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 . . .

Technorati

Technorati sports a nice, organized interface--one of the more visually appealing ones I've seen. One can search blog postings in videos, blogs, and music which certainly faciliates a targeted search in a specific category. Readers can also vote on their favorite blogs, much like the way Diggs ranks their article findings. The advanced search features includes two handy searches--the blog directory search and tag search--both useful in helping you strategize your search efforts. Overall, I would like to spend more time with this search engine and possibily see how it compares with the others out there such as Google, Yahoo, and Ask.

Delicious

I have yet to explore the full extent of Delicious's potential. Harvesting the collective intelligence or "wisdom of the crowds" on the Web is certainly an intriguing and compelling concept. At first glance, the Delicious site didn't seem very intutitive, so the help menus came in handy.

The whole social tagging folksonomy concept marks a new breakthrough in "cataloging" electronic records, one which seems quite daunting, given the unique perceptions and interpretations individuals might have in assigning tags to objects, people, ideas, etc. I was surprised that the Delicious tags were restricted to one-word terms.

I would like to explore using Delicious as a research tool and compare how this differs from, say, searching electronic discussion groups and blogs. There is quite a bit of potential in this social bookmarking resource, yet the challenge still lies in separating the proverbial chaff from the wheat.

Rollyo

A very handy tool that reminds me of Google's custom search engine. I noticed that the search response time does tend to drag. It appears that your URL links are alphabetized, and that search results appear on the summary list accordingly. It would be nice to have more clearly defined headings for the various result clusters. What is interesting is the "blog results" sidebar on the left, though if the sources you include don't index blogs, that feature would be useless.

LibraryThing

A fun nifty tool for bibliophiles. I'm amazed at the sheer simplicity of this resource which certainly faciliates cataloging and even better, allows you to apply your own tags and share them with other readers. There is also much potential in using this resource for reader's advisory services or as an online discussion forum amongst book groups.

Online Image Generators

The online image generators were amusing little programs that ranged from creating calendars to putting your name up in lights. I kind of saw this resource as something that might go inside a Web designer's toolbox. The Generator Blog had quite a substantial list of these intriguing tools. I see these online image generators as a kind of Web-based clearinghouse of fun and experimental tools to enhance Web site activities.

Twittering by the Second

I'm not quite sure how useful Twitter would be for libraries. My understanding is that Twitter is akin to excessive blogging or blogging on steroids. Perhaps this type of cutting-edge news would be appropriate for very time-sensitive information such as news updates in the event of a major crisis (e.g., earthquake) or election results. In other words, Twitter could be used to help people monitor extremely fluid information and especially those who spend a considerable amount of time on the Internet daily.

Applying Web 2.0 Technologies in Libraries

After viewing samples of how other libraries are employing Web 2.0 technologies, I realize that one can be quite creative in implementing these technological enhancements. Podcasts, for example, can be used as booktalks to market the library's collection. RSS feeds are especially useful for keeping patrons updated on workshops, programs, new additions to the collection, new databases, and so forth. Blogs can easily attract online communities and foster active discussions for a book club or even function as a virtual "suggestion box." I'm sure these technologies can also operate in conjunction with each other.

I would like to explore how Second Life fits into the picture. Could creating a virtual presence in Second Life function as yet another reference access point? This whole idea of creating a presence in a virtual world intrigues me, and I imagine it must be a step up from e-mail reference, instant messaging, and chatrooms.

Flickr

Flickr appears to be taking the old electronic discussion forums (some may remember Usenet), and upgrading it with all the interactive and visual features. I find this resource to be like YouTube, but with photos. It's too bad there doesn't seem to be a hierarchy of topics as there are with the Google Groups or Yahoo Groups discussion lists. Nonetheless, this can be a very addictive resource that can compete with the existing image databases out there on the Web, especially since many people have digital cameras these days.

Launching into the "23 Things" Initiative

Hi There!

I'm currently trying to saturate my mind with Web 2.0 technologies and have already completed Joe Barker's "Web 2.0 Searching Innovations" workshop as well as "Sarah Houghton's "Web 2.0: Developing a Successful eBranch" online class. Both of them offered me a variety of Web 2.0 tools to play around with. I also viewed Helene Blower's Webcast and found it to be quite informative and concise at the same time. Overall, there are certainly lots of new and interesting terrains to explore on the virtual landscape, and I hope to tinker with them a bit more since I currently teach an Internet Research Strategies at a community college.

Screen Names

Here are my IM screen names:

AIM: jdear01

Yahoo Messenger: infostrategist

Wiki Evaluations

In examining the library wikis for this exercise, I must admit that I’m not all too fond of wikis that use the template similar to that of Wikipedia’s. The wikis of St. Joseph County Library, University of Huddersfield, and University of Connecticut Libraries all seem to share this commonality. I never quite got the hang of the built-in search engine which, when you press enter after you enter your keywords, will automatically default to the first hit that pops up, much like Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” button.

The University of Minnesota Libraries sports a more appealing look, though the text colors—particularly for the comments—could use a different color to contrast the site’s background shades of olive green.

I’d be curious to see what WorldCat’s wiki has to offer with its reviews feature. I’m already a fan of their public interface for WorldCat (as opposed to the FirstSearch one). Perhaps this will be a nice alternative to the comments posted in Amazon.com.

Overall, it seems that almost every wiki I encounter is jam-packed with information—multiple postings, categorical links, etc. (that whole information overload issue), which is why I was drawn to Butler University Libraries’ Reference Wiki.

Library Blog Observations

Lansing Library Teen News & Reviews Blog
http://lansinglibraryteen.blogspot.com
I didn’t care too much for the polka dots background, but considering that this is a teen blog, I suppose these decorative embellishments give the blog a more “animated” feel. I did appreciate the Categories, Contributors, and Previous Posts links, as they provided more opportunity for browsing, much like flipping through the pages of a magazine.

Ann Arbor District Library Books Blog
http://ww.aadl.org/catalog/books
Compared to the other library blogs, I found this one quite interesting in that the blog itself appears to be integrated seamlessly with the library Web site. The postings and navigational links appear to serve functional and aesthetic purposes.

Waterboro Public Library H20book
http://www.waterborolibrary.org/blog.htm
This blog seemed to lack the visual appeal of the others, given that the colors for the background and text were rather bland. I could not locate any commenting features, though it was nice to see the local keyword “labels” applied to each entry. I figure that this must be more of an informative rather than an interactive blog.