Final Thoughts

Despite frivolity with which I've laced some of my entries, I think this has been a wonderful thing to do. It has given them the opportunity and forced me to look at some things I didn't know about. Many of the assignments listed here had familiar aspects for me. However, I learned something new with every assignment. In particular, looking at Google Video, Podcasting (such as Podnova and Yahoo Podcasts), and learning about online graphics editors has really opened my eyes to an Internet I thought I knew pretty well already. It just really shows how much is out there, and how much there is constantly to learn. For anyone who wants to continue this trend and try to keep up to date with what is happening on the Internet front, I would highly recomment tech podcasts. The ones I like the best are Digg.com (Diggnation) and 1UpYours.com (for gaming news). These two podcasts really keep me informed. However, I'm always looking to new things to add to my podcast universe. If you can't listen to Diggnation, check out their website at Digg.com. I found another great podcast last night called NPR: Tech News, but last nights podcast was the last one for a while. Apprently the podcaster is going back to school. :(

To sum up what I've taken away from this experience is that there is always something new to learn. I learn something new everyday at work, but the learning curve for Internet or Web 2.0 innovations is unbelievably steep.

Thanks, Helene, for putting all of this together.

Martin

Netlibrary

The idea behind eAudiobooks is a good one.

Listening to an eAudiobook on thePC is about as easy as it gets. After you make yourself an acccount you can download something your are interested in. I have always chosen to download the "radio quality" and not the "cd quality" version since the different is pretty miniscule to me, but the download time is drastically different. As long as you have a fast connection, the download will complete in about 5 or so minutes, depending on the size of the .wma file you download. Windows Media Player handles the DRM seamlessly, and keeps the license up to date for you in the DRM directory. I personally would not listen to an eAudiobook on a PC because I'd rather it be completely portable so that I could I enjoy my Ed McBain book while sitting in rush hour traffic. I can't wait to try the MP3 player the library is giving as a reward for all of this so that I can start enjoying my eAudiobooks while on the road.

Podcasting - iTunes

Personally, I use the iTunes install at home to search and download all my podcasts. My favorite ones are

MOGArmy.com
The Instance
1UpYours.com

Then of cours there are the NPR favorites such as
Diane Rhem
Wait, Wait don't tell me

Other's such as the
Car Guys
What Do Ya Know
....are NOT free of charge so I'm boycotting them. :)

If you don't use iTunes at home (the by far easiest way to find podcasts) I'd try Podnova. It get's a little buggy at times, but it is an easy way to listen to your favorite Podcasts all in one place. However, I noticed that some of my favorite podcasts must no longer RSS syndicate properly since only a few of their casts are on there.

The nicest thing about podcasts is that it's similar to the idea of TIVO where you can listen to what you want, and if you happen to miss what they say, you can rewind!!! In all reality iTunes is THE way to do this, but if you are trying to find good podcasts to listen to, try the Podcast.net directory. Next to iTunes it is probably the best directory out there.

The second part to all of this the "video search" I think is best done through video.google.com

Internet Video

Well, for my money Google Video and Youtube have the market cornered in terms of online, free streaming video and the "social video web" phenomenon. The only thing I really don't like about Youtube is that you can't copy and save the files to your desktop, with them being streaming only it limits the mobility of the content, but that's just me. With Google you can download the video for Windows or Mac compatibility. In my point of view, that's the way to go. One of the new things that I have not gotten into yet, is the streaming of commercial products such as The Simpons and other television shows. I saw that, for $1.99, I could watch an episode of The Simpsons. The neatest thing I like is the ability to keep up with movie trailers. Google especially does a good job with that. I also like the search interface for Google Video better. The one thing that is interesting about this phenomenon of the "social video" network is that people are actually willing to put almost anything about themselves up on the Internet. I wonder if some of these people will later wish they (or their friends / enemies) hadn't been quite so forthcoming with videos about themselves.

I think of the funniest / scariest things I found is this William Shatner video of him singing Rocketman. Boy, some people really shouldn't sing. :)

Martin

My Favorit Web 2.0 Tool

I love protopage. It's a personal links site where you can create a website for yourself and keep notes on stickies, bookmark websites, look at newsfeeds and much more. Protopage.com builds you are website with out doing anything other than typing in your information. You don't have to know html or any other geek language. Everything is done for through a simple "widget" interface. It's awesome. I used to spend time coding my own simpley HTML to make simple pages to store my favorites. No longer!! I can now save everything I like in a password protected portal. You can even use it as a "to do" list site.

Check out my url http://www.protopage.com/23things

The protopage User name is 23 things
The password is password

If you read this blog, check it out and play around with this, it's a pretty neat tool.

Martin

Digg.com

From all the Web 2.0 tools I use, my favorite is Digg.com. The idea of a social news network is incredible. I learn more from reading it on a daily basis than I do from scouring the various news sites. It helps, of course, that the news I'm reading is also what I'm also interested in. Digg lets me choose what I read and what I ignore in the big world of information overload. I also listen to Diggnation every week and it give a recap of the biggest stories, so if I miss one on a given day, these guys help me keep up. If you've never tried it, go to Digg.com and check it our yourself and become a Digger.

-Martin

Zoho Writer & Spreadsheet

I have been playing around with the ZohoWriter and I like the way I can not only create text documents easily but how I can save them online. You can also share a document with a friend, e-mail it to someone and export it to your favorite format including MS Word. Pretty nice for a free application.

I have also experimented with the new gmail Spreadsheet that went live today in my gmail account. It also lets me save my files online and export them if I need too. Quite a nice free product. I have only been able to figure out some of the basic functions of this tool so far, such as auto sum an basic equations, but it seems pretty easy to use for the simple things.

Wiki's in Libraries

Check out this link. Here you will find a nice list of how libraries are utilizing wikis. Some examples that I really liked were:

• Book Review Wiki
• Internal Communication Archive Wiki
• Materials Selection Wiki - to keep up with materials ordered and received, etc.
• Listing professional development opportunities

These are just a few neat ways libraries are using this new technology.

Library 2.0 - using the power of Web 2.0 in libraries

So, how can we use these wonderful applications in today's public libraries. If you think of the Internet as a tool and not a means onto itself, we can see a way. Web 2.0 offers a way to centralize the institutional knoweldge that is lost when staff retire or leave. Wiki's are an important tool to integrate into many aspects of library work. Wether it is a reference wiki for tracking things once kept in rolodexes or a policy wiki for ILL guidelines and proceedures.

Blogs! blogs! blogs! I can't think of a single best and free way for a library to promote itself online. By blogging about what you do (and what you do best) the public will learn about all the services you have to offer. Blogs, once they take off, can be your number one way to market yourself.

My Space - want teens to use your library? Create a myspace account. It is the biggest social networking site out there and teens use it for everything. Put information of interest to teens on myspace and experiment with what happens.

Experiement with new tools. What new productivity tools are out there (either free or fee based) that will allow you to better collaborate within your branches or departments? www.protopage.com is one such example, but there are many more.

In the end, the library that embraces Library 2.0 will promote itself, offer the user the information when and where he needs it (IM Reference for instance) and provide value added content that only we librarians do best.

-Martin

What is Web 2.0

I've done a fair share of reading on this topic over the last few months. The thing that strikes me the most is that Web 2.0 is a melding of things. It is a meshing of Internet with productivity tools that are seemlessly updated. Look at gmail, you now have Google Calendar, Google Spreadsheet all within your e-mail interface. There are online word processors that you can use and many more applications that were once limited to the desktop only. Even Microsoft is getting into the game by creating an MS Office platform that is only available on the Internet with a monthly subscription.

However, Web 2.0 also does much more than this. Look at Wikipedia.com were the world community is "harnessing the collective intelligence." Everyon with a piece of the knowledge pie can contribute and one of the interesting things is that the Wikipedia community is self patrolling, verifying that content is genuine. Of course anyone can put any information they want on there, but if the info is false or in an other way not genuine, the communite polices itself.

There is even more than the collective intelligence, there is the collective wisdom imparted to the world through the blogsphere. If you actively partake in things such as bloglines.com or technorati.com you will see what I mean. The collective intelligence of all of society is out there, speaking voicing its opinion. Sometimes this is a good thing, sometimes bad. However, through the Internet and blogsphere, you get to make an education decision or form an education opinion on things that matter most to you.

-Martin

Technorati

Ok, Technorati is cool. I love how it takes the pulse of the Internet blogosphere so to speak. I also like that is shows you what people are searching for. After making an account, I think that the "Watchlist" is a very powerful feature to watch for those things of interest to me. Never realized that it was there. I'm probably going to use this tool every day now.

-Martin

Social Bookmarking - yet again

I looked over some of the social bookmark website and checked out del.icio.us but really didn't like the way it is set up too well. I thing it is too helter - scleter to be really usefull for me. You can see my personal list here. I do think that if you are searching for things that you can't find, maybe a good podcast, this site would work, but I have other ways of digging for that stuff.

As I said, I tried using it but I didn't like it too well. What I love; however, is www.protopage.com. This site lets you make really cool list of things you like. I'm not going to give a link to my protopage since you'd need password to get in, but check it out.

-Martin

Great Wikipedia Entry

If anyone is reading this crazy blog, check out Wikipedia's entry on the topic of Social Bookmarking. It is exactly what Learning 2.o is talking about...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_bookmarking

Digg.com

I love to Digg. Digg.com is a very cool social news site. Check out what I'm digging at...

http://www.digg.com/users/mdcasa/dugg

If you are interested they also have a riotous podcast called "diggnation." Just keep one thing in mind about their podcast, their "filters" are off. =)

Martin

Never Mind

Rollyo won't search dynamically created content *cries* I guess this means I'll have to continue to search for things the old fashioned way.

/sigh

Martin

Rollyo

Rollyo is wonderful. I can now combine my searches instead of having to search 5 different sites. I love the fact that I can combine Orbitz.com, travelocity.com, cheaptickets.com, ets all into one search. Awesome!

Do the Library Thing =)

Library Thing.com is actually pretty cool. I can't say that I'm interested enough in it to catalog my collection at home, but it may be a neat way to keep track of books I want to read. It also seems to pretty intuitive to figure out. You can see my profile here...

http://www.librarything.com/profile/mdcasa

Began the Official Learning 2.0 today

I just completed my learning contract and am about to enter all of this into the L2 tracker.

THIS IS FUN!!!

Image for blog

I found that cooltext.com can provide some really cool tools for my blog. I'm going to use the below image for my Gaming Zone blog.

RSS & Newsfeeder

I love bloglines!!! It is an awesome tool to distill the most important info for me in a few "bytes" of information. My favorite RSS is Reuters. As far as library related blogs, LibraryStuff is pretty good and LibrarianX are interesting.

Current Technology

Since my birthday is coming up, the thing I want the most is a 30Gig iPOD (black) and the in car radio broadcast system so that we can listen to our favorite podcasts and music while driving those 12 hour trips to Indiana. My favority podcast is probably www.mogarmy.com But be aware, parental advisory is recommended with these two guys.

This is the baby that I want for my b-day.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4528986

Cool Text

This website is actually pretty cool. Cooltext.com is easy to use and fun.

Flickr and more

I set up a Flickr account and have hot linked to my blog. I'm working on creating my own image with Cooltext.com and will upload in my next post.

Blog is Create

In step you you mentioned to set up the blog. This is it.

Life Long Learner's

I'm a bit confused about this entry. For me, life long learning in relationship to technology, is the idea that we can now find more information than ever. Whether from news aggregators such as Bloglines.com or from Wikipedia. There is more good information out there than ever before. What I find most amazing is that if I have a question, especially about technology or computers, I can often find what I'm looking for by search the web or various web resources.

Martin

23 Things

This will be my blog for the PLCMC initiative "23 Things" You will find my work on this project here.

Martin