#23 Summarize your thoughts

I enjoyed doing this program. Most of the exercises were fun and I can see some of the topics covered being of assistance at work. I was a little pushed for time and so did not "play" as much as I should have. The big downside to this program was the amount of registering that was required. Its difficult to coordinate usernames and passwords. I thought that some of the information requested for registering was intrusive, and so on principal gave incorrect information. And the biter bit, had problems remembering my misinformation.

#22 Ebooks

No doubt I am a trogladite, but I do not enjoy audio books. When I am reading fiction I enjoy immersing myself in the story and using my imagination. I find being read to, or watching a film, interupts this process and detaches me from the story as I critique the production instead of losing myself in the story However if you like audio books I can see how handy the format is, particularly in the online format.

#21 Podcast directories

Interesting. I have just done a search on Podcast.net using the keyword search terms "australia and politics and national" and came up with zero as a search result. "australia ad politics and labour" had one hit, likewise "australia ad politics and liberal". Having had such a poor result in my searching I had another look at the home page, which was not informative at all. Since the search "australia and abc" had only two results, Local radio and the Science show, it would be interesting to know how the directory locates and adds podcasts apart from volunteers.

Podcast alley had much better coverage and structure and did provide more information about who was behind the directory. Its rather alarming that the directory is maintained by just one person. Hopefully he doesn't suffer from an attack of the flu.

#20 Youtube

I had already played around with Youtube. I was a bit stunned with looking at some of the footage of sharks that was available.

One particular clip looked uncannily like an attack of a diver rather than a fish.

The biggest downside of Youtube is the wait that occurs with some clips loading. However given the strides taken with technology hopefully the situation will improve.

I did enjoy the ad from the 70s definitely more appealing than today's toilet cleaning ads.

This video is strangely fascinating, in spite of fully understanding why some people turn away.

# 19 Web 2 awards List

Well I am playing around with Wetpaint since it won an award. Give me a few days and I will give you some feedback.

# 18 Unable to publish

I thought Zoho writer had a lot of potential and will definitely make life easier. The only caveat I had was with the option to publish to blog. But I am blaming that on blogger not Zoho writer as the problem has come up before.

Surprise surprise. Google Docs had the same problem. Has anyone been able to publish to their blog. I did prefer Google Docs as a wordprocessing program to Zoho writer as it had more formatting options.

#18 Soho writer

Back to the technical. I can really see the utility of this program. I have had several nasty surprises with word documents which when saved to a memory stick and opened with another program have had the formatting corrupted, usually by having all text underscored. How did everyone go with publishing to their blog. I could not publish to my blog because the program did not recognise my user name and password, I would say this is easily the most frustrating glitch with the blog program.

# 17 Playing around with PBWiki

O Oh! Maybe I spoke too soon about Wikis. I would not want to be endorsing a product which assists "Captain smirk".

I have played around with the PBWiki and find it very similar to a blog. PBWiki

# 16 Wikis

I really enjoy the layout of wikipedias. It could be because I am still not experienced enough with blogs but the layout of wikis appeals to me more than blogs. You have all the drawbacks that Madam Librarian articulated so eloquently but as a jumping point its good for inexperienced searchers.

# 15 On Library 2.0 and Web 2.0

Interesting reading. I enjoyed most of the articles, particularly "To a temporary place in time". I think advances in the web and library world will make the "library experience", both physically and virtually, more satisfying and love it when there is more internectivity. The biggest problem I see is the potential to forget or downplay the physical collection of libraries. I first heard of the downfall of the book 17 years ago and did not believe it then. Electronic documents are fabulous, but for digesting or browsing the information quite frequently hardcopy is preferred. As an avid reader of newspapers it's illuminating how the format of a newspaper can affect its use. I am much more systematic in reading the entire paper when it is in its paper format. With the online version I am more likely to read sections and be "guided" by the publisher. The problem with researching via microfilm newspapers has already been identfied with the prominence of articles differing in the two versions. And realistically the vast bulk of hardcopy is not going to be scanned. What digitisation appears to do is make material more accessible, which is great, and then increases usage of the hardcopy. The virtues of all formats of collections, and their access, need to be promoted carefully together so there is as much choice as possible.

If you want to read about the pros and cons of microfilm this book is a good read.

Sorry for the rant, the question about whether there was still a need for physical collections in one of the articles got me going.

# 14 Technocrati

The weird and wonderful world of internet is really really frustrating when it does not work. The quick claim on Technocrati did not work, so I am waiting to see how the post claim goes.

Yes the ping has worked.

# 13 Delicious

I really liked Del.icio.us. It helped enormously in getting through this program as most of the reading was done on the desk. I have found it invaluable for Asknow as well, given I am requently not using my own pc for the work.

# 12 Rollyo

Success. I have my doubts about the utility of this one however. Maybe I am a captive audience of the existing search engines.

#10 - Mutton Bird Soup

#10 Back to School Chalkboard Message!

Fun but superficial.

Back to School Chalkboard Message!

# 10 Online image generator.

I enjoyed this one. More playing around will occur.

#9 Library blogs

Well I have read some. But this is really to create the blog in order. Maybe I have the sole of a frustrated cataloguer. More will be coming.

# 8 Bloglines

Well I have subscribed and set up some feeds, but it won't be posted until the formatting is prettier.

#7 Technology - Sat Nav

When it came to looking at new technology, even though its not particularly new, I immediately thought of Satellite Navigation. A recent trip brought home just how handy it could be. I periodically go driving with Jane Doe (Privacy is crucial in this case) who flops as a navigator. A strong reluctance to keep swopping between reading glasses and sunglasses means that map reading is a fraught exercise. A trip to France was only made bearable due to the French reliance on roundabouts instead of traffic lights. One roundabout was circled 4 times before the correct exit was identified. The constant voice of the SAT Nav may be irritating, and no doubt I will begin visualising the distances involved 200 meters, 100 meters, 50 meters, slam on the brakes, but it definitely beats a short sighted navigator.

# 11 Librarything

I had a lovely time with librarything. I industriously added 203 fiction titles in one evening and had a lovely time changing the book covers to the correct one. Lets forget about making certain the publishing details are correct. However I don't feel comfortable about the security in subscribing, is anyone game? I did find it cumbersome that while you could globally add a tag you could not globally change a tag.

#5 Flickr -

I must admit I loathed Flick-r, particularly the mashup section. It simply didn't appeal. I can see how it makes it very easy to make your photos available, but in very rare cases how interesting are other people's photos.