Thing 23

Well, I'm finally at the end of the roadtrip! My favorite part of this exercise was blogging, surprisingly enough! I will probably create another blog fairly soon. It's a good way to express oneself without talking everyone's ear off when you have discovered something really BIG and EXCITING for the day!

This learning program provided me with the opportunity to look at some websites that I might not have discovered on my own (like Rollyo) or I might not ever use but at the very least I know what they are. It was a little tough sometimes to find time to work on a project such as this, but on the other hand, it was a welcome change in routine on some days. It is very likely that I would participate in another discovery program should it be offered.

About Netlibrary

I set up an account and then explored the titles in the eAudiobooks. I thought that I would try to find a non-fiction title to download for a change. There aren't as many non-fiction titles as fiction, but I found one that sounded interesting: WILD TREES, A STORY OF PASSION AND DARING, by Richard Preston.

Podcasts

I checked out Podcast.net and Yahoo Podcasts: both were loaded with informational podcasts. I did like Podcast.net best because the sound was clearer and a lot of the podcasts had music intros. I spent time listening to a couple of podcasts that looked interesting called "Dances With Woofs Dog Training," which had to do with hand-signal training. There were technical problems with some of the podcasts, either not displaying photos properly with the audio or the audio content was gone from the podcast. Problems aside, I can see that this is the way of the future when it comes to providing quick training on a subject.

Gizmo and YouTube

Here is one of my favorite YouTube videos of a cat with OCD:



Looking at YouTube was probably one of the "23 Things" that I liked the best because there were lots of really creative videos that people have done and a lot of humorous ones. But I was also aware that this site also provides an opportunity for some groups to get their particular agendas viewed by lots of people. So, you have to evaluate what you're looking at like you would any other website.

Some Thoughts on the Web 2.0 Awards

I chose "Travel" from the "Award Categories" list to explore in depth (although I also looked at "Music" and "Real Estate.") Of the three winners, I selected Real Travel (http://realtravel.com/) because it had a blog feature, where people could talk about their experiences in a particular travel destination. Of course, I chose Amelia Island as my first destination ... The blogs focused on the hotels/resorts that people stayed at and I didn't really learn anything new except that staying at the Ritz Carlton and Amelia Plantation required a really large amount of tipping (and that it might be a good idea to save up for that aspect of the trip!) There are links to several other sites, including Travelocity, which was specifically the tool for booking hotels. The only hotels that came up were the two mentioned above and the rest were in the "Jacksonville Area." Having been there, I knew that there were a lot more places to stay on Amelia Island. My conclusion after some more searching was that a website is only as useful as the quality of it's content, even if it is well-designed. Real Travel had some really cool features and it was designed well but the tools/links that it utilizes could use some improvement. (I found the same to be true for a real estate Web 2.0 winning site that I looked at: good ideas, good design but uneven results when it came to content.) Really great potential but not yet ready for practical application in a library setting!

Zoho Writer

I set up a Zoho account today. This Web-based tool seems useful, especially the ability to import Word docs and then posting them to your blog. (I imported but didn't post because I wasn't sure that I wanted to post my test docs without working on them a bit longer.) The downside for the new Zoho explorer (who is in a hurry) is that the instructions for the neewbie are not in a obvious place.