CPL2.0: Twitter

Maybe I'm too old for some of this 2.0 stuff. This is the first assignment we've had that I haven't been all that excited about. I don't get twitter. I don't get the whole 140 words or less. Are the attention spans of people becoming so short that this is all they can handle? Maybe.
I did check out the library twitter accounts and I can see a use for Twitter here. Sending out alerts for programs, speakers, special events works perfectly. It's the personal twittering ( or tweeting?) I don't get. But that's just me. I know 2 people who I live with, yes, much younger then myself, who love the whole twitter craze and have jumped right on this particular band wagon.
What I can say is if I did have a twitter account, right now I would twitter that -- it's almost June and the ground is covered in snow:(

CPL2.0 -- What the heck is a LibraryThing??

Oh what fun. For all of us book nerds, LibraryThing is a true thing of beauty. For years I have tried to keep a book journal. Not very successfully. I buy myself a nice new notebook, start the year off well recording the books I have read, rating them, writing my little review. By February I am bored by the whole thing. About November I think I should update my book journal and try frantically to remember all I have read since about March.
LibraryThing practically does the whole thing for me. It's so easy to find the book you've read, give it a quick 1-5 star review, even tag it if you wish. I liked being able to easily see others who seem to have the same reading taste. It's a really easy site to use. Since I run one of the book clubs here at the branch I can see practical uses for work as well as personal.
Now if I can just remember my login, I'll be good to go!!

CPL2.0: Google Docs -- What a concept

Ok, this could not have come at a better time for me. Just last weekend my daughter was nagging me to buy Microsoft Office for our laptop so she could do her homework from there instead of the desktop. Then I come to work the next day and see our assignment. It's the answer to my bank account!! I don't have to buy anything at all. I tried out the "word" equivalent on Google Docs and it works like a charm. My child can certainly use this for typing assignments for school. And it's so easy to share these docs. I think it's the perfect thing for homework actually as you always have access to your work.
I don't know if it will ever replace the big name programs. I'm sure big corporations would want the best and the brightest. I do think however, that I have bought my last office application. It's all google docs all the time for me.
Thanks for the info!!!

Flickr and Youtube -- Entertaining...ummm yes!

Talk about a time waster.
In one of our assignments we were asked if we thought Facebook was a time waster. I don't think I spend a lot of time on that site, but Youtube??? Good grief. Just get started with something you find entertaining and you are done for. I looked up Sale and Pelletier and their gold medal skate in Salt Lake City, 2002. Not only can you see that skate, you can see every other skate they ever did, plus wedding pictures, their new baby videos, the list went on and on. I know, I know, I'm a skating nerd, but what can I say.
Flickr could be fun -- a nice place to store photos so that when your hard drive crashes and you haven't saved a single picture you haven't lost everything to computer heaven. Trust me, it could happen to you.
Both of these sites are user friendly and tons of fun. Dramatic chipmunk?? What's next?

CPL 2.0: RSS Feeds

This is the first assignment for CPL2.0 that I knew absolutely nothing about. I had seen the little RSS icon, and heard mention of it in passing but I didn't know what it was for, why anyone would use it, what the point was.
Well, can I just say I LOVE my Bloglines account. I love how I put in my interests and it found me sites to follow. I added a couple of my own -- easy to do. I even had a debate with a co-worker who said no way was she signing up for something she was never going to use. I'm not sure I convinced her to change her mind but she did see my enthusiasm. Thanks for alerting me to this interesting tool.

CPL2.0 -- It's a Google World

I LOVE Google. So much to see and do. Google maps is incredible. It is so fun to look up an address, use that little yellow man in the top corner and see actual photos of a particular place. I had fun looking at homes from my childhood -- some unrecognizable. No surprise there, it is 40 years later. But imagine sitting in a library in Calgary and having a map bring you a picture of a home in Australia. Amazing.
I took a look at Google Books for this assignment. It's a pretty amazing tool. The titles I searched where there, some gave you the whole book, some just a preview. The preview in some cases is over 1oo pages. Lots of reviews, you can write your own review and nice blurbs on what the book is about. I wish they had something like this when I was in school. Of course we didn't we typed our papers on typerwriters then so this was unimaginable.
Google is just one more tool on the internet that makes the world feel so much smaller.

Facebook 2.0 Not for Everyone

I remember when I first set up my Facebook account. It was about 3 years ago and kept hearing about this new site that all the "kids" were using. There were a few of us at work who thought we should jump on that bandwagon in case customers started asking us questions. Hey? Was I ahead of my time? Ok, maybe not. I rarely looked at my account for quite a while, until my 12 year old daughter decided she HAD TO BE ON FACEBOOK MOTHER!! At that time, Facebook was limited to High school students and older so of course all her friends were lying about their ages. I agreed to let her sign up as long as she friended me. Which she did. And she still is my Facebook friend but now that she is 14 I am just waiting for the day when I am blocked from her account. I know it is coming.

It's been about a year that I have become a more frequent Facebook visitor. I figured out how to post pictures, play games (thanks Ildi) and have contacted people I haven't heard from in 30 years. Even old boyfriends!! Sometimes I'm not sure what the point of that is but it's interesting for sure. Last year a girl from my Junior High tracked down a bunch of us on Facebook and we had a grade 9 reunion. Very fun. I try not to waste time on Facebook. I don't often post my thoughts because really, is anyone but me interested in them? I don't build farms or consult psycics. I like it for seeing what my other friends are up to and it's a good way to keep in touch with family who live far away. I can certainly see the appeal and kids who grow up with it won't be able to do without. It could change the 25 year high school reunion though -- there go the surprises of seeing who's bald and portly and how the popular crowd faired. For me, I can take or leave Facebook.

CPL2.0 Wikki Fun

My first experience with Wikipedia was a few years ago and involves my 2 daughters, who at the time were probably 15 and 11. They were arguing over an actor on a TV show - the younger insisting that he also had starred in a movie they had seen the other night. My older daughter was insisting that she was wrong and basically didn't know what she was talking about. To prove her immense knowledge in all things entertainment, the 11 year old went to the computer to look him up. She called her older sister to come and see what she had found. There on Wikipedia was the article on the actor and all his roles. And the movie she was sure she had seen him in was listed. The older sister was not amused -- she hates to be wrong, especially to the youngster. It was a few days before the little one fessed up to "editing" the article to include the movie title. It can be a dangerous tool, but might be good for winning a bet or two.

I checked out a few articles for this assignment. I wanted to edit one on Jann Arden to include her newest alblum. When I clicked on the edit button and read to the bottom of the information and saw that the update had been added. I thought it was strange that it didn't show up in the body of the article. Maybe it will soon.

CPL2.0 Deeeelicious

So, I took a look at the CPL "best websites" on the delicious site. I have to say, this isn't the first time I've been there but it's the first time I actually took some time to study it and take a close look. The best thing I found were the tags on the right hand side. Before, it just looked like a big jumble of web sites to me. The tag system works pretty well but sometimes the information under the tag is lacking. For example, clicking on the Education tag I was surprised that there is no link to the Calgary Board of Education. Looking under the Health tag brings up an enormous amount of sites. Maybe too many. I am going to try to use this more often when helping customers so I can become more comfortable with it.
Thanks for posting a link to other CPL staff blogs. It's great to read what other staff members have to say. I think this could be a great way for staff to share experiences even if we are on opposite ends of the city.

First Time Blogger

Ok, now that I have set up my first ever blogging account, I will have to think of things to say on here. I am doing this as a project for work, but I'm happy to do it as I have been thinking about setting up a blog account for a while now. I read a few blogs and my children have blogs so I think it's time I get on board. This CPL 2.0 project doesn't scare me. I'm happy to learn new things and try to stay current on some technology although my 14 year old will be the first to tell you I'm not really as current as I think I am. I'm looking forward to all aspects of this course and hope I can then transfer it to skills I will need in the future.