Wednesday's Wonderings

Sunday is the new Wednesday - Last Things

2008-12-21T15:31:00.002+09:00

The internet is evolving fast, and we go with it, whether we want to or not. I would hope that we would want to - we have far more efficient and effective technologies for finding and delivering information than we had even a short time ago. We offer many more options and routes, our main problem is ensuring quality. We need to be sure that our "digital natives" are taking the best routes for them. The tools we use are more intuitive, and both the tools that we purchase and those that we create will go on being influenced by the kind of features that gaming and virtual worlds develop. People who think libraries are just as they used to be really haven't been paying attention.

So, the 23 things are done, and Wednesday Kamala will go and join the Catapult at the bar - a good quality sparkling shiraz, I think.

U streaming

2008-12-10T19:53:00.000+09:00

The Thing 21 demo got a bit derailed because we didn't have Flash 10 on the lab machines. Kathryn showed us how it works on her laptop so I now at least have some appreciation of what U stream can do. As this sort of application becomes more refined it may have some use for help queries.

YouTube

2008-12-10T19:50:00.001+09:00

You can find almost anything on YouTube - what to choose?

So just for fun, here's Yakko's geography lesson - a little out of date now, but one of the best things the Animaniacs did.

Twittering (or tweeting)

2008-12-10T19:45:00.000+09:00

I can see Twitter might be useful coming through your phone (if you're prepared to pay for it), not much help on your computer. By the time you see anything, the immediacy is past and you just waste time looking at it. I think it's mainly for kids who care about what their friends are doing every five minutes.

I am, however, dutifully tweeting and I'll keep it up as required.

Facebook - Things 16 and 17

2008-12-03T09:58:00.000+09:00

I've joined Facebook and acquired some friends (some more unlikely than others). I've also joined the group for wanting the supermarket picture back in the library, which seems a worthy cause.

Flickering and other things

2008-11-26T16:00:00.000+09:00

I find I've got ahead of myself and did the image upload thing a couple of posts ago. So here's one with a bit more manipulating (courtesy Photoscape and Picasa) - a souvenir of part of the California trip:

I've joined Flickr - I wouldn't use it on a regular basis because I've got my photo folder structure well organised but I can see it's usefulness for sharing some pictures with family and friends e.g weddings etc.

As for the image generators: I've got a bit tired of looking through them and most of the offerings seem to me to be not very exciting and another occasion for time-wasting. I'd rather play with my own pictures. I found one I liked, but it hasn't been working for the last two days. So here's a warning instead:

Easystreet

Delicious and other searches (11 & 12)

2008-11-19T12:29:00.003+09:00

I hadn't looked at my Delicious account for a while - it disappeared when I switched to Firefox 3 and I hadn't got around to loading the new add-on. Which tells you that it wasn't vital. I can see its usefulness, but I have a nicely organised set of bookmarks at home, and another at work, and there isn't much relation between them. My most frequently accessed sites stay in Firefox tabs, or the dropdown - the history is retained long enough to keep the usual stuff.
I'm not a big fan of the tag - been a librarian too long - if it's not keywords which I can refine as I go, then I'll have a controlled list, thank you. Apart from the more obvious, some people tag things very strangely.

Social Bookmarks

Search results below:
(Gave up trying to make Connotea work, which is why it's not there - threw in Google Scholar for interest)
Searched the two terms shown - popular v. more precise and results as expected given the different sources. Used the basic search offered as default for each. The Delicious result underlines the need to think carefully if relying on tags.
Kartoo is interesting and might repay a bit more exploration (these are just the basic figures, but images, headings etc add value)

Search engine
avian influenza bird flu
Delicious
923
4465
CitULike
501
501
Murdoch catalogue
30
11
UQ catalogue
39
12
Google
2,710,000 5,280,000
Google Scholar
42,200 25,000
Zuula
2,500,000+ (for main search engines)
5,000,000+ (weird result for Yahoo)
Kartoo
307,000
1,410,000

Wiki wacking

2008-11-19T12:04:00.000+09:00

A pbwiki wiki (of sorts) exists - like the Catapult, I don't think it's the easiest bit of software to use. Things weren't helped by the demo screencasts not working, but with reference to the help screens and a few accidents, it got there. well, here, if you're interested.
I can see why it's very useful in certain situations - I don't particularly need one right now. I think I'll try some of the other wiki software as well if I want to make another one.

Google - all things to all people ...

2008-11-12T20:22:00.002+09:00

Google Docs:
Below is a conversation copied from a GD, which says what I wanted to say.

Using Google Docs

Would I use it? Probably not, as I have other ways to create and send documents and I would prefer most of them to be filed on my own computer.

Can I see a use for it? Yes, for people involved in groups that do not have a permanent home or office - e.g a club committee that might want several members to contribute to a newsletter. Situations where not everyone has the same computing facilities, software etc. might also be more easily served by this system. It certainly seems to have the basic word processing functions.

Presentations
It imports PPTs without much difficulty, although editing is more limited and it can't handle the animations. I guess you might use it if you didn't have access to the real thing.

Spreadsheets
I'm no expert here, but, again, it imports a basic Excel file easily enough.

I (Judith) haven't played with this much, but I think it does sound useful for collaboration. And my husband uses it a bit for personal documents that he wants to work on with different PC's (he has a laptop at work, a laptop at home, and a PC at home - well the last one is more mine :))

I thought it might automatically show who had worked on it - a bit like a word document when you are in review mode... Though after having a look under the Tools menu, I see that there is a comprehensive Revision history which would be essential when multiple people are working on the same document, and that you can fairly easily go back to an earlier revision.

My daughter pointed out that it could be useful when travelling the world as she has just done. She used various friends' computers on the way, as well as her own little ASUS, which doesn't have a large capacity or Microsoft programmes.
Thanks for the tip about the revision history; I hadn't discovered that.

iGoogle:

I've had an iGoogle page for a while now - filled with assorted gadgets. Gadgets for the time, the weather, the phases of the moon, the quote of the day etc. The most useful things are a mini Gmail and a mini Google reader. These show at a glance what's come in to the feeds I subscribe to and let me read them without going to the main pages.

There are other tabs, too, books (with Murdoch catalogue gadget), music, food etc. I like the books page with its feeds from the NY and London Reviews of Books (amongst others) and an Amazon search gadget.

There has been some fuss about the recent updating of the iGoogle page which puts the navigation in a sidebar rather than in tabs across the top. It restricts the width of the page and messes with the buttons of the reader gadget, so I think I prefer the tabs. (The old, tabbed version shows if it's looked at in IE.)

Firefox bits and pieces

2008-11-05T21:30:00.000+09:00

You can waste a lot of time fiddling with the Firefox addons .....
So I have my 23 things toolbar and my Libx toolbar - any more toolbars and I won't be able to see the #$%@! webpage.
I've loaded Feedly, but I think I'll stay with the Google reader and its folders, and Zotero (more below) and finally, in a fit of nostalgia for the good old (simple) days, I've turned the browser into Foxscape.
Zotero is interesting - with further development could be something really good - I'm using it on my home computer to keep track of the books I read, having reached that stage of life where I have a hard time remembering the title of the last book I read, let alone what I read six months ago. I like the way I can add notes and reviews etc. It did stop working this week - resetting the translators (Preferences - Advanced) seemed to be the solution.
As it's machine specific, I'm using my work installation to figure out which resources, databases etc work with it.

Wednesday the third - RSS feeds and me

2008-10-29T13:43:00.000+09:00

I find my attitude to RSS feeds is somewhat mixed - yes, it's a quick and easy way of following almost anything on the web, but apt to generate a lot of noise, too, especially if you're subscribing to something with a high output.
So far, it seems easiest to use the Google reader and put the feeds into their own folders, so the high outputters don't swamp everything else. If you use iGoogle, the reader gadget lets you see quickly what's come in.
Putting them into Explorer is simple (and you can sort them into folders there). Cross-linking them to Outlook probably not a good idea - will use up storage space very quickly. (Who wants to be constantly told they have xhundred unread messages?) Why can't you set a feed to only show the last 10, or last week's worth or whatever? Or can you and I haven't found it?
Ultimately, though, I'd rather just go straight to the blogs I read. You have to go there anyway to see comments etc. For alerts, I'd rather have an email going to the appropriate folder.

First Things

2008-10-22T21:15:00.000+08:00

Well, it's Wednesday again and the first five are done.
The 71/2 habits are really commonsense - see a need, decide to fill it and work out how to do it. It may be a very big challenge or something quite small, but the process is much the same.
The big 'end in mind' that this blog will (hopefully) chronicle is to gain experience with a number of what are usually known as Web 2.0 tools and (hopefully) to find a practical use for some of them. The small, practical goal is to write a post every Wednesday and to fulfil that I will need to keep up with the "things".
Some new things are here this time - iGoogle, Google Earth and Zotero (which I think will impress me very much) - sadly Twitter is still there (which I don't think will impress me at all).
The three greatest obstacles are time, time and time - we shall see if the Wednesday deadline is successful.

23 Things all over again.....

2008-10-16T03:50:00.000+08:00

Web 2.0 for researchers was perhaps really Web 2.0 distractions for researchers, but it's good to have the problem recognized.
With this in mind, the most interesting thing I've read this past week was Mark Bauerlein's article Screen no match for the page in higher education (The Australian Higher Education 8 October 2008)

While considering all we may gain, "maybe" we should consider what we may lose as well.

Search engine	avian influenza	bird flu
Delicious	923	4465
CitULike	501	501
Murdoch catalogue	30	11
UQ catalogue	39	12
Google	2,710,000	5,280,000
Google Scholar	42,200	25,000
Zuula	2,500,000+ (for main search engines)	5,000,000+ (weird result for Yahoo)
Kartoo	307,000	1,410,000