Thing 23-So Long Thou Dreaded Drudgery

OK, so doing this wasn't that bad once I got into it and I probably could have finished faster if I had gon the the HCPL Participant website and used the links under the various weeks.

I am glad that I was exposed to all of these various tools. Some I will used with impunity (Library Thing), some not at all (Rollyo). It was, however, good to find out about these things, if only for the cultural literacy value.

Thanks to the person who decided to do this...it wasn't all bad.

Thing 22-Overdrive and Net Library

I really would have liked for them to put the fact that these resources are not available to the hip and happening Mac/Apple crowd.

The tutorials were really easy to understand and the video was clear. But the disappointment at the end when one is shown the ipod with the big x through is is crushing.

Are overdrive and netlibrary pawns of Mr. Gates? Conspiracy theory? Maybe...

Now, Project Gutenberg is very interesting. There are almost no books that I want to read, but my sister who is a medievalist might find something to her liking. I tried the Kama Sutra, but there were no pictures.

Thing 21-Podcasting

I already have my NPR podcasts set up. I think I may add speaking of Faith with Krista Tippet since I ususally miss it on Sunday mornings.

My son and I are going to do a podcast so my sister's children can listen to us and maybe get them to podcast back to us.

Thing 20 - Youtube

My son has been making me watch Harry Potter Bananphone for weeks now. I really like Youtube for all of the old Saturday morning tv shows that I watched as a child. Lancelot Link Secret Chimp, Big Blue Marble, The Great Space Coaster, the Banana Splits. My husband even found some weird guy called Bananaman that he loved as a kid. He pulled bananas and cardboard mandolins, watermelons, and other items out of big pockets in his coat while making strange mewing noises. Very scary

Thing 19-Web 2.0 Awards List

There are some really cool things on the awards list site. Zoho is really cool. I needed has spent all of the money on software for my new computer if I had known that there was free stuff out there. I really will have to play with the software some more, but until we start using free software at work, I think Mr. Gates has nothing to worry about.

Also, my son is really interested in the award winners and we plan to play around this weekend. A Mac makes some of this stuff so easy to use.

Untitled

Think 18-On-line Productivity Tools

 

This could be really great for writing a document in commitee.

Thing 17-Sandbox

I think wikis could be a lot of fun!

I want one. I don't know what I'd wiki yet, but I want one.

Thing 16-Wikis

I really love the idea of doing a wiki, but again, for me this is something that would require me to schedule the time into my day.

I really liked "So you want to build a Wiki?" The information was easy to follow for the non-techie that I am and Meredith Farkas refrained from using jargon that I would have to look on on another "tech" website.

Thing 15-Library 2.0 Perspectives

Tom Storey suggests in his Next Space article in the OCLC newsletter that "...the Web becomes the center of a new digital lifestyle that changes our culture and touches every aspect of our lives..." I think he is correct--to a point.

The web lifestyle really is for those who have the leisure time to devote to sitting in front of a computer screen. In libraries that time is limited to "off-desk" hours for those of us with public service duties and to specifically scheduled time for those of us who serve mainly internal customers.

At home a digital lifestyle, at least for me, is less attainable. As a mother, wife, and owner of an old home, much of my time is spent in low-tech, old-school activities, like cooking, cleaning, bathing children, and sitting with them while they do their homework on MY computer. My son has a digital lifestyle, in that he has the limited responsibilities of youth to devote the time to sufing the web and finding out all of its "hot" and new offerings; while his mother is downstairs doing laundry, painting the livingroom, or grocery shopping.

Well, I guess that is why we have retirement. At that time, I will have the time to sit and fiddle on the computer while my adult children will have the day-to-day responsibilies of jobs and family to eat into their leisure time. The grandchildren and I can do whatever iteration of text messaging and web surfing that will then be in vogue.

Thing 14 Technorati @ Blog Posts

I don't spend much time on the computer, let alone reading blogs, because my spare time is spent being a mom (and my son hogs my computer).

Tagging is most useful in Library Thing (my new best friend), but until I have the time to compute for fun, tagging has no real use for me.

NOTE: I have tagged this post.