Another bear at St Hilda's

Picnik

My photos are generally rubbish and I have got used to editing them with simple Windows software and an old and basic version of the Camedia Master software that came with my camera. Usually I edit only to the extent of cropping and altering light contrast and colour saturation. Picnik has opened my eyes to new and more creative ways of editing my pictures. Adding stickers is especially good fun! I avoided people when taking photos for my Flickr account, trying to disturb others as little as possible and respect their privacy. I hope to find a few willing participants for my Web 2.0 investigations however, who will allow me to take pictures of their faces and give them Picnik beards.

Flickr

I've visited Flickr lots of times before today, but always to view other people's accounts. I uploaded my first photo on to Flickr this evening! I found it quite confusing and difficult to navigate, perhaps because there are many features and the terminology is not always clear. Today I found 'a view of [my] 14 most popular bits, ordered by interestingness'. I don't know what this means. I've spent some time fruitlessly trying to find out how the 'interestingness' of my pictures is decided and have given up in frustration. However, Flickr is not all bad; I like being able to organize my pictures with tags and the possibility of sharing my photos with others online on a site dedicated solely to pictures (unlike Facebook and MySpace).

Time for some classification

I've spent more time looking for blogs to subscribe to, and have picked many diverse sites: some on libraries, some on fashion, some on learning Russian, I've also added lots of news websites. The opportunities that plain-looking Google Reader provide suddenly seem more valuable. Being able to organize my subscriptions is great and I found it fairly easy to add subscriptions too!

Google Reader

After spending lots of time messing around with iGoogle and my blog, finding lots of delight in trying to make them aesthetically pleasing, Google Reader seemed regrettably sober and utilitarian. I realise however, that if I was following more blogs more seriously with a strong desire to see every post, Google Reader could save me lots of time.

Any old Joe blogs

I like lots of blogs. I found this one last Spring:

http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1459

It was set up by a couple of librarians. It's full of lots of beautiful illustrations and the bloggers' passion for their topic is warming. I find it inspirational. I've had a look at quite a few blogs that have been made by participants of the 23 Things Oxford programme. It's nice to see so much enthusiasm and comparing other people's views and progress to my own is motivating.

I've thought about the blogs I like best and the five tips for effective blogging that I found at

http://marketing.about.com/od/marketingmethods/tp/blogmarketing.htm

seem applicable. Bloggers who let their 'voice shine through' and those who 'keep it simple' seem to keep my attention for longer.

Http & Https

The 23 Things Oxford programme prompted me to find out the difference between Http and Https, so I did a bit of research. According to www.wisegeek.com, http stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol and is a system for transmitting and receiving information across the Internet. Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (Https), is described on Wikipedia as 'a combination of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol with the SSL/TLS protocol to provide encryption and secure identification of the server'. In short, it seems Https is used when there is an exchange of confidential information with a server, which needs to be secured in order to prevent unauthorized access. I checked Facebook and found the website address was preceded by Http, until I logged in and it changed to Https as I hoped it would!

iGoogle

I set up a Google ID and made myself a nice new iGoogle page a while ago. I like to keep it as my personalised homepage largely because I find the theme I chose super-attractive! I've spent a lot of time adding and deleting gadgets to make it as pretty and appealing to myself as possible. There seems to be an almost overwhelming array of them and they vary greatly in quality. However, I pay little attention to my iGoogle page most days; I forget to check the current moon phase and the Russian word of the day and go straight to my favourite sites from my history in the drop-down search box. Old habits die hard I suppose.

Hopes

The term 'Web 2.0' was apparently coined in 2004 to distiguish a shift in the way people began to create and consume information on the web.* Web 2.0, the current phase of the Internet, has taken readers beyond static web pages and into the realms of online communities and collaboration through social software.

For a long time I've liked the idea of exploiting lots of Web 2.0 technologies to see what they do and how to use them, but I've found excuses to not bother: because I can't think of a topic to focus a blog on; because I don't know how to start and because I don't have any guidance etc. etc.. The 23 Things Oxford Programme has expelled some of my excuses. Doing a couple of Web 2.0 things a week sounds like good IT-literacy exercise really. I also quite fancy a challenge and a certificate for my efforts - it harks back to my days as a Brownie. I hope I meet the deadline!

* Kroski, Ellyssa. (c.2008). Web 2.0 for librarians and information professionals. London : Neal-Schuman. p.2.