11th October 2009

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Thing 23 - Some final thoughts In the beginning of this exercise, I held the view that all libraries could benefit from a little 2.0 infusion. At the time it was more of a generalized and disengaged statement without many specifics. (I’ve said it before and will say it again, I am no librarian.) However, having gone through the 23Things I must admit that I am now more particular and interested in seeing this come about. There really are some Web 2.0 innovations that could do great things for servicing your community. For the average patron like myself, I think the library experience could be made richer with a blending of services such as LibraryThing, Ning, and YouTube (to name a few). Speaking of these services, I’ll also admit that as an IT professional I was skeptical about this exercise in the beginning. After all, technology is my business, and this exercise was about exposing librarians to technology. So I was quite surprised at how many novel Web 2.0 technologies I was exposed to. There were some items, such as Ning and Del.icio.us, that were completely new to me. I knew about other services such as Flickr and YouTube, but had never actually explored them in-depth. 23Things did this for me. (Shows what I know!) Indeed, 23Things was worthwhile. On that note, I will mention that 23Things was very librarian-centric… and why shouldn’t it be? It is a professional development exercise for librarians. Nevertheless, this would be my advice: Consider a patron-version. I’m not entirely sure how it would look, much less fit into the mission of 23Things. However, a patron version with less of a librarian point-of-view could help foster interest, understanding, and engagement with your communities. Just a thought. And now, my one sentence summary: “23 Things has assembled the best that Web 2.0 has to offer, and it’s done so in a way that makes us think about what today’s library experience can and should be.” Thanks, 23ThingsonaStick!

Thing 23 - Some final thoughts

In the beginning of this exercise, I held the view that all libraries could benefit from a little 2.0 infusion. At the time it was more of a generalized and disengaged statement without many specifics. (I’ve said it before and will say it again, I am no librarian.) However, having gone through the 23Things I must admit that I am now more particular and interested in seeing this come about. There really are some Web 2.0 innovations that could do great things for servicing your community. For the average patron like myself, I think the library experience could be made richer with a blending of services such as LibraryThing, Ning, and YouTube (to name a few).

Speaking of these services, I’ll also admit that as an IT professional I was skeptical about this exercise in the beginning. After all, technology is my business, and this exercise was about exposing librarians to technology. So I was quite surprised at how many novel Web 2.0 technologies I was exposed to. There were some items, such as Ning and Del.icio.us, that were completely new to me. I knew about other services such as Flickr and YouTube, but had never actually explored them in-depth. 23Things did this for me. (Shows what I know!) Indeed, 23Things was worthwhile.

On that note, I will mention that 23Things was very librarian-centric… and why shouldn’t it be? It is a professional development exercise for librarians. Nevertheless, this would be my advice: Consider a patron-version. I’m not entirely sure how it would look, much less fit into the mission of 23Things. However, a patron version with less of a librarian point-of-view could help foster interest, understanding, and engagement with your communities. Just a thought.

And now, my one sentence summary:

“23 Things has assembled the best that Web 2.0 has to offer, and it’s done so in a way that makes us think about what today’s library experience can and should be.”

Thanks, 23ThingsonaStick!



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Thing 22 - Gain and Maintain

Admittedly, 23Things has introduced me to some new Web 2.0 technologies. I had not used Flickr before this exercise, and I had never uploaded anything to YouTube. (I actually started my YouTube uploading after the Flickr Thing… Ahead of Thing 18, but still inspired by the 23Things.) I also found renewed use in RSS, and finally tried out Del.icio.us. I was also excited in what I found with Ning. So, this has been quite the exercise for me and I’ve gained a lot from it.

But how to maintain?

I mentioned at the beginning that the best way to keep myself engaged in blogging after 23Things will be to find a reason to continue with it. I think the same can be said about the other services, too. Personally, I am going to keep up with these tools by shifting over all of my previous web content over to these services. Up until recently I had been maintaining a family website where friends and relatives could go and see pictures, videos, etc. The site was officially shutdown after I could no longer find the time to maintain it. It was always being trumped by some other higher priority, such as children, work, classes, and other grown-up stuff. By the time I decided to take if offline, it had not been updated in nine months.

The Web 2.0 tools that we have been exploring could easily be teamed up to bring my family site back online. Instead of pouring hours over coding and troubleshooting, now I can lean on various services to do the heavy work while still maintaining the customizations necessary to satisfy my particular needs. Many of the items mentioned earlier in this post will be involved, as well as Tumblr.

As for others wondering how they will maintain what they have learned, I would recommend doing something similar. Find something in your daily life that could use Web 2.0 tools and make it happen. The tools are just tools. I can’t imagine being successful if your only reason for using the tools is because you want to use the tools. Put them to work for you in some fulfilling way. That is how I plan to keep them fresh in my mind, and I’d recommend the same for you.

PS: I have started this already by setting up many of the Flickr & YouTube services with our family’s ubiquitous “thezipfs” identifier. Likewise, you can check in and see how I’m doing with this at theZipfs.us. I’ll get to work on it just after comps are over ;-)



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10th October 2009

video post

Aside from some of the Web 2.0 tools I was unfamiliar with prior to starting this exercise, one of my favorite “things” about 23ThingsonaStick has been the CommonCraft videos. I could watch these all day long on leelefever’s YouTube Channel.



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Thing 21 - Ning: Most Impressive!

On the heals of Facebook and Myspace, Thing 21 takes a look at alternative forms of social networking. 23Things points out that not all social networking needs are covered by the big two. As such, it is important to note that they are not the only two.

The first part of this Thing pointed to an alternate general-purpose social network called Gather. This site is intended for the older adult crowd. Now, not to beat a dead horse on my blog, but again I can’t help and note that this may be a little dated. Facebook has been filling up with older adults now for the past few years. (My mother, several aunts, and my GRANDFATHER are now on Facebook, and they signed up without any cajoling.) So, I am wondering if the targeted market for Gather is adopting Facebook instead.

At any rate, this Thing also focused attention on the need for specialized social networks. 23Things linked to several examples of specialized networks that were focused around a common interest or activity. Under several of these social networks was a service called Ning. In searching Ning, I easily found a network that I was interested in (MacWorldExpo.ning.com) While I’m not entirely sure what type of development is required on the backend, the quality of some of these Ning networks was remarkable. As such, the Ning service is something that could be of value to a library. Unlike the big two, Ning offers your specialized network more tools in socializing and even collaborating. If you are anticipating a social network base that may want more than just social networking, Ning may be the better choice.



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Thing 20 - MySpace is still around... who knew?

Being a former user of MySpace and current user of Facebook (see link at the bottom of this blog), I didn’t walk through any of the actions prompted by Thing 20. Instead, I will dive right into my thoughts.

Similar to remarks I made with Thing 19, this Thing has one greatly-dated quality about it… No, not the inclusion of MySpace (which you may have guessed from the title of my post). Rather, it is the omission of Fans pages on Facebook. These are a newer type of profile that have been designed for companies, non-profits, music groups, celebrities, etc. These profiles differ because the owner of the Fan page does not have to accept your friend request. Instead, you become a fan of that Fan page. It is a nice arrangement in that 1) users can find and associate with the companies/organizations/etc they are interested in and 2) those running the Fan pages can spend their time on content and development rather than accepting friend requests all day long.

The Fan page is really where I see the greatest advantage for a library. Users can find you on Facebook and link right in. Additionally, each user displays what Fan pages they are fans of on their profile. This means that the library still receives the benefit of social networking, in that a user may find your library through a mutual friend who was already a fan of your library.

This features, as well as the huge shift in usage from MySpace to Facebook, is why I would recommend Facebook as the social network of choice for any library.



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Thing 19 - A written reflection on Podcasts

NOTE: If I had the time, I would totally do this response in Podcast form… just like I should have done with Thing 18 and YouTube. Nevertheless, here I am typing.

Just before this, I posted a link to the Podcast of APHC’s News from Lake Wobegon segment, which is taken from Garrison Keillor’s  live APHC show each week. If you missed it, here it is again…

News from Lake Wobegon

In searching the directories listed on 23Things, I was surprised that iTunes was not referenced as a search tool for Podcasts in general. Instead Thing 19 only referred to it with the iTunes U service. Perhaps this is because several years have gone by and iTunes has become a more dominant force in Podcasting since. Nevertheless, I found that the larger podcast sites (such as Podcast.com) did not have nearly the selection of the iTunes Music Store - Podcast section. (NOTE: Although the service is through the iTunes Music Store, Podcast subscriptions are free.) It only took a brief search to find the News from Lake Wobegon on iTunes, while it took several turns to find it originally on Minnesota Public Radio.

iTunes interface: You always impress me!

Anyways, if I did have some content to produce regularly that I thought people might be interested in, I would definitely do a Podcast. But since I don’t, I won’t. I’m a firm believer that there should be a purpose and a market for doing these kinds of things. Otherwise, it’s a waste of time and storage.



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