23 Things Program Summary

The Infopeople 23 Web 2.0 Things Challenge was quite a fun challenge as I got to experiment with a wide range of Web 2.0 applications along the way. While there were technologies with which I would like to experiment further (e.g., customized search engines, mashups, social bookmarking services, Librarything), other tools like Twitter and the online productivity tools seemed less immediately practical in my line of work. The important thing for me was to become aware of these various resources readily available (and for free!) on the Web.

I have yet to form a personal/professional blog and keep the ideas rolling. In fact, I see blogs as a reflective tool that can keep me actively connected with my own thoughts (and the thoughts of others) on the shifting nature of the Internet. My ongoing goal is to stay currently aware of emergent technologies so I can share this information or at least put it into practice with my colleagues as well as with the general public.

As a librarian/information professional, it is imperative that we keep up with the information technology landscape, given its constantly shifting nature. This 23 Things Challenge was conveniently organized so participants could work at their own pace and determine how much time they would invest in each technological tool.

Teaching RSS Feeds

I recently had an opportunity to teach the public how to use RSS feeds for real-time research at the San Francisco Public Library. While our training computer center could only accommodate about 30 attendees, I was surprised (and gratified) to have received nearly double that amount of people. Apparently, there is high interest in new search technologies emerging on the Web. People may not be familiar with the lingo, but they have probably encountered some of these new Web 2.0 applications on the Web. I was able to introduce several news search engines, news sites, and news blogs, demonstrating how many of these resources already have RSS feeds built into their Web sites. The workshop lasted only an hour, but it certainly drew to my attention that people are continually relying on the Web for their daily information needs.

Locating Podcasts

Finding podcasts intrigues me mainly because I'm curious as to what the search engines are actually searching. Image search engines focus on the text around the image, but podcasts--since they are produced in audio format--lack keywords unless metatags are used to tag their content. I have yet to find a podcast search engine that indexes the entire content of a podcast. It appears that the technology has not yet been able to translate audio directly into text (e.g., a transcript of a lecture). Furthermore, as podcasts gain more attraction--especially in the academic world--it will be interesting to see how they are to be cited in research papers.

YouTube

YouTube is an interesting concept--kind of like a reader's advisory service for video clips. I haven't seen an advanced search interface for this video search engine--yet. There are subject categories, though I wonder if someone has really taken the time to watch each video and then cataloged it as is the practice in libraries. The rating system reminds me of Digg, though I suppose these ratings can be misleading if only one person has chosen to evaluate the clip. Overall, this is a highly addictive Web site, given that one can indulge for hours in watching episodes or clips from their favorite anime TV shows or what have you.

Google Maps -- Interesting--I can't seem to insert a title for this blog entry, and I've been noticing that Blogger still has some defects here and there. Nonetheless, I did try experimenting with My Maps on Google, though it felt quite clunky to me. Using the illustration tools proved rather cumbersome at times, and as usual, one caveat is that you must have a Google account to access this Google tool--something that can get annoying at times much like so many other Web sites that require you to register before you can access their content.

Online Productivity Tools

Online productivity tools are an interesting brand of Web-based tools. No need to worry about upgrades or corrupted files. Easy access as long as long as you have an Internet connection, though I have yet to see how much control you really have when formatting your document. I'm used to working offline when working on word processing documents. Printing off of the Web, after all, can be quite different from printing off of a word processing program. Of course if your Internet connection goes down, you have no way of accessing that document. These tools share some wiki characteristics, but add a lot more features.

Web 2.0 Thoughts

I'm not sure what to make of this Web 2.0 phenomenon yet. Is it merely hype as some have come to label it? Or are there profound implications for the Internet? In either case, I find the Web 2.0 virtual landscape quite an intriguing topic of discussion in library circles nowadays. The idea of having a virtual identity in Second Life, tagging items with your self-selected keywords in a library catalog, trapping news items and information through RSS feeds, adding entries into the universal Wikipedia, and sharing opinions and resources collectively through a social bookmarking resource like Delicious are astounding. Using the Internet as a platform for fostering online communities, contributing and changing content, and harnessing collective intelligence via the "wisdom of the crowds" is quite exciting. However, I wonder if these "innovative" technologies are just passing fads . . .