Lindsay Richards' Blog

Thoughts & Reflections – Overall

lindsayrichards — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:39:40 +0000

I feel that I learned an exponential amount of very valuable information from this program. Today we do many activities on the internet that require us to provide a great deal of personal information. Such as internet banking, web shopping, and even just signing up for an e-mail account. Web 2.0 is about web personalization. Using the web the way the user wants to and having the user to be able to generate content of their own that they are able to share. That is one of the largest points of web 2.0. The fact that anyone can create a blog lets say and have it be hugely popular and yet the creator generally isn’t a large business, or is not necessarily a marketing expert. Anyone that has an idea can create something to share on the internet. This element of self-publishing is an incredibly important part of the current state of the internet and is an imperative part of web 2.0. There is an unbelievable amount of content out there on the internet. So much that it has become difficult to navigate through it all and find exactly what you are looking for. As the web develops there is discussion of the semantic web. The semantic web would take place more on the users desktop as supposed to an internet browser. It would entail the choices you make being remembered and further content would be tailored towards your personal needs and wants. Having concepts and ideas strung together so that a very concise response can be found. The internet of 5 years ago is drastically different from the internet we see today. What we see in the internet 5 years from now will chances are, be just as different. Where we use the internet may shift as well. Today cell phones are more popular than computers. The web 2.0 applications are being designed for both computers and hand held devices. It is important that creators of web 2.0 do not leave hand held devices out or they may find that their product doesn’t have the shelf life they are hoping for. The internet is everywhere, especially in North America, and at some point there is a very real chance that it will become omnipresent. We will be connected wherever we are. Having data and information including entertainment wherever we are connected is the real driving force behind web 2.0 and the development of the internet. One of the important factors that will see a lot of the current web 2.0 endeavors fail is the issue of marketing and funding. This won’t be as drastic as the dot.com bust, but we will see a lot of the current web 2.0 services out there fail. Users do not want to pay to use services anymore. Open source products are readily available for most of the tools consumers have been used to paying for. As this shift occurs it is important to determine how web sites and tools are going to make money. Banner advertising is just not enough to maintain the costs of web sites these days. Tying e-commerce into web sites and tools is proving to be the most effective way to make money off of web sites and tools. Advertising companies want exposure, but also want their products to be sold. Another way to ensure there is some sort of monetization scheme for web 2.0 items is the premium access concept. Allow users to try out the basic services allows for the user to decide how much they like the item. If they like the service and feel it has great value for them, they are willing to pay a small premium to have even better options or more services with more support. From reading this book and hearing from these twenty experts I learned more than I expected. I have also been inspired to get involved more with the web and all the incredible content that is out there. My question was what exactly is web 2.0 and I know have a base knowledge for a very versatile term. In fact I have multiple definitions for web 2.0. The many opinion found through out this book were mainly complimentary to each other. I would have to agree with them all, as they have come from the experts in the business. This knowledge will only help me in my future and in my career. It will be important to continue to stay on top of web trends and changes. I now know how important this really is. Embracing this technology and knowing how to use it is imperative. The internet is not going anywhere, but it is going to change. Ensuring that I stay ahead or at least become aware of these changes is an important choice to make, as well as an asset to have for any job.

Posted in 23 Things, SDL Tagged: SLA23Things, web2.0

Thoughts & Reflections – Web 2.0

lindsayrichards — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:00:52 +0000

So far, I have really enjoyed all of the web 2.0 technology that I have used. I really appreciate the ingenuity that is applied to these items. I think that there is a lot of longevity to these items. I enjoy using them and would not want to lose access to something I have put time and effort into. That is one of the only concerns I have with the Internet and electronic data storage. With paper, you know you have it written down and as long as you don’t lose it or throw it out, there is a good chance you will have that paper as long as you took care of it. You as the end user is responsible for that paper. With the electronic storage method, and especially when saving things with a free website, like for example Flickr. What obligation does the website have to you to ensure the longevity of the item you are storing with them. In all technicality you are no longer the end user, but just a person who accesses the item. So this is one of the issues that I have with the Internet, a lack of trust in the possible longevity of product. I enjoy the convenience of saving information on their servers as supposed to my own hard drive as it does allow me to access the information anywhere.

Posted in 23 Things, SDL Tagged: SLA23Things, web2.0

Thoughts & Reflections – Podcasts, Video & Downloadable Audio

lindsayrichards — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 21:39:44 +0000

YouTube.com is a great concept, it has a lot of very interesting or helpful videos, and also has as much useless content. But the fact that anyone can make their video claim to fame is important to the user contributed content on the Internet. Being able to create a video for self marketing purposes and then having the ability to jsut share the link for others to view the video is a great ability that web 2.0 has brought to the internet.

I also liked some of the how-to video web sites that were geared towards video tutorials of completing various tasks. As some peopl are visual learners I really feel that these web sites have great value.

Podcasts are a really neat new web 2.0 trend. Podcasts started popping up just after the release of iPods which are realted to podcasts. The iPod is a tool that most people own currently, or at least an mp3 player of some sort. Even if they don’t have a portable mp3 player, then you can listen to a podcast from your computer. Podcasts are sound recordings that you can download and save. Anything you can record you can turn into a podcast. Creating a podcast is not that difficult and there are a plethora of different tutorials available. There are many web sites that offer downloadable podcasts such as news sites and sites that have audio training tips. You can also get audio books as well which are virtually podcasts as well.

Posted in 23 Things, SDL Tagged: SLA23Things, web2.0

Thoughts & Reflections – Online Applications & Tools

lindsayrichards — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 21:11:33 +0000

43Things.com is a web site that you can create a list of 43 things that you want to do. It is like a productivity list that you can check off the items as you complete them. You can comment on whether it was worth it or not worth it to complete and offer to answer questions about what you have completed. It also shows you how many other people are trying or want to do the same thing. You can say how long it took to complete the item and also comment on how it made you feel once you had done it. You can write a comment about it and talk about how you did it, lessons and tips and resources others might find useful. You can comment on whether it was worth completing as well as what the average time was that it took to complete the item.

http://www.43things.com/person/LadyLucid

Zoho is a web productivity tool. It is literally like having the Microsoft Office Suite online and available for free. There are of course differences but the point and usage of Zoho versus Office is the same. There are so many tools that you can use with Zoho, whether for your own needs or business applications. Here are some of the things you can use at Zoho:

Website Monitoring Service, Online Polls in a snap, View and Share Documents Online, Web-based Email Service, Online Word Processor, Spreadsheets, Online Presentation Tool, Online Document Management, Online Note Taker, Easy to use full-featured Wiki, Centralized Public Repository, Online Organizer, Zoho Chat to Make Group Decisions Faster, On-Demand CRM Solution, Project Management Software, Online Database Application, Online Invoicing, Web Conferencing, Remote Support, Online Reporting & BI Service, HRIS & Recruitment Management, Online Business Solutions, Apps for your Business needs and plugin’s to Microsoft Office, your browser and MS Outlook.

iGoogle is very similar to Pageflakes or Netvibes based on functionality of a start page. The advantage iGoogle has is the rest of the suite of applications that Google offers.
You can use your iGoogle start page as a news reader as well as add links to any otehr Google applications that you might use.

SEOmoz is a web site that awards the top rated web 2.0 web sites based on their award categories. Those categories are as follows: Bookmarking, Books, Classifieds and Directories, Collaborative Writing and Word Processing, Content Aggregation and Management, Digital Storage and Remote Access, Education, Employment and Jobs, Events, Food, Fun Stuff, Games and Entertainment, Genealogy, Guides and Reviews, Health, Hosted Wikis, Mapping Applications, Maps, Mobile Technology, Music, News and Blog Guides, Niche Social Networking, Online Desktop / OS, Organization, Philanthropy, Photos and Digital Images, Professional Networking, Questions and Advice, Real Estate, Retail, Search, Social Networking Mainstays, Social News – Smaller and Niche Sites, Social News – The Big Guys, Sport, Start Pages, Travel, Video, Visual Arts, Web Dev and Widgets.

Posted in 23 Things, SDL Tagged: SLA23Things, web2.0

Blog Learning Documentation

lindsayrichards — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 22:23:13 +0000

Learning to incorporate Flickr to directly post pictures from Flickr to my blog with also allowing me to write a post about the picture, is definitely one of the neatest things I have learned to date. I can upload pictures onto Flickr and right from there post them to my blog without even logging into my blog. This is a really neat tool.

Today I have added multiple pages to my blog. This is to allow me to post my SDL work on this blog. I realized that my posts go back chronologically, so by making pages I can post the content in the order I want. I need to show my learning process of using blogs, so I thought that using my blog to showcase the entire project would be a good idea.

Also, I dealt with the comments that I had received for this blog. I quickly realized these were not personal comments but comments that were genereated by spam. I was pleased to see that WordPress has such a functional spam blocking system.

There are also options while writing a blog post to insert/upload different types of media. I can add images, videos, audio, media and add a poll. I can do this directly from the new post interface. Choose from where the media is and upload it. The blog also has a spell checker and the regular text editing items that you would find in Microsoft Word.

There was one option that I was unfamiliar with. It was the “insert more” tag. So I tried it and its function is to break the page up so that the post doesn’t take up a lot of space. It tells the reader to click on the text Read the rest of this entry. Which will bring them to the full post. This is a great idea to keep items shorter on the main blog page and make for less scrolling by the reader.

Posted in SDL Tagged: blogs

Thoughts & Reflections – Wikis

lindsayrichards — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:05:01 +0000

Wiki’s are a very large part of the Internet. Wikipedia.org is one of the most frequently used encyclopedia type site on the web. It is probably one of the more popular or know wiki’s on the web. Anyone can create a wiki, and many have. Wiki’s are a great tool that allows for web collaboration. There are many functions and ways to customize a wiki. Natural Resources Canada is one of the first federal government libraries to use a wiki within their workspace. They use it to keep track of projects that are occuring and have passed. They also have a FAQ’s section that is always growing and has become a great source of reference for staff. The wiki is also bilingual which is the standard across the Government of Canada.

You can do a lot with wiki’s. They are like customizable web pages that you can add content too without having to know a great deal of HTML code. You can upload files, create pages, organize items in folders. Customize a start page, add comments and information. Any of the registered users can access the wiki and make changes to any of the pages or create new pages. It is easy on wikis to relate the different pages by their subject and relation through a page link. Wikis are intended to have the users and visitors participate in the changes and content on the page in the first place.

Posted in 23 Things, SDL Tagged: SLA23Things, wikis

Lindsay – My Own Personal Avatar

lindsayrichards — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:08:52 +0000

This is the avatar that I created at http://www.meez.com.

Posted in 23 Things, SDL Tagged: SLA23Things, web2.0

Thoughts & Reflections – Play Week

lindsayrichards — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:50:50 +0000

So one of the next tasks was to create an avatar. An avatar is like a visual representation of yourself. You can make your avatar anything you like really, whether it be something that you like or if you use one of the online websites to create a cartoon version of yourself. I looked at the Yahoo avatar web site as well as the Meez web site. Although Yahoo’s “people” avatars looked a little more realistic. I decided to go wit the Meez website as it simply looked like more fun to use.

I really enjoyed making my avatar. It was not that difficult and it was fun to go through all the different styles of hair, clothing, shoes and eye colour. I was also able to post my Meez directly to my blog, and also realized if I changed my Meez and then refreshed my blog, my Meez was updated as well. This is really neat as it means there is a constant communication between the two web sites. Which really is a great service.

I next checked out LibraryThing and Shelfari. They are both websites where you can create a catalog of books you have read, plan to read or are reading. You can write reviews about the books, recommend them (or not), as well as find other books you may not have thought to read. Both of these web sites have similar purposes and mainly the same functions, I would say I liked Shelfari a little more. I really only preffered the way the books in your lists are displayed. I like the shelf concept, and really like how it looks. Here are the links to my catalog on both sites:

http://www.shelfari.com/o1518020380

http://www.librarything.com/profile/LindsayLaura (profile)
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/LindsayLaura (library)

Rollyo is a really neat web site. It is a site that can create searches for you that you decide the paramiters on. You choose the URL’s and they are combined to make a Searchroll. So you could combine your favourite sites that you search information on and have them rolled together. Or you can choose just one URL, but have all of your favorite searches accessible in one spot. I would like to use thsi service to combine the reference sites that I frequent for information and combine them to make unique searches. You can also integrate Rollyo with your Firefox browser and make Rollyo your default search engine.

Posted in 23 Things, SDL Tagged: SLA23Things, web2.0

Thoughts & Reflections – RSS & Newsreaders

lindsayrichards — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 21:25:12 +0000

Using RSS feed readers are the best way to keep up with your favourite web pages, all at the same time and in the same place. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It is a type of code that you use a newsreader or feed reader to read. Whenever a web site of blog for example is updated the RSS information is updated. You can keep track of as many websites you want and be updated anytime their web site changes and has new content added. Newsreaders are also handy as you can access all of your favourite feeds from any web browser. You can also change the amount of information displayed. So for the news feeds you can choose just to see the headlines, so you can browse through depending on your preference.

I made a Bloglines account to add RSS feeds to. I really like this website. You can organize your feeds into folders, and name the folders anything you like. You can even rename the name of the feed. It is really easy to add the feeds to Bloglines as well. It allows you to choose whether to make the feeds private or public and also allows you to place it in the appropriate folder while saving the feed to your reader. Also with Bloglines you can keep an item new when you want to go back to see that item in a particular feed. You can also post the article to your blog. It allows you to search up to a year of new items on a web site you are subscribing to the changes to.

http://www.netvibes.com/lindsaythelibrarian#Front_Page

I also use Netvibes as my personal homepage that also has some RSS feeds and a newsreader built in. You can add widgets to the page, games, the weather, news feeds, and a lot of other applications. This is a completely customizable web page that you can add anything too. I like the ability to add tabs and even change the little icon associated with that tab.

Posted in 23 Things, SDL Tagged: blogs, Newsreaders, RSS, SLA23Things

Blog Learning Documentation

lindsayrichards — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:22:43 +0000

So today I decided to play around with my blog and see what I could learn. First I decided to learn about the design of the blog. Themes was the first place I went to see what I could change. When I clicked the themes button, it shows I can change the look and feel of the blog. I have changed it to the “Thirteen”by Becca Wei theme, which has a 2 column set up, with a neat floral motif. It states that I can change it with CSS and add widgets and extras if I want. I really like how the blog looks now, as it makes it unique and different from the standard blog.

The next option for design is widgets. I looked widgets up in wikipedia, and they are like tools that you can add to your blog to do different things. These widgets are really neat, they add functionality to my blog. I can change where they appear in the sidebar and different options about the widget itself. I added a number of different widgets which I will describe.

Recent Posts: This widget allows the sidebar to show which posts I have written most recently. I can change how many posts are shown, up to 15 posts. I can also change the title from Recent posts to something else.

Pages: This shows the main pages of my blog. So far I only have one additional page for my blog which is the About/Purpose page which discusses the purpose of this blog. I can change the title of this widget, how the pages are sorted and I can exclude certain pages. This widget has given me the idea that I could make a page later that explains how to use my blog.

Archives: The archives widget shows the past posts to my blog that I have made by months. I can choose to show the post counts for each month or hide this information or I can choose to hide them. I can also show the months as a list or a drop down menu. I opted for the drop down menu and to show the post counts.

Delicious: The delicious widget allows for a direct link to my delicious account. It shows the five most recent bookmarks I have saved to my delicious account. I can also choose to show only bookmarks from my delicious that have been tagged with specific tags.

Calendar: The calendar widget displays a calendar that highlights the days of the month that posts to my blog have occured.

Search: The search tool adds a search box to my blog that can be used to search for specific terms within my blog posts.

Meta: The meta widget displays my user interface, such as the login/logout option, site admin which brings me to my dashboard where I make blog posts and changes to my blog, a link to the RSS feed of my site, a link to the RSS feed of comments made to my blog, as well as a link to WordPress.org the website.

I really enjoyed playing with these options for my blog. I learnt a lot about the functionality and purpose of these tools. I look forward to possibly adding more in the future.

Posted in SDL Tagged: blogs