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.