I like YouTube because there is SO much there. If I start searching through clips I end up getting sucked into more and more and the next thing I know it has been an hour. It is also nice because you can really find anything. For example there are educational type videos such as the ones we have been watching for Learning 2.0 and there are also comedy clips to make anyone laugh. That leads me to what I don’t like. As with any public site, as Cindy noted, there are things you will find that you don’t want to see. Usually you can tell if what you are going to watch is smutty or not but I am always scared when I watch a new YouTube video that it is a trick to make me accidentally click on something gross. This didn’t happen at all while I was exploring though, which is good.
I think YouTube can be used in the library setting in a variety of ways. First, we could use it to post videos that could be of interest to our patrons and link these to our website. These would be educational or informational type videos. We could make our own or direct others to ones we know are strong. Second, we can use YouTube as a way to grab attention and market the library to a variety of patron groups. The uses for YouTube are endless especially when it comes to its use with our teen population.
One clip that grabbed my attention was a series entitled Brotherhood 2.0. The 2.0 theme attracted me and the comedy kept my attention. This was a series of postings between two brothers who live in different parts of the country. They decided to communicate without using text for one full year. They took turns sending one video blog a day and I think they are HYSTERICAL. You might hate them…and that’s the fun of YouTube…there is something for everyone. I noticed the clip when I was searching around because the goodbye ending one was posted just before the New Year. Now you can watch all 365 posts in order like a TV show.
I have posted the last video below so that you can get a feel for this video blog.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Mashups
I thought one of the most visually pleasing mashups was the Flickr Color Pickr. I also like that the designer admits that it is “a toy.” I feel that the point of a good mashup is the originality and fun found in it. Flickr Color Pickr is simple but I spent a lot of time clicking on the different colors. I also think that this would be a great site to use when working on any type of art or interior design project. You could find the exact shade you are looking for in a real life object. So, though it is just a toy, I can also see where this mashup could be useful.
On the other hand I wasn’t impressed with the Flickr Postcard Browser. It allowed you to search by keyword and it would then pull up images for you as postcards. This didn’t seem any different than a regular Flickr search to me. Maybe I was missing something.
On the other hand I wasn’t impressed with the Flickr Postcard Browser. It allowed you to search by keyword and it would then pull up images for you as postcards. This didn’t seem any different than a regular Flickr search to me. Maybe I was missing something.
Tagging and Flickr
Tagging builds community on Flickr because it allows you to find exactly what you are looking for. And, for you to find these images you are likely coming in contact with someone or many people with the same interest, in the same location, in the same profession, with similar or new and exciting ideas, etc. This can be very useful for us as librarians. In the past I have done searches for library displays to see what other people are doing. Sharing images, and tagging them appropriately so that they can be found, could be a useful way to do professional networking and share information and ideas. As I said in my previous blog, tags allow you to connect with something on a deeper level. For example, since the person who took the photo of the statue in my last blog tagged it with “Mercyhurst” I was able to find it and would never had thought to look for something like that on my own. Based on instances like this I think it is the proper use of tags that would allow idea sharing to take place.
On a side note I have to say that I agree with the author of Flickr+Libraries= Scary, Scary, Scary. The argument is made that community monitoring of the site and education is better than banning it. I think that this is where the future is going. Web 2.0 is about user interaction…and there are always going to be crazy weirdo users out there. Are we going to block and ban the root of what makes up 2.0? It would be safer and easier but it would certainly delay progress. I agree that the answer lies in the combination of monitoring and education. Now my question is who should be doing the educating. Certainly not us. No one can educate the entire population on the new and ever evolving websites out there. We need a broader topic lesson on internet safety. And, based on what I have seen through Learning 2.0 people on these sites are still sharing way to much personal information.
On a side note I have to say that I agree with the author of Flickr+Libraries= Scary, Scary, Scary. The argument is made that community monitoring of the site and education is better than banning it. I think that this is where the future is going. Web 2.0 is about user interaction…and there are always going to be crazy weirdo users out there. Are we going to block and ban the root of what makes up 2.0? It would be safer and easier but it would certainly delay progress. I agree that the answer lies in the combination of monitoring and education. Now my question is who should be doing the educating. Certainly not us. No one can educate the entire population on the new and ever evolving websites out there. We need a broader topic lesson on internet safety. And, based on what I have seen through Learning 2.0 people on these sites are still sharing way to much personal information.
Flickr
I really liked exploring Flickr. I use Facebook to put my pics on the web but Flickr has some really nice options such as the map application. Also, I liked having the option of turning photos into calendars, art, cards, etc. I have seen this done before using Snapfish and wasn’t sure what Flickr had to offer. I am impressed. Another nice part of this site is the tagging. I was surprised at how many people had tagged images with the same wording I searched with. It was great to stumble across more obscure items in this way.
While exploring I searched for the places I have been that bring back the best memories to see what others have posted. One image that really made me laugh to myself was of a “haunted” Jesus statue from my undergrad college, Mercyhurst in Erie PA. And here is why…
WARNING: PERSONAL REMINISING AHEAD, NO NEED TO CONTINUE UNLESS YOU ARE BORED.
Mercyhurst is an old Catholic College that was founded by the sisters of Mercy and built overlooking Lake Erie. It was constructed during the Great Depression and the story goes that the nuns helped hand construct the buildings brick by brick due to the shortage of funds and workers. During our freshman year my best friend and I were housed on the top floor of one of the oldest buildings on campus, Egan Hall. It used to house the nuns back in the day so it was filled with stories of unrequited love, death, evil spirits, etc. The rooms were built into the rafters and each one was shaped differently and had its own ghost story. We found out that the year before we moved into our room the former residents had come back after break to find all of the furniture pushed against the door from the inside. With no other access to the room it was decided it was done by “ghosts” and maintenance had to come and push the door open so they could move it back. We were Okay with this story…others were much more creepy. Our best friends down the hall thought they were lucky since they had the only dorm room with a fireplace and personal bathroom. In the end that room wasn’t so lucky…but that’s another story. Above the haunted third floor was an attic that no one was allowed to go in. There were abandoned rooms up there and we would hear footsteps at night. This attic leads back to the Flickr image I found.
Egan Hall had stairwells that were locked, and were also the only way to access the attic. At the top of the locked emergency stairwells there were ancient religious statues. Very very creepy. They made you happy that the stairwells were locked. One day a group of my friends decided to go into the attic and explore. We did this for three reasons. First, all of the RAs were at a meeting so we knew we had a time slot where we wouldn’t get caught. Second, we had out of town guests and thought it would be fun to scare them. And lastly, it snows A LOT in Erie and you get really bored. These combined to make this adventure look like a really great idea. Out of a group of 8 girls 6 of us decided to go outside, around the dorm, up the emergency stairs, past this very creepy Jesus and into the attic. The other 2 girls said they were going back to their rooms.
I was feeling brave, leading the way and telling everyone not to be scared. When we reached the top of the stairs and entered the attic we found a small dark room with 3 doors and the prerequisite dust and abandoned creepy debris from days gone by. I made sure that all of my friends had reached the top of the stairs and in my bravest voice announced, “See, there is nothing up here” as I opened the door nearest to me. As soon as the words left my lips large dark objects rushed out the door I had just opened. I couldn’t tell what they were due to the blindingly flashing lights that accompanied them. Needless to say we all ran screaming back down the stairs, past the creepy statue, and outside. We returned to our room petrified. Moments later our 2 friends, the ones that had decided not to go with us, walked in wearing Scream costumes carrying camera. They had gotten us good. The blindingly flashing lights came from the cameras as they captured the look of horror on our faces for year’s worth of blackmail.
Later on we heard conversations around the dorm about the screaming in the attic over the weekend. The ghosts were spreading out…they even heard the screaming on the first floor this time. I am sure that this is how many of the wonderful ghost stories got started.
The point of my story here… is that sites like Flickr allow users to connect in more personal ways. Tags allowed me to find this photo and thus came the wave of memories.
Click hear to view the scary statue
While exploring I searched for the places I have been that bring back the best memories to see what others have posted. One image that really made me laugh to myself was of a “haunted” Jesus statue from my undergrad college, Mercyhurst in Erie PA. And here is why…
WARNING: PERSONAL REMINISING AHEAD, NO NEED TO CONTINUE UNLESS YOU ARE BORED.
Mercyhurst is an old Catholic College that was founded by the sisters of Mercy and built overlooking Lake Erie. It was constructed during the Great Depression and the story goes that the nuns helped hand construct the buildings brick by brick due to the shortage of funds and workers. During our freshman year my best friend and I were housed on the top floor of one of the oldest buildings on campus, Egan Hall. It used to house the nuns back in the day so it was filled with stories of unrequited love, death, evil spirits, etc. The rooms were built into the rafters and each one was shaped differently and had its own ghost story. We found out that the year before we moved into our room the former residents had come back after break to find all of the furniture pushed against the door from the inside. With no other access to the room it was decided it was done by “ghosts” and maintenance had to come and push the door open so they could move it back. We were Okay with this story…others were much more creepy. Our best friends down the hall thought they were lucky since they had the only dorm room with a fireplace and personal bathroom. In the end that room wasn’t so lucky…but that’s another story. Above the haunted third floor was an attic that no one was allowed to go in. There were abandoned rooms up there and we would hear footsteps at night. This attic leads back to the Flickr image I found.
Egan Hall had stairwells that were locked, and were also the only way to access the attic. At the top of the locked emergency stairwells there were ancient religious statues. Very very creepy. They made you happy that the stairwells were locked. One day a group of my friends decided to go into the attic and explore. We did this for three reasons. First, all of the RAs were at a meeting so we knew we had a time slot where we wouldn’t get caught. Second, we had out of town guests and thought it would be fun to scare them. And lastly, it snows A LOT in Erie and you get really bored. These combined to make this adventure look like a really great idea. Out of a group of 8 girls 6 of us decided to go outside, around the dorm, up the emergency stairs, past this very creepy Jesus and into the attic. The other 2 girls said they were going back to their rooms.
I was feeling brave, leading the way and telling everyone not to be scared. When we reached the top of the stairs and entered the attic we found a small dark room with 3 doors and the prerequisite dust and abandoned creepy debris from days gone by. I made sure that all of my friends had reached the top of the stairs and in my bravest voice announced, “See, there is nothing up here” as I opened the door nearest to me. As soon as the words left my lips large dark objects rushed out the door I had just opened. I couldn’t tell what they were due to the blindingly flashing lights that accompanied them. Needless to say we all ran screaming back down the stairs, past the creepy statue, and outside. We returned to our room petrified. Moments later our 2 friends, the ones that had decided not to go with us, walked in wearing Scream costumes carrying camera. They had gotten us good. The blindingly flashing lights came from the cameras as they captured the look of horror on our faces for year’s worth of blackmail.
Later on we heard conversations around the dorm about the screaming in the attic over the weekend. The ghosts were spreading out…they even heard the screaming on the first floor this time. I am sure that this is how many of the wonderful ghost stories got started.
The point of my story here… is that sites like Flickr allow users to connect in more personal ways. Tags allowed me to find this photo and thus came the wave of memories.
Click hear to view the scary statue
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
43 Things
I explored one of the winning websites, www.43things.com. I really enjoyed this site and spent WAY more time playing on it than I intended. It is basically a place where people post 43 things they want to accomplish. Some of them are funny, some depressing, and some are just plain weird. I liked that it had a very clear layout, anyone could use this site (and they do). I also liked that when you clicked on a goal you were able to read comments from people who had completed the goal. There was also a strong FAQ page with both a section on content help and section about the site.
There were some aspects of the site that made me uncomfortable. For example, some of the goals seem very personal to me, such as beat depression. Then when you click on it you see a list of everyone trying to do this, which is followed by their posts, which were VERY personal and sad to read. This is another example where, like any other social networking site, people don’t think about their own safety or personal privacy. Also, many of the postings seem like people are calling out for help and this doesn’t seem like the place to do it. On a good note, people seemed to be very supportive of each other.
Overall I view this is a social networking site. People make lists, post comments that often read like blogs, post pictures, talk to each other, etc. There are even “cheers” that you can give out to support others in reaching their goals.
I would say this is worth checking out if you have free time.
There were some aspects of the site that made me uncomfortable. For example, some of the goals seem very personal to me, such as beat depression. Then when you click on it you see a list of everyone trying to do this, which is followed by their posts, which were VERY personal and sad to read. This is another example where, like any other social networking site, people don’t think about their own safety or personal privacy. Also, many of the postings seem like people are calling out for help and this doesn’t seem like the place to do it. On a good note, people seemed to be very supportive of each other.
Overall I view this is a social networking site. People make lists, post comments that often read like blogs, post pictures, talk to each other, etc. There are even “cheers” that you can give out to support others in reaching their goals.
I would say this is worth checking out if you have free time.
Technorati...I am Not Impressed
While exploring Technorati I found that searching learning 2.0 in the 3 different advanced searches brought different results. This is nice because you can narrow or broaden your search based on which process you choose. I thought that the search “in tags” gave the best result for learning 2.0. But this all depends on what you are looking to find. I also noticed that the most popular blogs seemed to be about news, politics, social networking, and new technology.
After experimenting with Technorati I am even less interested in blogs. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy reading a blog when it is pertaining to something I am directly interested in. For example, when I read the newspaper from my hometown I will occasionally look at their blog. But Technorati seems like a big mess to me. Many of the blogs I came across were about issues I was unfamiliar with or postings by people that didn’t make any sense. Now I know this is not true of all of the blogs, since they allow you to search TONS of them. The point I am trying to make is that I don’t want to read a blog for blogs sake. I would rather stumble across a blog at a website I already use…such as a library website.
After experimenting with Technorati I am even less interested in blogs. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy reading a blog when it is pertaining to something I am directly interested in. For example, when I read the newspaper from my hometown I will occasionally look at their blog. But Technorati seems like a big mess to me. Many of the blogs I came across were about issues I was unfamiliar with or postings by people that didn’t make any sense. Now I know this is not true of all of the blogs, since they allow you to search TONS of them. The point I am trying to make is that I don’t want to read a blog for blogs sake. I would rather stumble across a blog at a website I already use…such as a library website.
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