Monday 3 December 2007

#23 Is this really the end? Or just the beginning...

This has certainly been a thought-provoking journey! I have discovered Web 2.0 resources which I probably won't use again - the RSS feeds I can see a use for at work but not in my personal life. I really need to dabble more with Zoho to get a better understanding of it - Microsoft Word is so heavily engraved in my psyche!!!! The flickr site is my favourite and I'll continue to regularly use that.

The use of so many online tools has led to my registering as a user of facebook.com as an online social tool and I'm finding that as an extension of my gmail account it is proving fun!

I shall revisit all the exercises in the future and dabble with them for both personal and professional uses................

Thursday 29 November 2007

#22 Audiobooks

I have had a quick look at the World EBook Fair site and I'm amazed at the collections available! I have found the collection of ebooks at Adelaide University so this is a good indication of the global scope of this site. The majority of collections appear to be American. (Or those I've come across scrolling down the list at the following page: http://worldpubliclibrary.org/Collections.htm
http://worldlibrary.net/eBooksAdelaide.htm

I shall explore more anon..........

Thursday 29 November 2007

I looked at www.podcastalley.com and investigated the Naxos classical musical podcast. As evidenced throughout this Web 2.0 discovery voyage, podcasts are a handy tool to inform, educate and entertain colleagues, library users and anyone with access to The Web. Used in tandem with wikis and other Web 2.0 tools, podcasts allow today's librarians access to a much greater audience. Collaborative projects with colleagues world-wide rather than those colleagues within an adjacent region means that research and the exchange of ideas can be conducted globally and relatively instantaneously. Librarians working in remote areas of Victoria who may not be able to travel to Melbourne to attend seminars can now be kept in the loop via podcast.

Tuesday 27 November 2007

viggo_mortensen_16, originally uploaded by vigsoko.

One of my favourite actors, Viggo Mortensen performed well in the recently released "Eastern promises".

Saturday 24 November 2007

An interesting piece of news from the Edna Online newsletter this week......

"Wikipedians and bloggers are warned to watch what they write, despite a recent court ruling regarding online defamation. Last week, a French court ruled that the Wikimedia Foundation could not be held responsible for content posted by its users. Three plaintiffs were each seeking 69,000 euros ($AU108,867) in damages for invasion of their privacy after their homosexuality was revealed on the Web site. Bond University Associate Professor Dr Dan Svantesson isn't surprised by the ruling, but says individual authors will probably now come under more scrutiny. "The court would say that once the party (in this case Wikimedia) takes steps within a time that seems responsible, then they would be protected," Dr Svantesson said. "The French ruling shows a general trend whereby the parties in charge of the Web site are not held liable." ZDNet Australia, 8 November 2007. "

Monday 19 November 2007

I was fascinated with the films of pets, in particular "talking cats". I am a cat lover from way back and couldn't resist adding the cute filmclip on the left side of this blog.
The category dealing with "how to" is very handy. I can see libraries using this site to instruct/inform/entertain both patrons and staff. If the Prime Minister can promote the Government's policies on YouTube, then libraries can certainly promote their services, resources, etc!!!!!!!!!!! I can see libraries reaching a much wider (and demographically younger) audience which would have to improve their relevance in today's society.
Sharing information via YouTube and other Web 2.0 tools will revolutionise interlibrary cooperation and the building of library/community partnerships.

Friday 16 November 2007

#19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

The value of this site below is that anyone can find Web 2.0 tools to set up their own blogs, wikis, etc or even their own training course. I like the use of star ratings for each winning site.

http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0/

Friday 16 November 2007

Greetings all who peruse these ponderings! This is the first instance of my playing in the Zoho sandpit, alors celui ci est un "test".

I'm attaching a flickr photo of Coolangatta. The highrise on the extreme right is the serviced apartments where I stay every October for 7 nights. Heaven!

Thursday 15 November 2007

#16 So what's in a wiki?
I discovered the "Book Lovers Wiki" developed by Princeton Public Library and was very impressed with it. I can see how useful this type of tool is for informing communities about literature or any other topic where discussion adds value to our appreciation of life and experiences.
This 2-way dialogue is of great value to any public library service wishing to promote "virtual branches" of their services. The fact that staff can monitor stubs and/or complete entries is a bonus.
I can see that summer reading clubs would greatly benefit from wikis as well as reading groups, etc.

Friday 12 October 2007

#7 My thoughts on technology......
This whole exercise has brought back to me Marshall McLuhan's comments on "The global village". His vision of a globally connected society back in the 1970s is very true today where technology - namely the world wide web - is linking the globe. This new technology is making time zones inconspicuous. In Nelson's day the news of the Battle of Trafalgar took 2 weeks to reach society in Europe. It is mind-blowing how children take this information superhighway for granted! One downside is that this technology is creating too easy a passage for mis-information to cloud political, economic and social thought. The importance of face-to-face contact has also been lost in favour of impersonal technological "conversations". However, I can certainly see the benefits of Web 2.0 building knowledge enriched societies where individuals and groups can make informed decisions.

#15 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0
I really enjoyed Michael Stephens' article "Into a new world of librarianship". His vision for the new librarian echoes what I believe should be happening in libraries around the world. Having worked in both school and public libraries I have witnessed the importance of the virtual library and the virtual school campus. Being proactive rather than reactive and "transparent" in policy and decision-making are top issues on my list for the librarian of the New 2.0 Age.

Friday 12 October 2007

#14 Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

Sorry for the wait between posts - so much water under the bridge, sands through the hourglass................(never did like Days of our lives - it was as exciting as watching paint dry) But this Technorati is not at all boring! I was alarmed to see my very own blog appear when I searched - more alarmed for the unsuspecting persons stumbling across my ravings.....
The advanced searches I carried out as part of this discovery excercise were very interesting. Blog posts as a criteria certainly brought up too many results. It was interesting to see the popular searches & blogs, too. I preferred to play with Del.icio.us because I think I would probably want to use this tool to tag favourites rather than search other people's blogs.

Tuesday 9 October 2007

#13 Tagging, folksomonies & social bookmarking in Del.icio.us

Well, this was an interesting exercise. Firstly I looked at Del.icio.us and read a few articles about tagging. Then I set up my own account in Del.icio.us and tagged about 4 sites. Once I'd clicked on "show tags as a cloud" I could see the social value of this tool. It isn't just about adding sites to your "favourites" folder, it's about seeing who else is interested in same topics (tags).

I was thinking about this task while I was enjoying my morning ablutions - a very peaceful, reflective time of the day I find - and I was prepared to blog about this in a negative way. I was thinking that learning by serendipity can sometimes be the more rewarding as an experience. Stumbling across a piece of music that sends goosebumps over your flesh, finding an image or a poem that renders you speechless....... I was going to comment on the fact (opinion really) that lots of librarians and information specialists like to control knowledge or define it in terms of Dewey, UDC, LCSH, Sear's and so forth - perhaps "control" is too strong a term, "harness" perhaps? KWIC and KWOC (keyword in context and keyword out of context) have existed in days pre-www when computers lived in rooms, BASIC was the language of the day and data was input via punched cards. So what's new about "tagging"?

Serendipity aside, I think the value of these online tagging tools is for the access to specific information/data and access to like-minded persons whether on a personal or professional level. I'm going to be open-minded about this discovery exercise and play with my tags further........

Friday 5 October 2007

#12 Roll your own search engine with Rollyo

Here is the url of my rollyo searchroll:

http://rollyo.com/poozer/asknow-apedia/

My face is flushed with success! I can only begin to wonder at how useful this tool could be for setting up useful search strategies for blog viewers. An incredibly powerful information literacy tool for teachers and businesses alike......

Friday 5 October 2007

#11 All about LibraryThing
I found this site very user-friendly. This could be a very handy tool for organisations/individuals with small collections of books which need to be set in order or at least made accessible.

Check out a few of the titles which reside on my bookcase at home........
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/poozer

Thursday 4 October 2007

More playing! This activity set is really self-indulgent. I felt like a schoolchild when I investigated some of the cute activities that I could dabble in. Here's a few samples of the mindless fun I've enjoyed this afternoon. After the gruelling brainstorming RSS discovery exercises I found this aspect of Web 2.0 as easy as drinking a glass of champagne.

For those wanting to dabble with the same generatorblog tools - here's the urls:

http://www.hieroglyphs.net/000501/html/000-042.html

http://www.ewg.org/sites/mchummer//index.php

http://generatorblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/chalkboard-message-generator.html

I'm looking forward to viewing my news feeds later. Ciao for now......................

#8 RSS discoveries Wednesday 3 October 2007

Well this RSS exercise has certainly been interesting! I've added RSS feeds from the London Times to get a global grib on my Anglophilia as well as links to some Adelaide news.

I personally would not really care about this resource in my personal life - I don't really like the idea of my private life being ruled by technology - besides I'd have to find time to sit down at my pc and there is so much more to life than a screen and keyboard. For the purposes of Web 2.0 I'm willing to give all the exercises a try.

I hope the following link will give public access to my RSS feeds.

http://www.bloglines.com/public/poozerponderings

This link works because my esteemed colleague who blogs at virtualtricia gave me some wise mentoring!

More flickr fun Friday 28 September 2007

My creation, originally uploaded by sherri.michael.

Some of my colleagues have created very cheeky cards but I'm afraid this creation (staid as it is) is all I could think of! I'm really only looking for excuses to share some of my pretty holiday pix!

This was surprisingly easy to create and the technology is certainly non-threatening. I was going to create postage stamps but that costs money...................and I'm a tightwad if any expenses do NOT include new shoes, clothes, coffees, champagne, red wine.............good food.............................

#5 flickr Thursday 27 September 2007

Near Hotel Notre Dame Paris, originally uploaded by sherri.michael.

Been playing with my photos and organising them - adding tags and creating sets. It's all been very interesting and I could spend HOURS doing this!

This photo was taken in the early morning in February some five years ago. We were staying in an hotel near the Notre Dame, but in the Latin Quarter. This particular building caught my husband's eye.

More flickr fun Tuesday September 25 2007

Well I decided to post some old holiday snaps. This is my favourite view of Eiffel Tower. It was a crisp clear spring morning in February many years ago. We walked from our hotel out onto the paved street and just ambled all day.

What can I say about Paris in the spring? We had the best hot chocolate for breakfast and woke up at dawn to the clanging of the rubbish trucks emptying the bins in the narrow street below. Just minutes away was the Seine and the Notre Dame cathedral nestled on its isle.......

#5 Discover Flickr Friday September 21

Millswood_Apartments2.jpg, originally uploaded by Light's_[di]vision.

This pic of an apartment in Millswood, Adelaide, makes me nostalgic for my old home a few streets away. The Art Deco style of this particular building is at odds with the late Victorian and early Federation villas in the immediate vicinity. My home was a sandstone fronted villa circa 1904 in nearby Mitchell Street.

Just loved being able to access so many good quality images on flickr.com! I'm going to upload some old holiday snaps next.

I found it very easy to follow the links which enabled me to post this image to my blog. I look forward to more fun with the mashing discovery exercises!

Monday September 17th 2007

What an action-packed weekend, dear Reader! A blissful hour of pampering at the hairdresser (just lurv those scalp massages!) so now my shagpile carpet 'do is restored to its former spikey (edgy! for a mature woman - now don't think mutton dressed as lamb......please!)coiffure. Feeling refreshed I not only attacked the customary domestic chores but also carried out a very inspired campaign of Spring Cleaning - minimalist kitchen benchtops (no more clutter!), tidy storage room shelves.......such bliss! Sad really and tragic too how such small things can amuse small......(you get the picture!). Between the washing, ironing, grocery shopping, scouring of bathrooms and toilets I did actually get time to read The Age and watch a little TV. There was a great article about Ann Patchett the author of "Bel Canto" one of my favoutite novels. Her approach to writing was refreshing - a wistful exploration of human relationships - and I'll have to look out for her novel "Run" which sounds good. I've finished "Perfume" and felt a little let down by the ending. The main character didn't inspire any empathy and once you finish the tale of his exploits you don't really care any more. It certainly made me appreciate my Chanel No 19 much more! Anyway, I ironed in front of ABC TV's Sunday Arts program and caught the end of an interesting doco about Pamela Travers. She raised her own son in the style of Mary Poppins - stern and a little unapproachable - and was dogged in how she wanted "Mary Poppins" portrayed by the Disney studios. Apparently she gave a rave review after the opening of the film and spent the rest of her life denouncing the differences between her books and the Disney characters. She would never admit that sales of her children's books soared because of the film. And she hated to be referred to as a "children's author". It was about this stage in the ironing that I attacked the M&Ms and Skittles. Non sequitur or a sanguine attempt to restore the high from Spring Cleaning???? This post is declining into the annals of the navel gazers..............Sorry, dear readers. Adieu for now - it's back to work!

Thursday September 13th, 2007

Woke to news of yet another earth tremor near Indonesia. Is the world collapsing into itself? Is this the herald of that final "whimper"? Sorry for the purple prose - it's so tempting to ramble when the last time I jotted down disconnected thoughts I was sitting among leaves in the Vienna Woods and my hair was still naturally blonde. It was last century when I think about it, but then again most of my life is "last century". (Sigh) Later this morning I picked up the novel I'm currently reading and was really drawn in by the descriptive narrative - "Perfume" by Patrick Suskind. A learned colleague recommended it so I'm giving it a go. The descriptions of life and odours from centuries ago are so vivid you feel you could touch the characters and clearly visualise the settings...... Paris....(Sigh)

So, dear readers what do I have to look forward to this afternoon? A "larger size" Lean Cuisine gourmet meal served with instant coffee and a huge whiff of Patrick Suskind's "Perfume". What else? All this my sanguine readers and then it's back to work..................