Thing 7 Web 2.0 Communication Tools

RCLs use of IM really hit home this week with IM unavailable. I hated having to phone other branches, especially. Isn't it amazing how something you think has no value for you becomes invaluable? Has IM improved productivity? You bet! No more waiting to complete something while waiting for someone to email you back. No waiting because someone is not returning phone calls.

And email! Again this week, a couple of days with no email had me feeling completely out of touch, stuck in the dark ages again.

I have been contemplating adding instant messaging to my cell phone because of the convenience. But I hadn't thought about the silent communication aspect of instant messaging until I watched the YouTube clip. Maybe we need to add huge signs to all of our doors "Cell phone use for instant messaging ONLY. No talking & no ringtones!"

I do think, though, that for a public library, IM and Chat are less valuable communication tools than they are for an academic library. I expect this may change as the population ages.

I've been aware of Opal for quite awhile. It's something I wish RCL could participate in. In the past, they've offered some interesting sounding conferences. I have yet to particpate in a Webinar mostly because I hear of technology problems, mostly on our end, with accessing them.

Over a year ago, a colleague and I tried out Twitter. We both found it to be extremely annoying and not of value for the library system.

Digital Photos

I finally managed, in less than an hour, to upload photos from my camera. I changed my photo to a picture of me on my Facebook account and created a photo album. This is what I am truly interested in and I'd love to try more of this. Of course, I'm not much of a photographer; and some of the photos were taken by other people. But still, I managed to get them to Facebook! Woohoo!

More of the 23 Things

I managed to create a Facebook account tonight. I found members of my high school graduating class on Facebook, as well as a couple of people I went to college with. I'll do some more investigating, but really, I'm just not that social!

I also spent several hours investigating Google, more because I had to teach the class Google More than a Search Engine than because of the 23 Things. One really cool thing I found on Google is Google Documents. I have been having trouble with File Redirection because, if I use it when I'm "on the desk" it screws up the receipt printer. I've also had it screw up Horizon. Thus, I am more than a little leery of File Redirection. But with Google Documents, Word style documents are easily (sort of) worked on from anywhere. I say "sort of" because I don't see any way of keeping my formatting. The spread sheet portion of Google Documents is useless as far as I can see. It is not as powerful as Excel and I could not make it do what I needed it to.

What I would like is to have all my accounts in one place. And I mean more than just having one place from which I can access my various accounts. I mean, I like gmail for email better than I like yahoo! email. But the yahoo! calendar is much nicer than the gmail calendar. Why can't I choose the best parts of these things and put them all together in a customized Laura account?

Latest Work on the 23 Things

While I am not working on the 23 Things in any particular order, other than in the order that they interest me, I have managed to accomplish a few things. I spent about 1.5 hours loading a photo from my camera to my computer and then to Flickr. You can see the one picture of my son, John, by clicking on the link to my Flickr account on the right.

I have also registered with Ning and responded to a post there, as well as spending some time playing with my account. I took the photo taken in Arizona, loaded it on my work computer, then transferred it to Ning to represent me on my account there. I did the same with my Flickr account. At least I'm consistent, with the exception of my avatar :)

Thing 3: Subscribing to RSS Feeds

I have been subscribing to RSS feeds for awhile now. Initially, I added way too many feeds to my Google Reader and had to delete some. I finally figured out that all I really wanted to see was the BBC. I have since added HuffingtonPost.com, an internet newspaper, because I was curious about what an internet only newspaper would be like. I also added feeds from the Montana State Library who would notify subscribers when a new item was added to the collection. I was curious about what it would be like to be notified by a library when they added an item - what would it look like. MSL must be short of cash because I have yet to receive a feed from them.

Blogging

So far, I've managed to create my avatar, which was fun. But the clothing choices - my heavens, she has more clothes in her closet than I will ever have!

I also managed, with help, to get a link posted on my blog to my rss feed. I'm not sure I understand exactly how the link works, but anyway, it's done.

Now, on to more experimentation.