Thing 46: WebJunction Minnesota

I really liked the courses they have and I even signed up for one in Excel just as a refresher and overall the courses seem to be really easy to use and helpful. Also, It has helpful links for reference and information on library technology. In all there is a lot of information on WebJunction MN and a lot of helpful courses and links. What I also liked was the discussion forum and how it is a great way to interact with people throughout Minnesota. In all I thought WebJunction was a great resource to have and be apart of.

Thing 45: Cloud Computing

The idea of cloud computing is really a great one. I really like the idea of WebOS; being able to access your information from any computer would be wonderful. Then I can stop transforming items via USB stick from one computer to another. I found Glide to be an interesting service; mainly because you can add more than one computer to the service. I also looked into Data backups which I find interesting. I have an external hard drive which I back up to and I remember during the flood thinking maybe I need to put this up higher in our house. Thankfully the water didn't get as high and my external hard drive was fine. However, I can understand the need for data backup onto the Internet. The only problem I could see is security and how reliable is the program. In all cloud computing is really is an important tool and one I think we will use more of in the coming years.

Thing 44: The Economy

The More things I do the more I realize that I really like the Common Craft Show videos found on each thing. There was a lot to look at and use. I really like MyMoney.gov which I will have to take a look at later. I thought the Banking 2.0 sites were interesting and the only problem that I can see with them is how secure they are. I found Feed the Pig to be interesting/creepy (that pig is scary) with a lot of helpful hints. The Site on raising your own chickens was interesting and it did raise and good debate on the merits and the fun of chickens. Finally, I liked the site GasBuddy were I felt vindicated that I already buy the cheapest gas in the the area. I hop to use these sites again but I really feel that this is a good list for patrons to look at and explore.

Thing 43: Online TV and Video

I have used Hulu before and I watch The Office on Hulu every week because the streaming is better through this site then on the NBC website. I really like being able to watch shows online because it really frees up your schedule and you don't feel tied to the TV. I also like how on Hulu the commercials change because watching the same commercial over and over gets really annoying. I feel that watching free videos helps shows because if you miss an episode you can watch it before the show comes on again. Also, I really like how the Office combines both TV and Internet. They have video clips and out takes that you can watch online plus the show on TV. So, in the best worlds both TV and Internet combine to create great entertainment.

Thing 42: Music 2.0

I really liked this thing and tried almost everything in it. I really like Pandora and found creating Stations to be a lot of fun. There was a few times when Pandora did not now an artist or song that I wanted to add. Also, I wish you could input albums as well as artist just because I love soundtracks. I found some new music to listen to and it was really fun to input a favorite artist and realize that you know all the following songs as well. I did liked that you could search other people's shared stations. I also liked how you can email a station that you made to someone else. I also tried listing to some other radio stations through Reciva.com. I feel that internet radio and Pandora are great programs for music lovers because if you are interested in a certain genre you can listen to a few artists to see who you like. And if you are like me; a person who like Japanese Anime songs; you can find stations to listen to on internet raido and through Pandora when there isn't a station in my area to listen to.

Thing 41: Mashup Your Life

I tried Lifestream.fm and Friendfeed and both were interesting sites but I don't really know when I will ever use these features. Also, it seems to just add to the several social networking sites I use. However, some of the other sites seem to put everything together into one site which may add time in that you only have to go to one site to view all your social networks that you belong to. However, there are many features that are unique to facebook and twitter that I think in some ways you loose out in how these originally sites are set up. So, in some way these services make your life easier but in the end I don't think I will use any of them. But it is good to know about them.

Thing 40: Mashup the Web

I really liked the video that explained Mashups. I think Mashups a really fun to play around with but I don't know how I would use it in everyday life. I think that there is a lot of great possibility within Mashups and if I new how to create one I think it could be great for a website. I looked at the website Dapper which seemed really interesting and useful. I like the idea of making mashup to help our patrons. I tried some of the Mashups and some worked and others didn't. I did make a few Phreetings; the links are shown below. In all I find Mashups to be an interesting aspect and I wish I new how to intergrate it within our library.
http://phreetings.com/q6d1pl46

Thing 39: Digital Storytelling

I tried both Scrapblog and Smilebox. I liked both programs but found Smilebox easier to use and less complicated. Smilebox, I feel, is used by the layman Scrapbooker. What I mean by this is that it was really easy to manipulate the pictures and though you could change how many pictures you want in each frame; you couldn't change much else like changing the layout of the pictures or how the background looks. Within Scrapblog though you could change anything in the layout. If there was a background picture you didn't like you could erase it. You can change the location and size of any picture or even add pictures or clip art. Also, if you didn't like the background you could change it. These is just so much more to manipulate or change with Scrapblog. I think this would be a fun to use. What I liked about Scrapblog is there was no downloads and it saves your finished blogs. So, you can retrieve information from any computer. Also, in Scrapblog you can input pictures easily from Facebook or Flickr while in Smilebox they only have you upload pictures from your computer. I feel people would really like using these programs and we would have a lot of turn out if we taught a computer class on them. I don't know if I would use this program myself but in all it was really fun and easy to use.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Thing 38: Screencasting

Screencasting is a really helpful tool to use; especially for computer classes and websites. I tried ScreenToaster but I could never get an end result. However, I really liked the setup on Jing. The tutorial showed that it was really easy to use and there seems to be a lot of different features to use. However, even though I downloaded Jing and even tried Skitch I couldn't get either program to work. Mainly because I needed to be the administrator on the computer that I am using. So, I really couldn't create a Screencasting; however I feel like this would be a great tool to have.

Mosaickr

This is in relation to Thing 36. Here is my Mosaic I created using Mosaickr which was a lot of fun. The real photo is shown below.

Thing 37: Photo Tales

I tried FlickrSlidr because I have sets already created in Flickr but I could never get the pictures to show up. I don’t think I was putting in the right URL. The same happened to Slidoo; I really don’t know what I am doing wrong but it just doesn’t seem to work for me. Oh, well on to something else. I tried Mosaickr which was really interesting but I had to wait for the finished product. What I really like about Mosaickr is that it allowed me to choose what pictures went within the Mosaic however; the original picture that I use was one that I took from Kyoto, Japan. So I used only my pictures from there and other Flickr pictures that were tagged Kyoto. Finally, I signed up on a sight called Animoto. What I liked about this site is that it could retrieve photo from other sites like facebook because I don’t have any photos on my desktop where I am doing More Things On a Stick. I made a short video using my pictures from Kyoto and the featuring the music The Entertainer. The finished video is no on my blog and it is really kick ass. In all I found this Thing to be a lot of fun but I don't know if I would ever use this in the library. Finally, I will put my finished Mosaic on my blog once it is done. Hopefully sometime this year.

Kyoto Photo Video

This is in relation to Thing 37

Thing 36: Comic Relief: Generate Some Fun

I tried the password generator but I have a problem with generated passwords because I can never remember them. So then I have to write them down the password and hope I don't lose it because if I do I will never remember what it was. So, I will stick to the passwords I have and hope. Well, I have to talk about the problem we keep running into with this thing. Whenever we use any of the Illusion/Images links a worm gets onto our computers. So, don't try any of the Illusion/Images links because they cause problems. On that note I will end Thing 36 with a caution to be careful what sites you go on and not everything online is safe.

Thing 35: Book 2.0

I find the discussion on web reading to be very interesting and really
enjoyed reading the article "The Future of Reading: Literacy Debate:
Online, R U Really Reading?" by Motoko Rich.  I feel that online reading
is like all things; good in moderation.  I feel the article
made some valid points about online reading and the problems it may cause. 
I especially liked their discussion on fanfiction.net and how reading it by
itself (though fun) will not help your child gain all the reading skills they need
but doing a variety of reading will be must more helpful.
I also tried Twitterlit which serviced me the literary teaser of "Ok, I lied." 
which I don't know what book it came from (I have labeled the answer to this
question).  I don't think I will now many of the answers to Twitterlit questioning
put if I only get one right I will feel like I am total awesome.  I looked at
ReadingTrails and thought it a fun site to get lost in and I would find way too
many books that I want or need to read.   I found Swaptree to be very interesting
and if I had more time I will even investigate it more.  I also liked many of the
readers advisory sites and hope to pass them on to patrons.  In all there was so
many interesting sites to look at that I will be spending some of my free
time looking more closely through them.

Thing 34: Is this Our Competition? Online Answer Sites

I don't really feel like Answer Sites are our competition and that with the advancing Internet age people will still be using the library. Ultimately, the questions we are getting asked have changed. People seem to want to find their own answers to questions and answer sites allow them to do that. I also feel like it gives people a feeling of safety especially if they feel embarrassed about the question they are asking. Sometimes I even use Answers Sites to answer patrons questions. The only real problem I have with these site is a validity of the answers. Now for some questions the answer is fairly simple and I feel like I can trust people's answers. However, sometimes you get strange answers to questions and that I really think is the problem with Answer Sites. Also, I took a look at the Slam the Boards Wiki and some of the questions that where asks seemed silly.