Imagine How Thrilled I Am...

...to do more with audio (podcasts) and RSS!

I did say that I'm not much of an audio person, right? I'd rather read than listen. Takes less time and I can skim if I'm getting bored. So the radio style podcasts simply make me want to read their scripts and not bother with all the downloading etc etc. What a fussy little twerp I am.

But what joy to realize that I can get the audio I don't want via the RSS I think is useless! Wow. I did add one podcast (Book Bites for Kids) to my Bloglines page, but I don't expect to use it much.

Of the three websites listed for locating podcasts, podcast.net wouldn't load and Yahoo podcasts brought up too many random results, but podcastalley.com had a useful search engine which allowed me to easily see information about each podcast and find out how often they podcast; I would use them again.

For people who like to learn by listening, I think podcasts are great. They could be a valuable library service for their patrons. I can envision podcasts on how to use the library, book talks, library news, and lots more.

Just make sure there's still printed material for visual folks like me.

Music, Audio and Such...a Mixed Bag

Hmmm. This is a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, I don't see myself using the social networking music sites such as last.fm or IMEEM. I'm just not that much of a music listener. I almost never listen to music at home (unless you count my husband's singing) and only occasionally in the car. I don't have an iPod. I'd rather read than listen.

On the other hand, I think the Internet Archive is a great idea. It describes itself as a library, and I think it will be a great reference source for librarians. Some of the other sites with audio books could make an important alternative to libraries, for those who want audio books, or who want to download classics. The selection is currently spotty, but I'm sure they're working on that.

The absolute sound effects archive is a hoot. If I want the sound of horses clopping on cement, I'll know where to go (if my coconut halves have gone missing, that is).

Mango Languages looks like another great resource, and one that I might actually use myself. Having the combo of spoken and written available for free online is great.

I could see libraries of the future, all full of computers as they will be, as a place where people come to use these sites. Of course they could use them at home--but many people like to be social, or get help. And libraries will always be a resource for those who can't afford computers, internet access, iPods, and the other gadgets that seem to be considered necessities now. Libraries, the Great Tool of Social Justice. Go libraries!

What's Up, Google Docs?

I had no idea that anything like Google Docs existed. Wow! What a handy thing! My first thought is that it would be great for writing. I'm an occasional writer, but I have my writing in so many different formats and medias, depending on how long ago I did it and what typewriter/computer/wordprocessor/pencil/pen I had, some of it is practically inaccessible. It would be great to get it all in one place, in one format, and easily communicated to friends or editors.

I can also see applications here at FVRL. For instance, BKC could post our list of shelves on the bookmobile that need refreshing, or even the list of what needs to be stocked for the next day. We could all access it (assuming the satellite connection was working!), add to it, and work from it, knowing it was up-to-date.

It is of course all based on Our Trust In Google. I think I would back-up my writing to my own computer, also. Back-ups are good.

PS The bulk of this post was directly uploaded from Google Docs. The title didn't come, so I added it now. I also couldn't figure out labels in Google Docs, but I think it's possible.

Answers and Wordshoot and Facebook, oh my!

I had fun with all the above, not to mention the Blog Readability Test -- the score is posted at the bottom of the right hand column.

At Yahoo Answers, I answered a question. A lot of the questions there looked strangely random or unanswerable, but I found one about purchasing comforters that I felt I had something to say about. And I earned points! Points are good.

Wordshoot was fun. I do think it would be good for anyone learning to type. I finally had to quit in the middle of my first game because I had gotten the idea and I didn't want to play it out to the bitter end.

I did the most with Facebook for this lesson. I recently took a trip and took a lot of digital photos (see above photo take at the lovely Getty Villa in Malibu, CA), and I know (because my daughter does it) that you can post photos on Facebook. So I did it! It was very easy to upload them from a folder on my desktop at home, but the really nifty thing was how I could edit them on Facebook. I added comments to each photo (date, location, etc). Boy, is that ever easier than labeling actual physical photos. I could use cut and paste for the same date, location, etc. Facebook also has this really great feature whereby you click on a person in your photo, and then type their name in. The next time you click on a person in a different photo, it will bring up all the names you have already inputted, so you just have to click which one you want. Then, when you're viewing the photo, you roll your cursor over the person and the name appears! The wonders of modern technology... I will definitely keep using Facebook for photos.

Wiki-Wiki

Aloha! It's "Talk Hawaiian Day" here at FVRL Discover 2.0. So I better get going on this wiki blog wiki-wiki.

I've learned many things about wikis from this exercise. That they're easy to create, easy to edit, and a great way of getting input from a lot of people organized efficiently. They're also often uncontrolled. You can't necessarily believe everything you read on a wiki because the info is only as good as the source.

Still, they seem like a good way of assembling information. The websites I looked at were hoping for input, whether from librarians about successful programs, or from community members about the fascinating features of their community. A real necessity would be getting your audience to know that the wiki is there at all, and then persuading them to contribute. I liked the advice by Meredith Farkas in this article that the creators of wikis should post some items first, as an example, because people can be hesitant to be the first poster.

I think wikis sound like fun, as well as a good way to tap the collective intelligence.

Aloha and mahalo nui loa for reading!

LibraryThingishness

I started an account with LibraryThing. This does seem like a great way to a) keep track of your own books, b) find other similar books, and c) connect with other folks who like the same kind of books. I also like the fact that you can pick the correct cover for your edition coughgeekcough.

I think the shelf idea for goodreads sounds interesting, though, and it would be nice if LibraryThing had the "read" choice instead of only "currently reading" and "to read."

It will take more digging around in both sites, I'm sure, to reap all of their benefits. But being able to quickly find reviews and ratings of books (a feature I really like on Amazon) is very handy. And the unsuggester is quite nice.

Technorati

Technorati seems like a very excellent way to use up a lot of time! But since there are over 100 million blogs, it's good to have a way to search them.

Things I found interesting or surprising:
1) how many people use bad language/grammar/etc. in their blogs which can be read by zillions of people. Yes, that's prissy, but come on, folks, learn to write!
2) how many blogs there are that I'm not interested in, which is good, because I don't think I have time for 100 million of them. And thanks to Technorati, it'll be easier to find the ones I am interested in.
3) how much new stuff is pouring into the blogosphere every moment. Yipes!

I'm not sure what the writer of the Discover 2.0 instructions meant by "blog directory" as opposed to "blog posts" or "tags," but when I searched, I did find a big difference between a keyword search in blog posts vs. searching tags. The results in the tags search seemed much more to the point.

Delicious Tags

Now here's something that looks useful. I can see the handiness of having my bookmarks being accessible from home, work, or anywhere. I also like being able to follow the network of tags and bookmarks to find other sites that might be interesting to me.

For research assistance, del.icio.us could be used with caution. After all, it doesn't rank bookmarks by accuracy. On the other hand, descriptions of the sites might give one an idea of the content and how reliable it was. And going to the most popular bookmarks for a subject could be useful, too.

I just don't think I'll be using the RSS feature! ;)

Back in the saddle again...fortunately

The Discover 2.0 saddle, that is.

I have a facebook account now (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1127841232). The two "friends" I found on there are actually my two daughters, so I've been able to coughspyonthemcough see some photos I hadn't seen before!

I also went back to Bloglines. I'm still trying to get it to display photos for all the subscriptions. Some do, some don't. Sigh. Whether I will actually use RSS very much, I don't know.

Then I made the above fortune cookie sign. I also made it reflect on the Reflectionmaker site, but I didn't care for it. It would be great for a more scenic image, I think.

On to Item 13!