Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Web 2.0: The Neverending Story
Now that I have a firm grasp on the Web 2.0 game I feel like I can keep this up. We now have a great list of sources to keep checking, and as I begin my career in libraries, I need to remain up to date on the latest literature, so it is all about checking the resources and experimenting with new things.
Personally, I don't think libraries need to be on the cutting edge of everything ever. Instead we need to pay attention and find useful, meaningful, and engaging ways to use new information. One of my favorite school library authors, Doug Johnson, says when it comes to technology, stuff isn't enough. If we have a blog, but aren't updating it, it is useless.
The best way I've found to find new things, like the one you will see in my final post, is to just pay attention to what you look at. One program a friend of mine told me about is called Pixton. This is a comic book creator that allows users to pose and edit different stock characters in order to creat a comic book. All you need to do is enter the text. You can also watch an interesting trailer. Different places will have different articles, or links to interesting new programs, and since we have a great foundation we can now look and see what is out there for all of us to use.
Personally, I don't think libraries need to be on the cutting edge of everything ever. Instead we need to pay attention and find useful, meaningful, and engaging ways to use new information. One of my favorite school library authors, Doug Johnson, says when it comes to technology, stuff isn't enough. If we have a blog, but aren't updating it, it is useless.
The best way I've found to find new things, like the one you will see in my final post, is to just pay attention to what you look at. One program a friend of mine told me about is called Pixton. This is a comic book creator that allows users to pose and edit different stock characters in order to creat a comic book. All you need to do is enter the text. You can also watch an interesting trailer. Different places will have different articles, or links to interesting new programs, and since we have a great foundation we can now look and see what is out there for all of us to use.
Web 2.0 Alligators... I don't know yet...
I tried both friendfeed and secondbrain and I have to say... they are okay so far. I'll probably be trying Netvibes I liked what it had to say about finding content, but I'm still not sure whether I like the current interface of of these things yet. Basically, what I want is a service that takes all of my web 2 junk and puts it all in one easy to find space with an easy to find layout that I can sign in with and not go all over the web to make my updates. That is what I want. I don't particularly like this everything in a list format that friendfeed and secondbrain have, and the fact I can't access these pages makes these services useless to me for the most part. I really don't want another place that I have to make friends, I have facebook for that. I guess I see these as looking at someone elses RSS feed about themselves so you can get updates. I don't think the technology is at the point where it is really useful yet. Maybe when more MCPL 23 things participants are on it it will be better.
I just like the RSS feeds better. They let me get to where I want to be on the web all in one place. So far, these aren't for me, but I'm willing to give them more of a chance than I gave twitter.
I just like the RSS feeds better. They let me get to where I want to be on the web all in one place. So far, these aren't for me, but I'm willing to give them more of a chance than I gave twitter.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
I like Video Games, I just don't like paying for them
Having the privelge this summer to attend Gen-Con with a few other members of the library has already significantly shaped my perspective on games in libraries: I like them. Table top games are fun and putting them in libraries for circulation is a recipe for fun. There are a lot of worries about losing pieces and missing parts, but at Gen-Con Brian Mayer (at least I think it was him, I might be wrong though) said that game companies have thousands upon thousands of these piece that you can get to replace lost pieces, and you usually can get these for pretty cheap.
I'm a bit more cautious about circulating videogames. I have no problem with putting videogames in the library, my caution comes from, which consol do we support? There are the three biggies out there, playstation, wii, and xbox, along with computer games, so what should we collect in? If the decision is made to support only one then an automatic judgement is made for what is deemed valuable, and the other supported formats are left out. Fortunately, newer systems have ever increasing backwards compatibility, so there isn't a huge problem of formats going out of style.
I think gaming programs at the library would be met with enthusiasm from the attendees and indifference from other people. I don't think that there would be an outcry of resistence from worried parents.
I have never experienced gaming in a public library, but I have experienced game nights in a high school setting. They were wildly popular and incorporated both table top games, video games, and physical games, such as basketball. They were popular because they had something for everyone. The video games were displayed through a projector, and there was free food.
I do not agree that video games or table-top games are necessary in the library to ensure that teens will continue to support the library. But I don't think it could hurt. What is necessary is to create positive experiences for our future population of tax paying adults. If gaming events can contribute to this, then why not? It really wouldn't hurt, it would bring people together for the purpose of fun, and it creates a memory. Memories create value, value creates support. So, while I don't think it is the only way to continue support, I think it is an effective way to continue support.
I'm a bit more cautious about circulating videogames. I have no problem with putting videogames in the library, my caution comes from, which consol do we support? There are the three biggies out there, playstation, wii, and xbox, along with computer games, so what should we collect in? If the decision is made to support only one then an automatic judgement is made for what is deemed valuable, and the other supported formats are left out. Fortunately, newer systems have ever increasing backwards compatibility, so there isn't a huge problem of formats going out of style.
I think gaming programs at the library would be met with enthusiasm from the attendees and indifference from other people. I don't think that there would be an outcry of resistence from worried parents.
I have never experienced gaming in a public library, but I have experienced game nights in a high school setting. They were wildly popular and incorporated both table top games, video games, and physical games, such as basketball. They were popular because they had something for everyone. The video games were displayed through a projector, and there was free food.
I do not agree that video games or table-top games are necessary in the library to ensure that teens will continue to support the library. But I don't think it could hurt. What is necessary is to create positive experiences for our future population of tax paying adults. If gaming events can contribute to this, then why not? It really wouldn't hurt, it would bring people together for the purpose of fun, and it creates a memory. Memories create value, value creates support. So, while I don't think it is the only way to continue support, I think it is an effective way to continue support.
I'm a Pupil of Drupal
What do you think of the new LInt? Given that you've explored a number of Web 2.0 applications prior to this Thing, can you think of anything that you'd like to see folded into the LInt experience?
What reaction did you have, if any, to the articles espousing the benefits of content management systems?
Personally, I love the new LIntranet. Not that I'm bias or anything, but Paula and the rest of the LIntranet redesign committee have done a great job in picking a great CMS that works with our current needs, will help to eliminate the extra and forgotten junk, and help to facilitate faster communication while cutting down on piled up inboxes. The addition of the blog feature and hopefully Private Messaging will help with fast communication. I would like to see a meebo application in place for fast communication, but I realize there is a problem with the interaction of a meebo module and the drupal interface. It is a great system. I especially like the drop-down menus.
I, in general, agree with the praising of CMS systems in the articles we read. They are pretty neat. I am a little bit confused about why the articles talk about the layout versus the content. Isn't that what CSS does in conjunction with HTML? But then again, CSS and HTML require programming knowledge.
When I am done with school, I will probably be using drupal to create my own personal webpage. Although I might use Magneto, because its name is way better than drupal.
What reaction did you have, if any, to the articles espousing the benefits of content management systems?
Personally, I love the new LIntranet. Not that I'm bias or anything, but Paula and the rest of the LIntranet redesign committee have done a great job in picking a great CMS that works with our current needs, will help to eliminate the extra and forgotten junk, and help to facilitate faster communication while cutting down on piled up inboxes. The addition of the blog feature and hopefully Private Messaging will help with fast communication. I would like to see a meebo application in place for fast communication, but I realize there is a problem with the interaction of a meebo module and the drupal interface. It is a great system. I especially like the drop-down menus.
I, in general, agree with the praising of CMS systems in the articles we read. They are pretty neat. I am a little bit confused about why the articles talk about the layout versus the content. Isn't that what CSS does in conjunction with HTML? But then again, CSS and HTML require programming knowledge.
When I am done with school, I will probably be using drupal to create my own personal webpage. Although I might use Magneto, because its name is way better than drupal.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Online Survey Makers
While I didn't sign up for an account of all the survey generators, I have to say I think survey monkey was the best. It seemed to be the only service that wasn't just offering a free survey feature to get me to buy a more advanced account. QuestionPro seemed to be the most guilty of this, especially when I looked at their prices for a yearly account, $4999 the best. But QuestionPro also seemed to offer the best features of the bunch to justify why purchasing an account would be worthwhile.
I found SurveyMonkey usable. It was easy to create a survey, and their descriptions were accurate to what the type of question would be, but I wasn't sure how the questions would look until I saw the final version. It would be nice if they had a graphical interface... On the flip side, I realize that is a lot to ask from a free service, so I have no major complaints. Although, it would be nice if I was notified when people had filled out the survey via email.
The library has a pro account with SurveyMonkey. Can you think of surveys that might be interesting to conduct either in-house or among community members?
The library should make even more use of the pro account than we already do. There was the lintranet redesign committee survey, which the litranet redesign committee used to gain information. And there was that other survey, the one I can't remember, but I do remember filling it out... anyway as long as we attach food/candy to surveys I think we can use it for all sorts of feedback both with the public and internally. I think it would be neat if we could link surveys about library policy to the public computer log-ins. But I don't want to force people to take surveys...
The lack of open-ended questions is what always bothered me about standarized tests. I felt that having a finite answer that could just as easily be correct by guessing isnt' the best way to determine knowledge. Open-ended questions for some surveys are much the same way. The quality of answers may be higher if people are allowed to think out their answers, and we might get better comments and ideas. But there is more reluctance to take time to do a good job on open-ended surveys so the pool would most likely be smaller. As you can see I've used a lot of qualifiers in this last part of the post, and that is because I really don't know people would react, or the quality of responses we would get. A mix of check the box and open-ended questions seems to be the best for getting more advanced answers, while offering people the option of expressing their individual opinions. Although, people who express opinions on surveys usually are people with strong opinions, not people with moderate opinions...
I found SurveyMonkey usable. It was easy to create a survey, and their descriptions were accurate to what the type of question would be, but I wasn't sure how the questions would look until I saw the final version. It would be nice if they had a graphical interface... On the flip side, I realize that is a lot to ask from a free service, so I have no major complaints. Although, it would be nice if I was notified when people had filled out the survey via email.
The library has a pro account with SurveyMonkey. Can you think of surveys that might be interesting to conduct either in-house or among community members?
The library should make even more use of the pro account than we already do. There was the lintranet redesign committee survey, which the litranet redesign committee used to gain information. And there was that other survey, the one I can't remember, but I do remember filling it out... anyway as long as we attach food/candy to surveys I think we can use it for all sorts of feedback both with the public and internally. I think it would be neat if we could link surveys about library policy to the public computer log-ins. But I don't want to force people to take surveys...
The lack of open-ended questions is what always bothered me about standarized tests. I felt that having a finite answer that could just as easily be correct by guessing isnt' the best way to determine knowledge. Open-ended questions for some surveys are much the same way. The quality of answers may be higher if people are allowed to think out their answers, and we might get better comments and ideas. But there is more reluctance to take time to do a good job on open-ended surveys so the pool would most likely be smaller. As you can see I've used a lot of qualifiers in this last part of the post, and that is because I really don't know people would react, or the quality of responses we would get. A mix of check the box and open-ended questions seems to be the best for getting more advanced answers, while offering people the option of expressing their individual opinions. Although, people who express opinions on surveys usually are people with strong opinions, not people with moderate opinions...
Thursday, January 15, 2009
This ning thing
I used to be a member of a few anime and manga networks pre-2005, but I found that people who are really into anima or manga are almost the exact same on the internet as they are in real life... Currently, I'm a semi-active member of Silverfishlongboarding.com. I would say very active member, but unlike many people in online forum/discussion communities, I don't post just for the sake of seeing myself on the internet. So while some members of the forum have 1000+ posts, I have a little over 100 and I've been on the forum for a year.
This is what I find to be an interesting part of social networks, especially ones that focus themselves around discussion forums. Post-counts, in some places, seem to indicate how active you are as a member, but only reflect the quantity not the quality of your posts.
As far as appealing social networks, I like longboarding, so anything related to that could be interested... as long as it is populated by mostly helpful people. I also like the idea of a Library Web 2.0 social network, and a cooking social network. I especially like finding new recipes because I like cooking and being able to contact the author of the recipe to ask for clarification would be pretty useful... come to think of it, if there were an origami network where one could contact the author of a page it would be very useful for clarification.
Overall, I like what ning offers. As long as you can drum up enough support it shouldn't be too hard to create something useful.
This is what I find to be an interesting part of social networks, especially ones that focus themselves around discussion forums. Post-counts, in some places, seem to indicate how active you are as a member, but only reflect the quantity not the quality of your posts.
As far as appealing social networks, I like longboarding, so anything related to that could be interested... as long as it is populated by mostly helpful people. I also like the idea of a Library Web 2.0 social network, and a cooking social network. I especially like finding new recipes because I like cooking and being able to contact the author of the recipe to ask for clarification would be pretty useful... come to think of it, if there were an origami network where one could contact the author of a page it would be very useful for clarification.
Overall, I like what ning offers. As long as you can drum up enough support it shouldn't be too hard to create something useful.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Myface and Spacebook
I've been a member of facebook for a few months now. I didn't do anything other than create a profile and leave it blank. In November I started updating my profile, and searching for friends, playing games, writing on walls, etc. Two of the groups I joined were the Library 2.0 interest group, and the I Longboard to Work group. These are groups that are relevent to my daily life. I've become a fan of many web 2.0 things and see their potential for further promoting the library... as long as we stick to the ones that are working. I joined the longboarding group because I have been longboarding to work since my second week here.
The probably reason that facebooks is growing so fast is because older people are now joining it. When I was in my senior year of college I recollect some of my friends signing up for pages. They said that it was for college students only, or institutions had to sign themselves up... or something like that. I don't know whether this is true or not. Now everyone and anyone can sign up, so that isn't a problem. The real draw I've heard from people is it is easy to use and its setting are defaulted as private. This adds a measure of security for people who are timid about posting things on the internet. It erases that, "everyone can see my page!" concern that a lot of people who aren't teenagers feel. Other than the ease of use, and more private settings it displays I don't have any easy answer for why it is growing so fast. In the circles I've moved in on Facebook I've noticed a lack of juvenile internets behavior. There isn't a lot of flaming or bashing, and I haven't seen any of the annoyingly htmled pages that sprawl across myspace. Facebook also doesn't have the negative connotation that myspace has. When I was a teacher my principal led a campaign against myspace, policing it, and suspending people who were up to no good. I haven't heard any stories like that relating to facebook, so it not being myspace might be helpful for its popularity.
Now on to myspace...
Librarians are using myspace to engage teenusers. Both the linked myspace pages had about 800 friends. They are also using this as a contact for authors. Most of the comments left on the library's pages seemed to be greetings and thanks from authors for promoting their books. I like the idea of a myspace to display photos of, and promote events for teens. I didn't see anything ideas I really liked.
I didn't create a myspace and I'm not going to use one.
The probably reason that facebooks is growing so fast is because older people are now joining it. When I was in my senior year of college I recollect some of my friends signing up for pages. They said that it was for college students only, or institutions had to sign themselves up... or something like that. I don't know whether this is true or not. Now everyone and anyone can sign up, so that isn't a problem. The real draw I've heard from people is it is easy to use and its setting are defaulted as private. This adds a measure of security for people who are timid about posting things on the internet. It erases that, "everyone can see my page!" concern that a lot of people who aren't teenagers feel. Other than the ease of use, and more private settings it displays I don't have any easy answer for why it is growing so fast. In the circles I've moved in on Facebook I've noticed a lack of juvenile internets behavior. There isn't a lot of flaming or bashing, and I haven't seen any of the annoyingly htmled pages that sprawl across myspace. Facebook also doesn't have the negative connotation that myspace has. When I was a teacher my principal led a campaign against myspace, policing it, and suspending people who were up to no good. I haven't heard any stories like that relating to facebook, so it not being myspace might be helpful for its popularity.
Now on to myspace...
Librarians are using myspace to engage teenusers. Both the linked myspace pages had about 800 friends. They are also using this as a contact for authors. Most of the comments left on the library's pages seemed to be greetings and thanks from authors for promoting their books. I like the idea of a myspace to display photos of, and promote events for teens. I didn't see anything ideas I really liked.
I didn't create a myspace and I'm not going to use one.
Twittering Widgets Batman!
I finally found a twitter widget that would attach to my blog. I didn't look to hard at first, but I had some spare time. To revisit thing 7... or something like that, I found that twitter's app page left a lot to be desired in organization and information. But a quick google search allowed me to find a app that fit what I wanted. Do try to use bloggers twitter gadgets, they stink like a cat box.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Podcasts... They Exist
It may surprise everyone I know but I listened to the Good Beer Show podcasts. They said "amazing" and "greatest" a lot. The engine I searched was podcast.com, it was a pretty good podcast directory, I enjoyed the categorization.
Podcasts are neat, but I don't think I'll be subscribing to and listening to one regrularly anytime soon.
Podcasts are neat, but I don't think I'll be subscribing to and listening to one regrularly anytime soon.
I like vimeo and blip.tv better...
As with most people I really like these video sites. I remember back in the eary days of the internet until youtube came on the scene, when I would want to see a music video, or a clip from a tv show, or any sort of video, I would have to wait a long time, and then hope that I had the right codec to play the videos... more often than not it wouldn't work, and I would have wasted all that time. Fortunately, now I can use youtube, vimeo, blip.tv, and even hulu. I don't like yahoo! movies though, they haven't quite figured out how to not suck. Similarly, my experience with google video removing copyrighted material has been less than stellar. Overall, the ability to continually watch entertaining and stupid videos has left me with a great big thumbs up for internet video players.
As the challenge option of this thing states the library could use this as a constant updater of what is happening in the library. Think of it as a video newsletter, kind of like the library channel only consistently accessible via the internet. Many companies have youtube channels, and therefore get their faces out there for the internet to see. The library could benefit from utilizing this form of communication.
I choose this video because it gets to the heart of an issue we face everyday at the library:
As the challenge option of this thing states the library could use this as a constant updater of what is happening in the library. Think of it as a video newsletter, kind of like the library channel only consistently accessible via the internet. Many companies have youtube channels, and therefore get their faces out there for the internet to see. The library could benefit from utilizing this form of communication.
I choose this video because it gets to the heart of an issue we face everyday at the library:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)