Week 9, #23: Summary

Because I knew I would get sucked into these 23 things, and feared I wouldn't get out with time to do anything else, I did these exercises mostly the "quick and dirty" way - by scanning much of it, and getting the idea, and checking out a few examples along the way.

The speed with which technology is changing, and the need for us to stay knowledgeable about it is exciting and scary at the same time. It seems apparent that we all need to make time to learn about and try out new technologies, and 23 Things has been an efficient (even though the "things" took far longer than we thought they would) way to do it. Now, on to our next challenge of determining how we will continue the learning and doing and implementing!

Week 9, #22: OverDrive, NetLibrary, etc.

I've looked at these lists before, and I really want to try them out, but I haven't taken the time to figure out the download process on my PDA, or on my home computer yet. When I get an MP3 player, I guess there will be another means of downloading to figure out, but I really want to learn and I think it is important that we all do so, since our library does offer these formats.

Week 9, #21: Locating podcasts

I didn't have the plugins to actually watch any podcasts on the computer I am using, and downloading them was taking forever, but in searching for podcasts, I found a seemingly limitless array of topics, including genealogy, church services, exercise programs, middle school news, etc. It was amazing and I can't wait to start taking a look at some of them! I used podcast.net and yahoo to search. I've looked at the SIRSIDynix Institute's list of podcasts, and I think I may have watched one or two in the past, though I can't remember which they were. You can link to them through MERLIN. They do have an interesting selection of library topics.

Week 9, #20: YouTube, etc.

I love You Tube! I usually use it to find music videos, but it has so much more than that, as we have seen from these exercises. Google Videos is good, too. It's amazing that there is so much posted, even older, "pre-web" clips. There are some Sam Cooke performances, from the early 60's and clips from "my era," the seventies.

Week 8, #19: Web 2.0 awards

Wow, the "short" list is none too short! I tried out Upcoming.com to see what events are going on in western Massachusetts, where I'll be for the weekend. I like the fact that it is easy to use, and that events display in a simple list, with links for additional information. It has a list, with links, of popular venues in the area, and you can filter by type of event.

Week 8, # 18: Online productivity

Since software compatibility and document types have so often been issues for posting on the web, I look forward to trying out some of these applications!

Week 7, #16: Wikis

I like the collaborative potential of wikis, and the fact that contributions can be made without difficulty or special technical knowledge. Because I am interested in online local historical information, I would love to see an online community of users who would share their recollections of places and experiences in Caroline County, linked to, among other things, the online historic postcard collection. A wiki may be a good avenue for this. Bringing local users, particularly older ones, up to speed on wikis, and generating interest for them in contributing to it, is something that I think may be a challenge, however - but still worth looking at.