Thing 19: I have been censored

I should've known it was all too good to be true. I show up to work and get told "hey, go on MySpace and YouTube during work hours and we'll give you a free MP3 player!" It seemed made up, not the kind of thing that happens in the modern net-policed workforce. "What about my productivity?" I cried, "certain web-blocking software companies insist it will go out the window, even though there is some suggestion otherwise!"

The management in me was very satisfied to see a WebMarshal message today when I tried to navigate to Web 2.0 Award winner Meebo for Thing 19. Ever since that "Access Denied" message life around here has felt normal again. It's nice to know the guys down at the IT lab are working on my case.

Don't try looking while you're at work, but Meebo is a snazzy Web2.0 communication tool. Ever chatted on a network like ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Chat, or Google Talk? The annoying thing about these is each one has a separate application, or separate page, with different logins and so on. Software like Pidgin or Adium allows you to combine all the protocols into one handy application, but sometimes you're just not allowed to install an application.

This is where Meebo comes in. It's a web app, obviously, which combines all these chat protocols and allows you to talk to all your different contacts in the same window, wherever you are.

Unless you're at work of course.

No, I didn't hack around the WebMarshal to find all this out. I just knew it.

Thing 18: getting it write

Zing! Puntastic pun-times!

I've been using Google Documents to handle documents for a while now. I had a job for a while writing music reviews, and as it was kind of fitting between other jobs and study I needed a way to quickly get to my files on whatever computer I was near, without worrying about what format is was in. So I used Google Docs, and this worked pretty well. I tried convincing the magazine I wrote for to do the same, but you can't rush these things.

I see Zoho (in which I'm writing this) is similar to Googlde Docs, but much more complex. The formatting panel in Zoho Writer is closer to what you'd find in a desktop word processor, rather than a the rich text style WYSIWYG formatting normally found online. I'm a little unsure whether I would consider this an advantage - I really do like to write with only basic formatting. A simple text editor, for example. Formatting can come later.

Zoho goes a long way to providing the full suite of office applications - presentations, spreadsheets, databasing, conferencing, et al, etc. More than I can see myself needing, to be frank. But it's impressive that they're available as Web Apps.

I notice Google Docs seems to roll out new features more slowly. Perhaps because they're making sure they're getting things right? Maybe, but it still doesn't work right in Safari.

EDIT: I used the "publish" feature in Zoho Writer to publish this post, and then came straight in and edited it. Mostly because the formatting was a little off. One could learn the ins and outs of the way the formatting changes between Zoho and Blogger, but one would adise one to keep it simple and just post from the Blogger Dashboard. I mean, you're online anyway. It just makes sense.

Thing 17: I am my favourite

I posted a link to my blog on the ACL Learn PB Wiki Favourite Blogs page. The process was quite simple - click edit, enter my name, email, and a password, and the page changed to a handy WYSIWYG editor. I found the function for adding a link a little more confusing than when doing so on my blog, but realised this was because it had built-in functionality for linking to other pages on the wiki. Once I realised that I changed the link to type to an external URL, plugged in the data, and there was my URL.

Then I hit save and went to do some shelving. Mission accomplished.

Thing 16: at the speed of wiki

The wiki method of sharing and collaborating on information has, from what I can see, many potential uses in a library. I imagine a staff intructional wiki for how to use systems like our Millenniun and Pharos programs would be particularly useful, instead of an ordinary help page of instructions. This way staff members could easily enter extra tips, caveats, quicker methods, and so on. The way wiki's are laid out and searchable would also prove very handy for this kind of thing.

I also particularly liked the idea of using a wiki for a subject guide, especially when not just limited to staff members. This way something as valuable and compiling a subject list could be done quite quickly as it would be spread across all those who were interested, and not just the exhausting task of one person. Letting the public contribute would also generate a real sense of community - that the library is not just a place from which you receive information or whatever, but also a place which values participation and contribution. Looking around the internet it's obvious that a lot of people want to share the knowledge they have, and letting them do so on our library website would benefit all concerned, as far as I can imagine.

Thing 15: future libraries will be staffed by robots

I read through Michael Stephens' Into a new world of librarianship and liked his idea that, in Library 2.0 "the Library is human," as it addresses the issue of a library as being a mere storage facility and distribution point for what is deemed worth collecting. A library, for me, should be responsive and helpful. We should endeavour to provide the service of collecting and providing access to knowledge in a way that is as inclusive as possible. Say what you like about marketing and brand image, but presenting a warm "human" face to customers will increase a library's profile, and increase the use of our services.

That's why it makes so much sense that Library 2.0 embraces Web2.0 technologies. Social networking sites, blogs, tag aggregators and so on are not just fancy technological tricks - they're something that is being adopted by customers/users in surprising numbers. It's still new at this point, but for a large amount of younger people these kinds of interfaces are the norm. As such they are unlikely to find much use in a library system which presents itself as static and top-down.

Of course, I'm not advocating we drop the cathedral and go all-out bazaar here. I'm simply suggesting that an awareness of the methods our customers use, and an integration of such, strikes me as an obvious next step for libraries.

It's Stephen's last point that I find most interesting - "Librarian 2.0 gets content." Content is easy to understand in the traditional, top-down, publisher to consumer model. It's user-generated content that I think it will be important to understand. The proliferation of, for example, user-submitted video on a site like YouTube, or even topic-related blogs are difficult to fit into a traditional model of libraries. Recoginising that often this is the sort of thing our customers will be seeking and dealing with is essential. Having an understanding of how such content can be accessed and used will be a valuable skill for librarians helping customers. An important part of this is to make such content readily available via library resources like the website and in-house computer systems.

Thing 14: fishing for tags

Today I plunged back into Technorati to see how tagging made a difference to my blogging life. I claimed this blog, and added some tags to it so that people might be more likely to stumble across it while looking for something more useful about web 2.0 and Auckland City Libraries. Who knows, maybe there's a fetish forLearning 2.0 blogs. On the internet this is very possible.

I tried searching for the term "Learning 2.0" in different ways on Technorati. Searching for post by keyword, blogs by keyword, and posts by tag all brought up a lot of posts focused on education and Web 2.0, and the crossover between them. The intersting result was that there was no overlap on the first result page between any method. I haven't really had time to see which way would help someone find this blog. Perhaps it's best if I don't know - I already spend too much time googling myself.

Looking at Technorati's popular page produced some results I would have expected - the top blogs are things like Boing Boing and Techcrunch - popular sites from the neo-nerd zeitgeist. The most amusing top blog result was Blog Tips to Help You Make Money Blogging. I'm glad these two things have come together.

The popular page also has a list of top searches, with the illuminating inclusion of hot girls. This proves that even in the world of Web 2.0 the internet has not lost sight of its original goals.

Thing 13: my bookmarks follow me around

A site like del.icio.us hovers around the edges of my web use. I know it's out there, I know it's popular, and I guess that means I know it must be useful. But I've never tried to use it. Why not? Maybe I'm thinking "my web experience isn't broken, so why fix it?" I guess I've felt that the way I handle my bookmarks was getting the job done pretty well.

So I'd like to thank the ACL Learning 2.0 programme for steering me to del.icio.us. I think I'm actually going to use this. One thing I like about it is the portability it gives. I think the ability to follows chains of bookmarks by tag is really handy to, but more as a way of having fun. I like being pointed to parts of the web I haven't seen before. I imagine it'd be very seldom that I'd find anything useful, but that's just because I don't have much faith in user-generated tags, for whatever reason.

No, wait, I know the reason. It's because I myself am allowed to tag, and so arethe various younger myselves. I don't think these people are much of an authority. I wouldn't trust me.