8 years ago
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Ch. 7. Flickr'd Off
I'm not so sure how I feel about Flickr. I've used it to publish family pictures, but I've reached the cap, and now have to pay to show all of them. On the other hand, I've kind of grown into Facebook. I can publish more pictures, but have to show ads. And, on Facebook, I have a more readily available social network. Then again, Flickr doesn't require membership, unless I make the pictures member's only.
My family's pictures on Flickr are available for anyone to see, and I like the idea of storing them there. I can get to them anywhere I go. I guess I could even download them and use them as a screen saver anywhere I went. But I'm not sure if this is the best use of the technology for schools. Like I said, my school's Facebook page has fewer pictures available to people who are suckered into Facebooking me as their friend. I guess there's a trade off in there - popularity vs. ease.
One thing I like about Facebook's photo option (in addition to the video it let me upload) is that it forces me to think small. I have less than 40 pictures up there, from a year's worth of school. If I made a new page for a new school year, I guess I'd also have about 40 up there as well.
All this makes me think about what it means to be a school librarian. Are we also supposed to be the school archivist?
My family's pictures on Flickr are available for anyone to see, and I like the idea of storing them there. I can get to them anywhere I go. I guess I could even download them and use them as a screen saver anywhere I went. But I'm not sure if this is the best use of the technology for schools. Like I said, my school's Facebook page has fewer pictures available to people who are suckered into Facebooking me as their friend. I guess there's a trade off in there - popularity vs. ease.
One thing I like about Facebook's photo option (in addition to the video it let me upload) is that it forces me to think small. I have less than 40 pictures up there, from a year's worth of school. If I made a new page for a new school year, I guess I'd also have about 40 up there as well.
All this makes me think about what it means to be a school librarian. Are we also supposed to be the school archivist?
Ch 3. Flog this Blog
OMG, Did I tell you I'm totally in love with Blogger? Can I just say that I love the ability to add features, and I am dying to find out how to get people to comment on this. I also like the flexibility.
In practice, I'm thinking of creating a new blog for every year I work as a librarian. I could run Twitter feeds through it from myself and others. I could also link to other accounts and pages that have RSS feeds. I think that I could do a great job of creating a Liveblog feature with the HTML that is available. And I like that I have added Worldcat searching.
One interesting thing - it's not easy to customize unless you know html. I had to change the width of the columns to fit the entire worldcat box in the view, and change the width of the main column to make sure that everything looked ok as a result. I figure I know just enough HTML that the features will work ok for me.
Finally, I like the export blog feature. I can maybe upload this into another format if I decide I want to pay for more features.
In practice, I'm thinking of creating a new blog for every year I work as a librarian. I could run Twitter feeds through it from myself and others. I could also link to other accounts and pages that have RSS feeds. I think that I could do a great job of creating a Liveblog feature with the HTML that is available. And I like that I have added Worldcat searching.
One interesting thing - it's not easy to customize unless you know html. I had to change the width of the columns to fit the entire worldcat box in the view, and change the width of the main column to make sure that everything looked ok as a result. I figure I know just enough HTML that the features will work ok for me.
Finally, I like the export blog feature. I can maybe upload this into another format if I decide I want to pay for more features.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Ch. 6. Socialist Boorkmarking?
I am not convinced that social bookmarking is the best method of providing links to the world. Here's why.
I have way too many internet passwords and accounts. In fact, I need an entire file to keep track of them, and that account has a password. God help me if that's ever hacked. And when I had to change that account password, I was in big trouble. So, I believe in Occam's Razor, which says that things that are simple are the best. I don't really understand what advantage I get from social bookmarking, and I don't really get why I should have an extra account for those purposes.
In the past, and currently with this blog, I work to add links that are on a single page that people can get to without a password or an invitation. I have a blog page with relevant links, and if I want people to follow links, I can add them, and then blog about them. I'd hate to say that I set a page up that people have to get to using a password. Plus, most tasks like descriptions of pages, or rss feeds, can be updated on the blog. For example, I don't have any explanation of why I love the Simpsons, or why I have a link from Ashton Kutcher's blog on this page, but I could easily add them to the format. Also, I can post links from these fluidly by using an RSS box, as I do with feeds I subscribe to.
Basically, I believe that the simplest form of information is the best. If people get used to looking at ADAMB (A Diigo Ate My Baby), they will know to trust it when looking for other information. I am now convinced that the blogger/blogspot format is useful to me, and that I can adapt it well enough to my needs. So, when at school, it's a lot easier to say, "Check out the links of the library blog," than it would be to say, "I can send you the url for my social networking site." Finally, I have added diffferent options to my bookmark bar, including one that is an "email this," link. If I like a page, I can email it to myself, or to anyone I want to see it. They get the link, and can look at it for themselves. That's been good enough for me. It should remain so.
I have way too many internet passwords and accounts. In fact, I need an entire file to keep track of them, and that account has a password. God help me if that's ever hacked. And when I had to change that account password, I was in big trouble. So, I believe in Occam's Razor, which says that things that are simple are the best. I don't really understand what advantage I get from social bookmarking, and I don't really get why I should have an extra account for those purposes.
In the past, and currently with this blog, I work to add links that are on a single page that people can get to without a password or an invitation. I have a blog page with relevant links, and if I want people to follow links, I can add them, and then blog about them. I'd hate to say that I set a page up that people have to get to using a password. Plus, most tasks like descriptions of pages, or rss feeds, can be updated on the blog. For example, I don't have any explanation of why I love the Simpsons, or why I have a link from Ashton Kutcher's blog on this page, but I could easily add them to the format. Also, I can post links from these fluidly by using an RSS box, as I do with feeds I subscribe to.
Basically, I believe that the simplest form of information is the best. If people get used to looking at ADAMB (A Diigo Ate My Baby), they will know to trust it when looking for other information. I am now convinced that the blogger/blogspot format is useful to me, and that I can adapt it well enough to my needs. So, when at school, it's a lot easier to say, "Check out the links of the library blog," than it would be to say, "I can send you the url for my social networking site." Finally, I have added diffferent options to my bookmark bar, including one that is an "email this," link. If I like a page, I can email it to myself, or to anyone I want to see it. They get the link, and can look at it for themselves. That's been good enough for me. It should remain so.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Ch 5. RSS Feeds
I've been using RSS feeds for about 3 years now. I first had to use them when I ran BlogForIowa. I wanted a faster way to track other blogs in the blogosphere that I had no time to read during the course of a day. I used a service called Feedblitz that also let people subscribe to my blog.
Everyday, Feedblitz would send me detailed posts of all the blogs I followed. I found I couldn't keep up with all the email, so I moved to Google Reader, and then Bloglines when Google Reader couldn't keep up with over 1,000 posts and 200 per blog. Then, I switched back to Google Reader because Bloglines had some display trouble. I didn't really use the reblog feature that Bloglines had - where could republic stuff from other people's blogs to my blog. I think there's something called Tumblr which does the same thing. Not sure, though.
Although it was easy to move the blogs themselves from one reader to the next, it was not easy to move the bookmarked entries. I haven't even tried that.
Throughout this time, RSS feeds have been useful tools to help me follow news I cared about. The best thing for me, however, was the auto-identify rss feed feature that I use in firefox. I love the little organge box. It's my new best friend. I can't wait to see what features are added to all of this in the future. I'm sure there's a record number of blogs that some one reads, but I can't handle more than about 50 posts per day. I skim a lot, but reading all this stuff still takes time. I wish I had more of that.
Everyday, Feedblitz would send me detailed posts of all the blogs I followed. I found I couldn't keep up with all the email, so I moved to Google Reader, and then Bloglines when Google Reader couldn't keep up with over 1,000 posts and 200 per blog. Then, I switched back to Google Reader because Bloglines had some display trouble. I didn't really use the reblog feature that Bloglines had - where could republic stuff from other people's blogs to my blog. I think there's something called Tumblr which does the same thing. Not sure, though.
Although it was easy to move the blogs themselves from one reader to the next, it was not easy to move the bookmarked entries. I haven't even tried that.
Throughout this time, RSS feeds have been useful tools to help me follow news I cared about. The best thing for me, however, was the auto-identify rss feed feature that I use in firefox. I love the little organge box. It's my new best friend. I can't wait to see what features are added to all of this in the future. I'm sure there's a record number of blogs that some one reads, but I can't handle more than about 50 posts per day. I skim a lot, but reading all this stuff still takes time. I wish I had more of that.
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