Let's Dance Now

SUMMARY

At the risk of losing my inner Eeyore, I have to admit 23 Things was a definitely worthwhile and mostly enjoyable endeavor. I appreciated the clear directions, the imbedded links and especially, the ability to end the session when my eyes glazed over...even if that took only 15 minutes. Some tasks require revisiting (rss feeds) for more competency . Some sites are just as well forgotten ( Rollyo) . Some have been added to my favorites (del.icio.us & library 2.0).
But the best is, I am more at ease in this new world and may venture even further. Thank you for the guide & the encouragement! It worked.

Week 9 Podcasts, Video & Audio Downloads

This has been an entertaining week. YouTube is a world in itself. I can imagine that fledgling directors & actors will test their wings there and families & friends can share time in a new dimension. Though there is certainly a plethora of those searching for their 15 minutes, I can appreciate the range of opportunities it offers.
Similarly, podcasts allow for the same type of information/opinion sharing in an auditory format. I was unable to set an rss feed from my computor, but I did find several I would subscribe to if had the capability. Irish Fireside sends travel information & commentary and a Storytelling page on Podcast listed hundreds of entries.
Project Gutenburg seemed like such a worthy endeavor years ago, but now it seems so awkward & limited. But, I guess if the Web shows anything, it show there is no such thing as TMI!

Week 8 Online Productivity & Web 2.0 Awards

A NEW PERSONAL RECORD!!! TWO -2- blogs in One Day!
I spent time this afternoon on Google docs. Made a family calendar for Deep Creek visits, created a test document & emailed it to myself, looked at pages for formatting presentations & spreadsheets. It was astonishing. It would certainly help ME if everyone used just this site so I could learn how to maneuver it quickly. Then ever word processing question wouldnt start with re-inventing the wheel.
But one question remains....is it too late to buy stock? I am in awe of this phenomenon.
I looked at the short list of Web 2.0 award winning sites & saw some now familiar names. Sweet. This should help with additional suggestions for good sites for customer requests.

Wk 7 .2 Sandbox

I did visit the Maryland Sandbox & created a list of my top 10 reads from the nearly 100 ! books I've read since June for the Great Books For Kids Committee. Actually, it was easy to narrow the list to 10.

Week 7 WIKIS

I actually came in on Sunday to work on this section. wha wah.

The most startling sentence I found was: wikis are not a crafted site for casual visitors. I can see this now, but initially I thought that was the allure of them..an instant answer to a quick question ala Wickipedia.

Now that I've seen more examples and uses, I can appreciate the uses of wiking (have I made up a new word?)

I'd still be sceptical of endorsing factual information gleaned from a wiki source, but for book reviews, subject guides, community resource recommendations, and more, the application makes sense!

Many of the sites recommended for sampling I found to be scattered in approach or just redundant ( Sorry, Bull Run Library) The Booklover's Wiki from Princeton has 2 listings for romance or horror books & only 57 listings overall. That isnt worth the time to link to at this point!

However, I marked Library 2.0 in 15 minutes a day. I hope this will a site to keep up with new terminology in the future when I've finished 23 Things!

Week 6 Tagging & Technorati

LOVELOVELOVE the idea for Del.icio.us! Just the perfect vehicle for gathering snips of interests & making connections. Technorati seems understandably self-congratulatory in their tutorial. If this site can help organize & rate 51+ million blogs--well, they deserve unending kudos imo. Following the discovery excercise, I noted that Doris Lessing was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature today and is in the first position in searches! Boing Boing is listed as the top Blog (it is a cultural curiosity, as it states in its mission) and The Golden Compass (a great YA fantasy novel) will be in theaters on Dec 7. Finally, using "learning 2.0" in search field brought 25,916 posts in 678 blogs.

Me...I feel better finding some organization. This is a good week.