My own thing

Well, I stumbled upon my own 2.0 app today, and I like it. It's called Wordle. Here's Barak Obama's 2009 Inaugural speech:

Thing 20: Hype vs. help

After browsing through the list of Web 2.0 Awards, I must say, it's a bit overwhelming for the Internet user to find what's useful and I can only imagine how overwhelming it must be for a site host to capture their niche market.

I took a good look at BuzzDash. According to their site, "BuzzDash is a site and tool for gauging popular opinion on a wide range of topics - from sports, movies and politics to relationships and philosophy." It looks like TIME magazine even solicits their help. But, from a researcher's point of view, I'm not encouraged by the responses. Many of these polls have very few responses, making the results less than reliable.

Perhaps these are the up-and-coming 2.0 sites. When I looked at views of videos on various winners' sites, even the greatest numbers seemed low.

Thing 19: Web-based apps

Aha. I am now writing in Google Docs. I was relieved to see that I did not need to create yet another account to use the web-based applications available out there. I did visit Zoho, but will pass on that for now. I see Zoho offers polls, and will look at what Google Docs has to offer later.

It's very easy to get sidetracked on the Web. While going through this exercise, I came across a Zoho polls blog that referred me to a blog about Zoho polls (two different things here). Also, along the way, I sought out the Common Craft video Google Docs in Plain English. Couldn't help myself. They're fun to watch.

Google Docs will indeed come in handy when collaborating with individuals outside my work zone. Also a good tool to promote to library patrons who use the computer labs.

(I did come in after bringing this over from Google Docs and clean it up. It had 2 lines between paragraphs, so the html carried over differently than I anticipated)

Thing 18: PBWiki

If I already hadn't joined PBWiki, I don't imagine I would have for this assignment. But... I participated in Library Camp Nebraska so I already had an account. The Wiki for Library Camp Nebraska was a very useful tool. Real-time updates allowed afternoon session participants to access what morning session participants had already created.

For the 2.0 Wiki Sandbox, I did share my favorite vacation spots, my favorite animals, and my favorite blogs.

Thing 17: What's in a wiki

I remember viewing Wikipedia before it became the Wikipedia we now use. I consulted the Wayback Machine and got this result. It's hard to believe that was just 6 years ago!

What are wikis good for? They are great for staff who want to contribute to an ever-changing work environment, for internal use. They are great for outreach to the community, to get library users to contribute to a topic (I see a wiki here as a group blog).

Thing 16: On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0

My favorite article on Library 2.0 so far is by Michael E. Casey and Laura C. Savastinuk in Library Journal, 9/1/2006, titled Library 2.0: Service for the next-generation library. Here's the excerpt I would most readily agree with and which I believe will give hope to all those who are yet reticent to fiercely embrace new technologies:

"What makes a service Library 2.0? Any service, physical or virtual, that successfully reaches users, is evaluated frequently, and makes use of customer input is a Library 2.0 service. Even older, traditional services can be Library 2.0 if criteria are met. Similarly, being new is not enough to make a service Library 2.0."

Thing 14: Social Bookmarking

This was an interesting assignment for me. I created a delicious account on or about July 15th of this year. I used it mainly to keep track of work-related sites that I found interesting or used for reference. It came in handy because I used between 4 and 6 different computers on any given day. And I did discover new sites by browsing others' profiles and their lists.

I also used delicious to make available certain tags that I referred to during a presentation this fall.

Hadn't visited my account since October and had a fun time trying to remember my username and password. I finally remembered a site that I had been the first to tag, and was then able to see what my username was, and guess my password (my email address for this account had become defunct).

I tried to add a network badge and a tagroll to this blog, but I don't think they're working, so I've deleted them.

Adding the delicious buttons to the toolbar in my browser is an option, but requires updates that must be done through IT.