Online Video

I was already pretty aware of online video. There are several sites (funnyordie.com is just one off the top of my head) I visit regularly to watch humorous video snippets. And I love that I can catch t.v. shows I've missed online now, instead of waiting for them to inevitably rerun and trying to figure out what day that's going to be. For example, I missed the season premiere of "Bones" this season because I wasn't aware what date it was starting... but I just zipped over to hulu.com and watched it the following weekend.

My only complaint about watching videos online is that I can't get as comfortable. There's something to be said for parking my keester in the recliner and kicking back to watch the good ol' fashioned television. I just cannot get that comfortable sitting in an office chair, watching shows on my computer monitor.

Five minutes on Facebook...

usually turns into two hours. Or so one of my pieces of flair says.

I must admit, I do love Facebook. It has become quite addictive. I usually don't visit it everyday (I just don't have the time), but when I do log in, it's usually on my days off and for many hours at a time. And just when I think it's starting to get boring, I find another new application to add that sucks up even more of my time. (If you'd like to add me as a friend, search for "Michelle Marie Mitchell" in Melrose Park, IL.)

I think it would be intriguing to have a Franklin Park Library Facebook page. The possibilities for what you could put on there are nearly endless, especially if several people have access to modify the page.

The only thing that I'm unhappy with as far as Facebook goes is that they are in the process of switching people's accounts over to a new format. I'm not a big fan of this format... I find the other, older format to be more user friendly.

Google Apps Are Great

I have been using the Google Office applications since we tried to do the first Tech Training program last year. I tend to use word processing much more than the spreadsheet app, but I think both are great. I use it mainly to keep a list of the cd's I would like to order for the library. What's so great about Google is that it's all stored online and I don't have to worry about forgetting my flash drive or having the file saved on just one computer. I also use Google calendar. It's nice to be able to access the calendar from both home and work. I do have an account with 30 Boxes. It's really nice for birthday reminders. The Letterpop newsletter application seems really cool. I'm sure the other office suites are nice, too, but since I already have an account with Google, I didn't want to sign up to use the other office suites.

Micro-blogging & Music Online

I'm going to condense the two "lessons" into one post here...

I think I'm clear on the whole concept of micro-blogging. I signed up for a Twitter account a few months ago, but I'm still not entirely sure how to activate it. When I go to the site and try to enter my cell phone number, it asks me for a country code and I'm not sure what it is. The directions they give you on that site are not very straightforward. I've talked to my friends online about Twitter and I've gotten many mixed reviews about it. I've also read articles about it and am aware of the site's tendency to crash. So, it seems like it has room to improve.

As for music online... I listen to it all the time. I have accounts at both last.fm and pandora.com, although I think the latter has better quality music, the former has more diversity.

Mash-ups

Well, I read up on mash-ups and played around with a couple of them. I think they are fascinating and a lot of fun. I'm sure there are many out there that are perfect in professional atmospheres, too.

From what the wikipedia article said, mash-ups are becoming more and more the norm to see online. It just makes me wonder what else "they" will come up with in a few years that makes mash-ups look antiquated. That seems to be the general trend with all of technology.

SMS

I was around for all the excitement about Vodaphone. England, Europe, Japan and Korea have been way ahead of us on using SMS as individuals and in England they have been finding ways to apply the technology to library services for more than a decade. We have just switched to sending emailed notices to people when we know that most of our patrons don't have computers at home..... We can be sure that upwards of 85% have cell phones, maybe we should have leapfrogged over email.

I use text messaging with my kids--- Ashamed to admit especially when I know they are in class...
but, I pay per message so I don't use it all that much.

I hate what txtng is doing to the informality of kids written language--- I had to stop somebody from sending a cover letter with his resume "that u requested"

Janet

Google Labs

To consider oneself technologically aware it is imperitive to keep abreast of everything Google is doing. They can change the entire environment with one product, much like Google Reader has changed RSS aggregators or iGoogle has changed start pages.

I have used Google applications and APIs for many projects and will do so in the future as long as they continue to "Do no evil."

Instant Messaging

I love IMing. I have been big into it since I was in college.

I used to have AIM and MSN Messenger on my computer at home. They were fine, but took up a lot of space on my harddrive. I switched over to Trillian when I found out about that, but I'm now on Meebo. Meebo is wonderful because it's all web-based and can be used anywhere.

As for the IM lingo... there's no way I could memorize that list from the one website. I'm lucky I know the few that I know right now! :o)

Michelle

Google Applications

Sarah introduced me to the Google Documents application when I started doing ILL's on Thursdays. Since then, I've created one of my own, added the notepad application, and now have a private Google calendar to keep track of what's going on in the world of Michelle. It's very helpful to have all of these kept in one place online, and available to access anywhere. It looks like there is plenty of other applications for me to play with in the future, too.

Google Documents

Google has added lots of great templates to the Google Documents suit. It has some pretty cool slideshow, database, and document templates. Especially interesting to our patrons may be the resume templates.

Flickr

I use Flickr extensively. I use it for personal images such as my upcoming wedding photos (creating a larger, more complete, and free image viewing gallery for the guests), and I use it to store, organize, display, and export and import the images taken by the Library. I am even considering a way to use it as storage with PHP/MySQL over layer to store, tag, and make searchable our historical images (far, far in the future).

I also like to use Flickr to find Creative Common images that I have used for various websites/fliers I have designed.

Some of my friends also are on Flickr and I enjoy following them as they take pictures of events.

Some people say, "I don't want anybody I don't know looking at me." I believe this is a naive attitude for many reasons, none of which I feel like going in to at the moment. Suffice to say, you are being photographed, seen, observed everyday regardless.

Flickr is an excellent website and I highly recommend it.

I'm still here said the tortoise ...

Well, I haven't made an appearance in a while because I haven't been able to do much playing around.

Maybe this afternoon, after we close, I will follow along on some of the tutorials. and report back then

Janet

Blogs

I have done a little blogging in the past (our first attempt at tech training and in library school), but I just do not feel comfortable knowing that anyone can read what I write. I have never written anything too personal but even so... I had an account with Wordpress because I was supposed to use it for a reading program at the Bensenville Community Public Library but I have never posted anything on it. I suppose if I start to feel more comfortable with blogging here, I may decide to start posting on Wordpress if BCPL still has the program in the future.

del.icio.us is ta.st.y

I, too, love del.icio.us. I initially joined up over there a few months ago when I found out about it because it seemed like a really good way to keep track of all my "favorites". After having a couple of computers crash on me and losing all the links to my favorite pages, having them backed-up online seemed like a smart idea.

Since then, I've had fun playing around with my tags. I like seeing who else has a site tagged, especially when it's a more specific site, like our library site.

To view my del.icio.us account, go here: http://del.icio.us/Shellyjanuary

Del.icio.us

I love del.icio.us.



This is an artistic rendition of some of my more popular tags done by Wordle.com.

This will be a busy summer

Vanessa has set us quite an agenda. I am looking forward to playing with all these goodies. I hope we are able to keep everybody working at about the same pace. Do we want to move in lock step- every body working on the same skill at the same time- or are we each following our own Interests?

Janet

Blogging

I've had a blog over at xanga.com for a couple of years now. I like their format and find it pretty user friendly. They upgraded to a new format months ago, but they allow you to still use the old one, and because I like the old one better, I keep to that. I used to have a blog on blurty.com, but when one of my online friends introduced me to xanga, I liked their look and ease of use better.

Blogging, eh...

Well, I know a bit about blogging. We have a few at the Library's website. I also have a few others, but don't keep up with them. I will try to do better with this one.

I am familiar with most of the blogging platforms. I like Blogger for the javascript abilities but prefer Wordpress for the statistics.

How exciting...

Hi, all my fellow tech trainees. I am very excited to be participating in Staff Tech. Training 2.0. I notice that many of the items we are training ourselves on I am already familiar with (which makes me feel a tad bit smarter, I must confess).

I look forward to learning new things and actually knowing what I'm talking about the next time someone asks me about a wiki or an RSS feed.