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!