Thing 23

Well that's the end of 23 things, I found it really, really useful. I learnt a lot about web 2.0 things that I had never used before, found out how to better use some of the ones I had already used and how to bring all my web 2.0 tools together.

The two things I found the most useful were Twitter and Blogger.

I had used it Twitter before but in a very limited capacity. Learning how to search for stuff and using hashtags improves the Twitter experience immeasurably, as does Tweetdeck (desktop client) and Ubertwitter (Blackberry client)

I'll definitely continue to use this and I hope that the other 23 things people continue to use the #ox23.

Blogger is also good, very easy to use and a good way of recording things, for example progress on a special project at work. I love the gadgets that you can add to your blog in order to integrate everything.

Honourable mention goes to Google Docs, I was really impressed with what you can do with it, especially the forms.

Less useful to me were things like Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook etc as I'd already used them quite a lot.

Things 21 and 22 - Widgets

First of all, I wasn't sure what the difference between a widget and a gadget is, and it turns out there isn't any. I think they're great, it makes it possible for ordinary people to make their pages / blogs look good without much effort and to integrate all your web 2.0 things.

I'd added some gadgets to my blog already such as Library Thing feeds and to be honest I'd not looked at Flickr since we covered it last month, but it was easy to add the pictures and they look nice, must add some more. Then I got carried away and added a Twitter feed, thanks to the article that Penny mentioned in the 23 things blog.

Then back to iGoogle to add the Delicious links, neither of these are things that I've used since their relevant "Things" - it looks like iGoogle could be used as another way of bringing all your web 2.0 things together (I just added Twitter as well unfortunately the interface is a bit ugly, maybe there is a better one)

I think this would be a better use of iGoogle for me rather than looking at news and weather etc.

New iGoogle with more web 2.0 stuff on:

Then I had a look at the editor's picks on iGoogle - I don't think they're very useful to me, apart from possibly the T0 Do List.

Moving onto to Library gadgets, I see that various Libraries in the UK and the US have made their own gadgets, couldn't find one for SOLO, but it might be a good idea to have one.

Things 19 and 20 - Office 2.0

Thing 19: Google Docs

I thought this was going to be an easy one as I have been using Google Docs for a couple of years, for documents and spreadsheets. The sharing option is good for if you have multiple people working on the same document.

I'd never used forms before though. it was really easy to set one up although I got a surprise when I opened it to see a nasty looking spreadsheet. Then I realised that this is how you see the results of what people had submitted to the form and you could then manipulate them in the standard manner - genius!

I couldn't find a way to get the form to display properly in an email, but a colleague told me that you can stop it showing in the invitation email, I don't know if it is possible to send out a working form via email but I couldn't manage it - could anyone else?

I did manage to embed the form on my blog, which I think is useful and looks good.

Thing 20: ThinkFree Office

Another free online office suite, this one is a lot slower than Google Docs and although the HTML formatted note option looked quite good, I can't see me using it over Google Docs (faster and easier to use) Google Docs now also has the upload file option that this has.

Summary: "Office 2.0" is good because you can use it from any computer that can connect to the internet, people might be a bit funny about Google or whoever having their data on their computers though, you might not want to put confidential information on it.

Thing 18 - Wikipedia

More Wiki stuff, this Thing was to look at Wikipedia.

I've used Wikipedia quite a bit to look up info, in fact I find it very useful to find out when other European countries have national holidays which lead to newspapers not being published, so I can sort out our publication patterns in the serials module. I've never edited it though, or looked at the information behind the actual articles, so this will be a voyage of discovery.

I looked up Cockermouth, the town where I grew up and had a look at the discussion about it: people had complained that the original article was written like a tourist brochure, trying to sell the town and various factual inaccuracies were pointed out.

There was also a warning that part of the page may be slanted towards recent events:

i.e. last year's flooding. It does read more like a news report than an encyclopedia article

I guess the idea is if everyone can edit it a mostly accurate consensus is likely to be achieved as the people who bother to edit things are more likely to be knowledgeable pedants than ignorant ne'er do wells.

Thing 17 - Wikis

This was a new one for me, it was interesting that you could sign up with your Facebook or Twitter login details (I used Facebook) I had never edited a Wiki and found it very difficult to find anything to add to http://socialouls.wetpaint.com In the end I added the year to the date that Twitter discontinued text message updates in the UK. Great.

Couldn't spot any instances of "OULS" though, uh apart from the one in the url above...

I like the site though, there's some good info on it, as long as it is kept up to date.

I thought that a Wiki could potentially be very useful in my Library, something that all staff could contribute to and it might be a better way of organizing procedural information rather than hunting through emails...

Things 15 & 16 - Twitter

This week's thing is Twitter.

I signed up, found some people to follow, and even got a follower.

I occasionally use Twitter at work to post Tweets to our followers but had never used it to communicate with people directly, so it was useful to see how that worked. I was also very impressed by the hashtag function, for example #ox23.

I also downloaded Tweetdeck (because I liked the name) and found it to be a lot better interface than Twitter itself.

Seen left to right is the Twitter timeline, replies to me and a feed of #ox23!

Great stuff! I'm sure you can do a lot more with this thing, will investigate further and also try to get Twitter on the Blackberry.

But how does this relate to Libraries? Nuffield's Twitter page is used to provide lists of new books, Library news, Oxford Library news, general Library-related news, information about new resources and details of courses. Looking at some of the other Libraries' pages it looks like they are doing similar things. I guess it's another way of connecting with readers, but will they want to sign up to receive a Library's Tweets?

Update 17/03/10 at the weekend I followed the 6 Nations games on Ubertwitter (on the Blackberry) and Tweetdeck and found it very interesting and fun to read comments in real time.

Obviously this has nothing to do with Libraries, but I'm looking forward to following people's tweets from the Staff Conference tomorrow...

Linked In

The other Thing this (last) week was to register for Linked In, it seems to be a professional networking site. I was a bit dubious about it as the editor of one of the magazines that the Library subscribes to had invited me to join, as well as sending me other spam. In fact, when I registered, it came up with his name but I was quickly able to consign him to the E-dustbin.

Right, so it looks a bit better than Facebook, without the adverts or cat pictures (oops) and I guess it's supposed to be a bit more business like and less social/timewasting/fun. I successfully added a colleague and tried to add my Mrs, but there are a few people with her name so time will tell if I added the right one... I guess you'd want profiles on Linked In and Facebook to keep a distance between your professional life and your social life, for instance you don't want a customer or potential employer looking you up and finding pictures of you in a state of intoxication, so it might be a good idea to make your Facebook profile private and your Linked In profile public...