I have enjoyed the program and learned a great deal.
The upside: I wasn't as technologically illiterate as I thought I was.
The downside: the pace of the program didn't allow me to really absorb the material. One thing a week for 6 months might have worked out better for my particular learning style.
An important adjunct would be continuing to keep the 23-1/2 things posted somewhere, or downloadable from somewhere, for future reference. I've had occasion to refer to some of the things we worked on, but there were so many, I couldn't quite remember which site was which. I was able to reference this site to jog my memory. I would have been lost without it.
I would absolutely participate in a similar program again.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
audiobooks
I have long loved audiobooks for when I travel, and in the past couple of years, we've gotten a reasonably good collection of downloadables. The construction of the site makes it difficult to browse, which is how I would ideally find what I'd like to hear but I know that is a function of the Overdrive software and that QL has little/no control over that.
I came across a title, "The Saturdays," that was a favorite children's book when I was young. I will make it a point to listen, just to see if it's the same book.
I came across a title, "The Saturdays," that was a favorite children's book when I was young. I will make it a point to listen, just to see if it's the same book.
Podcasts
I have been familiar with podcasts, so there's nothing revolutionary here for me. There is plenty of interesting content around, you simply need the time to anticipate what you will want to hear in the future and add it to your account.
Prior to the wide availability of podcasts, I had rigged a casette recorder hooked up to a timer and radio so I could get a few favorite radio shows when I wasn't home to hear them. This is much simpler.
Prior to the wide availability of podcasts, I had rigged a casette recorder hooked up to a timer and radio so I could get a few favorite radio shows when I wasn't home to hear them. This is much simpler.
YouTube
YouTube is both a resource and the world's biggest time waster, not only in the time it takes to view the postings, but the time that people spend filming their pets snoring or their babies drooling, and then posting them to YouTube.
There is a lot of valuable content that will become more valuable as time goes on. We can now see presidential speeches and academy award presentations. The grandparents of the drooling babies are certainly delighted to be able to watch whenever they want.
A drawback to the site is that you can't really tell what's genuine and what's a parody. I watched a video of what was supposed to be a Fox newscast of a sane-looking man going on about Bill Clinton and UFOs. Either it was a parody, or Fox News should have their license revoked for airing such inanities -- but I can't really tell you which.
You can put any two unrelated words into the search engine, and get multiple hits, testifying to the unbelievable quantity of material posted. A sterling example was a video of people who were trying to whitewater raft on blow-up anatomically-correct dolls, and another of students trying an experiment by bouncing a basketball off a high place with an egg atop it (the result of the search terms "library" and "egg.")
If I were an anthropoligist in the year 3007 and I dug up YouTube, I would conclude that people in 2007 were unapologetic exhibitionists. Like bloggers :-)
There is a lot of valuable content that will become more valuable as time goes on. We can now see presidential speeches and academy award presentations. The grandparents of the drooling babies are certainly delighted to be able to watch whenever they want.
A drawback to the site is that you can't really tell what's genuine and what's a parody. I watched a video of what was supposed to be a Fox newscast of a sane-looking man going on about Bill Clinton and UFOs. Either it was a parody, or Fox News should have their license revoked for airing such inanities -- but I can't really tell you which.
You can put any two unrelated words into the search engine, and get multiple hits, testifying to the unbelievable quantity of material posted. A sterling example was a video of people who were trying to whitewater raft on blow-up anatomically-correct dolls, and another of students trying an experiment by bouncing a basketball off a high place with an egg atop it (the result of the search terms "library" and "egg.")
If I were an anthropoligist in the year 3007 and I dug up YouTube, I would conclude that people in 2007 were unapologetic exhibitionists. Like bloggers :-)
Friday, November 23, 2007
Web 2.0
I explored a few of the award winners, and some I was already familiar with, such as Craigslist. I was not clear about what makes them "web 2.0" as opposed to "more-cool-things-you-can-do-on-a-website."
The awards website had a link to follow, which I did, and found this definition: "Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform ... 'architecture of participation,'... ". Well, that certainly obviates obfuscation, doesn't it?
More research nudged into the area of Web 2.0 sites being enriched by the users, such as the Threadless site which sells T-shirts using pictures of people who have already bought the T-shirts and sent in their photos.
It's an interesting thought. I'm not sure it works. It's based on the premise that the group as a homogenized whole is more knowledgeable/influential than individuals. This is not true, as you know from general election results, or the fact that fear of peanut allergies is now driving what's happening in most school cafeterias and airline terminals, even though for the past 50 years or more, it hasn't been an issue anyplace. Very vocal, highly politicized individuals and narrow interests effectively and frequently enslave the majority, who are too worried about being politically incorrect to speak up for themselves. But I digress...
The other issue is that if Web 2.0 content is shaped by my input and interests, how do get input about things I never knew I had an interest in? I was listening to NPR this morning (I love NPR) and I heard featurettes about things I would never have imagined existed, no less were fascinating. Web 2.0 is the anti-NPR.
Bottom line: it's irrelevant exactly what Web 2.0 is. It's new, some of it is very interesting, some of it is dumb, but it's not going away. Who cares what you call it?
The awards website had a link to follow, which I did, and found this definition: "Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform ... 'architecture of participation,'... ". Well, that certainly obviates obfuscation, doesn't it?
More research nudged into the area of Web 2.0 sites being enriched by the users, such as the Threadless site which sells T-shirts using pictures of people who have already bought the T-shirts and sent in their photos.
It's an interesting thought. I'm not sure it works. It's based on the premise that the group as a homogenized whole is more knowledgeable/influential than individuals. This is not true, as you know from general election results, or the fact that fear of peanut allergies is now driving what's happening in most school cafeterias and airline terminals, even though for the past 50 years or more, it hasn't been an issue anyplace. Very vocal, highly politicized individuals and narrow interests effectively and frequently enslave the majority, who are too worried about being politically incorrect to speak up for themselves. But I digress...
The other issue is that if Web 2.0 content is shaped by my input and interests, how do get input about things I never knew I had an interest in? I was listening to NPR this morning (I love NPR) and I heard featurettes about things I would never have imagined existed, no less were fascinating. Web 2.0 is the anti-NPR.
Bottom line: it's irrelevant exactly what Web 2.0 is. It's new, some of it is very interesting, some of it is dumb, but it's not going away. Who cares what you call it?
Online collaborations
This is a beautiful thing. I created a test document which I was able to post to my blog, and it appears below. I summed up (in my test document) my thoughts on the technology. It has exciting possibilities.
This is a test document written by me with an online word processor. It is pretty intuitive, and works much like the standards. Why would I need to do it?
I probably wouldn't if I were working from my desktop. But it paves the way for editing documents from a handheld, or easier online collaborations. Of course, it puts all the pwoer int he hands of the teleconnectors, but that's another issue that speaks to my level of paranoia.
Social Networking
I have had previously bad experiences with Facebook and MySpace. Following the current wisdom about what potent professional tools they are, I set up business-like pages for networking purposes.
However. I have a fairly common name. When you search it, you get a whole crop of near-pornographic postings. Obviously, if you know me, you know those pictures aren't of me. But if you don't know me (and that would be the whole point of the social networking), you would be horrified and all professional contacts would be unthinkable. So I removed my pages and cancelled the accounts. I haven't been brave enough to try to figure out a work-around since.
The apps in the articles seemed useful, but duplicative. First we have bookmarks. Then we have delicio.us to compile our bookmarks. Now an application in Facebook to facilitate our delicio.us stuff. It's a bit much.
I suppose eventually the market will "shake out" and only the best of these will survive. For the time being, this is more than I need. I don't need/want a daily sunshine, picture of cute kittens and I sure-as-heck don't want to hear from anyone from high school. I am glad to learn about it, though, and will try to find a benign way to make my presence known in this sphere.
However. I have a fairly common name. When you search it, you get a whole crop of near-pornographic postings. Obviously, if you know me, you know those pictures aren't of me. But if you don't know me (and that would be the whole point of the social networking), you would be horrified and all professional contacts would be unthinkable. So I removed my pages and cancelled the accounts. I haven't been brave enough to try to figure out a work-around since.
The apps in the articles seemed useful, but duplicative. First we have bookmarks. Then we have delicio.us to compile our bookmarks. Now an application in Facebook to facilitate our delicio.us stuff. It's a bit much.
I suppose eventually the market will "shake out" and only the best of these will survive. For the time being, this is more than I need. I don't need/want a daily sunshine, picture of cute kittens and I sure-as-heck don't want to hear from anyone from high school. I am glad to learn about it, though, and will try to find a benign way to make my presence known in this sphere.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Wikis
It is my job to keep the QL page in Wikipedia updated, so it's a technology I'm familiar with. In our setting, it would be excellent for any collaborative project, especially those that involve input from people in different locations.
One excellent use would be the annual Tri-Li collaboration over summer reading lists, that inevitably involves multiple editors in multiple locations from multiple systems. Another might be collaborations that the I-team or WorldLinQ teams work on.
That's the good news. The not-so-good news is that I got interested in a book description on one of the wikis in the discovery exercise, and immediately went to Amazon to buy yet another book I don't have room in my house or my budget for.
One excellent use would be the annual Tri-Li collaboration over summer reading lists, that inevitably involves multiple editors in multiple locations from multiple systems. Another might be collaborations that the I-team or WorldLinQ teams work on.
That's the good news. The not-so-good news is that I got interested in a book description on one of the wikis in the discovery exercise, and immediately went to Amazon to buy yet another book I don't have room in my house or my budget for.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Library 2.0
I am not a librarian. I apologize in advance to all my librarian colleagues and friends but here it is -- the library profession has done a really, really lousy job with the technology of library science up to now and I doubt it will get better with the "advent" of Library 2.0. There is nothing customer-centric about it. "Keyword" searches force --really, "attempt" to force me, but I don't do it -- to search in terms that are your words, not mine, and follow somebody else's thought processes. I can't ever find anything in the catalog. I am forever telling whoever will listen that it isn't apparent to a non-librarian that a keyword search is different from a subject search, both of which are different from a google search. But they just tell me I'm not doing it correctly.
So what? Many library science people SAY they are going to make it a more customer-centric experience but in reality, I expect it will become more and more eccentric, just as the online catalog is more eccentric than the card catalog was.
Decades ago, I spent a short, miserable period of my life as a teacher. I was tutoring a young child in phonics, who had recently immigrated from the West Indies. Her teacher said she was below grade in reading, but that simply wasn't the case.
I showed my young pupil a cartoon drawing of a rug, and asked her to put a circle around the letter representing the initial sound. She circled "M." I asked her why. She said, it was a picture of a "m-m-m-mat." From her point of view, she was absolutely correct. I was not serving her needs, but trying to force her to look at the world through my eyes.
If 2.0 is building on the supposed 'successes' if 1.0, it is going to be very dismal, indeed. You can't be customer-centric if you do it on librarians' terms and not the customers'.
So what? Many library science people SAY they are going to make it a more customer-centric experience but in reality, I expect it will become more and more eccentric, just as the online catalog is more eccentric than the card catalog was.
Decades ago, I spent a short, miserable period of my life as a teacher. I was tutoring a young child in phonics, who had recently immigrated from the West Indies. Her teacher said she was below grade in reading, but that simply wasn't the case.
I showed my young pupil a cartoon drawing of a rug, and asked her to put a circle around the letter representing the initial sound. She circled "M." I asked her why. She said, it was a picture of a "m-m-m-mat." From her point of view, she was absolutely correct. I was not serving her needs, but trying to force her to look at the world through my eyes.
If 2.0 is building on the supposed 'successes' if 1.0, it is going to be very dismal, indeed. You can't be customer-centric if you do it on librarians' terms and not the customers'.
Technorati
Interesting. I am amazed-shocked-incredulous at the sheer numbers of people out in the blogosphere. I am still a little confused about what Technorati mean by "authorities" on the site, but after I am done with this posting, I will go back and play with it a little more.
This site is so interesting, it has the potential to suck up every waking second I will ever have. You could spend lifetimes reading boing-boing, and wondering why anybody would invent such things, write about them, and then I will spend more time reading about them. This is probably a very dangerous introduction.
I don't understand how people are making money from these sites/blogs, and if they aren't making money, how are they affording to sink so much time into them?
I have conducted severeal keyword searches, including Library Learning. Certainly, I get many of the posts from our little project but an awful lot, as well. I want to see what happens if you put "quotes" around your keywords. How is Technorati different from Google Blogs? I have to search side-by-side and see what I get.
Intriguing...
This site is so interesting, it has the potential to suck up every waking second I will ever have. You could spend lifetimes reading boing-boing, and wondering why anybody would invent such things, write about them, and then I will spend more time reading about them. This is probably a very dangerous introduction.
I don't understand how people are making money from these sites/blogs, and if they aren't making money, how are they affording to sink so much time into them?
I have conducted severeal keyword searches, including Library Learning. Certainly, I get many of the posts from our little project but an awful lot, as well. I want to see what happens if you put "quotes" around your keywords. How is Technorati different from Google Blogs? I have to search side-by-side and see what I get.
Intriguing...
delicious
Delicious didn't blow me away. I can see where it would save some time in finding frequently-used bookmarks but I could locate them anyway by googling them. The networking features, on the other hand, have a lot of potential but you need an awful lot of time and curiousity to follow up where the various threads are going. An awful lot of stuff published seems to be the random ravings of either schizophrenic or very high individuals, who are spewing random words out there with very little intent to communicate concrete ideas.
Or maybe it's the verbal equivalent of abstract art. It's certainly not up to me to judge what's art or not but it takes a lot of blog-mining to find anything I'm really interested in reading.
In the meantime, I located a new mash-up site that I spent some time with, putting my photos on Rubik's cubes and seeing how they looked in museums. Clearly, mash-ups and generators have been my favorite discoveries so far.
Or maybe it's the verbal equivalent of abstract art. It's certainly not up to me to judge what's art or not but it takes a lot of blog-mining to find anything I'm really interested in reading.
In the meantime, I located a new mash-up site that I spent some time with, putting my photos on Rubik's cubes and seeing how they looked in museums. Clearly, mash-ups and generators have been my favorite discoveries so far.
Friday, November 2, 2007
I don't get Rollyo
I have a daughter who lives in Mount Maunganui NZ (yes, New Zealand, believe it or not) so I created my search roll about Mount Maunganui with the idea that it was narrow enough that I would be able to know if I got good hits or not.
Rollyo doesn't seem to be much better than Google or ask.com. Maybe it's my non-librarian brain. It strikes me as a filtered Google or something like that. I'm not getting the Eureka! moment.
I got good results but its basically the same list of sites. Of course, since I input the source web pages, it's not designed for me to discover other, great sources of info but I suppose that has its uses, too.
Everything can't be as maravelous as generators, which I was really jazzed about. Sorry, "about which I was really jazzed." Grammar, grammar.
Here is the link to my scrollsearch for Mount Maunganui NZ (that's a 'zed,' not a 'zee', and not to be confused with Mount Wanganui, which is on the other side of the country): http://www.rollyo.com/search.html?q=mount+maunganui&sid=324725.
Rollyo doesn't seem to be much better than Google or ask.com. Maybe it's my non-librarian brain. It strikes me as a filtered Google or something like that. I'm not getting the Eureka! moment.
I got good results but its basically the same list of sites. Of course, since I input the source web pages, it's not designed for me to discover other, great sources of info but I suppose that has its uses, too.
Everything can't be as maravelous as generators, which I was really jazzed about. Sorry, "about which I was really jazzed." Grammar, grammar.
Here is the link to my scrollsearch for Mount Maunganui NZ (that's a 'zed,' not a 'zee', and not to be confused with Mount Wanganui, which is on the other side of the country): http://www.rollyo.com/search.html?q=mount+maunganui&sid=324725.
Library Thing
This is an interesting tool, I can easily see its appeal, especially for library people. I especially liked the ability to generate suggestions from my reading list. Amazingly, although I only put in my five favorite books for lack of time, the list generated several of my other favorite books. If I could really spend the time to put in a big list, I'm certain I would get exceptional reader's advisory. On the other hand, knowing how many people ALSO enjoy what I enjoy makes me feel less special. :-)
Link to my reading list if you like...www.librarything.com/catalog/jking958
It's Friday night, I should be doing other stuff. Sayonara for now...
Link to my reading list if you like...www.librarything.com/catalog/jking958
It's Friday night, I should be doing other stuff. Sayonara for now...
Friday, October 26, 2007
Thing #10 - generators
I had a ton of fun with Thing #10 (generators). I played with several, and will spend more time with it but I don't have the right digital pics on hand to make Warholizer and some of the others look right. I did a magazine cover that I've shared with family members in magazine-cover generator. It is several of my favorite people clowning around during a family get together on July 4, I am going to share it, they will love it.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
RSS Feed
I have had an account with GoogleNews for a long time to help me monitor news about my favorite library. It works great. Except for our spam filter.
I create news alerts and blog alerts. They work flawlessly for two days. Then the spam filter picks it up and no matter how many times I whitelist the address, I can't get it to work again. So I sign up for another alert. Same thing, over and over again.
I've never tried Bloglines before. Maybe I will have better luck.
I create news alerts and blog alerts. They work flawlessly for two days. Then the spam filter picks it up and no matter how many times I whitelist the address, I can't get it to work again. So I sign up for another alert. Same thing, over and over again.
I've never tried Bloglines before. Maybe I will have better luck.
Great technology -- but now what?
My daughter is a GIS specialist. She works for a nonprofit on contract to the City of Baltimore. She creates mashup maps that plot various kinds of social data to find where they intersect, and subsequently where the best places to direct grant monies would be.
It is a vast underuse of the technology, and her skills. When she was in grad school, she showed me how she could hook into satellite views and auto-map tools and look at the earth's surface, run various imaging programs and be able to interpret what was below the surface, perhaps to find buried resources or archaeological sites. It's all jaw-dropping. But...so what? You can do it, but what can you do WITH it? There are very few peace-time uses for the technology.
Oil/mineral companies can find what they are looking for with greater assurance then ever before. But that won't resolve dependence on a dwindling resource, or political tensions in the places where the reserves happen to be. It's extraordinary that I can turn on my Blackberry and read email 24/7 -- do I want to work 24/7? Jukebox phones and i-Phones -- unbelievable to have that much power in the palm of your hand. Except for the novelty, what do I need it for?
I've read that new technology enters society as a 'toy' or a 'game' because people are more comfortable playing Space Invaders on their home computers, rather than worrying that HAL will run their lives. Intelligent uses for the technology comes later. I hope so.
It is a vast underuse of the technology, and her skills. When she was in grad school, she showed me how she could hook into satellite views and auto-map tools and look at the earth's surface, run various imaging programs and be able to interpret what was below the surface, perhaps to find buried resources or archaeological sites. It's all jaw-dropping. But...so what? You can do it, but what can you do WITH it? There are very few peace-time uses for the technology.
Oil/mineral companies can find what they are looking for with greater assurance then ever before. But that won't resolve dependence on a dwindling resource, or political tensions in the places where the reserves happen to be. It's extraordinary that I can turn on my Blackberry and read email 24/7 -- do I want to work 24/7? Jukebox phones and i-Phones -- unbelievable to have that much power in the palm of your hand. Except for the novelty, what do I need it for?
I've read that new technology enters society as a 'toy' or a 'game' because people are more comfortable playing Space Invaders on their home computers, rather than worrying that HAL will run their lives. Intelligent uses for the technology comes later. I hope so.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Week #3 - Flickr
I've gotten a little behind due to a frantic week last week, but that's OK, there's time to catch up.
A photo that really caught my eye on Flickr was http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=SA4%20048&w=all, taken by Bikebiker999. The photo is of Tres Montanas (3 Mountains) on the Rio Futalefeu in northern Patagonia, Chile. I visited there two years ago on a whitewater rafting trip. It is pristine and gorgeous, if a little chilly. The photo on Flickr was taken several years ago. There is a camp/resort looking out at that vista now but the camp blends so beautifully into its surroundings and is so unobtrusive, you would barely know anyone had built anything on the spot. It reminds me of a wonderful trip.
I posted a photo that I had taken of colleagues in CDD about a year ago. They came to work dressed in their various ethnic dress one day, and wanted a photo taken. I think it was for a presentation their department was making. They wanted to illustrate their diversity. It is posted at http://www.flickr.com/photos/15434356@N05/ While my photography wasn't brilliant, I smile every time I see it sitting in our online photo file. It represents the best of working at QL. Every one in that photo was very proud of her own identity and what she brought to the whole, but at the same time, was very proud of working with the team. I admire that ethos.
A photo that really caught my eye on Flickr was http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=SA4%20048&w=all, taken by Bikebiker999. The photo is of Tres Montanas (3 Mountains) on the Rio Futalefeu in northern Patagonia, Chile. I visited there two years ago on a whitewater rafting trip. It is pristine and gorgeous, if a little chilly. The photo on Flickr was taken several years ago. There is a camp/resort looking out at that vista now but the camp blends so beautifully into its surroundings and is so unobtrusive, you would barely know anyone had built anything on the spot. It reminds me of a wonderful trip.
I posted a photo that I had taken of colleagues in CDD about a year ago. They came to work dressed in their various ethnic dress one day, and wanted a photo taken. I think it was for a presentation their department was making. They wanted to illustrate their diversity. It is posted at http://www.flickr.com/photos/15434356@N05/ While my photography wasn't brilliant, I smile every time I see it sitting in our online photo file. It represents the best of working at QL. Every one in that photo was very proud of her own identity and what she brought to the whole, but at the same time, was very proud of working with the team. I admire that ethos.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
7-1/2 habits
What exactly is half a habit or 1/2 a new thing to learn?
At any rate, here are my thoughts on the 7 1/2 habits of lifelong learners.
The easiest for me is to have confidence in myself as a competent learner. I have always believed - perhaps over-believed - that it is relatively easy for me to learn new things. This is especially true of academic disciplines that don't require much physical talent. I could, perhaps, learn to speak Icelandic if I tried but I probably wouldn't be much of a golfer. It's probably one of those self-fulfilling prophecies. I won't try to play golf because I don't believe I'd be any good at it.
The most dificult of the habits, for me, is to begin with the end in mind. I am intellectually curious. I enjoy learning and researching new things. My mind meanders, though, and I often find myself very far from where I started. I might be curious about the aurora borealis and want to plan a trip to see it, which will eventually lead to learning Icelandic. That's not where I started, though. I also find that allowing my mind to meander allows for creativity in a way that sticking strictly to goal-oriented learning does not.
Sometimes I dream new ideas or solutions to problems while I'm asleep. I don't know how that happens. I wish I did so I could make it happen at will but... I wake up, and the problem I've been wrestling with or the paragraph I couldn't write is all there for me, all wrapped up. It's quite amazing, really. Perhaps sleeping should be another habit of lifelong learners. :-)
At any rate, here are my thoughts on the 7 1/2 habits of lifelong learners.
The easiest for me is to have confidence in myself as a competent learner. I have always believed - perhaps over-believed - that it is relatively easy for me to learn new things. This is especially true of academic disciplines that don't require much physical talent. I could, perhaps, learn to speak Icelandic if I tried but I probably wouldn't be much of a golfer. It's probably one of those self-fulfilling prophecies. I won't try to play golf because I don't believe I'd be any good at it.
The most dificult of the habits, for me, is to begin with the end in mind. I am intellectually curious. I enjoy learning and researching new things. My mind meanders, though, and I often find myself very far from where I started. I might be curious about the aurora borealis and want to plan a trip to see it, which will eventually lead to learning Icelandic. That's not where I started, though. I also find that allowing my mind to meander allows for creativity in a way that sticking strictly to goal-oriented learning does not.
Sometimes I dream new ideas or solutions to problems while I'm asleep. I don't know how that happens. I wish I did so I could make it happen at will but... I wake up, and the problem I've been wrestling with or the paragraph I couldn't write is all there for me, all wrapped up. It's quite amazing, really. Perhaps sleeping should be another habit of lifelong learners. :-)
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