Thing 23

I have really enjoyed exploring Web 2.0 although have often felt pushed for time to do what was required. I have been surprised so many of these tools are so easy to use. I think it's fantastic that you can access very specific things which would be impossible without the collaborative ethos behind the technology.

The main attraction for me is the democratic principle behind it - that everyone has a voice. This I think is expecially good for people on the margins and finding alternative views not filtered through mainstream media. However, I'm a bit concerned about the possible misuse of all the information people reveal using these tools, by other parties.

Week 9 Netlibrary

Have created an account on this. Not very keen on the medium so personally didn't find anything I wanted to read - find the format frustrating to use/read - slow and cumbersome. Might feel differently if I was using it for study. The main use I see for digitised books is using digitised versions to preserve the originals. I see a problem long-term though with preserving the technology needed to access the digitalised item. Hard copy may prove more long-lasting.

Week 9 Podcasts

Looking at Podcast.net but am not liking it - the ads are in your face and it's very Americancentric. Moving along to Podcastalley where a 'library' search brought up 126 podcasts. Chose libvibe which features library headlines from around the world and added it to bloglines. These are today's stories :

City passes tax increase for libraries; Voters approve library funding measure; Controversy erupts after school libraries pull 'atheist' book (1, 2); Grass-roots effort begins to save school libraries (story, petition); Library wants to help people pick credible information sources; Outgoing library chief decides county job wasn't meant to be; Talker to go live from library (1, 2).

Week 9 Youtube & polar bear ice hockey

One of my favourite spectator sports is polar bear ice hockey and it played without stop-starting so it got the nod for including in my blog. What's not to like about Youtube? You can see clips of all your favourite things. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to embed this but will keep trying - can't be that hard.

Week 8 Web 2.0 tools and award winners

Chose the music category of award winners which was won by Pandora. However when I went for a look, it's only available in the U.S. It was very apologetic but there you are.

Second place- getter was Last.fm. I duly typed in a favourite band, Victim's Family which is moderately obscure, in the search and up came a video clip of a band unknown to me playing 'Take me back or I'll drown our dog' - and a suggestion of other bands I might like - Pachinko, Causey Way, Iowaska, Los Infernos and Evan Johns & His H-Bombs . Victim's Family was also on the list so there was a connection with what I asked for. Can't tell you more than this because got a message that 'Internet Explorer had encountered an error and would have to close' but setup looked intriguing. Have to go back and search for some NZ music and see how well it copes

Haven't heard of most of the sites in the 2.0 list so there's a heap out there to explore if one ever has time.

Week 8 Online applications and the Maniototo

Thought Zoha writer pretty fab. Table much easier to edit than in Word. Added the image with ease but when I published the post it did not come across so I guess I did something wrong (managed to get it back but now have lost the table which was just my Christmas leave hours). Really like the idea of not having to send the document (or spreadsheet etc) back and forth if you want to work on multiple computers or with multiple user input.

But most of all can't wait for holiday (these hills won't have any snow when I go but will look Graeme Sydney brown!

This is my Christmas leave schedule. My son and I are winging our way to Otago - hooray!

Week 7 Wikis

If funding allowed, a way to really cement public libraries as community centres and hubs would be to have the website act as community wiki as suggested in one of the readings. As a Waihekean, I would love to be able to go to my local library website and find out what's on this weekend, access a directory of services, blog my comments on last week's event, talk to my 'friends', find out where the fish are biting etc.



Librarysuccess.org is a great initiative. It groups the experiences of libraries worldwide so that those investigating new initiatives can avoid reinventing the wheel and learn from what others have done. E.g I looked under Gaming which linked to websites, blogs, books and journal articles giving information and advice about gaming in libraries. Would be good alternative to posting a question to nzlibs!

Tried to take the tutorial for the aclweb2 wiki but did not have correct version of Flashplayer so skipped it. Added my blog to favourites and added some favourite books/movies etc. Tried to add new page to home page (Favourite foods) without success - wouldn't let me.