Broadcast yourself

2008-04-22T09:43:00.000-07:00

For academic purposes, YouTube and GoogleVideo can sometimes have some good (although not broadcast quality usually) videos.

I find that googlevideo has less content and often repeats what is already in youtube.

Didn't google buy youtube?

Some of the content can be rather creative but the lack of high quality cameras and the loss of clarity when amateurs digitize their videos makes it just what it is at this point: vain attempts to immortalize oneself through the internet.

tomi e.

Flickr & google image labeler

2008-04-22T09:34:00.000-07:00

Yes,

Flickr is much more than the uninitiated thought. It's main attraction to me was how I could spell with it to create image letters for teaching aids as well as to have access through linking to some other cool tools like jumbotron, etc.

Google image labeler kinda sucked. My partner passed as I created 7 tags. Then my next partner created 5 as did I on a new image but none matched. (This person must not work in a library!)

tomi e.

rss, bloglines, lions, tigers, technocrati...oh, my

2008-03-12T14:20:00.000-07:00

I guess real bloggers never get tired of creating, reading their musings and posting...

it keeps them going even if no one ever comments on their content (like our 23 things postings).

Read my post on the FC Library 23 things main page as I will pick it up here (got my eyes on the 100 bucks...even only I can outwit that Jack dog/person).

The world of blogging is amazing. There is crap enough for everyone.

That said, there is some helpful content written by working professionals; just so much out there (in addition to print) that one could read and comment on so that 8 hours a day of work becomes much less.

It is hard for me to take the time to even write this, let alone read dozens of postings just on library-related blogs. Work is left undone while we read and blog.

If I believed that certain library blogs were worth visiting even for 5 minutes a day, I would need to schedule time for it or I would forget about it.

I guess I still think that a journal or magazine article has more value to browse or read than a blog that did not take as much thought to create or have any editorial review on it.

Therefore I remain,

Deluged by the flood (of information),

Tomi E

socially networked but I can't get a date!

2008-03-05T19:58:00.000-08:00

What I think is interesting is the amount of blogging that goes on that people do not comment on.

2 comments were made by a very small post. Zero comments were written on a long post.

Had I said it all?

Search engines that are web 2.0 are a nice addition.

I still couldn't find the site I wanted (maybe this organization does not have a web presence) but I did find plenty when the search engines worked.

Maybe those who run the engines were too busy blogging (or reading and not commenting) to display results.

Tomi E.

2008-01-17T14:29:00.001-08:00

Months ago I signed up for RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication) to a number of "library blogs" that seemed to have gained a following.

I did this for a friend and also for myself. I found that I was flooded with too many blogs and in reality, only made time to read a few, of which I found that about 50% of them were worth my time. (not a low percentage but I was overwhelmed by what I felt I needed to read versus what I wanted to and then what I decided to read: frustration more than fulfillment was the result).

Therefore, Web. 2.0 and Library 2.0 (or 1.2-1.9 as may be the case for many libraries) seem to be providing so much for users in order to provide them with "rich experiences" of interaction and socialization.

But (and this is not to be accepted as a bad thing), users typically, in my opinion, browse for things of interest, click and scan for something engaging, and then interact if relevant before moving on to a different place or site, or life activity.

Therefore (if you are still reading this and have not clicked away to something more interesting, which, I would applaud), if we can accept that library people and our libraries collectively are only a utility to users (like electric, gas and water companies) and not the main part of their lives, then we will not be offended if users do not give much thought to what we put on our library pages and in our libraries as long as it works in relative conformity to what they are experiencing elsewhere.

Tomi E.

pretty cool

2008-01-11T11:56:00.000-08:00

just think that we are using our minds to grow professionally and getting paid for it; we have the greatest jobs in the world.

Tomi E.