Thing # 23 Is this really the end?

Reflections on the 23 Things…

Try as I might it often takes more than 15 minutes (from start to finish) to put together a quality blog.

If no one is actually reading the blog perhaps I shouldn’t worry too much about quality.

At first, I thought this was geared toward those of us who hadn’t already discovered Flickr, RSS feeds, YouTube, etc. But after dropping a little bit of cynicism it was fun to jump in and get with the program.

By trying to make some blog cartoons I learned some extra stuff about downloading programs to convert images to different file formats (ex: pdf to jpg).

If we did something similar again, it would be fun to see how in depth we could go. Rather than skimming the surface by “discovering” elements of 2.0 perhaps we take more time to work toward how we can creatively apply things to our work.

I liked how the “Things” weren’t really assignments so much as discovering what you want within a certain framework.

If you take a good idea (43 Things You or I Might Want to Do This Year), refine it (boil it down to 23 Things and create learning activities), then allow others to copy and use your idea for free you end up with a very popular program. Seriously, try Googling “23 Things” and you’ll see how many libraries jumped in. Seth Godin would be proud.

Thing # 22 MOLDI

When the Mid-Ohio Library Digital Initiative started there was no compatibility with iPod. So the novelty of this initiative was pretty much lost on me. I know this is Apple’s fault due to the proprietary rights they maintain on their system of digital formatting etc. I’m not laying any blame on MOLDI, but without titles for iPods there’s little incentive for me to dig deep into this system. However, a few months ago I did participate in the online tutorial so I could better help customers with questions. It turns out that there are now some titles available for download with the iPod (199 to be exact).

Trivia:

Most popular iPod compatible MOLDI download? The Worthing Saga by Orson Scott Card.

Least popular? The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.

Thing #21 Video Killed the Radio Star

Podcast - named “word of the year” in 2005 and then crushed by YouTube. Do people still podcast? Of course they do, but the idea seems quaint now. That’s not a slam on podcasts. As Triumph the Insult Comic Dog would say, “I kid…I kid…I love the podcasting.” Best podcast directory? There are sites which are designed better, but Emergency Podcast System gets my vote for the name alone.

Thing # 20 YouTube

A few years ago I received a CRAZY message on my voicemail. I have had plenty of random messages from people, who just had the wrong number, but this was a phone conversation between two people I don't know and somehow my voicemail recorded the whole thing. It was such a random audio event that I saved it. After Hillary Clinton came out with her 3:00 a.m. campaign commercial last spring I found a fun way to put this voicemail to use by mashing the audio with some pictures of her and Barack Obama. It has had over 10,000 views. Not exactly a viral sensation, but not bad. If you Google “white house phone call” it’s the second link.

Thing # 19 CML’s tool box

So far I have hesitated putting the CML toolbar on my browser. It’s just a personal preference about not wanting all that extra stuff in the field of view. But I’ll admit it is handy. The RSS feed that gives updates on new CML items is pretty cool. Right now it does not have any listings for DVDs. Do we not update this?

Firefox & Gmail are here. I like both of them. Gmail is especially great for saving articles that I want to keep and read later. Scan or send them to yourself with keywords in the subject line. Then later you can just do a keyword search within your Gmail box. E-mail can also be a sweet Lo-Fi database.

BoingBoing looked pretty whimsical so I took a peek. There’s an interesting article on Candy Land that begins by comparing the game to a Markov chain. Not knowing that mathematical term I had to Wiki it.

Thing #18 Web 2.0 Awards List

Thing #18 Web 2.0 Awards List

The SEOmoz 2.0 awards feature one of my favorite websites: Zillow! I’ve been a Zillow addict for about a year. While looking for a house to buy, I became obsessed with local real estate. Zillow is a fun tool to compare prices and listings. Similar to Google Maps you can zoom in on and rotate satellite images.

After perusing the list some more I found a site that I’ve heard about, but hadn’t yet looked at: Backpack. Filed in the Organization category, Backpack lets you create pages of notes, lists, files, pictures, etc.

How could I use something like this?

-I’m working on a tactical plan item and there is currently a blog that was set up for sharing. The simple layout of Backpack could be a little less cumbersome than a blog.

-A coworker and I now collaborate on volunteer coordinator duties at our branch. We keep work in a shared PC file. Backpack pages are visual and you can embed different file formats (excel, word, pdf, etc.) to a page. This would be so handy!

What’s the huge drawback with this tool? It’s not FREE.

Thing #17: Web-based apps

Thing #17: Web-based apps

September of 2007 was my first experience with Google Documents. They have a spreadsheet document and I played around with to see if it could be used for our branch schedule. Ultimately it didn't get used. L&P has pushed me to check out Google Docs again and they have added quite a few functions since my last visit.

One potentially useful thing will be the document templates they have on file. Just the other day I was looking for an invitation template on the microsoft website. Just about everything I found required Word 2007 and we have Word 2003 at CML. Downloading updates to make the template compatible was a big hassle so I just made a document from scratch. Next time I'll search Google Docs.

You can also post blogs via Google Docs. To experiment I typed my Thing #17 blog in Google just to see how it works. Here goes...