Week 9 thing 21

Podcasts. It's always fun to watch ask a ninja. I found part of this one to be a bit frustrating but I think that was because of the topics I tried to find postcasts on. My main problem was that it doesn't look like the podcast directories are ever pruned. I found a large number of dead links to podcasts that are no longer found on the web. This was a bit frustrating because some of the older ones looked interesting and I really wanted to listen to them. I know this is a common problem on the web but I think out of the 9 or 10 podcasts I tried to listen to on a specific topic only one worked. The one was really funny and well done but it was frustrating to have to sort through a bunch of dead stuff to find the one gem of a podcast. I guess I just have to say they are really nice when they work.

Week 9 thing 20

On to the last few things now. YouTube. I've been a fan of this site since before it became mainsteam. The first thing I ever saw on youtube was a fraps video of an online game and I though wow what a great idea. Since then it's become a key component in online games for sharing content. I'm going to link a few of my favorite videos in this post. It's an experiment in the embeded coding since I've never played with that before.

First the evolution of dance:



Second is medieval tech support which is about a book. This one is subtitled.



I hope you enjoy them both.

Week 8 thing 19

Ok, I had a lot of fun with this one. Flash games sure have come a long way since they came out a few years ago. I tried Arcaplay and really enjoyed it. However I have to say that Duck Hunt was a lot easier on the old NES with the light gun. I swear the ducks got faster or something I just couldn't shoot them this time around...

Week 8 thing 18

Online tools. I'm on the fence about these. I can see the benefits that's for sure: multiple people across different networks can access the same documents and edit them, centralized storage so you can get your documents from anywhere and not having to purchase expensive software (cause wow office isn't cheap). But the other side of the equations there are a few things that make me hesitant to use them. Security for one. If I create a document I'd like to know for sure that I am the only one who has access to it. Also what if your internet connection goes down. ALl work has to stop then. I can just see a busy office stop dead in it's tracks because they lost their connection. Also what happens when the internet gets busy and bottlenecked. It does happen. If your productivity is tied to the stability of your connection then bad things can happen that would be completely outside your control.

Lastly is more of a philisolphical question. IF we keep putting more and more stress on the Internet will it reach a point where too much traffic is trying to go through to small of a connection? If we push everything to the web and it causes everything on the web to slow down will we then see a move to take things offf the web and put them back onto personal computers and intranets? It might not be something that is on the horizon but if you asked someone 15 years ago if they thought that traffic congestion would be as bad as it is now in some areas I bet the answer would have been no. If the internet can't expand as fast as our usage of the internet will we eventually cause it's own collapse because of congestion?

Week 7 thing 17

Ok, adding something to that wiki isn't as intuitive as you would think. When you want to edit in something (I did a favorite book) when you click edit it takes you to a login page. You have to enter the password at the top then your name and email address then it will take you to the screen where you can edit in whatever you want. Also there are direction on one page that tell you how to edit in your blog to the list. The directions go away after you click edit but that's ok because the directions didn't work for me. Just ignore and type your blog address in manually and it should take then.

Just to warn you all it looks like thing 17 will throw you a slight curve :)

Week 7 thing 16

Wikis. I've used them, I've helped design one for a class earlier this year, I like them. That being said...

Two things I think I'll touch on for this thing just because I think both are important features of wikis that the articles didn't touch on that I saw. First a wiki is only as successful as the number of users who frequent it and actively add things to it. Wikis are the next generation message board in a way. If you go to one looking for information and no one has posted it your out of luck. So a wiki needs a large number of active users who are posting new things and creating links between pages so others can find the new pages and add content to them. If there aren't enough users then there isn't enough information being added then people won't use them so and if they don't use them then they don't add their knowledge to the wiki. It's a viscous cycle that can be common in online environments.

Second wikis aren't perfect. They are a great starting point but because the information is all user submitted then there can be gaps or mistakes. They can't be the only solution to a search. But a well developed wiki page is a completed search with referencing articles at your fingertips without having to do any real work. And really who wants to do a search if the work has already been done for you.

Week 6 thing 15

Again information overload... So much potential to write about...

I guess I'll mention the one thing that struck me as odd throughout all the articles was that every article expected the patrons to know the technologies and the librarians had to keep up. I only think I saw one article mention the opposite which I still think is a very important part of librarianship. Librarians are still teachers and help people. Part of that is to help people understand new technologies. If things continue to advance as rapidly as they are predicted to then that part of librarianship will continue to be important. There is more in Library 2.0 then just incorporating technology for the patrons who know of it. There is still a large group of people who need a little help with understand or a little push to get started. In all the changes the past few years and in the coming years maybe that fact shouldn't be forgotten...