Thing 23 - The BEGINNING ....... (cue deus ex machina)

Cue portentious music. Anyway, this exercise was a fun and easy way to earn those CEUs. I was at least aware of everything that was included in the 23 Things, and for some of them I am relatively facile in their use. It is tres amusant though, to watch how techie developments have raced ahead of the 23 things - where's Facebook? Twitter? Explain what an app is? How about the mobile web? Recently, the system has devised a long overdue list of technology competencies that all staff will be expected to be able to demonstrate. The things on the list, which is only in draft at this time, are extremely basic even when measured by the current iteration of the the 23 things. I have cajoled most of my staff into going through the 23things exercise - some will be more successful than others, but I think everyone will enjoy it. I hope. Anyway, thanks for the opportunity!!

Thing 17 - No Sandbox, but here's some sand

Having tried several times to access the MD Sandbox Wiki to post a few of my oh so intelligent thoughts on Web 2.0, I have come to the conclusion that either - Kate T. is messing with everybody's head and has set this up so none of us can actually achieve the golden CEUS or - the wiki is defunct. I have set up an account with PB works (one more acct that I will forget about in a month), but still have no access to the MD sandbox. So - adeiu to this particular thing - I will not be sharing my insights with whoever still has access to the thing. I'm sure it was useful, in it's way.

But I've got to get this wrapped up! So here's some fun video of my daughter's games team doing what they do best - winning.

Thing #22 - Downloadable Audio (Possibly)

I have wanted to use the eaudio collection for years, but always seemed to be stymied in some way. I've had
an account with Netbooks for years - but couldn't get it to work with my MP3 player. I see that now they've upgraded the interface
so you can download directly to a device, but I can't install that software on my work computer so can't check it out. The manual
download I just attempted is blocked also, probably by security on my work computer. I will have to try this out at
home, and see if I can get it all to work. I have to say that the Netbooks collection looks great, and
I would love to be able to use it with my Itouch Christmas present.
I haven't had a lot of luck with the MD Digital Library either. I have the Overdrive Media Consol loaded
at home, but have run into problems with the downloads. I can't check it here at work, since I can't get the
software downloaded and installed. I'm sure it all works fine, and I will try to get this all going again at home shortly.
In the mean time, I love my Itouch, it works great, love all the great apps and I'm going to try that out as an ebook reader as soon as I figure
everything out

Thing # 21 - Podcasts

I actually wrote a blog post on podcasts and podcasting for the MCPL Shoutout blog back in Sept 08. http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/apps/News/Blog/LibraryBlog.asp?blogID=3&Cat=MP3

The podcast world has expanded since then, but many of the podcasts that were around then turned out to be shortlived. NPR still has a great selection, and Podcast Directory lists probably thousands of them. Once I remembered how to do it, I added the RSS feed for an active podcast on Natural Horse Care to my Bloglines feeds. Now I just have to remember to check it from time to time!! I am not moved to begin my own podcast, however.

Thing 16 - Wikis

Haven't posted in a while due to the various deadlines involved with Javanow, PPE Midyears, and the desk hours that go along with working at a library that circulated OVER A MILLION ITEMS LAST YEAR! Yeah baby, we're busy.

Anywho - Wikis seem like a useful interesting form of communication and cooperation if you can get everyone on board. I know MCPL has kicked around the wiki idea for several years, and I think we even have a few? I was interested to see that even though some of the links from the training were years old they were still active. The Rochester Community info page was really neat, but since MCPL serves such a range of communities around DC, I don't know if a similar effort would work. I think in our case, using it as a tool for communication would be great. We have a wiki on the Intranet for Java Now and Symphony, which was begun in Oct 09, but there are no posts to it besides the original one. I guess people can only do so much. I'd rather fool with the new apps on my Itouch.

Thing 18 - Online Productivity

I came across a useful online charting tool earlier this month, courtesy of the Research Buzz newsletter. Making flowcharts in Word is a huge pain, and while Publisher is a little easier, neither one of them is designed precisely for that purpose. Enter Lovely Charts, which is a nice online site (free for the basic version), which has an easy drag and drop interface for creating flowcharts, organizational charts, network diagrams and so on. I played with it for a little while, and it's pretty easy although I had to refer back to the help for some stuff that I hadn't paid attention to in the beginning. My chart, above, is a rudimentary organizational chart which depicts the pecking order of the herd. Really, it's more complicated that it shows, but the main fact that Sierra is the Queen of everyone, is easily understood. In the horse world, mares trump geldings every time.

Thing 15 - Web 2.0

What a perfect time to blog about Web 2.0 - I just ran across the website for the Web 2.0 Summit, which will take place in San Fran, CA (natch), in a couple of weeks. The whitepaper for the summit is entitled Web 2.0 Squared - Web 2.0 Five Years On, one of the keynote speakers is the COO for Facebook, and another speaker is the CEO of something called RedOctane. What's RedOctane? Guess I'll be finding out. It's interesting to think that when the 23 Things first rolled out back in what '04? Facebook was just launched (Feb 2004) and it would be several years before it was open to anyone besides college students. And Twitter had yet to post the first Tweet. What the heck will be coming up in the next five years? Guess I'll read that whitepaper, at least.