Thing 14

LibraryThing

I had tried LibraryThing before, but I had gotten frustrated and then I forgot my name and password. I have a friend who adores LibraryThing so I am trying again.

It is rather fun and somewhat less frustrating, although I wish you could completely edit a book entry (For example, add tags and then choose a cover) without having to go back to your list and choose edit between changes.

I would also like to have a greater ability to arrange the books to my liking, but oh well.

Thing 13

Online productivity tools.

Well, I already have an iGoogle because of Blogger, so I decided to use that. There are a lot of widgets to add, so I messed about with that. Added some weather sites and news sites; removed a couple of the defaults, like a youtube best video widget. Lots of fun there, though I stayed away from the games and things. We're meant to be productive after all. (Except for the penguin poking game.) Obviously I share this computer so I won't make it the homepage or anything like that, but I still have it.

I read the article and decided to go with the Google calender because it was the best and because I already have the google stuff. One does tend to stick with a brand, doesn't one? Calenders are always useful though I wish it could sync with my palm pilot calender.

I signed up for the "Remember the Milk" to do list because it looked friendly. Sign up was quick and I could add it to my iGoogle page. You can sync it with your blackberry but only if you pay for an account and I am too cheap!

Backpack might be useful at work, though I think our email system does some of this stuff too. The shared thing might be nice.

Zamzar is COOL! Wonder if I can make it convert things for my palm pilot? I usually use poor mojo.

Thing 12

Social media sites.

Kind of different from del.icio.us. Delicious is just your list of website that you are keeping track of.

Also different from the Google reader which tracks changes in websites.

I joined Digg, because a colleague did. It seemed simple enough, but I am not finding many news outlet with a "Digg It" link. I tried adding an URL from my local paper but it was refused. It would also be nice that if an article is no longer available it would be dropped.

Newsvine is apparently associated with my local paper. I liked the "local news" tab.

reddit did not impress me. Not very good news stories, to me.

New York Times lets you Digg things. So do the other sites. That's neat.

I guess these would be useful for gathering news stories on libraries or local events or something.

I read a few articles but a couple wouldn't load. Oh well.

Thing 11 - Tagging and del.icio.us

OK! Tagging or labeling is super-easy. I have been using it more on my manga blog for the library. I have a tag cloud widget in that blog and I put the manga titles as my tags. I think people can search the tags or click on the cloud in my blog. I like that.

The video was interesting. I learned a few things and I guess it could be useful.

I poked around the Minn23 account. Quite a variety of links. The tag list on the side was nice and I liked how you got a second list of related tags.

I made my own account, which was pretty easy and could be very useful. I will have to put all my favorite links there. I have put most of them on the various computers I use at work, but it is annoying to have to figure them out again when the computer dies.

It will be even more fun with my personal stuff at home.

Edited to add: And now del.icio.us won't load. phooey

Thing 10 wikis

Based on the presentation, I am not sure that in a small group situation that a wiki is any better than a shared document. Except for the linking to a new page thing.

Wikis seem to be mostly a widely shared document. That's cool.

I can understand why a lot of teachers ban wikipedia as a resource. With so many people editing, how can you be sure they are being truthful? I know that wikipedia has tried to tighten things up a bit, but still.

I added a bit to the 23 things on a stick entry. It was a very random looking entry.

Thing 9

Ok, just learned a new thing about Thing 8. My laptop did not appreciate heavy active graphics.

I have used Google Docs a lot before now. I tried to get in and work on the sample document, but I didn't have permission. I'm not sure how to get it. I have shared docs with google before though. I was always invited to do so, though. I have asked for permission and maybe will get it.

I like the way Google docs automatically saves the document. I like the way you can start a new document or spreadsheet or whatever. I may be biased however, since I used Google docs first.

I like the large, friendly save button on the Google docs. Zoho has a tiny save button. It is not friendly.

Both programs share easily. That's nice.

Here is the zoho link

Here is the googledoc link

Both sites are handy for libraries since they would allow users to do word processing without the library having to have that program on that computer.

BTW, I added a cat to my blog. He is entertaining.

Edited to add:
I got some permissions to share docs so I did.

I still like googledocs better. But the exercise was entertaining...

Thing 8

Ok, I actually used my photobucket account for that presentation because that's where I already had the photos loaded.

I signed up for Zoho and quickly realized I needed to allow more scripts to get the thing to work.



I can see where these might be cool. I think that one of these sort of tools is in use on our website for the remodel photos. My current montages aren't particularly goos because they aren't focussed.

The shared databases can be fun. I have some I share with my friend so we can track which movies and things we own. I can see how it could be useful for work, listing books and things.