(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.