Wiki-ed

I have problems accepting a public wiki as a source of authoritative information. Although Wikipedia is wonderful in that it covers so many topics you won't find in a traditional encyclopedia, I think it's really most useful as a starting point to lead to other sources that have been more reliably fact-checked.

But a staff wiki is another matter . The example of an internal library wiki at "Wikis: A Beginner's Look" I actually found exciting (maybe I need a hobby).

Aha! I thought, as shivers ran up my spine. Now THAT could be useful! The wiki in the example is used to pull together lots of different kinds of staff resources. In other words, a bunch of stuff that I have a hard time remembering where and how to access (what folder is it in, what password do I use) could all be kept in ONE PLACE. A wiki for IS could house, for example:

-- Our Fugitive Facts file
-- A link to our blog
-- A link to our delicious account (Or here's a heretical thought: abandon delicious and add our subject bookmarks directly to the internal wiki instead. Wouldn't be available to the outside world, but does the world care?)
-- Software and other specs for SAM and PAL
-- Known machine problems & fixes (Internet, PAL, printers)
-- Resources for the homework topic of the moment
-- A link to the staff schedule (if we can link to the Yakima server)

According to the Online Community Report, 87% of organizations say they use wikis for internal purposes, and only 27% use them externally.

For me, one of the most stressful aspects of technological change here in the library over the past few years has been the proliferation of technological issues to remember solutions for, and the proliferation of places where our work-related information is now stored. (And many of those places require different passwords. AARGH@!&#) If we could get it all under one roof (and have a single password that applies to everything there?) how much simpler and sweeter life would be. And when we have something to add -- another blog, another 2.0 application of some kind, or whatever the heck else comes down the pike -- maybe we could put a link on the wiki, and not have to add another bookmark to every one of our computers.

On the downside, it would take time to set up. And if not maintained well, there's the risk that instead of centralizing everything, the wiki would become just one more place that you need to check when you're looking for some bit of information. The maintenance concern is touched upon in the report referenced above; it says that wikis work best "with a clear final product in mind," and that "aggressive co-editing of content is harder to effect using wikis."

LibraryThing

I chose to set up an account in LibraryThing rather than Goodreads only because:

a) LibraryThing claims to be "the world's largest book club." If I'm going to do this online book stuff, baby, then I'm going to do it up BIG!!!

b) The instructions were shorter, and I don't have much time.

I've figured out some basics of adding, reviewing and rating books for my LibraryThing "library" through trial and error. I do wish some things were a little clearer. For instance, there are two icons that seem to lead you to the exact same editing page (one looks like a rolodex card, the other is a pencil).

As an old-timer, I have mixed feelings about tagging. Yes, it's very useful to be able to search for books (or photos, videos, etc) using combinations of tags. But to be really effective, the tags people attach to the item need to be well-chosen. And thorough. When tagging the book "Touching the Void," I realized that to maximize its findability, I would need to use multiple tags for a single concept: mountain climbing, mountain climbers, moutaineering, mountaineers, etc. Library cataloguers address this issue by using standardized headings. I'm thinking that online tagging could possibly evolve to where a single tag could automatically link with other synonymous tags, so that if you tag a book "mountaineering" all those other tags will be searched as well. Maybe it already does this, and I just haven't noticed? Maybe later on I'll have a chance to explore this...

Anyway, here's a link to my profile on LibraryThing:
http://www.librarything.com/profile/lunamonty

Swizzle

This entry is dedicated to Swizzle, our beautiful companion of almost 20 years. Her spirit was strong, her body increasingly frail. Yesterday she passed away. My heart feels so heavy now. I will always love my amazingly valiant and sweet "Sissie".

Blog search tool - Technorati

The Advanced search of Technorati is nice. I like the specificity it allows -- e.g., you can ask Technorati to find keywords in the tags of posts, or the actual text of posts, or look by subject heading, etc. This works similarly to the advanced searches in periodical databases that the library subscribes to, such as Proquest or OneFile (although of course the databases don't include users' tags).

At this point in my life, I just haven't caught the blog-reading bug. (Though I thoroughly enjoy tinkering around with my OWN blog!) I do really like to read newspaper editorials and columns. But blogs and blog postings are like a gazillion letters to the editor thrown in with a few good editorials. I guess this just highlights the necessity of a tool such as Technorati to help separate the grain from the enormous amount of online chaff. For now, though, in my personal life, I will admit that I don't often feel the need to seek news and opinion outside of traditional sources. And our internal work-related library blogs are already at my fingertips.

Delicious aka del.icio.us

Thoughts on del.icio.us (the website, not the pie):

1) Unfortunately, a permissions problem blocked my efforts to add the two delicious buttons to my toolbar in both Explorer and Firefox.

2) User Notes. Hmmm. What is their purpose? I suppose they're intended as the electronic equivalent of a yellow post-it. But with good tagging, many of the notes I saw today seemed pretty superfluous.

3) I can see delicious being helpful with projects I've had that involve creating lists of URLs on particular topics. I may try using delicious with an upcoming project, depending on how much time it takes me to figure out the particulars to do it right!

4) This is one 2.0 application that I need to practice when time allows. I want to be able to add & tag websites easily, when I have spare moments here and there.

Image generators

Some of the image generators are fun and easy to use. I tried several, including the Warning Sign Generator (see image above). Using the Add Letters website I also created a street sign with my husband's name on it, and some other silly stuff. I got nowhere with the Reflectionmaker tool; it didn't work with any of the images I provided, and I couldn't find a "help" feature or other guidance at the site, so I don't know what I was doing wrong.

MySpace rant

First impressions upon setting up a MySpace page:

1) Ads, ads, ads!!! I didn't expect my own MySpace page to be so full of them! I'm told you can screen them out, if your browser is Firefox. Should you find yourself using MySpace much, that's a good thing to keep in mind.

2) The MySpace interface isn't intuitive, at least not if you're trying to figure out how to add a "Friend."

3) I'm disappointed by the heavy-handed emphasis on helping MySpace grow and make money. (See #1). The "Invite" tab turns out to be just a way to ask other people to start their own MySpace page, so that (warning, cynical remark ahead) they too can begin generating advertising revenue for the website. I don't disagree that MySpace should be able to make a profit. But I'm surprised by the degree to which that goal is apparent on my individual page.

4) It's very helpful to have someone personally show you how to use MySpace. I'll bet even most teens learn the basics of MySpace from one another, rather than puzzling it out on their own.

5) I now realize that my experience with Google Blogger has spoiled me. It turns out that not all popular 2.0 tools are as well-designed and user-friendly (at least for me) as Blogger, with freedom of choice regarding advertisements.