Squidoo

Assignment #19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

As directed, I browsed the Web 2.0 Awards looking for "one thing" to explore further. I had a bit of a hard time choosing--many of the winning entries were sites/apps that we have already explored in Learning 2.0--others I already use.

I finally picked Squidoo as I had seen it mentioned a few places but had no idea what it was about. I wandered around the site for some time trying to figure it out. I did not find the design intuitive. The part that piqued my interest was mention of donations to charity. As I'm always looking to help Harlequin Haven Great Dane Rescue, I thought I'd pursue that angle. It took me a couple more visits before I got a better handle, but I still don't understand all the aspects of it. It appears to be be a site where one can promote their business or hobby or charity without having to have Web site or blog of their own. I've begun creating a "lens" (that's what they call these subject guide pages) for the Dane Rescue--you can see my feeble attempt here.

Google Notebook

One of my favorite Web 2.0 apps is Google Notebook. One way to use it is with a Firefox extension that resides in my bottom browser bar until I need it, then it pops out (see pop up screenshot below).



One can type or paste text in or, select a portion of a Web page and it will "clip" that piece, along with the formatting and images. Also with the Firefox extension, selecting a potion of a page, and right clicking then selecting "Note this" will create a note without any additonal clicking or pasting! Notebooks are shareable too.

I use Notebook primarily to collect and organize upcoming events for my Athens women's events blog. It works far better than saving the info to a text file and emailing it to myself. I can drag and drop notes and sections. I love it! (Below is a screen shot of the full browser page rather than pop-up)



Oh and it's also available as a widget for your customized iGoogle page!

Web-based Appppppppppppps

Assignment #18 Web-based Apps: They're not just for desktops anymore

I already use Google Calendar and got Dale set up for one too. I signed up for 30 Boxes months ago but never did anything with it. I do use Google Calendar because it's easy to do so from one's Gmail account. Last year I set up Google Docs & Spreadsheets thinking that the Dane Rescue could use it, as it's trey cool, but all of these "Web-based Productivity Applications" suffer the same flaw for rural users--difficult to use over dial-up. I'm sure if I lived where I had access to broadband, I would use them more!

Lolcat Translator

Here is something we all need in our quest to view and create lolcats-- Speak lolcat: Lolcat Translator! Simply type in English and the translator will turn it into lolcat speak. Then using a lolcat creation Web utility (like lolcat builder) you can cap away. :)

Readin' & 2.0

Assignment #15 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0 ...

The assigned reading from Next Space: The OCLC Newsletter, No. 2: 2006. "Web 2.0: Where will the next generation Web take libraries?" offers perspectives from 5 different practitioners. Two particularly resonated for me, both relating to the on-line user experience. As one who has been interested in on-line accessibility and usability for a long time, these two are singin' my song.

In "Away from the 'icebergs'," the "Reliance on user education" section says "We need to focus our efforts...on eliminating the barriers that exist between patrons and the information they need, so they can spend as little time as possible wrestling with lousy search interfaces and as much time as possible actually reading and learning....if our services can’t be used without training, then it’s the services that need to be fixed—not our patrons."

A number of points in the piece "To better bibliographic services"
particularly the section "Expose, expand, extend metadata using Web 2.0." We've got to get away from our siloed hard-to-use library catalogs and work to pull in the highly-usable portions that provide a rich browsing/finding experience for patrons such as book covers, reviews, and compressing many records for the same item into one.