Web 2.0 Awards

It's amazing to see the bredth of web 2.0 sites out there--applications I never would have dreamed of (onesentence.org?) and some I have--for travel and reviews: yelp.com and realtravel.com are worthy of revisiting.

Playing catch up not ketchup

Playing "catch up!" I've got about 6 things left to do and I really hoped that I would be able to just whip through them while watching the Eagles play the Jets. Not so fast there...lke most of the 23 things, this takes time and thought. The Wiki lessons and sandbox are very timely. I hope we can get a wiki started to post stories about the recent successful Chesapeake City grand opening. Changing the context of my thinking about wikis for collaboration rather than information makes me begin to see all the possibilities.

I love the online applications. Google calendar is great for sharing. We're using a shared calendar among the admin staff for meetings, etc. It seems secure, interactive and goes around Mr. Gates' Outlook. Shared information wants to be on the web, not on the device. That's a lightbulb thought.

Google Docs looks pretty useful too. I'm a two laptop user so the possibilities for access to docs from wherever is useful. I'll attempt to upload this to my blog. And it works!

Veni, Vidi, Wiki

I was approached by a library board member about creating a wiki! Talk about leadership. Mike’s idea is that the library and the Historical Society could set up a local wiki to trap stories from local residents about the history of Cecil County in a wiki. What a great idea and this “thing 16” arrived at the perfect moment. I was skeptical about wikis when I first heard Stephen Colbert’s rant about them—let’s hijack the encyclopedia and make it say that elephants are extinct. That and the fact that those with vested commercial interests, axes to grind and propaganda to post can influence the truthiness of wiki content. The World Book would be the better source, thank you very much.

But this exercise demonstrates how wikis might be ideal for Mike’s idea and for intra net type staff information and collaboration and I especially loved the book lover’s wiki at Princeton public. Now just to figure out how to get started…

Never say never!

Some staff heard me express my discomfort with "loosey-goosey, willy-nilly, and helter-skelter" management/supervisory techniques recently. It seems that as we embrace Library 2.0 there could be a lot more of that in our professional futures. The good news is that there is all this interest and excitement being generated around the concepts and technologies of Library 2.0. But frankly, I can't imagine our library in a perpetual "beta" test. Instead we need to figure out how and where to take advantage of the legitimate opportunities for responsible entrepreneurship--for example "23 Things"! We need to stay committed to the values of planning, accountability and analysis, and leadership as we operate in this incredibly rich environment. It's shaping up to be a very exciting future for the libray world. I guess we could safely say, there will be no fuzzy-wuzzy in our future, either.

Pop goes the culture

I love Ask A Ninja--lately the Ninja is into poetry! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvWg9PUKXnI

I love Colbert and I am writstrong now thanks to my sister!

Technorati

Technorati is a good way to see what's what in the "blogosphere!" Who would have thought I would ever use that word in a sentence?

Simply D-licious

Or is it de.lic.ious or de.licio.us or what? I know, I know it's del.icio.us. and I've got it! All my bookmarks are there if I can only figure out how to access them. I'll try from home. That will be the test of the usefulness of this one. If my bookmarks are always available from where ever I am, that could be very useful.

Back At It!

I'm back with a burst of energy for 23 Things after an extended hiaitus. Here's my rolly0 search which is the beginnings of a search of media reviews--my favorite spots to find meaningful reviews for DVDs and CD-Music which I select for the library. I had some trouble with it, because I didn't make it public, so I couldn't share the link. Fixed that and here it is:
http://rollyo.com/obrienlee/media_reviews/ enjoy

Playing with technology

So my wireless mouse started flickering (not flickr-ing) and I had to let my not so dextrous fingers do the walking and I managed to use an image generator to turn a picture from my vacation into a poster. I seamlessly linked to flickr, but I don't know how to move that image here yet.

Meanwhile the underbody of my mouse is sweating! Oooo Nooo it's a leaky battery and now my fingers feel really wierd. Are we have fun now?

Time to wash up and dig into figuring out how to move my cool poster here.

Bloglines--Now that's usefull

Using bloglines to manage multiple new sites will be useful to me. It's nice to have things all in one place.

Oops, I did it again!

My weekend in technology can be characterized by monkeys on typewriters! Remember the saying that given enough time, a room full of monkeys with typewriters could type all the great works of literature. I feel like I have been banging away on my keyboard just like those monkeys with occasional results and lots of "typos". I've been trying to do a lot of tasks, like load my mp3 player with a podcast about France by Rick Steves, find pictures on my hard drive, and find an important attachement lost in my email. All these tasks for whatever reason have been difficult for me. I have generally achieved my goals by trying anything and not giving up. But it's so messy! And now I have lost the tabs and back button on my browser. Who knows why? How do I get them back? I love my back button.

Colr Pickr

This is a fun one! http://www.krazydad.com/colrpickr/ You could find any color under the sun.

A tree grows in the Library

A tree grows in the Library,
originally uploaded by iheartiowa.

Flickr is so smart! It seems like magic to move an image from the hard drive of my computer to Flickr to my blog. How does it do that?

Remember this scene from the Elkton library?

Thing 2 & 3

Things 2 & 3 are completed. 7.5 habits was an interesting take off on the original 7 habits. I had the pleasure of actually hearing Steven Covey several years ago. 7.5 learning habits seem realistic. It's hard for me to always think of problems as challenges. I think using technology to my advantage will be the easiest and most fun!

Oh, and as promised:
What I'm watching--Half Nelson ***
What I'm reading--the new Baltimore based mystery by Laura Lippman, What the Dead Know
What I'm listening to--Sugarland **** a great rolling down the road county album
And I'm happy to think Tony Soprano is alive and unwell in NJ ...and on and on and on.

And one more thing....

No one needs more things to do, but how about 23 more? Over 50 library staff members have said "Yes, I need 23 more things and maybe I don't know what I'm doing now, but I'm game to learn!"

I'm thrilled to be learning and bumbling along with the crowd!