The 23rd Thing!

Wow, here we are at the end. After trying this back in the summer and quitting after the first week, I never thought I'd make it to the 23rd thing. It was fun and I learned a lot along the way.

One of my favorite things was to play around with the photo manipulator/generator things. It's amazing how many templates are out there to fool around with. As fun as they were though, I think I liked the more information-based things. Learning more about RSS Feeds and Readers was helpful, both for being better able to help customers, and also for my personal use as well.

Also, the web-based applications were really cool too. I never really thought about products like Zoho and Google Docs before. Depending on the level of security that you need, they can be a great option to having to physically posses word-processing software and storage media. Anyone using public and shared computers - such as our library customers - can especially benefit from these services.

I think that JPL Learning 2.0 has assisted me with my lifelong learning by making me realize that really all you need to do is be open-minded and explore things. Especially in a very low-pressure and somewhat informal environment as the one that has been created for this training. There's no reason to be afraid of making mistakes - that's how we learn sometimes. I liked that the class was structured yet not rigid, if that makes sense. Now when I come across new technologies I can simply explore them and learn about them at my own pace, and hopefully have fun to boot.

I think that the class was well-designed, but more than one hour is really needed to fully explore things. I found myself doing some of the exercises from home since our work schedules are so busy. Granted, there are generous make-up time built in to the program, but that's the only thing I would suggest: more time. I'm sure that I will go back on my own and get into some of the lessons a little bit deeper though.

I really liked this class, and would definitely do something like this again.

Discovery Exercise #22

Almost there!

When I thought about taking this training and receiving an MP3 player, Overdrive is the first thing that came to mind. Since iPods cannot be used (yet), the Web 2.0 prize will be devoted to Overdrive books.

I have taken several training classes on Overdrive, yet still feel like I don't quite "get it." Hopefully that will change once I create my own account and start using the service myself.

I suspected that I might have created a login a long time ago, possibly during one of those initial training sessions. I can't believe that I actually remembered my PIN - on the first try at that! I like that you have the option of browsing titles by popular, fiction or non-fiction. It's very book-storish, which I'm sure many of our customers prefer. However, I was less than impressed with the "library-style" search function - something more like a normal Jaxcat search with limiters would be nice. I tried using Jaxcat, but the Overdrive version of the title did not show up, at least for the search that I performed. For now, I guess browsing and the very basic search field is all that we have to go on.

Either way, it's a good resource and I'm glad we've got it. I look forward to using it more once I've received my MP3 player.

Discovery Exercise #21

I searched Odeo a bit, and tried browsing sports podcasts. I didn't really see anything interesting, so I entered "florida gators" into the search field. The results looked similar to what one would expect when searching Youtube. There were numerous video clips of recent games, but nothing resembling a podcast.

I then tried Podcast Alley to see how that site worked. I switched gears and went back into library mode, lest I irritate the Reference Librarians in the Sky with my sports-related searches. I tried "library news," and found a site that I wanted to subscribe to. Arizona State University produces a podcast called The Library Channel, so I tried to add it to my Bloglines account. No luck. In fact, Bloglines said that "No feeds were found. Please verify that the website publishes an RSS feed." Yes, it is published according to Podcast Alley. To double-check, I tried subscribing for it in Google Reader, and was successful.

Anyway, I used the Blogline's Quick Picks feature to find a library-related podcast to subscribe to. Resource Shelf is "a daily newsletter with resources of interest to information professionals, educators and journalists."

I guess I'm confused as to what a podcast actually is though. The podcast that I subscribe to and listen to occasionally is actual mp3s of short audio interviews. The things that I've been finding on Odeo and Podcast Alley look to be videos or text newsletters - weird.

Discovery Exercise #20

Normally, I use Youtube for catching up on newsclips or interviews that I might have missed on a given day, or more likely, to search for humorous videos for a quick laugh. And I must also admit that I'm a sucker for those extreme sports blooper shows - particularly gymnasts falling - as long as everyone involved is OK. Who could forget this classic clip from the 80s?

Anyway, I thought that I would search for "library reference," and found some interesting clips, mostly tours of various libraries. It seems that something like this could be used to promote library services, especially at Main, where there are numerous "reference" desks but only one actually in Reference. It seems that customers can get overwhelmed and confused in a large building very easily.



This video manages to be humorous and informative at the same time.

Discovery Exercise #19

The Web 2.0 award winning site that I chose to explore is Oobgolf.

I'm a recreational golfer, so this caught my eye when I clicked on the link for "sport."

The site has a nice look to it, and has many feature stories about golf (PGA Tour news, tips from the pros, etc.) on the home page. These are OK, but other features are more important too me.

For example, it's an excellent resource for finding courses to play and information about them. Since it is a Web 2.0 site, social information sharing is an important aspect. Users rate and comment on courses all around the country, with inside information and tips not normally found on course websites (if one even exists). Like sites rating hotels, customer reviews are a better source of information for current course conditions than an old color photo used on their promotional materials.

Oobgolf also has technical analysis that will help you (maybe) improve your game. By entering your score, stroke by stroke, you can analyze putts per round, driving accuracy, greens in regulation made, etc., allowing you to see where your problem areas are (the game of golf itself) and how to fix them (good luck with that). And again, because the information is collected and disseminated socially, you can get hole by hole information for each course in their database. For example, I can see that hole #15 at Hyde Park Golf Club is by far the hardest on the course, averaging 5.8 strokes, or, almost 2 over par (it's a long par 4). Having played there, I suspected this, but it's interesting to see it laid out graphically.

You can also figure out your USGA handicap by entering your scores each time as well.

Between the statistical analysis and course finder/information gadget, Oobgolf is an interesting site for any golfer to help improve their game.

Discovery Exercise #18

Well, I tried out Zoho Writer and it is very easy to use. And I published my document (if you can call it that) to my the blog, though the formatting is a little weird. One of the images is too large to fit properly on the blog, but other than that, I guess it came out OK. I'm sure to really test it out would be to create a longer document -- such as a term paper -- and compare it to a similar document from MS Word. Of course, I barely have time to finish these posts, let alone going around and writing fake papers.

At any rate, I like the portability and compatibility that Zoho offers. I think that it is something that we could recommend to customers who do not have media to save their work to as an alternative to Word. As others have mentioned, their is a security risk with anything that is stored online, so you should probably decide what kind of documents that you wish to create and store using Zoho.

As I've noted before, I underwent a Google-ization process a while back and so I'm somewhat familiar with Google Docs too. From what I can tell, both Zoho and Google Docs are very similar, though it appears that Zoho has much more extensive offerings. As with other Google products, I tend to stick with them because of the convenience of one sign in and having all resources under a single umbrella (gmail, docs, photos, blogger, etc.).

Zoho Writer Impressions

Well, I thought that I would combine my blog post and the actual document itself, and then publish to my blog.  Hopefully, I will be able to gather any impressions about Zoho Writer as I go along.

First, let's add an image.  Ok, that was easy enough.  Now, what's with that equation symbol?

 

 

Hey, look at me -- I'm like Einstein or something.  Not really, as I can barely multiply and divide, but this feature can make your document look intelligent at least.¹²³

 

So far, creating the document itself is pretty straight forward and intuitive is you're used to products such as MS Word.

---

¹ Footnotes are really professional looking too.

² In fact, they pretty much helped me and my papers get through college.

³ Also, Courier New font will add to the length of your paper.

Discovery Exercise #17

The sandbox couldn't have been easier to work with. It was very intuitive, and was much like using Blogger or similar pages.

I went in and duly added my blog to the list of blogs.

I also added a couple of vacation destinations under United States Destinations.

Discovery Exercise #16

The name of the shuttle buses that run between the main terminal and the intra-island terminals at the Honolulu International Airport is Wiki-Wiki, which in Hawaiian mean fast (or very fast when used twice).


[Note: sadly the buses aren't all that quick in reality.]


I love the idea of wikis. Their collaborative nature ensures that information is disseminated quickly (wiki wiki indeed). I have used a wiki in the past and didn't even know it at the time. A colleague and I used Google Sites to do some in-house research for an internal customer, and posted it online. I suppose that we didn't have to, and could have just emailed the pertinent links to the recipient, but I figured that it couldn't hurt to try something different (isn't that the whole idea of Web 2.0?).

I have also been a fan of Wikipedia from the beginning. Yes, I understand some of it's limitations and arguments against it, but I think the pluses far outweigh the problems. An article by Dick Clark (no, not that one) points out the usefulness of the site. As for it's accuracy, he writes

Those who refused to believe that a user-generated encyclopedia could compete with the monolithic, traditional encyclopedia written by experts and organized by professional editors, were no doubt shocked when Nature magazine published a 2006 article comparing Wikipedia to the well-known Encyclopedia Britannica. The
article concluded that Wikipedia articles were comparable in accuracy and thoroughness to those of the older, paper encyclopedia.

By its very nature, Wikipedia ensures that popular sites are more scrutinized than others, meaning that more accurate editing attention will be placed on those entries:

Wikipedia's reflection of market dynamics is most easily observed in what
many people view as the project's weakest areas: obscure articles that draw
little traffic. In articles about third-rate garage bands and other topics of
limited interest, one will often find factual and typographical errors at a much
higher rate than in high-traffic articles such as those on "England" or "Barry Bonds." The much higher demand for information about the latter topics means that many more eyes will be combing those much-demanded articles for mistakes.

Since Wikipedia is open to correction by anyone, it stands to reason that the articles attracting more potential editors will be of a higher quality. Rather than a failure, this is a great demonstration of Wikipedia's efficient allocation of resources. The project, like any other, has a finite amount of productivity to apply to its various activities. It is a positive thing that those articles in greatest demand — those about topics of popular curiosity — would be the ones that are the most complete and reliable.

As with any resource, users should practice discernment when judging the validity of the information, and seek additional sources (including external links cited on the entry page) for verification.

The entire system, which is fabulously complex and robust to the
contributing editor, is remarkably simple for the basic user, who only wants to
find data on an unfamiliar topic. So long as one exercises discretion in
accepting information from Wikipedia, and so long as one's research extends
beyond the Wikipedia article to the sources it cites, Wikipedia is an
exceptional resource that is unique to our generation.

Discovery Exercise #14

A tip of the hat to Ed for his helpful tips on this blog post.  At first, I had trouble searching by tag, etc., but Ed straightened me out.

Unfortunately, knowing how to perform the searches correctly did not make me like the site any better.

As others have noted, Technorati seems a bit overwhelming to me.  I guess my recent Google-ization and an inherent minimalist streak (what other kinds of streaking could there be?) cause me to prefer clean and orderly looking websites.

Now, having learned something from Ed, I am now going to take a tip from another colleague and check out cooks.com to see if I can find any recipes worth making.  I'm on my late shift and getting ready to have lunch in 20 minutes.  

Boy, I'm hungry.

Discovery Exercise #15

Rick Anderson's "Away From the 'Icebergs'" was an interesting read for me. I thought that he hit on some relevant issues that libraries will be facing in the future; in fact, we are already feeling the impact of technological change.

First, he says we must do away with a "just in case" collection. To me, this means having a core set of print and electronic databases as a foundation, and then supplement with more resources and materials as budgets and customer usage direct. Having attended Gale's webinar "Is Print Reference Dead?", this is an interesting topic to me. I don't think that we need to get rid of print materials entirely, even if more and more people are embracing the web. Obviously, many of our customers have not, and still prefer tangible items. However, with each generation of tech-savvy kids that comes along, that day is approaching.

Anderson makes an interesting point about user education: sometimes it's more important to decrease the barriers that customers face getting information instead of focusing solely on instruction. I do believe that we should make things as accessible as possible, but I'm not sure that we can totally do away with customer education. Again, it all depends on your customer base and level of comfort with technology. Still, his point that we should focus on "user-centric" service is well taken.

Finally, he suggests that we must be ready to meet the customer where they are, not necessarily expect them to come to the physical library. I think that JPL is already doing this. Many library blogs are appearing to reach out to customers, library accounts can be accessed anywhere online, materials such as Overdrive are being offered to our customers -- we are on the right path.

Discovery Exercise #13

First, I must say that I don't really bookmark pages that often. I guess I have bookmarked a few things in the past, but it may be because the traditional way is so cluttered and unorganized I just quit using them altogether. I tend to want to keep articles that I have found on the Net for future reference -- since urls disappear constantly, particularly if it's a news story. I've been using Furl for that purpose. It's similar to Delicious in the fact that you can categorize and tag things you have saved, and then make them public so that others can find articles that you have saved.

Having said all that, I think that Delicious could be something I might use. I can definitely recommend it to my wife. As a middle school science teacher, she is constantly bookmarking webpages that she finds that have helpful information (similar to the hypothetical math teacher in the Common Craft video). Currently, she has a enormous list of bookmarks in no particular order, and I'm sure Delicious could make it easier to find the sites she needs. Plus, the bookmarks are "portable" since they are accessed from a website instead of one particular computer.

I was thinking that a departmental or branch account could be useful, as staff could add sites that are used often with their own tags. This could then be used to complement existing Recommended Websites links when helping customers. Unlike the official JPL link pages, any staff could add pages and tags to the group account for use.

Discovery Exercise #12

I think that having a JAXCAT Search function on a blog or webpage can be helpful in certain conditions.

For example, on my own iGoogle page I have a JAXCAT gadget, and I use it as a shortcut to search for library materials.  

Also, if your blog or site is frequented by mostly local or regional users, it could be a helpful tool to draw new users into the library.  Even if they didn't initially click on the gadget to perform a search, they might simply recall the seeing the logo and search field and decide to visit the library the next time they need a resource.

Either way, it can't hurt to try:  it's no more than a short html script that been copied and pasted to a gadget.  It might bring in new users, and at worst, you've only wasted approximately 30 seconds of your time (though the person who wrote the script might have taken longer).

Discovery Exercise #11

OK, I've added a few books to Library Thing, but I don't think that I will use it in the future.  I'm sure it's a good program, but I already use Shelfari, and more recently Google Books to catalog my holdings.  Plus, I don't own or read enough books to justify three online libraries (hopefully my MLS will not be revoked).  Having said all of the above, as an organizing freak, it is nice to have programs that allow you to catalog your home collection.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=gregs23&shelf=shelf

Also, I added the Library Thing widget to my blog's sidebar.

Discovery Exercise #10

The Scream generator.

http://www.churchsigngenerator.com/

Discovery Exercise #9

I tried these, and while I found them to be OK, I don't think I'll be using them all that much.

I couldn't get Feedster to load.

When I went to Topix, I was totally turned off by the layout. It was way too cluttered for a neat-freak like myself. For example, I tried browsing the "sports" tab, but it was just a jumbled bunch of gobblety-gook. There are a couple of sites that I would go to for that news anyway (SI, ESPN) so I don't think it would be that useful to me.

I liked Syndic8.com's site better as far as being simpler. It wasn't the most aesthetically pleasing, but still less garbled than Topix. I preferred the simple list of feeds that resulted from my search. If there were anything that I wanted to subscribe too, it would have been easy to add them to a reader.

Technorati looked like a nice enough site -- ordered without being sterile -- but I still prefer using Google Reader. It's an excellent reader, with a good, clear layout, and has it's own feed/blog search built in. For the few things that I have time to read about, it's really all I need. If I'm looking for some different news sites, I usually just find interesting links from sites like CNN, etc.

Fun with RSS Feed Readers (Discovery Ex. #8)

I love the simplicity and convenience of RSS and newsreaders.

There are several news & commentary sites and a few blogs that I follow on a regular basis, so life became much simpler when I discovered what a newsreader was.

I've been using Google Reader for a few months now, and it's great. From what I can tell so far, Bloglines is very similar, but I like the fact that I only need one account to manage my various Google sites (Gmail, Reader, iGoogle, Blogger, etc.). Using a newsreader is basically like having the news and information sites that you surf to each day delivered to email, organizing everything into one neat place.

Reading items is much more efficient this way, and you can even mark interesting items so that they can be archived and retrieved at a later date.

One way that libraries can use RSS technology is to integrate areas of the homepage with graphical displays, such as a box highlighting newly arrived materials (with hyperlinks to the catalog record so customers can check it out or place holds). I was also going to say that it would be great to have news feeds on the library's Current Events & News Page (Recommended Websites), but I see that they are already there. Bravo! An RSS feed of the library's Program Calendar would also be great if available, as customers could subscribe to this to keep up to date with events at their branch. Actually, that's available also. Hmm, I guess we're off to a good start using RSS feeds.

My public bloglines URL is http://www.bloglines.com/public/gregs23

More Fun With Mashups

I had some time to play around with Big Huge Labs's site a little bit more, and saw that they had inspirational poster creators.

Don't you just hate those things?

What's that? It's hard to hear you through the blog......I think you said "yes." If you said "no," please hit the BACK button on your browser.

So I created one for my own enjoyment:

Text from Demotivators. Try their site sometime for fun.

Discovery Exercise #7

Although I must admit that the headline "Drink Beer to Avoid Cancer..." was very tempting, I was drawn to an article about a melody-generating robot. Dubbed Jambot by its Aussie creator, the device is an "artificial musical accompanist" which is able to "listen to music and improvise musical rhythms and melodies to it."

According to researcher/developer Toby Gifford, "Jambot is a musical robot, but it's not made of metal and it doesn't blow smoke," but if it did, it would feel right at home jamming with these South Park hippies:
The jamming music -- or "crunchy groove" -- that is heard in the background seems like it would be the perfect use of a device such as Jambot.

"It is common for a band or solo musician to have a computer-based backing track or use looping pedals, but these kinds of technology are not very flexible or responsive to what's happening on stage," Mr Gifford said.

Other uses could be filling out a smaller band's sound with a robot member, or even having a digital partner playing along with a lone singer, pianist, etc.

One other note: I'm all for this type of development, because when the robots finally take over the world someday, I'm hoping that it is a massive jam band army rather than a dumptruck that turns into some kind of mean robot with weapons and stuff.

Discovery Exercise #6

Exploring and learning about the different mashups is fun. When I have more time, maybe I can look around at all of the ones listed more in-depth.



For now, I just used Big Huge Lab's Trading Card mashup. Since I never really played organized sports as a kid (sandlot only), it's kind of cool to have my own trading card:
Besides eating, I like to play golf every once in a while too. However, golf costs even more than eating, plus, I'm a better eater than golfer. But who cares. Anyway, this picture is from the day I got to play the famed Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. I've been going there for almost 25 years now to watch The Players Championship, so it was really cool to get to play where all the pros have played. It's still hard to believe they let a bunch of hackers like us onto the property.

Discovery Exercise #5

Well, today I'm "discovering" Flickr. Actually, I've been using Flickr for quite some time now, and even have the upgraded account for faster uploading, etc. However, consistent with the Google-ization of my life that's been happening recently, I've slowly been switching over to Google Photos. It seems to be much easier to use and the photos upload very quickly, even faster than my Flickr "Pro" account. However, storage space is limited, so I'll probably have to upgrade anyway.

Oh yeah, I'm actually blogging about Flickr and not Google Photos. Anyway, I thought I'd search for one of my favorite subjects -- food! More specifically, fried shrimp. And if you want really good fried shrimp, you go to O'steen's in St. Augustine.

Besides many people sitting outside a non-descript building waiting to be seated (not shown), another signal that you are at a good place to eat is when people are taking pictures beneath the restaurant sign (like in the picture that I found -- photo by adactio).

I suggest first that you order a nice sweet tea (yes, I'm from the South) and get started with a Minorcan clam chowder. Similar to Manhattan clam chowder, this variety is unique to the St. Augustine area, owing its name to the indentured servants who came to the old city from the sugar plantations of New Smyrna (by way of the islands Mallorca and Minorca). The chowder is spiced with the datil peppers that are found in St. Johns county. (photo by The Travelin Man)

Then of course you'll want to skip anything else listed on the menu and order fried shrimp (a double order if you can stand it). Hushpuppies and two sides are included. The collard greens and squash casserole are great, though they probably have another 10-15 items to choose from.

Gotta go -- I'm hungry.

Let's Try That Again

OK, I'm finally in the blogosphere, and the air isn't nearly as thick as I thought it would be here.

I tried this in July, and much like my first job that I quit after three hours (Captain D's -- don't ask), I didn't last too long. But this time I'm committed to seeing it through.

I couldn't remember all of the 7 1/2 habits for lifelong learning, and the link didn't seem to be working from either of the Discovery Exercises or 23 Things blogs, so I'll just wing it.

Obviously, from my opening statement, I think being disciplined is difficult, and sticking with things -- even when the going gets rough -- surely must be a habit for lifelong learning. If not, go ahead and add it -- we can call it 8 1/2 habits for lifelong learning.

If I remember correctly, playing and having fun & embracing technology tools (or something to that effect) were other habits on the list, and I think those will be the easiest. Who doesn't like to have fun? And even though I quit the first 2.0 program, I still messed around with various Google features (iGoogle, Reader, Photos, etc.) and learned some things on my own, so I'm ready to embrace new technology and skills.

Now I'm just going to learn and have fun.

And get a free mp3 player of course!