The Wonderful World of Wikis

With time off for good behavior and a week of Community Cup banner building, this feels all new again! What was my password?

The PB Wiki looked clunky behind the scenes because I was expecting something like blogger.com. I added my blog to the YPL Favorite Blogs, which kept kicking me out when I tried to preview it. It didn't look right, either, so I copied someone else's html code. I really expected it to be easier! As for a use for wikis at YPL, a wiki might be a way to get rid of our computer tips notebook and make the tips available to everyone in the system. I've heard we are getting a YPL wiki, so I might have a place to try it.

Things 13, 14, 15

Del.icio.us
We had a project in IS once where a great many of us were looking for articles and websites on a multi-part topic. This would have been the perfect way for everyone to see what websites had been found and for which part they were intended. NOW we find out about this!

Technorati
This was a revisit, since I had to use this for the bloglines Thing. I found the tagging interesting, but why wouldn't keyword searching be more efficient? I want the whole enchilada!

Library 2.0/Web 2.0
We are at a generational crossroad now, with those who have never embraced technology (and never will), those who are digital immigrants and have learned technology (see the Digital Immigrant Book Woman blog), and those digital natives who were born with keyboards in their hands all living at the same time. For the older generation, librarians are the ones who help them get the information they are told is online. We also help the digital immigrants who know their information should be online, but have tried to access it and failed. We could also assist the natives, since they THINK they know all about technology, but only know how to use the part to which they've been exposed.

Remember BASIC and freenets? It was only when the web came into existence and the commands were hidden that the Internet boomed. The same goes for tagging. The majority won't be involved until the tagging is automatic and hidden from the ordinary user. No passwords or user names, but fingerprints, voice recognition, or retinal scans. Spoken commands may be all that's necessary to make things happen, or even a flick of your eye over an icon on the screen. No copying html code or clicking buttons! When things are that easy, then everyone will be on an equal footing and librarians may no longer be necessary. But for now, there is still a need for librarians to offer assistance (and computer classes!) for those struggling along.

Rollyo rocks!

Oh, I love this one! Rollyo lets you search only the sites you know and love without all of the garbage that a Google search brings up. I made a recipe rollyo, which you can try for yourself.

Bookshelf

I've added some titles to LibraryThing, finally, and posted them below. Paris Hilton and I have both read The Power of Now, but I didn't have to go to jail first. (Perhaps if she had read it before she might have avoided that little fiasco?)

Image Generated!

I found my welcome sign at http://www.signgenerator.net/

Dead People Server

Much to my amazement, the Dead People Server has an rss feed! Who knew? Add this one to Bloglines and you, too, can be the first to ask everyone that riveting question: "Do you know who died?" Finding other interesting sites was trickier than expected. Technorati was the best search tool because it brought up my blog when I searched "tanagra". It also found four others. Two were in French, one was in Russian, and one said "so if you are reading this you are most likely some kind of twisted deviant." Hmmm...interesting.

Letterpoppin'

explorediscoverplay.blogspot.com is the continuation of the 23 things. I looked around for a Thing 7 and found http://www.letterpop.com/, which allows you to make a really snazzy newsletter. I started the inaugural issue of the Tanagra Times, but didn't have the right photos to upload. Maybe after my siesta...

We certainly have a lot of blogs now! I've been commenting and it's fun, although I wonder if they are erasable in case I want a do over.