Reflections on 2.0

This has been a really fun project for me. I enjoyed working on the 2.0 Team tremendously. I know that I never would have taken any time to sit down and learn about many of the 23 things had I not done this. Many of my work processes have changed as a result of this discovery program. My bookmarks finally make sense, many of my reviews are organized into Bloglines, notes for meetings, IMing has become an integral part of my day. I am looking forward to incorporating even more of the things into my work.

Web 2.0 Award Winners

I looked at many of these winners. A few are just fun/funny but some are incredibly slick. I love, for example, charting the topsy turvy value of my home on Zillow.com for example. I am a sucker for a good on-line to do list and although I did not join, I am intrigued by backpack's organization options. I also like iGoogle and set up a page for myself. Of course, I am so dependent on the research page that I don't use my iGoogle page very much.

Podcasts & Audiobooks

Podcasts remind me of ye olde college days when professors were kind enough to tape record their lectures. What an incredible relief that was for me in Biology class. They also remind me of the advent of webct and online classes - professor's lectures there in print for me to return to as many times as it took. I can't remember if I read this in this exercise (or in Currents about a prof who is recording lectures and podcasting them), but the concept of allowing people/students to actually sit and listen and absorb the discussion (instead of note taking) resonates with me.

Youtube

I enjoy youtube tremendously. It is incredibly distracting, however. For example, I just did a search for libraries on it and instead of watching incredibly informative educational things, I watched "No Cookies in the Library - Classic Sesame Street." I do recommend it. It is a nice view of how people view libraries and librarians. I'd say it was a snapshot in time, but it probably is still accurate. Check out how the librarian says "library." I also fully enjoyed the librarian's apoplexy. Who hasn't encountered some form of apoplexy in a library, or, themselves been apoplectic?

In any case, I do think youtube, or its counterparts could be useful in instruction or as a tool for tour creation. Being a visual learner, I always appreciate and remember best anything that is shown to me - as opposed to spoken to me. I think there are probably lots of clever ways to incorporate this Thing into our lives - work or otherwise.

Online Apps and Firefox Extensions

(among) My two absolute favorite things in this list of 23. I use zoho faithfully. I have used its database creator to keep track of purchases for the funds I manage. I intend to use it for any minutes I need to share in whatever committees I am on over the course of the next year. It is such a wonderful thing to end the days of email attachments. I am equally enamored of Firefox extensions. The LibX add on has been fantastic. I use it often when I am selecting titles. I love the addition of a drop-down list of search options (delicious, google, open worldcat, amazon, etc.)
Similarly, the blogline subscriber tool has been incredibly useful. I also downloaded the proxy server add-on and use it faithfully from home. I can see how these kinds of add-ons would be very useful to our users. A customized, research ready browser would be an excellent resource to share with our users.

Rollyo

Rollyo:

I must say, I had the same initial reaction to rollyo as I have when I walk into a music store. I draw a complete and utter blank. I cannot recall the name of any music I like. Similarly, I couldn't think of a single thing I like to search. Fortunately, I work with smart people and after talking with one of my colleagues, I was able to get over my search amnesia and I saw the utility. This smart colleague used it to create a customized search for one of her classes. I like this idea very much and in the spirit of Web 2.0 am going to steal this idea (I mean, borrow it).

Library 2.0:

I think the key to this whole 2.0 thing is to experiment, be comfortable with experimenting and failing and/or succeeding and or a little of both and mixing the old good (things we like) with the new good (things we like or even don't like but our users like). How could these 2.0 advances not take our users and ourselves some place better? I say bring it on OCLC.

Wikis 2 & Meebo & Yackpack

I went in and added the url to the title "collection planning." I see the point of wikis. I especially see the point for classes with library instruction components. It would be incredibly useful to collaborate with a select few for a class assignment page (I feel I have already written this, but will keep this in my blog anyway). I use Google chat but hold no loyalty to it and would be happy to use meebo. I have installed it on my blog. I'd like to experiment with adding it to class assignment guides and set up on-line chat times with students throughout the quarter. It may be another venue for helping students with their library research, clarifying which resources to try, etc.

Yackpack, or any kind of voice over internet protocol seems like the perfect solution for all of those crazy back and forths we do (on airplanes) in the system for meetings. I'd like to see the UC system invest the money spent on travel to system-wide meetings into really usable, on-line collaborative meeting tools. I think we can get a lot done online and if using set-ups that allow us to hear each other's voices helps turn the worm on this one, then I'll get a microphone (and some duct tape) for my pc and lead the charge.