Second Life?

here is a link to a screencast I made of my second life foray:



My experience has been frustrating and bemusing with second life. As I mention in my screencast, I have enough trouble with my first life, i cant see having a second life. All the exploring, taking time to get one's bearings, and it would occassionally run slow on my computer..I get it, I have friends who are really into it, but I can't muster up the enthusiasm myself. I'd rather play on the Wii with my daughter.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I dont know that much needs to be changed to tell you the truth. The layout of the class is quite simple, the camtasia captures are straightforward and easy to follow, the Itunes podcasts are great..ironically, the last two weeks, which I figured would be the fun weeks, were the weeks I found myself saying, "i'm not sure this is necessary"...the immersive worlds are just really not my cup of tea as of yet! But I really enjoyed this class and have learned a lot, and I hope to actually use my final project at work!

It's ALL good for you

OK, if everything bad is good for you, whither libraries and educational organizations? Well, they won't be going anywhere, but they are going to have to change the way they do business by incorporating items and ideas that may have been anthema in the past. Did someone say video games? Why not? Johnson talks about the benefits of many games, benefits that clearly exist. Games that exercise the brain, games the exercise the body...these are things libraries are going to have to consider. Popular culture has long been embraced ib the form of movie collections in libraries, and more and more DVD's of television shows are showing up in collections. Family Guy? The Simpsons? Hey, libraries are not the ultimate arbiters of taste, but if people like those shows, why shouldnt they be available? Libraries should be a reflection of the communities and times they exist in, and that means being all inclusive and being representative of popular culture. In order to do so, we need to embrace technologies, medias and entertainment that come from the community and times.

Yahoo Towers

Not much for playing games online, and this clips will show why!!

Johnson and Popular Culture

I loved this book and agree with a lot of it, mostly because I am most definitely a child of popular culture. I see evidence of the Sleeper Curve in the same places Johnson sees it: video games, television, movies, etc....many people may not like the tv show LOST, but I love it, and you HAVE to pay attention, use your brain, and try to figure things out, or you will never get it. You have to work at it. SO many role playing and strategy games are like that also...it takes immense brainpower to make it thru successfully. I defy anyone to tell me that BRAIN AGE is not a mental workout..that game is fun and CHALLENGING. I defy George Will to try it!

Screencasting Tips

There are two things that clearly come to mind when thinking about screencasting, which I have grown to really enjoy. First of all, as simple as it sounds, having a clear idea of WHAT you want to say is imperative. I dont necessarily mean having a script written down, although that would certainly work. But having a clear idea of what it is you are trying to impart. I actually enjoy the informal nature of screencasting, that people arent giving a lecture per se, and they can make mistakes or verbal flubs and it is ok.

That brings me to my other point: with screencasting, DO NOT WORRY ABOUT PERFECTION. One could easily get caught up in trying to do everything exactly right and redoing things a dozen times over, and it is just not worth. As I said above, part of the charm and appeal of screencasting is knowing that I can cough or say UM or lose my place for a second, and its ok as long as I am clearly driving my point home. So don't worry, it doesnt have to be the Gettysburg Address!

Consoles for Libraries

I think I have a fair handle on consoles and gaming in general. Not that I do a lot of it myself, but I know SO many people who do that I have gotten plenty of opinions on many different consoles. If I had to choose one, I would most definitely choose the Wii, because I think its game selection does the best job of covering a large age group, and the motion sensor clearly gives an opportunity for people to move around. There are senior citizen centers that have Wii bowling leagues, which gives seniors active exercise instead of them being passive users. You can adapt the Wii to many different activities and age groups quite easily. Since I feel it is the console which would have the farthest reach among my library users, it would clearly be my choice.

Boyd Reading

Clearly the point I take away from the Boyd reading is the fact that social networks like My Space and Facebook are reflections and mirrors of society in general. The Boyd reading clearly marks out the class distinction that is involved in these two social networks, and I clearly see what she is talking about at my library, as immigrant and low income kids can be seen using My Space and the private school kids clearly gravitate towards FaceBook. However, as Boyd points out, social networks are not responsible for these class issues, they merely draw them out for the entire world to see.

NING

What I like about the Ning concept is the complete control you have over who is allowed into the social network. YOU can start your own social network, and YOU can decide who gets in. Thats appealing on some level. It is also very easy to create and ultra specific social network. The level of control seems to be the enticing aspect of a Ning.

SuperPoke!

SuperPoke is one of my favorite timewasters on Facebook. I show you how to do it right here. SuperPoke can be disturbing, stupid, and completely ridiculous, all at once. I love it!

MySpace and FaceBook

I have and currently use both of these social networking sites. I have gravitated far more to Facebook in the last year, almost to the exclusion of MySpace. Why? Well, one practical reason is that as more of my friends started exploring social networking, they seemed to naturally steer towards FaceBook. The reason for that in my experience is this: MySpace seems to be where one goes to find new friends, while FaceBook seems to be the place one goes to find and reconnect to old friends. FaceBook also, at the risk of offending some people, seems to attract a user base with a higher level of education. They can both be sticky, and there are two different reasons I think this is true: with MySpace, there can be a "meat market" feel...it often feels like people are online solely for the reason of "hooking up", and that has always been a drawback. The MySpace music section is however a very important feature, and has grown into a powerful force in the music business.

FaceBook offers the chance to relive some awkward moments from one's youth, like receiving a friend request from someone you hated 20 years ago! Or being friend's with one person from back in the day, but not another one....old resentments are more likely to rear their ugly heads on Facebook. My favorite part of FaceBook is the amazing amount of applications one can waste entire week's of time on!

Pandora via screencast

Here is my first crack at Jing..I really like how easy Jing is to use. For practical purposes, I can already see how I can use Jing to help my daughter navigate some websites when she is at her mom's house..record a quick Jing gile for her, get a url, and email it to her. She was excited by this idea! I recorded this after a week of stress and sleep deprivation from coaching her all star soccer team in a tournament this weekend and having practice every nite, so if its not the greatest demo you've ever seen, thats why!

http://www.screencast.com/t/m36jKf0M

My favorite Scils video

I love Steve Caruso's video about his iphone watch fob. It's very clever and really shows Steve's dry sense of humor. The outfit, not showing the face, it all really worked! And the fast forward digression made me laugh out loud.

My commercial

OK, this is more educational...this was my first commercial this past summer for our Prime Time Reading program, introducing families with literacy issues to library services. View it below or click here

click to play

Flickr Groups

Books and pets seem to be common themes for a lot of us in these flickr groups! Lots of outdoor pics also, and more than a few winter scenes. Implications of caffeine and sugar abuse popped up in several pictures. The differences speak to the individuality of everyone involved, some people took some really interesting point of view and perspective pictures, and others like myself took straight forward shots that I hope conveyed a good sense of my experiences. I look at these pics a few times a week, so they have definitely struck a chord!

Thats Entertainment!!

I had a gig saturday nite. God forbid I should have bring the camera with me! So all you get is me playing some harp. You can click here or just watch below!

Click to play

Educational Vs Entertainment videos

It is all in the presentation folks! Any educational video can be engaging and compelling if presented properly, and any entertainment video can bite if the producer of that video is a moron (see 75% of youtube). Kidding aside, Youtube is clearly a forum for intelligent educational videos, and there are plenty of people seeking out this kind of material. My public library is one of the few that I know of where non-fiction books (read that educational) have a higher circulation than fiction (entertainment). The thirst for knowledge and learning is there, and now that the producers of this content are using the tools that allow them to reach the masses, it should be easier to quench.

Smiles

Ok, so I'm pushing the limits of "educational video"right here......I'm educating you about me, and this little windows movie maker masterpiece explains my motivation for everything I do in my life.
It's all in there.

Twitter and the Election

Hey everybody, interesting article from msnbc about Twitter:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27455868/

VOTE. As my friend Seth Cohen used to say when he was our building rep to the college student legislature, "If you don't vote, ya can't bitch!"

Long Tail Utilization

I know I am repeating myself, but it seems to me the ILL is the best way for libraries to effectively utilize the Long Tail. Since libraries are still for the most part brick and mortar, shelf space is limited, but ILL serves to dramatically expand the reach of our collections. I think beyond this, it depends on what kinds of technologies that vendors begin using as to how further to exploit the long tail. If library DVD and audio book vendors begin providing something akin to video/audio on demand for library users, accessible through a library website with a valid library card, at a cost comparable or cheaper than libraries buying dvds direct, then we might be onto something. It seems to be that while the technology is there, the business model for providing that kind of service to libraries is not in place yet. Surely if libraries can by licenses to subscription databases, a similar service for video and audio can't be far off. A vendor such as The Teaching Company, which produces educational videos, offers audio downloads on their websites. As this practice becomes more common, they will produce less physical dvds, save the cost involved with that production, be able to record more lectures for less money, and be able to pass on those savings to libraries and make it cost effective for libraries to provide a Netflix type access to The Teaching Company catalog. Seems to me a certain future trend, how soon depends on the economics.

Little Tommy's First Pod Cast

This is a true story about Tony Randall being refused a library card.

http://www.switchpod.com/users/thscils598f08/tonyrandall2.mp3

New Producers,New Markets, New Tastemakers, Oh My!

How do libraries/librarians fill these roles? Well, first of all, they give ANYONE access to the tools to be producers. At the Princeton Public Library we have a great tech lab where anyone can learn to how to build websites, use digital video cameras and any tools that our web 2.0 world can come up with. Public libraries in particular play an important role by making sure everyone can have this access. Librarians also create New Markets and can be Tastemakers with creative and effective use of technologies like blogging and wikis, creating that word of mouth and buzz that Anderson talks about. Tools like podcasting also extend a library's reach far beyond the folks who physically come to a particular program. Its easy to spread the virus. It all goes back to the democratization of the web that Anderson explains so clearly...libraries play a big role in that by providing all that access and education.

Analytics stats

Interesting stats! 79% of the folks coming to see me use Firefox. 15% use Internet Explorer, and heck there is even a Chrome user! As far as the connection speed, 62% use a cable connection, and only 3% use a DSL line, 17% are checking in from work on a T1 connection.

Flickr

Why this picture? Because this is how SCILS makes me feel sometimes. Usually its my own damn fault. Most of the time I was overthinking something, or psyching myself into believing an assignment was much harder than it was. When I took 550 with Steve, he talked me off the ledge several times by saying, "Calm down doofus." He was like Cher in Moonstruck, slapping Nicholas Cage and saying, "Snap out of it!". Somtimes, it was simply the volume of work, which can be A LOT. My set is simple and to the point, these pics are how I get by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tommyhnj/sets/72157608404042709/


Here is what the whole class would show you: http://www.flickr.com/groups/scils598f08-edexperience/pool/ All in all, SCILS is worth every trip to my back yard port a potty!!!!

Pbwiki and Wetpaint

Ok, so I am in love with the concept of wikis. They make feel capable of building a really effective website. I have ZERO interest in coding. I dont want to go to a lot of effort and frustration in creating a website. I am very creative, I think I have good ideas, but I need to be able to implement them quickly and easily. I like Pbwiki's ease of use and creating a Wiki for this project was fun and pretty easy. I find Pbwiki to be very straightforward and simple to figure out.....Wet Paint is taking me a while to figure out. I decided to try and use Wet Paint to design a new website for my band, and they offer templates for "band" sites, but using the templates has gotten convoluted. I need to start over using blank pages. I also found that the editing tool bar took a while to get used to, and overall WetPaint doesnt give me the same level of comfort as pbwiki...I am getting frustrated more easily with wetpaint. It seems less obvious.

Google Docs

I'm biased. There is no way around it. I have been working towards my Masters Degree completly online fo almost 2 years now. Online collaboration has become a way of life for me. I'm all for it, willing to try anything that makes life easier. I've already convince my band that we should run our website from a wiki. For any students, online or on campus, Google Docs is a home run. Group projects become SO much easier. Everyone has access to the project all the time. No saving a file in Microsoft Office and emailing it out for approval...throw it into Google Docs and let me people tweak and change it as the project moves along! I think students will embrace this. Faculty, I am not so sure. My guess is that faculty become really wedded to their comfortable ways of doing things, and will offer more resistance. With faculty I can see the concept of who owns which ideas or which parts being an issue. It wont be an easy thing to wean everyone off of the "old way" of doing things: it never is. I agree with Steve when he says in 5-10 years, this is how people will be working, as opposed to the way we do things now with all the needed programs on our computers. Let it be on someone else's computer! Get rid of the software, free up more space so gametap.com will run really fast!

Libraries,the Long Tail, and ILL

If any industry is set up to take advantage of the long tail, its the library world. It is one of the fields which clearly deals with and swims in the often odd and esoteric land that is the key to the long tail, that area where hundreds or thousands of users searching for one or two unique items create their own tiny niche markets and bring the long tail to life. As a matter of fact, there is a way in which libraries have been taking advantage of the Long Tail for years. It's called Inter Library Loan, or ILL. ILL is a necessary component of most libraries simply because no one library can carry every book in the world. Nor could they afford to pay to add all these books to their collections. In a public library setting, which is where I lay my head, it is not financially feasible to buy every book a patron requests. Many of the ILL requests are often of a quirky and arcane nature, and in all likelihood would never be used by another patron. With tight budgets, these kinds of items are not going to be purchased. In the world of public libraries, as the great librarian Mr Spock once said, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one". By collaborating with hundreds of other libraries to borrow books from each other, my library is in essence able to expand the collection far beyond the items that physically reside in the building. This allows us to serve the Long Tail effectively without incurring a huge financial burden.

Virtual Introduction via Delicious

This is a GREAT idea! What I love about it the most is that it is likely to be a brand new form of introduction to most students...instead of just the usual posting on an ecollege class site, this little project would be fun for most people, and the class tags would make it very simple to find out who shares similiar interests. This would be a great way to get folks enthused and comfortable at the beginning of a semester. Once again, we have another example of why the three greatest teachers in human history are Confucious, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Steve Garwood. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go wipe the brown off my nose.

LibraryThing

I am totally digging LibraryThing. Set up my personal favorites in an online library, create tags and groups, find friends, a great tool to help users find book related events in their area...this is a highly literate Web 2.0 application. One of my favorite tools on this site, from a purely amusing standpoint, is the Unsuggester tool, which you will find within the Reccommendations link. It is exactly what it says it is, the opposite of Amazon's "if you like this, then try this" feature. It looks at my library and comes up with a list of books that are unlikely to ever appear in my library. My library is small right now, so as I add to it I will be curious to see how my "unsuggester" changes. Great fun! I also enjoy the Tag Mirror, which essentially takes a look at my library and creates a tag cloud based on how other users tag my book selections. Again, great fun! I could spend hours playing with LibraryThing, and I fully intend to!

Delicious and Ma.gnolia

Ok...these are both cool, and useful. However, my gut and intuition tell me to go with Delicious. Delicious seems more streamlined to me...I really like the simple navigation bar at the top of the Delicious home page....Home, Bookmarks, People, Tags. Thats delicious in a nutshell. Everything I need to know can be found in those four categories. I like seeing the most popular bookmarks right there on the home page. I get a sense immediately of what Delicious is all about. With Ma.gnolia I dont have that sense. Nothing on the Ma.nolia home page jumps out and tells me what I can do here. Nothing grabs me even though it somehow feels busy. The nav bar on Ma.gnolia, even though it appears to be the same size as the one on delicious, doesnt grab my attention. I am new to both of these services, and I have to say I will be definitely using delicious for my bookmarks. When something makes sense and feels easy to use, I will always go with it.

Brown & DuGuid & Education, Oh My!

Brown and DuGuid are turning out to be an easy, fascinating read. I like how they make the point that "Despite predictions about the end of the campus as we know it, we suspect that the university of the digital age may not look very different. It will still require classrooms, labs, libraries, and other facilities. Nonetheless, we are sure that organizationally it will be very different". This makes sense to me, in the respect that technology now offers more transparency and quicker response time in dealing with the administrative aspects of university life. I do think that human beings are inherently social creatures, so the brick and mortar facilities are in no way on the verge of extinction. I liken this to the debate over books, and whether or not the printed word will still be around in 100 years. Of course it will. There are simply some things that people like and are comfortable with, like the smell of paper and the turning of a page, that technology cannot replicate. So it is with people needing social contact with others, it is wired into our collective DNA.

In regards to distance education, I have to disagree with our esteemed authors a tad. I think they underestimate the potential and ability of such education to enable "stealing" of knowledge, and constructing of knowledge. As a distance education student in my fourth semester working on my Masters, I can unequivocally state that the ability to obtain both knowledge in both ways is readily apparent and available, and at least in my case, those opportunities are not "designed out" but are encouraged and supported, via instant messaging, email, blogs, wikis, online collaborations, online class chats, and much more. I also find as a distance education student, working asynchronously and fitting in study when I can, greater ownership of my program if study, precisely because my fellow students and I are in the same boat and have to work together to get the most out of the program. We are also given opportunities through our university several times a year to meet in person and compare notes, and meetings are often also set up independent of the university. Distance learning, given the right level of university support, enhances collective learning and makes it easy to share and pass on knowledge.

Indispensable Web 2.0 site (for me anyway)

Craig's List. I use Craig's list to search for aboslutely everything I can think of. Apartments, jobs, Wii games, televisions, platform beds...talk about an appplication bring buyers and sellers together. No one makes it as easy as Craig's List. SO many folks are using it, I always find useful listings right in my own town. Structure is very simple and easy to understand, posting a listing is fast and easy to do, and it is very easy to contact people to ask for additional information with an anonymous craigs list email address that redirects to the poster's personal email, protecting their privacy. I started using Craig's list about a year ago when I was looking for speakers for my band, and I quickly became addicted. I can find bargains right in my own neighborhood and pick up my prizes the same day! I've seen apartments I found thru Craig's list, bought a great TV for my daughters room for 40 bucks, and yes, I got the speakers!

RSS: TOMMY LIKEY!! or ODE TO CHRIS FARLEY

Tommy Boy is one of the funniest movies ever made. There, I said it. If you dont know why I call this post ODE TO CHRIS FARLEY, get thee hence to netflix and order Tommy Boy. I defy you not to laugh out loud!


Ok, on to RSS. I am completely new to RSS. Still feeling my way around, especially the producer part. But as a heavy internet user, I love the ability to organize all my pertinent information and resources in one place, regardless of the website that information originates from. RSS is truly a fantastic system of organization. Listen, old habits die hard, I am still going to ALL my websites each day to check the information I need. I am set in my ways and it is hard for me to change. In this case however, it is going to happen as I get more accustomed to using RSS. The convenience and ease with which I can access all my info is too apparent, and it will take me a while, but I will be a regular.


On the producer side, well, I still find it a little daunting and confusing. While each individual step I need to take is simple enough on its own, putting it all together and using FeedBurner and Feed Informer with my blog and tracking usage with Google Analytics and getting a chicflet from Add This and wait dont forget Feed2JS....I am still getting used to all of this. In my personal life I have no need or desire to do any of this. In my professional capacity, certainly in public libraries, I can see the usefulness and how the combination of all these tools can do a tremendous job in getting your library front and center. I get it. I just have to get use to it.

FEED PART DEUX

• How close are we to the the society of Feed? Are our present systems (Google tracking, single accounts into multiple services...) a simple precursor?
• What struck you most about the society of Feed? (e.g. acceptance of lesions, twist on the Digital Divide, people don't know how to write...)

We are certainly close to the society of Feed, as I talked about in my previous post about the book. I think we will get even closer...and that is frightening. However, maybe there is some hope that people dont want it to get to that point, hope like in this article from FoxBusiness. Maybe we will all come to our senses and realize we dont want Google to know everything. Look, the technology is going to be there for a Feed society. Its going to be up to all of us to refuse it. Perhaps up to those of us in the library industry to take a lead and make sure folks know what we could be getting into. Making sure people always, always understand that when we stare into the great abyss of the internet, the abyss stares back.

I think the aspect of the society of Feed that scared me the most is one that I see happening already: people not knowing how to write. I use write to mean more than the physical act of taking pen to paper. THAT aspect is being lost already. Have you seen most folks signatures lately? I mean young people, healthy people, people without physical conditions that might preclude them from writing better. We all type or text everything these days, and the art of physical writing is most surely being lost. I mean the ability to read, comprehend, analyze and express an opinion on a poem, and article, a piece of music, a work of art. In Feed, everyone is TOLD what they need to know, they are given information, and any independent analysis is superficial and torn apart and lost by the constant barrage of media going on in one's head. I think Google and Wikipedia are steps in that direction. People use these tools to search for information, find it quickly, and thats it. There is very little analysis and evalution that goes on for most people. How much less will there be when the Web is inside us????

To Feed or not to Feed....

Is that the question? Are we close to the kinds of technologies described in M.T. Anderson's FEED? Computers inside out bodies? Well, people can now have devices embedded under their skin for medical reasons/applications now, but we are talking about have an actual operating system inside us. I dont know if thats possible, but it is certainly something to be scared of and decry. Look around. See that dude texting while he's driving? How about that girl over there having a breakdown because she lost her cell phone? That kid on the bench is cursing because his computer's pop up blocker isnt blocking pop ups. This woman with the shell shocked expression was just fired by instant message. We are already being fed. Everytime Amazon tracks our purchases, or Google narrows our search down, every time we make an online purchase, every grocery store/department store we use bonus cards with, we are already being tracked. Our tendencies, tastes, proclivities, buying habits, its all out there, on record. To Feed or not to Feed? People, we are already being fed.

One of my most favoritest Web 2.0 sites in the whole history of forever

Ohhhhh, this one is easy...there is one site that consistently blows me away, introduces me to things I didn't even know existed, expands my knowledge every single time I use it, allows me to share that knowledge with every one I know, and never ever ceases to amaze me. That site is www.pandora.com...I dont even know where to begin with this site. The idea behind this site is quite simply a revolutionary way of thinking about music and finding new music. Here is how Tim Westergarten, the founder of Pandora, explains the concept:

"The Music Genome Project®

On January 6, 2000 a group of musicians and music-loving technologists came together with the idea of creating the most comprehensive analysis of music ever.

Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or "genes" into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It's not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it's about what each individual song sounds like.

Since we started back in 2000, we've carefully listened to the songs of tens of thousands of different artists - ranging from popular to obscure - and analyzed the musical qualities of each song one attribute at a time. This work continues each and every day as we endeavor to include all the great new stuff coming out of studios, clubs and garages around the world.

It has been quite an adventure, you could say a little crazy - but now that we've created this extraordinary collection of music analysis, we think we can help be your guide as you explore your favorite parts of the music universe"

This is amazing. You plug in the name of a band you like, in my case, Carbon Leaf, a semi famous roots/acoustic/celtic rock band from the Mid Atlantic Region. Pandora will search its database and analyze songs for similiar "genomes" to Carbon Leaf...acoustic instrumentation, Celtic influences, vocal harmonies, etc...and find bands and songs that I should like. Here's the cool thing: it really works. In the six months I have been using Pandora on a consistent basis, I have found more bands than I can count that I love, and whom I had never heard of before, and without Pandora I would have been hard pressed to discover them. As a singer and music nut, Pandora has been an absolute dream. I can share my stations with other Pandors users, find people with similiar musical tastes, and essentially create my own musical social network. One of the very best of Web 2.0 applications.

Bloglines and Google Reader

These two feed readers are both easy to set up and use. They do have some slightly different features however which I would like to point out.

There is something very warm and inviting about the Bloglines interface, BUT Google Reader will seem very familiar and comfortable to anyone who uses Gmail, as I do. Either of them seems intuitive and simple enough for beginners to figure out quickly.

As far as I can tell, Blogines has Forums, Google doesnt.

Google has prepackaged feed bundles for various topics (sports,celebrities, tech), but BlogLines has Top 1000 feeds section, very interesting. Now for a sports fiend like myself, that sports bundle has immense appeal. So too does Bloglines Top 1000, I played with that for a good 45 minutes when I meant to just take a quick glance. These differences can probably be seen as variations on a theme, but I find them interesting and I think its an example of how these various feed readers try to stand out or differentiate themselves from the crowd.

Both BlogLine and Google Readermake it easy to add feeds, both have a recommendations section.

I set up feed for SI.com's baseball section..Google Reader automatically opens up the list of articles in reverse chronological order, but with Bloglines once I click on the SI feed, I have to use the pulldown menu in order to view all articles. Am I missing something in Bloglines that allows the articles to be opened automatically?

Blogger and WordPress

I am enjoying Blogger, but I have to say I really like WordPress as well...I think they are both excellent choices for bloggers, both feature easily navigated and intuitive interfaces, html editing, and lots of different designs and templates to choose form for the look of one's blog. There were some differences that I picked up on between the two:

• WordPress has more templates to choose from
• WordPress design tools in larger type and buttons than Blogger
• WordPress allows CSS editing, Blogger doesnt
• Blogger layout page (called Dashboard) easier to use than WordPress
• This something intuitive: Blogger "feels" less intimidating than WordPress

The main feeling I come away with is this: As a beginning blogger myself, I find Blogger to me a better choice for me at this point than WordPress...the dashboard being the main reason why. Blogger offers more handholding for the beginner, and right now that is important for me.

Brown and Duguid

Great, practical, insightful chapter here, about the kinds of things that seem common sense to me, but clearly as I move through the world, I find not to be the case. The "hot-desking" fiasco made me cringe as I read it, a classic example of upper levels of a corporate system's complete lack of insight into human nature. Why is it so difficult for some to grasp the concept that, if you allow workers their own space, some freedom to express their individuality, and the ability to feel comfortable in a work environment where they often spend more waking hours than in their own home, that if you allow this, they will be happier, more content, and more efficient employees far less prone to bitching and moaning? This just in: if people are happy and content, they are better workers!!! Film at 11!

Also, the social environment of an office or workspace, which allows one to see what a co-worker is doing or listen in on a conversation, etc, offers something akin to the wonderful phenomenon ine comes across in research and searching known as serendipity...we often stumble upon useful and important information due to the social contexts in which our days take place.

Effective Library Blog

After bouncing around the net for a while and checking out what other folks are recommending
in the way of library blogs, I settled on one I really like:
http://albertsonslibrary.blogspot.com/

This library blog caught my attention as I investigated and perused it for the simple reason
that it has a clear and simple mission: to provide users with information of interest and relevance
to users of the Albertson Library. Every post is about an event or resource pertaining to the

library, with many useful links. Its straightforward and very easy to use. One thing I am appreciating about blogs as I explore them with a critical eye for the first time is their simplicity. Blogs like the one I am discussing here are clutter free, concise, to the point and very easy on the eyes, allowing the user to quickly ascertain how to read it and how it is ordered. This is a blog I would use on a regular basis.

Dipping my toe in the blogosphere river

Hmmm.....this river isnt as cold or rough as I thought it would be! Blogging is already striking me as yet another example of the democratization of the Web...anyone can write, muse, opine, mull, reminisce, rage, and anything else they want...and publish it to the Web. Technology never ceases to amaze me. How easy it is to use blogger and get my thought out there...I may choose NOT to share many thoughts, but just to know that I can if I decide to, is an amazing concept. I may learn to like this!