Sunday, March 23, 2008
Hotpads, a 2.0 company
My son is involved in another type of web 2.0 company, HotPads. They mix real estate listings -- for finding a new apartment or buying a house -- with mapping software. "The place to find your space." If you are looking, check it out!
Saturday, March 22, 2008
NetSquared - "remixing the web for social change"
NetSquared or "Net2" is an organization that helps educate folks in non profits to use Web 2.0 social networking tools.
Here's what they say:
"Net2 is created by TechSoup, a project of CompuMentor. Our organization has worked directly with non-profits for nearly two decades, providing direct assistance, web-based knowledge and resources, and donated technology.
Our mission is to spur responsible adoption of social web tools by social benefit organizations. There's a whole new generation of online tools available – tools that make it easier than ever before to collaborate, share information and mobilize support. These tools include blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, podcasting, and more. Some people describe them as "Web 2.0"; we call them the social web, because their power comes from the relationships they enable."
They have an annual invitational conference to help projects link up with funding. This year's will be in May in San Jose.
You can register and voting closes March 24 -- if you do, vote for SquarePeg!! My nephew is involved with that project.
Here's what they say:
"Net2 is created by TechSoup, a project of CompuMentor. Our organization has worked directly with non-profits for nearly two decades, providing direct assistance, web-based knowledge and resources, and donated technology.
Our mission is to spur responsible adoption of social web tools by social benefit organizations. There's a whole new generation of online tools available – tools that make it easier than ever before to collaborate, share information and mobilize support. These tools include blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, podcasting, and more. Some people describe them as "Web 2.0"; we call them the social web, because their power comes from the relationships they enable."
They have an annual invitational conference to help projects link up with funding. This year's will be in May in San Jose.
You can register and voting closes March 24 -- if you do, vote for SquarePeg!! My nephew is involved with that project.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Week 2 assignment list
I joined the class wiki
Designed a wiki and added content TOCtalk about managing the table of contents situation at work.
Added links to my blog and my wiki on the MLA CE class wiki.
Added links to the MLA blog and wiki to MY blog.
Added Paws Across Texas link to the Therapy Dogs wiki and posted a comment.
Organized my wiki page and another into a group on serials
Posted a comment to the RSS feed list page.
Next, write a discussion comment on the MLA wiki -- nope, I don't think I have to do that.
Finally, submit my blog comment via the MLA weekly form.
Yay!! My brain is expanded!!
Designed a wiki and added content TOCtalk about managing the table of contents situation at work.
Added links to my blog and my wiki on the MLA CE class wiki.
Added links to the MLA blog and wiki to MY blog.
Added Paws Across Texas link to the Therapy Dogs wiki and posted a comment.
Organized my wiki page and another into a group on serials
Posted a comment to the RSS feed list page.
Next, write a discussion comment on the MLA wiki -- nope, I don't think I have to do that.
Finally, submit my blog comment via the MLA weekly form.
Yay!! My brain is expanded!!
CamelCase
I learned a new term from WikiMatrix.org:
CamelCase
aka "medial capitals."
"CamelCase is the practice of writing compound words or phrases where the words are joined without spaces, and each word is capitalized within the compound."
I think in some wikis you are supposed to run words together like that but I have not seen evidence of that in Wetpaint.
CamelCase
aka "medial capitals."
"CamelCase is the practice of writing compound words or phrases where the words are joined without spaces, and each word is capitalized within the compound."
I think in some wikis you are supposed to run words together like that but I have not seen evidence of that in Wetpaint.
Week 2 -- wikis for personal organization of thoughts
My initial thoughts were right, but I see a wiki is a great way just to organize your own thoughts. It seems more flexible than just a Word document. It is accessible from multiple computers -- you don't have to remember to send the document home! Plus it will be easy to break into sections and add links and images. It is getting easier to understand with the exercises we were assigned.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Week 2 comments -- blog vs wiki
Step 7: What is the difference between a blog and a wiki? What sort of things might be better suited for a blog and better suited for a wiki?
The neat thing about a blog is its archiving ability. You can look back at a particular month to see what was posted then or what was going on. However, its format is pretty well limited to certain features -- the diary part, the list of links and archives and a few other things you can add over to the side. There is usually a main author on a blog and others can comment.
A wiki is more of a collaborative effort. It is a great way to record and compile information that can be edited. The edits can be tracked. Lots of people can contribute to the wiki on more of an equal footing.
I could use a wiki to handle the following:
online procedure manual like this one -- https://wiki.lib.umn.edu/
online disaster manual
journal table of contents situation instructions
subject pathfinder like this one for business -- http://www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/bizwiki/index.php/Main_Page
(this one also uses Meebo for chat reference)
I am a solo librarian so in many cases these would just serve as an online way to collect and update the information in one place as opposed to using a Word document. However, it would be a handy way to share procedures and a way for an intern to handle updates easily. Privacy would be a concern.
We did already try doing a wiki to handle an Excel spreadsheet for keeping statistics. PBWiki didl not work, it apparently didn't handle Excel yet. Instead we have used Google Docs. I will keep that in mind as I look at Wet Paint.
The neat thing about a blog is its archiving ability. You can look back at a particular month to see what was posted then or what was going on. However, its format is pretty well limited to certain features -- the diary part, the list of links and archives and a few other things you can add over to the side. There is usually a main author on a blog and others can comment.
A wiki is more of a collaborative effort. It is a great way to record and compile information that can be edited. The edits can be tracked. Lots of people can contribute to the wiki on more of an equal footing.
I could use a wiki to handle the following:
online procedure manual like this one -- https://wiki.lib.umn.edu/
online disaster manual
journal table of contents situation instructions
subject pathfinder like this one for business -- http://www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/bizwiki/index.php/Main_Page
(this one also uses Meebo for chat reference)
I am a solo librarian so in many cases these would just serve as an online way to collect and update the information in one place as opposed to using a Word document. However, it would be a handy way to share procedures and a way for an intern to handle updates easily. Privacy would be a concern.
We did already try doing a wiki to handle an Excel spreadsheet for keeping statistics. PBWiki didl not work, it apparently didn't handle Excel yet. Instead we have used Google Docs. I will keep that in mind as I look at Wet Paint.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Comments on Week 1 Assignment
Well even though I was very familiar with blogs I ended up spending way too much time on this lesson! I spent over 3-1/2 hours. So many new and interesting things to read and learn! I especially liked David Rothman's PubMed RSS feed column and his tip on using it to set up a journal table of contents feed. Also I captured what I thought were the most important points so I will be able to get to the information in the future.
RSS -- PubMed search vs Journal Table of Contents
The value of keeping up to date by using a PubMed search via RSS instead of a feed of a journal's table of contents:
- the table of contents is not personalized to the needs of the clinician.
- RSS feeds from PubMed can be used to guide the clinician straight to any available full text of the journal if the search is set up to access the library’s PubMed LinkOuts.
- an RSS reading service like Google Reader allows the user to organize feeds by subject and to star especially interesting items.
RSS Feeds
Question: How do you think you could use RSS feeds at your library? How do you think patrons could use RSS feeds? Write a brief response on your blog.
The problem of staying aware of new journal content is pretty overwhelming. I manage a very small library and have provided routing of journals for the years I have been there. I personally prefer seeing a hard copy -- but am guilty of allowing it to languish unread on my desk (or in one of the many stacks lying around, well organized of course, but messy). Thus the disadvantage of routing -- only the first person on the routing list gets a time-value product.
Now that more electronic tables of contents are available I am hoping I can use them to discontinue the routing but still enable people to see at least the titles easily.
The problem has been that there is no single service that serves as a central place to manage all the tables of contents links whether you want to get them by email or some other way. Although I use a journal vendor and purchase several online products they do not have a table of contents management service that meets all my needs. Furthermore, hospital staff do leave their jobs occasionally and I imagine if they have set up an online management system for the journals they read they would still be interested in those titles -- even if they can no longer get to full text via my library.
So, the RSS feed system seems like a real possibility. If a customer is willing to use such a system it will take the notices out of their email in box and give them one central spot to purposely go to and peruse new information. It has a search box for their selected materials, too.
This service will take a lot of work initially to set up whether by the user or by me. I will also need to provide some links on my webpage to these neat YouTube videos for instruction. However, I do think the use of an RSS reader service has potential to solve my journal routing problem.
The problem of staying aware of new journal content is pretty overwhelming. I manage a very small library and have provided routing of journals for the years I have been there. I personally prefer seeing a hard copy -- but am guilty of allowing it to languish unread on my desk (or in one of the many stacks lying around, well organized of course, but messy). Thus the disadvantage of routing -- only the first person on the routing list gets a time-value product.
Now that more electronic tables of contents are available I am hoping I can use them to discontinue the routing but still enable people to see at least the titles easily.
The problem has been that there is no single service that serves as a central place to manage all the tables of contents links whether you want to get them by email or some other way. Although I use a journal vendor and purchase several online products they do not have a table of contents management service that meets all my needs. Furthermore, hospital staff do leave their jobs occasionally and I imagine if they have set up an online management system for the journals they read they would still be interested in those titles -- even if they can no longer get to full text via my library.
So, the RSS feed system seems like a real possibility. If a customer is willing to use such a system it will take the notices out of their email in box and give them one central spot to purposely go to and peruse new information. It has a search box for their selected materials, too.
This service will take a lot of work initially to set up whether by the user or by me. I will also need to provide some links on my webpage to these neat YouTube videos for instruction. However, I do think the use of an RSS reader service has potential to solve my journal routing problem.
Sources of Journal Table of Contents Feeds
I found table of contents links several ways:
1. by simply searching for the title in Google Reader's search box (the one under "Add Subscription"). However that often seemed to produce a number of items to hunt through and sometimes double listings -- and I wasn't sure if they were the same or not since they both had different numbers of subscribers.
2. search the web for the title. If I was lucky I found an RSS feed link on that site (which in more cases actually said XML in a little orange box instead of RSS with the orange curves).
3. try the PubMed search limited to a journal title. That was a little discouraging though because my most important journal (Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics) gave no results for the past 30 days. Now I have to research it to see if it has changed its name some way.
1. by simply searching for the title in Google Reader's search box (the one under "Add Subscription"). However that often seemed to produce a number of items to hunt through and sometimes double listings -- and I wasn't sure if they were the same or not since they both had different numbers of subscribers.
2. search the web for the title. If I was lucky I found an RSS feed link on that site (which in more cases actually said XML in a little orange box instead of RSS with the orange curves).
3. try the PubMed search limited to a journal title. That was a little discouraging though because my most important journal (Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics) gave no results for the past 30 days. Now I have to research it to see if it has changed its name some way.
Google Reader Tips
Edit the name of a feed once it gets in -- just go to the Settings.
Star an item by clicking on the star to the left of the particular posting.
Star an item by clicking on the star to the left of the particular posting.
Journal Table of Contents RSS Feeds via PubMed
The article by David Rothman "How to Generate a Custom RSS feed from PubMed" was very useful. One question asked by Hope 7-17-06 was
"Can you make RSS feeds of the tables of contents of certain journals, such as Elsevier journals even though Elsevier doesn’t itself offer them?" and he replied "YES. All you have to do is do a BLANK search, but choose the journal in the LIMITS tab."
Tip -- in Google Reader if the title of the search doesn't import the way you want it to you can go to Settings and change it.
"Can you make RSS feeds of the tables of contents of certain journals, such as Elsevier journals even though Elsevier doesn’t itself offer them?" and he replied "YES. All you have to do is do a BLANK search, but choose the journal in the LIMITS tab."
Tip -- in Google Reader if the title of the search doesn't import the way you want it to you can go to Settings and change it.
Link to the Technologies
Here is the 3-10-2008 comment that lists all the technologies and pages we'll be studying
http://sns.mlanet.org/snsce/?p=3#comment-24
Kind of scary to see all that at once!
http://sns.mlanet.org/snsce/?p=3#comment-24
Kind of scary to see all that at once!
Creating a Blog
Our first assignment was to create a blog. This is it. It was not too hard for me to do since I already have several blogs hosted here at Blogger. However, I found a new phone number management tool to watch for, Grand Central, when I was reading the 2-22-08 Blogger blog http://buzz.blogger.com/ However, it looks like the chance to get in on the beta test has expired, so I'll put that on the back burner.
I start my MLA Web 2.0 adventure
My title "Keeping Up with the Natives" has to do with the native computer users as opposed to those of us who knew the world before computers. As a medical librarian I must constantly strive to stay ahead of my library users. Soon will come those who have never known life without a computer. However, new and useful tools are constantly coming out to help computer users manage the flood of information and even the natives need help with that. I try to stay alert to those so that I can pass along the tips that really smooth the way. I think this MLA CE course will be really useful in continuing and managing my lifelong learning project.
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