#23 360 Degrees of Simulated Stereo

This has been a great experience with the right balance of structure and freedom to allow learning and creativity. Who would have thought that setting up a blog would be so easy and there would not be the need to know html code.

Gay and Joan model the latest library 2.0 uniform

The web is nothing but chaotic, and the majority of 23 things introduced us to tools, other than google, to try and make sense of it. RSS feeds, Del.icio.us (a favourite now of mine), Technorati , and even the customizable search tool Rollyo, all are services I would use and which my library will use in the future. LibraryThing is another tool which can be used in association with our online library catalogue.

In a more general sense 23 things has showed two general concepts which I find interesting. One was the use of tags rather than hierarchies to classify information. I guess this should not be foreign to a librarian, but it is something that is thankfully being used more widely in the digital world. The second concept is the social interconnectivity which is inherent in librarything, Del.icio.us and the such like.

As far as learning objectives are concerned, this online course has most importantly given me confidence, encouragement and incentive to continue exploring web2.0 and beyond. From previous posts it is obvious I am no Pollyanna as far as the net is concerned. At the same time I think we are still in a golden age where large parts of the cyberspace are still being colonised by people of good intentions.

Finally, thanks to Sara for helping to get me signed up at a late stage, Nicky for technical advice and trailblazing, Lynette and Leslie for the time they have spent administering and shepherding us through 23 things and not least Helene Blowers for designing this course.

The Man of Bronze blog will live on and continue its magpie collection of things from around the web, although I am not sure yet what the blog will metamorphize into.

# 22 Audiobooks

I liked Project Gutenberg when it was first started and I like World EBook Fair - Gutenberg's Audio eBook Collection with its ability to make classic books available free as audio files. They seem fairly well produced and read.

Gutenberg Computer Voice Audio eBook Collection is text "read" by an automated voice and is a littlet weirder. It is not very engaging, but is free and may be the only way that a sightless person can have access to particular books so I think it does serve a valuable purpose.

The Sound of Literary Works Collection is also quite nice and free also. We really are still in the golden age of the net, with so many things still free and so many people willing to give time and resources voluntarily.

World EBook Fair site is good directory for these resources

The World Public Library Children's Literature Collection is an example of ebooks available on a subscription basis, and where children's classics are available as pdf. I was unable to obtain samples but I think on these occasions a colourfully bound and produced hard copy is still hard to beat.

# 21 Dear Poddies

I like podcasts because I like the spoken word. It gives the combination of performance, emotion and intellect which can be not only uplifting but entertaining. There is nothing like Gore Vidal speaking to one of his essays or a really good interview between an informed host and an articulate guest. I tried the 3 podcast directories ( Podcast.net, Podcastalley.com, and Yahoo Podcasts) with mixed results. I tried searches on Chalmers Johnson (a historian who is critical of American foreign policy and who popularized the term blowback). Only Yahoo Podcasts came up with results (4 podcasts from various sites). I then tried searches on Phillip Adams as "host" on Podcast.net and this netted podcasts of his Late Night Live programme which I added as a RSS feed to bloglines. For the sake of this exercise I plugged in searches for a sister program, "The Book Show"which I knew also had podcasts. None of the directories found this podcast. I tried searches of its host , Ramona Koval and still nothing was found.

Love podcasts, but the directories are very American-centric and far from ideal.

#20 Musical Interlude

YouTube is a ubiquitous feature on the web now. One reason for its popularity is its ease of use. It is easy to navigate and the use of tags makes it not too difficult to find things. What actually gets uploaded is another issue. Bad home movies, "jackass" type videos etc seem to make up most of the content. Still there is lots of interesting clips. The musical stuff is the most interesting for me. Speaking of which here is Jack and Meg with an old Son House song

Keeping Stats of Your Blog

How many people have visited your blog. When did they visit? Where did they come from? There are various programs out there that can help you answer these questions. One is Blogtacker

This is an easy to use service

#18 Zoho, So So

I was quite eager to get Zoho writer to work, but generally found it a big disappointment. It seems OK in creating simple documents, formatting these and posting them to a blog. Brilliant! However when I tried to upload images from my computer, then later from a web site, each time it went into a big tizzy, froze and sat there looking sweet and innocent. It also has problems accepting text cut from programs outside Zoho.

Sorry but this does not wash with the Man of Bronze, especially at 11pm and on the fourth try. The other programs look interesting, but gee life's short, especially when there are similar programs available legally (or ahem, not so legally) that one can use direct from one's own computer.

I can see some merit in maybe using it to store documents off site, but I certainly wouldn't be leaving my financial details there.

Its a pity since I love open architecture, non-Microsoft programs (Firefox is now my browser of choice)

#17 Playing Around

Well, I finally got the damned link to work (use the link button to format and watch out for too many back slashes!). This blog in now part of the PLCMC Learning wiki which is a sandbox wiki for this learning 2.0 course.

Hmm Sandboxes are fun to play in but when they get overcrowded they are a bore. I think this would be a useful tool if you had about a dozen or so people and you wanted to throw ideas together quickly. Otherwise it can look like a dogs breakfast.

#16 Wikis

This exercise gives some good examples of how wikis are used as a collaborative tool to pool knowledge. Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki is a fine example of coperation across the library profession allowing experiences from different libraries to be recorded and shared in one place. St. Joseph County Public Library's Subject Guides as stated in the libary 2.0 blog is a fine model of how subject guides can be contructed from within the one institution. As with most exmples on the web these lean heavily on American experiences. Using Wikis to Create Online Communities also gives examples of library catalogs where wiki type functionality allow added information to be added (eg Open WorldCat). Amazon, of course, also provides such functions.

The drawbacks of wikis are well known. They can be attacked by malicious people or spammed. Entries can be manipulated, as was seen just prior to the 2007 Australian Federal Election campaign when staffers from PM John Howards office changed entries on wikipedia to tell more favourable versions of "The Children Overboard Affair" and other pages relating to treasuer Costello were changed.

In general though, as bloggers, owners of bulletin boards and the such like have discovered, such public platforms need to be moderated, edited or have some sort of overseeing authority, otherwise they descend into chaos at the best and at the worst online wars between particpants. As long as the rules and procedures for modrating are made transparent I see this gatekeeper function as being essential.

NOW I am feeling relaxed and comfortable

Cartoon by Bill Leak from the Australian

The Rudd- slide has swept aside the man of steel and now his petulant off-sider has taken bat and ball and gone to sulk in the back benches.

Reminds me of some lines from a Dylan song:

Oh the foes will rise
With the sleep still in their eyes
And they'll jerk from their beds and think they're dreamin'.
But they'll pinch themselves and squeal
And know that it's for real,
The hour when the ship comes in.

Then they'll raise their hands,
Sayin' we'll meet all your demands,
But we'll shout from the bow your days are numbered.
And like Pharaoh's tribe,
They'll be drownded in the tide,
And like Goliath, they'll be conquered.

For updates on the 2007 Australian federal election check out

The ABC website and the inimitable Antony Green

Possums Pollytics, one of the best Australian political blogs

John Quiggin's blog, an economist with a different view and a sense of humour

and of course the Australian Electoral Commission

Conservapedia

You've heard of Wikipedia. This apparently is too liberal/left for some. For those with a more conservative Christian bent Conservapedia may be a better choice

Top searches on this self-proclaimed "Trustworth Encyclopedia" were

1. Main Page‎ [1,906,729]
2. Homosexuality‎ [1,572,713]
3. Homosexuality and Hepatitis‎ [517,086]
4. Homosexuality and Promiscuity‎ [420,687]
5. Gay Bowel Syndrome‎ [389,052]
6. Homosexuality and Parasites‎ [388,123]
7. Homosexuality and Domestic Violence‎ [365,888]
8. Homosexuality and Gonorrhea‎ [331,553]
9. Homosexuality and Mental Health‎ [291,179]
10. Homosexuality and Syphilis‎ [265,322]

#15 Library 2.0 Web 2.0

I liked the metaphor of steering clear of Icebergs in Rick Anderson's article. It reminds me of the SS Titanic, the epitome of maritime technology in 1912 being struck down and sunk by a prehistoric natural feature. Yes, I admit that even though I love all this virtual stuff, I am deeply skeptical when the boosters start overselling it eg. To a temporary place in time... As Michael Stephens says in Into a new world of librarianship we should "not buy technology for the sake of technology". Instead the librarian uses technology that has "ease of use, user involvement and (is) easily added/re-configured." The "librarian brings evidence to the table for planning sessions and decision making". Also as John Reimer points out web 2.0 also not only necesitates but aids in greater cooperation between libraries as well as consumers, so that metadata can be expanded and and streamlined.

It really gets down to some basic concepts: having good intelligence about what the possibilities are and what our patrons need, and being willing to experiment, evaluate and collaborate.

#14 Technorati

After all of the gee wowery of library thing, delicious and blogging in general, Technorati ranks down the bottom of the web 2.0 toys. In fact it was downright depressing when looking under "Top Searches" to find it was for a nudie calendar for a 102 year old. Number 3 was for a celebrity(?) clothing mishap and of course the inevitable Britney Spears update was right there in the top ten. On the upside the ever-interesting Boing Boing made the "Top Blogs" and "Top Favourite Blogs" .

Added the technocrati widgit to my side bar and I will go back and tasg more of my posts in due course

#13 Tales of Brave Ulysses

The sirens call. del.icio.us is another way of organise web based information. The key to its success is tagging and on the whole, the use of tagging and seems to work better than hierarchical systems


It is very flexible and easy to update and edit and has some nice features like being able to do batch edits of tags. It does require work to add comments and tags but these are pretty easy to add and edit.
I don't like the one word tags, and using underscores for multiple worded tags looks downright ugly to me

Overall surprisingly easy to use and good fun.

See my del.icio.us network badge opposite