(pat, pat, pat)

That was the sound of me patting myself on my back. Because I finished all 23 things. Yay!

I'm very grateful to the Discover 2.0 Program for all the cool and interesting things I learned. Chief among them that I'm not as tech-savvy as I thought, but hey, if I were perfect I wouldn't be able to experience the joy of learning! Seriously though, I had no idea many of these sites were out there, and probably never would have discovered them without Discover 2.0.

I just re-read my entire blog to refresh myself on everything we covered, which was a lot. Here are the sites I have actually used in my day-to-day surfing, in no particular order:

• Google Docs. Like I said, this site saved my butt, and now I save a copy of every document I create here.
• Spacebook. I go here occasionally to keep in touch with out-of-state friends.
• Songza. When I need a soundtrack for surfing, this is where I go.
• Del.icio.us. I finally have the spelling down! This is where I go when I want consumer input/opinions on things or information that is highly used.
• Goodreads. I've rated 50 or so books here, but don't visit very frequently.

Even if Google Docs was the only discovery I had made, it would have made the whole program worth it. Thank you to everyone who put this program together!!

Hmmm, suggestions for improvement. It would have been nice to get feedback and comments as we went through the program. Perhaps some time built in to peruse other people's blogs and learn from their discoveries? I did a little of that, but most of the time was taken up with doing the items. In fact, it would have been nicer to have more time for the whole thing period. I think I was only able to check out 70% of the provided links, and most of those links only briefly.

Otherwise, I liked the concept of blogging to keep track (for you and for us) of things and thought it was a great experience.

Twittered out

OK, now that I have finished perusing the Alternative Blogging stuff, I still concur with my previous rant. Twitter is dumb. I am working full time, going to school, doing yoga 2-4 times a week, practicing my harp, checking my email, returning phone calls, hiking and biking when I get the chance, and doing all the daily crap that I have to do. I do not have time to read what my friends are doing at every minute of the day, nor do I want to. I have enough trouble living my own life as it is. If I HAD the time to read and post to Twitter, I would pick up the phone and call.

Rant Alert~~Rant Alert~~Rant Alert~~Rant Alert

Ok, I've just started to read about microblogging and Twitter. My question at this point is: WHY do we need to keep in touch with everyone at every moment? WHY do I need to know that Jim-Bob is refinishing his cabinets and Luanne is redoing her nails? They can tell me at our next phone call or the next time I see them in person. I don't need instant gratification, nor does our culture need more of it than it already has. Yes it is nice that I can keep in touch with people all across the world, but I do think some of this social networking stuff is too big-brotherish, too unhealthy, too I-have(or should have)-better-things-to-do-with-my-life. People lived just fine without cell phones 50 years ago, but now the end of the world occurs if you forget to charge your cell phone, or, God forbid, if you tell someone their phone conversation is disruptive. And now you can update everyone you know at every minute of every day what you are doing, no matter where you are or where they are???

Alrighty then.

Over 600 internet video sites, and STILL nothing good to watch.

Wow, I had no idea I was missing out on all this online TV. Well, except for YouTube. The other sites I haven't heard of.

So I did the same search in all of the listed sites, and most were able to read my mind, but some didn't do a great job. I searched the term "harp" at each site, wanting videos of people playing the harp, as in a big musical instrument normally associated with angels. Blip.tv, YouTube, and MetaCafe came up with mostly videos of people playing the harp. The closest Viddler and Revver did was a guy playing a guitar on his lap, and someone playing a harmonica (which is not a harp). You Are TV apparently either can't read my mind or doesn't have any harpists posting.



Here is a cool video of a SIX YEAR OLD playing the harp. Amazing.

I was thinking it would be great to have video tutorials on the intranet. For instance, a tutorial on how to use a particular database, or on how a new procedure in Circulation is done. The major problem with that is timeliness. Procedures change overnight, so the videos would quickly become outdated. The solution would be to have someone dedicated to creating and uploading videos, which would cost money.

Other great ways to use online videos on our website:

• An instructional video on how to use our new self-checkout machines
• Tour the library from home! People could get a feel for each library before they go there.
• How about those school tours? Why not post an introductory video online that the class could watch before they come? That way they have more time at the library to do their research and look at books, and the librarians don't have to go hoarse giving the same basic information over and over, but can then spend their time helping people find things.
• Or how about a weekly or monthly feature video that highlights a particular library service or collection? For instance, one week the feature video could explain ILL, another week could be DIS, or the OPACs, or the world languages collection, bookmobiles, etc. The possibilities are endless.
• What about a "Behind the Scenes" video for people who are curious as to how a book makes it into circulation?

Tivo for the internet...

That was my revelation whilst perusing the materials on podcasting. Podcasting is like Tivoing your favorite shows, only instead of TV shows you're recording other programs/content and having it "recorded" via RSS to your computer or Ipod or digital device, for you to enjoy at your convenience. Again, I can't think of any sites that I frequent that podcasting would be relevant to, but it is interesting. If used by the library for marketing purposes, it would cover a very small portion of our patrons (those tech savvy enough to be using podcasts), so perhaps wouldn't be worth it. On the other hand, it would be useful to podcast content for patrons who can't see.

How come we say "audio visual" not "visual audio"?

Here is my rundown of online musicking, in order of preference:

#1: Songza.com

I like it because you can search AND PLAY exactly what you want, and save your playlist. It is simple, easy, and quick. The only downside is that you get multiple listings for each song, some of which are scratchy, live, or otherwise not what you want. You have to listen to a few before finding one that is good. But then you save it to your playlist, so you don't have to do that everytime you listen.

#2: Pandora.com

I like Pandora because of it's "sounds like" features. You type in an artist or a song, and it creates a radio station around that artist or song, meaning it plays a mixture of that artist's music as well as similar artists. It is a great way to discover artists you don't know. The downside is that there is a limit to the number of songs you can "fast-forward" through if you don't like them.

#3: last.fm

This is sort of a combination of Pandora and Songza and Facebook, except you can't always listen to the specific song you want to like you can in Songza. Unlike Songza you can connect with other people by seeing who else listens to your music, tag the songs, etc.

#4: IMEEM

This is my least favorite because of it's layout and complexity. There is so much going on the page it is hard to understand, the layout isn't as readable as last.fm, and in short I wasn't motivated to spend much time at IMEEM since I am lazy and easily frustrated. I'm sticking with Songza.

As for the other online media sites:

Internet Archive

Too confusing. I did a couple of searches and came up with random crap or nothing. Moving on to the Absolute Sound Effects Archive, the link didn't work. So, onto:

Gutenberg.org's Audio Book Collection

This site is cool. I didn't actually download and listen to any books, but I trust that it would work and when I have time someday I might try it out. There are a lot of old books in a lot of formats, and I think it is a great service for those who can't read.

Mango Languages

I spoke German for a while when I was in college and lived in Vienna, so I thought I'd give the first lesson in German a try. Fortunately it was free, and you could hear the recordings clearly. Unfortunately if I didn't already understand the basics of German grammar I wouldn't have understood what they were trying to explain in the lesson with regards to the grammar. So although the idea is great, their lesson isn't the greatest. I wouldn't recommend Mango.

The only site I can really see the library using is the online audio books on Gutenberg. It would be a nice service to offer patrons the ability to download audio books.

Google Docs Rocks!

This is an addendum to my previous post, Google Docs Ditty: Google Docs saved my butt last weekend. It was Sunday night, I was finishing up my school assignments that were due to be emailed by the following day. And guess what happened? The computer crashed.

Luckily, just THAT DAY I had saved a copy to Google Docs as a backup (actually, I was procrastinating earlier in the day, and thinking what else I could do on the internet before continuing with my school work, and the thought popped into my head "I could save a copy of my Word files to Google Docs as a back-up." So I did. Yes, I have a jumpdrive, but I was too lazy to go get it. I mean, the internet is right there.). What a freakin' coincidence! I was able to access my file from my roommate's laptop and finish my assignments on time, thanks to Google Docs. The ONLY downside was that some of the formatting was lost, but that doesn't matter as much as the actual data. I shudder to think what the outcome would have been had I not just learned about Google Docs at work. Thank you Discovery 2.0!

Google Docs Ditty

I grabbed a book
and took a look
and what did I behold?
A brownish spot
that smelled a lot,
and no, it wasn't mold.

I like to call the above ditty "The Joys of Delivery." I composed it, and this whole post, on Google Docs, which I think is an excellent invention. We should have Google Docs bookmarked on all of the computers. That way when patrons forget their jumpdrive and we no longer have floppys, they can still save their work, and better yet access it from home (or if they don't have internet access at home just save it and come back later with a jumpdrive). Actually, there are other programs we've been learning about that would also be great to have bookmarked on the PALs, like Goodreads and Librarything. What a great reader's advisory tool! Much more user-friendly than Novelist, I think.

Alrighty then...

I'm smart, I'll admit to that. The paper document in my room somewhere that has the words "Magna cum laude" on it is testament to that. But I do doubt the veracity of the Blog Readability Test, which has granted me (or rather my blog) the reading level of Genius:

TV Reviews

But it's all in good fun. The Word Shoot is fun too, much more exciting than the boring, repetitive exercises I learned on. I'm out of time, but I'll also give Yahoo! Answers a shot too when I get the chance.

Wickedly Wacky Wikis

Here are two things I learned about Wikis:

1) Wiki means quick in Hawaiian.

That's cool. So you could say one is wiki-witted.

2) Wiki's could be used to organize a group project/event.

The only Wiki I was familiar with before was Wikipedia (which is cool and helpful), so it hadn't occured to me that you could use the format for so many other things. I could see it's application in organizing a family reunion. Or really any project in which people aren't in the same geographic location. The concern for me is that people who are not technology-witted would be left out (there are still a few email hold-outs in my family, so that would be a problem). But work-wise that wouldn't be an issue. The other concern would be that you are smacked in the face with email everyday, but you would have to remember to go to the wiki in order for it to be effective.

Other than that I think wikis are wonderful.

Goodreads

Alright, I checked out both Librarything and Goodreads, and while I like the suggestion feature on Librarything, and I like the look of it better, I chose Goodreads because...because....hmmm, well there was a reason, but that was a couple of hours ago. Anyway, after I set up my account on Goodreads, it searched for other members I might know, using my yahoo address book, which is a very cool feature. And it is really easy to search for and add books to your shelf. In short I really like it!

Confusion Reigns

Hmmm, I watched the video tutorial and then went to Technorati, but the website didn't look like it did in the video. What's up with that? I looked around for the "popular" and "percolator" features as listed in Item 14, and saw a "popular" category when my cursor was over Blogger Central. I clicked on it and it showed the top 100 blogs, according to fans, and according to Authority. What does authority mean? I clicked around and looked at the FAQ but couldn't figure it out. And the "percolator" feature never did percolate into my existence. The only mention of the word percolate that I found was when I clicked on Blogger Central; the description included the word percolate. Huh? How is that a feature? I even asked a tech savy colleague, to no avail.
I did the "learning 2.0" search, but I couldn't compare the three different searches because they weren't there.

Tag.Me.a.River

So Delicous is cool, definitely something that would come in handy for reference. I don't see myself using it personally, that is, keeping track of my own bookmarks (I don't need access to my bookmarks at work. I am, ahem, working) but I would probably browse it occasionally. I like tags, and I like looking at them in a cloud; it is much easier to find popular tags, and therefore interesting websites. Tagging is great because it catalogs the web by human, rather than by computer, so it is more accurate. And using de.l.ic.ou...s.ss..s, or whatever, is an alternative to googling when answering a reference question.

Genervation

So I have to eat my words a little bit from my last post. The problem with email is that you have to have the person's email address, but with Facebook (or Myspace) you can search for people who you want to reconnect with but don't have an email address for. Since joining Facebook I have reconnected with several people I lost touch with from college, and it is fun to see what people are up to. I find some of the features a bit gimmicky (like poke me, superpoke, pets, plants, etc.) but some applications are fun, like the map that shows places you've lived or visited in the world.

I explored some of the generators, which was fun (Hmmm, I'm noticing a theme). I need to upload a picture of myself and my friends so I can play around with the Hairmixer and PicHacks, which I found on the Generator Blog.

Spacebook

Social networks are great for some people, and I don't see a problem with libraries using them. Personally, however, I don't find them as convenient as email. Some of my friends are on Facebook, some are on Myspace, others only have email. I'm not going to spend my time going from social network to social network to keep tabs on people. I go to one place, my email, that is it. And yes I know that the social networks will send notices to your email when things "happen" in your network, but you still have to go to their site and login to find the details. That's too much work. Maybe once I have my own computer, but until then email works the best for me.

Mee-mee

I think IMing could be a great tool. Imagine being a patron at a PAL and being able to get your question asked without having to get up and stand in line at the Reference desk? Or better yet, being online at home and getting your question answered without having to actually drive to the library or looking the phone number up and calling? Also, with rooms, other people could visit and see other questions that they hadn't thought of asking perhaps. Or, why not have themed IM rooms ("Genealogy databases" or "How to use Microsoft Word") or even IM classes? The one downside to IM is that someone has to be at the computer and remember to log on and off (that is the reason I gave up on IMing my friends. They would forget to update their status on their computer when they left or returned).

I added a picture of the Roadrunner because Meebo reminded me of the beeping sound he makes (mee-mee). Anyways, Meebo is nice because if you are like me and don't own a computer you can still instant message people, if you want to. I use email and don't instant message, but if I did I would use Meebo.

The RSS Titanic

I looked at the RSS search tools but I can't comment much on the search, because I don't have any favorite sites to search for or anything, sooo, yeah. As for how patrons could use RSS, I think there would be interest in subscribing to feeds from their favorite authors, so when a new book is about to be released, or to be added to the catalog, they could know right away. Other than that I have no ideas.

RSS=Really Super Sophisticated...

...as in NOT simple. It is a neat idea, but boy it's a good thing my smart coworker was nearby to help me figure it out. When all is said and done, if you read lots of blogs and news sites regularly, RSS is a great timesaver. I, however, don't, nor am I about to start (lack of time as always being the reason). After compiling a list of RSS feeds that I was interested in, I realized I wouldn't use RSS because, though I spend a goodly amount of time surfing the web, the surfing I do is mostly research and not the type of surfing that would be helped with RSS feeds. I could see how RSS feeds could be used at work-related tasks. Perhaps there are certain emails sent out to everyone regularly that could be RSS feeds so that people who need to see them could subscribe and those who don't wouldn't have them in their inbox.

So, on to item 8.

Like I said, my favorite habit is PLAY

Fastr is a fun Flickr mashup that gives you several pictures from Flickr and has you guess what the common tag is. Flickr Sudoku is also quite fun.

2007_1014Summer0020

2007_1014Summer0020
Originally uploaded by Digitaldiscoverydiary

Ok, success at last! Like I said, habit number 3 is hard for me, but I took this photo-uploading problem as a challenge, didn't give up, and voila, here is a picture I took of a gorgeous rose at the Portland Rose Gardens this past summer.

Too bad I can't post a smell as well.

Further Frustrations...

Ok, I went to even more trouble and set up a Flickr account, still no pictures. I've tried both Blogger's photo upload feature, and Flickr's blogging tool, neither of which have worked, so I guess my blog will be photo-free.

Picture Frustration...

I have been attempting for I wont say how long now to post a picture from Flickr to my blog, and it won't work. I have read and followed the tutorials to the letter, to no avail. I have reached my boiling point #@$%@#$%@#!!!!

Where have all the dropped "e"s gone, long time passing...

First of all, I have to make a comment about the unique spelling and use of metaphor used by technophobes in naming applications, software, programs, etc. It would make for an interesting study for an anthropologist somewhere (not me). The dropped e's (Flickr, Retrievr, Tumblr), the word combos (blog), the misspelling (Mappr) all utterly techi.

Anyway, this is really cool. I've been checking out the 3rd party applications on Flickr and discovered Retriever, oops, Retrievr (it's hard to spell incorrectly!!). This program has you sketch something, and then it "retrievs" photos on Flickr that are similar in some way to what you drew. I drew a crude treble clef symbol, and found this cool photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53782220@N00/44365335

Anyways, Flickr is a great way to organize, display, and share photos, but I for one don't have spare time to download my photos off my camera, much less to Flickr. Speaking in terms of work, however, it would be a great way to share photos taken of library programs.

Mail-to-Blogger address

I've been perusing the various settings for my blog and just discovered the mail-to-blogger function, which allows you to email pictures, articles, etc. (that you find while surfing the 'net) to your blog. That could definitely come in handy!

Studies show that habits may be habit forming.

Most of the 7 1/2 Lifelong Habits seemed pretty sensible to me. Probably the hardest for me would be habit #3, because it is so easy to get discouraged when things don't go my way. It's much harder (but way more productive) to accept that more often than not things won't go my way, instead of fighting it. The easiest habit would definitely be #7 1/2. Who doesn't like to play? There is a danger in that though; I gave up my first blog because it was too addicting.