Week 10

Ok, here we are, already at our final week 10. This week is about podcasting. I was familiar with podcasting before, I've listened quite a lot of interesting interviews etc in the past. It is somewhat cool, but something for me is always missing (video part, obviously). Anyway, I just taught a CampSavvy class today "Podcasting for kids, where we listened to library's podcasts (recorded from children story times). We also experimented recording our own podcasts using "Audacity". We didn't upload it anywhere though.

How would I use my mp3 player? Easy! Playing downloadable books, which don't work with my iPod. It's funny, I am not a big fan of podcasts, yet I like to listen to CD books in my car while driving, so I am pretty I will find a pretty good use for my new mp3 player. Thanks a lot, library!

Week 9

Video in the library was fun. I wonder if it was staged 100%. I found it interesting reading about copyright law as well as reading about different cases. It is more clear on one hand, but on the other - there are so many stipulations that it's more complicated after all. As far as Digital Rights Management, the article by Steve Jobs http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/ explaines it somewhat, but still it regulates only digital content not the CDs. It also looks like there are quite a few supporters of giving unrestricted rights to users on the Internet. I currently use iTunes, in fact that's the only thing I've used since I have a Mac computer. It is pretty frustrating though that you can't use downloadable audio books with iPod.

This week I've explored Liveplasma but did not find it too fascinating. LastFM was neat, even though I am not a big user of sites like this.

I've tried Music Map to see suggestions it would make based on the artist. I typed Elton John just to see the results. According to the site, I might enjoy Backstreet Boys more than Bon Jovi or Eagles, but in real life for me is the other way around. So, I am not sure how useful this website can be. Maybe just to get an idea of other artists. The Upto11 seems to be able to narrow it down for you, since you can choose more than 1 artist/band at a time. I also liked Mystrands a little better, since it looks more organized. Wow, who would think there are so many websites where you can get recommendations on what to listed and I am sure these are just a few.

Week 8

Overall, I can say that I liked this course. I am not a big fan of online learning, but I definetely learned a lot of neat things from this course. I remember, the first week since a lot of us had questions, we decided work on the first tasks (creating, registering blog etc) together. This collaborative effort put everybody on the right track. I've been doing it on my own beginning week 3. I've helped a few people with some tasks, while asking others for some help as well. By now, I believe that almost everybody can do all the tasks on their own, which shows progress in learning.

I will upload a couple of pictures on Flickr withing the next 2 days. I'll have to bring my camera to work, take pictures and upload them at home (I don't think I can install a proper software here to download pictures I took from my camera into PC. It does not make the task harder, but just very time consuming to accomplish.

It was great to learn how to protect your work with Creative Commons(thanks for that advice). I always wondered how it worked. I was able to find pictures tagged with both OCLS and 101Central as well as view profiles.

Week 7

This week is all about the exploring different websites. Here is my opinion on some of them:

Traineo holds you accountable (motivates you) if you want to lose some weight. I didn't find used for this website right now, but some people might. However different people need different need different type of motivation, so I am not sure how useful it can be.

Dogster and Catster seems to be pretty neat. Too bad I don't have a pet, otherwise I would consider joining the pet-loving community.

Blufr seems to be funny, but I don't see myself killing time this way.

Chugd for beer lovers and Bottletalk for those who enjoy wine seems to be pretty cool to exchange experiences etc.

I registered with You Play and found it interesting ( for playing games, trivia, crossword, puzzles etc.)

As to websites I could recommend, for Audio 2.0 I would try Pandora, where you can create your own personalized radio station. I know a couple of friend who did it and absolutely love it - you don't have to listen to songs you don't like anymore.

Or just check out http://www.sacredcowdung.com/archives/2006/03/all_things_web.html for a whole bunch of different web 2.0

See you next week!

Week 6

This week was quite interesting. We expored social networking and mash-ups. These are the websites that you see almost every day. The example of a mashed-up website was http://www.propsmart.com/ , where I went and put in my zip code and found my house that is currently for sale. I am a Realtor myself and I listed this property but was dissapointed to see that some info on this property was incorrect. For example, it still showed the previous price, even though it was reduced more than 2 weeks ago and it showed somebody else as the listing agent. My conclusion - the info on this website is misleading. So, I'll have to look into it.

The other website I explored was http://www.motormapusa.com/, which was kind of interesting even though it would not be the way for me to buy a car. But I can see somebody to use it to look up some rare cars and their locations.

Some of the websites we were suggested to look at are the same ones I explorered earlier. The website I enjoyed in particular was http://www.gurulib.com (great way to organize your own library collection). I also liked the concept of http://www.libraryelf.com/ (keeps track of all your library accounts, overdue fines etc). I'll have to test it though to see how it works in real life. I found interesting http://www.librarything.com/. As to http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/, the suggestions I got was not quite what I was lloking for.

I did part of my adventured activity and went to http://del.icio.us/. I thought it was a great tool. It's very useful to be access all your bookmarks at the same place. I know some people who absolutelly love this website. My only concern-it's not an easy website name to remember. So I might have to bookmark it:-)

Week 5 - My Avatar

Ok, here is my Avatar I created at http://meez.com. It was pretty simple to create, however it took me a while to do it, since I kept changing my mind. You can see the end result. I am going to create a couple of more avatars (I think meez.com allows you to save up to 6).

Week 4

Pretty exciting week. OCLS definitely has some presence out there, it's nice that we use popular websites to market the library. Was interesting to watch our video from Staff Day once again on YouTube. I also watched videos from Art Festival and Gaming night. The Web 2.0 video that was suggested to watch in our homework took me to Shifted Librarian, but I've already seen it before on Youtube (it's called Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us). Was very cool!

I knew about library's presense on My space, but I was pleasantly suprised to actually see how cool it looked! I enjoyed discovering SEOmoz a lot. I never knew that the websites have been actually rated by someone. It was interesting to see a lot of familiar websites I've used before among award winners (Zellow, Craigslist, Flickr, Google Docs etc.) I've played with some new for me websites out there as well. I enjoyed Lulu.com and librarything.com in book's category. Backpackit was not a new concept but yet very convenient to organize your calendars, to do list etc. Picnik for editing pictures was pretty neat (I'll have to check if it will work with my Macintosh though). I'll definitely go back to SEOmoz to discover some more websites. Great week, lot's of cool stuff!