I, I, I, I, I, I love my ipod

It's been a while since I posted and I just had to let you know that I love my ipod touch. My family gave it to me for my birthday recently and me and ipod are now inseparable.

Yes, I know it has its limitations and there's always something better out there almost instantly. Yet, it's so simple and easy to operate. I've got some family photos and videos on it, some audio books, podcasts, music and wifi connection to the net when I'm near a hotspot.

Had some fun yesterday when I went into my local shopping centre. I walked half way through it and found sixteen wireless networks there, four of which were unsecured which makes for easy browsing in my lunch hour or any other time that I want to check my email.

Love walking to work each day listening to the latest podcasts, too.

I'm still a PC user at heart and I'm not impressed by the Apple Cult Speak that's out there. However, Apple does have my attention and I even considered a mac for my next laptop. Their promotional strategies are very good. It'll just depend on how much bang I can get for my buck when the time comes.

But wait, again....now there's even less!

Some of you may already know about these great little tools, but thanks to the effing librarian for alerting me to Portable Apps, a suite of cut down applications that can be used on any PC. Coincidentally, it's also a featured app on the download blog this week. It must be a sign!

Download blog describes it this way,

"the PortableApps Suite approach to mobile computing feels more Web 0.5 than 2.0. Instead of hosting programs online, PortableApps is a comprehensive application suite that fits onto and runs from almost any thumbdrive with at least 512MB of space, and can be shrunk down even further if need be."

Download.com has a range of reviews on it, too. Here's the blurb from the Portable Apps site, also.

Convenient
Now you can carry your favorite computer programs along with all of your bookmarks, settings, email and more with you. Use them on any Windows computer. All without leaving any personal data behind.

Open
PortableApps.com provides a truly open platform that works with any hardware you like (USB flash drive, iPod, portable hard drive, etc). It's open source built around an open format that any hardware vendor or software developer can use.

Free
The Portable Apps Suite™ is free. It contains no spyware. There are no advertisements. It isn't a limited or trial version. There is no additional hardware or software to buy. You don't even have to give out your email address. It's 100% free to use, free to copy and free to share.

Neat, eh? Could be useful on our public PCs at the library, too.

But wait... there's more!

Now that I've finished the course, I've had a bit of time to have a look at some other learning 2.0 blogs. You've really got to check out:

1. Atticus Mockingbird - thanks for the 'free use' Flickr group and 12 Free Online Collaboration Tools tips

2. Bambino's Bloggerama - thanks for "Get A First Life" parody site and NetLingo

Both of these blogs have well considered thoughts about their experiences of the web 2.0 stuff we've been doing. Hope you guys keep on blogging.

I'm embracing the new adventure, too. Been participating in an MBTI forum on LibraryThing. It's mostly US members so far and the odd UK one. If you're interested in psychological type and personality styles by all means join me and double the oz contingent there. If you've signed up for LibraryThing then you will have noticed that there are a lot of interesting groups to join there. Not many based on my library for some reason. I wonder what that says about my reading tastes?

Anyway, I'll start going through some more learning 2.0 blogs and see what other goodies I can find.

PS - I couldn't resist the Tim Shaw graphic. Google images has a lot to answer for. Sorry, no free steak knives with this blog, yet. This, of course, is a dead give away that I'm a member of Gen D - the Demtel generation.

PPS - the Demtel page is just waiting to be written on wikipedia - any takers?

Finished! What's for dessert?

Well, finished the course. Had a great time exploring this stuff. Now participating in some LibraryThing discussions, setting up another blog, fiddling with code in blog templates, and other neat things.

Got this weeks email newsletter from download.com which keeps me up to date with new and interesting software developments and what should the lead story be but........web 2.0 software. And not just that, but a site devoted to keeping you up to date on it, Webware. And what is their latest thing...... Webware Top 100, the 100 top Web 2.0 apps, 10 each in 10 categories, according to Webware users and the fans. I've already subscribed to the feed for the site. Check it out. It also has a range of newbie guides to web 2.0 stuff which i will explore later.

While there, I also found an article on Dilbert meets Web 2.0, how Scott Adams is adapting his Dilbert comic strip to include web 2.0 elements, hence the graphic above. How good is that?

So, thanks to the State Library team for getting all this going. Well done guys.

And now........roll on Web 3.0, whatever that may be!

Get a life, will ya!

Social networking sites can certainly be useful for promotion and any sort of communication, feedback, interaction, engagement with customers. As long as, like any other strategy, you're sure about the objective that you want to achieve by using it and you commit enough resources to do it well rather than doing it half arsed. Certainly myspace has been used by libraries, especially US ones, to reach youth segments. The Library Success Wiki has a page on successful Public Library MySpace sites for teens which seems to be the market that uses it. My 18 year old used to spend a lot of time on it but he seems to be over it now. Phone and IM seems to be more the go.

Online polling options on some of these sites also give you the ability to do some basic market research as well.

Second life? Puhlease.....get a real life not a second hand one. I think I'd rather watch paint dry or watch grass grow.

I am obviously not the demographic for second life. Do we have to serve the people who are? They look happy enough there without us interrupting them. I'm sure if we tiptoe away.....ever so quietly...... they won't even notice us. Run for your lives!!!!!

I'm free!

Free productivity tools are fine, but I still like 'em on my desktop. For free, I can get OpenOffice and have it on my PC. The project management software on Zoho is limited to one project. Anyway, I got a great little project manager on a computer magazine disc for the price of the magazine. The next month I also got a mind mapping program that integrates with it. It seems like there is a free photo editor or video editor on almost every computer magazine disc that I see these days. When I'm looking for free software or shareware, I also go to download.com and usually find something, including pdf converters.

Slideshare is OK. Now that I have a Google account, though, in the interests of simplicity I'll stick with Google docs. Zoho's wiki interface has the best range of toolbar functions of all the free wikis that I've looked at but the lack of responses on their help page is a worry, especially as they have left them there for all to see for months. Not a good sign. Have a look at Nexo. It combines blog, wiki, docs storage (including photos and video), chat/forums etc in one site. Privacy settings are a bit complicated , though, but worth a look.

Overall, I'm experimenting with these free productivity tools, but they still have some way to go before they are really compelling to use. Having said that, they certainly have some potential to become compelling. In the workplace, I think the security factor may work against them. Setting up similar file sharing on an intranet using something like MS Sharepoint may appeal more to the Council IT dept. For sharing non sensitive and non confidential stuff, especially over many sites using virtual teams, these tools will be fine. I've even put up one of my favourite marketing planning documents on Google docs. It was published in 1996 but I think it still has a lot to offer today.

Mash me up, Scotty.

Checked out the big huge labs stuff. It's OK. Reminds me a bit of Publisher style stuff. Created the billboard there. Got the photo from Flickr. Has possibilities for promotional stuff and fooling around with staff photos on the intranet. Free is free, I suppose, but I still prefer some good software on my desktop rather than the web based stuff. And I don't mind paying for it if its good and it does what I want, especially if I can get it cheap on a computer magazine disc.

Mashups article in wikipedia says

"Mashups currently come in three general flavors: consumer mashups, data mashups, and business mashups.

The best known type is the consumer mashup, best exemplified by the many Google Maps applications. Consumer mashups combine data elements from multiple sources, hiding this behind a simple unified graphical interface.

Other common types are "data mashups" and "enterprise mashups".

A data mashup mixes data of similar types from different sources (see Yahoo Pipes), as for example combining the data from multiple RSS feeds into a single feed with a graphical front end. An enterprise mashup (see Denodo Technologies & JackBe), usually integrates data from internal and external sources - for example, it could create a market share report by combining an external list of all houses sold in the last week with internal data about which houses one agency sold.

A business mashup is a combination of all the above, focusing on both data aggregation and presentation, and additionally adding collaborative functionality, making the end result suitable for use as a business application."

There's a lot of other info there including links to other mashup sites. The data and business mashups sound like they are worth investigating but I'm not sure that they will do anything for me that some good desktop software won't do anyway.

Invasion of the "pod people"

I realise now that all the people with wires hanging out of their heads are part of the advance force of the pod people. The ABC and Library Success Wiki are merely instruments of their grand design....... What? Oh. Sorry, I've been listening to too many sci fi podcasts, I think.

Podcasts on the ABC are great. Love going back to them for stuff that I've missed or just to find something interesting to listen to. Check out Trainspotter Tim Fischer's "Great Train Show" on the ABC site for a rollicking good time.

Obvious application for podcasts and vodcasts is local studies oral history projects and library events generally, e.g. author visits etc.

I think we will need to get some training on using the video and audio equipment for them to look and sound professional. Unless we get a grant to do it....... Hoping that there will still be grants

Slammin' the boards?

Gee, I don't know about "slammin the boards". Sounds a bit too try hard to me. A touch of the "let's sound like cool and groovy librarians". Is it just me or do librarians trying to sound cool always sound lame? I think I'd rather watch paint dry.

Could be OK for training I suppose, or if you haven't got a life. Could be good if set up locally, or cooperatively. Ask a Librarian type thing. I can't see my Council wanting me to spend work time on Yahoo answers, as rivetting as that may be. Providing Bruce McAvaney with my most romantic getaway destination may not impress them as a great use of my professional time.

A great use of my time however is reading "Annoyed Librarian" Check out the article on "Library stress reduction" and others. A delightful style and sense of humour. Libraries....it's not a tough gig. We're not solving world peace and world poverty here. Relax and enjoy it.

By the way, did you like the cartoon? Check out "Unshelved - the library comic strip" for more library humour.

Widget wonderland

Found a widget to enable recent comments to be added at the bottom of each post. Now that the widget is installed, if you click on the title of any post, the comments on that post will appear underneath it. Neat.

I did a google search on "show comments" and eventually settled on this one. There may be more out there but this one seems to work fine.

The site looks pretty good, too. It's called "Tips for new bloggers". It's got a huuuuuge amount of customizable stuff for your blog. Got the code for the three column layout and other stuff from there. Check it out. Also, have a look at Blogger templates. Lots of stuff there, too.

It's not you, it's your LibraryThing!

Checked out the Kingston Library site (Thanks Bambino for the tip). Integrated LibraryThing into the catalogue. Neat. Tag clouds, lists of similar works from LibraryThing, etc. can't wait to get it into our catalogue.

Even created my own LibraryThing account. I'm getting a bit attached to it, adding a few items each day. It's strange looking at the things that I read grouped on a computer screen. On the bookshelves at home they are part of the furniture and I tend to take them for granted. Now that I'm adding them to my LibraryThing account, I'm going over them and starting to reread some.

I'm also asking myself, who is this person reading this stuff? Is that really me? Waxing a bit metaphysical here....... quick, back to reality. Well....sort of.....

I was reading an article in the Herald on the weekend about reading and relationships ( I know, I know... but it was a dull footy weekend, I'd had a couple of beers and I'd been watching grass grow for a while). It was called " It's not you, it's your books!" Literary taste can be seen as a guide to compatibility, but don't read too much into it, writes Rachel Donadio. So, I'm thinking LibraryThing could be a bit of a two edged sword for those out there looking for their one true love.

Fortunately the conclusion of the writer was "For most people, love conquers literary taste. " Just as well! I don't think my one true love reads anything that I read and vice versa. We just read different stuff and tell each other about . If we both had LibraryThings, I think the only common books on them would be the ones that we read to the kids when they were young. We've been married for 34 years and it works for us.

Mmmmm! del.icio.us.

I love del.icio.us.

All the bookmarks that I want to use everywhere are now in one place categorized in the way that I think. Simple and easy to use.

So far, I'm just using it for my strategic marketing planning links, but I'll eventually add other stuff to.

Mmmmmm.......wouldn't it be nice to have all our Homework help and FAQs on delicious, too.

YouTube me

I must admit, I do love YouTube. My youngest son (18 yo) and I often trawl throught the comedy videos, especially Bill Bailey who is a very talented and funny man.

Check out his theory that all classical music is derived from a few themes in cockney music.



I also found some interesting one minute marketing videos from Harris County Public Library in the US.



And check out this great clip from Pete Denahy called "Sort of dunno nothing". Me and my boys love it...although my wife is sick of us playing it and laughing so much, not to mention tapping out the riff on every solid surface we can find..

The wonderful world of

I'm in two minds about wikis. Having experimented with wordpress, it's clear that it isn't WYSIWYG and it is a little bit like the early days of the net with html, i.e. you still have to learn a bit about formatting. We were hoping to create a procedure manual, (like the Antioch University one) and spread the load of creation amongst many people rather than having one person do the lot, but wordpress was a little hard to use and the help files weren't that helpful. I'll download mediawiki, have a play with it, and see if that's better, more user friendly for the work context.

PB Wiki is pretty user friendly. I've just setup one fairly quickly and simply for my TAFE Consumer Behaviour students so they can access documents, links etc relevant to the course. However, it only allows 10mb of space. Wetpaint has a bit too much advertising. Wikispaces has 100mb of space for your wiki and docs. Zoho has the best interface and toolbars but the help page has tons of unanswered questions dating back months so that doesn't auger well for the future.

St Joseph County Public Library Subject Guides is a neat idea.

If you want to collaborate (with the public or colleagues or both), then a wiki looks like the way to go. If you want to do it cheaply, then a wiki is also the way to go. Website management software is not cheap. If you want to do it and bypass your Council IT people, then a wikispace could also be the way to go.

Like the ask a librarian instant messaging service using the various free messaging services, though. What a simple and direct solution.

Wookiepedia!!! Boom. Boom. Love it. Check out whiskipedia, too.

Feeding my RSS habit

Tried bloglines. OK site. I've been using IE7 for my feeds but having them available anywhere thru a web based account is better than only having them available at one desktop or having to set them up on every desktop or laptop that I use. I think I'll stick with Google reader, though. I've got the email account now and the blog. I don't really want to use a different service for each function. Gotta keep it simple. So Google will be my one stop shop for a while till something better comes along.

Flickr finds from Penriff

Wow! What a photo.

Found 11,280 photos on Flickr under "Penrith". This also includes our sister city in Cumbria, UK. This is the first photo that comes up under the Penrith tag. Penrith NSW gets 6,696 photos. Penrith Australia gets 7,144 photos.

The NLA Picture Australia use of Flickr is a great idea.

I'm a bit concerned about the privacy issue. I am now checking all the permissions pages on these accounts that I'm setting up, i.e. Google (for Blogger), Yahoo (for Flickr). Caveat emptor I suppose. The ramifications of the privacy issue on these types of websites and its relation to identity theft is covered in an article in MASHUP, With online friends like these and In your Facebook.

Interesting reading.

Convergence and the grand unifying theory of everything

Remember the grand unifying theory of everything? That quixotic, chimerical, wonderful attempt to integrate all the known physical forces into one neat package?

The whole trend towards the convergence of electronic devices reminds me of that a bit. All those electronic devices in one..... my phone, PC, PDA, camera, video camera, TV, remote, car key, front door key, light switch, coffee machine, beer can opener, wallet etc etc etc all the essentials of life merged into portable, flexible, expandable, shrinkable oneness.....

Einstein'd have one, don't ya reckon?

But I digress.

In my blissful contemplation of this nerd nirvana, I must acknowledge that there are some who are not worshipping at this Uniting Church of Technology. Some are resisting the siren song of synthesis. Unfortunately, they have some good reasons for this. Check out "Convergence is a crock" from the SMH technology blog "MASHUP". While I dream of the ultimate device, I still don't use half the functions on my phone and often forget to take it with me anyway.

Maybe Einstein wouldn't have one after all. Bit hard to get the quiet time to yourself to think up the theory of relativity when your girlfriends and mates are texting you every ten seconds.

Waddayarekkun?

ebooks, ebooks, wherefore art thou ebooks?

Or perhaps what art thou ebooks? Ever wondered about how we haven't been swamped by the tide of ebooks that techies have been threatening us with for years?

Apart from the fact that most predictions about things electronic are made by techies (and/or futurists [whatever they might be]) who extrapolate trends from the thinking and behaviour of a small segment of society (i.e. techies) to the thinking and behaviour of the rest of us (who don't think or behave like techies), what is it about ebooks that has made them so wonderfully resistable to the great majority of us?

An article in the Herald's "Gadgets on the go" blog called "ebook fact or fiction" provides some interesting answers with some down to earth practical ideas and advice from both adopters and non adopters alike.

The day of the ebook (what a title for a book?) will come when it can do all the things that its champions claim for it in a simple, uncomplicated, user friendly way. As soon as digital rights management, standardizing of formats and devices and competitively low pricing appears, I'll be on board.

What about you?

First past the post

Well they're racing, as Ken Howard would say.

And its "London to a brick on" that librarians will be a winner with Learning 2.0.

Like the format of the course. Simple, easy to follow, interesting.

Stephen Fry fascinating as usual. I can't help thinking of him as Charles Prentiss from "Absolute power", though. Adds another dimension to his video. I keep remembering one of his comments to his business partner. Something along the lines of "If I didn't exist, Martin, you would have to invent me." Web 2.0 seems the perfect vehicle for inventing the indispensable character.

I thought the blog examples provided were very useful. Loved the blog for the WW1 soldier with posts matching the dates of his letters from the front. What a great idea! Blogs could be huuuuuge for local studies.

The effectiveness of social networking sites on the Alternative teen services blog was very pertinent. With a mania for measurement myself, it was good to read someone examining the measurability of some web 2.0 stuff and giving suggestions for how to do it meaningfully.

OK. Now I'm Gmailed, RSSfed and blogged up ready to sally forth on the Web 2.0 adventure. Roll on Week 3.