Highlights of my trip so far

Play time is fun! The blog readability test was by far my favorite. I was even pleasantly surprised to learn that my blog's reading level is "College"... I was feeling so intellectual and well spoken until I put the link in for my husband's blog and his came out "Genius"! Hee, hee! That evening, I showed him this link and we both were highly entertained and played around with it for about half an hour putting in the blogs he frequents to see what they were rated. This link was fun and easy to use although some explanation as to how they came up with their rating system would have been good and interesting. My husband did a search of other "blog readability" tests on the internet and this one was definitely the easiest to use and put up the results the quickest. The hubby and I shared a "bonding" moment over a web app! LOL

I also tried WordShoot and found that to be a pretty easy game to conquer (I've been typing since I was really young and am quite fast) but could see how it would be a fun learning tool and a highly addictive time killer!

I tried the demo of Scrabulous and don't quite understand the hype that surrounds it. A lot of my Facebook friends are really into it but it just couldn't hold my attention for long periods of time. I never really liked playing the board game Scrabble either, I just find it to tedious and drawn out for my liking. I'd be a little intimidated to play in a tournament as the only words I could come up with are about 4 or 5 letters long!

Sketchcast was way out of my league. I didn't quite get the application and what it does and my drawing skills are horrible! It was a little to complicated.

Overall I really liked being able to sit back, relax and PLAY!

Movie Reviews

A "wiki" aloha from the Hawaiian islands!

I was somewhat aware of what wikis were and had even used one in the past without realizing it (for my bookclub that I used to be a part of) but after this unit I learned some interesting facts (who knew "wiki" meant "quick" in Hawaiian) and I have now become more educated in understanding what they are, how they function, and how they are used. This was a very educational unit for me!

I did not realize that Wikipedia can be edited by many different users. I'm not to sure how I feel about that as I think with anybody being able to edit, the information can become really distorted and false rather than educational. On the other hand, it is kind of interesting to get first hand knowledge from someone who has experienced something (for example having experienced a city you're interested in traveling to).

In browsing through some of the wikis, I discovered WikiTravel and really found it useful. I am possibly thinking of a trip to New York in the spring and got to browsing and found lots of interesting tips for staying and traveling to that city that I never would have thought of on my own. It was great to read about people's first hand experiences and get a point of view of someone who was actually there and experiencing NYC rather than the standard travel brochure literature. Brochures have a tendency to leave out the "little yet crucial details" that you wouldn't know unless you experienced it for yourself or heard it from someone who's been to that city. I got totally absorbed in WikiTravel and browsed it for over half an hour just clicking link after link! Hee, hee!

As I mentioned above, I have used a wiki to communicate with my former book club members. We used it to communicate when and where our meetings would be, who was bringing snacks and drinks, what books we had considered, and of course just general chit chat. It always amazed me how our meetings were organized and planned and we had never talked to each other face to face or on the phone in the weeks in between our meetings. I found it to be a very useful communication tool and would definitely use it again in the future if I'm ever part of another group with lots of members. It was a great way to keep facts and details straight and there was no excuse to not be informed of what was going on. Even though telephones are great, sometimes messages can get muddled when relayed from a third party and misunderstandings can occur. With wikis, I can't really foresee that happening so I think it's a wonderful tool for groups to use.

LibraryThings Souvenir Stand

Finally, I've stumbled upon something I will actually be able to use beyond the Discover 2.0 course. This unit got me really excited as I'm constantly finding and reading interesting books and think it would be fun to post and share my thoughts. I signed up for the LibraryThing site simply because it looked very organized and colorful and " icon and graphic friendly". I loved being able to see the covers of the books and how easy it was to rank them by clicking on the green stars and review them by clicking on the pencil. I also really liked how it pulled information from Amazon or the Library of Congress. I even found two rare books (Gymnastics: The Art of Sport and Gymnastics: In Perspective) which are two beautiful coffee table books but are very hard to find... if LibraryThing can pull up these two books I'm very impressed as no library or bookstore I've ever been to has carried them. (how I acquired my copies is another story for another blog but they are prominently displayed on my personal bookshelf). :o)

It may sound kind of judgemental, but one of the reasons I didn't choose GoodReads was because of the Excel Spreadsheet feature. Out of all the Microsoft Office programs, Excel was one I never mastered and still find kind of confusing (I'm just not into cells and formulas!). I was kind of turned off by that feature and chose LibraryThing over GoodReads. For the amount of time I have spent on it, I'm very impressed with LibraryThing so far and plan to spend some more time playing around with it and reviewing books on it in the future.

The link to my LibraryThing account is: http://librarything.com/catalog/Glendyne

Technorati - A Mysterious Wonder of the World (wide web)?

While I don't think Technorati is something I personally will be using on a regular basis, it was something interesting to learn about. I did the search on Discover 2.0 and one of my own blogs actually came up! I learned that my rank is 3,304,019 in Technorati World. HAHAHA!

I found it kind of complicated to search and navigate around and I found the advanced search kind of hard to use. With a bit more time I think I will eventually get the hang of it though.

A Del.icio.us Point of Interest

I found this unit to be a bit confusing at first and while I can see the definite benefits of this being useful for research assistance I personally can't see myself using this tool on a regular basis. I just don't go to that many sites on a regular basis to want to bookmark them and access them from anywhere.

But thinking of it from a library information point of view I think it's a great tool. When I logged onto the isdesk account, I found those "one minute critic" videos in which fellow library workers commented on some great reads. I think this would be very helpful in recommending books to patrons, even if the librarian who is assisting them isn't as familiar with it. The video is short and to the point, and in this world where everyone wants things now, it's a quick and easy sell. It would also be great from the information desk's point of view to tag some more obscure sites they've come across in past experiences with patrons that could be useful or of interest to others. It would take a while to compile, but you would have quick and easy access to some very unique and hard to find information right at your fingertips.

I was once told that libraries are a source of tons of information, and librarians are the "gate keepers" of that information. It is their job to make the information seem less overwhelming and more accessible to patrons. I think that del.icio.us is a great tool and should be integrated into libraries.

The Broadway Tour Package

I was having SO much fun and was even being a little goofy! The image generators were so easy to use and figure out... it looks like you spent hours creating something when all you did was a few clicks of your mouse and the computer did all the work.

One of my hobbies is acting in community theatre (although I haven't done anything since 2005) so when I found this Broadway sign I couldn't help but fantasize a little about what it would be like to have your picture plastered on a billboard in New York City. This picture is actually taken from a community theatre production of Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park" in which I had the leading role so I thought it suited the background nicely.

And of course, after my "smashing and successful" debut on Broadway I couldn't help but name a street after myself! HAHAHA!

Cruising through Social Networking!

I am a big advocate of social networking! I was part of MySpace for awhile, but found it really hard to use (I never understood the HTML coding and found it hard to make my profile "pretty"). I also found MySpace full of "clutter" more than social networking. My brother than got me hooked on Facebook. When he mentioned the idea of it, I was reluctant since my experience on MySpace wasn't enjoyable. I took his advice and am now a HUGE fan of Facebook and a regular user. I have found friends from elementary and high school, my old gymnastics teammates, relatives, and co-workers. Since I'm from Canada, most of my contacts are still there and I'm finding it a great way to stay connected with everyone! I love being able to log into Facebook and see pictures posted of my brother's trip to the Dominican Republic, a former classmate's new baby pictures, a relative's wedding that I wasn't able to attend... it has been great with making me still feel connected to everyone back home even though I'm living in Washington now. I also love logging in and seeing everyone's "status" updates... it's amazing how a few words can reveal so much about how a person is feeling, what they're up to, issues they are dealing with, etc. I found out one of my cousins was pregnant just by reading their status update! I find it a fun way to keep up with the going's on in people's lives and you can reach out and reply to them via their wall or a message. At first I was thinking it was being nosy but then I realized that people voluntarily supply this information and know it's going to get read and/or responded to. I've also stepped out of my box and have joined a couple of groups/communities that are interesting to me and have connected with some great people via those networks.

As Facebook does gain in popularity I am noticing the clutter (I get invite for apps all the time, the FunWall drives me crazy, and I dislike that "superpoke" thing!) but I try to be very tasteful and selective when it comes to adding applications on my profile and the friends I add. I am trying to keep it to people I have met face to face at some point in my life as opposed to the "joe schmoe" who is a friend of a cousin of a mechanic. I heard an interesting debate on the radio one time about someone who was applying for a job and the potential employer did a search for her on MySpace and encountered some very controversial pictures and a really trashy MySpace page. The employer was both shocked and disappointed as the applicant had been very impressive and professional during the interview and had been one of the best candidates they had seen that day. The business ended up not hiring her because their philosophy was, based on her "hardcore" lifestyle as illustrated on her MySpace profile, how reliable of an employee would she actually be? What a great opportunity gone to waste all because of how you represent yourself on a social networking site! I took this into consideration when I developed my Facebook profile (going on the assumption you never know who could be looking at it) and I try to keep it tasteful and respectful yet still make it a true representation of who I am.

I enjoyed reading the opposing viewpoints during this lesson on libraries being a valuable resource to appeal to the teen demographic but also posing as an "invasion" in their social networking community. There were some great points brought up on both sides and ones I never would have thought of. I'm kind of on the fence with how I feel about this issue. The libraries they cited as examples who are using social networks to promote their programs (Steele Creek and Denver Library) seemed to be successful. I also took a look at the FVRL's YAAB MySpace page and it looks like it's gotten a good response from the teen demographic. I guess time will tell whether this will be a good medium to reach out to people.