Thing 47 Evaluation

I have enjoyed working on More Things on a Stick. The only issue I see with the program is that there is so much information out there on these subjects that it is hard to absorb it all. However, just knowing a little bit about these tools helps staying current on new technology a little easier. Thank you for the learning opportunity.

Thing 46. WebJunction Minnesota

I think the most useful section of WJMN is the courses. As technology and software changes I feel we tend to have a just working knowledge of it. It helps to go a little m ore in depth and find out what you can actually do with it. I think it would be great to see more networking opportunities available and more active discussion groups.

Thing 45. Cloud Computing

The idea of accessing all of your information from any computer at anytime is great. Not having to worry about where certain information is stored is great. Overall I think things like GoogleDocs and Zoho do improve productivity. However, I do think it can lead to being overloaded. Sometimes I think we are too caught up in our online lives instead of living life.

Thing 44 The Economy

Sites like ClearCheckbook seem like they have a lot great features to help you save money. I am questioning though whether or not that information should really be in another place on the web. For now I will stick to online banking through the bank. I have used Craiglist and Freecycle before and find them to be great resources for finding used items. The weekend treasure site is a wonderful idea but the Craigslist listing it pulled was not in the same city that it pinpointed on the map.

Thing 43. Online TV and Video

I watched a couple of clips from the Today Show. I enjoyed watching these in that format because I hate waiting and waiting for a particular story they are promoting to come on. However, I don’t think sites like Hulu will change my viewing behavior. I view most things through our DVR. So most of what I want to watch is already on demand. I can see using it for a few things like old TV shows or if we traveling. I am sure that having free on demand video on the internet will replace cable and satellite TV in some households.

Thing 42. Music 2.0

I had never used a service like Pandora or Last.fm before. I think I’m hooked. What an awesome thing. I tired Last.fm and I am hooked. Their recommendations were right on. It’s great to have a station tailored to my specific music tastes. I will defiantly continue to use my Last.fm account.

I don’t think that broadcast radio is in danger of being replaced by internet radio just yet. At least not until technology has progressed enough that cars can access the internet. Also, people still get a lot of local news from broadcast radio. Also, severe weather information is at times only available by broadcast radio.

Thing 41. Mashup Your Life

I am not sure if these services make “life” easier but they do make your “online life” easier to maintain. However, I am not sure these are really productivity boosters either. It encourages creating more profiles on sites that one might not create if these mashups didn’t exist. That is not all bad. I’m guessing though, that one will end up spending more time checking this site then if they one maintained only one or two profiles. I know I will. I do really like having everything one place and only having one password to remember.

I choose to use Lifestream which has some other streams like eBay auctions you are following and your Amazon wish list. Those are really nice to have there without logging on to those sites. I will try to use this over the next few weeks and see if I like it.

Thing 40. Mashup the Web

My creation,
originally uploaded by vikingp_2000.

I briefly explored LibWorm, Visual Headlines, and Interestingness. LibWorm would be a great tool for librarians and library staff to find information on certain topics in the library world. Most of the other mashups seem like they would be most useful for marketing purposes. Mashups like Lunchbox or Wheel of lunch might be useful when the public would like local food suggestions. All of the mashups would be great for quick fun family projects or trip planning.

I thought about creating a Travelr mashup but I do not have any trip photos uploaded into my Flickr account. So I opted to create a Big Huge Lab mashup. The photo is of the Stave Kirke in Moorhead.

Thing 39. Digital Storytelling

I used Voice Thread to create a slideshow of an author visit we had in February. This would be very useful for sharing our event photos with others and to promote the next event. It would also be a great to get feedback from people who attended the event. The show is embedded at the bottom of the page.

Thing 38. Screencasting

I choose to use Jing for this thing because I have used other TechSmith products and found them very easy to use. Jing was also very easy and intuitive and it would fit well with our use of SnagIt. Jing could be used to make many tutorials in our library. What an awesome tool. However, I was not able to upload the video into my blog. I tried using Jing's help but was unable to find an answer. I will keep working on this.

Thing 37. Photo Tales

I created a slideshow in One True Media and a mosaic in Image Mosaic Generator.
Both were very quick and easy to use. One True Media would be great to use for short slide shows at work and many different occasions at home. The Image Mosaic Generator was fun but I don’t see using it too much for work.

Thing 36. Comic Relief: Generate Some Fun

I love online generators. They can be very useful and also a great waste of time. The pdf generators seemed most useful to me. There have been several occasions when I have been using a computer without adobe writer when I really needed it. It is nice to know that there are sites out there that will convert your files for you. We have used the READ poster generator in our library to create read posters of our faculty. We are also planning a READ poster display of our library faculty and staff for this fall when students return.

The comic generating sites were fun. I could see using them for marketing purposes. I wasn’t feeling witty today so I did not create one of my own, but I will probably try my hand at this before students come back . This would be a great new way to combat inappropriate food and drink as well as cell phone usage.

Thing 35. Books 2.0

Most of the book 2.0 tools seem to promote reading the actual book as opposed to reading the book online. I don’t think the book will ever die. Reading online is fine for short stories or articles, but online reading doesn’t work well for reading a novel. However, it is fun to see what other people are reading and what their perceptions of those books are. The online book communities enhance people connections to books and help them better communicate their feeling about the books.

The literacy debate article made a good point when it suggested that even though teens seem to be reading fewer books, at least they are reading online. I don’t believe that reading online is the same thing as reading book but, as the article suggests, they are not watching TV either. I think teens do a lot of reading and writing online without even realizing it. I will be interesting to see how this affects the workplace in next few years.

Thing 34. Is this Our Competition? Online Answer Sites

I think people like to use online answer sites because they are quick and easy. I also think, to a certain degree, people use these sites because they want answers from people who have experience with the subject. I realize that this is no true for all of the questions but in many cases “real life” advice can be more helpful. For example, if I have a parenting, gardening, or pet questions, I will look it up in a book; but the answer may not work the way the books says it should. Then I would go online and talk to people about how they handled those situations.

Many of the questions being asked on these sites would be better suited for a reference librarian. My feeling is that people may not realize what sort of online reference sources are out there. They use the sites that are heavily advertised instead of sites where they could receive higher quality information. Libraries have a great web presence and online services but often do not have the money to advertise these services. It seems to me that libraries will need to start aggressively marketing their online services in order to stay competitive. The Slam the boards events are a great example of this.

Thing 33. Travel 2.0

I must say that after completing thing 33 I’m in the mood to plan a trip. I enjoyed reading about others trips and found some great tips on the review sites. These sites could be a great resource for some of our language courses where they have to plan a trip. They would also be great for students researching study abroad options or maybe just a spring break trip.

Thing 32. Google Maps and Mashups

I created a driving map from Fargo to my hometown with points of interest along the way. The driving maps are always a good idea. I also enjoyed looking at the “If I dig a deep hole” and “public restroom” mashups.

Thing 31. More Twitter

My Twitter page says that I am still a little leery about Twitter in general. I may eventually get used to Twitter, but I am not there yet. I would defiantly say that I am in the “Presence” stage of Twitter. Right now I have very few friends on Twitter and I am only following a handful of people. Actually I am mostly following news organizations. I tried to set up a Twilert account but the website must be down. Twilert sounds like the most useful application for finding fellow twitterers that I would like to follow. I will have to come back and try again as I have not spent a lot time seeking out others on Twitter. I am still hooked on Facebook for now.

Thing 30. More Ways to Use RSS and Delicious

I have only been using my RSS reader for feeds that I know I will read on a regular basis. Otherwise, the overload of stuff would get to me. I know that there are a lot of interesting things out there, but if I add them all to my RSS reader I will end up getting burnt out and never read anything. I suppose I could create more than one reader for the other “stuff” that I do not want to read regularly. This maybe something I do in the future.

I have not found myself using Delicious very much. Most of the sites I have bookmarked I use often enough that I end up just typing them in. I should use it more often and get used to adding sites. Right now I just don’t think about it. I know Delicious has a lot of possibilities; I just need to devote some time to exploring them further.