Week #5 - Wikis

Wikis look like they are a great way to present huge amounts of information in a fairly ordered way. The thing I like about them is that without much effort you can create a fairly functional site for all of your info. Those that want to put in more effort can get excellent results without being masters of web design. The Twilight wiki is a great example of this, however, unlike a website, the information on this blog is no doubt more dynamic/diverse/up-to-date because of multiple editors.

It seems as if a wiki could really evolve and take on a life of its own if given a bit of a push. I like the idea of starting a publicly available wiki on general library information (events, authors, good reads etc.) and seeing where it evolves to with input from staff and the public.

Week #4 - RSS Aggregators/Feeds

• What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?: I love the way that RSS makes syndication real simple. Instead of spending half an hour scouring the internet for all of the sites that you like to keep up to date on, you can just go to your feed location and see all of your updates quickly and easily.
  


• What other sites did you select for your RSS reader?: I am a bit of an online comic fan, so I chose a few of my favourites and subscribet to their feeds. Also an RSS that I set up recently for Azelia Ley Museum.
  
  • Maneggs
  • White Ninja Comics
  • The Perry Bible Fellowship
  • Fat-pie
  • Azelia Ley Homestead Museum


• How do you think you might be able to use this technology?: As mentioned above, using it to RSS our library events lists to facebook, twitter etc. Pulling all the online comics I read into one location.
  


• How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?: It seems that a lot of what we deal with in the online library environment is in lists. Lists of events, book titles, blog entries etc. Instead of having to reproduce these lists in various places it is great that we can use rss to feed them all over the place and only update one.

Week #3 - Sharing Images

A few years ago I decided it would be a good idea to get my grandparents to write their memoirs. It took a lot of hassling them, but finally they gave in and began writing their stories. A few months later my Grandma died. She had penned a couple of pages which, written in her old-fashioned way, were amazing. Its quite sad that now I have remarkably few images and next-to-no knowledge of what her life was like.

A blog/flickr mix of the histories of the elderly would be a great project for any library and its customers. The photo I chose reminded me that I must start digitizing my grandpas story.

Week #2 - Introduction to Blogs

Welcome to adrianswebtwopointzeroblog. I figured for my first post it was probably a good idea to answer the questions asked in the lesson for this week.

• What do you hope to learn from the program?: I hope to discover some new web 2.0 technologies as well as some new things I didn't know about web 2.0 tecnologies that I already use.
  


• What do you think about Lifelong Learning?: I am a big fan of the concept of lifelong learning. My major aspirations for the future are becoming more adept at playing the piano, learning Mandarin and memorizing some more poems. I havent signed any contracts for these yet, but I do have a toolkit set up for a couple of them.
  


• What other blogs have you discovered? What do you like about them?: I have discovered a huge number of great blogs on the net. One of my most frequented would be Stack Overflow. This is a programming q & a blog and helps me heaps with my javascripting. The number of contrubutors and amount of info makes it an important resource for me. Also the Cockburn Libraries Public Blog is a pretty amazing blog to visit.
  


• Can you see a use for blogs inside the Library?: I know blogs have a huge role in the library of today and will have many unforseen uses in the library of the future. In fact, I think the blog should play a large role in any organization that manages a number of staff.
  


• How about blogging for a client audience?: Much like blogging for the purposes of keeping staff informed and up to date, blogs can and should serve the same purpose for clients. Increasing use of RSS and other web 2.0 technologies and compatible hardware such as smart phones and ipads etc. means that clients can be notified/informed/kept up to date anywhere and at any time using the blog.