Thing Eleven: Social Media

I browsed through Digg, Mixx, Reddit, and Newsvine for a short bit looking at the latest headlines, what was the popular story for the week, and comments left on the sites. I can't say it's my first time browsing sites like these. I've been in the habit of checking the latest news ever since I was a child. Having it on the Internet makes it a lot more convenient and cheaper to get. These tools can be used anywhere you happen to have a computer at. People will always want the latest news, whether it be political, environmental, famous, or celebrity related. In regards to productivity, what does that have to do with anything? I would like to think learning any kind of news is useful to me to stay current. In my opinion culture is all about downloading information no matter what kind it is.

Facebook: All Your Stuff is Ours, Even if You Quit

Facebook: All Your Stuff is Ours, Even if You Quit

Thing Ten Tagging and Delicious

Sidenote:

Can't the information on the blogs be more streamed line? I got so lost reading blog ten as I do in almost every blog. It's in no way easy for me to read. I read the entire blog and by the time I got to the end I felt like I was in class with Charlie Brown with the teacher going "Bla Bla Bla." I'm not trying to say it's boring I'm trying to say I was totally lost as to what the I was suppose to be doing. I had to read over it and some how mark where the tagging part began and where the delicious assignment began. It all seemed to blend in to much for me.

What was worse is that once I figured out where the assignment part was for tagging I was still lost. It was like an episode of Bleach where they get to the climax of the story and instead of finishing it they simply moves on to another story. All the while I'm left sitting there wondering what did I just missed? It's a bit of a let down. Kind of the reason I stop watching that anime. Any way my point is that I kind of felt like I was left hanging at the end of tagging assignment. You say, and I quote,

"You can tag (Blogger calls them labels) your Blogger posts with keywords or phrases. From the Dashboard, go to Manage Posts and choose the post you want to add tags to. Enter the words in the “Labels for this post:” box in the lower right. Type in your tags (commas between each word or phase). Click Publish Post to re-publish the post with its labels (tags) to your blog."

Than you moved on to delicious. But you didn't finish explaining tagging! Ok so I go manage post, pick a blog, click edit, than go to labels for post, than what? I mean there's no explanation as to how it works. Am I suppose to create a hyperlink or is that creating a hyperlink and if it's creating a hyperlink where the heck is it linking to and from?!? I was completely befuddled but was able to find some one to explain it to me somewhat.

And if there's any way to make reading the blogs more stream line and less information overload that would be great. Hope I made some small amount of sense.

Tagging:

I did the tagging assignment on my last blog, number 9. I used the words Graphic Novel and Manga Books because I had pictures of those two items so I figured it fits.

Delicious:

I should have done this at home and not at work because all my bookmarks are on my personal computer. Hopefully when I get home I can figure out how to uploaded if not oh well. I used it to bookmark NEFLIN's 23 Things. This can be very useful for libraries to bookmark other library sites, slideshow (to create presentations), and other useful sites library uses. Of course it would also have great potential as a research tool. If your computer crashes and you need to do your research over you still know where to go to get your information from.

Things Nine Sharing slides, photos, and databases

Zoho:



Slideshare: I wasn't able to download a PowerPoint presentation on it. I think it's probably because I have the latest version of PowerPoint so it saves it under pptx and not ppt. I know it says just change pptx to ppt but than some of the things I have on it will no longer work so really what would be the point? I'm amazed that it's not really undated to accept the latest program but hey to each his own I guess.

Share Your photos with Big Huge Lab:

Well it took me a while to realize I might have mixed some stuff up, but all fixed now. Using the mosaic on Big Huge Labs was tons of fun cause it comes with a lot of options. I used it with my manga and comics. I can also see Big Huge Labs being used to create interesting graphics for slide presentations. There are a ton of different ways for slide presentations to be used, such as presenting new ideas, whether for artistic or instructional purposes. These tools weren't to difficult to use. I feel Microsoft powerpoint has more options but some times the many options end up making the file size massive. I once had a powerpoint presentation with a group that wanted the works design wise. Unfortunately it became to big and we couldn't really save it on anything but the computer. So we had to find the gadgets to connect our computer up with the projector in class, which ended up being very stressful because we happened to realize our mistake at the last minute. I voted for deleting stuff but no heaven forbid they listen to the shrimp. Any way being able to save it on the internet and not having to worry about saving it on those small portable sticky thingys is great. Only one draw back I see is that the internet access might not work so you can't pull it up. I've had that happened to me once before. Sometimes you just can't win. All the same they are very useful tools and I would recommend it to others. As for databases I couldn't get Lazybase to work. I'll go back and give it a try later. Maybe whatever issue it's having will be fixed in a couple days. Even so I can see its appeal. A database you can put up your personal work and not have it messed with; it sounds dreamy. Sometimes with the internet it's hard to tell whether or not it's free.

Thing Eight Communication Web 2.0 Style

Well I think it's safe to say I'm a communicating junky. I use several instant messengers, for example, aim, msn, myspace, google chat, and I use to use yahoo but I was getting way to much junk mail so not so much any more. I use so many different one's because each of my friends have their own preference. I don't actually use msn as much any more because the friends I had on it doesn't use their accounts any more. Nonetheless, I still log on everyday so that while I'm working on the computer should I get an email from someone I can get an alert so I can stop what I'm doing and view it. Pretty much same goes for all the rest of the messengers I have, which wasn't mentioned on all that information for Thing 8. There are other features that come with instant messenging besides chatting. You can be waiting for someone to send an important email but you don't want to have to check it every five minutes. But with instant messengers you don't have to. Just turn it on and do your thing while you wait for the beep alert.

I also use text messaging every day. I prefer texting for two reasons. One is because for a small cost I can select unlimited text messaging as part of my phone service and never worry about going over and having to pay for it. Where as for some strange reason unbeknown to me unlimited calling is about $100 or more so I can't afford that. But when I get the cheap minutes I might accidentally go over and it would cost me two arms, a leg, and maybe my soul! Cost wise I think texting is more efficient, but that may just seem that way to me. Second reason is because like it was said in one of the articles, it's silent. No one notices and no one is disturbed by it. Libraries are all about quiet how can that not be useful?

My mom is my text buddy at the moment. I gave her a list of abbreviations to help her learn how to send text messages. Abbreviations are used because your only allowed about 100 letters give or take. If you have a long message you have to know how to condense it that way it can get across to whoever your sending it to. She actually studied it and tapped it up next to her calendar on her bedroom wall. If a library did use texting and instant messaging they'd have to learn the language, which to this day I'm still trying to learn. The list is always growing because they come up with new short phrase everyday. Teens, I think they have way to much free time... Here's some phrases:

lol: Laugh out loud
lmbo: Laugh my butt off
ttyl: Talk to you later
omg: Oh my god
nvm: Never mind

Check out this site, it has a massive list of them!
Or just copy and paste the link. Whatever works for you.
http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/textmessageabbreviations.asp

I think instant messaging and texting would be great tools to use in the library because it's so much more convenient. For example, when I needed to go to the library to find books for a report but couldn't go because some one had to stay home to wait for the repair man. I could easy use ask a librarian about how to focus my search than go to the catalog to request the books I needed to be put on hold and still be able to be at home to wait the repair guy. It's just so much more handy when you need to do a million things at once.

Thing Seven Online Image Generators

Big Huge Lab:

Big huge lab has a ton of options. I think I might have ended up spending the whole day on it if I had not used all my will power to move along. Since I already used the jigsaw maker on my last thing entry I tried out the magazine maker. It can out alright but I can't say I'm in love with it. If there was more layout options just maybe I could. The picture used for the magazine cover is a picture of the sky I took myself and changed the tone to sepia. I'm not stealing anyone's pictures. ^O^



ToonDoo:

Yes I know, I'm not an artist but I can still dream. This assignment was a lot of fun even if it took me all afternoon to figure out how to work ToonDoo. But I can see myself using it for the A Frames. Using visually interesting graphics will always draw in a crowd and that is the goal right? To grab patrons attention and bring them in? Graphics is always a great tool to use for that.

Thing Six Flickr Mashups

Spell with Flickr:





Jigsaw:

This is a picture of the "Alachua," a public work of art located at the University of Florida, which is also know as "The french fries." As I was heading to class one day I noticed that some one had added the red McDonalds poster on it's lower half (no that's not originally part of the artwork, just the yellow sticks), so I took a picture of it with my cellphone camera. I guess it was meant as a joke; glad I had a camera with me at the time. I always have one on me somewhere. I'm not sure why but I feel like if I didn't have a camera on me I'd be missing a Kodak moment... ^O^



How can you use any of these tools in your library or media center?

I can definitely use this at my library. I love to work on the A Frames and create displays. I can go on Flickr Mashups and create great titles for them. I was getting tried on using the same old plain lettering. I think this could be much more visually appealing.

What do you think of sharing photos online?

I normally don't enjoy sharing my photos online. I like being artistic with the photos I take and I don't want some one to take it and claim it as their on. It isn't fun doing all the work when some one else get's the credit for it.

P.S
The "spell with flickr" misspelled what I was trying to say. It isn't my fault I've tried it a couple of times and it just does not want to add the letter. So I'm not stressing over it. It still looks cute so I don't care. Technology isn't meant to be perfect any way right? I still think computers will rule the world someday... >.>

Thing Five Flickr

Good grief, it took me an hour to figure this out. My brain most be on vacation or something. Any way I couldn't get the picture (it's a display I did for the childrens department) from flickr so I just uploaded it from my computer. I tried to play around with picnik but I just wasn't getting it. I thought how Clemens library had that interactive picture was cool. Maybe if I have time I'd like to figure out how they do that. But when it comes to editing pictures I think I'll stick with photobucket. At least I know for sure that will be free. Plus I like how with photobucket you can have your pictures set to private and remove it from searches but with a password your family and friends still have access to it. I'm not sure Flickr has that feature but after an hour of wondering around it lost I think I've had my fill of it for today.

Thing Four RSS and Newsreaders

What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?

I don't see the magic but to each their own I guess. It kind of reminds me of those email subscriptions that junk up your email only it's news not junk. But I actually enjoy going on the website and checking out the site. See if the designer added new features or graphics. I think websites are people's personal work of art. It would be a shame to me if no one ever went on them any more to enjoy it. It's kind of like museums. People think if they've seen it once they've seen it a million times but that's not the case. Exhibits are always changing and new things are always coming in. I guess that's kind of a weird thought, but long story short it's not a hassle to me to go to the site.

How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your library or personal life?

It'll be an accessible and fast way for patrons to get the latest news on the comings and goings of the library. People can live busy lives and don't want to waste more than 5 to 10 minutes finding stuff so this can be very helpful for their lifestyle.

How can librarian staff or media specialists use RSS or take advantage of this technology?

The same way patrons use it basically. As a page I'm usually busy shelving books all day and only have about 10 minutes extra time before I have to call it a day. So RSS feeds can be an easy way to get information in no time flat. But I still prefer look at people's sites. You can call me old fashion if you like.


Which tool for finding feeds was easiest to use?

I just used google not blogline. Sorry but I figured one would be enough. I don't need to have a million different accounts on the internet. It would be way to hard to keep track of. Plus I have a life...


What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds?

In google reader I selected browse for stuff and entered my search. Simple as pie.