Zipf-adeedoo-Bob

Thing 23 - Some final thoughts In the beginning of this...

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:24:00 -0400

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 22 - Gain and Maintain

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:18:11 -0400

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 ;-)

Aside from some of the Web 2.0 tools I was unfamiliar with prior...

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:32:00 -0400

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.

Thing 21 - Ning: Most Impressive!

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:20:17 -0400

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.

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

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 22:14:38 -0400

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.

Thing 19 - A written reflection on Podcasts

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:09:00 -0400

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.

Thing 19 - Podcast selection (News from Lake Wobegon)

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:37:00 -0400

Thing 19 - Podcast selection (News from Lake Wobegon)

Thing 18 - You’ve surely noticed that I’ve already...

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:14:31 -0400

Thing 18 - You’ve surely noticed that I’ve already been peppering my blog with YouTube videos. So here’s another and I’ll explain why…

This is a clip from the 1982 cult film Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance. it’s a beautiful film, no matter how dytopic it may be. Anyways, I’ll always come back to this moment in the film if I get to thinking about complex information systems at work. I’ll let the imagery speak for itself.

YouTube is my go-to video content site. I also started to post small family videos on my own channel just a month ago. (YouTube.com/theZipfs) It integrates nicely with our Google identities, and since it is the premier video serving service on the Internet almost everything you could want to use works with it. (Including Tumblr, obviously!) However, you can on my channel that one of my five videos has been flagged for copyright violation. A song I had dropped in was picked up by filters and the sound was subsequently blocked. Oops!

Previous to this I had been serving the video files off of a webserver and linking to them accordingly. I also had to make sure I didn’t go overboard with the encoding, so that viewers would actually be able to see it. (These were QuickTime files exported for streaming purposes.) YouTube has made this much easier for me.

I see how YouTube could be of great value to any organization, with libraries being no exception to this. Presentations, demonstrations, marketing, or just about any other content you could think of… so long as it doesn’t violate copyright ;-)

And speaking of being legal with copyright and content, you can actually watch the entire Koyaanisqatsi film on YouTube… with the occasional commercial interruption, of course. NOTE: It’s HD and requires a bit of bandwidth.

Thing 17 - Please enter your Minnesota public library barcode

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 14:30:50 -0400

I have titled my Thing 17 blog entry on ELM with the error message that made this somewhat difficult to navigate. Some of the exercises I was able to do with OU Libraries databases… but not all.

Of particular frustration was Academic Search Premier. After some moving around on the OU Libraries, I was able to get registered and to my Websites where I could perform the setup. Even then I wasn’t entirely sure what I was actually creating. After it was said and done, I saw that what I was doing was essentially creating my own portal of sorts. Nevertheless, because of the proxied nature of my constituent access, I wasn’t able to create a fully functional page with a search built into it.

I understand from others that have blogged about this Thing already that they were able to use some of their own access into theses systems their libraries. Despite my troubles accomplishing much in this Thing, I do see value in the technologies they are pointing to, but strictly from a backend perspective. I really can’t imagine patrons being patient enough to setup some of these features for themselves. Really it seemed most helpful for library personnel who might want to leverage the tools for use among themselves. (Establish a general rule-of-thumb about how everyone might use it professionally and then collaborate.) This might be a stretch, but it could work.

I gotta admit… sometime I feel like I have Cookie...

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 13:47:34 -0400

I gotta admit… sometime I feel like I have Cookie Monster’s level of understanding about Library operations.

Thing 16 - Get yourself organized!

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 13:39:47 -0400

In this latest of the 23Things, Thing 16 explores the use of Research Project Calculator and how it may be useful to library patrons and staff.

SIDENOTE before I begin - 23Things abbreviated this tool’s name to “RPC.” Although I’m sure this was fine for most, I found it hard as an IT professional to NOT think of this as Remote Procedure Call (a method in which one host will contact another in order to initiate a particular process). But I survived.

Once again I feel I must take the outsider’s point of view with this Thing. However, I feel I do have some applications of my own.

Thing 16 prompts us to think about how RPC (not remote procedure calls) could help me help students in a library fashion. Although I don’t work in a library, I do work for a very large university. My division specifically handles online and continuing education. That being said, I could see this being a tool that we could informally recommend to students to help with their coursework. Penn State’s WorldCampus system does not have any tools of this sort built in for student use. I did like the interface and how RPC structured your tasks and efforts towards completing assignments on-time. It somewhat reminded me of Project Management in that it accounted for specific phases, required documentation and input, and

However, I cannot say whether or not it has practical application for the library itself. The tool seems to be designed with academic tasks in mind. As such, it may be difficult to fit various library tasks into the RPC model. The same would go for any other organization.

Nevertheless, RPC seems to be a good tool to help impose some structure on those who may need a little help getting organized.

Thing 15 - ARRRR... seriously?

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 23:21:31 -0400

I did not like this Thing, I did not like it at all!!! I am not much of a gamer, and I am not one for being overly social online with strangers for no reason at all. I also find Second Life an outdated concept. The idea of creating a virtual world to walk around in for the sake of doing it is dumb. The popularity of the Sims is over, and living/experiencing a bland replica of our own world is not fun, nor helpful… Hell, the Sims was more exciting than Second Life.

That being said, I’m sure plenty of people enjoy using Second Life. My problem here is not with what people want to do with their recreational time. If you like using Second Life… enjoy! My problem is that I think people who are apt to join in Second Life are a limited bunch. However, I know of companies and organizations (mine included) that have jumped into this thing thinking that it would be some revolutionary, ground-breaking experience for their customers. It’s not. In fact, it’s kind of lame.

My main point: Please don’t spend time and effort setting up and trying to sell me on a Second Life library. I will not attend, as I suspect not many people will.

At least Pirate Puzzle is an actual game of sorts. ARRRRRR!!!!!!

Thing 14 - For My Personal Library

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:32:09 -0400

Thing 14 of the 23ThingsonaStick asks that I blog mainly how I see my library using LibraryThing. Hmm… Well, since I don’t work in a library, nor am I a librarian, I am simply going to blog on what I personally liked about LibraryThing.

Early on I blogged about how I dreamed of a catalog experience similar to that of iTunes. What I found in LibraryThing is a step in that direction. The whole service was intuitive and I was adding books with tags within minutes. No learning curve, no frustration. I used the ISBN for finding books, and it worked like a charm. Each of my books appeared with data complete and images of the covers. The only thing missing was the actual content of the books, which could then be fed into a device (e.g. Kindle or Sony E-Book). However, I know the main purpose of the service is more about Web 2.0 social networking.

On that note, I do see how maintaining my entire library on such a service could be handy. For one, I have no such database currently. All my music and videos have been transferred into iTunes, which acts as a catalog in addition to a media service. At least entering my books into LibraryThing would provide me with a catalog that I or others could reference for any number of reasons.

In conclusion, I like LibraryThing on a personal level. As for use in an actual library, I’ll leave that up to the professionals ;-)

Thing 14 - My LibraryThing Virtual Shelf

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:54:00 -0400

Thing 14 - My LibraryThing Virtual Shelf

For my fellow KM’ers, if you haven’t seen this...

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:16:30 -0400

For my fellow KM’ers, if you haven’t seen this already. (I have a copy up in my cube at work.)

Thing 13 - Productive... on the Internet?

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:09:00 -0400

In this latest Thing, I explored a number of productivity tools… specifically, services that could keep me on task and organized.

Starting off, I actually already use a start page via iGoogle. In the past, I have used certain productivity gadgets, such as post-its and to-dos. However, my long-term adoption of these did not take, and they were eventually placed by local weather and a college football ranking gadget from ESPN.

The most impressive of all the tools I saw had to be Scrybe. I loved the way it expanded out your month-view calendar days to a visual of when you were free/busy. Also, since it is a web-based calendar, I liked that it maintained an offline copy of itself on your computer for disconnected use. Other features about it were very intuitive and overall it felt really good. It is definitely a product I would recommend it… but probably not use it.

Why not, if I liked it so much? Part of the failed adoption of iGoogle notes and tasks was that it was separate from my corporate system that already does a lot of these things. I am big on not duplicating services in my life. And although the Scrybe product totally kills the Oracle Calendar service I use at Penn State, I must maintain the Oracle Calendar for work… which is where the bulk of my schedule complexity is anyway. (My off-work hours are pretty easy: Play with boys until bedtime, then homework until I collapse.)

The same goes for BackpackIt, which was a very cool concept and tool but would have to be maintained separately from my work services. If I ran my own small business or was in charge of IT at a smaller organization than, say, Penn State University, I think that these services, as well as host of services offered by Zoho would be an innovative and cost-efficient approach to business and collaboration.

On a parting note, I will mention at least one BIG (and corporate) productivity tool that we at University of Oklahoma are all familiar with to one degree or another… Microsoft Exchange. Microsoft now offers a hosted version from them, for a price of course. But I mention it as a Web 2.0 tool because the web interface and backend technology make Exchange available to just about anyone with a browser and allow you to share and delegate information with anyone in your organization. Also, integrating with the service is now a built-in feature with a host of devices and systems, including BlackBerry, Palm, the iPhone/iPod Touch, and even Mac OS X! I am not the biggest Microsoft fan, but I love Exchange. If you haven’t done so yet, explore all the capabilities of your OU Exchange mailbox. (I’m especially excited about the upcoming 2010 upgrade!!!)

Thing 12 - Haven't dugg in

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:38:00 -0400

Before I get into this…

Here are the current top five from MIXX:

Now from DIGG:

And from Newsvine:

(Evidently Reddit was hacked yesterday and most of the top five reddits were about that.)

I do not like these ranking services and have found nothing in this Thing to convince me otherwise. Simply put, popular does not mean quality. If the examples above aren’t proof of this, watch broadcast commercial television. Most of this is tabloid and shock news. I’m sorry to be a snob about this, but most of the crap that goes viral and ends up on the top of these lists is not news, much less pertinent. It’s there because it shocks and gets a reaction, or because it’s gossip, or any other classification you can come up with that does little to truly inform.

In conclusion, I like editors and editorial boards. I want a professional assembling a portfolio of articles within a particular scope for me to digest. I trust they have done their work and that the selections represent pertinent information about the world I live in, be it news and articles about politics, technology, the US and world, sports, whatever. If they haven’t, it will show and I’ll take my information behavior elsewhere.

Thing 11 - A del.icio.us thing!

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:10:00 -0400

Before this thing, I must admit that I have only done minor tagging in my life, and I had never used del.icio.us before. I’ll start with del.icio.us…

As mentioned, I’d never used the del.icio.us service and really knew very little about it other than it was a “social network for bookmarking” (and that its name is hard to type). But I now know that description is lacking it justice. del.icio.us is much more than sharing bookmarks with friends. Primarily, it acts a central, Cloud repository for your bookmarks. And since their are tools to integrate with almost any browser, it does do a nice job at this. From the the social aspect of the site are really more about 1) improving your own understanding of common tags (more on that in just a second) and 2) discovering other websites that may be of interest from others based on your own bookmarks. This last part I find especially fun!

Tagging itself is still an odd thing to me. I understand and appreciate that it is at the heart of the information seeking world we live in today. However, it is subjective and only as accurate as the person doing the tagging. (Ex: Kay Bailey Hutchinson’s campaign website.) But I suppose this has been a problem with cataloging and organization since the days of Alexandria. On that note, I do like that del.icio.us allows you to see how others have been tagging the same link, so that you may see what standard terms others are using with the same subject.

I’m guessing that’s why tagging and del.icio.us were combined for this Thing.

PS: You can follow my bookmarks at del.icio.us/bobzipf, to which I will also create a link at the About Me section on the bottom of this page.

Not to leave out my Sooners, here’s the OU version. (NOTE:...

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:47:00 -0400

Not to leave out my Sooners, here’s the OU version.

(NOTE: I’ve seen both done in person. Whereas the OU version seems a bit more coordinated, Penn State’s volume can’t be matched.)

My blog’s getting a little text heavy. So, time for a...

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:43:58 -0400

My blog’s getting a little text heavy. So, time for a break…