The Twitter Phenomenon

I just can not see the point of Twittering. The CPL Twitter sites have the same information as the home page, although I suppose nobody can "Tweet" back to the home page. I can see the benefits of the other applications we have looked at but I just do not understand why anyone would want to spend time Twittering. I looked at some of the feeds on the Twitter home page and thought how boring some people's lives must be if they can't find more interesting things to do and think about. I expect it is possible to argue about the immediacy of it and its universal nature but how accurate is it? I gather someone said on Twitter that Gordon Lightfoot had died and everyone believed it until Gordon Lightfoot managed to prove he was still alive. I have to confess that I am never going to Twitter.

Practical applications of Library Thing

It is probably a good thing that I never looked at Library Thing before, although I had heard of it, because it is so addictive. I could easily spend all day going from one recommendation to another and placing holds. I will definitely start using this site but I will need to exercise iron self-control!! I think it will be a very useful site to use to answer customer requests (from adults and children) for new recommendations. It is so easy to look up a title previously read and enjoyed and find a whole cloud of tags to use to find new suggestions. I keep a list of books at home which I have read and enjoyed but the order is random and not by topic, so now I will keep that list on Library Thing and be able to use it at work to make suggestions to customers.

Thank you for introducing me to this wonderful site.

Using on-line tools versus traditional methods.

I have been using Google Calendar for a year or two and find it a good way of keeping track of my life. I like the fact that I can add Canadian holidays and Calgary weather to the calendar. Changes are really easy to make and events that repeat only need to be entered once. I tried the Yahoo calendar too but it seems to be less flexible. The Google Calendar will continue to be my favourite of these tools.
I have never used Google documents before but think it has great potential especially since it is free. It makes it possible to access and edit documents etc. anywhere there is a computer available. MS Office may find itself obsolete. Why pay for something available free on Google? If I had known about it last time I bought a computer I wouldn't have paid for MS Word and Excel!

Flickr and YouTube

Flickr is a useful site because of the ability to share photos with family members and friends in far flung places. There are many fascinating photos and some rather wierd ones. (Why would someone include at least 20 photos of the same thing?) Most of the photos I looked at are well done and I like the ability to tie photos to a particular place on a map.

YouTube I have used a number of times for performances of music I need to learn and haven't been able to find elsewhere. The quality of the videos is sometimes a little fuzzy but the sound in the ones I have used is very good and the quality of the performers is excellent. There are some extremely good videos on practical subjects - how to repair a flat bicycle tire, for instance. I know I will use YouTube again but I'm not so sure about Flickr - I think I'll stay with Picasa for my photos.

RSS

I have often seen RSS on web pages but never been curious enough to investigate it. I will be looking for it in future. I succeeded in setting up an account and a feed. It was all very easy. I added the feed using the second method without trying the first suggestion. I'm not sure how useful or convenient it will be since it just increases the number of sites I regularly check! It could result in information overload!

Seal Sanctuary in California

Posting this photo was an experiment using Picasa. I teach Photoshop and find that Picasa does all the things Photoshop does, is free, and easily and quickly permits posts to Blogs. It is possible to edit photos, create albums, collages, desktop pictures and share photos. A new feature is finding all the Picasa photos of a person, collecting them together and making it possible to name them once instead of each time the photo occurs. I could also create a slide show of my photos. I don't think there is anything to dislike about Picasa. I really like it and would certainly recommend it to friends. I looked at some of the other Google products and got sidetracked for a while with Funny Cat Pictures, considered downloading Google Chrome to my computer and experimented with Google Earth. I typed my husband's name in Google Scholar and found a number of his published papers! I also use Google calendar to keep track of my schedule and receive an e-mail each day to remind me. Google does amazing things.

Facebook comments

There are a number of reasons why social networking sites are popular. It's an easy way to track down and stay in touch with friends and the chat feature of Facebook is especially useful because it makes conversation with faraway friends cheaper. Being able to see photos of friends and their activities adds to one's enjoyment. People need somewhere to belong, especially if they are far from family and friends, and belonging to a Facebook group provides an instant family which can include real family members. Posting a brief message on someone's wall is also quicker than using e-mail. The downside is that it's possible to become so absorbed with using Facebook and playing games and looking for friends that face to face interaction with others is neglected.