Write about the Mashup you found on your blog

It took me a while to find a mashup that made any sense to me, but finally it happened. FlightWait shows you in real time what the flight delays are from all major airports in the US. Since the weather is a little crappy in the northeast today, and knowing that a flight to Chicago is in my near future, it is a fun little site to play with. The site uses up-to-the-minute flight information from the FAA and overlays the information over a Google Map of the US.

Rollyo: Browse the results and write something about what these bloggers said about privacy in your blog.

This is kind of fun, too. While many blogs are picked up by Google or other Internet search engines, it is impossible to search by a specific type or genre of blog.

As suggesed, I ran a search on “privacy” in “libraryblogs.” The bloggers run the gamut of writing about the USA Patriot Act to protecting your personal privacy.

In general, one should not be searching blogs for information one might consider authoratative, but this is a cool way to search for something you may have read on a blog, but can’t quite remember where.

This brings to a close the 8-week MLA Web 2.0 course. This is the first online course I’ve taken, and must say that I found it to be quite fun. I learned more than I ever could have imagined about Web 2.0 technologies, some of which I will continue to use, others of which I will drop like hot potatoes. The online format was easier to handle that I would have thought, although I don’t think all CE courses lend themselves to this sort of format.

It’s been great fun and thank you to MLA and to the committee who put this course together. I know it was hard work, and you are all to be commended!

rtm

Assignment: Write a blog entry discussing how you felt about the experience of using YouTube and what you think about this service. Do you see any potential uses for Podcasting in the library? If so what and why?

As will all Web 2.0 technologies, there are limitations for use in hospital libraries because of network security issues.  Once those issues are addressed, I can certainly see many uses for both podcasting and online hosted video for hospital libraries.

For example, training users on how to use library resources.  This video from Penn State is not necessarily what one would call a training video, but it give users an off-beat tour of PSU’s ILS:

 
Podcasting would also be quite useful.  Lectures can be recorded for future playback. 

Important hospital information can be disseminated to employees using both podcasts and hosted video.

OK, now this I could get into.  I finally broke down and bought a digital camera about a year ago and have a bunch of photos saved to my computer already waiting for me to “do something” with them.  In addition, for years I’ve been getting the CD of my photos along with the prints when I got my film developed.  They’re all lying in a pile on my desk waiting for me to “do something” with them.  I think I found “something.” 

Emailing photos to friends and family is too much of a pain because of file sizes and spam filters, and some of my family and friends still have dial up.  So to get around all these problems, I’ve been burning CDs of photos and mailing them to friends and family.  No more!  It doesn’t matter if they have broadband or dialup.  Everyone can receive an email with a URL in it.  Then they can go look at the photos at their leisure…or not. 

For use in a small hospital library?  Probably not.  Aside from posting photos of the library open house or Library Week Celebration, I’m not sure what else this could be used for.  One certainly can’t purchase a collection of copyrighted images of an open heart surgery and post them to Flickr to allow patrons easier access.  By the same token, for privacy and liability reasons, the hospital can’t photograph an open heart surgery and post the photos to Flickr for educational purposes.  Even if they could, chances are that the hospital’s IT department would block access anyway.

I guess I’m starting to sound like a broken record.  I like each of the different Web 2.0 services that we’ve looked at over the past six weeks, but with the exception of del.icio.us and services like Google Documents, I don’t see the services being usable, or even necessary in a small hospital library. 

Curmudegon that I am…

Pool group 4

Originally uploaded by RobbMackes

Trying to post a photo from Flickr to my blog. I don’t think I got it right in Facebook…but I just might get it right here.

Here goes…

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Is this the future of all software products? What do you think?

I absolutely can see  a niche for services such as GoogleDocs.  Being able to work collaboratively on a document without emailing copy after copy after copy to several people all the while hoping that you are working on the most current iteration and that nothing as gotten lost is amazing.

Is the future of all software products?  Maybe…he said with trepidation. 

I took a look at Microsoft Office Live and sat through an online demo of WebEx WebOffice.  I can definately see the advantages to using the products.  We experienced extended Internet outages here at the office several times over the past few months.  Given that my job is to manage web based resources, my ability to do my job was severely impeded.  If I was using one of these products, I could have packed up my laptop, gone home, and performed my job almost completely unimpeded.  Given the fact that all of my Office documents are stored locally, however, meant that I was able to stay at my desk and deal with portions of my job that don’t require Internet connectivity.  Not necessarily a bad thing.

I’m certainly in no position to be able to predict where these different and emerging technologies are headed.  But for the foreseeable future, I can see both locally- and Internet-based software packages living in tandem.  Internet-based packages are incredible for collaborative work, but I think we still need the relative stability of locally (or resident, whatever you want to call it) stored documents and software as well.

In theory, if you click here, you’ll get one of my GoogleDocs.  But I think I may have done it wrong because the document opens, but not the slide show itself.

Can you see the potential of this tool for research assistance?   Or just as an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere?

As with all the other services we’ve explored over the past month, I will admit to being skeptical at first.  But that skepticism lasted all of 30 seconds with del.icio.us.  Sure, it is an easy way to create bookmarks that  can be accessed anywhere.  But it’s so much more than that.  This is an excellent way for a librarian to create a collection of bookmarks on a particular subject and make them available for others to use.  I used to spend hours on my patron access computers making sure that the bookmark files on each computer were up to date.  Having this sort of service available in a library, provided the hospital that doesn’t block this technology, would be a boon for library patrons and librarians alike.

The most obvious way that I can see MLA members using social networking is for members to be able to contact other members who share similar interests, or those who work in similar institutions for networking and collaboration.  Chapters, Sections and SIGs could use social networking for planning events at Annual meetings.

I don’t believe that it’s necessary for libraries to have pages on Facebook or MySpace.  Unless I’m missing the mark on the way people - and young people, in particular - utilize social networking pages, I see people logging in to Facebook to try to find friends, concerts, movies, etc…not their local public (school, hospital, whatever) library.  I guess what I’m getting at is these things are for people, not institutions.  If someone says “Delaware Academy of Medicine” to me and I have no clue what that is, the first thing I’m going to do is Google it, not look on Facebook.

•  Are there privacy concerns for individuals when using social networking sites.

Of course!  Just like with everything else we do…be careful what you write.  When I joined Facebook, I didn’t answer most of the questions because (aside from being too lazy!) I didn’t think it was necessary.  By the same token, as well as avoiding posting personal information, one should also think twice before posting messages on these sites.  Knowing that anybody…potential employers…your parents…your boyfriend/girlfriend…could be searching these sites for information about you…think about what you post before you post it.  Could what you say today come back to bite you 10 years down the road?

• What did you like or not like about your experience with Facebook or MySpace.

I had a hard time getting around in Facebook…without going back to the assignment blog and following step by step instructions.  I think maybe that it’s just that I’m really not familiar with using these sorts of services.  I have this Facebook page…now that do I DO with it?  I’ve had a LinkedIn page for almost a year.  It’s been fun to invite friends and colleagues to be part of LinkedIn, and to see who knows whom, but that’s the extent of what I do with it.  I log in and look around and then ask, “now what?”  So I have a Facebook page, now what?

What is the difference between a blog and a wiki?

The basic difference between a blog and a wiki is that the content major on a blog can only be updated by one person, or a group of people.  Many people may comment on the content of a blog, and those comments can be made visible, but only certain people can update the content. 

A wiki is different.  Almost anyone can create or edit content for a wiki.  This gives greater flexibility, for instance, if a group is working on a project.  Every member of the group can post information and you can see how the document changes over time.

What sort of things might be better suited for a blog and better suited for a wiki?

 A blog would be better, for instance, if one is creating a sort of online diary and wants to share his rambling thoughts and musings for others to comment on.  A wiki, however, would be better when you need many people to share their thoughts on a subject.

Check out the DelMIRA wiki at http://delmira.wetpaint.com