My 23 Things Wrap-Up!

Well, I have to say that this 23 Things exercise was quite entertaining. While I was familiar with a lot of the items on the “things” list, I enjoyed seeking out new ways to use them that I might not have otherwise. I also had fun thinking of new titles for my posts based on my two chosen musicals.

And, in keeping with my song theme, and as a way to wrap-up all of my posts, I thought I would write my own take on “My Favorite Things” – enjoy!

Dropbox for storage and Podcasts to listen

Bloggers and Twitter, use RSS with them,

Wikis and Reading – all Web 2.0 brings,

These are a few of my 23 Things!

* Note: I actually ended up using the IPL’s 15 Things instead – which were a little more open-ended – but I decided to keep it as “23 things” for the purpose of rhythm. 

How Do You Solve a Problem Like My Storage? (IPL Thing #11: Information/Document Sharing)

There are so many different tools on the web today to manage collaboration and storage. It’s almost mind boggling. I remember when I first started using computers, hard drives were just a few megabytes, and the most you could store was what you could put on a floppy (1.4 MB). Now, I can send extremely large files through the web and have a central place to upload them.

I’ve been using the service Dropbox (http://db.tt/oTi8cc0) for quite a while now. This service is absolutely free and gives me 2 GB of data to sync across multiple computers and the web. This is perfect for juggling all of my different school projects without having to e-mail it to myself or worry about uploading it anywhere. Since I do work on my desktop, laptop, and sometimes on my iPhone, it just automatically syncs. It’s really great!

There is a lot that I can do with Dropbox that I haven’t been doing, so I decided to explore a little bit more. First, Dropbox has public and private folders. The private folders are only accessible on the computers that I specifically authorize and these would be where I store things like my school documents and other personal items. Dropbox also has public folders, though, and this is a place where I can put anything and share it with anyone, as long as they have the specific URL. They do not need to have anything installed on their computer! So for instance, if I want to share a document with some other people, all I have to do is put it somewhere in the “Public” folder. Once it is copied, I can right-click on it and select “Copy Public Link”. This will generate a URL that I can share with anyone else to see the file. And, they can only see that specific file, not necessarily all of the other content in the Public folder.

I also found out that there is a “Photos” folder as well. At first I just thought this was a place to put photos, but there’s more that you can do with it, too. Any pictures or subfolders you put in there automatically create an album. Then, if you go to a specific URL while logged into your dropbox, you can easily view these pictures as If they were a webpage. If you want to share the gallery with your friends, Dropbox generates a special link where you can share the specific album with other people. This is great for sharing photos to send to a lot of people, especially if they are not active on other sites like Facebook and Flickr. Personally, I still prefer uploading my pictures to a place like Facebook just because I know the exact security settings, but this wouldn’t be such a bad place for general photos.

Also, while poking around, I noticed that I can see the version history of all my files. Take for instance my “Research Paper Proposal” for this class. I worked on that on both my laptop and my desktop at different times. If I right click and select “Previous Version History” I can see when the file was last updated and on which computers, too. Not only that, but I can view what these previous versions looked like and restore back to a previous file if I accidentally made a mistake. This feature alone makes this the ideal choice for storing my school documents. No one wants to have to rewrite a paper.

One final thing that I discovered is that I can “share” folders, too. This is different than the public folder, where anyone can access specific files as long as they have the url. Sharing folders allows me to share multiple files with anyone I wish, but only with the people that I want. For instance, if I share it with 3 friends, only those 3 friends can access it. It’s not like a public URL that anyone can access it as long as they know it. The people that I share it with can also add or modify the contents of this folder if they’d like. This would be great for school projects where people are uploading, changing, and sharing files a lot – it also makes things like e-mail much less cumbersome.

I think of all the Web 2.0 tools, however, Dropbox is the one that I'd want to exercise the most caution with when using in libraries. I think Dropbox works best for individuals and for specific groups. I think it could be not as effective if you're dealing with a large crowd. I can see this as a great tool for librarians to share information and data with each other, but might not be as good for librarians to share data with patrons.

Overall, there are some pretty neat things that you can do with Dropbox, and I’m still exploring. I like how it’s very simple and easy to set-up, but has a lot of more complex features if you want them. This is a great compromise between cloud storage and local storage. 

Read (to) the Birds – Tuppence a Bag! (IPL Thing #13: Reading)

I’m a huge fan of books – which probably helps to explain how I ended up on my career path. I’m glad to see that in this day and age books still are alive and well. We can even harness the power of the internet to decide what books we want to read and discover other books. There’s a site I’ve been a member of for sometime that lets you catalogue your books – Goodreads (http://www.goodreads.com) – but I’ve never really played around with it much. Apparently, they’ve added some new features in the last year, so I decided to explore.

First things first, I noticed that Goodreads now has challenges. I remember a while ago I saw a lot of book blogs running custom challenges, but it seemed so cumbersome and hard to keep up. Goodreads is actually running a Jane Eyre challenge. To complete the challenge, you read the book and watch the movie. You can also do other things like participate in a discussion, pick your favorite quotes, and interact with other people reading the book and see how far along they are. Plus, if you do all these things, you have the chance to win some pretty interesting prizes, like a Kindle. All of the blog-run challenges I had seen before didn’t really have any prizes they could give away (since they were run by individuals), so this makes it more interesting. Also, I see that they are cleverly tying in companies like Fandango to this. Plus, it’s general promotion for the movie. All in all, this is a clever way to promote reading and make everyone happy.

Another new thing I’ve noticed is that Goodreads allows you to select ereaders. You can tell it which devices you own and you can also learn more about the device, including what other people have said and what formats it supports. If you own a device you can rate it and write a review for it. I can also see which of my friends – if any – own the device as well. I’m glad to see that Goodreads is embracing ereaders, because I do think they will become even more popular as the years go on. Speaking of ebooks, there is also a section on Goodreads where I can view popular ebooks and even download them for free. This is a good way to find content for reading, although I really don’t need to as I have plenty of books on my backlog already.

Another new feature Goodreads has is “book talks”. I can see topic postings for the books that I have added to my library and even participate in some discussions, if I’m feeling up to it. I have the book “Twilight” in my library, and there seem to be quite a lot of discussions about that. Goodreads also has groups, which aren’t necessarily based on one particular book, but many books. For instance, I belong to a “Florida Beach Bums” group which focuses on good books to read for the beach (i.e. light, fluffy, not too complex). I can see the discussions that are currently going on in this group, and which books the group is reading (if any).

Overall, I think Goodreads is definitely a solid website that compliments but does not replace the act of reading. I’m glad to see them embracing social technology and consistently adding new features. I’ll definitely keep a better eye on the site to see where else it goes. I also think this is great for librarians because it gives them a place to keep current on books, find more books to recommend based on what they already know, and discuss with others about books as well. Plus, with the addition of the ereaders and ebooks, librarians have a resource to go to to learn more about these technologies, if they wish.

I’d also like to add that while poking around for reading sites, I found a community book club on livejournal that picks a book and has weekly discussions over a 6-week period. I think I might actually follow this and participate to see how it goes. I like the idea of reading a book a chunk at a time instead of all at once.

Wikipedifragilisticexpialidocious (IPL Thing #4: Wikis)

(Edit: This post was originally titled "Chim, Chim, Cher-ee, Wick, Wick, Wiki", but I thought it didn't quite flow)


Wiki is such a fun word to say, and if said over and over, it sounds a lot like a record scratching. Wikis, essentially collaborative encyclopedias, are great. The most popular wiki, Wikipedia, I’ve used quite often. However, outside of reading it when it shows up on my Google searches, I haven’t really explored Wikipedia or any of the other wiki sites much. So, I decided to change that.

First, I wanted to see what other specialized wiki sites I could find. There is actually a website called Wikia that hosts a lot of different specialized wikis and it makes it very easy to find them. While browsing in the Entertainment category, I found a wiki devoted exclusively to one of my favorite shows – Glee (http://glee.wikia.com/wiki/Glee_TV_Show_Wiki). Compared to Wikipedia, the Glee Wiki has much more information about characters and other aspects of the show. One thing I really like, that Wikipedia does not have at all, is an extensive write-up about the character’s relationships to each other, so I can easily see the rise and fall of a couple on the show that I follow. I like the idea of a specialized wiki, because while this information would be considered to extraneous for a general encyclopedia like Wikipedia, it’s perfect here because fans of the show want this much information.

Another cool specialized wiki site I found is called StrategyWiki (http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Main_Page). I’m a big fan of video games, although they seem to be getting harder, longer, and more complicated as technology becomes more advanced. StrategyWiki, as the website says, is “a collaborative and freely-licensed wiki for all your video game strategy guide and walkthrough needs! The guides here can be edited by anyone.” To me, this is a great example of how Web 2.0 is improving on Web 1.0 technology. There’s another gaming site I used to frequent called GameFAQs, which also contained strategy guides for various games. The downside, however, is that they could only be published by one or two people. There was no central repository where anyone could edit. So, the downside was that you’d have a lot of people start a guide, but not necessarily be able to finish or edit it because of various factors. StrategyWiki allows multiple people to collaborate on one guide, so that if one person has to drop out, the whole project is not ruined.


I found a sandbox wiki and had fun playing around and making edits to that, as well. I think the idea of being able to contribute to something on the internet gives you a sense of importance. However, I think I will continue to be more "passive" when it comes to online reading - I will probably read more far than I will edit. But it's nice to know that I can be a part of something.

There are downsides to wikis, too. While they can be edited by anyone, this is also their drawback. The updates are instant, and we hope that the person making these changes is making updates that they believe to be factual. However, there is no way to check, and even if the edits are removed quickly, they can still be seen by someone else and interpreted as truth. While exploring Wikipedia, I found that I can see an entire article’s history and see what updates were made and why. The article “The King’s Speech” had over 100 edits on February 28 alone. That’s quite a lot of edits!

I think – overall – wikis are good for the internet. I can definitely see a library incorporating this, either for internal use or for everyone to see, based on what they want their patrons to know. It's also much easier to edit and maintain a wiki than it is to create a web page from scratch.


I just think it’s important to remember, especially as librarians, that while wikis are good to get a "general idea" of a topic, not everything in them can simply be interpreted as fact. We need to always make sure we check the sources and even do research outside of Wikipedia to make sure that we can give a confident answer. But wikis can be a great place to not only go to for information, but to contribute as well. In my opinion, they are one of the most valuable things to come out of Web 2.0!

Just a Spoonful of Twitter!

Ahhh… Twitter. I’m not a huge fan of this service (or micro-blogging in general), but I can’t deny its social and cultural impact. While I do not necessarily like the idea of limiting myself to 144 characters, I can see the value of it in other avenues. I have had a twitter account for quite a while, although I haven’t done a whole lot with it. I know Twitter has made some major website updates, so I decided to visit and see what has changed.

First of all, one of the parts I always found confusing about twitter was following tweets, retweets, and their origins. Even though they might use the @ symbol to designate who the tweet is in reference to, it can be difficult to figure out the initial context. For instance, if one of my friends posted a tweet that said, “@joe123 I agree and I think it’s a terrible idea”.. it can be very challenging to figure out exactly what joe123 said that my friend is responding to.

But now, when I see a mysterious tweet in my feed (i.e. a list of all the people I follow), I can click on it and dissect it a lot more. This is very helpful! For example, if I were to click on the tweet I mentioned above, I could see exactly the post it was referring to. I can actually do this with any tweet – not just @’s – and I can see a variety of information regarding them. I can see who has replied to that tweet (even if they are not on my list), who has retweeted it (i.e. copied), the people/keywords mentioned (if any), the picture linked in the tweet (if applicable), and other tweets that have also mentioned the same person and/or keywords. That’s a lot of information that can originate from just 144 characters or less.

I also noticed that there are several tweets in my timeline from people I am not following. These show up because Twitter looks at the people I follow and who these people follow and retweet. For example, I follow John Hogman (also known as the “I’m a PC Guy” from the Apple Commercials). He recently retweeted a post from Jesse Thorn. Even though I am not following Jesse Thorn, this post appeared on my feed. Using the above strategy, I can explore the tweet a little more and learn more about who Jesse Thorn is and what he posts. By doing this, I was able to learn that he hosts a couple radio shows and frequently tweets about these programs. I might consider following him, but I have a hard time keeping up with the people I do follow, as it is.

Speaking of followers, Twitter has made it very easy for me to figure out who to follow – if I don’t know already. Up at the top is a link that reads “Who to follow.” If I click on this, Twitter will suggest popular people for me to follow based on who my friends follow themselves. I see a lot of celebrities on this list, and I can tell they are legitimate because they have the “Twitter verified” badge. Also, I can click on people I already follow and see who is “similar” to them. I’m not sure the algorithm used here, but it’s interesting.

All in all, I think Twitter has come a long way from when I first used it. But, I’m still have a hard time seeing a point in how to use it in my life. I don’t like the idea of being restricted to 144 characters – as an English major it encourages people to shorten or abuse words. Also, because you can post immediately, you’ll hear a lot of instances of “tweet now, think later” where people gets themselves into trouble after something they said. Remember kids, the internet is forever! I do think it has a place in libraries, although I don't think it is as quite as valuable as some of the other tools I am using. It's a good way to get a short message across that doesn't require much substance, but I do not think it should be a replacement or be the only Web 2.0 tool used in libraries.


I will still continue to follow Twitter and see the new updates, but as for now, I will admire Twitter from afar.

The Hills are Alive … with the Sound of Podcasts!

For my next thing, I’ll be talking about podcasts. Podcasts are essentially internet radio programs that you can subscribe to. A common misconception is that you need an iPod to listen to a podcast, but that’s not true. Since most podcasts are just plain old Mp3 files, they’ll work with just about anything – including your computer. Podcasts started off as just a bunch of amateur guys with recording equipment talking about something they liked. But now, podcasts have evolved so much that big names are taking notice. While I’ve listened and subscribed to podcasts, I decided to go a bit deeper and see what sort of things I could find.

My favorite way to find, download, and listen to podcasts is through iTunes. I have used other software in the past, but iTunes is so smooth, especially if you own an iDevice of any kid (iPod, iPhone, etc.) There are many different ratings and categories for the different podcasts and you can also see audio and/or video podcasts. I noticed that iTunes also has something called iTunes U, where you can listen to various lectures in college campuses in the form of a podcast. Very neat! Also, while poking around iTunes, I found this article (http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/), which pretty much tells you anything you want or need to know about how podcasting works and how to make a podcast yourself. As a technical writer, I am very impressed at how it is written.

NPR makes a lot of different podcasts that I listen to. I typically subscribe to them via iTunes, download them to my computer, and sync them to my iPhone or iPod. However, I decided to try something new and poke around on the NPR site to see what more I can do with podcasting. One thing that’s really cool is that you can mix your own podcasts (http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php). Basically, I can select key words, topics, or programs and create a hybrid or mashup of several different podcasts. As I add keywords, it creates a “live view” the most recent topics that will be in my feed. I decided to make a feed of the topics Technology, Pop Culture, and Books and called it, “Pop & Geek”. NPR gave me a convenient and personal link to put into  iTunes, so now – only the relevant articles for the topics above will pop up.  This would be great for librarians, because they could make custom feeds based on the topics that they (or the patrons) are interested in.


I could also see how libraries could create their own podcasts, too. For instance, if libraries had guest speakers come, they could record these lectures and they make them available as a podcast so everyone could see. This would require a bit more maintenance though than just mashing together a feed.

All in all, podcasting is very cool and there’s quite a lot to do with it. I really like how big sites like NBC, ABC, etc. are embracing podcasting and put out their news programs for everyone to download so you don’t necessarily have to watch it on TV. I think of all the sites I’ve seen, NPR is the most welcoming of podcasts, putting all their programs online, transcribing a good chunk of them, and allowing the user to create custom podcast feed of their choosing (as mentioned in the paragraph above).

RSS is as easy as Do-Re-Mi! (IPL Things #10: RSS)

Since my last post was about blogs, I felt that RSS (Really Simple Syndication) would be the natural progression. I am familiar with RSS, and use it quite a bit, but there’s always more you can do with it, so I thought it would be good to explore a bit more.

RSS feeds – by themselves – don’t really do much. It looks like a bunch of code. To unlock the true power of RSS, you have to put into a feed reader or some sort. My favorite reader is Google Reader, although I have used others in the past. I like Google Reader because it’s very easy to add, manage, and move around in feeds. For instance, I’m a big gadget lover, and I love keeping up on all things related to Apple. There is a good Apple blog I read called TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog. I have the TUAW feed in Google Reader, tagged as “apple”. I also read another site called iSource, which also talks about Apple products, and is also tagged as “apple”. Since both feeds have the same tag, when in Google Reader, I can just click the “apple” tag/folder and read both feeds together. The items appear in the other that they were posted, as though they were on just one blog. Also, as I scroll past each article, I don’t have to mark it as read – Google figures it out for me.

Since I had some experience with Google Reader, I decided to play with some features I normally ignore. For instance, one such feature is called “Browse for stuff”. It allows you to create a bundle of feeds – similar to what I have already been doing with my Apple feeds. In fact, I was able to easily create an Apple bundle by just dragging my apple folder into the window. The advantage to a bundle is that it is a bit more social than the tag process I described above. For instance, I can e-mail the bundle to friends, create a bundle for my website, or add a link to my website. I can also see what other bundles my friends have created, although, at the time of writing this, I didn’t see any.

Another neat feature is the “Explore” option which contains a feed called “Recommended Items”. As Google puts it, “these are items from the Internet that you might enjoy. Hit the smiley face at the bottom of items that you like -- we'll customize your list to help you discover even more stuff.” Basically, it scans my feeds and, based on what other people are reading, recommends new items that it thinks I would like. By telling it what I do and don’t like, it better customizes the feed. This would be a great way to discover new feeds – although I do admit, I have a hard time keeping up with the feeds I already have.

Also worth noting, I noticed that for the fellow classmate blogs I clicked “Follow” now appear in my Google Reader, since I share the same account. This is very handy and is a good way to keep up to date on what my classmates are doing!


All in all, Google Reader is a very powerful web-based RSS reader. I am still exploring all of the features of it. While I’m not sure how much I will use every single thing, it’s nice to see that they are really trying to bring the social aspect to the RSS feeds. Google Reader would also be great for librarians because it gives them the opportunity to keep up to date with all their feeds in one place, but also has options for exploring new feeds and seeing what other people are interested in.