tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33922877421542805962017-06-11T02:33:49.693-05:00Library Learning 2.1Learn about Web 2.0 functions, websites, tools and technology with the Missouri River Regional LibraryBobbi Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364282436701399149noreply@blogger.comBlogger45125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-85669701646657345422008-10-28T11:25:00.002-05:002008-10-28T11:28:16.363-05:0042. What have you learned?It's been a long year, thinking back to January when we started this program seems like a long time ago. We've had some easy lessons and we've had some hard lessons.<br /><br />For your very last lesson I'm going to make you think, I have four questions I'd like you to consider and answer in the comments. <br /><ol><li>What was the most useful thing you learned?</li><li>What was the most fun?</li><li>What would you like to learn more about? </li><li>Which do you think will have the most impact on libraries?</li></ol>Bobbi Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364282436701399149noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-1434190331909014032008-10-27T07:51:00.003-05:002008-10-28T11:25:17.011-05:0041. Finding blogs that are right for your jobI may be going about things in a bit of a backwards way, but now that I've given you all tools to handle information overload and getting buried in blog information, I'll now give you some tools to go out and find those blogs that are right for your job - so that you can use the tools I've already given you to get yourself "unburied". The ReadWriteWeb blog (one of the blogs that I've identified as being necessary for <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">my</span></span> job) has posted about finding the right blogs for you in the past. In a fairly recent post, they <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/identify_top_blogs.php">compared six ways to find a blog</a> that will help you keep on top of what you need to know to do your job. They followed that post up with a <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/reading_blogs_at_work.php">"why" and "how"</a> post as well.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why?<br /></span><ul><li>Staying up-to-date on the news in your industry/area of work</li><li>Knowing what people are talking about</li><li>Finding reference resources for later use</li></ul><span style="font-weight: bold;">How?<br /></span>They, of course, reference their earlier post on the subject, the one I linked to above, and then gave some concrete examples of finding blogs for HR professionals, Physical Therapists and Fire Inspectors. You can take these same techniques and use them to find blogs that will help you keep up-to-date with what others in your job are doing, talking about and thinking about.<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><span>You can also use alert services such as <a href="http://alerts.com/">alerts.com</a> to pull information about a particular keyword into your feed reader</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">. </span><span>Another tool that you can use is a <a href="http://www.google.com/cse">custom search engine</a> that does constant searches throughout the web for information you want and dumps the results into an RSS feed for your feed reader.</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /></span><span>Using these tools, you should be able to find blogs that will pay off handsomely in your ability to stay on top of what is going on in your particular job. Just going through and doing an alert or custom search for keywords will really help you identify what blogs are discussing topics you care about. </span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13304704286172738430noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-8762371284794110282008-10-13T07:30:00.001-05:002008-10-13T07:30:00.833-05:0040. DimDimYep, the name of the service I'll be showing you all today is <a href="http://dimdim.com/">DimDim</a>. Silly name, very cool idea. The idea behind the silly name is to bring simple web conferencing to the cheap! With DimDim (yes, I do like typing the name, why do you ask?) you can get web conferencing tools - desktop sharing, slide presentation, chat and voice chat capabilities - without paying for them. DimDim uses Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to give you voice chatting for free - instead of calling in via a telephone, you can plug in a headset with a microphone to your computer (or use a laptop which generally has a built in microphone included) and talk over the internet. There is nothing to install in order to use DimDim, so it's nice for people who want to collaborate without involving their IT department and it's easy to use even on very old computers.<br />Just like most "free" Web 2.0 services, however, it does have paid versions that give you more features. The free version allows for 20 people in a "room", but that's really the only limitation - all the other features are included. A bit more money, $99 a year, and you can put your logo on your room and have up to 100 people connected at a time. For a LOT more money each year ($1998), you can have your own custom logo, multiple meetings happening at the same time and the limitation on people per room is 1000.<br />DimDim, unlike many of the tools we've been profiling over the course of the last year, is social in a "synchronous" way - meaning that it requires people to be present at the same time. Because of that, I'll be on DimDim and hosting a meeting on Wednesday morning at 11am (room URL is http://webmeeting.dimdim.com:80/portal/JoinForm.action?confKey=webgoddess, meeting key is MRRL) and again on Thursday afternoon at 3pm (sorry evening folks, you'll have to play with this one on your own). I'll post the Thursday afternoon one in the comments later. If you need a headset to join the meetings (only necessary if you want to voice chat, text chatting is always available as well), come see me and we'll work something out!Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13304704286172738430noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-10528868670159556212008-09-29T09:31:00.002-05:002008-10-06T12:40:14.253-05:0039 .HuluWhat is Hulu? According to the <a href="http://www.hulu.com/about">about page</a> it is <blockquote>an online video service that offers hit TV shows, movies and clips at Hulu.com and other online destination sites — all for free</blockquote>Yes, you can watch <a href="http://www.hulu.com/battlestar-galactica">popular</a> <a href="http://www.hulu.com/prison-break">TV shows</a> and <a href="http://www.hulu.com/watch/29271/spy-game">movies</a>, <a href="http://www.hulu.com/the-addams-family">shows from</a> <a href="http://www.hulu.com/tj-hooker">back in the day</a> and <a href="http://www.hulu.com/30-rock">some</a> <a href="http://www.hulu.com/watch/28343/dr-horribles-sing-along-blog#s-p1-st-i3">of my</a> <a href="http://www.hulu.com/the-colbert-report">favorites</a> right online<ul><li> Hulu does not require a download of any software. Users only need a Flash 9.0 enabled computer and an Internet connection to enjoy. </li><li> Hulu offers the freedom to share full-length episodes or clips via e-mail or embed on other Web sites, blogs and social networking pages. </li><li> Hulu's clipping feature allows users to select a portion of the video they would like to share.</li></ul>Why am I showing you an online tv watching service as part of Library Learning? It's a great example of traditional media adapting to the new Web. Something libraries and publishers are still struggling with. Sure we have downloadable audio books, but how easy is that site to use compared to Hulu?<br /><br />Other sites to watch TV online<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.surfthechannel.com/">Surf the Channel</a></li><li><a href="http://www.sidereel.com/_home">Sidereel</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/">BBC iPlayer</a> </li><li><a href="http://abc.go.com/player/index?pn=index">ABC Full Episode Player</a><br /></li><li><a href="http://www.nbc.com/Video/library/">NBC Video Library</a><br /></li><li><a href="http://www.cbs.com/video/">CBS Video</a>.</li></ul>Bobbi Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364282436701399149noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-44513187124766000392008-09-29T07:30:00.003-05:002008-09-29T07:39:50.843-05:0038. Feedhub<a href="http://www.feedhub.com/">Feedhub</a>, a recommendation engine for RSS feeds, may be just what you need to start really taking control of your information sources. Are your feed reader "unread" items a bit higher than you like? Feedhub can analyze what you are reading now and pull interesting and relevant stories out of the 'net just for you. The more you use it, the better it gets at figuring out what it is you like. You can also point it toward your FriendFeed or Delicious accounts or your blog to teach it more about what you are interested in. Once Feedhub does the analyzing of your interests, you will start to get stories in your feed reader that are tailored for you. Once that happens, you can pretty much delete most of your other feeds and rely on Feedhub to keep you informed.<br />I haven't been using it for very long, but it seems to do a pretty good job of figuring out what sort of news/stories/blog posts I will like from my feeds and delivering them to me. I'll keep tweaking the stories it sends (by going to the Feedhub site and "voting" on the stories it suggests for me) to make it work even better, though! What I'd really like is for it to pull stories from *other* feeds to show me that match the kinds of stories I like, as well.<br />This tool is another possible way to take control of your information sources and manage your time efficiently - use it if you feel like you want more control over the amount of information that comes at your via your feed reader!Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13304704286172738430noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-34794873873974895132008-09-22T07:00:00.000-05:002008-09-22T08:53:18.973-05:0037. Blip.tvMost of you have heard of <a href="http://youtube.com/">YouTube</a>, but it's not the only place to watch videos online anymore, today we're going to look at one of the competitors blip.tv. <a href="http://blip.tv/">Blip.tv</a> is more focused towards videoblogging than <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_video">viral videos</a>.<br /><br />Some of the benefits of blip.tv<br /><ul><li>Doesn't lower the quality of your videos </li><li>Free</li><li>Works with multiple video formats</li><li>Allows offers direct download links for all videos it hosts under Creative Commons<br /></li></ul><br /><embed src="http://blip.tv/play/AcnJGgA" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="510"></embed><br /><br />Links<br /><ul><li><a href="http://blip.tv/about/">blip.tvs FAQ page</a></li><li><a href="http://mrrl.blip.tv/">MRRL's blip.tv account</a>, we'll be using this to host George's and other videos</li></ul>Other online video services<br /><ul><li><a href="http://flickr.com/">Flickr</a> - 90 second limit</li><li><a href="http://www.vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a></li><li><a href="http://www.viddler.com/">Viddler</a></li><li><a href="http://www.blogtv.com/">Blogtv</a></li><li><a href="http://12seconds.tv/">12seconds.tv</a> - you need a webcam and can only do 12second clips <a href="http://12seconds.tv/channel/librarianbyday">see my account </a></li></ul>So you want to make your own videos? Here are some basic guides<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.05/howto.html">Lights! Camera! Vodcast!</a></li><li><a href="http://davidleeking.com/pdf/videoblogginghandout.pdf">David Lee King's Videoblogging handout</a> (pdf)</li><li><a href="http://makeinternettv.org/special/overwhelmed.php">Make Internet TV</a><br /></li></ul>Bobbi Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364282436701399149noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-22742455339507032482008-09-15T07:30:00.000-05:002008-09-15T07:30:00.443-05:0036. Keeping things simpleNow that we are reaching the end of this set of lessons, you all have created accounts and played around with a *bunch* of different services in the Web 2.0 landscape. You may be wondering, at this point, how to keep up with updates to Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook and all the other sites that want you to keep them up-to-date with what you are doing. Using a social updating aggregator such as <a href="http://updating.me">Updating.me</a>, <a href="http://ping.fm">Ping.fm</a> or <a href="http://www.hellotxt.com">Hellotxt</a> will really help you out with this task. Any of these services will take your login information for a variety of sites and update them all in one fell swoop.<br />Updating.me offers one-stop updating for 10 different services, including Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, Plurk and others that we haven't gotten around to mentioning yet. It also will show you a single page of your friends' updates from any of those services on it's home page as well, which is a feature that the other two don't have. Updating.me is still in beta, but the code BetaToUpdateMe <div id="logo">is currently working to get into it. If it stops working, let me know and I'll post the new one in a comment here.<br />Ping.fm offers many more services - it adds MySpace, Friendster, delicious, LinkedIn and more to the list of services that Updating.me offers and it offers more ways to update. You can send in your status via IM, Google Talk, email, and Facebook application, to name a few. Ping.fm just came out of private beta and will take anyone who wants to update a bunch of services using a bunch of possible methods.<br />Hellotxt is the third method that I've been known to use to update my status on various services. Hellotxt's strengths - and weaknesses - are it's international scope. Many services that are rarely used here in the states are represented in the list of possible services for hellotxt to update, but it also requires sending a text message to Italy if you want to update via your phone. Most "all-you-can-text" texting plans don't cover international texting - I know mine doesn't. Don't ask me how - it's embarrassing... Anyway, if you want to have an international presence in the social networking arena, hellotxt is a good option for you. It too is out of beta and will allow anyone to get an account.<br />For those of you who would like to keep your Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed and other social services' status messages in sync, one of these sites should give you the tools you need to make it happen. Do be careful about multiple updates, though. I had hellotxt set to update both Brightkite and Twitter, and then had my Brightkite service set to send any updates through that service on to Twitter. That caused a LOT of duplicate tweets until I finally noticed what I was doing. Again, embarrassing!<br /></div>Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13304704286172738430noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-39587783711111152332008-09-08T08:57:00.006-05:002008-09-08T09:25:52.318-05:0035. Time ManagementOne of the questions about the web I’m asked most often is - how do you find the time to keep up with everything? So I thought I'd share some tips and ask you for some tips. Here are mine:<br /><br /><ul><li>I don't try to keep up with everything. There is so much going on, I think it would be impossible to try to do it all and have a balanced life, so I accept that there will always be something I don’t know about.</li><li>I have a great network of people; when I find something new I share, when they find something new they share</li><li>I take what I like and throw the rest out. I’ll try most new services, set up an account, play with it for a while. If doesn’t click or do what I want, I stop using it.</li><li>I don't use every tool everyday. <a href="http://twitter.com/">Twitter</a> is often overwhelming to me, and it interrupts me when I’m really focusing, so some days I don’t check in at all. I know I miss some good things, but it’s part of that “can’t do everything” acceptance.</li><li>I’m organized - I use a feed reader and have over 10 folders. One titled daily - those are the blogs that have high priority, I don’t necessarily read them every day but if I have time they are the first ones that get read. This is a select folder and there are never more than 10 blogs in there. Other blogs are organized under subject. I try to read most of these once a week or so.</li><li>I don’t try to do everything at once. First I got a Myspace page, mastered that (it took a while let me tell you and I cursed Myspace more than once) then I moved on to the next thing.</li><li>I use gmail for my email list subscriptions, it groups emails together which makes is easy to follow conversations or delete the whole thread if I’m not interested. It also allows me to create custom labels (instead of folders) and sort incoming email by those and color code them!</li></ul> <p>Tools I use: a feed reader, blogs, email lists, <a href="http://friendfeed.com/">FriendFeed</a>,<a href="http://facebook.com/"> Facebook</a>, Twitter, but use what works for you and you feel comfortable with.</p><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2595497078/"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SMU1hduB3XI/AAAAAAAAASg/rw3r8MB8fQ4/s400/firehydrant.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243656190172454258" border="0" /></a></p>What tips or tricks do you use for keeping up?Bobbi Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364282436701399149noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-82692489428168246772008-09-01T07:30:00.002-05:002008-09-03T08:35:13.102-05:0034 .Friendfeed Take 2 - the beta versionBobbi mentioned the existence of a very cool lifestreaming application a while back called <a href="http://librarylearning21.blogspot.com/2008/06/25-friend-feed.html">FriendFeed</a>. Just last week, the fine folks behind this service released a "beta" (meaning not quite ready for everyone to use it) version of the new look/feel/features of the FriendFeed site and it is pretty amazing! You can now create lists and populate them with friends, work contacts, professional contacts or anything else you'd like and just view the feeds from the folks on a single list at one time. This is a great way to keep from being overwhelmed with information from your friends, collegues and co-workers all in the same "lifestream".<br />Also related to the friends lists, is a feature that wasn't advertised on the blog... It's called Fake Following. An excerpt from the <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/25/friendfeed-beta-testing-new-design-adds-grouped-friends-and-photos/">TechCrunch</a> post talking about the new feature says:<br /><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote>The Friend Lists also support “Fake Following” - a seemingly unintuitive feature that allows users to look like they’re following their friends without actually getting their updates. Users often expect to have their “Follows” reciprocated by their peers, and a failure to do so can lead to bruised egos. But indiscriminate following comes with a price too, as it ultimately leads to an unmanageable amount of noise (and stories you might not care about). Fake Following manages to skirt the issue with a digital white lie, and is a feature Twitter (which has a similar system) should offer too.</blockquote><br />They have also improved the posting interface to allow easy posting of photos directly to FriendFeed. You can now post information about your life and include visual aids! They reworked the navigation to make FriendFeed rooms easier to find and manage - a nice touch to make getting around the site even easier. Finally (so far), they've also given us the ability to see another person's entire lifestream - their postings and all of their friends postings together - so that you can get a feel for what a particular person enjoys and/or finds interesting.<br />While the last option may seem to raise FriendFeed into the realm of a totally easy stalking tool, it also gives you a good bit of insight into your friends and allows you to find other friends very easily.<br />You can check out the new version by going to http://beta.friendfeed.com before it goes out, live, to all of the FriendFeed users. For those of you who decided not to join because it seemed too "noisy", you might want to take a second look - this new version is custom-made to make your FriendFeed experience as noisy or quiet as you want it to be!Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13304704286172738430noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-25774260202091590672008-08-18T09:00:00.002-05:002008-09-03T08:35:00.621-05:0032. Spam, Splogs and Blog PhishingWeb 1.0 gave us email - and all the spam we could stand to go with it. Web 2.0 gives us blogs - and comment spam, splogs and clever (and not-so-clever) blog phishing expeditions. While most of the time, spam is fairly harmless, it can also be used as a delivery mechanism for all kinds of nasty viruses and computer attacks. This lesson will give you a quick overview of the "2.0" spam that is out there and how to avoid it.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Comment Spam</span><br />This form of spam is basically a response to a blog post that either 1) has nothing to do with the post and is just a way for the commenter to get his URL out or 2) is a laundry list of links to porn, gambling, drug or malware (bad software that carries a virus) sites. Many of the more popular blogging platforms already do a pretty good job of screening out that kind of spam, but some will get through - just like email spam. You can set comments to moderated so that you have to approve all comments, but that is time-consuming for you and can put a damper on the conversation if people have to wait a while for their comments to show up. The "best practice" for blogs is to allow unmoderated comments, but pay attention to what is coming through and ruthlessly delete any that aren't on-topic and useful!<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Splogs</span><br />Splogs are blogs that are in exist <span style="font-weight: bold;">only</span> to make their creator's some money. The creator "scrapes" other blogs for content - basically copying and pasting whatever is said on another blog to their blog (sometimes this can be automated) and sticking advertisments on it - hoping to get traffic that may have been headed to your blog to come to their blog instead - where they can then show them a bunch of ads and make some money! This is, of course, a violation of copyright, usually. Depending on the copyright license you choose (see the Creative Commons lesson earlier in the year for more on that), just attributing the post to you - and not all of them do that - is not enough for many licenses. Even if they do attribute, they aren't adding value, or ideas, just copying and nobody likes that. The bad news is that there isn't much you can do about them. You can complain to Blogger or Wordpress.com and get them shut down, but they'll be back very quickly. You can also take the fact that they are copying your work as a compliment. They wouldn't do it if they didn't think it would get them some traffic!<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Blog Phishing</span><br />This is a fairly new phenomenon that puts links to phishing sites (see Wikipedia's definition of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing">phishing</a> if you aren't familiar with the term) into either your comment area of your blog, wiki or "comment wall" or into your referrer logs (the statistics that show who is linking to you and that some Web 2.0 services offer - such as Wordpress.com). These links will take you to a site that you may think is one thing, but is actually something far more malicious and dangerous.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Twitter Attacks<br /></span>Recently, there was a news story on the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7543014.stm">BBC website</a> that documented the first known Twitter attack.<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span>The account's profile link went to a site that attempted to download a fake version of Adobe's Flash player, which then went on to steal data off of your computer. Other Web 2.0 sites, most notably MySpace, have fallen victim to malicious profiles as well.<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Protection<br /></span>How do you protect yourself from all of these attacks? The easiest way is to use a browser or operating system (OS) that is more secure than the standard (Microsoft) options. The Firefox browser and the Linux, MacOS (based on Linux) operating systems are currently more secure than most versions of Microsoft's operating systems (including Vista and XP). Most of the security, however, comes from the fact that they are relatively unused and so virus/malware writers don't target them - the MS world is a much bigger target. Not all of us have the option of choosing our OS and browser, anyway, so if you have to use IE and XP or Vista, you can still take precautions.<br />Paying attention to what you are clicking is key - note whether the URL (the website's address) has funny characters (ones (1) instead of lowercase Ls (l) or zeros (0) instead of lowercase Os (o)) and be careful when clicking on URLs that are shortened with a service such as <a href="http://www.tinyurl.com/">tinyurl</a> or <a href="http://is.gd/">is.gd</a>. Those URLs don't give any clues at all about what lies behind them! Make sure you know who is sending you a shortened URL before you click!!<br />For the spam issues, you can also use a good spam filter that is built into most blogging platforms to help cut down on the comment spam that you get. Wordpress uses the Akismet filter. I'm not sure what Blogger uses, but it isn't bad... This will help you keep the comment spam under control and your blog far more useful for both you and your readers!<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13304704286172738430noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-6218223558660386732008-08-11T07:00:00.003-05:002008-09-03T08:34:43.793-05:0031. Let's have a little fun this week!There are a lot of free fun tools out there that let you play with your photos. Let's take a look at a couple. Up first from ALA <a href="http://www.ala.org/ala/productsandpublications/READ_Mini_Posters.cfm">create your own READ poster</a>. You can upload your own photo and choose from 4 different layouts. You can seen some your coworkers have done on <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrrl/">MRRL’s Flickr account</a>. If you want me to add yours just email it to me, but you don't have to,.<br /><br /><a title="Read poster by Librarian by Day, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/librarianbyday/2743495119/"><img height="240" alt="Read poster" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3064/2743495119_58e9705909_m.jpg" width="153" /></a><br /><br />Second is <a href="http://www.dumpr.net/">dumpr,</a> which lets up insert a photo of you into a variety of different backgrounds and other cool things.<br /><br /><a title="Created with dumpr.net by Librarian by Day, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/librarianbyday/2590825494/"><img height="240" alt="Created with dumpr.net" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3093/2590825494_e44e0468f5_m.jpg" width="168" /></a><br /><br />Last but hardly least, <a href="http://www.ugo.com/channels/comics/heromachine2/heroMachine2.asp">HeroMachine</a> let's you create your own super hero. No skill with a pen or pencil required.<br /><br /><br /><a title="Me, All done up :) by Librarian by Day, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/librarianbyday/2742571141/"><img height="240" alt="Me, All done up :)" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3144/2742571141_f3dd323a70_m.jpg" width="166" /></a>><br /><br />Some other fun sites<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.fakemagazinecover.com/">Fake Magazine Cover</a> - fake magazine covers</li><li><a href="http://www.photofunia.com/">PhotoFunia</a> - do cool effects with your photo</li><li><a href="http://www.photofunia.com/">MagMyPic</a> - fake magazine covers</li></ul>Bobbi Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364282436701399149noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-36580168621432296772008-07-28T07:45:00.003-05:002008-07-28T07:45:01.327-05:0030. Information Overload<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_76cpnmRulgU/SIqKeXUSSPI/AAAAAAAAAGg/H9rYjueCEL4/s1600-h/251702570_67469b4177_m.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_76cpnmRulgU/SIqKeXUSSPI/AAAAAAAAAGg/H9rYjueCEL4/s400/251702570_67469b4177_m.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5227142571776690418" /></a><br />Email, Instant Messaging, RSS feeds and blogs - the number of ways that you can be overloaded with information is getting larger by the minute, it seems. These days, it seems like everyone is starting to drown in the ever-growing river of <span style="font-weight: bold;">stuff</span> that is coming at us every day. How do you cope with all of the information that is now at your fingertips? I've compiled some suggestions for combating information overload here that might help - but there are a lot of resources if the tips I'm suggesting won't work for you. Check the resources section at the bottom for links to more tips, tricks and techniques to help calm the raging river of information and to help keep you afloat!<br /><br /><ul><li>Create a routine - a ritual you follow every day (check email, check feed reader, view FriendFeed timeline, etc.) will help you keep from feeling like you don't know where to begin. Everyone's "ritual" might be different - but pick one that you can live with and stick to it. No more wondering where to start - now you know! (RWW)<br /></li><li>Turn off distractions - turn off the email notification window on Outlook, close out of your IM window, shut down your friendfeed tab in your browser for a while and concentrate on ONE THING. (RWW)<br /></li><li>Learn to embrace distractions - while this seems like a contradiction to the point above, it is something that - once you learn to add in some distractions and live with them - can be helpful. There is a post called "<a href="http://www.louisgray.com/live/2008/05/continuous-parallel-attention-my-new.html">Continuous Parallel Attention</a>" that explains more about this concept if you are interested. (RWW)<br /></li><li>Create your own filters - use the filters in your email program, use folders wisely in your feed reader and "filter" your time spent in Twitter or Friendfeed (or your favorite distraction on the web) yourself - set your own limits and stick to them! (RWW)<br /></li><li>Get summaries - I attended a program at ACURIL this summer where the presenter said that he doesn't use feed readers or watch TV, anything that he <span style="font-weight: bold;">needs</span> to know will come to him via his friends and family. Find services, such as <a href="http://www.getabstract.com/index.jsp">getAbstract,</a> that will summarize the books you want to read, but don't have time to actually consume. Use services like <a href="http://www.aiderss.com/">AideRSS</a> to find the best posts from your favorite blogs. You don't have to read every word of every post written to get the information! (CPU)<br /></li><li>Pay attention to what you <span style="font-weight: bold;">need</span> and unsubscribe from any mailing lists, blogs, friends on social networks or other sources of information that you don't really read, but have hanging around making you feel guilty for not paying attention to them. (CPU)<br /></li><li>Be realistic about what you can actually consume and don't subscribe to everything that looks interesting. (CPU)<br /></li></ul>All of these tips are meant to help you pare down your information sources and shut down the constant flow of data that needs to be processed. Check the references for more information on the concept of information overload and for more tips to help you out!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Resources<br />Tips<br /></span><ul><li>ReadWriteWeb (RWW) - <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/info_overload_what_can_we_do.php">Information Overload - What Can We Do?<br /></a></li><li>Creating Passionate Users (CPU) - <a href="http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/04/the_myth_of_kee.html">The Myth Of Keeping Up</a></li></ul><span style="font-weight: bold;">More Information<br /></span><ul><li><a href="http://www.iorgforum.org/">Information Overload Research Group</a></li><li><a href="http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-05-09-n27.html">Tips for dealing with Information Overload</a> (check the Inbox Zero video out on that page too, it mentions the GTD process I blogged about a couple of weeks ago)</li><li><a href="http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/2007/get-organized-a-guide-for-dealing-with-information-overload/">Get Organized - A Guide For Dealing With Information Overload</a> (from iLibrarian)</li></ul><span style="font-weight: bold;">Contrarian opinion<br /></span><ul><li><a href="http://lifehacker.com/399078/what-productivity-studies-really-show">What Productivity Studies Really Show</a> - perhaps all the hype about Info Overload is just that - hype to sell a product...<br /></li></ul>Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13304704286172738430noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-41377075347529138042008-07-21T07:00:00.000-05:002008-07-21T07:00:05.154-05:0029. Personalized start pagesThere are a lot of ways you can create your personalize start page on the web. We're going to talk about why you'd want to and 3 services that make it easy. Creating a personalize start page puts all the information you're interested in on one page, right one you log in, no more clicking on favorites or checking 5 different sites to see what happening. You can do it from one site! All you need to do is find a widget for the content you want to display and add it to the page.<br /><br />First up, iGoogle, from Google, of course. You need it your Google ID &amp; password. Some things to note - you can create multiple tabs to display different groups of content, you can choose a different theme for each tab.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SIOUW2KT9TI/AAAAAAAAARw/dEtD-mcO73w/s1600-h/iGoogle.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SIOUW2KT9TI/AAAAAAAAARw/dEtD-mcO73w/s400/iGoogle.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5225183112896705842" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Next <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">NetVibes</span>, again you can create multiple tabs, choose a custom color theme, although the same theme will apply to all your tabs.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SIOW4L41d1I/AAAAAAAAASQ/wInsu8NAbYs/s1600-h/netvibes.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SIOW4L41d1I/AAAAAAAAASQ/wInsu8NAbYs/s400/netvibes.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5225185884687923026" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Last but not least, My Yahoo, you can use the same Yahoo Id you use for your email for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Flickr</span> to sign in an create the page. You can create multiple tabs to display different groups of content, you can choose a different theme for each tab.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SIOWnyRSf5I/AAAAAAAAASI/FNzXTV2j9uI/s1600-h/My+Yahoo%21.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SIOWnyRSf5I/AAAAAAAAASI/FNzXTV2j9uI/s400/My+Yahoo%21.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5225185602933260178" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />They all work a bit differently and have different widgets. It really comes down to which one you prefer to use. Once you get it set up though, it can be a great time saver and information management tool.Bobbi Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364282436701399149noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-48466915319509402992008-07-14T07:45:00.008-05:002008-07-14T07:45:00.087-05:0028. Social Task Lists<span>Do you find yourself having trouble</span><span> remembering things? Maybe you have a friend, family member or co-worker that could use some help in the remembering department. If either of those are true, you might want to try out one of the many "social task lists" that are out there. The differences between traditional task list programs or sites and a "social" site is that these Web 2.0 versions of task management are easily sharable and easily updateable through non-traditional means (Jott, Twitter, etc.). There are a lot of entries into this field, but I'm going to focus on three of them briefly and one in great detail!<br />The first two</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_76cpnmRulgU/SHT3dnpUlBI/AAAAAAAAAGI/qQbiFg5k5d4/s1600-h/external_logo.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_76cpnmRulgU/SHT3dnpUlBI/AAAAAAAAAGI/qQbiFg5k5d4/s400/external_logo.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5221069956259812370" border="0" /></a><span> social task lists that I'll mention are <a href="http://www.gubb.net/">Gubb</a> and <a href="http://www.clockingit.com/">ClockingIT</a>. These are both free and available via</span><span> the web - meaning any computer you are at, work or home, can access your lists. Gubb has a really nice SMS feature that lets you both request lists to be sent to your text-capable phone or add items t</span><span>o lists on your phone. Each list has a unique email address that you can use to text commands or additions to the list from wherever you happen to be. ClockingIT i</span><span>s a more full-featured product - almost a project management system in itself. It provides a L</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_76cpnmRulgU/SHT3uGNE7aI/AAAAAAAAAGY/znB_bdXFDSU/s1600-h/logo.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_76cpnmRulgU/SHT3uGNE7aI/AAAAAAAAAGY/znB_bdXFDSU/s400/logo.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5221070239340752290" border="0" /></a><span>OT of structure for your lists and a lot of extra functionality beyon</span><span>d just lists (such as time t</span><span>racking and project management-style charts), but you can turn off anything in the interface that you don't need to keep it simple, if you prefer.<br />The task list tha</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_76cpnmRulgU/SHT3LzYeoYI/AAAAAAAAAGA/dZ7ZoVe9qCA/s1600-h/logo.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_76cpnmRulgU/SHT3LzYeoYI/AAAAAAAAAGA/dZ7ZoVe9qCA/s400/logo.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5221069650172748162" border="0" /></a><span>t I use is <a href="http://www.rmilk.com/">Remember The Milk</a>, a great name for a simple task manager! RTM, as it is commonly</span><span> </span><span>known, offers simple list creation and management, a very powerful search function (including creating lists that are results of save</span><span>d searches - something I use frequently) and a lot of "extra" information for each item on your list. RTM supports tagging and notes for each item, as well as basing items on location. If you use it for both work and home lists, you can separate them out by location and use the saved search feature to create smart lists that just list the items that need to be done where you are - home or work - so you won't see anything that will just distract you!<br />The social part comes with the ability to create contacts in RTM and send them items from your lists. You and your significant other can create "honey-do" lists that automatically recieve anything sent from that person - handy for busy folks who might not see notes left on the kitchen table! RTM also comes with a <a href="http://www.rememberthemilk.com/services/gmail/">Firefox extension for Gmail</a> that allows you to completely integrate your task lists in with your email (something I've been wishing for in Gmail for a while). Installing this extension into your Firefox browser gives you the ability to easily add emailed information and items to your various lists and allows you to access your RTM information without needing to open a new tab (or window). Also, RTM allows you to share your data with third parties, such as Jott or Twitter, and either set or retrieve tasks via those communication channels. This means that setting a new task is as easy as calling Jott, saying RTM (or whatever nickname you give it) and telling Jott what your task is. It will be in your RTM inbox when you next log in! Pretty slick....<br />Each of these list managers has features and quirks that some will love, some will hate. Try them out, see which one fits you best and then see if the one you choose helps you get more organized! Check out the resources list below for links to the three lists I mentioned, as well as some information about a personal productivity method that is VERY popular with geeks (but don't let that scare you off!!) and some information about setting up a RTM account in accordance with the GTD principles. Have fun, make lists, share them with your friends and become more organized as you play with these Web 2.0 tools!<br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Resources:<br /></span><ul><li><a href="http://www.gubb.net/">Gubb</a></li><li><a href="http://www.rememberthemilk.com/">Remember The Milk</a></li><li><a href="http://www.clockingit.com/">ClockingIT</a></li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done">Getting Things Done</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.rememberthemilk.com/2008/05/guest-post-advanced-gtd-with-remember.html">GTD and RTM</a><br /></li></ul>Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13304704286172738430noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-26340851394751781642008-07-07T07:00:00.002-05:002008-07-07T07:00:14.286-05:0027. This One NextToday we'll look at another Reader's Advisory tool called <a href="http://www.thisonenext.com/search">This One Next</a>. You can enter a book, a cd or a dvd and it will suggeset items you might like.<br /><a href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SFuoYWjLmDI/AAAAAAAAAQg/rBKEiFbXVcw/s1600-h/1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213946129934948402" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SFuoYWjLmDI/AAAAAAAAAQg/rBKEiFbXVcw/s400/1.jpg" border="0" /></a> You can start with just a title and it will try to guess which one you mean<br /><br /><a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SFuoevE8ecI/AAAAAAAAAQo/R8ArDcqiIFA/s1600-h/2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213946239598229954" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SFuoevE8ecI/AAAAAAAAAQo/R8ArDcqiIFA/s400/2.jpg" border="0" /></a>You'll get a list of suggestions <a href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SFuoulrZ-QI/AAAAAAAAAQw/wp__0edXg8w/s1600-h/3.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213946511953099010" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SFuoulrZ-QI/AAAAAAAAAQw/wp__0edXg8w/s400/3.jpg" border="0" /></a> with a link to see even more<br /><a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SFuo0_PXKgI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/gFjIbgF5_u4/s1600-h/3+(2).jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213946621894011394" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SFuo0_PXKgI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/gFjIbgF5_u4/s400/3+(2).jpg" border="0" /></a>You can enter an email address to get even more customized results<br /><br /><a href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SFuo5_elbxI/AAAAAAAAARA/4Yul5mJqmIw/s1600-h/3+(3).jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213946707857207058" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SFuo5_elbxI/AAAAAAAAARA/4Yul5mJqmIw/s400/3+(3).jpg" border="0" /></a>Bobbi Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364282436701399149noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-46720493528470971292008-06-30T07:45:00.003-05:002008-06-30T07:45:01.362-05:0026. Evernote<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_76cpnmRulgU/SFh_P3Ca67I/AAAAAAAAAFg/v5ULNCkN2Us/s1600-h/enlogo-beta.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_76cpnmRulgU/SFh_P3Ca67I/AAAAAAAAAFg/v5ULNCkN2Us/s400/enlogo-beta.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213056479130217394" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.evernote.com/">Evernote</a> isn't exactly a "social" application. It is, however, very Web 2.0 in its insistence on making data entry painless wherever you happen be - on your phone, on the web or on your desktop. You can use Evernote to clip parts of web pages (or the whole thing), enter free-form notes yourself or save images and other media in a single spot. Evernote comes with a desktop client, a Firefox browser button and an email address that you can email to (or text to an an email address) notes/media/thoughts as well. For those of you who got into the Jott application when it was featured earlier, you can take that Evernote email address, add it as a Jott contact and "Jott" your notes via your phone to Evernote. It is free and offers 40 MegaBytes of uploaded data per month - that's a lot of random thoughts you can capture pretty easily!! Their own description of their services comes from their Help section:<br /><blockquote>Evernote is a Web Service that helps users manage all the digital information most relevant to them. The Service can be accessed through free, user-friendly Evernote software running on a personal computer or mobile device, or any Web browser.</blockquote>This isn't the only note-taking software that is available, but it is the best example of a note-capture system that uses Web 2.0 theory (be where your users are!) that I've seen. No matter where I am, I have no problems dropping information into my Evernote account. While it isn't precisely social, it does allow you to share portions of your data - any of your notebooks can be easily shared with the public. It also takes advantage of tagging to help you organize your thoughts and your notebooks in a way that makes sense to you!<br />Evernote is free, but it is still in beta and requires an invite. I have 19 of 'em left and I think Bobbi might have a few as well. Just leave a request in the comments or email me and I'll hook you up!Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13304704286172738430noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-2938561816173104802008-06-23T07:00:00.002-05:002008-06-23T08:36:13.806-05:0025. Friend Feed<a href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SDrFN1zlcfI/AAAAAAAAAPI/EBvnFwCAR1o/s1600-h/friendfeed.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5204689160952443378" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; float: right;" alt="" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SDrFN1zlcfI/AAAAAAAAAPI/EBvnFwCAR1o/s400/friendfeed.jpg" border="0" /></a>By now we've explored so many Web2.0 accounts, you and your friends have accounts on Twitter, Flickr, a blog, Facebook, YouTube and a lot more. So how do you keep up with all your friends accounts without spending half your day by going to all these sites to check in? <a href="http://friendfeed.com/">FriendFeed</a>!<br /><br /><br />Users sign up for an account from <a href="http://friendfeed.com/">FriendFeed</a>, add in the services they'd like to share then friends can create an account and subscribe to their feed. It's that easy! You can see when they upload pictures to <a href="http://flickr.com/">Flickr</a>, add a new book to <a href="http://librarything.com/">LibraryThing</a>, bookmark a new site on <a href="http://del.icio.us/">del.icio.us</a>, start listening to a new station on <a href="http://pandora.com/">Pandora</a> or <a href="http://last.fm/">Lastfm</a> and 30 other sites.<br /><br /><p>Check out <a href="http://friendfeed.com/mrrl">MRRL's feed</a> patrons who want to keep up with MRRL's happenings can do so in one place. You can even have the Feed digest sent to your email each day. </p><p>This can be a great time management tool. You can even great Imaginary Friends to follow the feeds of friends who haven't signed up for FriendFeed.</p><p>Like many sites there are some great privacy settings, your feed doesn't have to be public. </p><p>If you're interested <a href="http://friendfeed.com/librarianbyday">My Feed</a>. </p>Bobbi Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364282436701399149noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-50089269923580398082008-06-16T07:30:00.001-05:002008-06-16T07:30:01.085-05:0024. Greasemonkey<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_76cpnmRulgU/SFVsFMtgoXI/AAAAAAAAAFY/vBuLs64mCmY/s1600-h/Greasemonkey.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_76cpnmRulgU/SFVsFMtgoXI/AAAAAAAAAFY/vBuLs64mCmY/s400/Greasemonkey.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212190980318470514" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748">Greasemonkey</a> is a browser add-on (extension) for the Firefox browser (no equivalent in Internet Explorer, sorry) that allows little snippets of JavaScript code to manipulate the web pages visited by the browser. After you install the extension, you can then use it to install and manage scripts that do everything from change ads on pages from the original ad graphic to random Flickr pics to adding information from one site (say, your local public library's) to another site (say, Amazon.com). This is all done via the JavaScripting language. You aren't a JavaScript expert? No problem, people have been writing scripts - and sharing them - for years. Just about any site that gets more than a couple of visitors a day will have some scripts that can adjust its user interface, functionality or both. You can find an exhaustive list of scripts, arranged by website, on the <a href="http://dunck.us/collab/GreaseMonkeyUserScriptsSpecific">Greasemonkey User Scripts wiki</a> or you can find a <a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/top-10-greasemonkey-scripts-to-improve-your-productivity.html">number</a> <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;ct=res&amp;cd=22&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.downloadsquad.com%2F2007%2F04%2F16%2Ften-great-greasemonkey-scripts%2F&amp;ei=t2lVSPPtFILiiQHmi92KAw&amp;usg=AFQjCNFn1KG2qvBvHbJsQIwEHo562l5WDA&amp;sig2=i0-Zss7HYxGubbSXtM5kMQ">of</a> "<a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/25-useful-greasemonkey-scripts-you-should-take-a-look-at/">best of</a>" <a href="http://www.firefoxfacts.com/2006/08/15/the-best-greasemonkey-scripts/">lists</a> that link to the most popular, useful or fun scripts that author can find, some specific to particular sites like <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;ct=res&amp;cd=14&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.killertechtips.com%2F2008%2F06%2F03%2Fdelicious-greasemonkey-script%2F&amp;ei=iGlVSN7nE4-siAGZ5PmOAw&amp;usg=AFQjCNGy4OC9fOpXPKizzFD8glszolV97w&amp;sig2=I_Ny1XwsEHEyloN1Ey_4wA">del.icio.us</a> or <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;ct=res&amp;cd=11&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shankrila.com%2Ftech-stuff%2Ftop-greasemonkey-scripts-for-new-gmail-20%2F&amp;ei=7mlVSIW-HYLiiQHmi92KAw&amp;usg=AFQjCNHyRNl9boPHHVpVc_I_93lNsxqkpQ&amp;sig2=PyCQdqiclLG_NUNwYD3a4w">Gmail</a>.<br />I use Greasemonkey to add a "twit this" link to my Google Reader web page - giving me a quick way to share what I'm reading with my Twitter buddies. I also use the <a href="http://lifehacker.com/software/gmail/lifehacker-code-better-gmail-firefox-extension-251923.php">Better Gmail</a> script to improve the way the already very cool Gmail service works for me! Spend some time browsing around the various script sites, seeing what is available and what might improve your browsing experience (pay attention to all the social sites that have scripts - FriendFeed, Twitter, del.icio.us, blogger, Facebook, etc. - some of them are handy in helping with information overload).Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13304704286172738430noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-43215324641252841502008-06-09T07:00:00.002-05:002008-09-26T13:56:47.465-05:0023. gnodThere are so many new tools for book lovers, ways to connect with your friends, write and read reviews, but what if you just want a good old fashion recommendation?<br /><blockquote></blockquote>Today we're gonna look at a Reader's Advisory tool that's not just for books, but movies and music too!<br /><br />Start at the home page <a href="http://gnod.net"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Gnod</span>.net </a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SEwmk2ZU5_I/AAAAAAAAAPg/4EIAViCC2UI/s1600-h/Gnod.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5209581283479709682" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SEwmk2ZU5_I/AAAAAAAAAPg/4EIAViCC2UI/s400/Gnod.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><div>We'll start with the books option. You have 4 choices when looking at this page, the "Map of Literature" is my favorite. Type in one of your favorite Authors</div><br /><a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SEwn1QK85xI/AAAAAAAAAP4/LObqNPpVzzI/s1600-h/Gnooks.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5209582664788272914" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SEwn1QK85xI/AAAAAAAAAP4/LObqNPpVzzI/s400/Gnooks.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div>Then you'll get this visual display of similar authors, the closer they are to the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">original</span> author the more like they are supposed to be.</div><br /><a href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SEwpzqyWG8I/AAAAAAAAAQA/DrjJx67cFsY/s1600-h/gnod2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5209584836596341698" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SEwpzqyWG8I/AAAAAAAAAQA/DrjJx67cFsY/s400/gnod2.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><p></p><br /><p>You can do the same with movies or <a href="http://www.gnovies.com/"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">gnovies</span></a><br /><br /><a href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SEwqR3Yn98I/AAAAAAAAAQI/laihN4fPSuo/s1600-h/Gnovies%21.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5209585355374196674" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SEwqR3Yn98I/AAAAAAAAAQI/laihN4fPSuo/s400/Gnovies%21.jpg" border="0" /></a> </p><br />Again, the closer it is to the movie you entered the more like it it is. There are some other search options where you put in 3 authors, movies or bands to get different results. There are also some discussion forums.Bobbi Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364282436701399149noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-54767968332191951402008-06-02T07:30:00.003-05:002008-06-02T07:30:01.636-05:0022. Web 2.0 Office<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_76cpnmRulgU/SEAiQHn4MQI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/ppZF16U3vzU/s1600-h/OfficeSuites.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_76cpnmRulgU/SEAiQHn4MQI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/ppZF16U3vzU/s400/OfficeSuites.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206198829559853314" border="0" /></a><br />Those of us who worked on the library's Library 2.0 program are aware of the very cool features offered by <a href="http://www.google.com/docs">Google's Docs and Spreadsheets</a> applications. They take the basics of office documents (word processor, spreadsheet and a new presentation slides application) and allow us to use those functions without downloading (or paying for) standalone software. Google, as cool as it is, isn't the only player in town, however. There are many options for those who want to use standard office software without paying big bucks for a standard office suite - or for those who work on multiple computers with multiple people and have office document format issues. I work on 4 different computers with varying access to Office 2003, Office 2007 and Open Office. This makes keeping my documents in some sort of common format necessary - and difficult to sync up!<br />If you have the same sort of issues, you can use online office suites to keep all of your documents synced up, no matter what computer you are on, or in the same format, no matter what software is available on the computer upon which you are working. One site, the <a href="http://o20db.com/">Office 2.0 Database</a>, offers a comprehensive list of the sites available for use in an online office suite, including a page which lists the <a href="http://o20db.com/db/setup/">applications</a> the author uses with a <span style="font-weight: bold;">bunch</span> of alternatives to the one he likes.<br />Since the use of any of these applications is free (though some have "premium" accounts that give you more storage in return for a monthly fee), sign up, try them out and find out which one(s) suits the way you work!Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13304704286172738430noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-45105893404244898412008-05-27T07:00:00.000-05:002008-05-27T07:00:05.585-05:0021 Teacher Tube<a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SDcdAVzlcdI/AAAAAAAAAO4/YdnoAHvGD0c/s1600-h/teachertube.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5203659786140611026" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SDcdAVzlcdI/AAAAAAAAAO4/YdnoAHvGD0c/s400/teachertube.gif" border="0" /></a>Most of know about Youtube and some of us love it, but it can be hard to find what you're looking for in the mix of videos of people cat chasing string, the neighbors kid playing t-ball or other less than desirable videos. You know what I'm talking about. Enter Teacher Tube.<br /><br /><blockquote><p>Our goal is to provide an online community for sharing instructional<br />videos. We seek to fill a need for a more educationally focused, safe venue for<br />teachers, schools, and home learners. It is a site to provide anytime, anywhere<br />professional development with teachers teaching teachers. As well, it is a site<br />where teachers can post videos designed for students to view in order to learn a<br />concept or skill.<br /></p><p><br /></p></blockquote><br /><br />A safer place to direct parents, teachers, at home schools, and children for great videos! <br /><br /><embed src="http://www.teachertube.com/skin-p/mediaplayer.swf" width="425" height="350" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" menu="false" flashvars="height=350&amp;width=425&amp;file=http://www.teachertube.com/flvideo/220.flv&amp;image=http://www.teachertube.com/thumb/220.jpg&amp;location=http://www.teachertube.com/skin-p/mediaplayer.swf&amp;logo=http://www.teachertube.com/images/greylogo.swf&amp;searchlink=http://teachertube.com/search_result.php%3Fsearch_id%3D&amp;frontcolor=0xffffff&amp;backcolor=0x000000&amp;lightcolor=0xFF0000&amp;screencolor=0xffffff&amp;autostart=false&amp;volume=80&amp;overstretch=fit&amp;link=http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=952a85b8551ba726a122&amp;linkfromdisplay=true&amp;recommendations=http://www.teachertube.com/embedplaylist.php?chid=55"></embed><br /><br />Who wants to make the first video for MRRL?Bobbi Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364282436701399149noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-39605637374856414872008-05-19T07:30:00.002-05:002008-05-19T08:24:58.203-05:0020. Evaluating The Read/Write WebNow that we are all aware of just how easy it is to publish on the Internet (blogs, Wikipedia edits, YouTube videos, etc.) does this change how we approach information we read on the web? For me, it does! In the past, most "published" works - that is, articles and books - went through an editorial process before they were released to a wide audience. This doesn't mean that they were all perfectly factual with no errors at all, it just means that someone other than the author saw the material and approved it for publishing. Now, a single blog post can reach just as many people as a single article printed in Time, Newsweek or any "peer-reviewed" journal - with no one but the author ever seeing it before publication. How do you ever trust what you read on the Internet then?<br />Well, in short, you don't. Part of the side-effect of this self-publishing phenomenon is that you are never faced with just <span style="font-weight: bold;">one</span> source for any information. Checking facts by comparing what multiple people have to say about a topic is just one way to evaluate information that you find on the Internet. It's not a bad idea to do so when you find information anywhere. There is a reason our teachers asked us to use several sources for those pesky research papers!<br />You can also do a "reputation check". If the site looks like it is providing the most authoritative information on a subject, check who the author is. Google him/her. See what else they have written, what others have written about them and what their backgrounds are.<br />Sometimes, you just have to take what you see on the 'net with a grain of salt. Stephen Abrams, of SirsiDynix, posted a <a href="http://stephenslighthouse.sirsidynix.com/archives/2007/12/quality_of_yout.html">press release</a> about the information being spread on YouTube about vaccinations. The results were that almost half of the videos that were studied contained information that contradicts the "best scientific information at large". This means that people who consulted YouTube for medical information (not the best idea in the first place, really...) were not getting the whole picture when it comes to an important medical decision.<br />So, how do you evaluate information you find on blogs or Wikipedia - knowing that the information is put there by a human who has biases and is not perfect? Below are 2 resources that you can read to help you evaluate blogs and other user- and individual-created content as well as Wikipedia articles.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Resources</span><br /><ul><li><a href="http://21cif.imsa.edu/rkitp/assessment/v1n5/valenza1.5_blogeval.html">Evaluation Skills in the Web 2.0 Information Landscape</a></li><li><a href="http://people.lib.ucdavis.edu/psa/How_to_evaluate_a_Wikipedia_article.pdf">Evaluating information found in Wikipedia</a><br /></li></ul>Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13304704286172738430noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-70393072884330169462008-05-12T07:00:00.001-05:002008-05-19T08:30:40.978-05:0019. Flickr RevisitedThere have been some changes at Flickr since we did our first lesson in LL2.0, so I thought we'd take another look at it.<br /><br /><br />What's the same: there are still free and pro accounts<br /><br /><br />Free Account:<br /><ul><li>100 MB monthly upload limit (5MB per photo) </li><li>3 sets </li><li>Photostream views limited to the 200 most recent images </li><li>Post any of your photos in up to 10 group pools </li><li>Only smaller (resized) images accessible (though the originals are saved in case you upgrade later) </li></ul>Pro Account :<br /><ul><li>Unlimited uploads (10MB per photo) </li><li>Unlimited storage </li><li>Unlimited bandwidth </li><li>Unlimited photosets </li><li>Archiving of high-resolution original images </li><li>The ability to replace a photo </li><li>Post any of your photos in up to 60 group pools </li><li>Ad-free browsing and sharing </li></ul><p>What's new or wasn't covered in our original lesson.</p><strong>Picnik </strong>- you can now edit your photos after you upload them! Just click on the "edit photo" button and you can crop, rotate, remove red eye, resize, sharpen and more. You can save your edits over the old photo or as a new one.<br /><br /><p></p><br /><br /><p><a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/R9PuXqUcR0I/AAAAAAAAANk/z8ifr_ngQSQ/s1600-h/flickr.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5175742487043262274" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/R9PuXqUcR0I/AAAAAAAAANk/z8ifr_ngQSQ/s400/flickr.JPG" border="0" /></a> </p><br /><br /><p>Piknik also has a "create" tab. You can change the look of your photo here using sepia, black and white or even add snow!<br /><br /></p><a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/R9PvhqUcR1I/AAAAAAAAANs/Hvc2SkW3BJE/s1600-h/flickr1.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5175743758353581906" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/R9PvhqUcR1I/AAAAAAAAANs/Hvc2SkW3BJE/s400/flickr1.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>Groups </strong>- groups are a way for you to share pictures with people with similar interests. You can share your pictures, browse and comment on pictures contributed by other member and participate in discussions.<br /><br />To find a group that interested you, just click on the "groups" tab on your flickr page and search by keyword. Once you've found a group, join it.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/R9PzuqUcR3I/AAAAAAAAAN8/PXhnFmXkDao/s1600-h/flickr3.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5175748379738392434" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/R9PzuqUcR3I/AAAAAAAAAN8/PXhnFmXkDao/s400/flickr3.JPG" border="0" /></a><br />You can then send any of your pictures to that group by clicking on the "send to group" button about your photo. There are some great groups for Libraries out there, do a search, what do you find?<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/R9PyrqUcR2I/AAAAAAAAAN0/JS7YSmGBCq0/s1600-h/flickr4+(2).JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5175747228687157090" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/R9PyrqUcR2I/AAAAAAAAAN0/JS7YSmGBCq0/s400/flickr4+(2).JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><strong>Geotagging or Maps</strong> - this feature allows you to place your photos on a map. For a great explaniation <a href="http://flickr.com/help/screencasts/vol1/">see this video</a>.<br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>Privacy settings</strong> - remember you control your privacy levels on flickr. You can set privacy on each photo individually, just you, just your friends, just your family, family and friends or everyone.<br /><br /><p><strong>Videos </strong>- Flickr now allows you to upload videos. It's as easy as uploading pictures and allows you to keep your movies and photos in the same place. </p><br /><p>Last but not least a video<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vPU4awtuTsk"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><br /><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vPU4awtuTsk" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object></p>How can libraries use these tools? MRRL is using Flickr to share it's pictures and put a slideshow on our website. We've always taken pictures of events but now they are available for everyone to see. How else could be use it?Bobbi Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364282436701399149noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-59544265316548987252008-05-04T09:00:00.000-05:002008-05-05T08:43:42.352-05:0018. Claim your online IDWith so many different services out there, how do you definitively claim certain social networking sites, blogs or other content as "yours"? This can be especially difficult if you have a common name! There are a couple of different services out there to help you with just this problem. The one that I use is called <a href="http://www.claimid.com/">Claim ID</a> and it is both useful and social! With this site, you can enter in all of the MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and blog accounts you have and "claim" them as your own.<br />Why would you want to do this? It gives you a way to exclude blogs/social sites that may have been made by someone with a name similar to (or the same as) yours - which in some cases may be necessary! Part of protecting your online privacy is protecting your online reputation. It also gives you a starting point to let folks know what it is you have done on the web. With so many of us creating so much content, it is easy to have something you have done or created fall through the cracks. This site will allow you to point people to a single page with all of the cool things you have done so that nothing gets lost.<br />Claim ID is pretty easy to use. Once you have set up your account, you can add links to it. When you add a link, you are given several options. You can enter the title you want to give to that link, the description that will show up, tags for it as well as classifying it either about you, not about you or some other classification that works for you, then classifying it as by you, not by you (with the option to add the author) or in some other way that works for you. You can create groups - work stuff, personal stuff, any other kind of stuff - that help you to arrange your information the way you want it.<br />And that is the point of this new sort of service, after all - to give you the opportunity to manage your online identity, reputation and what exactly you want to "claim" for yourself!<br /><br />One final note - you will see a lot of information on OpenID at the Claim ID website. Even if you don't feel you create all that much content (which you will be surprised once you start trying to add it all in, I bet!), you can use the Claim ID service as an OpenID provider. A nice, only slightly technical, explanation of Open ID is found at <a href="http://openid.net/what/">openid.net</a>. Take a look and see if it might help you with your expanding username/password combinations!Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13304704286172738430noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392287742154280596.post-62811422118789135502008-04-28T09:00:00.000-05:002008-04-28T09:10:14.087-05:0017. Creative Commons<a href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SBXXAZ5ARQI/AAAAAAAAAOc/izB2ImiSPtY/s1600-h/CC.png"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5194294147191686402" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_sALhqJLZOb4/SBXXAZ5ARQI/AAAAAAAAAOc/izB2ImiSPtY/s400/CC.png" border="0" /></a>You might have noticed this little logo on both this blog and the Library Learning 2.0 blog. It's a Creative Commons <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">license</span>.<br /><br /><br /><blockquote><p>Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists,<br />and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to<br />carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from "All Rights Reserved"<br />to "Some Rights Reserved." </p><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><p></p></blockquote></blockquote><p><br />Creative Commons is an alternative to Copyright, it allows more use, a wider range of choices for distribution, reuse and attribution. You can go to the Creative Commons website choose among the options for <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">how</span> you'd like to share your work. The license can be applied to both works online and offline. There are <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Books">books publish with the Creative Commons license</a>. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Flickr</span> allows you to apply a license to all your photos, very handy for people <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">looking</span> for images to use, you can limit your search to only those you're allowed to use. </p><p>Links</p><ul><li><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/FAQ">FAQ</a></li><li><a href="http://creativecommons.org/about/license/">License options</a></li></ul><br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2BESbnMJg9M&amp;hl=en"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/2BESbnMJg9M&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>Bobbi Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364282436701399149noreply@blogger.com19
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