Welcome one and all to the FVRL Discover 2.0 program!
Over the next few months, you'll have the opportunity to spend some time looking at and working with a wide variety of new and interesting Internet tools and programs, and telling us what you think about them along the way. Once you've completed the program, you will get something for your efforts!
First of all - what is Discover 2.0 about?
Well, in the last few years, the Internet has seen incredible growth in the use of something called "social software." These are programs that allow you to easily collaborate with other people online, build connections with them, and share with others of similar interests. There are a variety of terms used to describe this phenomenon - Web 2.0 is the main one, and in libraries we tend to call it Library 2.0. It's still not a very well-defined area, and that's what makes it so exciting - we get to be a part of the way the Internet evolves!
Now, there are literally thousands of social software programs out there, and more are being developed all the time. Sorting through them all and figuring out which ones are useful is something that no one has any time for. Yet there is a growing understanding that if we don't take advantage of some of these tools and understand how they work and how they change the Internet, libraries won't be able to keep up with the way their community develops. Now, there are some really famous social software programs out there - they've been on the news, and you've probably heard people talk about them - MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and flickr are some of the big ones. We'll learn all about them as part of this program. But there are so many other great tools out there that can help libraries work better, both internally and in their relationship with the community. So there are a few people out there in libraryland that spend a good amount of their time exploring different social software tools, trying them out, and reporting on what works and what doesn't. We try out the things they recommend and try to figure out if they would be useful to our library and community.
And that's where the Discover 2.0 Program comes in!
There are a lot of interesting tools out there to learn about. People in our community are using these tools, so it's a good idea for use to know about them. Also, there are some interesting ways to provide service through these tools, and do outreach and marketing as well.
To familiarize yourself with this project, be sure to read the About This Program (FAQ) page. These FAQs should answer most of your questions about this program. And if you don't see your question answered just add it to the FAQ page as a blog comment.
Each post in this blog is an "Item" with some activities that should take around 30 minutes to an hour to complete. We're hoping that you'll work on this once or twice per week until you've gotten through the program.
Part of each Item will be exploration, and part will be letting us know that you've completed the tasks. We'll explain how that works in the next few posts.
If you have questions about the program, you can comment here or send an email to discover20@fvrl.org. If you have questions about a site, as to how to navigate, find things, or do things, we really encourage everyone to experiment and also to ask your co-workers for help.
So, are you ready to start? Send an email to discover20@fvrl.org and let us know!
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Item 2: Welcome - 7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learners
Lifelong learning is one of those core values that libraries are built on. So it makes sense that before we embark on this new online learning and discovery journey that we should take a few minutes to review a few habits that can assist in creating lifelong learners.
These habits, called the Seven and 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners, will provide you with a refresher on what it means to be a lifelong learner.
Habit 1 – Begin with the end in mind
Habit 2 – Accept responsibility for your own learning
Habit 3 – View problems as challenges
Habit 4 – Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner
Habit 5 – Create your own learning toolbox
Habit 6 – Use technology to your advantage
Habit 7 – Teach and mentor others
Habit 7 ½ – PLAY!
Activities:
For this item, listen to this 7 1/2 Habits Tutorial. As you watch and listen, write down which habit among the 7 & 1/2 that is easiest for you and which is hardest. You will use your personal blog (which you will set up next) to post your thoughts about lifelong learning.
These habits, called the Seven and 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners, will provide you with a refresher on what it means to be a lifelong learner.
Habit 1 – Begin with the end in mind
Habit 2 – Accept responsibility for your own learning
Habit 3 – View problems as challenges
Habit 4 – Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner
Habit 5 – Create your own learning toolbox
Habit 6 – Use technology to your advantage
Habit 7 – Teach and mentor others
Habit 7 ½ – PLAY!
Activities:
For this item, listen to this 7 1/2 Habits Tutorial. As you watch and listen, write down which habit among the 7 & 1/2 that is easiest for you and which is hardest. You will use your personal blog (which you will set up next) to post your thoughts about lifelong learning.
Item 3: Blogging - Create a Blog
Now that you’ve done some exploring around this website and learned some more about our emphasis on Lifelong Learning, it’s time to start playing around with these web 2.0 technologies. Today you'll set up your very own personal blog - this is where you'll record your thoughts on Discover 2.0 topics and the activities you take part in.
First, read about blogs. Commentary abounds regarding the value of blogs in libraries and other institutions. Before you get started here, take a moment to reflect on your own opinions about blogs. What have you heard about them? What are you expecting to learn about them? Then, take a look at these articles.
Now it's time to create your blog. We'll be creating a blog at the popular blogging site "Blogger." If you already have a Blogger blog, you will need to start a new one just for the purpose of this course. Blogger is a blogging platform that is now owned by Google, so part of setting up this blog will involve creating a Google account. Having a Google account is a good idea for this program, because there will be several different online tools that we'll look at the are part of Google, and logging in to your Google account will give you access to all of them.
Now you are ready to write your first blog entry! Your first blog post should be an entry about which habits from the "7 1/2 lifelong learning habits" is the easiest and hardest for you and why.
If you are looking at your blog as others see it - with your lovely color scheme and such, then look at the top of your blog for the words "New Post," and click on it. This will take you to a page where you can write your blog entry. If you're in your "Dashboard" (the back end of your blog, where you can keep track of things) look for the New Post link under the name of your blog.
In either case, once you're at your blog entry form, pick a title for your blog entry, like "My thoughts on this whole blog thing," or something like that. Then write your blog entry in the next space.
As you progress through this program, you will usually be writing about something you found online - a web site or a blog post, for example. Be sure to link to it from your blog post. To do this:
At the bottom of each post, you can create tags for your post - if you are comfortable with creating tags, please do. If not, you can leave it blank and that's OK too. When you are ready to post your entry onto your blog, click the button marked "Publish."
When you publish an entry to your blog, you are putting it onto the Internet, and anyone who looks for it will be able to read it. Keep this in mind as you write and reminisce about the program, work, etc.
If you have troubles posting your blog, make use of Blogger's Help page or Blogger's Quick Tutorial.
If you need inspiration about what to write about in your blog when you're not doing the tasks in the program, check out iLibrarian's article "18 Different Kinds Of Blog Posts."
Questions, comments? Click on "Comments," and add your input. If you have a question, others probably do as well. If you know the answer to a question you see, please post that too!
Activities:
1. Read the blog background information.
2. Create your own blog through Blogger
3. Add your first post to your blog (an entry about the 7 1/2 lifelong learning habits, which is easiest and hardest for you and why).
First, read about blogs. Commentary abounds regarding the value of blogs in libraries and other institutions. Before you get started here, take a moment to reflect on your own opinions about blogs. What have you heard about them? What are you expecting to learn about them? Then, take a look at these articles.
- Take a look at the Wikipedia entry for blogging, particularly the Types section.
- View the Blogs in Plain English video from Common Craft.
- Meredith Farkas of the blog Information Wants To Be Free did a survey of what is called the biblioblogosphere (that's all the blogs out there that are library-related). Read through the results of her survey.
- Also, take a look at some of these blogs: Librarian.net, Librarian In Black, Infodoodads, iLibrarian
Now it's time to create your blog. We'll be creating a blog at the popular blogging site "Blogger." If you already have a Blogger blog, you will need to start a new one just for the purpose of this course. Blogger is a blogging platform that is now owned by Google, so part of setting up this blog will involve creating a Google account. Having a Google account is a good idea for this program, because there will be several different online tools that we'll look at the are part of Google, and logging in to your Google account will give you access to all of them.
- First, go to Blogger.
- Click on the Orange arrow marked "Create Your Blog Now". This is what you'll see:
- Name your blog.
- Select a template.
Some notes:
- Feel free to use your FVRL email address for this sign-up.
- Your display name does not have to be your real name - yes, you can go anonymous. The Discover 2.0 Team are the only staff members who need to know your true identity (and we'll ask for it in the next item).
- Feel free to use your FVRL email address for this sign-up.
- Your display name does not have to be your real name - yes, you can go anonymous. The Discover 2.0 Team are the only staff members who need to know your true identity (and we'll ask for it in the next item).
Your blog title? Be as creative as you like - remember, no one but the Discover 2.0 Team will know who you are.
Your blog URL? The easier to remember, the better. And WRITE THIS DOWN...
Your blog URL? The easier to remember, the better. And WRITE THIS DOWN...
Now you are ready to write your first blog entry! Your first blog post should be an entry about which habits from the "7 1/2 lifelong learning habits" is the easiest and hardest for you and why.
If you are looking at your blog as others see it - with your lovely color scheme and such, then look at the top of your blog for the words "New Post," and click on it. This will take you to a page where you can write your blog entry. If you're in your "Dashboard" (the back end of your blog, where you can keep track of things) look for the New Post link under the name of your blog.
In either case, once you're at your blog entry form, pick a title for your blog entry, like "My thoughts on this whole blog thing," or something like that. Then write your blog entry in the next space.
As you progress through this program, you will usually be writing about something you found online - a web site or a blog post, for example. Be sure to link to it from your blog post. To do this:
- Copy the web address of the thing you want to link to.
- In the post that you are writing, highlight the word or phrase that you want to turn into a link.
- Click on the icon that looks like a chain link.
- Paste the web address into the form, and click OK.
At the bottom of each post, you can create tags for your post - if you are comfortable with creating tags, please do. If not, you can leave it blank and that's OK too. When you are ready to post your entry onto your blog, click the button marked "Publish."
When you publish an entry to your blog, you are putting it onto the Internet, and anyone who looks for it will be able to read it. Keep this in mind as you write and reminisce about the program, work, etc.
If you have troubles posting your blog, make use of Blogger's Help page or Blogger's Quick Tutorial.
If you need inspiration about what to write about in your blog when you're not doing the tasks in the program, check out iLibrarian's article "18 Different Kinds Of Blog Posts."
Questions, comments? Click on "Comments," and add your input. If you have a question, others probably do as well. If you know the answer to a question you see, please post that too!
Activities:
1. Read the blog background information.
2. Create your own blog through Blogger
3. Add your first post to your blog (an entry about the 7 1/2 lifelong learning habits, which is easiest and hardest for you and why).
Item 4: Blogging - More About Blogging and Tracking Your Progress
If you’ve made it this far, you already have 3 items or “things” completed of the 23 that are required to complete the program.
You can also, in most blog interfaces, click on the posting title for the permanent URL.
The Discover 2.0 Team will be reading your blog postings and, on occasion, giving you feedback via your blog entry's comments field.
Yes, comments. That's the beauty of blogging - your readers get to respond to what you've written. The Discover 2.0 Team will be commenting for sure, though you never know what your co-workers will have to say - everyone's blog will be posted to the Learning 2.0 FVRL Discover 2.0 Participants page (but don't worry - we'll be listing these by your anonymous blog name). And don't forget - you can respond to a comment with a comment of your own.
Comments are all about interacting and collaborating. Leave us a comment today or, better yet, start reading your co-worker's blogs and leave comments for them.
But first things first - here are the activities for this item.
Activities:
But how do you qualify? You'll need to register your blog and record your progress on each of the 23 things.
Where? How?
The Discover 2.0 Participation Log is on the FVRL intranet - you'll submit your information to the Discover 2.0 Team.
The first thing you will need to do is sign up on the Participation Log (this is a staff-only link). It's easy - just fill out your name, email address, and work location, then click the sign up! button:
Once you are signed up, the log is extremely easy to use - go the the main log page (this is a staff-only link also - it's also been added to the right as part of the Discover 2.0 Link Box) and click on your name (we're going on the honor system; please click only on your own name):
Then check off the 'things' that you've completed or add the URL for that item's blog posting (depending on the item), and click 'update my record.'
That's right - starting with the next item, you also need to include the URL for the permanent link to each of your blog posts. Your blog postings should capture your thoughts about what you're learning and responses to any specific questions we ask about the 'things' we'll be looking at.
Permanent link?
Each blog posting has a distinct URL that displays that posting alone (without the rest of your blog postings). Depending upon the Blogger template that you selected, the permanent link for each individual post can be found either through the post’s title or through a link in the post's footer area the contains the date.
For example: The image below shows where you would find the permanent link for this earlier Discover 2.0 blog post - click on the underlined time of posting (but in a real-life blog post, not in the image):
You can also, in most blog interfaces, click on the posting title for the permanent URL.
The Discover 2.0 Team will be reading your blog postings and, on occasion, giving you feedback via your blog entry's comments field.
Yes, comments. That's the beauty of blogging - your readers get to respond to what you've written. The Discover 2.0 Team will be commenting for sure, though you never know what your co-workers will have to say - everyone's blog will be posted to the Learning 2.0 FVRL Discover 2.0 Participants page (but don't worry - we'll be listing these by your anonymous blog name). And don't forget - you can respond to a comment with a comment of your own.
Comments are all about interacting and collaborating. Leave us a comment today or, better yet, start reading your co-worker's blogs and leave comments for them.
But first things first - here are the activities for this item.
Activities:
- Head over to the Discover 2.0 Participation Log and sign up.
- Record your first 4 completed things on the Participation Log.
Item 5: Photos & Images - Discover Flickr
This item will focus on photos and Flickr.
Photo sharing websites have been around for several years. Flickr, though, is different - it's half photo sharing and half online community. How so? Flickr makes incredibly intelligent use of linking keyword 'tags' to create associations between photos and between users.
Let us illustrate.
Take a look at this photo on the King County Library System Flickr profile (this link will open in a new window). Look to the right side of the page and scroll down until you see the label 'Tags.' Click on the 'library architecture' tag - this will quickly display all other photos with the same tag in their Flickr account.
Now click on the link that says 'see all public photos tagged with 'libraryarchitecture.' This is where we get into the online community part of Flickr - just as quickly as we saw other library architecture photos in the KCLS account, we're now seeing similarly themed photos from other Flickr members.
Let's have Flickr fill in some of the blanks - take a look at their FAQ page on tags. And, if for no other reason that it's so well done, take a look at the image below - it was posted by Flickr user cambodia4kidsorg.
The above photo illustrates the beauty of tags - there are many many ways to describe whatever it is you are looking at in a photo (in this case: Pen, Marker, Sharpie, Purple). Why not include them all as tags?
Flickr also makes use of groups. Groups are communities of like minded photo posters. And, yes, there are quite a few groups with a library theme. Let Flickr fill in the rest of the blanks - take a look at their FAQ page on groups.
Resources:
Activities:
1. Learn about Flickr through the Flickr Learn more tour and other tutorials.
2. Look around Flickr and find an interesting image you want to blog about. Be sure to include either a link to the image or a copy of the image itself in your blog post. For the latter, you can either use Blogger's photo upload feature or Flickr's blogging tool (you'll need to set up a Flickr account of your own for this).
Photo sharing websites have been around for several years. Flickr, though, is different - it's half photo sharing and half online community. How so? Flickr makes incredibly intelligent use of linking keyword 'tags' to create associations between photos and between users.
Let us illustrate.
Take a look at this photo on the King County Library System Flickr profile (this link will open in a new window). Look to the right side of the page and scroll down until you see the label 'Tags.' Click on the 'library architecture' tag - this will quickly display all other photos with the same tag in their Flickr account.
Now click on the link that says 'see all public photos tagged with 'libraryarchitecture.' This is where we get into the online community part of Flickr - just as quickly as we saw other library architecture photos in the KCLS account, we're now seeing similarly themed photos from other Flickr members.
Let's have Flickr fill in some of the blanks - take a look at their FAQ page on tags. And, if for no other reason that it's so well done, take a look at the image below - it was posted by Flickr user cambodia4kidsorg.
The above photo illustrates the beauty of tags - there are many many ways to describe whatever it is you are looking at in a photo (in this case: Pen, Marker, Sharpie, Purple). Why not include them all as tags?
Flickr also makes use of groups. Groups are communities of like minded photo posters. And, yes, there are quite a few groups with a library theme. Let Flickr fill in the rest of the blanks - take a look at their FAQ page on groups.
Resources:
- Flickr Learn More tour (6 steps)
- Mediamazine Flickr Tutorials
- Flickr: Popular tags
Interesting- Last 7 days - Flickr Services (3rd party applications & mashups)
and let’s not forget to look at some other libraries on Flickr
Activities:
1. Learn about Flickr through the Flickr Learn more tour and other tutorials.
2. Look around Flickr and find an interesting image you want to blog about. Be sure to include either a link to the image or a copy of the image itself in your blog post. For the latter, you can either use Blogger's photo upload feature or Flickr's blogging tool (you'll need to set up a Flickr account of your own for this).
Item 6: Photos & Images - More Flickr
Like many web 2.0 sites, Flickr has encouraged other people to build their own online applications using images found on their site. Through the use of APIs (application programming interfaces), many people have created third party tools and mashups that use Flickr images.
Mashups?
Mashups are hybrid web applications that take features from one application (like Flickr) and mash it up with another (like a mapping program). With this combination, for example, you get Mappr.
Wikipedia offers a slightly more detailed explanation.
New mashups come out, literally, every day. Here are some fun ones that work with Flickr:
- Spell with Flickr lets you spell anything from Flickr photos.
- Montagr creates photo mosaics from photos found on Flickr - all you have to do is change the tag in the top right corner.
- Flickr Color Pickr lets you find public photos in Flickr that match a specific color.
- Retrievr lets you find photos based on your sketching abilities.
- Trading Card Maker lets you create your own trading cards (many library staff already have...).
- There's even Flickr Sudoku.
And tons more - discover more on the Flickr services page, Flickr Bits (this is not officially part of Flickr) web apps, and this incredible list of Flickr tools from Quick Online Tips.
Activities:
1. Explore some of the fun Flickr mashups and third party tools that are out there.
2. Create a blog post about one that intrigues you. Tell us which one you explored and what you liked about it.
Mashups?
Mashups are hybrid web applications that take features from one application (like Flickr) and mash it up with another (like a mapping program). With this combination, for example, you get Mappr.
Wikipedia offers a slightly more detailed explanation.
New mashups come out, literally, every day. Here are some fun ones that work with Flickr:
- Spell with Flickr lets you spell anything from Flickr photos.
- Montagr creates photo mosaics from photos found on Flickr - all you have to do is change the tag in the top right corner.
- Flickr Color Pickr lets you find public photos in Flickr that match a specific color.
- Retrievr lets you find photos based on your sketching abilities.
- Trading Card Maker lets you create your own trading cards (many library staff already have...).
- There's even Flickr Sudoku.
And tons more - discover more on the Flickr services page, Flickr Bits (this is not officially part of Flickr) web apps, and this incredible list of Flickr tools from Quick Online Tips.
Activities:
1. Explore some of the fun Flickr mashups and third party tools that are out there.
2. Create a blog post about one that intrigues you. Tell us which one you explored and what you liked about it.
Item 7: RSS & Newsreaders - Explore Bloglines
You’ve heard of RSS? You’ve seen those small funny tags on websites? You’ve heard co-workers and acquaintances swear by it, but still have no idea what RSS is? Well don’t worry, according to a recent survey you’re still in the majority, but this is changing rapidly. In the information world, RSS is not only revolutionalizing the way news, media and content creators share information, but it also is swiftly changing the way everyday users are consuming information.RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web.
Just think about the websites and news information sources you visit every day. It takes time to visit those sites and scour the ad-filled and image-heavy pages for just the text you want to read, doesn’t it? Now imagine if you could visit all those information sources and web pages in just one place and all at the same time … without being bombarded with advertising… without having to search for new information on the page you’d already seen or read before… and without having to consume a lot of time visiting each site individually. Would that be valuable to you? Well, it’s available now through a newsreader and RSS.
- As with many 2.0 technologies, understanding may come easier through practice than explanation, but it's good to have some basic ideas about RSS Feeds before you get started. Read through these two articles for an introduction:
- How and Why To Use RSS Feeds
- Order From Chaos Via RSS
- Also, watch this short (3.5 minutes) video about RSS: RSS in Plain English The video is a nice, quick introduction to the why and how of RSS feeds, and makes the whole process seem less daunting.
- Go to Bloglines, and then click on the thing that says "Sign Up Now, It's Free."
- Once you're at the "My Feeds" page, you'll want to be able to work it so that you can return to that page quickly. If you have a computer all to yourself, then you can (if you use Firefox) drag and drop the URL (of that page) onto your Bookmark Toolbar, either by itself or into your folder of pages you open every day, or if you're still using Internet Explorer, then put the My Feeds page into your Favorites. If you use a shared computer, then you might organize with the other users of that computer to have a link to the Bloglines main page put on the browser, so it's easy to get to it and sign in to your account.
- When you first go to your Bloglines account (the main page at Bloglines, after you've signed in, but before you've selected any of your feeds to view) there will be "help" style information in the central section of the page. Look down on the list under "Subscribe To It." Just follow the directions.
- Get more Feeds.
- When you are on a site that has an RSS feed, you can click "Sub With Bloglines," and add that feed to your Bloglines list.
- In Firefox, any site with an RSS feed has an icon in the address bar that looks like a square with three radiating lines coming out of one corner.
- In Firefox or IE, pages that have RSS feeds often advertise that fact with various icons that say "RSS" on them.
- Sometimes when you click "Sub With Bloglines," you will get a list of several different feeds. Just choose one of these feeds - if it's not obvious which one, look for the feed that has the most subscribers.
Activities:
- Subscribe to 10 or more newsfeeds:
- the FVRL Discovery 2.0 feed
- at least 2 newsfeeds from other participants in FVRL's Discover 2.0 program
- several others of your choice. You can find a variety of lists and packages at Bloglines. Pick things that look interesting. You can always edit later and get rid of feeds that you don't like, and add others that you do like.
- Finally, go to your blog, and write a post about RSS and Bloglines. What are your thoughts so far? RSS feeds can be used to send out information of any kind, to anyone who subscribes to it. How can you use RSS feeds?
Item 8: RSS & Newsreaders - Find Some Feeds
Now that you have a newsreader (your Bloglines account), let's spend some more time finding more feeds. There are several ways you can locate newsfeeds:
You can add feeds to your Bloglines if you know the URL of that RSS feed. Back on the Bloglines page, above your list of feeds, there are three short headings: Add, Edit, and Options. Click on Add, and you can add by URL, or conduct searches by category. Try "Quick Pick Subscriptions" for a list of popular blogs. Edit will allow you to delete feeds that you don't want any more, and Options lets you customize how you want your feeds to be displayed to you.
Activities:
- When visiting your favorite websites -- look for a news feed icon that indicates the website provides it. Often a feed icon will be displayed somewhere in the navigation bar of the site. (Here's an image that contains a sampling of several feed icons).
- Other Search tools that can help you find feeds:
-
Feedster - One of the largest collections of RSS feeds, Feedster lets you search for feeds in three categories: news, blogs & podcasts - Topix.net - This search tool allows you to locate recent newsfeed items based upon keyword or phrase searching. The tool focuses specifically on news and media outlet RSS feeds for information, not weblogs.
- Syndic8.com - Syndic8 is an open directory of RSS feeds that contains thousands of RSS feeds that users have submitted.
- Google Blog Search This one is limited to blogs, but it can help you find blogs that might be of interest to you
- Technorati - Technorati is a popular blog finding tool that lets you search for blogs. Since RSS feeds are inherent to all blogging tools, Technorati Blog Search can help you find RSS feeds for topic specific blogs you may be interested in. We'll be working more in-depth with Technorati in Unit 14, but you don't have to wait until then to fiddle around with it.
-
You can add feeds to your Bloglines if you know the URL of that RSS feed. Back on the Bloglines page, above your list of feeds, there are three short headings: Add, Edit, and Options. Click on Add, and you can add by URL, or conduct searches by category. Try "Quick Pick Subscriptions" for a list of popular blogs. Edit will allow you to delete feeds that you don't want any more, and Options lets you customize how you want your feeds to be displayed to you.
Activities:
- Explore some of the search tools noted above that can help you locate some additional newsfeeds.
- Add some feeds to your Bloglines account. Be sure to include some library-related feeds.
- Create a blog post about your experience. Ideas: Which method of finding feeds was easiest - going to your favorite sites or searching for them? Which search tool was the easiest for you? Which was more confusing? How can you see RSS feeds being used by the library? What kind of information would library patrons be interested in getting via RSS, if it were available?
Item 9: Instant Messaging - Meebo
Instant Messaging (IM) is one of the staples of online social networking. Yet there are plenty of folks who don't use it or understand it, or for one reason or another have demonized it. Many libraries are moving towards using IM software to enhance reference services.
Here are a few articles about IM:
And here are some different Instant Message software providers:
Meebo is a website for instant messaging from absolutely anywhere. Whether you’re at home, at work, or traveling foreign lands, you can hop over to meebo.com on any computer to access all of your buddies (on AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ and Jabber) and chat with them, no downloads or installs required, for free!
Unfortunately, there's no way to look for friends - you have to know what people's IDs are in order to chat with them. Many people will post their IM IDs as part of one or more of their social networking profiles. You can also choose to post your Meebo ID in your blog.
For more information on setting up more elaborate Meebo applications, or ways to use Meebo in libraries, check out these resources:
Here are a few articles about IM:
- IM Me - Library Journal
- Wikipedia - Instant Messaging
- Instant Messaging Tools and Technology - A Mini Guide
- Web-Based Instant Messengers; A Mini Guide
And here are some different Instant Message software providers:
Meebo is a website for instant messaging from absolutely anywhere. Whether you’re at home, at work, or traveling foreign lands, you can hop over to meebo.com on any computer to access all of your buddies (on AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ and Jabber) and chat with them, no downloads or installs required, for free!
Unfortunately, there's no way to look for friends - you have to know what people's IDs are in order to chat with them. Many people will post their IM IDs as part of one or more of their social networking profiles. You can also choose to post your Meebo ID in your blog.
For more information on setting up more elaborate Meebo applications, or ways to use Meebo in libraries, check out these resources:
- Iris Jastram's presentation wiki on Meebo Rooms. She also has a flickr set detailing the process of setting up a meebo room. Click on the images to see them fullsized and to read the notes imbedded in the images.
- Here is a great article on how Meebo can be used: Embedding a Librarian In Your Website Using Meebo from Computers in Libraries, 9/1/2007 (can be found in our Proquest database).
- Read some of the articles on instant messaging or Meebo.
- Go to Meebo and create a meebo ID. Use it to bring together any other IM ID's that you've accumulated, if any. Even if you don't have other IDs, you can still use Meebo as an Instant Messenger.
- Get a MeeboMe widget to put on your blog sidebar.
- Write a blog post on instant messaging. Topics could include: What if my library had a MeeboMe widget on their library home page for asking reference questions? What would be the pros and cons? What would be the main issues with making IM Reference workable? What other ways could IM be used in the library?
Item 10: Social Networks - General Introduction
This item will give you a general introduction to social networking.
Social networking sites are websites that offer connections between users based on shared interests, backgrounds, and other associations. In most cases you have to create a profile to fully participate - these note basic details about yourself (screen name, etc.) and offer an opportunity to get more detailed (more about you - your favorite music, your background, photos of yourself, etc). It's truly a mix - some users keep it simple whilst others go all out, detailing their interests, their hopes and their dreams. And are some users less than honest than others in their self-assessments? Absolutely...
Friends, Connections
What really makes these sites tick is the connection between users. This is very similar to the connecting concept behind Flickr tags - you can find people based on shared interests and traits. But there's more - you also get to approach other users and invite them to declare an association with you. Some sites call your associations 'friends,' others call them 'contacts.'
Danah Boyd, a social networking pundit, puts it this way (you should only read her linked article if you've got some time on your hands - it is long...):
So, participants publicly identify their 'friends.' That's something new, fair enough. But the backbone for networked participation?
Imagine this scenario:
Herman gets home from school on friday night and has no idea what he's going to do for the weekend. He logs into his MySpace profile and sees that more than 20 of his MySpace friends are also logged in. Instead of reaching for his phone, he writes up a short posting on his bulletin board ("hey - is anything going on tonight?") and clicks send - this goes to everyone on his friends list. Within a minute, 4 of his MySpace friends have added 'comments' to his profile with invitations to join them.
And let's take a few steps back - imagine how much easier it becomes to stay in touch with friends you'd typically lose touch with. From high school? College? Three jobs ago? Do you see the value here?
Why should any of this matter to libraries?
Our patrons, the younger ones in particular, are using MySpace like we use the telephone for communication. If we're on MySpace and other social networking sites we'll be there when they need us.
Popular Social Networking Sites
The first was Friendster, way back in 2003. Friendster developed a small following (and its still in use) but never caught on widely. The big problem was their restrictive participation policy - it was limited to individuals.
Next came MySpace which, for all intents and purposes, copied the best parts of Friendster and then upped the ante - they opened participation to non-individuals. Bands, clubs, community groups and, yes, even libraries were encouraged to create profiles that would improve the richness of the MySpace online community. And that was key - with the inclusion of these group entities, MySpace became a real life community where users logged in to do more than just connect with their friends. To this day MySpace remains the most popular social networking site out there.
But, of course, there's an increasingly popular competitor out there - Facebook. Facebook started as a college-oriented network but has since opened its doors to everyone else. And it's catching on - there are many stories from teens who have left MySpace because it's gotten "too popular" and have moved to FaceBook.
But why should libraries care?
It's all about relevance. Libraries need to be where our patrons are. If a library has a presence on MySpace or Facebook they have a better chance of finding patrons who don't often come into their buildings or go to their websites (especially teens) and promoting their fabulous services. And FVRL is getting there - we have a profile for YAAB on MySpace, and some branches are starting to create profiles for their branch YAAB groups.
And it's not just FVRL - look at this list of libraries on MySpace from the Library Success Wiki.
Activities:
MySpace
Facebook
Social networking sites are websites that offer connections between users based on shared interests, backgrounds, and other associations. In most cases you have to create a profile to fully participate - these note basic details about yourself (screen name, etc.) and offer an opportunity to get more detailed (more about you - your favorite music, your background, photos of yourself, etc). It's truly a mix - some users keep it simple whilst others go all out, detailing their interests, their hopes and their dreams. And are some users less than honest than others in their self-assessments? Absolutely...
Friends, Connections
What really makes these sites tick is the connection between users. This is very similar to the connecting concept behind Flickr tags - you can find people based on shared interests and traits. But there's more - you also get to approach other users and invite them to declare an association with you. Some sites call your associations 'friends,' others call them 'contacts.'
Danah Boyd, a social networking pundit, puts it this way (you should only read her linked article if you've got some time on your hands - it is long...):
“Are you my friend? Yes or no?” This question, while fundamentally odd, is a key component of social network sites. Participants must select who on the system they deem to be ‘Friends.’ Their choice is publicly displayed for all to see and becomes the backbone for networked participation.
So, participants publicly identify their 'friends.' That's something new, fair enough. But the backbone for networked participation?
Imagine this scenario:
Herman gets home from school on friday night and has no idea what he's going to do for the weekend. He logs into his MySpace profile and sees that more than 20 of his MySpace friends are also logged in. Instead of reaching for his phone, he writes up a short posting on his bulletin board ("hey - is anything going on tonight?") and clicks send - this goes to everyone on his friends list. Within a minute, 4 of his MySpace friends have added 'comments' to his profile with invitations to join them.
And let's take a few steps back - imagine how much easier it becomes to stay in touch with friends you'd typically lose touch with. From high school? College? Three jobs ago? Do you see the value here?
Why should any of this matter to libraries?
Our patrons, the younger ones in particular, are using MySpace like we use the telephone for communication. If we're on MySpace and other social networking sites we'll be there when they need us.
Popular Social Networking Sites
The first was Friendster, way back in 2003. Friendster developed a small following (and its still in use) but never caught on widely. The big problem was their restrictive participation policy - it was limited to individuals.
Next came MySpace which, for all intents and purposes, copied the best parts of Friendster and then upped the ante - they opened participation to non-individuals. Bands, clubs, community groups and, yes, even libraries were encouraged to create profiles that would improve the richness of the MySpace online community. And that was key - with the inclusion of these group entities, MySpace became a real life community where users logged in to do more than just connect with their friends. To this day MySpace remains the most popular social networking site out there.
But, of course, there's an increasingly popular competitor out there - Facebook. Facebook started as a college-oriented network but has since opened its doors to everyone else. And it's catching on - there are many stories from teens who have left MySpace because it's gotten "too popular" and have moved to FaceBook.
But why should libraries care?
It's all about relevance. Libraries need to be where our patrons are. If a library has a presence on MySpace or Facebook they have a better chance of finding patrons who don't often come into their buildings or go to their websites (especially teens) and promoting their fabulous services. And FVRL is getting there - we have a profile for YAAB on MySpace, and some branches are starting to create profiles for their branch YAAB groups.
And it's not just FVRL - look at this list of libraries on MySpace from the Library Success Wiki.
Activities:
- Watch the Social Networking in Plain English video
- Read some of the articles linked below (we're being vague here on purpose - try to read at least one from each category - most of these are fairly short blog postings).
- What do you think about libraries taking part in social networking sites? Create a blog posting with your thoughts on this or something else related to social networking.
MySpace
- Libraryman w/ a great answer to 'why?'
- David Lee King writes about libraries on Myspace
- Librarian In Black polls librarians - read the comments...
- Stephen Abram writes about the library context (this one is longer)
- It's really popular: Facebook's Astounding Stats
- The Other Librarian writes about Facebook and Rapport
Item 11: Social Networks - MySpace/Facebook
This one is all about doing - you will be setting up a profile on either Facebook or MySpace (or another social networking site if you are already a member of either of those).
Activities:
1. Set up an account at either MySpace or Facebook.
2. Add at least one friend to your account.
3. Write down your profile address so that you can submit it to the Participation Log.
1. Setting up an account
Go to either MySpace or Facebook. Actually, go to them both and take a look at them, and then pick one of them to try out for this Item. If you already have an account at one, then try the other. If you already have an account at both, try one of these other social network sites:
Setting up an account at any social network means filling out a form with some information about yourself. There will be a minimum amount that you have to do, but options to add a lot more. Be sure to come back to your account and add as much information as you feel comfortable adding, an also change some of the defaults to more accurately reflect who you are. You can upload a picture of yourself that others can see, but only if you have one on your computer somewhere, or on a disk or flash drive.
There are all kinds of ways of making your profile look more interesting - look at other people's profiles. If you want to know how they got them to look the way they do, ask them! MySpace can be modified to look all kinds of crazy. Facebook keeps the same standard look, but you can add all kinds of "applications" that have fun and interesting things to do on them.
2. Once you've set up a profile, search for people you know, people you work with, old friends from college, school or other workplaces, and ask at least one of them to be your friend.
3. Now, view your profile or look for a permanent link that you can use to point other people to your profile. If you want to know if it works, write it down or copy and paste it somewhere, sign out of your account, and then paste the URL that you copied into the address bar, and see if it takes you to your profile. Once you have a link that works, submit it to the Participation Log.
Activities:
1. Set up an account at either MySpace or Facebook.
2. Add at least one friend to your account.
3. Write down your profile address so that you can submit it to the Participation Log.
1. Setting up an account
Go to either MySpace or Facebook. Actually, go to them both and take a look at them, and then pick one of them to try out for this Item. If you already have an account at one, then try the other. If you already have an account at both, try one of these other social network sites:
- LinkedIn
- ComicSpace for comic artists, writers, fans, etc.
- ficlets for storytelling, writing.
- Oort-Cloud for scifi authors, readers.
- TripUp for travel.
- Eons for the over 50 crowd.
- Retroland for people who love “retro” culture.
Setting up an account at any social network means filling out a form with some information about yourself. There will be a minimum amount that you have to do, but options to add a lot more. Be sure to come back to your account and add as much information as you feel comfortable adding, an also change some of the defaults to more accurately reflect who you are. You can upload a picture of yourself that others can see, but only if you have one on your computer somewhere, or on a disk or flash drive.
There are all kinds of ways of making your profile look more interesting - look at other people's profiles. If you want to know how they got them to look the way they do, ask them! MySpace can be modified to look all kinds of crazy. Facebook keeps the same standard look, but you can add all kinds of "applications" that have fun and interesting things to do on them.
2. Once you've set up a profile, search for people you know, people you work with, old friends from college, school or other workplaces, and ask at least one of them to be your friend.
3. Now, view your profile or look for a permanent link that you can use to point other people to your profile. If you want to know if it works, write it down or copy and paste it somewhere, sign out of your account, and then paste the URL that you copied into the address bar, and see if it takes you to your profile. Once you have a link that works, submit it to the Participation Log.
Item 12: Play! Image Generators/Catchup/Review
This is a week to relax a little bit. Go back to some things you tried earlier but haven't been back to since - what do you think of them now? Or, spend some time fleshing out one of the sites that you do like, and let us know what you like about it so much.
And, this is a good time to play with some interesting new web toys, image generators and other kinds of mashup tools. Here are a few to try out:
Trading Card Maker - create a customized trading card from a digital photo
Add Letters - A street sign generator. You can download the image you make to your computer.
Reflectionmaker - you can use an image online, or upload one, and do Andy Warhol-like things with it.
Billboard - make a billboard of your own personal message, and pick a place for your billboard to show up.
Medical Prescription Drugs Image Generator
Fortune Cookie Message Generator
Or find another at the Generator Blog !
For added fun, try and put one of the images you make into your blog post for today!
Activities:
1. Go back to some of the things you tried earlier, spend some time fleshing out one of the sites you do like, or play with some image generators and find one (or more) that you like.
2. Post the result of your discovery process in your blog.
And, this is a good time to play with some interesting new web toys, image generators and other kinds of mashup tools. Here are a few to try out:
Trading Card Maker - create a customized trading card from a digital photo
Add Letters - A street sign generator. You can download the image you make to your computer.
Reflectionmaker - you can use an image online, or upload one, and do Andy Warhol-like things with it.
Billboard - make a billboard of your own personal message, and pick a place for your billboard to show up.
Medical Prescription Drugs Image Generator
Fortune Cookie Message Generator
Or find another at the Generator Blog !
For added fun, try and put one of the images you make into your blog post for today!
Activities:
1. Go back to some of the things you tried earlier, spend some time fleshing out one of the sites you do like, or play with some image generators and find one (or more) that you like.
2. Post the result of your discovery process in your blog.
Item 13: Tagging & Folksonomies - del.icio.us
In this unit we’ll be looking more closely at web 2.0 applications that take serious advantage of tagging (we've already looked at one - Flickr). Tagging is an open and informal method of categorizing that allows users to associate keywords with online content (webpages, pictures & posts). Unlike library subject cataloging, which follows a strict set of guidelines (i.e.Library of Congress subject headings), tagging is completely unstructured and freeform, allowing users to create connections between data anyway they want.
The specific focus of today's lesson is del.icio.us, a social bookmarking manager site that lets you save bookmarks to a central location (no more copying them to multiple browsers on multiple computers) and classify them all with tags.
Many users find that the real power of del.icio.us is in the social network aspect, which allows you to see how other users have tagged similar links and also discover other websites that may be of interest to you. You can think of it as peering into other users’ filing cabinet, but with this powerful bookmarking tool each user's filing cabinet helps to build an expansive knowledge network.
del.icio.us even offers RSS feeds - you can create a shared bookmark site and receive news every time a new link is added.
Some resources on social bookmarking/del.icio.us:
Activities:
The specific focus of today's lesson is del.icio.us, a social bookmarking manager site that lets you save bookmarks to a central location (no more copying them to multiple browsers on multiple computers) and classify them all with tags.
Many users find that the real power of del.icio.us is in the social network aspect, which allows you to see how other users have tagged similar links and also discover other websites that may be of interest to you. You can think of it as peering into other users’ filing cabinet, but with this powerful bookmarking tool each user's filing cabinet helps to build an expansive knowledge network.
del.icio.us even offers RSS feeds - you can create a shared bookmark site and receive news every time a new link is added.
Some resources on social bookmarking/del.icio.us:
- Watch the Social Bookmarking in Plain English (3.25 min video)
- Otter Group del.icio.us tutorial (8 min video)
- Us.ef.ul: A beginners guide to del.icio.us
Activities:
- Watch the Social Bookmarking in Plain English video
- View one of the del.icio.us tutorials
- Take a look around del.icio.us using the isdesk account.
- Explore the site options and try clicking on a bookmark that has also been bookmarked by a lot of other users (click on the text that reads 'saved by # other people'). Can you see the comments they added about this bookmark or the tags that they used to categorize this reference?
- Create a blog post about your experience and thoughts about using this tool. Possible topics: Can you see the potential of this tool for research assistance? Or just an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere?
Item 14: Tagging & Folksonomies - Technorati
So now that you’ve been blogging for awhile, you might be wondering just how big the blogosphere is. Well, according to Technorati, the leading search tool and authority for blogs, the number of blogs doubles just about every 6 months with over 100 million blogs currently being tracked by the site.
Yes, these numbers are astounding, but as you’ve already seen for yourselves, blogging is so easy that these publishing tools are being taken advantage of by almost every industry, including libraries.
So how does a person get their blog listed as part of the blogosphere and how can you tag your posts with keywords to make them more findable through a Technorati search? The answer to the first question is that your blog is probably already being captured by Technorati due to the fact that you're already using Blogger, the most popular blogging tool. But if you want to join the party and have your blog officially listed on Technorati and also take advantage of the watchlist and other features, you’ll need to claim your blog yourself. As for tagging posts with Technorati tags? This is easy, too. All you need to do is add a little bit of HTML code to the bottom of your post or follow the simple directions you find when you get to the Technorati website.
There are a lot of great features available at Technorati, including new ways to search for blogs. You can search for keywords in blog posts, search for entire blog posts that have been tagged with a certain keyword, or search for blogs that have been registered and tagged as whole blogs about a certain subject (like photography or libraries).
Here are some resources for learning more about Technorati:
Activities:
1. View the Technorati Tutorial
2. Go to Technorati and view the Popular and Percolator features. Is anything interesting or surprising about what you discovered?
3. Do a keyword search for "Learning 2.0" in Blog Posts, in Tags, and then in the Blog Directory (these are under Advanced Search). Are the results different?
4. Create a blog post about your discoveries on this site.
Yes, these numbers are astounding, but as you’ve already seen for yourselves, blogging is so easy that these publishing tools are being taken advantage of by almost every industry, including libraries.
So how does a person get their blog listed as part of the blogosphere and how can you tag your posts with keywords to make them more findable through a Technorati search? The answer to the first question is that your blog is probably already being captured by Technorati due to the fact that you're already using Blogger, the most popular blogging tool. But if you want to join the party and have your blog officially listed on Technorati and also take advantage of the watchlist and other features, you’ll need to claim your blog yourself. As for tagging posts with Technorati tags? This is easy, too. All you need to do is add a little bit of HTML code to the bottom of your post or follow the simple directions you find when you get to the Technorati website.
There are a lot of great features available at Technorati, including new ways to search for blogs. You can search for keywords in blog posts, search for entire blog posts that have been tagged with a certain keyword, or search for blogs that have been registered and tagged as whole blogs about a certain subject (like photography or libraries).
Here are some resources for learning more about Technorati:
- Technorati Tour – videocast of new features & new look
- Technorati Percolator & Popular features
Activities:
1. View the Technorati Tutorial
2. Go to Technorati and view the Popular and Percolator features. Is anything interesting or surprising about what you discovered?
3. Do a keyword search for "Learning 2.0" in Blog Posts, in Tags, and then in the Blog Directory (these are under Advanced Search). Are the results different?
4. Create a blog post about your discoveries on this site.
Item 15: Tagging and Folksonomies - LibraryThing and Goodreads
A growing social network category is that of the Book Review Network, where users create lists of books, write reviews of them, group books together in new ways, and use each other to find more books that they might like. A book oriented social network has the capability of being one of the ultimate reader's advisory tools. Two sites that have become quite popular in this genre are: LibraryThing and goodreads.
Here are some overviews of each site:
LibraryThing Tour
How Goodreads Works
Activities:
1. Take a look at the overviews for both sites.
2. Create an account for one of them (if you are already a member of one, please join the other).
3. Add at least 5 books to your library.
4. Blog about your findings and be sure to link to your profile you created. What do you like about the one you chose? What do you wish was different?
LibraryThing - how to sign up and what you can do there
- Go to LibraryThing and click "Join Now."
- Sign up for an account.
- Add books to your library
- Just type in the title, author, or ISBN (a nice feature for those of you who have bar-code scanners at your desk...), and then select your book from the list that pops up on the right. You can search Amazon or the Library of Congress.
- If your book or edition does not appear, you can build a new record for it from scratch by clicking "Add the book manually"
- Tag your books -
- You can add tags to your books when you are building your library, or by clicking the pencil icon next to the record.
- Write reviews of your books
- To write a review of a book, you have to click on the 'pencil' icon next to the book on your library page.
[edit]
Goodreads - how to sign up and what you can do there
- Go to goodreads and click “get started.”
- Fill out the form. Once you’ve given your name, email and a password, you’re ready to go.
- You can import information from an Excel Spreadsheet, if it’s formatted properly. Goodreads has an example of an Excel file that you can look over for reference (once you've signed in to your account).
- You can search for books through Goodreads, and quickly add them to your list. Goodreads looks for books at Amazon.com and at their own site.
- This is different from LibraryThing. LibraryThing looks for books at Amazon.com, the Library of Congress, and 68 other libraries, but you have to do a separate search at LibraryThing in order to see what’s on LibraryThing.
- To search for books at Goodreads, just click on “Add more books.”
- You can search by title, author (or both at once) and ISBN. This will attempt to locate your book at Amazon.com or Goodreads.
- You can also manually add books by filling out a simple form. This is pretty similar to LibraryThing, although I like goodreads form better – it’s a little clearer on what should go in each field.
- Adding books that you find in your searches is much quicker at goodreads than at LibraryThing.
- Whether you’re looking at just the book record or a list of books, you can add a title to your list of books with two clicks. To do this, look at a list of books. Each one has five stars next to its title, as well as the phrase “add to my books.” If you click on the number of stars you would give the item, it will automatically add it to your list of books.
- After adding the book in such a way, your option changes to “add my review.” We’ll come back to that momentarily.
- The other choice “Add to my books,” will open up a form, which allows you more customization. Among other things, you can select a “shelf” on which to place the book you’re adding.
- “Shelves” fall into several generic categories, but you can also customize and make your own shelf names. This can be great if you have a large collection of items, and you want to be able to differentiate them better.
- By clicking on the drop-down menu next to “choose shelves” you are given the option of selecting from two pre-made shelves, “currently-reading” and “to-read,” as well as the option of creating a new shelf, or editing an existing shelf.
- When you select and name a new shelf, the item is automatically added to that shelf. If you want it to be on more than one shelf, you can look at the item record later, select “edit” next to the bookshelves, and add another shelf to the item.
- If you have more than 50 items added to your goodreads account, you can apply for librarian status. This will give you the ability to edit records.
Item 16: Wikis
This item will be focusing on Wikis.
Simply put, a wiki is website that lets multiple users add, remove and edit content. You don't need to understand HTML (the stuff you see when you view the source of a webpage) and you don't need to know how to use webpage building software. Adding content on a wiki is, with just a few variations, just like using word processing software.
And, even better, you don't need to worry about messing something up - a wiki allows you (or anyone else) to revert to a previously saved version of your webpage. But what if someone changes your entry, one you thought was perfect? A wiki also offers tracking tools that tell you who makes each contribution (the add, the edit, the deletion) and when they made it - you can either revert that page to its previous version or get in touch with the person who made the change.
The collective
Wikis are built by their contributors - readers who add, remove and edit content. And this typically goes one of two ways - an open model where anyone (and I mean anyone) is invited to contribute or a closed model where a select group are invited to contribute. Either way, it is an exercise in trust -whomever contributes is expected to meet certain standards of quality and should expect, should they not reach these standards, that another participant will remove their contributions.
Wikipedia is the best known example of the first model - anyone can participate. Wikipedia does, however, employ staff who will freeze an topic if foul play is reported by readers. Errors and obvious fakeries are often (though, not always) corrected very quickly.
Citizendium is another example of the open model but with increased oversight. The site is including "gentle expert oversight" (staff who check for accuracy) and does not allow for contributor anonymity - contributors must use their real names.
An example of the controlled model? The St. Joseph County Public Library has a limited number of staff members contributing to their SJCPL Subject Guides.
Here at FVRL, we are using wikis in a few different areas:
YA Wiki - This is a place for our staff who work with teens to add thoughts, ideas, ask questions, get answers, and read about what other people are doing.
Building Project Wiki - information about our building projects
IS Fugitive Facts Wiki - This wiki is an attempt at bringing the IS department fugitive file (a collection of hard-to-find, oft-needed facts faithfully collected by librarians and formerly located in a "fugitive file" at the reference desk) to the digital age.
Here are some different places where you can build your own wiki:
And here are some different wikis you might take a look at:
Finally, here are some articles about wikis:
This is a brief article at Online Community Report that discusses when it’s best to use a wiki.
Meredith Farkas has been writing about wikis for years now, and using them for even longer. Take a look at her Wiki’s: A Beginner’s Look. This is an excellent (and short) slide presentation with terrific visuals. You may also want to read her article, Using Wikis to Create Online Communities, on WebJunction.
And there's Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki. Take a look at their What is a Wiki? presentation. Yes, it's a wiki talking about wikis.
Activities:
Simply put, a wiki is website that lets multiple users add, remove and edit content. You don't need to understand HTML (the stuff you see when you view the source of a webpage) and you don't need to know how to use webpage building software. Adding content on a wiki is, with just a few variations, just like using word processing software.
And, even better, you don't need to worry about messing something up - a wiki allows you (or anyone else) to revert to a previously saved version of your webpage. But what if someone changes your entry, one you thought was perfect? A wiki also offers tracking tools that tell you who makes each contribution (the add, the edit, the deletion) and when they made it - you can either revert that page to its previous version or get in touch with the person who made the change.
The collective
Wikis are built by their contributors - readers who add, remove and edit content. And this typically goes one of two ways - an open model where anyone (and I mean anyone) is invited to contribute or a closed model where a select group are invited to contribute. Either way, it is an exercise in trust -whomever contributes is expected to meet certain standards of quality and should expect, should they not reach these standards, that another participant will remove their contributions.
Wikipedia is the best known example of the first model - anyone can participate. Wikipedia does, however, employ staff who will freeze an topic if foul play is reported by readers. Errors and obvious fakeries are often (though, not always) corrected very quickly.
Citizendium is another example of the open model but with increased oversight. The site is including "gentle expert oversight" (staff who check for accuracy) and does not allow for contributor anonymity - contributors must use their real names.
An example of the controlled model? The St. Joseph County Public Library has a limited number of staff members contributing to their SJCPL Subject Guides.
Here at FVRL, we are using wikis in a few different areas:
YA Wiki - This is a place for our staff who work with teens to add thoughts, ideas, ask questions, get answers, and read about what other people are doing.
Building Project Wiki - information about our building projects
IS Fugitive Facts Wiki - This wiki is an attempt at bringing the IS department fugitive file (a collection of hard-to-find, oft-needed facts faithfully collected by librarians and formerly located in a "fugitive file" at the reference desk) to the digital age.
Here are some different places where you can build your own wiki:
- MediaWiki (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki)
- Peanut Butter Wiki (http://pbwiki.com/)
- Swiki (http://wiki.squeak.org/swiki/)
- Tiddlywiki (http://tiddlyspot.com/)
- Very Quick Wiki (http://www.vqwiki.org/)
- For a larger list, see Wikipedia’s list of wiki software (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wiki_software).
And here are some different wikis you might take a look at:
- Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page)
- Wikimedia Commons (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page)
- WikiBooks (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page)
- WikiTravel (http://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page)
- WikiHow (http://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page)
- Library Instruction Wiki (http://instructionwiki.org/)
- Pierce County Library Wiki (http://wiki.piercecountylibrary.org/)
- The Stevens County Rural Library District Wiki (http://www.scrldwiki.org/index.php/Main_Page)
- Outline Garfield County Public Library Wiki (https://gcplswiki.wikispaces.com/Contest) for their Social Networking Contest.
Finally, here are some articles about wikis:
This is a brief article at Online Community Report that discusses when it’s best to use a wiki.
Meredith Farkas has been writing about wikis for years now, and using them for even longer. Take a look at her Wiki’s: A Beginner’s Look. This is an excellent (and short) slide presentation with terrific visuals. You may also want to read her article, Using Wikis to Create Online Communities, on WebJunction.
And there's Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki. Take a look at their What is a Wiki? presentation. Yes, it's a wiki talking about wikis.
Activities:
- First, watch the Wikis In Plain English video.
- Read 1 article about what wikis are and how they can be used.
- Look at some different wikis. While you browse through them, think about who the target audience is, what the purpose of the wiki is, and how well it seems to be fulfilling that purpose.
- Now, write a blog post about what you think about wikis - what have you learned about them? What are your concerns? What other kinds of projects would a wiki be a good tool for? Have you ever used a wiki, and what was your experience with it at that time? Or anything else wiki-related that strikes your fancy.
Item 17: Cool Stuff
Spend a little time checking up on sites you visited or joined earlier. Try to find people in your MySpace, Facebook, or other account. Look up stuff in Technorati, and comment on people's blogs. Or, check out some of these sites, and form strong opinions about them:
The Blog Readability Test - If you put the URL of your blog into the search box, you can find out what level of reading ability is needed to read your blog. Once you've gotten your level, you can get a little badge to put on your blog to let your readers know.
Sketchcast - draw pictures, record the process of drawing, and make a little movie of the whole process. Sounds strange, i know, but some people think better with pictures.
Scrabulous - This is a site where you can play games with other people online for free. The game is suspiciously like Scrabble, but is called "Scrabulous." If you have a Facebook account, you can get a Scrabulous application for your account, and play with other facebook users. Video games like this are integral to the internet and technology, and most of them are not what people tend to think of as "video games" (violent, with people shooting each other). Most games are simple and straightforward and familiar, like Scrabulous or solitaire.
Speaking of online video games, you can improve your typing skills over at Wordshoot, a game where you are continuously being attacked by people and tanks and things. Each attacker has a word next to them, and approaches you at a steady rate. Your job is to type the word next to each attacker and hit Enter before the attacker gets to you. By doing this, you shoot your attacker and continue with the game. No, it's not very graphic - the characters are about 2-3mm tall.
Yahoo! Answers - On the 10th day of every month, librarians around the world do something called "Slam the Boards!" where they sign on to places like Yahoo! Answers, and answer questions for people. There are multiple reasons for this - first, people out there are asking questions. Librarians and people who work in libraries are good at answering questions. Second, a lot of the people who answer questions on Yahoo! Answers are not good at answering questions, so the people asking the questions end up not getting goo answers to their questions. So, go show them how it's done! Sign up for an account, look for a question or two that you can answer, write a nice, concise answer, cite your sources, provide links to more information, and submit it. You might not be the first person to answer the question, but if you take a few moments to make a good answer, you could be the "best answer" and get some points! What do the points mean? Well... not much. But they're points! Everyone likes points, right?
Pick one or several of these strange tools, and try them out. If you have trouble with making them work, make a note of it. In your blog, talk about what things you tried and what happened.
The Blog Readability Test - If you put the URL of your blog into the search box, you can find out what level of reading ability is needed to read your blog. Once you've gotten your level, you can get a little badge to put on your blog to let your readers know.
Sketchcast - draw pictures, record the process of drawing, and make a little movie of the whole process. Sounds strange, i know, but some people think better with pictures.
Scrabulous - This is a site where you can play games with other people online for free. The game is suspiciously like Scrabble, but is called "Scrabulous." If you have a Facebook account, you can get a Scrabulous application for your account, and play with other facebook users. Video games like this are integral to the internet and technology, and most of them are not what people tend to think of as "video games" (violent, with people shooting each other). Most games are simple and straightforward and familiar, like Scrabulous or solitaire.
Speaking of online video games, you can improve your typing skills over at Wordshoot, a game where you are continuously being attacked by people and tanks and things. Each attacker has a word next to them, and approaches you at a steady rate. Your job is to type the word next to each attacker and hit Enter before the attacker gets to you. By doing this, you shoot your attacker and continue with the game. No, it's not very graphic - the characters are about 2-3mm tall.
Yahoo! Answers - On the 10th day of every month, librarians around the world do something called "Slam the Boards!" where they sign on to places like Yahoo! Answers, and answer questions for people. There are multiple reasons for this - first, people out there are asking questions. Librarians and people who work in libraries are good at answering questions. Second, a lot of the people who answer questions on Yahoo! Answers are not good at answering questions, so the people asking the questions end up not getting goo answers to their questions. So, go show them how it's done! Sign up for an account, look for a question or two that you can answer, write a nice, concise answer, cite your sources, provide links to more information, and submit it. You might not be the first person to answer the question, but if you take a few moments to make a good answer, you could be the "best answer" and get some points! What do the points mean? Well... not much. But they're points! Everyone likes points, right?
Pick one or several of these strange tools, and try them out. If you have trouble with making them work, make a note of it. In your blog, talk about what things you tried and what happened.
Item 18: Online Applications/Tools: Google Docs
The availability and use of online productivity web-based applications (think word processing and spreadsheets) has exploded over the past two years and for good reasons! These powerful applications provide users with the ability to create and share documents over the internet without the need of installed desktop applications. Some experts speculate that this emerging trend may mean the death to Microsoft Office and other software-based productivity tools, while others think web-based applications have their place, but not in the office. But no matter which side of the office suite platform you side with, on this both sides seem to agree; web-based apps have their place.
One large benefit to web-based applications it that they eliminate the need to worry about different software versions or file types as you email documents or move from PC to PC. Another bonus is that they easy accommodate collaboration by allowing multiple users to edit the same file (with versioning) and provide users the ability to easily save and convert documents as multiple file types (including HTML and pdf). And, you can even use many of these tools, such as Google Docs and Zoho Writer and to author and publish posts to your blog. It’s this type of integration with other web 2.0 tools that also makes web-based apps so appealing.
We will be taking a look at Google Docs, the Google online productivity suite.
Activities:
1. Check out the Common Craft video "Google Docs in Plain English" to see why Google Docs make a lot of sense.
2. Go to Google Docs at http://docs.google.com/ and sign in using the Google account you created when you started your blog (if you're already logged in, you can skip to the next step).
3. Once you're in Google Docs, take the "Quick Tour" to find out more. At the end of the tour, click on "Try it out."
4. Create a new document, spreadsheet or presentation. Add some information and save it. Check out the Share option in the top right corner of the page. You can send other people an invitation to view and edit the file you just created.
5. Now look at the Publish option. If you type up a document in Google Docs, you can use the publish option to send it to your Blogger blog.
6. What do you think? Let us know in your blog. Use Google Docs to write the blog post, then use the tools there to post it directly to your blog.
One large benefit to web-based applications it that they eliminate the need to worry about different software versions or file types as you email documents or move from PC to PC. Another bonus is that they easy accommodate collaboration by allowing multiple users to edit the same file (with versioning) and provide users the ability to easily save and convert documents as multiple file types (including HTML and pdf). And, you can even use many of these tools, such as Google Docs and Zoho Writer and to author and publish posts to your blog. It’s this type of integration with other web 2.0 tools that also makes web-based apps so appealing.
We will be taking a look at Google Docs, the Google online productivity suite.
Activities:
1. Check out the Common Craft video "Google Docs in Plain English" to see why Google Docs make a lot of sense.
2. Go to Google Docs at http://docs.google.com/ and sign in using the Google account you created when you started your blog (if you're already logged in, you can skip to the next step).
3. Once you're in Google Docs, take the "Quick Tour" to find out more. At the end of the tour, click on "Try it out."
4. Create a new document, spreadsheet or presentation. Add some information and save it. Check out the Share option in the top right corner of the page. You can send other people an invitation to view and edit the file you just created.
5. Now look at the Publish option. If you type up a document in Google Docs, you can use the publish option to send it to your Blogger blog.
6. What do you think? Let us know in your blog. Use Google Docs to write the blog post, then use the tools there to post it directly to your blog.
Item 19: Audio/Video - Music and other Audio
This item will introduce you to some of the ways that Web 2.0 technologies are being used in the world of audio.
Activities:
- Go check out some different social networking music sites. Look around their home pages and see which one appeals to you.
- Some of these websites have software that you can be downloaded to a computer, but that is not necessary.
- Internet Archive - a non-profit organization that is attempting to archive a great deal of digital content and keep it free and open to the public. There are scanned books, concerts, audiobooks, speeches, podcasts, videos, and more.
- Absolute Sound Effects Archive - for when you're getting creative with your video or podcast, and you need some good sound effects to spruce things up.
- Gutenberg.org's Audio Book collection - you can find a lot of recorded books, and download them to your computer or music player. Most of the books are classics in the public domain, but they're free, which is a lot cheaper than buying most recorded books new.
- Mango Languages is a site where you can listen to and also see the corresponding writing of a variety of World languages. Language learning is a whole different type of sound experience, and there are quite a few sites out there that are providing language learning classes both for free and for a fee. Mango is free.
Activities:
- Look through these sites and try some of them out. Be sure to tag these sites in del.icio.us.
- Write a blog post about what you've discovered, and what you thought was interesting. More ideas: What appeals to you about these services? What doesn't appeal to you? Is this anything that a library could ever make use of? Is it something you would make use of? Are CDs dead?
Item 20: Audio/Video - Podcasting
In this unit we look at podcasts and podcasting.
If these words are new to you, let's back up - a 'podcast' is a non-music audio or video recording that is distributed over the internet. The distribution is what makes a podcast unique. It's also what makes a podcast powerful - interested listeners or watchers can receive updates through RSS when new content is posted. You can read Wikipedia's entry on Podcasts for additional information.
Variety
Podcasts come in many shapes and sizes. They can be brief (like those you've seen in Learning 2.0) or considerably longer (interviews, panel discussions, radio shows, etc). They can be slickly produced radio broadcasts or home-grown recordings done with a $30 microphone and free software.
And, despite the name, you don't need an iPod or a MP3 player to listen or watch - all you need is a computer with headphones or speakers.
Find a podcast
iTunes, free software from Apple, is the directory finding service most commonly associated with podcasts. It's tied to their online store but everything is free - you can browse by topic or search by keyword. iTunes also includes an amazing capacity for actually downloading the content you subscribe to automatically. And anyone can submit content for inclusion.
But what if you don't use iTunes? There are plenty of other options.
Podcast.net is one
Podcastalley.com is another
Yahoo Podcasts is still another
Many podcast creators also post links to their podcasts on their websites. The NPR radio show Radio Open Source, for example, featured an excellent program on web 2.0 tagging, classification schemes, and libraries. I missed the show but downloaded and listened to the podcast.
If you are interested, here are some articles about librarians and podcasting to get a library perspective of the phenomenon:
Activities:
1. Take a look at one of the three podcast directories listed above.
2. Do some searching; locate some interesting library-related podcasts.
3. Add the RSS feed for the one you like best to your Bloglines account.
4. Create a blog post about your discovery process. Did you find anything useful here?
If these words are new to you, let's back up - a 'podcast' is a non-music audio or video recording that is distributed over the internet. The distribution is what makes a podcast unique. It's also what makes a podcast powerful - interested listeners or watchers can receive updates through RSS when new content is posted. You can read Wikipedia's entry on Podcasts for additional information.
Variety
Podcasts come in many shapes and sizes. They can be brief (like those you've seen in Learning 2.0) or considerably longer (interviews, panel discussions, radio shows, etc). They can be slickly produced radio broadcasts or home-grown recordings done with a $30 microphone and free software.
And, despite the name, you don't need an iPod or a MP3 player to listen or watch - all you need is a computer with headphones or speakers.
Find a podcast
iTunes, free software from Apple, is the directory finding service most commonly associated with podcasts. It's tied to their online store but everything is free - you can browse by topic or search by keyword. iTunes also includes an amazing capacity for actually downloading the content you subscribe to automatically. And anyone can submit content for inclusion.
But what if you don't use iTunes? There are plenty of other options.
Podcast.net is one
Podcastalley.com is another
Yahoo Podcasts is still another
Many podcast creators also post links to their podcasts on their websites. The NPR radio show Radio Open Source, for example, featured an excellent program on web 2.0 tagging, classification schemes, and libraries. I missed the show but downloaded and listened to the podcast.
If you are interested, here are some articles about librarians and podcasting to get a library perspective of the phenomenon:
Activities:
1. Take a look at one of the three podcast directories listed above.
2. Do some searching; locate some interesting library-related podcasts.
3. Add the RSS feed for the one you like best to your Bloglines account.
4. Create a blog post about your discovery process. Did you find anything useful here?
Item 21: Audio/Video: Video
The last of our audio/video section will cover the video arena.
Video sharing sites are a type of social networking site that focuses on video clips. As with all social networking sites, users create profiles for themselves. Users of these sites can upload video clips, share them, and try to get lots of people to watch their clips.
- Take a look at these video sharing websites:
- YouTube - This is the big one that makes the news, but there are plenty of other ways to share video out there, like…
- blip.tv
- MetaCafe - MetaCafe actually pays its users to upload videos. Well, sort of. People have to really like your video, but if it gets viewed enough it can start making money.
- Viddler - add keyword tags to the video, like YouTube, but also add tags and comments to parts of the video (like flickr).
- You Are TV
- Revver uses an ad-based system to pay producers of popular content.
- Try searching for similar things in each different site. How do the searches work? How are the results organized? What can you do with your results?
- Check out this article at Resourceshelf that profiles some sites that help with the search process - try one of their searches and see what happens.
- Try using a service like dabble to gather groups of your favorite videos from everywhere so that you can share a whole list, and ‘dabble’ in other people’s lists. Think of the collection development possibilities for libraries - YouTube and other sites are chock full of how-tos and craft videos, not just people acting stupid for the camera.
- Check out these two science video sites: Sciencehack and JoVE. To read more about them both, see this Infodoodads post.
- Explore other video related sites:
- Jumpcut, an online video editing and sharing site - it’s newer than the other ones, but being able to edit video online will be a big bonus for many people or institutions who haven’t gone out and bought a video editing program for their computers.
- YouPlayer is an add-on you can get for your Firefox browser that lets you drag and drop videos from any site into a list that you keep on your browser.
- KeepVid, a site that allows you to download videos from almost any of the main video sharing sites. Not a 2.0 tool in and of itself, but an inevitable bridge between the many platforms out there.
- Zamzar, an online file conversion site that allows you to convert files to different types without downloading software onto your computer - a great benefit for those of you who don’t have administrative access to your computer! Some video and photo sites only take a narrow range of file types, so you need to be able to convert your files from what you have to what they want, in order for you to post.
- Joost is a different type of online video sharing site - it’s offering the content of many channels you find on cable television. Currently it’s in beta, so you’ll have to ask to be invited to try it out. Joost also requires that you download a piece of their software onto your desktop, so you’ll need some administrative access for your work computer, or consider trying it out at home.
- There’s more to video sharing than entertainment - a lot of organizations and individuals create videos to help teach people how to do things. One such series, which focuses on how to use the pbWiki wiki software, can be found at Atomic Learning.
Activities:
- Add some of the sites above to your del.icio.us account.
- Look for something that interests you on YouTube or one of the other video sites. Spend a few minutes exploring (and we mean just a few - it can get addictive). Find a video to feature in a blog post.
- Create a blog post. What did you like or dislike about the site and why did you choose the video that you did? Other possible topics: Can you see any features or components of the site that might be interesting if they were applied to library websites, or other ways videos could be used?
Item 22: Alternative Blogging
This section will introduce you to some alternative forms of blogging.
First, we have microblogging. This is a form of blogging that allows users to write brief text updates (usually less than 200 characters) and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, or the web.
The most popular microblogging site is Twitter. Jaiku is another microblogging site, and while not quite as popular, they are the main competition for Twitter.
For those of you who are using Facebook or MySpace regularly, these microblogging posts are similar to status updates.
Like many other social networking sites we've seen, there are also a variety of mashups and tools available for Twitter.
Some resources to give you more information about Twitter:
The Big Juicy Twitter Guide
Twitter Explained for Librarians, or 10 Ways to Use Twitter from David Lee King's blog
A Guide to Twitter in Libraries from the iLibrarian blog
Another interesting form of alternative is the linkblog. This also employs short blog posts, but instead of just text, the posts are direct links to interesting websites, photos, videos, even quotes. You may also see these referred to as tumblelogs.
Tumblr is a free site where you can create a linkblog.
Here are some examples of some interesting linkblogs:
Steven M. Cohen of the Library Stuff blog is a big fan of linkblogging
Projectionist
The Deplorable Word
And now, let's play with microblogging a bit!
Activities:
1. Go to Twitter, look around, see what you think. Read the articles linked above. Check out some of the Twitter tools/mashups.
2. Create a Twitter account if you are interested.
3. Go to Tumblr and create an account. Make a post or two.
4. Blog your thoughts. What uses can you see for either of these tools?
First, we have microblogging. This is a form of blogging that allows users to write brief text updates (usually less than 200 characters) and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, or the web.
The most popular microblogging site is Twitter. Jaiku is another microblogging site, and while not quite as popular, they are the main competition for Twitter.
For those of you who are using Facebook or MySpace regularly, these microblogging posts are similar to status updates.
Like many other social networking sites we've seen, there are also a variety of mashups and tools available for Twitter.
Some resources to give you more information about Twitter:
The Big Juicy Twitter Guide
Twitter Explained for Librarians, or 10 Ways to Use Twitter from David Lee King's blog
A Guide to Twitter in Libraries from the iLibrarian blog
Another interesting form of alternative is the linkblog. This also employs short blog posts, but instead of just text, the posts are direct links to interesting websites, photos, videos, even quotes. You may also see these referred to as tumblelogs.
Tumblr is a free site where you can create a linkblog.
Here are some examples of some interesting linkblogs:
Steven M. Cohen of the Library Stuff blog is a big fan of linkblogging
Projectionist
The Deplorable Word
And now, let's play with microblogging a bit!
Activities:
1. Go to Twitter, look around, see what you think. Read the articles linked above. Check out some of the Twitter tools/mashups.
2. Create a Twitter account if you are interested.
3. Go to Tumblr and create an account. Make a post or two.
4. Blog your thoughts. What uses can you see for either of these tools?
Item 23: Wrap-Up/Reflections
Wow! Congratulations - you made it! You’ve reached the 23rd thing. Be sure to give yourself a pat on the back for completing the program.
For your last and final activity for this program, please reflect on your learning journey and post a few thoughts. Here are some questions to prompt you if you're drawing a blank ...
And most of all, thank you for participating.
Thanks to your energy and willingness to explore, our collective staff knows so much more. We'll help more patrons and we'll be much more confident when still more new technology comes our way (because it isn't going to stop). We hope you learned a lot and got lots out of the program.
For your last and final activity for this program, please reflect on your learning journey and post a few thoughts. Here are some questions to prompt you if you're drawing a blank ...
- What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
- How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
- Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
- What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
- Feel free to write about whatever else comes to mind.
And most of all, thank you for participating.
Thanks to your energy and willingness to explore, our collective staff knows so much more. We'll help more patrons and we'll be much more confident when still more new technology comes our way (because it isn't going to stop). We hope you learned a lot and got lots out of the program.
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