Thing #23 Final thoughts about "Learning 23 things"

My 'Learning 23 things' travels are now over, but I can't wait to discover new Web 2.0 adventures. I had some general knowledge from my professional reading about emerging technologies and social networking tools and I was surprised with how much more challenging the experience of creating and participating in the new web has been.

I enjoyed learning about LibraryThing, using Techorati and wikis, establishing RSS feeds for information and podcasts and of course exploring the YouTube phenomenon.

Also, I just loved using online image generators and 'decorating' my blog with lots of images. This activity in particular has re-ignited a long dormant interest in visual design and I have begun to immerse myself in multi-media content creation and I want to develop this much further.

Thanks to all my colleagues who have shared their ideas and enthusiasm for the 'Learning 23 things' program and to those who have supported and fostered a great learning opportunity which has helped me understand so many new things. Finally, thank you Helene Blowers for your generosity in bringing the program to all of us at ATO Online Learning.

Thing #22 Audiobooks

NetLibrary eAudiobooks is described as the world's premier provider of electronic books, but I was unable to progress as I use an Apple computer which is incompatible with Netlibrary content. I was determined to find some free and accessible audiobooks content so I ran a Google search and found the following free options.


The best of the lot is the Gutenberg Project, which appeals particularly to my librarian sensibilities - bibliographic records and multiple source locations. I selected diverse works such as The Iliad by Homer, The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci and just out of curiosity, the Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period by Paul Lacroix.

Free downloadable audiobooks have the capacity to extend the circulation of great works of literature with this low cost electronic option.

Thing #21 Podcasts

I checked out several podcasting directories including Podcast.net, Podcastalley.com as well as Yahoo Podcasts but the one I liked using best is iTunes, particularly as I use an Apple Mac computer which includes this software.

iTunes allows for searching by title, author, description, category or even language. The results set offers some brief description about each podcast, and I elected to subscribe to 'Bookcast' after searching for podcasts covering books.



Interestingly, an earlier podcast episode from the Bookcast was about the 2007 American Library Association (ALA)conference, which attracted over 21,000 librarians to Washington, DC for the annual conference. My previous blog post included a YouTube video from this same conference, and it is a somewhat synchronistic event to find this podcast, particularly as I was using different search terms in each situation.

Thing #20 YouTube

Librarians Gathering: Live in Second Life
I tried out the search "Library 2.0" on YouTube, which returned 4 results, including this one which is embedded in my blog. This small hit list initially surprised me, but perhaps it is a reflection that the library profession is not using YouTube (as yet) as a means for promoting Library 2.0 ideas. It made me wonder if one day we may be including content from YouTube - or other online video sharing sites - on our library catalogues. We already incorporate digital content but potentially this can be extended to video content. Who knows, this may not be very far off in the future.

Thing #19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

During the last few months I have been creating wiki articles and learning new ways of displaying and formatting information using MediaWiki software, which is a popular wiki software package also used by Wikipedia and its associated enterprises. I was therefore very interested in exploring Wetpaint which received the first prize for hosted wikis in the 2007 Web 2.0 awards.

Wetpaint offers an 'Easy edit toolbar' with familiar word processing toolbar functionality - tables, hyperlinks, spellcheck - as well as the ability to add images just like in Blogger. All this without needing to understand syntax or minimal html as required with MediaWiki, particularly in the time consuming task of creating even basic tables which require knowledge of html. It was very easy to add a widget to a page in the Sandbox - I inserted a YouTube video featuring a 'Mr Bean in the library' clip. All up, Wetpaint allows the novice user to start creating wiki content very quickly and very easily.

Thing #18 Web-based applications

I was attempting to launch ZohoWriter using the Safari web browser and found that it does not support this browser so I switched over to Mozilla's Firefox web browser.

I created a Zoho userid and tried out some of the offerings including the word processing package which looks and feels as familiar as MS Word, so I would use this type of web based application in future for sharing documents.

Thing #17 Playing around with PBWiki

I added Friday's Child to the plcmclearning Favorite Blogs list and included a post about my favourite Australian author, Peter Carey and my best loved selection of works such as Oscar and Lucinda, Illywacker and the True History of the Kelly Gang.

I have been using wikis for a while now, although my experience with editing has been mainly with wikis utilising MediaWiki software, which is the same software running Wikipedia. I found that PBWiki has some additional editing functionality, but what it lacked was the ability to create different heading styles and therefore auto-generate a table of contents.

Thing # 16 Wikis

Wikis are the ultimate collaborative workspace - whether created by the worldwide online community for mass collaboration or whether utilised by workplace colleagues to develop and share corporate knowledge behind a firewall. I believe that "wikinomics" is the new work paradigm of the future. In our own particular environment, the valuable content we rely on contained in Libnet could easily be migrated to a workplace wiki accessibile by LIS staff. Information can be very easily searched, quickly updated and seamlessly maintained by all in the network. All versions of documents are available via the 'History' functionality of the wiki, so an authoritative archive of content is ensured. Discussion of issues relating to a particular wiki article can be carried out on the wiki itself without the necessity for circulating numerous emails containing documents which need to be saved to be viewed by recipients. Once consensus is reached on the wiki 'Discussion' section, updates are made to the wiki article which is now available for all in the group to see.

Thing #15 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0 ...

From initially just reading about web 2.0 innovations and now really using these emerging technologies, I see the potential application they have in our own special library network,. I am realising how much of the way we work is based on collecting for the 'just in case' library - whether in print, or in electronic format (ie. inhouse databases). Our clients demand web based content but we continue to do what we have always done......

The "Away for the icebergs" article really brought home to me how we extend the "just in case" approach to client skilling as well - expecting people to attend a traditional training session - yet there may not be an immediate application for that learning in the real world back in the business line. Let's be the experts who provide access to information content that clients can easily access but also interact with and enrich with their knowledge and experiences, rather than being 'gophers' of information and 'preachers' for learning.

Thing #14 Technorati

I created a Technorati account and added the bookmarklet to my browser's toolbar, so that whenever I see a blog I want to keep up with, I can easily add it to my Technorati Favorites. I posted a few favourite blogs, including several of my colleagues from the ATOLearning Online list. I viewed the online video linked from the 'Learning 23 things' discovery resources which discusses the new and upgraded version of Technorati and I particularly like the search feature which separates results by using different tabs.

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

I created a del.icio.us account and inserted bookmarklets on my web brower's bookmarks bar. This is a very handy feature when you are on the go - whether working at different library sites or even when travelling. I find the haphazard and jumbled look of tags on websites to be a bit distracting........but I am now seeing little del.icio.us logos everywhere I search on the internet.

Thing #12 Rollyo

Rollyo reminds me of our federated search package - SingleSearch - the distinction being that the majority of subscription based sources on SingleSearch are accessed via connectors, whereas Rollyo relies on the free to air content from the internet.

I created a new search roll called News - Australia, utilising the major online news services and newspapers and this is publically available for use. This time around I did not bother with creating a username, but if I end up using this service more regularly in future, I certainly will create a profile.

Editing an existing search roll was simpler than I thought - just access it and make the changes. I did this for a roll called 'My recipes', adding a local Australian site - recipefinder.ninemsn.com.au - to a predominantly US centric list.

After exploring some of the existing searchrolls, I can see how our research capability can be supplemented by dipping into these ready made resources that may provide good leverage particularly when commencing a research project. Search results for 'taxation' included very relevant rolls such as:
*Canadian Taxation rolled by macneiju
*TAXATION Search rolled by trillbaby
*Business and Legal rolled by oz_mendoza
*Complaince of Tax rolled by sopirbis
*Revenue Agencies rolled by elibrary

Thing #11 Library Thing

I created an account on Library Thing (any librarian's delight!!) and added loads of books by my favourite authors. Guess what - there's not a single taxation or accounting or law title among them..............

Most amazingly of all, I inserted a widget from Library Thing into my blog containing some of my favourite literature titles!!!!!! This stuff (Web 2.0) is finally making sense to me - how content can be created, manipulated and shared across different internet locations without ever needing to download to a local computer. This makes the content always accessible - so long as you have an internet connection.

Thing #10 Online Image Generators

This is definitely the best fun so far- it all feels so not work related - but I know that it is helping me to learn to manipulate content from the internet and design new creations of my own.

The movie theatre marquee image is available at http://www.redkid.net/generator/marquee and the Confucius image is from http://confucius-says-it.txt2jpg.com/

Things #8&9 - RSS and Newsfeeds

Bloglines
I set up my Bloglines account (very easy) and added some feeds available for selection such as literature, gardening and fashion of course - and then went on to subscribe to some ABC Radio National podcasts inlcuding Life Matters, so that I can later download the content to an MP3 player. To keep up to date with what my ATOLearning colleagues are doing, I included a few of their blogs as well in my Bloglines account.

Library related feeds
I tried out Feedster, Syndic8, Technorati and Topix.net to search for RSS feeds and while they where OK, I found the search function on Bloglines was returning more relevant sources and it made it easiest to subscribe to feeds directly from one location. I signed up for the ALIA feed, the Library 2.0 podcast feed as well as an interesting site called Library Technology NOW.

Thing #7 - New technology

I have been using an Apple Mac computer which has a lot of multi-media functionality. I have created special effects on photos and then combined these with music excerpts to create really lovely slideshows of family photos.

Things #5 & 6

I have been exploring the Flickr website and created a Yahoo Flickr account to enable me to add photos directly to my blog.

There are some amazingly beautiful photos on this site and I probably spent way too much time on the weekend absorbed in browsing and checking out web applications and Flickr mashups.

I created this trading card using http://flagrantdisregard.com/flickr/deck.php

Starting the lifelong learning journey

Listening to the 7 1/2 habits of highly successful lifelong learners has reminded me that it is never too late or too soon to learn something new.

Habit 7 1/2 is about playing and having fun when learning - and I think this is a challenge because learning in the organisational setting tends to focus on the serious aspect of conveying knowledge to inform people of their obligations and responsibilities.

I hope to be able to break away from the old model and have some real fun learning new Web 2.0 'things'!!