The end (of the 23 things)

I’ve been behind schedule throughout the whole programme and am delighted to have met the deadline! I’ve spent more time on this project than I thought I would and not as much time as I would have liked.

I think my favourite task was setting up a blog (thing three). Getting started was easy. Learning bits of HTML to improve the layout of my entries has been fun! Collecting my thoughts together, thinking critically about what I've done and can do and expressing this, has helped me make the most of my experiences. My blog entries will hopefully remind me of available Web 2.0 tools should I need/want to use them in future. Also, seeing each entry add to my archive has emphasized my progress and motivated me to continue.

Every task has been valuable, although in some cases the value has come from simply learning of an application rather than benefiting from what the application does. Joining LinkedIn was once such example for me. I'm glad I joined predominantly because I now know what goes on here. I have returned to the site a couple of times. I have been admitted to the groups I asked to join but still lack the inspiration to really get involved with it. This said, I'm not going to discard LinkedIn immediately. I remember feeling the same way about Facebook a few years ago. Since then, I’ve seen its support increase dramatically, many friends and acquaintances have become members giving me a wider pool of people to network with, and I have become a firm devotee.

I’ve heard it said that Web 2.0 is about the democratization of the Internet. We now have an incredible, almost overwhelming, degree of choice over how and what we share online. New ways of delivering information are changing the way libraries operate. Keeping up with progress in Web 2.0 is a challenge, but has brought great advantages. Several of this programme’s 23 things have improved my work. Wikis have allowed me learn vicariously from the shared stories of fellow library staff in similar situations, Office 2.0 applications have aided collaboration when colleagues have been out of town and using social networking sites appears to be a successful way of engaging with library users. The 23 Things Programme has boosted my confidence for further exploration.

Back to iGoogle and Delicious

On returning to my iGoogle page to add Delicious bookmarks, I decided to edit a few more things. I had got a little bored by the theme so I picked a new one. I noticed that the Russian proverb and picture of the day gadget seemed to be broken. It hadn't changed since I added it in February, so I deleted it. I tried three different gadgets to display my bookmarks and felt that 'My del.icio.us' looked tidiest. I prefer the size of the box and the size of the text and like the relative simplicity of information. The text of 'Del.icio.us bookmarks' was too big and the box took up too much space for me. The third Delicious gadget I tried, entitled 'Delicious', has additional features (you can save your bookmarks in different places) but I don't think I want them, so it seems best to cut out the clutter. I had a look at the editor's choice of gadgets and noticed that they are strangely suitable for a typical British woman; there are gadgets for BBC Good Food recipes, UK national rail enquiries and Dazed and Confused Magazine (British style). I've tried to find out how these are ascribed and have been unsuccessful. I entertained the idea of creating a ficticious account to see if posing as 40-yr-old American man would give me a wildly different set of picks, but this was far more difficult than I anticipated and I gave up before I'd finished registering. I suppose that targeted advertising is often very effective but I find the lack of human touch and genuine opinion a little depressing here. How I wish there really was an editor who could recommend original things to me that I am less likely to seek out myself!

Du d-du d-du Inspector Gadget...

I've been looking forward to this task! I think the Flickr photostream makes a nice addition to my blog. It's colourful and relevant. I added a Google newsreel and deleted it shortly afterwards; juicy current affairs articles just make my blog entries look more boring by contrast! I also decided to add my Twitter updates. Although I haven't been updating these regularly, it seems fitting to add another of the 23 Things applications that I've tried for this project. One thing about Web 2.0 that I find tricky is choice. There is just too much sometimes! I could fill my blog with gadgets but I don't think it would necessarily make it more appealing (in fact, I think too much clutter can confuse, distract and slow-down access to the important bits!). Knowing what to include and what to leave out is something I'm finding difficult not only here on my blog, but on our college library Facebook page too.

ThinkFree Office but not if you're in a hurry

I had to download Java to get to play with ThinkFree Office and I think it was worth it. I was impressed. ThinkFree Office is a lot like Microsoft Office and it's free! It has nice clip art and the spellcheck uses zig-zag lines (just like Word!). It worked slowly on my computer though (sometimes just a little slowly and at other times VERY frustratingly SLOWLY!). After snooping around other 23 Things participants' blogs and reading a few reviews online it seems that delays on this application are a bit of a bother for lots of people.

Google Docs

I experimented with Google Docs this evening. I have used it before in a work context. The team in which I used to work shared a Google Docs spreadsheet online. This was useful when our manager went travelling; he was able to keep up with our progress wherever he was without relying on us to send regular emails. Today however, I tried word-processing and making a presentation with Google. I'm most used to using Microsoft Office programs for these purposes and by comparison, I was a little disappointed. I thought it a shame that the spellcheck highlights misspelt words with yellow; I had used this colour to highlight a word within my document before discovering this. At first I was also a little disppointed to see so few fonts to choose from. Then I tried copying and pasting something I'd typed in my favourite font in a Word document and found that it transferred without a problem! (Yessss!!!) Complaining about Google Docs seems very ungrateful; acquiring a set of tools which do so much for free and that you can save and share online is a boon! There are lots of symbols available to put into your documents. I found the Cyrillic letters quite easily. It's also very easy to insert pictures from elsewhere. Thanks Google!

Wikipedia + pinch of salt

Lots of information on the Internet is unreliable. It seems to be widely acknowledged. Wikipedia doesn’t hide the fact that ‘anyone can edit’ its pages, and I think that as long as we bear this in mind and think critically about what we find, Wikipedia is a very useful resource. Wikipedia has introduced me to all sorts of obscure ‘facts’ very quickly and in an accessible format. I much prefer it to the Encyclopedia Britannica, because I don’t need to log in (and spend time looking for my library card number), because the entries are often more detailed, because it generally displays notes, citations and links on the same page (which makes further research easy) and because there are lots more references to brand new popular culture. In fact, better than all of this I think Wikipedia, through being open about the way its entries are compiled, encourages readers to get into the habit of thinking about authority over information and the validity of what we read and this really should be applied generally. Top publishers print new books which tell us misleading things all the time; when I was little my mother bought me a new Usborne book on Shakespeare which tried to tell me the House of York was represented by the red rose; obviously I was outraged and as a proud Yorkshire girl (age 11) wrote to them immediately to let them know how wrong they were!
I have decided not to edit a Wikipedia page today because I can’t think of or find an entry that I feel would really benefit from my input. I have, however, had a good look at the history and discussions for a number of topics. The discussions are intriguing! I intend to spend more time looking at these in future. It’s encouraging to see lots of nit-picking; the ‘anyones’ who have edited the entry on Rasputin seem to be really quite pedantic. One reader has complained that travelled has been misspelt. Another explains that this word is spelt differently in America and Britain. Interestingly, it seems the British English spelling has remained. A different reader suspects a spot of plagiarism. I noticed that this article is now locked (i.e. it cannot be edited by anyone anymore). This prompted me to find out about Wikipedia administrators (those with the power to lock) and I discovered to my surprise, that they too are volunteers (not employees of Wikipedia) who apparently have to have ‘considerable experience’ and have ‘gained the general trust of the community’. I like Wikipedia even more now!