Thing 15

After spending some time exploring Digg, Newsvine, etc., I have to say that I feel much the same way about them as I do about Technorati.  I don’t like the interface, it all seems too messy and chaotic, and the vast majority of the content is a waste of time.  These sites are an interesting way to “take the pulse” of the Internet and to see the “viral video” phenomenon in action as it happens, but they aren’t something I see a lot of use for personally.  If I find a funny or interesting link online, I may post it to my blog or Facebook profile for my friends to see, but I don’t feel a need to share it with the rest of the Internet community.

And with that, on to Facebook!  Sorry for the short post, but we’re entering the 23 Things homestretch, so I’ve got to keep moving.

Thing 14

I use Google Maps quite a bit, and I’ve even used My Maps before, but this is my first time attempting to embed a map in a blog post.  Hope it works!

I made a map of all the major cities I visited while backpacking through Europe a few years ago, with a line tracing the route.

View Larger Map

Thing 11 (Out of Order)

For technological extra credit, I’m accessing Pandora through my new toy, the iPod Touch!  I bought the Touch not for playing mp3s (I have an 80 gig Classic model for that), but to act as a Mac-based Palm Pilot substitute.  The iPod touch has WiFi capability and a Pandora application, so it’s like having personalized radio wherever I go (well, wherever there is WiFi – and why would I want to go to a place without WiFi??).

I’ve used Pandora for a while, but it’s one of those sites that I am obsessed with for a while, forget about, and then eventually go back to.  It is fantastic for finding new music.  I guarantee in any Pandora session you will find at least one new artist to download and love.  Really the only things I don’t like about Pandora are that you can only skip a certain number of songs per station per hour, and that it continually plays songs by the artist you selected as the "inspiration" for your radio station.  In most cases, I already have all the songs by that artist – I want to hear something new!

Here are some song recommendations from my 23 Things Pandora session, using a few of my favorite artists:

If you like Rufus Wainwright . . . "Falling" by Ben Kweller
If you like Beirut . . . "The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1" by Neutral Milk Hotel
If you like Mos Def . . . "Above the Clouds" by Gang Starr
If you like Cake . . . "Florescent Adolescent" by Artic Monkeys
If you like Nellie McKay . . . "You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome" by Madeleine Peyroux

Thing 13

I have to admit, I’m not a big fan of Technorati.  I find the site itself messy and not aesthetically pleasing, and I think it’s very frustrating to use.  It’s interesting to see which blog posts have linked to other blogs posts, but at some point it just becomes a ridiculous morass of meta-information.  I don’t want to have to click through several pages just to read the story that caught my eye on the front page!

Technorati raises some interesting questions, though, about the ever-blurring distinction between bloggers and reporters and also the difference between blog posts and regular articles on websites.  Technorati seems to list everything, from Reuters news to celebrity fan blogs, with little to tell them apart besides broad categories.  Blogs are rated by “Technorati Authority”, which measures the number of blogs linking to a particular site within the past six months.  The blog with the highest authority number has the distinction of being the #1 blog on Technorati (until, of course, another comes along to knock it off its perch).  This is an especially interesting example of the popularity-as-authority model that seems to be at work on the internet most of the time – as if the more eyes that read something, the more true it becomes!

The site does seem to do a good job at identifying “what’s percolating in blogs right now” (as it says on the homepage).  I don’t know that I would use Technorati as a search engine to find blogs to subscribe to, but it seems like a great way to “take the pulse” of the information buzzing around the internet on any given day.  For example, today it’s the economy, Angelina Jolie’s already-infamous breastfeeding magazine cover, and the release of a new Sony laptop making blog headlines.  It is very interesting to see what passes for newsworthy in the “blogosphere” as opposed to on “real” news sites.

Thing 12

I’m also skipping Thing 11 for the moment since I’m in an enforced quiet area at work.  I am a big fan of Pandora, though, and I’m looking forward to giving it the glowing blog treatment it deserves.  But for now, on to wikis . . .

I’ve never used wikis from the administrative side – just as a searcher\reader.  I may be in the minority among information professionals, but I think Wikipedia is fantastic.  I use it all the time, and I think it is one of the best resources out there today for basic, skim-the-surface type research.  I like to start with Wikipedia, investigate the links cited as sources at the bottom of each entry, and then go from there.  It’s a great way jumpstart your research or quickly answer a burning question.  As long as people (especially students) know that research can begin at Wikipedia but shouldn’t end there, I think it’s a wonderful tool.  I’ve never understood all the ire towards it.  Yes, it presents some problems, but those problems are symptomatic of far bigger issues in how people seek and use information today.  Don’t shoot the wiki!

But I digress.  One thing I noticed about the wikis linked from the 23 Things blog was the variation in style.  Several were immediately identifiable as wikis (i.e. they shared their basic format with Wikipedia and other well-known wikis), but some (the Book Lust site in particular) just looked like regular websites.  That raises some questions for me about how to distinguish wikis from websites for users who might not be familiar with the technology and how they can interact with it.

Wikis seem like the perfect environment for online collaboration, but my greatest concern would be maintaining order and consistency when so many people are potentially allowed to edit the site.  Maybe I’m just a control freak, but since I’ve never edited a wiki before, I am curious about how organization is established and maintained on various sites.  I’m going to get the opportunity to work with wikis soon enough, though, as part of my graduate assistantship.  A few professors at Kent are breaking away from the WebCT Vista system and using wikis to host their course materials instead.  You can host readings, assignments, discussion boards, etc.  In this case, the students will have very limited editing privileges, with just myself and the professor as administrators.  They’ll be able to upload assignments and make discussion posts, but won’t be able to alter the fundamental organization of the course wiki.  That’s one solution, but I’d be curious to learn more about others.  It seems unlikely that the “community” will always be able to regulate itself successfully, though Wikipedia seems to be doing a fairly effective job.

Thing 10

I’m skipping Thing 9 for now, because I’m at work (in the Community Office) and I’m guessing that playing online games with no sound and lots of interruptions wouldn’t be very fun at all!  So on to Thing 10 . . .

A friend of mine sent me an invitation to Shelfari awhile back (which, in my insane busyness, I ignored), so I decided to give that site a try now.

When I set up my Shelfari account, I started by adding the books I was currently reading (this is usually several titles at a time, but I take forever to finish them).  Then I added a few books I want to read sometime soon.  Then I started adding all-time favorite books.  And then I started trying to remember every single book I’d read in my entire life so I could put it on my pretty new Shelfari shelf . . . this site is addictive!

I eventually forced myself to stop, after I’d entered 80 or so books and obsessively selected the correct cover art for them to match the actual volumes in my collection.  I’m sure I’ll go back and play more later – though I doubt I’ll get in to the review aspect of the site.  I barely have time to read, let alone review the books I do manage to get through!

Here’s a link to my Shelfari profile:  www.shelfari.com/o1517967676.

Just wondering – is anyone else familiar with the software LibrarianPro?  A friend bought it for me as a graduation present last spring, and it is similarly addictive.  Before I moved to Cleveland this summer, I used it to catalog all my books, CDs, and movies, as well as my partner’s (much to his dismay, I’m sure).  It’s very fun and useful software (well, for OCD bibliophiles who love to organize . . . so, librarians).  The interface is sort of like iTunes, but for your actual library.

Thing 8

My favorite Flickr mashup that I found was Phrasr.  You can type in any phrase, and the site will “illustrate” the words with images from Flickr, then play the images as a slide show.  It’s a lot of fun, but I think it could also have some educational applications (interesting literacy exercises, for example).

Here are the images Phrasr gave me for the phrase “love your librarian”:

And here’s “crazy cat lady”:

I’m not being terribly creative with my phrases, but you get the idea.  You can also customize each image from a group of selected pictures by clicking the “Change” button, just in case you don’t like the image Phrasr initially assigns for a word.

Thing 7

I’ve used Flickr before, but just to browse – never to upload photos.  I attended Amy’s Flickr class on 22 September, which gave me a look at some of the other features available.  I tend to use Facebook to share photos online, though, so I doubt I’ll put many of my own photos onto Flickr.  It is fantastic for browsing, though.  You can find an image of basically anything, from the mundane to the bizarre, and many of them are professional quality.

One of my favorite features on Flickr is the “map of the world”.  Members can tag their photos based on geographic location, and then you can look at pictures which correspond to specific places on the map.  For example, I studied abroad at the University of Glasgow.  So I can search for “university” in Glasgow, Scotland, and find pictures of the campus (over 2000 pictures, to be exact).  Here’s one of my favorites, of the cloisters I walked through on my way to class every day:

I also made a lot of use of Flickr when I was choosing a digital camera to buy earlier this year.  You can search Flickr based on camera model, so I used that feature to look at images taken on the type of camera I was interested in purchasing.  I ended up with the Nikon D40, though I am entirely too much of an amateur to really make use of all its features (so far).  Here’s one of my favorite images on Flickr taken with a Nikon D40:

I hope eventually I’ll be able to take such beautiful pictures.  This cat even looks quite a bit like my cat, Byron!

Thing 6

How can it be October already?  I need to get cracking on the 23 Things!

Some library-related blogs of interest, now added to my RSS reader:

The Lipstick Librarian (www.lipsticklibrarian.com/blog)
A Librarian’s Guide to Etiquette (libetiquette.blogspot.com)
The Annoyed Librarian (annoyedlibrarian.blogspot.com)
The Shifted Librarian (www.theshiftedlibrarian.com)

As someone new to the profession, I really enjoy reading blogs that are not just about library issues or the field in general, but that revolve around the personal experiences of people already working as librarians.  These blogs are all more of the informal, insider mold.

Thing 5

I’m already pretty familiar with RSS feeds.  I have the Google Reader on my iGoogle homepage, and I use to it to subscribe to all kinds of blogs, from my friends’ personal blogs (on Xanga, LiveJournal, Blogger, etc.), to professional blogs, to fun celebrity- or humor-themed blogs (perfect for procrastinating when I should be studying!).  Some favorites:

• Feministing (www.feministing.com)
• The Candy Pitch (thecandypitch.blogspot.com)
• Stuff White People Like (stuffwhitepeoplelike.com)
• Project Rungay (projectrungay.blogspot.com)
• Go Fug Yourself (gofugyourself.celebuzz.com)

I discovered the Google Reader about a year ago, and after just a few days of use couldn’t believe that I ever took the time to visit all these blogs separately.  Another benefit of the Google Reader is that you can access it from any computer, as long as you sign in to your Google account.  I am rarely to be found without my laptop, but it’s still a nice option to have.  Because of Google Reader, reading blog posts has become second nature to me, just like checking e-mail.  I’m not sure this is good for my productivity levels, but it has to be faster than clicking through dozens of blog links.  Just one more way modern technology is making procrastination easier and more convenient!