I'm very much looking forward to Bodleian Libraries' Oxford Social Media Day tomorrow! Two streams of events - one focussing on case studies and the theory behind use of 'Web 2.0' technologies in libraries, one where people get a chance to mess about with social media tools and get chance to ask people for advice on how to set them up etc.
http://23thingsoxford.blogspot.com/2011/08/oxford-social-media-2011-developments.html
I'm facilitating for blogs and facebook, and going to sessions on social media policy in public libraries and marketing academic libraries! Should be fun, if busy...
Showing posts with label blogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogs. Show all posts
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
Wednesday, 7 April 2010
Go Go Gadget Gadgets!
So, last week I was on holiday and missed playing around with gadgets and widgets. I'm catching up with them now!
They're useful. There are so many Web 2.0 tools, it's nice to have something that makes it possible to pull them all together- to put my flickr on my blog, or my bookmarks on my iGoogle, or my RSS reader on my iGoogle or whatever. The whole interplay of the different platforms is something I really like about Web 2.0. So yes, this was a good week.
First I put my Flickr photostream at the bottom of my blog, then changed my mind and put it on the sidebar. It's not a very interesting display at the moment (pictures of a card catalogue we were offering), but it should be better when I upload my Easter holiday snaps! I also changed the colour scheme for the blog, as I decided the black background was a bit irritating.
I didn't fancy having Google headlines on my blog, so didn't bother with that additional thing. Oh, how rebellious!
I don't like the delicious gadgets, and I don't really like delicious. So I fiddled with them a bit before abandoning them in favour of my trusty Google Bookmark widget. I took this chance to put in two new Google Bookmark widgets- this way all my links tagged "Cataloguing" will be in one widget, all my "House hunting" ones in another and all my "Re-enactment" ones in a third. Excellent!
But although the Delicious Widget is a Nay, Gadgets and Widgets in general are a big Yay!
They're useful. There are so many Web 2.0 tools, it's nice to have something that makes it possible to pull them all together- to put my flickr on my blog, or my bookmarks on my iGoogle, or my RSS reader on my iGoogle or whatever. The whole interplay of the different platforms is something I really like about Web 2.0. So yes, this was a good week.
First I put my Flickr photostream at the bottom of my blog, then changed my mind and put it on the sidebar. It's not a very interesting display at the moment (pictures of a card catalogue we were offering), but it should be better when I upload my Easter holiday snaps! I also changed the colour scheme for the blog, as I decided the black background was a bit irritating.
I didn't fancy having Google headlines on my blog, so didn't bother with that additional thing. Oh, how rebellious!
I don't like the delicious gadgets, and I don't really like delicious. So I fiddled with them a bit before abandoning them in favour of my trusty Google Bookmark widget. I took this chance to put in two new Google Bookmark widgets- this way all my links tagged "Cataloguing" will be in one widget, all my "House hunting" ones in another and all my "Re-enactment" ones in a third. Excellent!
But although the Delicious Widget is a Nay, Gadgets and Widgets in general are a big Yay!
Friday, 26 February 2010
We're half way there...
So, thought I'd do a bit of a review. Which of the 23 Things have been useful and which do I think I will I keep up?
I was initially anti-iGoogle, not seeing the need for it and disliking it's clutter. But, having set it up so it just showed me things I'm really interested in, it's now proving invaluable and is my homepage both at work and at home. I've also embraced (because they work so well inside iGoogle) Google Reader for getting RSS feeds of blogs & podcasts and Google Bookmarks so I can access all my bookmarks wherever I go. If only there was a good Livejournal gadget!
I'm also a big fan of Flickr- being able to upload higher resolution versions of pictures is excellent, I've always hated Facebook for it's compression.
Picnik was fun, but I'd rather use Picture Publisher. Guess I may use it if I'm at a PC that doesn't have an image manipulation program? I didn't like Delicious for personal use- my bookmarks are for my personal reference, not for everyone else, and Google Bookmarks sits better in Google Reader. But still, I can see Delicious could be good for libraries to advertise online resources and so on.
So yes. Despite my initial cynicism and belief I'd already seen every Web 2.0 tool that mattered I've now become addicted to a whole bunch more. I'm not sure this is neccessarily a good thing, but oh well! There's another 6 weeks to go, and I dread to think what I'm going to get hooked on next...
I was initially anti-iGoogle, not seeing the need for it and disliking it's clutter. But, having set it up so it just showed me things I'm really interested in, it's now proving invaluable and is my homepage both at work and at home. I've also embraced (because they work so well inside iGoogle) Google Reader for getting RSS feeds of blogs & podcasts and Google Bookmarks so I can access all my bookmarks wherever I go. If only there was a good Livejournal gadget!
I'm also a big fan of Flickr- being able to upload higher resolution versions of pictures is excellent, I've always hated Facebook for it's compression.
Picnik was fun, but I'd rather use Picture Publisher. Guess I may use it if I'm at a PC that doesn't have an image manipulation program? I didn't like Delicious for personal use- my bookmarks are for my personal reference, not for everyone else, and Google Bookmarks sits better in Google Reader. But still, I can see Delicious could be good for libraries to advertise online resources and so on.
So yes. Despite my initial cynicism and belief I'd already seen every Web 2.0 tool that mattered I've now become addicted to a whole bunch more. I'm not sure this is neccessarily a good thing, but oh well! There's another 6 weeks to go, and I dread to think what I'm going to get hooked on next...
Thursday, 11 February 2010
Buzz off!
Yeah, Buzz's privacy settings really weren't good. And the way it kept sending my Buzz conversations to my Googlemail inbox was infuriating. So I've turned it off (at least that's nice and simple- it's a tiny little link right at the bottom of your gmail page).
Article about Buzz: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31322_3-10451428-256.html
If Buzz had just been an extra link below my Inbox (and not being squirting information at me constantly) I would have kept it. Similarly, if there was a way to put a link from that sidebar to my Google Reader or my Blogger dashboard or my Livejournal friendslist I'd be overjoyed.
Hmm. Perhaps it's time to re-visit iGoogle? Perhaps it could be the solution to my problems?
Article about Buzz: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31322_3-10451428-256.html
If Buzz had just been an extra link below my Inbox (and not being squirting information at me constantly) I would have kept it. Similarly, if there was a way to put a link from that sidebar to my Google Reader or my Blogger dashboard or my Livejournal friendslist I'd be overjoyed.
Hmm. Perhaps it's time to re-visit iGoogle? Perhaps it could be the solution to my problems?
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
What's the Buzz?
So, yet another Web 2.0 tool is released. This one, Google Buzz, seems to be a mix of Twitter and Facebook. I like the way it can pull in data from other sources - it'll tell everyone if I update Flickr, or share items in Google Reader, or if I update a blog. And it's nicely integrated with Googlemail.
Yeah, not a bad platform.
I must admit, I'm increasingly considering returning to blogging properly. I used to do it on Livejournal and stopped a few years ago, but this 23 Things has reminded me about it. It would be a good way to re-establish contact with old mates...
Yeah, not a bad platform.
I must admit, I'm increasingly considering returning to blogging properly. I used to do it on Livejournal and stopped a few years ago, but this 23 Things has reminded me about it. It would be a good way to re-establish contact with old mates...
Monday, 1 February 2010
Polls
The poll results for last week are in:
Google got an overwhelming positive result, 3/3 people say Yay.
iGoogle was much less popular- 2/4 people said Meh and 2/4 people said Nay.
Blogs were looking good, with 4/5 people saying Yay and only me saying Meh.
I'm interested to see how the votes for Google Reader pan out this week...
Google got an overwhelming positive result, 3/3 people say Yay.
iGoogle was much less popular- 2/4 people said Meh and 2/4 people said Nay.
Blogs were looking good, with 4/5 people saying Yay and only me saying Meh.
I'm interested to see how the votes for Google Reader pan out this week...
Google Reader
Google Reader is excellent!
It's certainly solving a lot of the issues I had with blogs in last week's post- finally I can see when blogs are updated and just read those bits, not all the posts on a blog.
I've subscribed to a big pile of other 23 Things blogs, so I look forward to reading other people's opinions nice and easily. It was very cool the way Google saw all my Blogspot subscriptions and copied them straight into the Reader, made this week's task much easier!
I still prefer Livejournal as my blogging & rss platform, as I think the Livejournal communities are such a good feature, but I can definitely see advantages to the Google & Blogspot combination.
It's certainly solving a lot of the issues I had with blogs in last week's post- finally I can see when blogs are updated and just read those bits, not all the posts on a blog.
I've subscribed to a big pile of other 23 Things blogs, so I look forward to reading other people's opinions nice and easily. It was very cool the way Google saw all my Blogspot subscriptions and copied them straight into the Reader, made this week's task much easier!
I still prefer Livejournal as my blogging & rss platform, as I think the Livejournal communities are such a good feature, but I can definitely see advantages to the Google & Blogspot combination.
Monday, 25 January 2010
Blogs
Now I have to write my thoughts about blogs, apparently.
I got my first blog (on Livejournal) whilst at university. My second is the official OIL one, mainly used to update our news on Facebook via RSS. And then there's this one.
My overwhelming thought about blogs is: they're not really that great. There are a lot of problems with them, really. I especially dislike the way things are ordered chronologically starting with the most recent- it's like reading a book starting with reading the last chapter, then the penultimate, and so on. Or like watching Memento.
Of course, you can always start at the bottom, but that's a bit like reading a book by always starting at the beginning. It's fine, as long as you're reading the book in one sitting. But what about if you've already read half the book? Blogs just don't have a convenient way of putting a bookmark in. And for something that has new content added all the time, that's a huge problem.
So yes, in many ways I prefer forums or emails- the way they combine chronological ordering whilst automatically and easily showing you which are "unread posts" appeals to me.
On the other hand, blogs do have uses. On Livejournal I *love* the Friends Page. On one page I can have all the blog posts from all my friends, plus any RSS feeds I want (Unshelved comics alongside the latest news), plus any posts made to Livejournal Communities I'm a member of. Ideal. An excellent one-stop place to keep informed of the wider world- it's like a better version of Blogger's Reading List of Blogs I'm Following. Although, of course, it does still suffer the sorting-posts-chronologically problem.
I also really like blogs for short informative things, like the OIL blog. It tells readers what the current big projects are, changes to our opening hours, that sort of thing. It's useful! And most posts are self-contained, which means the chronological problem isn't an issue.
Finally, I love the newer developments in blogs- things like trackbacks, where you can see places that have linked to a post. That's neat. Or the RSS feeds can then be fed into Facebook or Livejournal or wherever. And tagging interests me, as a cataloguer.
So yes. I'm torn on the issue of blogs. I think they're overused and there are times that other tools (like forums) would be better. And the ordering of posts annoys me deeply. And yet I still keep several blogs, and watch a whole bunch by checking my Livejournal Friends regularly.
Blogs get a resounding "Meh" from me. I'm too torn to go one way or the other.
I got my first blog (on Livejournal) whilst at university. My second is the official OIL one, mainly used to update our news on Facebook via RSS. And then there's this one.
My overwhelming thought about blogs is: they're not really that great. There are a lot of problems with them, really. I especially dislike the way things are ordered chronologically starting with the most recent- it's like reading a book starting with reading the last chapter, then the penultimate, and so on. Or like watching Memento.
Of course, you can always start at the bottom, but that's a bit like reading a book by always starting at the beginning. It's fine, as long as you're reading the book in one sitting. But what about if you've already read half the book? Blogs just don't have a convenient way of putting a bookmark in. And for something that has new content added all the time, that's a huge problem.
So yes, in many ways I prefer forums or emails- the way they combine chronological ordering whilst automatically and easily showing you which are "unread posts" appeals to me.
On the other hand, blogs do have uses. On Livejournal I *love* the Friends Page. On one page I can have all the blog posts from all my friends, plus any RSS feeds I want (Unshelved comics alongside the latest news), plus any posts made to Livejournal Communities I'm a member of. Ideal. An excellent one-stop place to keep informed of the wider world- it's like a better version of Blogger's Reading List of Blogs I'm Following. Although, of course, it does still suffer the sorting-posts-chronologically problem.
I also really like blogs for short informative things, like the OIL blog. It tells readers what the current big projects are, changes to our opening hours, that sort of thing. It's useful! And most posts are self-contained, which means the chronological problem isn't an issue.
Finally, I love the newer developments in blogs- things like trackbacks, where you can see places that have linked to a post. That's neat. Or the RSS feeds can then be fed into Facebook or Livejournal or wherever. And tagging interests me, as a cataloguer.
So yes. I'm torn on the issue of blogs. I think they're overused and there are times that other tools (like forums) would be better. And the ordering of posts annoys me deeply. And yet I still keep several blogs, and watch a whole bunch by checking my Livejournal Friends regularly.
Blogs get a resounding "Meh" from me. I'm too torn to go one way or the other.
23 Things & Web 2.0
So, I'm making this blog as part of the 23 Things program run by Oxford University Library Services (or should that be Bodleian Libraries?) I'm James, and I work at the Oriental Institute Library.
Why am I doing 23 Things? Hmm. Difficult. I already know most Web 2.0 sites- I set up and run the blog and facebook page for OIL, for example. So I'm really looking just at filing in the gaps in my knowledge. I'm particularly looking forward to the photo ones- I've got a new camera recently, and have been planning to join flickr.
Plus the Amazon voucher is a good incentive!
I'm personally ambivalent about Web 2.0. I think that many sites have Web 2.0 features that just aren't neccessary, and jump onto the Web 2.0 bandwagon just for appearances & to try and keep up with the Kool Kidz. I also think that a lot of Web 2.0 features make webpages messy and cluttered. So yes. No doubt I'll need convincing on some of the 23 Things...
Why am I doing 23 Things? Hmm. Difficult. I already know most Web 2.0 sites- I set up and run the blog and facebook page for OIL, for example. So I'm really looking just at filing in the gaps in my knowledge. I'm particularly looking forward to the photo ones- I've got a new camera recently, and have been planning to join flickr.
Plus the Amazon voucher is a good incentive!
I'm personally ambivalent about Web 2.0. I think that many sites have Web 2.0 features that just aren't neccessary, and jump onto the Web 2.0 bandwagon just for appearances & to try and keep up with the Kool Kidz. I also think that a lot of Web 2.0 features make webpages messy and cluttered. So yes. No doubt I'll need convincing on some of the 23 Things...
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