Many people talk about the social aspects of Web 2.0 but from the design side many people focus on interactivity as the key to Web 2.0. Mash-ups are currently the high water mark of -interactivity. Mash-ups take interactive site features and allow the user to add input and even make up new content for themselves.
In its simplest form they allow people to come together and share information, as in the case of mapbuilder.net. However that is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. User can create their own tools using these tools. Using Pop-fly you can even create your own customized website which displays all of the information feeds you request, in other words you can take pieces of your favorite websites and combine them into a one single point portal.
As you travel up the complexity scale you get into APIs which allow web designers to pull in information from other web sites to make their sites more feature rich. While these can take a bit of tweaking to get them to function correctly they offer features that weren’t even available five years ago.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Playing Catch Up 1
For years various pundits have been talking about how applications would be moving out onto the web and that the software suites we are used to will go the way of the Dodo. Well Google documents marks a move in that direction but, to me anyway, it doesn’t yet serve as a viable replacement for MS Office or even Open Office.
It does have some things to offer that or not available from competitors. For one I really like that I can access the files I am working on from any internet connected computer. I don’t have to carry anything with me at all. It also lends itself to collaboration since the files can be manipulated by anyone who has access. And of course it is free. This makes it an option for libraries who would like to save money on software as well as provide a way for users to work on files without opening the library network up.
Unfortunately, while providing a way to Google Docs is not nearly as robust as the suites you install on your computer. While Google Docs has some spell checking capability it lacks the grammar checking and thesaurus of MS. It also does not have nearly as many formatting options. Of course the question you have to ask yourself is whether the bells and whistles are worth the hundreds of dollars that Office will cost you.
All in all Google Docs is a nice tool for those on the go or those who do not want to pony up the cash for Office. In the library it comes in handy by allowing patrons to work on documents without have to save them on a flash drive (which always seem to be left behind).
It does have some things to offer that or not available from competitors. For one I really like that I can access the files I am working on from any internet connected computer. I don’t have to carry anything with me at all. It also lends itself to collaboration since the files can be manipulated by anyone who has access. And of course it is free. This makes it an option for libraries who would like to save money on software as well as provide a way for users to work on files without opening the library network up.
Unfortunately, while providing a way to Google Docs is not nearly as robust as the suites you install on your computer. While Google Docs has some spell checking capability it lacks the grammar checking and thesaurus of MS. It also does not have nearly as many formatting options. Of course the question you have to ask yourself is whether the bells and whistles are worth the hundreds of dollars that Office will cost you.
All in all Google Docs is a nice tool for those on the go or those who do not want to pony up the cash for Office. In the library it comes in handy by allowing patrons to work on documents without have to save them on a flash drive (which always seem to be left behind).
Friday, March 28, 2008
Curiosity
I have been reading the blog posts that many of you have written and I find myself in complete agreement that the library is a great place for the curious person to work. We sit at the center of an infinite information repository. Thanks to the information age even when we do not have something in the library we have access to it from one of the many databases available to us.
Even though I would agree with Kristie’s comment that people in general seem to be losing their natural curiosity I think that there is still hope for us. There appears to be a shift in education coming that embraces more exploratory forms of learning. This can be seen clearly in Appleton and its embrace of charter schools. Many of these schools focus more on the natural talents of our children and focus less on making them little conformists (insert shudder here).
The reality is that the best and brightest among our species have not made their mark on intellect alone. What sets them apart is, to me, more about curiosity and tenacity than it is about raw brain power. Our world has been sculpted by people asking, “What would happen if … “
Project Play takes our natural curiosity about technology and helps us to understand it and hopefully find ways to apply what is available to useful tools that both we and our patrons can utilize to meet information needs – and maybe even make it kind of fun.
Even though I would agree with Kristie’s comment that people in general seem to be losing their natural curiosity I think that there is still hope for us. There appears to be a shift in education coming that embraces more exploratory forms of learning. This can be seen clearly in Appleton and its embrace of charter schools. Many of these schools focus more on the natural talents of our children and focus less on making them little conformists (insert shudder here).
The reality is that the best and brightest among our species have not made their mark on intellect alone. What sets them apart is, to me, more about curiosity and tenacity than it is about raw brain power. Our world has been sculpted by people asking, “What would happen if … “
Project Play takes our natural curiosity about technology and helps us to understand it and hopefully find ways to apply what is available to useful tools that both we and our patrons can utilize to meet information needs – and maybe even make it kind of fun.
Monday, March 10, 2008
YouTube- Soapbox for Everyman
By the title of my post you can probably guess that I like You Tube as a tool for every day people to be heard. There are some in the library community that believe that this is a bad thing. They think that the lack of control will lead to a dumbing down of society and that uncontrolled sites such as blogs, wikis and I would include YouTube can’t be trusted because there is no peer review process.
To me this smacks of elitism. From a librarian’s point of view, does it make the job harder? Yeah it does. But hey that is why librarians are paid the big bucks (our friends in
In exchange for this horrible torrent of uncontrolled text and video we points of view from people, some even in our own community, that we would not have heard before. Let’s face it, I would not be typing this unless I had this format opened to me on which to air my opinion. The nice thing for you is that you do not have to buy any of what I am selling. The bonus for both of us is that we get to avoid that awkward moment when I realize that not only are you not buying what I am selling but that you are praying to a higher power that my little shop of opinions goes out of business, soon, before I can type another line.
Oh yeah, this blog is free so I don’t have to worry about going out of business.
Okay, I guess I am supposed to talk about YouTube here. I did watch the videos. I liked Harper College Library one a lot. I always like to see libraries trying to break down the shusher image. I also like the Conan the Librarian video, there are some days with some patrons I could really use the sword of his.
In regard to videos I have seen on YouTube I would recommend three of them to anyone with a sense of humor (special note: if you don’t find these as amusing as I did it does not necessarily mean you lack aforementioned sense of humor). The first one is a great, and funny example of social commentary that we would never have seen before the digital age. The second is for people that have ever spent too much time in playing video games. And the third is for the Harry Potter fans out there (hopefully JK Rolling will not send Google the cease and desist order on this one).
Enjoy.
Screencasting
In my past life I spent almost ten years as a technical trainer. When I was not teaching people how to do phlebotomy I would have to teach them to use the various computer programs and systems needed to complete our tasks. To do this I relied on many screen shots and as the technology became available on screencasts.
There are two big benefits that screencasting offers. The first is that it is asynchronous. As I trainer I do not have to be there to deliver the training at that moment because I have created a recording that can be used at any time. The second benefit is that, done correctly, it appeals to various types of learners. You have the visual aspect. You can have text and audio. And though I am reaching a bit on this one I think that body kinesthetic learners can even imagine themselves moving through the process with their mouse or keyboard as they watch.
I have actually had an opportunity to use screencasting in my current job. Though it is rough and needs more work before it will be ready for prime time, I created a screen cast of the process for creating accounts using Millennium. This can be found on the training section (also a work on progress) of the circ portion of the APL intranet site.
Obviously for me training stands out as the best way to use screen casting within a library. It can be used to show patrons how to renew online, search the catalog or place holds. Within the library there are endless tasks that it could be used for.
In addition to the aforementioned items I think there is one other benefit that screencasting has to offer. I think that if done with the right tone it can also help remove some of the trepidation that comes along with learning. If I were focusing on patrons I would keep the mood light. I would also make every effort to tie what they are trying to learn now with things that I would expect them to have done in the best, including real world equivalents (drawing programs come to mind here). The nice thing is that people can watch the videos repeatedly until they understand what they are seeing and hearing.
There are two big benefits that screencasting offers. The first is that it is asynchronous. As I trainer I do not have to be there to deliver the training at that moment because I have created a recording that can be used at any time. The second benefit is that, done correctly, it appeals to various types of learners. You have the visual aspect. You can have text and audio. And though I am reaching a bit on this one I think that body kinesthetic learners can even imagine themselves moving through the process with their mouse or keyboard as they watch.
I have actually had an opportunity to use screencasting in my current job. Though it is rough and needs more work before it will be ready for prime time, I created a screen cast of the process for creating accounts using Millennium. This can be found on the training section (also a work on progress) of the circ portion of the APL intranet site.
Obviously for me training stands out as the best way to use screen casting within a library. It can be used to show patrons how to renew online, search the catalog or place holds. Within the library there are endless tasks that it could be used for.
In addition to the aforementioned items I think there is one other benefit that screencasting has to offer. I think that if done with the right tone it can also help remove some of the trepidation that comes along with learning. If I were focusing on patrons I would keep the mood light. I would also make every effort to tie what they are trying to learn now with things that I would expect them to have done in the best, including real world equivalents (drawing programs come to mind here). The nice thing is that people can watch the videos repeatedly until they understand what they are seeing and hearing.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Podcasting
I agree with Beth, when she says that podcasting is a more personal, yet high tech way to reach an audience. I like hearing a voice it makes the person on the other end seem much more human and anyone who has listened to a lot of podcasts knows they can be all to human. Along with great content you get the added benefit of slips of the tongue, congested casters and even the occasional sneeze into the mic. You would think that with all these faux pas it would detract from content put it usually doesn't. If the person doing the podcast knows what it is they are talking about they can be a great way to broaden your knowledge base on a topic with minimal investment of time.
For years I have subscribed to This Week in Tech, a tremendously geeky podcast about the latest in the world of computers and technology in general. The guys know there stuff, even if they did at one point say that there was no way on God's green Earth that Google would buy YouTube. Even experts can't be right all the time.
The other podcast I subscribed to was Uncontrolled Vocabulary which comes highly recommended. As many of you know I am still new to library land and the more perspective in the library world I can get the better. I will also being checking out other library podcasts but I have not committed to any others at the moment.
The one thing that I have found with podcasting is that if you have a bunch of feeds coming in (I had ten coming into ITunes at one point), the less likely you were to keep up with any of them. Unlike blogs the podcast files can add up to substantial amounts of used space on your computer. At one point I had several Gigs of podcasts that I had no hope of catching up with. This is even worse for Vodcasting (video podcasting).
For years I have subscribed to This Week in Tech, a tremendously geeky podcast about the latest in the world of computers and technology in general. The guys know there stuff, even if they did at one point say that there was no way on God's green Earth that Google would buy YouTube. Even experts can't be right all the time.
The other podcast I subscribed to was Uncontrolled Vocabulary which comes highly recommended. As many of you know I am still new to library land and the more perspective in the library world I can get the better. I will also being checking out other library podcasts but I have not committed to any others at the moment.
The one thing that I have found with podcasting is that if you have a bunch of feeds coming in (I had ten coming into ITunes at one point), the less likely you were to keep up with any of them. Unlike blogs the podcast files can add up to substantial amounts of used space on your computer. At one point I had several Gigs of podcasts that I had no hope of catching up with. This is even worse for Vodcasting (video podcasting).
Friday, February 15, 2008
"Jott" yourself a note to "Remember the Milk"
On the whole it is interesting to see what the small applications designers and open source community can come up with. It seems like if the is a niche to fill out there than someone will develop you an app to fill it. Soon we will have site where you can submit requests for custom apps that can be developed for you on demand, of course there are ways to do this now but I am talking about doing it for a reasonable price.
On to the topic though. Remember the Milk is a handy tool to the freeware folks out there that do not want to plop down the cash to get an integrated tool like Outlook or Lotus Notes. It does have some benefits over these programs in that it is much more portable. You can access it from any computer (or phone) if internet access. It also has some features that make it handy for group use. Of course there is the most important part it’s free. That is important in a world where we really in public funding to purchase our materials.
Jott I had less use for. Its neat, and my hats off to anyone that can get a voice recognition app to work at all – and this one is free. Would it work for dictation, I have not tried but I am guessing no. Would I use it to send myself messages and notes – I doubt it, even though I certainly could use the reminders some times. For those that see it as the niche tool they need, great more power to you, but it is not for everyone.
On to the topic though. Remember the Milk is a handy tool to the freeware folks out there that do not want to plop down the cash to get an integrated tool like Outlook or Lotus Notes. It does have some benefits over these programs in that it is much more portable. You can access it from any computer (or phone) if internet access. It also has some features that make it handy for group use. Of course there is the most important part it’s free. That is important in a world where we really in public funding to purchase our materials.
Jott I had less use for. Its neat, and my hats off to anyone that can get a voice recognition app to work at all – and this one is free. Would it work for dictation, I have not tried but I am guessing no. Would I use it to send myself messages and notes – I doubt it, even though I certainly could use the reminders some times. For those that see it as the niche tool they need, great more power to you, but it is not for everyone.
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