23 things: a summary

So, thing 23! It's been an interesting experience, and for the most part a positive one. I've found out more about some web 2.0 tech that I was already using, and discovered some new ones as well. I particularly liked iGoogle and related sites like Google Reader and Google Docs. I like the idea of being able to access all these things through one login, and it's all really straightforward to set up. I've been using Pageflakes as my homepage until now, but iGoogle has more features and seems to be a lot more reliable. I also liked picture editing with Picnik, which could be useful at work and at home, and wikis - we've already made good use of those at work. They're a great way of keeping everyone in the loop when you're working on a project such as reclassification.
I'm still not entirely sold on Twitter. I can see its uses for work, getting short messages to lots of people very quickly, but I can't see myself using it for personal updates - I can never think of anything interesting to say! Delicious is a useful tool, but the layout design could be improved. LinkedIn is useful provided there's a critical mass of people using it regularly, and it does give you an incentive to keep your CV updated.
Overall it's been very illuminating, and I hope I'll be able to make good use of what I've found out over the past few weeks.

Gadgets on iGoogle

Adding a gadget on iGoogle seems to have been more successful - I now have a box on my iGoogle homepage with a list of all my current delicious bookmarks. I think the system for adding gagdets on iGoogle is better designed than Blogger - I find the layout clearer, it's easier to search for things, there's more choice and it works straight away - no need to fiddle about with the settings.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Blogger gadgets

As you can see, I've added the Google newsreel at the top and a Flickr photostream at the bottom of the page. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be displaying very well from what I can see but that could be my browser... Still, it's useful to have these things on your blog so they can be accessed easily.

ThinkFree Office

ThinkFree Office has better functionality, more choice of fonts etc. than Google Docs, but I actually found it quite slow and buggy. It could be a problem with my PC or browser settings, but even allowing for that, it took several minutes to load and once it had finally opened a page it was very slow to react when I tried to change fonts or type new text.

Google Docs

Google Docs has quite basic functionality, but that can be an advantage as it's easy to learn how to use it. You can do most of the things you'd do with Word or Open Office, and backing up your documents online is handy and makes it easier to share with others.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is another site that I probably use quite a lot. I don't rely on it for research assignments but it's quite good for short definitions and settling arguments! I updated the Bodleian Law Library page to include a few extra bits of information about changes to our IT services and OULS' change of name to the Bodleian Libraries.

Wikis

I've been signed up to the web 2.0 wiki for about a year now, ever since I started working on a podcast for the law library as a trainee. I've just added an entry about my experiences of Prezi.com if anyone's interested - it's software for creating online guides, and it was one of the things mentioned in one of the sessions at the Staff Conference.
I like wikis - again, they're quick and easy to set up and use, and are a simple way of keeping everyone in a group informed about new developments on a project.

More Twitter

As advised, I've tried to engage with Twitter a bit more. I've added a post under the tag '#ox23' describing my experiences (mixed, unfortunately), replied to one post about someone's travels and retweeted another in support of a book coming out. I'm still not sure about Twitter, I'll admit - it was very easy to set up and get started, but I find the format a bit difficult to engage with, and I think you'd have to be on it all the time in order for it to be worthwhile. Also, most of the tweets I read are quite boring! It's useful for libraries or other organisations that want to disseminate information very quickly, but for personal use its value is definitely questionable.

Twitter

I have a personal twitter account, but I thought I'd create another one from scratch for more work-related things. I've created a page and profile, and started following some library, museum and arts-related groups/people that I thought might be interesting.

LinkedIn

I've now registered with LinkedIn and started creating a profile. I'll admit I'm a little uneasy about putting up my contact details and CV online for everyone to see but I can also see how it could be useful. I've added a few people that I know already to my network and put some information and a picture on my profile.

Facebook in libraries

Facebook is becoming a popular way to communicate with readers, and the Law Library has started using it too. At the moment we have a modest but respectable 178 fans, but I think that more people look at it just to get quick updates. We have a link to it directly from our website and blog, so it's easy to get to. We use the Wall to post quick updates about changes to services, opening times (this was useful when we had all that snow!) and snippets of law-related news. We also have Boxes for Delicious, WorldCat, JSTOR and COPAC, and links to our catalogue and online guides. On the Info page, you can find all our contact details, plus links to the blog and our Twitter page. Also, if you're interested, there are some rather nice photos of the library too!
It's useful in conjunction with Twitter for getting small amounts of important information out to the students quickly, and then we can use the blog for more detailed updates about new databases or our ongoing re-classification project for example.

YouTube

I use YouTube regularly to look for music and comedy, so I thought I'd share this little gem with you...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyLTqBARFt8

Again it's quite straightforward to use, although I've sometimes had trouble uploading videos (but that could have more to do with my browser than with YouTube).

Podcasting

We subscribe to a number of podcasts through iTunes at home, but I hadn't yet added any to my Google account. I went to the BBC list as I listen to the radio quite a lot, and found some comedy to listen to. It was very easy to use - I clicked on the link for one of the programmes on the list and chose to add it to Google Reader. When I clicked on the new link in Google Reader, it opened the programme in Windows Media Player.

Delicious, part II

The next stage was to look at Delicious Networks. I thought I'd try joining the one at work to start with, as I already knew what their network ID was (lawbod). It was very straightforward to link, and now I can access bookmarks that will be useful for work as well as my own.

Delicious, part I

I think Delicious could be especially useful - I use something similar at the moment, and it saves time being able to find everything in one place and link to other people's lists as well. I set up an account and started adding bookmarks, giving them tags I hoped would be relevant.

Picnik

Starting to get behind! But I did manage to have a go at Picnik today. I really liked it - it was completely idiot-proof, and I didn't have to register and learn yet another username and password. The functions are quite basic in terms of photo editing, but for touching up photos or having a bit of fun with colour and saturation (see my er... efforts!) it works well. I also liked that you can link to lots of different places at once - flickr, facebook, and even just photos you've got saved on your hard drive or USB stick.

Flickr

I've been meaning to sign up to Flickr for a while now so this finally gave me the excuse to do it. It was very straightforward to sign up and add pictures (although it did mean creating a Yahoo ID - another password to remember!). I need to get some more photos off my laptop at home, but I put up one holiday pic I had and a few of some of the origami jewellery I've been making, which I put into a set called 'origami bits and bobs'. Once I've got some more photos on here I can set about the next task of editing them in picnik.

Google Reader

I have set up a Google Reader account and begun adding RSS feeds to it. I already subscribe to some through a Pageflakes account so I found it fairly straightforward to add new feeds to my Google account. I have a mixture of work-related and fun sites at the moment, and hope to add more as I find them.

Blogging

I've been inspired to add a few extra things to my blog after seeing some impressive examples of others taking part in this project. I've added a picture and a few other gadgets, and I'm going to add some links to other blogs I like to read as well (some work-related, some just for fun - see list at the bottom of the page).

A bit about 23 things

I realise that this is going to appear in the wrong order, but I just wanted to write a bit about why I decided to take part in 23 things. As I said earlier, I've been interested in Web 2.0 for a while now. While I was a trainee, I created a podcast for my trainee project, and I try and take part in other Web 2.0-related projects as part of the Law Library web team.

I hope that by taking part in the 23 things challenge I will be able to broaden my knowledge of what's currently out there and hopefully find some new things that could be useful both for me personally and at work.

23 Things Challenge: getting started

As I am already interested in Web 2.o in libraries, I was keen to have a go at the 23 things challenge: doing 23 Web 2.0 related tasks between now and April.

I think I've made a fairly good start. Earlier this week I created an iGoogle account and began merrily adding gadgets and configuring things. Here's a screenshot of what I've managed to do so far (see above).

Also, as you can see, I have set up a blog to document what I'm going to be doing over the next few months. I've worked with Blogger before for a trainee project, so at least the set up is quite familiar. I'll have a go at customising it a bit later, as the basic templates are a little bland.