My thoughts on 23 Things

I am very glad I've done this programme, and also that finally I can have a break from it! Doing it largely in my own time, during a few months which have been very busy and very stressful, have made it a bit of an ordeal, and there have been times when I thought I was going to be prevented from finishing on time, just by unfortunate events.
So I actually feel that it's a small, but significant, achievement.

Looking back, I realise I knew so little about web 2.0 before I started. Well, let's be honest, I didn't even know what it meant, though of course I knew some of its aspects without that label. There was a lot to learn, therefore, and I have! Not only have I gleaned practical knowledge about using the technology (and isn't it great that there are so many programmes free on the net!), but I have also gained insight into how it can be (and is) used by libraries in various ways.

My favourite thing just has to be actually blogging. And my least favourite? Twitter, closely followed by LinkedIn and such networking tools. It's fine if that's what you want to do, but I don't. Because of time constraints I haven't really done many of the 'other things', which I regret - but will perhaps be able to catch up on this at a later date.

Reading the blogs of others doing 23 Things has proved fascinating, and an inspiration in that so many people have uploaded such marvellous photos etc. There is clearly so much I could do if I wanted to get into this kind of thing properly. One day, maybe.

I've had a few ideas about how we could potentially use web 2.0 in our department, but whether that will become a reality remains to be seen.

Using widget to show delicious bookmarks. Or not.

Success! After yesterday's problems, I was about to try to add my bookmarks using a different widget when I remembered that the other possible factor was my user name - I hadn't been quite sure how much of it was required (I'll spare you the boring details). As soon as I typed in the version I'd not tried yesterday, lo and behold, all my bookmarks popped into their box on my igoogle page. Most satisfactory - it even inspired me to have a brief look at my chosen sites. I couldn't believe it had been that simple in the end.
And I quite like the idea of igoogle as my home page, but I would really have to make it work for me and not let it become a distraction.

Blogger Gadget

Well, this was a palaver for not much of a result - all my own incompetence, I hasten to add. First, I mistook my yahoo log in for my yahoo user name, and couldn't work out why it wouldn't work. Then it still wouldn't work until I saved it. Then it did work. Sort of. Only one photo has appeared, which is less than a stream, I would say. Admittedly my photos are very few and not really worth exhibitng anyway, but three or four would have been a small stream...
However, having said that, this device is clearly very simple to use, and the basic task has been successfully completed.

ThinkFree Office

This seems quite good, though harder to use than googledocs. I was very disconcerted by the time it took to access, and to download the Java thing, but perhaps this was because I chose to do this at a time when the network was overloaded. I was also surprised that I had to repeat the Java bit the next time as well. That done, however, I finally got to play around and especially liked the way I could add a table. This would be good for when I make up rotas. The idea of being able to work in this off-line is excellent; my home internet link is sooooooooooooooo expensive.

Libraries and Facebook

Having looked at the Facebook pages of various Oxford libraries, it seems to me to be used in the main by colleges and smaller libraries such as the Language Teaching Centre. I was very surprised to see Facebook there at all - I only knew about individuals' pages before, and thought it quite strange when an American friend told me last year that she'd set up a Facebook page for her university department (telling me sadly it still 'had no friends'. I can see advantages to using this medium to communicate with readers: speed/ease of posting, no paper, wide dissemination without the need for multiple notices. This would be very useful for e.g.time-limited messages about workmen, noise, closures (cf snow crisis), new books etc. But I don't see this is any advantage over a blog - unless it's that students are so regularly on Facebook that they check the library page at the same time.
Also, the sections for pictures, RSS feeds and links are a good idea - many things accessible from one place.

What about the more interactive dimension? This is what I don't take to. While it could be useful for staff to ask for specific information, all this 'fan' business and 'so and so likes/d this' seems juvenile and inappropriate in the context. Maybe I'm just an old square (as anyone using this term indubitably is!!)

Google.docs

I think I really like google.docs. I have used it before, although only to open documents which have been sent as e-mail attachments. Or maybe there was one occasion - the first time I came across it - when I actually edited a document and sent it back. This would have been a very easy way of proofreading and editing the articles for our parish magazine for Alice, but I've not done that more than the once. Pity. I would now, definitely. It would have been easy too to make changes, send the document on to the contributors and thence to Alice, so that queries could have been resolved en route. Ah well, I shall know in future.
Playing around trying out the different formats, fonts etc for this Thing was fun. The only real problem was that nothing happened when I tried to insert a special character, so I'm not sure whether diacritics are a possibility or not. I need those quite often. Other than that, creating, saving and sending documents seemed really straightforward. Definitely one to remember about!

Wikipedia

This is not the first time I have used Wikipedia. Several times, when I have been stuck for a piece of information before a class, an on-line search has produced a Wikipedia article. Clearly also, this is the reference tool of choice for today's students, as I have often heard them mention it. This Thing has led to me to go more deeply into it, and actually I find the whole concept pretty interesting: people joining forces to produce an article. I had heard it criticised for inaccuracy, and scaremongering about how easily information can be changed, so I was fairly sceptical abut what I would find. However, I looked at three articles about an author, my home city, and my old college - all of which I know well - and was pleasantly surprised. I suppose this bears out what the information article says about mistakes being quickly corrected by users. Makes sense. The 'discussion' sectin was soemthing I'd not been aware of before, and might be a way of finding peole with shared interests. Or maybe just oddballs. I decided not to join in with any comments because I didn't want to sign up for yet another thing. So all in all, I was a bit disappointed not to collaborate on an article but didn't find anything to add or correct.