#14 Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

First of all, technorati is a cute name.
I like the top 100 blogs thing, you can see what goes up and down, billboard style. I also like the integration with twitter. I'm seeing more integration between web 2.0 technologies then I ever did before.
The different searches between Learning 2.0 blogs and posts are big. Only 1 blog out of over a million. Not many more for posts, 10, but I get the point that there would be more tagged entries than blogs for a subject, right?
I found some cool library blogs, too. Definitely a great site for blog cataloging, so to speak.

#13 Tagging, folksonomies & social bookmarking in Del.icio.us

I already have a delicious account and I really like it. Following other people's links, I found some good resources for YA stuff, like BookNut and 4YA. And I found them by other tags and the wonder of folksonomy! I like looking under recent or popular bookmarks, or finding a user who thinks like me and following their links. I think it would be really cool to have tagging like this in the library catalog. Research uses include what we're doing with Diigo... or general groups that can get shared with people with similar interests. Also, it's easy to lose track in these groups when so many people post, so using the RSS feeds to follow them are really cool. A library could make it's own delicious to share cool links with patrons, just like a pathfinder since you can make comments and patrons can participate too.

#12 Finding Feeds

I personally like going to websites I'm interested in and subscribing to feeds that way. Now that I have Google Reader, I can just add the RSS feeds from sites that I check a lot to it. For searching, I liked the Topix.net and the search tool located right in the Google reader. I thought they were the easiest to use/ look at.The searching was a little iffy though... like I said in my other post, it's been a few days since since I signed up for this. When I signed up, I did a lot of searching so I signed up for tons of info, stuff I wouldn't usually visit but was casually interested in, and that is the stuff I least want to read. Maybe if I learn more about Google Reader, I can prioritize my feeds into categories and then I'll know what to read first!

#11 Make life "really simple" with RSS & a newsreader

I went a little overboard on the RSS subscriptions, actually. At first, I really liked them. Now, it's been a few days since signing up and feeds have kind of piled up in Google Reader. Getting the news this way helps me stay updated, however, there are so many of them and they update so frequently, if you don't check them regularly it's a little overwhelming.
It's useful for libraries in updating their patrons on new things in the library. Also, a librarian can stay abreast of new books coming out and what to order for the library, as well as technology and ALA news.

#10 Audiobooks

Okay, so I checked out LibriVox. I think the whole concept of it is really great, and I'm glad that people volunteer. I'm a little wary after watching the video, how interesting would listening be if someone read in monotone or bad cadence (which I'm sure happens as they aren't professionals)? I did see several books that I've been meaning to read listed there. However, I hate audiobooks in general. Like, a lot. So I didn't download any. If I was going to go the e-route for getting them, it'd probably be at Project Gutenberg. I think both sources are valuable for libraries.

#9 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

After checking out websites, I thought that iTunes was much more user-friendly, well-organized and easier to negotiate. I was surprised to learn that there are video, as well as audio, podcasts... I guess the difference between video and a webisode is that the video podcast automatically shows up on your RSS every week when you subscribe.
For audio podcast, I liked This American Life. I watched the tv show when it was on... Showtime, I think it was, and liked it a lot. The radio show/podcast isn't as fun to me as the show, but still great! It interviews people/tells different, unique stories of a few people every week. I was also looking for a podcast that could show me some new music. I usually look at blogs but hey, listening to the review via podcasts lets me hear snippests of music at the same time. I liked Paste Culture Club from Paste magazine, too bad there's been no new podcasts for a year. Second best was WFUV, I guess.
As far as video, I kind of liked Baeble music, which records a song live from a different band in concerts and puts that up for their podcast. The quality and sound was really good for these.
I don't know if I'll keep up with these, my computer kind of lags while waiting for them to load, but it's nice to finally be clear on what a podcast is.

#8 You too can YouTube

So, I actually like youtube a lot, it is diverse, versatile and fun. You can find great live performances of songs people uploaded or find new things like auto-tuning the news or good use for libraries, book trailers. It might be cool to have like smart phone type codes on a book jacket that when you scanned them, info about the book, author, genre and maybe a book trailer pop up...

Anyway, embedding youtube videos. Here's my favorite song, performed live:


Now, here's that song covered by my favorite singer:



And then, I actually made a youtube account and posted video. I have a group project for my 517 class where we have to observe a cultural event and my group picked the Ukrainian festival. We went at separate times and I needed to share the videos I took with them (though my camera takes film very poorly).
Here's some Ukrainian dancing:

#7 More Flickr Fun

Flickr Montager: Okay, maybe it's just me, but I didn't like this one. I finally figured out how to make it montage a specific photo, but I had to think about it. Didn't we just read about how that's a Krug no-no? Where's the info/instruction page? And are you not allowed to save a montage after you create it? I didn't think the ones it did make were too great either.



                                                              on the other hand was easy and cool.

I also kind of liked the trading cards. Here's one I liked....

#6 Discovering Flickr

Wow, so there is a lot of stuff flickr offers. There were so many things on the intro tour that I hardly remember them. Something cool I saw was the library 365 project. The goal being to take 365 pictures of your library, something I wish my public library had. There's a group that lists what to include in your tag so all the photos from this project can be together. Informational and artistic!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cityteamdr/1762330325/
^ This is a photo from Hurricane Katrina. After seeing the tag "hurricaneearl" being used so often in the past week, I decided to look at some "huricanekatrina" tags. I liked the photo because it's aesthetically pleasing and also made me think about how much hurricanes can destroy infrastructure. There were probably an unimaginable number of water bottles there. I wonder if there were recycled into new bottles or used in some other creative/rebuilding way.

(#4) test post on 7 1/2 habits

I would say my biggest strength listed in the 7 1/2 habits presentation is #2: accept responsibility for learning. When I am taking a class, I always read the syllabus and readings thoroughly and don't blame life/other people/the professor if I don't learn something or complete it on time.
My weakness is probably #7: teaching or mentoring others. In a small group setting, I may be okay but I have trouble with speaking in front of large groups. My nervousness sometimes makes me lose track of thought or muddle words so the people I am presenting something to don't quite get it.