Week Eight: Cloud Computing

I think I already use this more than I realized.  This last week, we collaborated using Google docs for an online meeting.  We had a spreadsheet that we all needed to share and also be able to manipulate during the meeting.  For the most part, it went well, however the formulas in the spreadsheet did not all work as planned.  If we were to do it again, we'd need to tweak something -- but I am impressed at how easy it is to share documents.

Week Seven: Microblogging

Twitter has become so popular that I don't know how a person cannot have heard about it -- but hearing about it is as far as I'd gone until now! 

After going in and setting up a Twitter account, I can see where some people would find it useful.   It was quite easy to find friends and organizations to follow. I'm quite interested in the Olympics, so decided to follow NBCOlympics.  I also am fascinated by the journey to space, so am following NASA.  As a board member of Gray County Farm Bureau, I decided to follow KSFarmBureau as well.  I've also added several librarians to my list.  It is fun to see just what tweets I get.

At this point, I can't see that it will be that useful to me, and it's just one more 'thing' to go check.  My cell phone is not set up to receive online messages of any type, and perhaps if it was, I'd see microblogging in a different light.  As I mentioned above, it is fun to see the tweets and keep up with others.

Week Six: Tagging and Social Bookmarking

This was my first foray into social bookmarking.  I had heard of Delicious, but had no idea how it worked. I did create an account, and I think I'm really going to like it.  Being able to access your favorites from any computer will be absolutely wonderful -- no more guessing when you're away from your work computer.  You just log into the site and there are your favorites just waiting for you to use them.  I also like the ability in Delicious to bundle your sites.  In my favorites folder, I have all of my sites 'filed away' in folders, and I'll be able to do the same in Delicious.  Tagging also satisfies my cataloger's need to assign access points!  ;o)

Week Five: RSS and Feed Readers

I have been using Bloglines to subscribe to my favorite RSS feeds for quite some time now.  I much prefer the feed reader over sending the feeds directly into my email; rather than clogging up my email, I can go browse my reader and pick up the information that I most want at that moment.  I not only subscribe to work-related feeds, but also to feeds that relate to my hobbies and interests. 

I had never actually searched for RSS feeds, so I decided to try to find two new feeds that would interest me.  I decided that I really wanted to receive  'Unshelved' by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum.  In the process I discovered that I could also subscribe to a few more of my favorite comics through the same feed - The Dark Gate Comic Slurper.   I also subscribed to Archaeology News -- archaelogy being another of my fascinations.  I'm thoroughly looking forward to receiving these new feeds as often as they come!  If you haven't tried an RSS reader -- you should!!!!

Week Four: Photo Sharing

It's week four and now we're sharing photos online.  I really don't want to share all of my personal photos with everyone in the world -- although if I had photos I wanted to share with family, that'd be great.  I can see a huge advantage to backing up your photos online, and I can also see a huge advantage for being able to share photos for business purposes -- whether it be for PR purposes or actually for undertaking business transactions.

I did go to Flickr and actually was a bit frustrated in trying to search for certain images.  The search engine just isn't as user friendly as some I've used before.

The photo I selected to comment on is an image of a 'library bird.'  Actually, I'm not sure if this bird lives in the library or was just having it's photo taken in the library, but it's a great picture!   When I was the Director at the Cimarron City Library, we had two cockatiels -- Socrates and Plato.  The children loved them, as did the adults.  I was curious to see if anyone else had cockatiels in their library -- and sure enough -- at least in a photo!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/irina121/3331762119/

Photo taken from irina121's photostream

Week Three: Online Meetings

Online meetings and classes are GREAT!   We've been using this technology in Southwest Kansas for a while now, and I feel comfortable with it.  There are some types of meetings that just lend themselves to face-to-face, but most meetings and classes can be presented online.  The advantage of being able to sit at your own desk and listen in can't be over-rated!  And if the you're listening to an archived session, you can listen whenever it's convenient.  I think the demand for this type of meeting/workshop will only increase as more and more of us realize the advantages.  I also think the technologies will improve, thereby increasing the demand!  

I've utilized this type of workshop many times in the past and today, I listened to an archived class -- New Copyright Tools and Best Practices: Copyright Law Update 2010.  It was hosted by Infopeople and presented by Mary Minow of Stanford University.  It was a packed hour of fantastic information about the most recent issues pertaining to copyright law.  

Week Two: Online Communities

Online communities are a fantastic way to keep in touch with every aspect of our lives: family, friends and work contacts.  I've been a member of Facebook for several years and have utilized it and enjoyed keeping up with family and friends across the Globe.  I haven't experimented with posting links, but have posted a few photos. It is fun and a great way to re-connect with people.



This past week has shown me an even more important and essential need for online communities.  The earthquake in Haiti 'hit' a little closer to home than I'd originally thought.  One of my colleagues on the Gray County Farm Bureau Board had arrived in Haiti on a missions trip the evening before the earthquake.  As communications were totally knocked out, no one here in the States had any word about their whereabouts or condition for several days.  However, his family communicated with all of us -- family and friends -- with updates as word filtered in.  Updating all of us with one communication allowed his family to spread the word without clogging up the phone lines and  hoping they didn't leave someone out.  It truly is a blessing to be able to a part of that 'network!'