Thing 14 - Technorati

I've looked in Technorati and done some keyword searches for "Learning 2.0." The results for blog posts were more interesting to me... it was neat to recognize some fellow-BCPL bloggers' names. About the blog directory, which seems to go by blog names: what kind of non-imaginative person names his or her blog "Learning 2.0?" Probably some librarians' librarian, I'd think. I went back to investigate more thoroughly, but the page was temporarily inaccessible. Couldn't see a tab for a "tags" search. Will look again later.

One thing I noticed about the searches I did through the "Popular" page (top favorited blog, top searches, top blogs) is that they're mostly about topics I barely have heard of. Though I do have a Facebook site, and that was one of the top searches. One of the top blogs, also "top favorited" (I really dislike non-verbs used as verbs), was Engadget, and the first hits there included one in Spanish and one in Turkish. I was going to write "scratch a Turk and find a Tartar" should now be "scratch a Turk and find a blogger" since they're so online now, but I see that the phrase is actually, "scratch a Russian and find a Tartar." So much for clever writing. And it's really Tatar anyway.

I went back and fiddled with my blog profile; put in my birthdate and saw that it appeared as my astrological sign. Since I'm not mired in the false beliefs of ancient Babylon, I went back in and took it out! Maybe if I'd included the year it would have shown as a simple C.E. date?

Week 6, Thing 13 - Tagging and Del.icio.us

I've just spent some time going through some of the links to for this "thing," and have explained tagging (probably not quite correctly), to a co-worker who is not participating in the 23 Things program, as, "It's subject headings, but you can make them up instead of looking in Sears List of Subject Headings." The advantage being that as everyone out there adds what they think of as appropriate tags, others see those tags and use them too, resulting in popularly created tags that make more sense to more people, and are more intuitive and easier to use, than some of the old subject headings found on heh, heh, library catalog cards, or even in today's telephone book yellow pages. Wasn't it Sandy Berman who kept trying to reform antiquated subject headings? The group (non) effort of tagging would seem to be more effective than a single voice in the library wilderness.

One writer describes tags as paving the routes people walk on, rather than making sidewalks and expecting people to walk there. We've all seen those dirt trail shortcuts across expanses of grass, and in fact I remember a geography professor many years ago pointing out that "waiting a while, and then paving where people walk" would be far more effective than pouring unused sidewalks and endlessly re-sodding the muddy paths that were a permanent feature of campus landscaping... he was right about that.

As in other goodies I've explored in this progam, my feeling is, how nifty; though perhaps more useful to those engaged in active research, blogging, etc., than I am at this time.

Oh my gosh, I had to go back and edit this post because I forgot to tag it! And Ellen had just recently sent out that message that few of us were adding tags to our posts, so I should have remembered!

"Use is second nature," as they say; I'm still not used to all this stuff. And I still don't get that silly "tagging" game that is like a digital chain letter, but I never appreciated chain letters, either.

Week 5, Thing 12 - Rolling past Rollyo

I've just gotten back to work after a brief vacation, and need to catch up with the program!

I looked around the Rollyo site, and can think of a number of situations that would make it very useful. If I were interested in a specific topic - a game, an author or celebrity, or cult movie, for example; some subject with a number of active sites that I might want to search repeatedly - it would be efficient to set up this kind of focused search tool.

One of my reciprocal reader's advisory and book-lending buddies (who was absolutely delighted when I let her know about Library Thing) does a fair amount of online reading, and would appreciate the e-books Rollyo that was shown as one of the examples in the Rollyo site, to help her find the kind of older, long-out-of-print titles she often ends up reading from a computer screen.

A teacher might also set up a Rollyo of useful sites for certain assignments to help manage the amount and quality of online information sources for younger students.

However, at this time I don't really have a need to set up a Rollyo, so I have not opened an account. There's too much else to do, both in the 23 Things program and the rest of my work life!

Vacation was great - Colorado, scotch, and haggis; can life get any better?

Week 5, Thing 11 - It's a Library Thing

I looked at LibraryThing and created an account. Cool. I could really spend some time playing with this! http://www.librarything.com/catalog/gumushlu

I added five titles from my home library, but was stymied by the various editions listed. I chose what might be closest to the books I have, but if I get serious about this, I'd have to check to see exactly what I've got. It was interesting to see that no one else had listed more than one of "my" titles, so I added a couple more (one of which I don't actually own), and did see that a few others had also listed two of my new list.

I like the links to authors' websites. Too bad most of the books I own are by dead people who are just not very digitally savvy. However, photos of 2/7 of my authors did appear, and I did know who was who in the photos.

It seems to me that the people most enthusiastic about Library Thing are probably more interested in "which edition"- type information; more librarian-y than I (though some people think I'm pretty librarian-y). The books that I own are often slightly worn "reader's copies," often "ex-lib" (now there's a real surprise!); titles that I'll want to reread and expect will not be readily available at a library - why keep something you can easily borrow? I already have a logical classification system, so don't need a new one. I already swap recommended titles and actual books with a number of people whose tastes are similar, so I'm not sure I need to find out what some stranger in Oregon likes to read just because he/ she owns several of the books I also own. But it's still fun to play with, and I've recommended it to one of my book-swapping buddies.

Week 5, Thing 10

"Remember to be tasteful," the exercise says!... well, I guess that is an important reminder, since some of the generators I've just looked at are indeed a bit... coarse. There are plenty of clean ones, too, though. I created a Simpsons avatar that was scarily like me, if yellower - probably this would be a hit with lots of folks; I have attended a fairly formal wedding where the lovely cake was decorated with Simpsons figures, and I understand that the English chalk hill figure known as the Cerne Abbas Giant (nude, brandishing a club) has recently been given a (supposedly temporary) neighbor in the form of Homer (tighty-whitied, brandishing a doughnut). Oops. Perhaps not tasteful (go ahead, you know you want to do an image search on that one!)

My favorite is the chocolate bar generator, but I still haven't been able to add my chocolate bar here. The address, though, is:

http://www.kessels.com/Downloads/choco/index.html

Week 4, Thing 9

I looked around some of the newsfeed search tools - I wonder why this selection-aid familiarization excercise comes after "subscribe to at least 10 newsfeeds?" (I sometimes seem to be a little too linear a thinker for this sort of link-cloud learning program) - and found that each was a little different. I'm sure that if I were a more digital, online-type person I would quickly latch on to a couple of favorites. I like the local-ness of Topix, but had best luck in my specific searches with Syndic8. Technorati was interesting to look at, but I'm not really into surfing strangers' blogs (yet; who knows what the future may bring?). I didn't actually subscribe to anything I found on these, because I don't find time to keep up with the feeds I already have!

I've set up a Merlin account, looked around this career resource, subscribed, and am ready to move on to the next "thing."

My posts do not seem as insightful as some of those published by people who have been using computers more, and for longer - but at least I'm continuing to learn!