18 and 19: Discovering Web 2.0 Tools

This was great i really enjoyed the social aspect of this. I visited Etzy which is a retail place that sells handmade products. It had the most interesting products i have every seen, which is saying something because i am a total shopoholic. I could have spent hours looking through the site, except i doubt my boss would have liked it :).

I also looked at Last Fm was was brilliant all i did was type in one artist that i liked and it basically listed 5 or 6 most of them i do like but some i also haven't heard of which is great becasue i am always looking to discover some new music.

This tool would be great in libraries because patron could use these tools to find blogs about there favorite topics with just one easy click and not have to wade through a search engine search which sometimes brings up irrelivant websites.

17. Playing around with PBWiki

Gee it would have helped if i pressed the Edit button huh. I spent about 15 minutes trying to added my blog until i figured out that i hadn't pressed the edit button, smart huh. Apart from that little hitch it was great. The PB Wiki Tips was also very good as it gave some good tips on how to make a wikki a little more user friendly, which would be good if you were new to the wiki game and wanted some simple tips on how to improve your wiki.

16. So what's in a wiki?

Wiki's are a very interesting concept. I quiet liked the book reveiw blog as the more input you have on those sort of topics and the different point of views add greatly to the websites as it is never very interesting to listen to the point of view of just one person, especially when that person doesn't like the same thought of things as you do, this way you can get many different points of view and you are bound to find something that interests you. which is always a good thing. I don't however know how comfortable I would be using a Wiki for research as you don't always know how accurate the information is but if you are just looking for background information and keep in mind that the information could be incorrect of out of date they are a great concept.

15. On Learning 2.0 and Web 2.0

What does Library 2.0 mean to me. I Really liked some of the points made by Rick Anderson in Away from the Iceberg as it makes alot of sense to focus as much energy and time as possible into building up a electronic collection then in expanding a print collection as with a electronic more information can be stored and accessed by a greater number of people than a print collection could be, plus it would be alot easier to maintain.

14.Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

Technorati is a great site if you want to track down blogs about anything or everything really. The only thing i am a little worried about is that they don't seem to be very authoritive which isn't really very good in the library profession, however if you wanted to know about the latest technology which is being released as they technology sites seem very informative. I didn't tag my blog on technorati because i don't really want it to be easily accessible to anyone on the web.

13. Tagging, Folksomonies and Social Bookmarking in Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us sound like a very useful site. I had a lot of trouble trying to register for Del.icio.us as our network does not allow us to download anything onto our computers so i started a registration but couldn't get past the username and password section which was a bit of a pain and i didn't really get a good idea of how the service works from the discovery recouces because they were just written and it didn't really have any screen dumps or anything that could give you a better idea of how the site actually work but from other peoples accounts on the Del.icio.us site the service is a really useful tool for anyone who likes to keep up with whats happening on the web.

7. Blog about Technology

Ooops i just realised I forgot to do task 7. The technology I am going to blog about is something that is used greatly at our library, this is a DAISY player. DAISY stands for Digital Accessible Information System. These machines a like MP3 Playings except it allowes you to navigate through talking books by chapter or page numbers like a sighted person could. The Machine also talks to you, which makes it much easier for people with vision problems to figure out where the buttons are are how to use the machines. There a two different types of DAISY machines they are Plextor and Victor and these machines a made in Japan and Canada respectively. These machine are invaluable technology as it gives Vision Impaired people a opportunity to enjoy books just as much as sighted people do without having to rely on technology that is over 20 years old (like the old cassette tapes).

12. Roll your own search engine with Rollyo

Rollyo. This was fun to make but i found the instructions for adding it to the blog really really confusing. There was no template button on the dashboard you had to go into another page before you could find it and the HTML screen was confusing because there was one above the add and arrange page element but there was also one in another page. I am to blog illiterate to figure that out unless it is really set out simply and step by step, but i got some help from a collegue so i figured it out eventually.

The Rollyo itself though was really great to do. I made a beading Rollyo as one of my hobbies is beading and it is good to have a search engine that comes up with everything i am looking for in one spot instead of having to troll through a google search which sometimes brings up irrelavant information.

11. All about LibraryThing

LibraryThing, I'm not so sure about this one. The instructions of the site are really really confusing and i cannot figure out how to do the widgets or anything. I click on the links fill in the information and click OK and nothing seems to happen. Anyhow I set up a very mini library of the last 6 books i have read recently and two i am just about to start to read. Here is the link
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/casfowler

10. continued again

I couldn't figure out how to add two pictures to one posts so i have posted another one. I found this generator and just had to add it to my blog. It is so cool. Some of the combinations are amazing. Wouldn't want look at them while you had a hangover especcially some of the flashing texts.

I found this weeks exercise really cool. It gave you an opportunity to inject some of your own personality into the blog while still doing the tasks.

10. Play around with Image generators continued

Ok so i got one picture to uploan, thats a start. Still cannot get the other image to add, something about being the wrong format. I'll have to try something else. This was an interesting generator, apparently it is a cartoon version of me. I don't think it is a exact portrait but it is interesting all the same. I cannot beleive how clever some of these Generators can be.

The other Generator i used was a random word Generator which looked really really cool, but i couldn't get it to add to my blog, so not fair. Oh well what can you do.

10 Play around with image generators

Ok so its Play week... Some of the generators were really fun. Aparently I am a snail and my ideal job is a , well i guess they haven't tasted my cooking before. Mind you that is only if I use my full name if i use my shortened name I am a lion and a Farmer, go figure.

I also gave myself an Elf name. So now you may call me Idril Tiwele. I don't really know how you would pronounce that but it looks really cool.

I tried to add a couple of pictures but for the life of me i couldn't figure out how to add them to my blog. I tried to cut and paste and use the Add Image button on the blog. To no avail. Anyways i will have to try again another time.

8 Make life 'really simple' with RSS and a newsreader

I was very apprehensive about this week as i didn't even know what RSS and News readers were and the instructions on the tutorial seem a log more confusing than it actually was. The only thing i had real problems with was figuring out how to place a link to my Bloglines account to my blog. It took me a while but i eventually figured out i had to go to the my account details before i could click on share. Anyways here is my link to Bloglines:
http://www.bloglines.com/public/casfowler

Welcome

Welcome to my learning 2.0 blog. Not sure what to expect from this program as i have never had experience with blogging before but here is to learning and having lots of fun!!!

5. Discover Flickr

Well here i go with posting a picture. I choose three but unfortunately i could only post a link as for some reason our network will not let us sign up for flickr. Anyways here is my links:
1. http://www.flickr.com/photos/anacoboy/1450625301/
2. http://www.flickr.com/photos/truthwithelegance/741589091/
3. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ozoni11/1018095344/

1. The first picture is of a very regal Cat taken at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicargo. I just love Cats they are such independent creatures while being affectionate in there own way. Well all Cats except mine which is rather psycho and only purrs when he wants to be feed. The Cat in this photo however looks very intregued at whatever he may be looking at and is completely oblivious to the fact that he is being photographed.

2. The next picture is a rather gothic looking picture of a bridge in London, its probably a rather famous one but my geography is not great and i don't happen to know which one. Anyhow i picked this picture because I loved the stromy background and the great architectural detail. I would fully expect it to be in the scene of a vampire movie, it would have to be a spooky scene naturally where the vampire is about to suck the blood of the nearest damsal in distress.

3. My Last picture is of a Frog. I love frogs they are so cute, I know most people don't agree with me and i am often considered weird for saying such things but i cannot think of anything better than having a cute frog in a pond to stare at on nice summer days. I am thinking of putting a frog pond in my yard to attract them. Probably wont work though. This photo is very nicely taken the way you can see a shadow of a lilly pad is amazing you wouldn't think you would be able to pick up that much detail with the amount of refection that would come off the water.

I found this task rather difficult because i couldn't sign in for flickr and was rather hesitant to just steal someones photo and place it on my blog. Then i figured out that i had so little amount of information on blogs that i didn't even know how to edit it and then had to get someone to help me so i could add another post. I couldn't really find any information on the Learning 2.0 site but I guess that doesn't mean it wasn't there.