fun time,again, or Quest 10

Well, I spent a long time on Slideroll, but ended up loosing everything. It's worth trying again, though. Fun!
I love one sentence, but couldn't think of anything profound enough to say in one sentence. All of this is sort of like looking a Favorite new things on the web, a great site I'd bookmarked and have used for years. Who knew these things were out there???

And, of course, there's chocolate!

Wiki wondering

I was enthused by the promise and supposed ease of wikis when I first heard of them. Some of the promise is born out in the examples given in this exercise. The book lover's one is great and visually appealing too and the SCLA one is attractive, well organized and very functional. What quickly became apparent to me in looking at these as well as trying to start for the Web 2.0 committee, is that design counts a lot. If you don't know what end you have in mind you end up with a static page and a page that is difficult to navigate and use. I supposed that's OK, as it's part of a learning curve with technology, but a badly designed wiki sort of sours its users on wikis in general. I think I've been guilty of that, but I at least I tried.

All that being said, I think there's a place for wikis. They aren't the magic bullet to get around the pitfalls of web pages, but they do allow quick and easy creation, giving almost everyone a chance to get their hands in. And the ability to work on group projects is great. I'm not sure I trust enough to the masses to have an all out open wiki, but the idea is intriguing as long as everyone knows that the content may have pitfalls.

Quest 8

OK, I'm feeling like a geezer. It's not apparent to me how to change the skin of my MySpace page or much of anything else. Guess I need to spend a little more time, but the other quests went faster.
On the plus side, I think the Obama MySpace session scheduled for later today is very interesting and a true demonstration of how the web is changing the political process. Who would have dreamed that a presidential candidate would do this??
And on the geezer note, I know these sites are popular, but I don't really know why I would spend time here. The social networking aspects of Flickr come to me more easily. I'd like to see Facebook, but hate to set up another account that will get little use.
Am I alone in this, or does everyone else "get it?"

Quest 7 Photosharing

I love Flickr and seeing what others have added. Just went through many of Kathy S.'s (My Book House)photos from Festival Hispano and the Teen Institute--which looks like it was great! Almost like being there! Kathy's great abut adding images often, a trait that really makes Flickr work.. I also like that she tags her pics on this and other Flickr accounts with Charleston County Public Library. And her tags led me to other CCPL one, then to others tagged Big Read. Oh wait---this isn't the tagging quest, is it? How smart you guys are(to have exercises that reinforce each other!) And the cool toys. I already have a trading card, so thought I'd make a badge. How cool!

Tagging

Part 1.
I have to confess that I set up a Delicous account at the State Library class, was enthused and used it for a while, and then let it slide. I still think it's a great tool and one that has real possibilies for CCPL. Think of areas of specializes interest or seaching, such as Business or Geneaolgy, and then think of being able to tape the brains of staff who do this type of reference all of the time. Wouldn't that be great? Have worries about your computer crashing and loosing all of your Favorites? It can happen...
So, guess I need to go back and start using mine in order to sound convincing, right?
Part 2
Well, I went to Technorati to see if I could claim my other blog, Stafflines. I did and added a button to a post there. Of course it's the only thing that I've done on that one in over a month. Once agian, I have to find my way back to this sort of activity as a regular part of my work.
Did a very general search for public libraries on Technorati. I love the clean appearance of the page, the way the search terms are highlighted, the way it pull videos into the search with photos, the tabs at the top to break it into categories. Much more interesting than a google search and a much different set of results! Of course it's not the same search, but it is so easy to forget that there is such a difference and how important it is to be focused.

play time

Hope you can see that this wonderful star flashes, courtesy Imagechef, and also says, We're all Tech Stars, Right? Well, we are, aren't we?
These sorts of things are such fun. I can't imagine being the person who thought up how to make this work, but I appreciate it and the fact that we can use this, and other equally fun things, easily and at no charge. Way cool!

Rss is a great idea, but....

RSS? I started a bloglines account several months ago and was quite diligent about doing my professional reading. Along came The Big Read and bloglines went by the wayside. I should probably mark everything as read and start over.
But, in case you want to see how embarassingly behind I am, here's my list of what I'm not reading.
http:///www.bloglines.com/public/stafflines