Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Library 2.0 - ACPL's New Books Wall Mashup and More!

Sunrise Alley by Catherine Asaro Just for fun, I created an old-fashioned card catalog card for the book I had downloaded from baen.com/library using John Blyberg's card catalog generator. You have to enter the data by hand (I copied it from Amazon.com) but it makes a really fun graphic. With some programming, you can make a mashup that uses this. A mashup is a website or application that combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience.

Sean Robinson (my husband and head of IT Technology at the ACPL) created this book wall called Books we added to the catalog yesterday combining the new material checked in each day at the ACPL (Allen County Public Library) with data from Amazon. It shows pictures of the actual book covers for each book and if you click on a book cover, it will show you an old-fashioned card catalog for that book and information on it from Amazon (if the book is brand new, it doesn't necessarily have review info yet).

Then you can click on "Look this up in our catalog" to see the ACPL card catalog information on that book like how many copies there are and if they are available and where they are located and do all sorts of neat things like add it to your list or put it on hold. You can also find more books by that author, more books with those topics or browse nearby call numbers (books that would be on the library shelf with this book).

Go check it out and play around with it. It is a great example of how you can combine Web 2.0 tools to create something new and exciting and useful.

For this and more innovative ways the Allen County Public Library uses Web 2.0, visit their Library 2.0 site: ACPLib2.0. ACPL Rules!

~Susan Mellott

Library 2.0 - World Public Library and Baen - free ebooks

Per the World Public Library website: "July 4th to August 4th Download Your Selections From 500,000+ eBooks for Free."

According to their site: "Hosted in World Public Library's multi-terabyte server network is the world's largest digital archive of PDF ebooks and edocuments. Our collection hosts more than 500,000+ PDF ebooks and edocuments. As a member you will have complete access to the entire collection. Our collection is constantly growing and our projection is to reach 600,000 by fall of 2008"

Here is a link to their Facts, Questions and Answers page. According to their price sheet, it is $8.95 per year to become a member, or $2/year per FTE institutional rate (for public librarie, priced per number of cardholders - which could possibly be adjusted).

I downloaded the Northwind Trilogy by David Drake and Bedlam Boyz by Ellen Guon to check it out. It downloaded quickly and I was able to save it to my hard-drive to read. I did go to the public access page to do a search and got an error message, but I could browse collections and download from home page without any problems. And I just did a search using the member search on the home page and it worked for me (but I couldn't download), although I couldn't really find anything I was looking for .

Another thing of note is that on the Baen Books site, they have a free library also of a selection of their books you can download in several different formats for free. Both Ellen Guon and David Drake have free downloads of several of their books as well as many other authors. I downloaded Sunrise Alley by Catherine Asaro in a very nice html format.

And of course, a search for free ebooks through Google turns up several more sites that I didn't check out. You can though!

So go "check it out"!

~Susan Mellott

Monday, July 30, 2007

Celebrity 2.0 - Wil Wheaton is Web 2.0

I imagine most of you know who Wil Wheaton is. He is an actor who played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Actually, he has done a lot more than that, but that is mainly how I know of him.

But what makes him interesting is his love and knowledge of technology and his leading edge use of Web 2.0 tools. Here is the wikipedia entry that talks about him and what he has done.

From wikipedia: "After leaving Star Trek, Wheaton quit acting altogether. He moved to Topeka, Kansas to work as a programmer for Newtek, where he helped develop the Video Toaster 4000." (I assume they meant he temporarily quit acting)

Wil was a very early adopter of blogging, creating his site wilwheaton.net (see the wikipedia article on his blog) which is currently being updated (since about last June) and is replaced for now by his blog WWdN: In Exile - Wil Wheaton's not-so-temporary blog. Per the wikipedia article on his blog: "Rather than just a fan forum, it was a place where people could gather to talk about various subjects including movies, music, books, religion, politics, gaming, geocaching, and miscellaneous topics; the original emphasis was on topics of interest to Wil Wheaton and not the man himself." He has entries on his blog dating back to July 2001.

Wil also has written 3 books, and most of the entries are extended versions of his online blog entries. (Take note, bloggers, this is not a bad idea if you have a following).

Also from wikipedia: "In late September of 2006, Wheaton began hosting a Revision3 syndicated video podcast called InDigital along with Jessica Corbin and veteran host Hahn Choi. " Of note: Wil found an error on the wikipedia entry for himself and asked on slashdot for someone to correct it.

Wil also twitters regularly and has just recently twittered on the Comic-Con he attended. Interestingly, he is having a problem at the moment trying to remove people he no longer wishes to follow and is talking about it on twitter. Update: as of about 4 hours ago, he twittered that the problem was a bug in twitter and was fixed by Biz Stone.

Wil also uses flickr and has some very interesting photos. And something I found interesting too that Wil has been doing on buzznet is "What is Wil looking At?" which is sort of a cross between flickring and twittering (flittring?). It looks like he is taking pictures with his phone of whatever he is doing and uploading them. It's a neat idea and I'm sure at some point, people will be doing that just like they twitter now.

And of course, he checks technorati for links to his blog and has a profile technorati for wilw. Here are some other things of his (from his blog):

And there are quite a few interesting videos of him talking about technology on YouTube. Here is one where Wil talks about Podcasting (answering fan's question at reading of his book, Just a Geek)

And there is a lot more that he is or has been involved with. The wikipedia article and his blog has more information.

To be honest, although I knew who he was, I'm old enough that I watched the original Star Trek more than I watched The Next Generation. But I think he seems like an interesting person and certainly one who is Web 2.0.

~Susan Mellott

Web 2.0 - Code4Lib addresses Data Mgmt - When will You?

As you know, I've been concerned about the institutions that host data for Web 2.0 applications. Code4lib, a major library 2.0 site (and everything else hosted on anvil.lisforge.net) was hacked on July 21 and is still not available. They are hoping to have everything back on Aug 1 - we'll see.

And 6 back-to-back power outages hit the SOMA neighborhood of San Francisco last Tuesday afternoon causing major havoc with popular web services. 365 Main was down, along with craigslist, Technorati, Yelp, AdBrite and SixApart (including TypePad, LiveJournal and Vox). Many other popular sites such as CNet were unavailable too.

I wrote a couple of posts about these problems and suggested that it is is greater issue earlier - this one on the 365 Main Outage and some thoughts and this one on if you trust online sites to protect your data re: Code4lib.

Well, Code4lib is taking this seriously (as they certainly should) and is hosting a special discussion on August 1st to discuss this. Here is the announcement from their Planet Code4lib website (the only code4lib site currently available).

"You are invited to a special discussion in #code4lib on irc.freenode.net on 1 August 2007 at 1900 GMT about how to prevent this from happening again. We're going to be talking about moving some of the web applications to institutions that are better set up to manage them."

I am thrilled that code4lib is now thinking about this and I hope they can recover all their data in a timely manner. And I hope that other organizations that are heavily web-based will follow their lead and seriously look at who is hosting their data and that they are thinking about ensuring that they know what is in place to protect them.

In the Web 2.0 world, it isn't just about content and collaboration and new ways to interact. Now that these Web 2.0 concepts are coming to fruition and are becoming valuable resources, it is time to look at making sure they are operating in a stable and protected environment.

~Susan Mellott

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Web 2.0 - What does an Organization Really Need to Get There?

This was originally written to update my "About Me" page. But it turned into this. These are the posts that prompted this post - MLS and Library Technology, a post on Why require an MLS for library technologist about a post on code4lib regarding an MLS degree for library technology postings (which unfortunately is currently unavailable since all code4lib.org sites are down). And here is an interesting post about an opposite perspective called I Didn't Get an MLS to do That and another about the MLS degree in general called The Embattled MLS in the Library Journal. Which begs another question about whether or not an IT degree should be a requirement for librarians. But that is a post for another day. Anyway...

I said I am a coder. But it is better to say I was a coder. I did love to code. But honestly, I've gotten less interested in it since I've retired. What I really love to do is to listen to what people want to do and then translate that into something that solves their problem and/or enhances their technology environment.

For as long as I worked, I was what was known as a Programmer/Analyst. That means that the majority of my time was spent conducting client interviews, learning the ir processes, creating client/IT teams to discuss what the goal is and then doing a lot of analysis and design to get to where they want to go. The coding, although fun, is the easy part.

I had to take a concept that someone had and translate it into something functional that transcends their original thought and turns it into a working, creative, useful application. You might not realize what this involves. Most of the time, people don't know exactly what they want, they just know they want it. This is actually the best scenario. It is really harder when people think they know how to design what they want. There is a reason why there are special IT analysts/architects. We spent a lot of time and have a lot of experience designing technology solutions.

Just as people are experts in their own field such as financial organizations or non-profits or libraries, so are IT analysts experts at translating what someone else does into a technology based solution. And just as I could not tell you the formulas for calculating statistical risks for life insurance, neither would a risk assessor know how to take what they do and make it user-friendly and technologically innovative.

I think one of the problems organizations are having with going Web 2.0, is that they don't recognize that they need a person who can look at their processes and design a Web 2.0 solution. I've done that for many, many years and I really find it surprising that other organizations (such as libraries) that say they are wanting to have an online presence and to go Web 2.0, don't even seem to realize the need for someone with those skills.

I worked with various functions in life insurance most of my IT life. And I have little to no background in life insurance. It is not my field. But it never needed to be, nor should it have been. There were ample experts in all facets of life insurance that could determine the formulas needed and the results expected, and could take me through the processes. My expertise was knowing how to listen to what people want, to learn how they currently do it and to design a technologically progressive solution that goes beyond what they envisioned and yet still satisfies everyone and is not intimidating. It's really a very complex job.

I have to confess, I find it funny (sad) that the IT positions for libraries all seem to require an MLS (master of library science) degree. That makes no sense to me. There are plenty of people with library skills and knowledge already in a library. What is lacking is anyone who is able to look at the processes from an IT design perspective and to pull all the areas and processes together into one, creative, innovative and functional design.

I also hear the arguments that you can't talk to a librarian or understand a librarian unless you have an MLS. How can that make sense? I've talked to actuaries and lawyers and accountants and life risk assessors and all sorts of people with their own expertise and language and ways of thinking. Why would a librarian or academic or anyone else be any different? I'm not stupid. I think I can grasp how most jobs and functions work and I think I can talk to most kinds of people and be understood and understand them. And I know how to create a team that includes expertise from all areas so that everyone contributes in ways only they, with their knowledge, can.

Next time your or your organization are thinking about hiring an IT person, think about what you are trying to accomplish and what needs you have that you don't have internally already. Then look for someone who can determine where you are, where you are going and how to get there in a way that includes everyone and appreciates their expertise while contributing their own expertise. Be understanding of each other and teach each other. Then sit back, let go of the reins and see how far you can go.

~Susan Mellott

Friday, July 27, 2007

Google Analytics Update and WordPress Beef

Well, the latest on my problem accessing blogger.com, google analytics, etc is now fixed. I'm not sure what the problem was, but I closed Firefox and reopened it and everything was OK. I had tried closing all but 1 tab and that didn't do it. I thought I might have to reboot my PC but fortunately not.

As you may know, I'm trying to decide between Google Blogger and WordPress for my blog. Currently I am updating both and trying to decide which one I want to ultimately go to. So far, in many ways I have been leaning towards WordPress. Part of this is because I like the idea of hosting it myself and I am hoping that when I do, some of the problems will be solved with the additional plug-ins available.

But it is driving me crazy trying to add buttons and whatnot to my WordPress.com blog. I am trying to add a "Digg It" button for Digg. But it seems to be impossible. I have looked and looked and can't find a reasonable solution. And there are many other ones that won't work on WordPress, usually because WordPress doesn't allow Javascript.

And it would not be so bad if it wasn't almost every single thing I try to do. I do it in Blogger and it is easy. I try in WordPress and it is somewhere between difficult and impossible.

I am still hopeful that if I host my WordPress blog, it will solve alot of these problems. I really hope so because for some reason, I still like WordPress.

~Susan Mellott

Google Analytics (and maybe blogger) acting up???

It might be just me, but I am not able to connect with www.blogger.com or http://www.google.com/analytics/or the Google Analytics Blog and I can't post a new post on my Google Blogger Blog although I can view it. But when I click New Post (or one of the links above), I get "connecting to ssl.google-analytics.com..." and it just waits and waits.

I don't know if this is because I have Google Analytics running, or if Google Analytics itself is having problems or what.

UPDATE at 1:40pm: Well, I'm still having problems, but Sean tried to get in blogger.com and google analytics and didn't have this problem. So now I wondering if it has something to do with the fact that I installed it and am using it to track one of my sites, like it has something that runs in the background that might be acting up (I know I am probably pushing my computer pretty hard and it isn't always happy with everything I have going)

Here is a link to some other problems people have had lately. I've seen some of them too.

I will say that I have not been overly impressed with Google Analytics. I've had problems with it and there is some reporting features that it lacks that some of the other trackers have that I am using.

~Susan Mellott

Phone 2.0 - Skype!

Have you tried Skype yet? If not, why not?! Probably because you couldn't think of a good reason to use Skype over your regular phone or cell phone, especially since you can make free long-distance calls with your cell phone, which at one time would have been a good reason to use something like Skype.

I had the same thoughts when my mom and uncle started using Skype and were trying to get us to set it up. I waited quite a while before setting it up, just because it seemed like a hassle and I couldn't think of a good reason for it.

Well, I have changed my mind! I installed Skype for us and surprise! It was a piece of cake to install (really! even for people who are not comfortable with computers) and we found so many uses for it that I am surprised that we did without it before. Here are some of the things we use it for:

1. For absolutely free, we can talk to my husband's brother who is going to school in Italy. And since it is much easier for him to be online than to be near a phone, we can talk to him frequently where otherwise we would not easily be able to get a hold of him. Skype makes it very easy to know when someone is available and online, the symbol for that person turns green.

2. Again free, we can all talk to him in a family conference call where anyone who is online can be conferenced into a call. So we can all catch up on everyone at the same time and we can also make plans or discuss things in a group instead of playing "he said, she said".

3. My sister just moved to Florida for 13 weeks (and will be traveling around the U.S. since she is a traveling surgical tech). She has set up Skype and a web cam at home and on her laptop. So she and her husband can talk to each other and see each other at the same time. When you are away from loved ones, seeing them is very good. Free!

4. And my sister just became a grandmother for the first time. So she can use Skype and the webcam to see her granddaughter and to see her get bigger and all the new things a baby does. It just isn't the same at all to look at pictures. And of course, she talks to Grace and Grace gets to see and interact with her too (or at least hear her voice, she is still a a very new baby). Need I say it - free!

5. My husband's father and mother live in New Zealand. So of course it is expensive to call them. And one doesn't even have a computer and the other is not very computer-literate so she doesn't have Skype installed (and may never). But for $29.95 a year, we can call any regular or cell phone in the US and Canada. And for 2.1 cents a minute (plus a small connection fee), we can call any regular phone in New Zealand. This is much, much cheaper than calling international long distance on our land line.

Having this, we could get rid of our international calling plan and for that matter, we could get rid of our long distance on our regular phone altogether since we can use our cell phone or skype to call national long-distance and Skype for international. Take a look at your phone bill sometime, especially if you call international long distance, and see how much you spend each month for that service. It's not just the per-minute fee, but all the taxes they add on each month, and you only have to make 1 long-distance call to incur a ton of extra charges.

The different countries have different rates but for the vast majority of them, they are considerably cheaper. And of course, if the other party has Skype, it is absolutely FREE!

6. A friend of ours has a business that takes him out of the US regularly since he has offices both here and in England. I think that what he has done is to set up two SkypeIn phone numbers, one for the US and one for England. That way people in either location can call a long-distance number in their own country (so it is free from their cell phone). And he can be anywhere and get the call. He can be sitting on the shore in England and take a call to his US number. To get a SkypeIn number (a number that anyone can call from a regular phone, it looks like a regular phone number), it is $60 a year and includes free voice mail.

Also, even if you live in the US, if most of your business is done in a different country, you can get a SkypeIn number for that country and people can call you on a phone number that is local to them. I have another friend who does a lot of business in Japan and if he is not using this, he really should. I'll have to ask him because it would be really useful for him.

7. Until we had a lightening strike that took it out (!), we had set up a small device that plugged into our phone and into our computer. We have a phone setup that has 1 base phone and then 3 phones you can plug in anywhere, they don't need a phone line. We plugged the base unit into the device and then we could make and take Skype calls from any of our regular phones. We got it from and it worked great. It had lots of great features including call recording, voice mail, routing calls to and making calls from other phones (like our cell phone) and all sorts of neat things. They probably have newer models out now. We bought ours from von-phone.com. This is what we got:

AU-600 Skype Gateway with Remote Calling and Call Recording 1
$38.9

There are also many add-ons to Skype. Here is a list of Skype add-ons to record calls and take messages:

http://www.masternewmedia.org/online_collaboration/skype-recording/how-to-record-Skype-calls-tools-guide-20070624.htm

Note: PrettyMay and KishKish Sam are free

8. We have not used this yet since we haven't had an international vacation lately (and I am NOT happy about that). But since we do normally do a lot of international traveling, we will be able to call people easily very easily, which is not usually the case. And as I understand, we will be able to call any US phone for free, regardless of where we are, because we have a Skype Unlimited US account. And of course, we can call other countries for the regular Skype Out International Rates.

Sean has also taken an old cell phone that doesn't work anymore (was replaced with a different one) that has a wireless card and set Skype up on it. What that lets us do is to connect through the phone using a wireless connection rather than needing a computer. Since wireless connections are becoming ubiquitous really, throughout the world, it's a good way to call people without having to haul a computer around.

I remember when I was "backpacking" through Thailand for a month in 2001 and even then, I could always find a computer with an internet connection, although finding a phone to call from was difficult and a hassle to use. Even in the tiny village of Pai (which took about 8 hours to get to from Chang Mai, riding on a big pickup truck with benches in the back), I could find a couple internet cafes. But there was only 1 public phone in the whole village, in the post office on the farthest end of town. To use it, I wait in this long line, then I had to fill out a bunch of paperwork (and didn't really understand it all so they made me correct it several times) and then I had to dial a bunch of numbers that I couldn't get to work and then there was a time limit of 10 minutes. And I knew I would be going at least a week before I could call him again. ...But I digress... :)

Anyway, as you can see, these are uses that we have found for Skype so far. And I know there are many other great uses. But this made it worthwhile to us.

Do you think it might be worthwhile to you?

~Susan Mellott

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Do you remember the Detroit Riot of 1967?

This week is the 40th anniversary of the 12th Street Detroit Riot. It started early Sunday morning, July 23, 1967 during a raid at a blind pig (after hours bar) and continued for 5 days. At the end, there were forty-three dead, 467 injured, over 7,200 arrests and more than 2,000 buildings burned down (according to Rutgers University who have a very thorough write-up of the events) .

This was when Detroit was the Motor City and the hotbed of Motown. It was the Summer of Love and the summer of riots. The Vietnam "War" (as far as I know, it was never officially declared a war) was taking our youth right and left (no pun intended).

Do you remember? It was a long time ago. But it was a vital part of our recent history and I recommend everyone, while you are thinking of it, go refresh your memory or learn about this event. Here is a wikipedia link to the riots. The above-mentioned article by Rutger's is also a must-read.

Thank you to NPR Talk of the Nation (from whom I learn something new every time I listen) for making me aware of this. They had an excellent program on the riots, including interviews with people who had been there and on Detroit Past and Present. Here is a link to their blog entry and where you can also listen to the audiocast of their show on this. This is one blog worth marking and remembering.

~Susan Mellott

Major Web 2.0 Sites Down from Power Outage - They need a lesson from Big Business.

Power Outage in SF Tuesday brought down major Web 2.0 sites.

6 back-to-back power outages hit the SOMA neighborhood of San Francisco Tuesday afternoon causing major havoc with popular web services. 365 Main is down, along with craigslist, Technorati, Yelp, AdBrite and SixApart (including TypePad, LiveJournal and Vox). Many other popular sites such as CNet were unavailable too.

Interestingly enough, a "source close to the company" (365 Main) had this to say:

"Someone came in sh*tfaced drunk, got angry, went berserk, and f**ked up a lot of stuff. There's an outage on 40 or so racks at minimum." ValleyWag had a good article on this with lots of interesting links.

This however was unlikely as the cause since the area had been having power outages and clearly their UPS system did not function properly.

The San Francisco website Laughing Squid has a write-up of the power outage .

Here is another informative post from Radar.OReilly.com

Six Apart, in a very 2.0 move, kept everyone updated via its twitter stream.

But the real question is, what happened to their power backups? They should be able to keep running regardless of any lack of power. This is a good post about what 365 had to say regarding its "Credibility Outage" (and basically they made a bunch of excuses).

So again, do you trust your Web 2.0 online providers? Clearly there is a gap between what "should" have happened and what actually did happen. Datacenter 365 Main released a self-congratulatory announcement celebrating two years of continuous uptime for client RedEnvelope, mere hours before today's drunken blackout.. [PR Newswire]

And without extensive testing and backout plans, it is hard to know what exactly would happen if something happened like a server being hacked or a major power outage. I would be more interested in the disaster recovery plans and testing they (or any major player) had done than in what they theoretically think might happen, based on the things they think they have in place.

Coming from a big business background, where their only real commodity is data (in my case, insurance), I have seen and been involved in a huge amount of disaster recovery testing and planning. I remember what they, and other businesses went through for testing for the 2000 rollover and for any number of other potential disasters. September 11th tested their and many others disaster recovery plans. The Stock Market and major banks and other financial firms simply cannot just go down or lose data, for any reason.

But as we move to a Web 2.0 world, companies like 365 Main are now also the repositories of major amounts of data and for many Web 2.0 companies, their business is data, just like financial institutions. It's not small potatoes anymore. Face it, they are big business now and need to act like a big business. I'm sure they are bringing in big business income. So who holds them accountable? I'm wondering if many of these Web 2.0 companies didn't grow from such small beginnings that they may not even be aware of what they need to ask and know from their provider.

And unfortunately, I hear people with a business background being dismissed as "luddites" or "1.0" or "dinosaurs" or just not with it, supposedly not able to comprehend the new 2.0 world. It reminds me of when PCs first came out and I started programming them after having had a mainframe background for several years.

PC programming was wild and wooly. There were no standards, no one documented their code so maintaining it was a nightmare, and people would see how many functions they could put on 1 line of code (more being better in their mind). An "elegant" piece of code would be completely undecipherable by anyone (which seemed almost to be the point) and would have no documentation. Which meant of course, that the code for most of the programs were a mess because no one could figure out what the last person did so they hacked around it. But if you were from a mainframe background, you supposedly could not "understand" PCs and were basically a dinosaur. Well, I know that is a bunch of nonsense because I didn't have any problem understanding PCs and PC coding. What I didn't understand was why they allowed projects and programs to be so sloppy and poorly run and written.

It was a real case of 1.0 technology meets 2.0 technology. In this case, Mainframes vs. PCs. Now it is happening again with Web 2.0. And regardless of what the current "New Thing" (tm) is, one thing they all have in common is the belief that they know more than the people who have used the 'old' technology. But what they don't realize is that they really haven't learned anything at all yet. They have a great direction and new ideas and concepts and great plans, but if for no other reason than that the technology has not been around that long, they don't have practical experience and a background to build on. I'm sorry, but while college gives you an in and a piece of paper to say you are somebody, the real learning starts when you start applying the knowledge in real world situations.

I remember taking a LOMA (life office management) test on data processing and thinking it should be a piece of cake. It turned out to be one of the hardest of the set because I had to learn what they thought the right answers were, not what was actually correct. I had the same experiences in higher education where what was being taught was so outdated that it was really completely wrong and in my opinion, was harmful in many ways to learn, especially if you thought you knew something afterwards.

And this is where I think the 2.0 arrogance is showing. It is a wonderful new way of doing things, but there are many foundations they could and should build on that have already been figured out. They can take what has been done to new and exciting levels, but reinventing the wheel for every single thing is pointless and causes the new technology to be without wheels for a while.

~Susan Mellott

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Web 2.0 - Do you trust online sites to protect your data?

Per the web site Planet Code4lib, the entire code4lib.org websites have been rendered unavailable. Here is what was said: NOTICE: The other code4lib.org web sites, and everything else hosted on anvil.lisforge.net, are unavailable. The server was hacked on 21 July 2007 and will be restored in a week or so. Join #code4lib on irc.freenode.net if you need to know more.

I found that out when I tried to follow a link on Technosophia about a post on Library Web Chic about a post on code4lib regarding an MLS degree for library technology postings. Since this is something I have some opinions on and am thinking about for a post, I was very interested in what others had to say. But when I tried to access code4lib.org, the site (and all related sites) were completely down.

Oddly enough, I had also tried to access the site earlier to see what Code4lib conferences were coming up and could not access the site but did not realize the problem until I saw the announcement on Planet Code4lib.

I know what a wealth of Web 2.0 information and collaboration is on that site. This is an interesting test of what happens when something like this happens. Hopefully code4lib has good backups. But what is to guarantee that this site, or any other sites, are able to restore the data the people have entrusted with them?

Are we carefully considering where we put our faith and our important data? Do you know what the backup capabilities are of places where you have your online data? If you host the data yourself, obviously you are responsible for it. But what about all the sites that host data for other people? There are many of them and I'm sure we all use and put our faith in several of them each day.

What if the site that hosts all the Google Blogger blogs (blogger.com) crashed and the data could not be recovered? What impact would that have on everyone? I use Yahoo! mail and there have been a few times that it has been unavailable for several hours (even up to a day or so) and I was really, truly messed up. I had appointments with people and people I needed to contact and all their contact information and arrangements we had made were trapped in my Yahoo! account that I could not access. I was sweating bullets hoping it would come back up before I missed an appointment or something important that someone emailed me.

Granted, it is my responsibility to keep my important data, but how many people don't think of that until it is too late? People are learning and exploring and using the new Web2.0 technology, but is it growing faster and more wildly than can be sustained? Do people even think about things like this? Should they?

~Susan Mellott

How to Embed a Video in WordPress and Google Blogger

If you have been using Wordpress or Blogger to host your blog, you might be wondering how to embed a video in your post. I know I have been! Well, thanks to what else, a YouTube video, I found the answer. It isn't hard, but I just didn't know.

Essentially, you just copy and paste the code next to the "embed" tag that is part of the information listed for each YouTube video while viewing your post using the "Code" tab (not the "Visual" tab). This worked for me and I didn't need to do anything.

It is the same in Google Blogger except you go to the Edit HTML tab to add the code instead of the Code tab.

Actually, the video didn't really help me except to point me to the 'embed' code and then it was obvious that it needed added to the Code section (or Edit HTML section in Blogger). And it was even more obvious when I tried it again and forgot to go to the Code first and it just displayed the code as text (as you would expect).

~Susie

Politics 2.0 - YouTube videos Address Energy Bill

There is a new channel on YouTube called CleanMyRide. This is what it has to say about itself: "This channel is aimed at making people aware that Congress is about to begin an important debate about the energy bill. The bill is a good start, but it still needs provisions to take on the really big stuff - increasing gas mileage requirements and mandating the availability of flexible-fuels. These tough solutions will slash oil use and slow global warming."

One thing new about this is the high production quality and celebrity involvement. Some of the celebrities in these videos are Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jason Biggs and Jennifer Garner, to name a few.

Here is the first video:

The videos are funny, informative (slight adult content) and really rather addictive. Ben Affleck is hilarious in part one as a big piece of "street" corn. Here is an article from People Magazine about the videos.

Check out their website to see some really cutting edge Web 2.0 used for a campaign to inform people about an important bill before Congress.

Visit CleanMyRide.org to learn more and sign the petition. Tell Congress: Clean My Ride!

Project Phin - Clean My Ride

~Susie

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Politics 2.0 and the Digital Divide

So politics and the presidential campaign is going 2.0. While I am certainly a strong proponent of this, it does raise the question that this is slanted towards the technologically advanced and/or those who have the means and knowledge to use the Web 2.0 technology. This potentially excludes large segments of the population. Many people who were not raised in the era of computers and PCs do not understand even what is available, much yet how to use it. This would seem to greatly lean towards and garner a younger audience then. And those who are older who do know the technology are probably those who work in technology and/or have had access to and knowledge of all the new Web 2.0 technology. Therefore, this would encompass a primarily white-collar, upper-class population and exclude those who have not had the means or did not work with technology.

I think this is one area where our school system and our libraries play a huge role. Our schools need to provide training and funding for every student to learn and be able to apply technology. And our libraries especially, can educate and enable everyone, regardless of age, ability or economic status. I think this is a direction that libraries need to go and I think they need to get the funding to do it. I don't know that I think the libraries are where the sole responsibility for this lies, nor do I even know if they are necessarily the places that should take this responsibility ultimately. But I do know that if the Public Libraries don't do it, there will be a large portion of the population that will be left behind.

I cannot think of a public organization / facility that could come anywhere near the ability that libraries have to reach and educate the public and to provide access for all people. I know what a difference it has made to have public computers in the libraries and when I see someone who probably isn't sure where they will be sleeping that night, come in and sit down at a computer and and be the equal of anyone else, I am proud of what our libraries can give and this is something that I think we all need to encourage and promote and consider when funding is needed for our public libraries.

I find it interesting that of any or all of the public institutions that we have created, I can really only think of libraries as one that has the capacity to serve the entire public in so very many ways, regardless of age, means, ability or any differentiating quality.

And the only problem that someone might run into with using a library is that they have difficulty getting to the nearest branch. So I think it is very important for libraries to keep their small neighborhood branches, including (especially) those in poorer areas since they can serve a population that perhaps can't easily get farther than they can walk. I do worry that the tendency may be to improve the branches in the richer areas and neglect the ones in the poorer areas, especially since the richer branches may be more used. But the poorer ones may be more valuable. Actually, I remember when the bookmobile used to come down our street. They are no longer running and I think that is a mistake. But this is fuel for another post :)

Anyway, along the digital divide lines, here is a post from the PBS.org teachers blog where after a June debate, the political candidates were asked about this. Here is a quote from that post "After the event, I had a chance to speak with four of the candidates about their perceptions about the digital divide and the role schools might play in bridging it. The lesson learned: it’s hard to get more than a sound bite when the candidates are in spin mode." And here is a link to this very interesting post.

~Susie

Politics 2.0 - YouTube Debate Aftermath

I hate to admit that I did not watch (or twitter) the presidential debates last night. However, thanks to the 2.0 aspect, it has been captured in ways that were never (or seldom) done before. Here is an excellent blog titled The YouTube Campaign 2008 that has a great deal of information and I believe they were liveblogging the debate. And here is the post from the YouTube blog entitled The CNN/YouTube Debate: How Did They Do? And don't forget the next YouTube Debate video entry request which is for the YouTube Republican Debate September 17.

There is controversy over the real value of this though, and many people think it was more of a good marketing ploy for the candidates than a true discourse with "the people". And questions were raised about the video questions that were selected since they were selected by CNN's political team. I must admit, I have my doubts too. I love the idea of political candidates really answering to the people and having real people ask real questions. Do I think it is there yet? No. But I think this is the right path to be on and I think it can help the campaigns get more 'real'. Here is a link to a Yahoo! news article on the Debate over Whether YouTube made a Difference. And one final link to The BuzzMachine about the debate. There are many interesting comments on this post.

~Susie

ACPL opens its doors for the Harry Potter Party - my first YouTube video

I have created my first YouTube video and it is of the community of Fort Wayne streaming into the Allen County Public Library for their fabulous Harry Potter Release party that was held 7/20/2007 from 9pm to post-midnight (at which time the lucky lottery winners could check out 1 of 200 copies of the final Harry Potter book).

It is a very sped up version of part of the people entering the ACPL when the doors opened at 9pm. The actual time it took just for the people who were waiting for the doors to open to get in was 10 minutes. I can't imagine how many people that must have been.

Fortunately there were a lot of activities taking place on the Library Plaza (they started at 8pm) as well as inside. There was a band playing, games for the kids including the spiderweb maze, potions classes, costume shows and I believe there was even Potter Bingo.

ACPL, the community of Fort Wayne thanks you for all you do.

This is a pretty poor video, but it is my first one so I am sure I will get better. Anyway, enjoy!

People entering the ACPL at 9pm 7/20/2007 for the Harry Potter Release Party


~Susie

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Twitter joins the Presidential Debates!

On July 23rd immediately following the Youtube/CNN debate John Edwards will answer questions from Twitter users in a live webcast on JohnEdwards.com. He wants twitter-ers to @johnedwards some questions in advance. Pretty cool.

This information came from the Official Twitter Blog.

Diagon Alley comes to life!


Last night, the Fort Wayne Allen County Public Library held probably the most outstanding event that I remember at the Library. They recreated Diagon Alley and had so many great things to do and see and have. There was a free wand shop, free candy, tattoos, harry potter glasses and more. You could make and adopt an owl, make a clock, make a card and mail it with a special Harry Potter postmark. There was a costume show and Potions class and a magical astronomy show. You could have your picture taken with Harry Potter and Professor Dumbledore at the headmaster's table and in the Flying Car. There was a magic show, games, fortunetellers, and so much, much more.

I videotaped the crowd when the doors opened at 9pm and I must have taped a steady stream of people going into the library for probably 10 minutes. I hope to have some YouTube videos up soon. I don't know how many people were there, but I know there were thousands. There will probably be an official estimate soon.

Library staff (including several senior managers) became Harry Potter, Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape, Mad Eye Moody, Hagrid, and Moaning Mary. They mingled and interacted with the crowd and signed autographs, posed for pictures and stayed in character beautifully.

Then at midnight, checkout opened and the lucky lottery winners checked out the final Harry Potter book. The smiles on the faces of kids and their parents and everyone who came down was priceless.

It was a wonderful, magical night. Here are my flickr pictures of the event. I hope to have some YouTube videos coming soon.

UPDATE - NEW! Here are flickr pictures of the party from the ACPL.

UPDATE - NEW! Here is a blog entry from blyberg.net about the Darien Public Library Party for the new Harry Potter release.

I hope Fort Wayne appreciates the wonderful asset the city has in the library and how much it does for the community. Go check out the ACPL web site to see some of the activities they offer. Or better yet, visit your local branch and see what is going on. You might be very surprised.

~Susie

Friday, July 20, 2007

Allen County Public Library Harry Potter Release Party!

Check out what the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne Indiana is doing this evening for the release of the final Harry Potter book! There will be festivities from 9pm until midnight, at which time the new release can be checked out since it is officially released on 7/20. It is going to be amazing, and I plan to take pictures and hopefully some videos and I will be posting them here.

This is taken from the 7/16 article by the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel and the full article can be found here.

Downtown library
Potter party central this Friday will be at the new downtown library, 900 Library Plaza. They are gearing up for a gathering of 5,000 fans, many of whom will be dressed as characters in the books.

The fun begins with a pre-event concert and activities outside on the Library Plaza. Family-friendly music will be provided by the Kid Kazooey and the Ballroom Roustabouts.

“We wanted something silly and strange and weird, and I think he fits the bill,” said Deb Noggle, children’s librarian at the Tecumseh branch and lead organizer of the night’s events.

Other activities at the pre-party include quaffle-throwing practice (a ball thrown through a hoop to score a goal in wizarding’s game of Quidditch), crawling through a giant spider web, and trading new or shiny objects with gypsies.

At 9 p.m., the main library – which will close for regular business at 6 p.m. Friday – will reopen. Partygoers stepping through the doors will find themselves in the Harry Potter books’ Diagon Alley, the wizard shopping district in London.

There, visitors can try 18 activities, including:

♦Making a Weasley family clock.

♦Visiting Ollivander’s wand shop.

♦Stocking up at Honeyduke’s Sweet Shoppe.

♦Learning the future at Trelawney’s Divinations and Fortune Telling.

♦Watching magician Jared Mason’s magic show.

♦Daring to go through the Restricted (Book) Section maze.

♦Getting a lightning bolt tattoo.

♦Having the U.S. Postal Service stamp an owl card with a special “Harry Potter” mail cancellation.

Noggle said the 18 stations will be three times the number of activities offered at the library’s last big Potter Party, which was held at the Georgetown branch for the 2005 release of Book 6, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”

People also can enter a lottery to be among the lucky fans to check out one of the Allen County Public Library’s approximately 250 copies of the new Harry Potter book, Noggle said. The Bookmark bookstore also will be there selling the book at midnight.

Noggle said fans can get a jump on deciding what activities they want to try Friday night by donating an article of clothing to S.P.E.W. (Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare) barrels set out now through Friday at library branch locations. In the books, Harry’s friend and classmate Hermione Granger started S.P.E.W. to get better treatment and freedom for house elves.

Donated clothing will be given to local organizations that provide free clothing to needy people in Fort Wayne, Noggle said.

Each person who donates an item of clothing will receive an S.P.E.W. button and a library version of The Daily Prophet, the wizard newspaper, Noggle said. The newspaper will provide information about the 18 activities at Friday’ night’s party and where each activity will take place in the main library.

About 100 library staffers will be on hand to help everything go smoothly, Noggle said. Book characters, such as Professor Minerva McGonagall, Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody, Rubeus Hagrid and Professor Severus Snape, also will wander the building to mingle with fans.

The event is paid for by donations from the Friends of the Library organization and the Allen County Public Library Foundation, Noggle said.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

It's a Woot-Off!

Woot is currently in the middle of a woot-off. Here is where you can see a list of the woot-off items so far (see July 19). I've been a member of Woot for a long time. And it too is part of Web 2.0. There is a large community of people who post comments and get to know each other and who have their own special language and inside jokes that is described in Wikipedia here. Woot has a great sense of humor and it's podcasts, contests and item descriptions are worth taking a look at for humor value alone. It pioneered the "One Day, One Deal" marketing model. The WikiMindMap of Woot is pretty interesting also.

For those of us who woot regularly, a woot-off is the time when you are glued to your computer, waiting anxiously for the current item to sell out and the new one to appear. There are woot-off checkers that ding when an item is sold out so you know to hurry to your PC and start F5'ing to catch the first appearance of the new item. Things sell out in minutes if they are good. A few of the things people look forward to are the Flying Woot Monkeys that scream as they fly and wear a woot cape and hat, the ubiquitous LeakFrog and of course, the prize of all prizes, the Bag of Crap! A bag of crap is where you buy 3 pieces of random crap for $1 each and wait for your crap to arrive. People have received 61" TVs and really quite extravagant crap and it is always worth more than $3 (even if some of the crap is broken), and has the excitement value of waiting for it to arrive and see what you get.

Needless to say, it is a feeding frenzy when the BoC appears. Servers crash, pages won't load and it is a free for all. I've never gotten a BoC. It really seems impossible unless you know the tricks and have a really high-speed connection and have dedicated your life to getting one. And they sell out in seconds. So I have finally quit worrying about them, I've been too frustrated, too many times. But regardless of that, It's a Woot-Off!!!!

~Susie

Library x.0 or Who will Preserve the Data?

A long, long, time ago, when Compuserve was one of the major players in internet connectivity like AOL (it dominated the field in the 1980's), back before it had a GUI interface and was still all line-based, I belonged to a group called Church of the Bunny. This was in the early '80's and it was definitely bleeding edge for the times. I remember 300 baud modems that you put the handset of the phone into to use. I was lucky enough to be working with PCs so I had access to some things that were somewhat unaffordable or inaccessible to a lot of people outside the 'geek' fringe.

Anyway, Church of the Bunny was a community and we talked and laughed and had our inside jokes and it was an important part of my life for several years. We used files to store and pass around our Church of the Bunny manifestos and credos and whatnots and we had a newsletter that was was published and mailed to the members. We would meet up when we got out each other's way. I still have the old newsletters and thank goodness because they are some of the only existing pieces of the Church of the Bunny I can find. Since this originally started pre-web and on Compuserve, the files pretty much went away and the few websites that were created are no longer in existence and it is all gone. In my searches I found this little blurb about The Holy War between the Church of the Gerbil and the Church of the Bunny. That's about it. There are still several references but all the links are broken or changed.

We had a community built up and a whole "world" so to speak with a very detailed society and many, many writings and files and correspondence and articles and it is all gone. Vanished into thin air. People left Compuserve so all that archival information was gone and people created web sites on various servers and hosts that folded, or moved or just disappeared. And that was a minuscule portion of what has been lost that was on Compuserve. And there were many other hosts that folded or people moved away from, like Tripod or Geocities or any number of others.

So here's a thought to ponder as we move into Web 2.0 and the online collaboration and social networking tools. How can we preserve all the collaboration and information and social networks as the various platforms evolve and change and come and go? I am sure we can all think of a tool we have used on-line that has been replaced by something newer and more popular. How can a migration of data be accomplished or at least, who is able to catalog and store this data?

If Web 2.0 is a new way of writing and spreading information, what role does Library 2.0 play in keeping that data intact and able to be accessed by other people? Just like libraries are the archives for books and have played a major part throughout history in preserving mankind's writing and knowledge, what is the equivalent in the 2.0 world?

And what risk do we incur by going electronic and putting information on an electronic medium without a methodology in place to catalog and store it?

Just some thoughts on a rainy day.

~Susie

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Elections 2.0 aka Politics 2.0

As I was taking our cat, Ubi, to the vet this afternoon, I turned on the radio to NPR and there was a fascinating discussion on Talk of the Nation about the web's role in the presidential debate. It was called Digital Democracy: YouTube's Presidential Debates and you can listen to a podcast of it on that site. It is very well worth listening to. It is about what role Web2.0 tools such as YouTube, MySpace, blogs, web searches, etc. will play in politics, both in the upcoming presidential debate and in politics in general. Here is the NPR Blog of the Nation post entitled Democrawikiyoutubia 2.8 that is about this NPR broadcast.

As you may or may not know, CNN is asking people to submit YouTube videos with a question for the presidential campaign debate that will be taking place next Monday, July 23. Here is where you can submit your video. And here is a Washington Post blog post entitled CNN/YouTube Debate: The Best of The Questions So Far that has videos of some of the best questions that have been submitted so far. There are also many interested comments for this article.

Another interesting fact is that much of this information is in blog format, such as the NPR Blog of the Nation, The Washington Post's Blog and the Official Google Blog post where the YouTube Presidential Debate program was introduced. YouTube also has a You Choose '08 channel for the 2008 presidential campaign.

And after listening to this broadcast and reading the associated articles and blogs, I realized just how much Web 2.0 is permeating our culture in every way. Yes Virginia, there is Politics 2.0.

~Susie

Wikipedia Mind Map

Through my usual browsing and following links, I happened upon a very interesting site called "What I Learned Today". And on that site, I found a post about WikiMindMap. This is a fascinating site that takes whatever you are interested in and maps it out in a parent-child diagram (or "mind map" I guess they are now being called) that shows supporting topics in a way that is very easy to read and follow. I tried to capture a picture of what the site returns, but couldn't get it to size right and finally decided it wasn't worth messing with. But if you go to the WikiMindMap site you can see for yourself.

I mapped Learning 2.0 and got some very great links that I am still exploring. Be sure to drill down where applicable to get the full picture. One note, it seems to come up searching wikipedia.de instead of wikipedia.en (english). So be sure to change it on the first page where the search box is located.

Then I thought I would see what other wikipedia tools there were and found this on the wikipedia site. I haven't had a chance to really look at it yet, but it looks like there are a lot of interesting tools to explore.

It would be nice if WikiMindMap had some interfaces to it, but I couldn't find any reference to them on the site or doing a general browse.

~Susie




Tuesday, July 17, 2007

A great online store for reading related items!

As you know, I am playing with my 2 blogs and trying widgets and code and whatnot. So I was playing around with the various page elements on my Google Blogger blog and found one called Newsreel that let me search for certain keywords in the news and display news about them.

I put in Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and Learning 2.0. Then I went to my page to see what it looked like. It is really cool! There were all sorts of interesting news bits. So I clicked on one that sounded interesting and lo and behold, it was a link to a site I've been reading lately - ilovelibraries.org. And it was talking about all the neat things they have in their store, like posters (nice one of Orlando Bloom :) and bumper stickers and all sorts of paraphenalia that anyone who loves shopping and reading (and helping libraries) would love.

Bumper sticker for sale This was a bumper sticker you could buy. I love it! You can buy it here. And here is a link to their store. They have posters and umbrellas and mugs and clothing and lots of things, all with a really neat reading theme.

And revenue from products in the ALA Store provides direct support to the programs and initiatives of the American Library Association.

So go check it out! And look around the site too, it is very interesting and well worth a visit.

~Susie

Blogger vs. WordPress Poll

I've added a poll to my side bar to get some feel for what blog engines people use and prefer.

I have created a blog in both Blogger and in WordPress so I can play with them and see what they each have. I wrote a post on this when I first set them up. I've been finding out ways to do things that I want in each, but still like some features in one and some in the other. I'm really hesitant to judge WordPress until I get a chance to move my blog to my own website (which I hope to have soon) since I know that adds a lot of functionality. However, not everyone (or probably most people) have their own site and therefore, the blog engine of choice for them may not be WordPress.

I'm also curious which engine is best for directing people to your site for posts of interest. I'm trying to monitor it via blog stats in WordPress and Google Analytics in Blogger, but blog stats does not give as much information. I did add site meter to my WordPress blog. I found out how to add html code (only straight html code) to my blog via the text widget. It gives much more statistics.

In the process of doing two "separate but equal" blogs, I realize that I really need to settle on one or the other, and do it soon. For one thing, I have to duplicate each post if I want it on each site, and also, I really don't want someone to start reading one site and then have it go away (or quit updating) if I switch to the other. I figure I can put a post on the site directing people to my new site, but still, I don't feel right about it. Also, anyone thinking that I actually have two different blogs would be disappointed. I thought at first that I would put more practical information on my wordpress "All Things Web 2.0" blog and the posts (like this one) that talk about my discovery process and thoughts on this blog.

But then I realized that people might read something on one or the other of my blogs and be interested in what else I might have to say and would miss half of it by having it somewhere else. So I am mostly just posting the same things on each blog. I apologize if it annoys anyone.

Also, I am sure there are other blog engines out there that people use. I know Live Journal is one that I really haven't even looked at. If you use a different blog engine than Blogger or WordPress, could you please leave a comment letting me know what you use? And of course,
comments are always, always welcome. I'd be thrilled if you left a comment and would love to hear from you about things you have found, ideas to share and comments about my post, or me, or anything else you feel like saying.

Anyway, since you are here, please take time to vote!

~Susan Mellott

Monday, July 16, 2007

What is 2.0? or I know it if I see it.

My husband and I went out to dinner last night and as we are
wont to do, we got into a discussion about the meaning of x (x
being in this case, Web 2.0, or more precisely, the definition
of 2.0 as applied to different things such as Web 2.0, Library
2.0, Learning 2.0, etc). What started it was that we'd both read
a post by John Blyberg about whether or not Library 2.0 required
technology and being 'plugged-in', or if Library 2.0 was
something more or different than just technology (to poorly
paraphrase).

I'd been mulling over this ever since I first heard the term
applied and I thought it was a very interesting question. Sean
felt that technology (specifically, the web) was inherent in
2.0. That without the web and all the things it now allows
people to easily do, 2.0 (as is defined) would not exist. (My
apologies to Sean for trying to quote him. I'm sure he will be
writing a blog on the same thing and I will put a link to it
when he does).

I felt that 2.0 was a concept of a web that was facilitated and
enhanced by technology, but that it was a mindset/concept rather
than something concrete that requires the web and/or technology.
I believed that many of the 2.0 tools could be replicated in
other, non-technological ways (albeit on a smaller scale and/or
not as easily or well). In fact, I felt they already have been,
it just was not recognized as being a valuable way to interact
and worth evaluating how it fits into the business, learning,
library, etc. models.

I think from a social and a "geek" (for lack of a better word)
standpoint, it has been around for quite a while. People who
share strong common interests will always find a way to
interact. Through conventions or clubs or contests or meeting
places or correspondence or any number of other ways, they will
find a way to interact and to share ideas, discoveries,
passions, etc. I also believe though, that the value of that interaction
and sharing was not recognized as something that is of value
for more standardized, generic, broad-based things, like
learning or libraries or businesses and that this is where 2.0
comes into play.

However, that all being said, I realized that I don't really
know the accepted definition of generic 2.0, much less
the definition is of Web2.0, Library2.0, Learning2.0, etc.
And I'm not sure there is a definition of 2.0 in general. It
seems to have started with (been coined by) a conference
brainstorming session between O'Reilly and MediaLive
International. in 2003 or 2004, as near as I can tell. Here is a
quote of his "compact definition of Web2.0":

"Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected
devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of
the intrinsic advantages of that platform: delivering software
as a continually-updated service that gets better the more
people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple
sources, including individual users, while providing their own
data and services in a form that allows remixing by others,
creating network effects through an "architecture of
participation," and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to
deliver rich user experiences."

That does seem to be referring to it as specifically a platform,
rather than a web of people, ideas, sharing, etc. Here is the
long version of his creating and defining Web2.0 (it goes into a
lot of detail and the thought process they went through). And
here is another view of Web2.0, the Web2.0 Cheat Sheet.
After just browsing for Web2.0 definitions and reading the many,
many comments they get, I still have not figured out exactly
what it is and encompasses (although I have a better idea of
what it "means").

And I wonder if it really matters if we can say definitively
what is and isn't "2.0". Perhaps the value of the 2.0 label is
to get people to broaden, examine, enhance and change how they
view doing things. To see what other people have done by doing
what I am doing, by trying to find out what is Web2.0,
Learning2.0, Library2.0. And then, by that process, seeing what
has been done and what can be done and using it to start thinking
of ways to incorporate the various tools or ideas or creations
that they find in the process.

I guess that for me, it is like the famous quote on obscenity:
"I know it when I see it".

~Susan Mellott

Friday, July 13, 2007

I have a Flickr Account!



I just set up a Flickr account. Wow, was it easy! I used a piece of of software that I downloaded from Flickr that let me just drag and drop my pictures and mass upload them to Flickr. And adding a Title/Description to each photo was really quick too. I did notice that if I needed to see the larger picture (in order to identify the people in it), when I went back, some of the descriptions appeared to be lost. I retyped them at first until I realized that they were not really lost, it just looked that way. If I went to another page and then back, they appeared correctly.

I have a Kodak digital camera and have used the Kodak online gallery for my albums and sharing them for ages. But Flickr seems to be the one the industry is standardizing on. Another example of Web 2.0. It is not so much that the technology has not been available, it is that no one standard existed and none of the existing technology was open.

So here are my first pictures on my Flickr account.

~Susie


Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Creating my Blog and Random Web 2.0 Musings

I have been working on learning about and creating a blog. It has been very interesting and time-consuming I might add. All the choices: what template to use, what widgets to include, which blog engine to use, what to name it, what should I say about myself... the list goes on.

I created this blog using the Google Blogger and another one in WordPress http://allthingsweb20.wordpress.com/

After trying each, I believe I prefer Google Blogger. It seems to have more features and customization capabilities. I especially like the ability to easily edit the HTML. Although I do not know HTML yet, I was able to add the code to add a button to "Add this blog to my Technorati favorites". I tried to do the same for del.icio.us but was not as sucessful with that yet.

So what is the purpose of Technorati and del.icio.us? Honestly, I am not completely sure yet. I have tagged my blogs and added buttons to my firefox to add/tag in each, but I have not quite figured out what real purpose this serves. I hope to learn more about these soon. For now, I am just going to use them and see where it leads.

I am not sure what to do about posting to each blog. I don't want to duplicate my posts, but I still want to explore both blog engines. I figure I will eventually settle on one but for now, I will add different posts to each. Hopefully I can combine them into one relatively easily at some point.

I should probably come up with a division of thought for each blog, maybe have one contain more personal observations and one that is more technically oriented. That is problematic though, since everything I write tends to be personal, even when I am trying to just explore something technical. It is, after all, my own personal journey. And isn't it ultimately the personal journey of each of us, no matter what we do or where we go with it?

And how do people keep their blogs (and online persona for that matter) so impersonal and ultimately, so unrevealing? I think it is easier to state a position than a direction, and a thought than a feeling. Even the bloggers who like to take stands and state opinions seem to do it passionately, but impersonally. Do they ever feel vulnerable? Do they agonize over what they said, not so much for the content, but for the nakedness of exposing themselves to anyone who comes along? What is the difference between a blog and a diary? How do you keep the content and hide the person? What is the difference between data and information?

It seems to me that much of the Web 2.0 paradigm involves social sharing and
networks, like Second Life, Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, Blogs, MySpace, Twitter, wikis and more. Much, much more. Although I don't know if it has been suggested yet, I could see having a presence in other places such as online gaming site (again, virtual worlds) like World of Warcraft. It makes sense to me to have libraries in such worlds, after all, everyone needs help and information and reference materials, everyone, everywhere needs libraries. And what are libraries if not a presence in every place and every way people gather and disseminate information?

It's way too late (or should I say way too early) and this post is all over the place. I see that I need to learn to break my blog posts into concrete, coherent pieces. But I'm going to let this one stand. So just view it as my "stayed up too late" Web 2.0 stream of consciousness.

And one last thought. I've noticed that wikipedia is really becoming a viable source of information. For a long time it did not seem to have whatever obscure thing I was looking for. Now, more and more, it is becoming a first source for information.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Here I am - Where the Journey Starts...

Well, my first post. How strange this seems. And how strange that it seems strange. I've been chatting and posting to bulletin boards and email lists and groups and what not since before the internet had web pages, but somehow, Web 2.0 came along and suddenly everything old is new (and different) again. And I need to catch up.

As an example, I remember the whole "Second City" social/avatar/world thing from way back. I can't even remember the name of the place anymore, but I remember hanging out in people's "pads"and chatting to all sorts of interesting people (and admiring their avatars) and having quite a good time. But do I know anything about Second City and who is using it? No, I don't.

Somewhere along the way, a whole new (dare I say) paradigm appeared, with all the supporting jargon, acronyms, tools, languages and uses and I was busy programming business apps and missed it.

Then I started paying attention to what my husband was doing as head of the Information Technology Services Department of the ACPL (Allen County Public Library) and it blew me away. All the things I used to do that were just considered playing or obscure or geeky or "kid's stuff", suddenly have a real and practical (and accepted) use. And it is not just acceptable, it is valuable.

And the possibilities are screaming at me. I want to learn and see and do and create and be involved in making a place and finding the opportunities in this new land. I have so many ideas that I want to implement and so many contributions that I want to make. But I need to learn the tools and words and ways to do it. It is frustrating since I have been programming all my life and there is typically nothing I want to do that I can't do without too much trouble. So now I feel humbled by the amount of things I don't know.

So hang with me and you can watch me on my path and hopefully we can share with each other along the way. It is a new way and a new day. It's all things Web 2.0.