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.

Things 8 and 9

Set up my bloglines acct today and picked and eclectic group of sites to send me feeds. Some I already follow on my Yahoo page, some are new to me. - I picked up - Boing Boing, the Shifted Librarian, Library Stuff, Chocolate and Zuchini (food), Popsugar (celebrity gossip,my secret addiction) (now, wouldn't My Secret Addiction be a good name for a celebrity gossip site?), and some others.

I guess it's handy for sorting out the news you want, from that you don't. But I've had my Yahoo newsfeed for a couple of years, and I rarely look at it. Probably should more.

More entertainingly, I am listening to Shepherd College's Internet web broadcast. I love college radio stations - Shepherd turned me on to the Decembrists.

Thing #19 - I can Digg it, finally. Maybe

Digg was the 2nd place winner behind delicious under Social News - the Big Guys. I've heard of Digg many times, seen linked to on hundreds of websites and so figured I would explore further so I can really understand what Digg attempts to do or be. Digg users post items from the web to Digg. Other Digg users either "digg" it or bury it. The idea is "the cream rises to the top".

In searching the top rising stories I find that - a staffer at ABC news Tweeted that President Obama called Kanye West a "jackass" for grabbing the mic from Taylor Swift at the VMA awards. Now, ABC news is apologizing for this being tweeted, since it was from an off the record portion of an interview that hadn't been finalized. This is pretty interesting, since it highlights the Twitter effect of immediacy immediately. Wonder what'll happen to Terry Moran?

Search libraries, and the top story is Philadelphia to shut down all public libraries. This is a threat, if the city government doesn't pass a budget bill by Oct 2. Next story is NE school library gets rid of all books. This is true, sadly. So, in closing, Digg is interesting, but I'm not sure how a library would make use of it???

Thing 14 Technorati blog search

I haven't used Technorati in the past, but I am a fan of Google Blog Search. I understand tags and tagging, as someone who has a YouTube channel, and also a delicious account. Have explored some searchs on Technorati, there wasn't anything particularly wonderful about it that would make me switch from Google. I did find a little article that compared Technorati and Google blog search http://www.searchenginejournal.com/technorati-vs-google-blog-search-which-is-better/4658/

This was posted at Search Engine Journal.

I do like to search blogs for info as well as the web because I think you can get an insiders view sometimes, and of course sometimes the outsiders view. Way outside, definitely. Always interesting though. I may try Technorati more in the future to see if different searchs give better results.