Summary and final thoughts

Well it's been a challenge that has opened my eyes to the extent of what is going on with "Web 2.0".

The Internet is so vast and "random" that I do feel reassured by a lot of these tools. We are creatures who, on the whole, are trying to organise our world. We are also largely time poor so the RSS feeds help to bring information to us.

I particularly enjoyed learning about podcasts (especially for the radio), the Igoogle page and Delicious bookmarks won't be deleted.

The biggest disappointment was Twitter - I will be amazed if Flutter - the shorter version takes off so to speak (pardon the pun).

I should think we will introduce one of these tools to engage with students in an alternative way. The old methods will have to remain for those that are not receptive to this though.

I did not always find the tools intuitive, but part of the problem was having to do this in very little time. Thanks to the Web 2.0 team though - their instructions were very clear.

Live long and prosper...

Del.icio.us on iGoogle page

Well I finally saw that to change the settings on the Gadget you click on the "my delicious" button.

So success. The more you have in one place the less you have to log in.

Flickr photostream on my blog

Afternoon..

Well I followed the steps to add my Flickr stream but it didn't work (despite a promising beginning). Comments on Google showed quite a few disgruntled users. Recently I have been encouraged to put I.T. problems in to Google. Sure enough I was given a step-by-step list of how to get around this problem (Jane can ignore my request for help!)

http://bal00sblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/adding-flickr-gadget-to-blogger.html

I still have a few spacing issues but some of the photos are there!
The Google news headlines worked more smoothly.

ThinkFree Office

Once again I had to let Google access something..(forget what now). Pity. Come back privacy all is forgiven...

The drawback with this was the slowness. At a rather quick glance it is hard to see how this is better than word - except the whole storage and sharing thing of course.

I did see that you can create HTML formatted documents, handy for web pages. When I tried to save my document in ThinkFree Office as opposed to my PC it wouldn't let me. Perhpas as I signed in with Google documents?

Hmmm..jury out.. but I think I preferred Google docs. Two things to go, plus a summary.

Google Document

Wish you were here, and me too (Ireland's Aran islands) ...But to Google documents...
I created, fairly easily, one document, three forms (a little more help on re-accessing saved forms to send out would be helpful) and one slide show. For some reason the slide show started uploading photos from my PC quite easily and then stopped. Could be my settings (will look when I have more time).

‎Photos currently on my PC (slide show)
‎me to 1 collaborator
7:43 am‎me

‎Music venues in Oxford (form)
‎Not shared
7:26 am‎me

‎The meaning of life (form) - I can send this out if you have the answer...
‎me to 1 collaborator
4:47 am‎me

‎Staff conference (form)
‎Not shared
4:35 am‎me

‎Expensive Law books under consideration (doc)
‎me to 2 collaborators
4:28 am‎me

I shared the document with a colleague and that worked fine, as did the form. It is good to know there is this neat (free) way of sending out a survey. The results are in spreadsheet form initially. Also clear to review the results (we just wouldn't be able to filter results maybe as we do with Survey Monkey). So high marks for this. Like you write in your introduction you just have to think about the security of storing documents remotely like this.

Wikipedia

Having heard a lot about this, including the fact that it is banned at my husband's University, I was intrigued to look more closely.

You do wonder on what authority people are writing (maybe very little sometimes), which does not breed confidence. I understand some malicious things can be put on the personality pages. The hardest bit to this task was finding a unique user name. I edited and added a bit on our College - it is important to know how many ghosts are said to float its floors.
I also looked at folk festivals. Clearly people do stretch what should go in an encyclopedia, to cover what they want to promote.

All that said, I can see it working well for a specific group, like librarians interested in Web 2.0. I don't think this will win out as our Web 2.0 tool of choice though.

Explore and contribute to a Wiki

Good week 9!

I have looked at the Oxford Web 2.0 Wiki before. It is useful for pulling all the information on Web 2.0 in Oxford (and current thinking) together. The link to the directory of all Web 2.0 things in Oxford is good too.
I have seen a list of the pitfalls of using Web 2.0 and I think there are OULS guidelines on Web 2.0 use. Is that on the Wiki? If so it could be highlighted more.

I can't add to the directory just now, as we will be introducing something in our library at the end of this programme.

Thanks to those who have pioneered Web 2.0 use and encouraged the rest of us!

Twitter

Well, this was not quite what I expected. The word limit is prohibitive in my view for use in communicating with students. Having spoken to students that resent the extra click needed to link through to Facebook from emails, I can't imagine many students will want to do all the extra clicking that Twitter mostly requires. If you were putting up a link to an accessions list, would they bother to click through?
For short messages it would work, but that is not what I had in mind.

I put a question in my tweet but haven't got a reply yet.

Again, like podcasts, there is an overwhelming choice of things to subscribe to follow. I had to cease following one thing as it took over the timeline big time.

Where do all these people find the time?! Can it be healthy to be online soooo often??

Linkedin

Morning

I have signed up, but reluctantly. I am not keen on sharing personal information like that.

I can see the benefits of that though - perhaps best for younger students who are struggling to get on the job market.

Time is short, so is blog...

Facebook

After resisting for sometime, I had joined Facebook before this course. It was overseas friends that particularly wanted me to join. The ease of adding photos and having threads of comments on wall postings does make it quite an inclusive, attractive way of keeping in touch. It's also good if you are a member of a group, you can get mailings and post them easily, (although yahoo groups did this well too).

While I dreaded signing up, it has not proved too onerous to be on Facebook. I wonder how many people will pay the £3 fee that may be introduced to stay on there (I was told). I do not put too many personal details on there, just because I don't think it is a good idea.

As for work uses, we are in debate about this already in my workplace. My first reaction, when asking students what Web 2.0 technology we should use, was "not Facebook". I know Twitter is coming up on the programme (and I may not like it when I know it better) but I think that would be my first choice over Facebook. I would be concerned about having to monitor for unsuitable postings on the Facebook wall the whole time.

I have been asked to send posts to students on things like new books by subject and Twitter would be best for this (I am told).

I am a Facebook friend of a library that has set up it's own page and I can see it is keeping students engaged that way. Perhaps I am old fashioned but I can't help feeling that there should be divides still between work and play (I know that is not the general way these days though).
The advertising that can appear on your home page is annoying too. I don't like promoting Starbucks but you can't control that.

While a Facebook would attract fans and interest no doubt, we have a good web page. I am not clear on the difference between Facebook Groups and Fan pages - I think you would need to try it out to see.

I plan to take a decision on what to introduce at work, at the end of this programme, so don't quote me on statements in this post.