Producing Online

Google sure does have a myriad of tools to utilise.

I have to say I can see people moving to something that is on the web instead of purchasing software specificially for their own compters. Society is becoming much more streamline and interconnected so why have something just dedicated to your own property, when you can have something that is available world wide.

Rockin Robin, Tweet Tweet, Rockin Robin

Ok so along with Facebook and Blog I can't say I have been overly thrilled by the idea of Twitter. Great more ways to waste my time rather than living in the 3D world.

But I went on to invesitage Twitter and what was one of the first things I come across is a ConanOBrien twitter about Ricky Gervais who is encouraging people to send messages of support to the Catalinian gov't to end the sport of bullfighting. Being an animal lover/activist I am thinking wow, I can get things on Twitter that I am actually interested in and care about - now this may not be a total waste of my time. Then I see a tweet on a C.S. Lewis quote of the day. And so I decided that maybe, just maybe, I can be a little opened minded about Twitter, as I can see some applications to my life, if only to recieve information.

Then reading throught the "About Us" blurb and seeing how the signal works with the weakest to the most powerful link, (you are the weakest link) I can understand why people stuck under collaped buldings were able to get their pleas for help out.

So I have opened up an account. Likelihood of being glued to twitter on any regular basis, not much. But my first experience has at least given me a hint at how powerful/usefull this media can be.

So the door of my mind had opened up a sliver to let the wind in.

Library Thingy

I went into the Library Thing and I can see how this would really help us help customers, especially when a customer comes to the desk and asks us if we know of any authors that write like Joan Collins (heaven forbid), or do we have any mysteries set in ancient egypt or what are all the books that Wilke Collins wrote. I think it is an excellent tool for work. For the same reason that it is good for work I can see using it for personal use.

But as for adding all of my books to the data base, so I can keep track of my library, I don't think I would do it. But I can certianlly see why one would use it so.

I generally did find it easy to use although I found the reviews nothing more than summing up the story line, at least of the books I checked out. I don't see that as a review so much as a 'tell what this books is about' statement.

But I did write a review for one of the books I looked up and had read so goodness knows if that is a review by someone elses standards.

The tags are great and, as mentioned above, will help to locate other material I will be interested in reading.

Still Life...Action

Of all of the Web 2.0 applications I acutally use Flickr and Youtube, if only to watch other peoples videos and pictures, without thinking "Oh! this is Web 2.0 technology". So I think in that sense all of this 2.0 world it is only as useful as one wants to use it in her/his world.

Having said that though, I think, like anything else, both Flickr and Youtube are useful, and entertaining but both can be abused. Looking at a video of a family member's wedding that you couldn't attend or broadcasting how strong/violent an earthquake was is useful, and I can think of numerous ways that it is positive. But I have also come across disturbing footage of people hunting and killing animals and provoking animals to attack. Now I guess it is a question of what one finds entertaining, but I hate to think that the latter examples are encouraging people to duplicate violence for either educational, useful or entertainment value to visit on either animals or humans.


So I think having Flickr and Youtube are valuableish tools, but like anything else the 'valuable' factor is subjective.

rsssss Deflated

Well, this project seems to be getting murkier and murkier. I don't understand why someone would want to be soooooooooo connected. I have to really hunt around to figure out what I want continious information on.

So I was able to sign up for a couple of feeds. I found the second way alot easier and alot more comforting, although I used both ways to sign up and both ways worked.

It is good to know about this and eventually I might find sites I want to sign up for, but right now it is just an exercise for work.

Googley Eyed

Wow Google has everything that anyone could ask for.

I looked at numerous Google products and was impressed with most of them: Google Earth, Docs, sketch up. My favorite is Google Maps. I know there has been controversay over privacy issues, which I understand, but I have used this product not to look at people but to see what places are like that I want to visit, and even found the names of businesses in town that I couldn't remember but knew where they were in the town. So I have found it useful for that reason.

As with anything one can't rely on it fully. I have looked up my home address and there is a beautiful picture of the back alley and the house number associated to my house is completely off. So I guess my privacy is secure...for the moment.

Face Me or Facebook

Well for me I can see the advantage or a social networking site to find people one has lost contact with. On the other hand the down side is others may find you when you don't want to be found.

For myself I can't really see keeping up my account at Facebook as I find it generally a waste of time. There is so much going on on the page, too much time is needed to get a handle on all of the options and I have my real life to live in 3D not an imagined one in cyberspace.

Wikipedia - Harder Then You Think

Well, I followed the instructions regarding Wickipedia. I did some reading about what it is about. I also looked for articles that I would be interested in and found that one of the item sI know a little bit about was not listed in Wikipedia. So I deicded to fulfill my assingment by writing an article to enlighten the world about my small piece of information. Let me tell you it is not as easy as it is made out to be. I have created an account and written the article with footnotes and everything, but, for the life of me, cannot figure out how to attach the references at the end of the article. I have put footnotes in the body of the article, but they attach to nothing. For all of my attempts to understand what to do and how to fix the problem it is not easy to understand the lingo that is offered in Wikipedia. So I suspect that my article on Altaglass will be removed as I can't figure out how to fix the problem. So my over all experience is that the people who write articles on Wikipedia aren't necessarily the people who have the most or best knowledge about the topic they are contibuting, but have the knowledge about how to work the Wikipedia environment. So over all Wikipedia is fine for getting and idea on a topic, but more authoritative sources are needed to give a reliable picture.

Blogs, Blogs, Blogs Galore

I have had a good look at other CPL people's blogs. I am really blown away by what people are doing and saying. I am finding it quite exciting. It is interesting to see how tentative some are, how savy others are, I am one of the tentative ones. Some have really gone whole hog, or should I say whole blog, and have great pictures, content, layout. I am just gobsmacked.

The only problem I am having is trying to find people's blogs, so many of us are using pseudonym, me included, so maybe that is the next thing I have to find out, how to look for blogs.

Until next week

Wow! How Delicious

Just doing my second assignment and all I can say is I am so glad to have this opportunity to explore the Delicious site. I have used it before, but rather awkwardly and without much sense of confidence.

I really like the 'tags' options (located on the 'Bookmarks, Network, Tags, Subscription' line). I found that the most useful and would never have found it had I not had the opportunity to explore the site.

The Delicious site reminds me of the Microsoft products, there are many ways to do one thing which I find great because it allows a person to use their own search technique.

I think I still have a lot more to learn about using Delicious, but I think I am well on my way to utiziling the site more.

2.0 intrigue

I am intrigued to find out the full universe of Web 2.0. I have some ideas about what it is about and so as we go through this assignment it will be interesting to see if my views are confirmed or repudiated.