My thoughts on 23 Things

Wow this has been a lot more work than I expected! I am so glad there were five of us in the team - for anyone thinking about it, don't even consider running this programme on your own!
It was great how we [in the 23 Things Team] could each play to our strengths by being responsible for weeks/themes which were of particular interest. I learned from the Things too - Delicious was the big one for me, as I had long heard about it but for some reason hadn't quite got around to using it - now I have hundreds of links tagged on there.

I hope all the participants have had their comfort zones extended and feel more confident when tackling web things that are new to them. If this programme has achieved that, then I think we did a good job!  And if some of these tools are now being used in libraries as a result, that's a bonus.

Using a widget to put my Delicious bookmarks on my iGoogle page

Done and done!

I love how all these sites can interact with each other and make it easy for me to reach the content I've been creating.

Using a Blogger gadget

Yep, it's there on my home page!

ThinkFree Office

I had a go with ThinkFree Office: I logged in with my Google ID and uploaded a document so I could refer to it and edit it from any computer with internet access.
Unfortunately, something went wrong when I then tried to open the uploaded document, and ThinkFree Office suggested I begin again.  No time to do this now, but I'm already a happy user of Google Documents and it's nice to know there are other alternatives to explore.

Google Documents

When doing the preparation for the 23 Things programme, I (as part of the 23 Things team) used Google Documents for online collaboration.


Did you read the summary post on the main blog (http://23thingsoxford.blogspot.com/2009/12/23-things-summary.html)? The link "You may view and print a summary of the programme here" takes you to a Google Document which you can view and print, but not edit.

Wikipedia

I sometimes use Wikipedia as a starting point for finding out about something new.  If my topic is a serious one, I might follow the references to find good sources to explore further, or I might just use the Wikipedia article to give myself an overview before doing more research using resources with more authority control.


If I am trying to find out about something very recent, or an aspect of popular culture, Wikipedia is a good place to start: recent topics are edited frequently and pop culture topics are well represented.


I would not choose Wikipedia as a reference source, though, as the content is very dynamic and it can be hard to tell an editor's credentials.

Wikis

I am a member of the Oxford web 2.0 wiki at http://socialouls.wetpaint.com.  My OxfordStaffDev blog is listed under the section about blogs.


I think wikis can be a good way of capturing institutional knowledge - you can also make wikis private (accessible only to certain people) and use them to share information and work collaboratively.

Twitter hashtags

I have set up a saved search for #ox23 so I can see all the tweets that contain the #ox23 hashtag, even if I don't follow those people.  If lots of people post tweets using this hashtag, we might trend (this means having a peak of popularity and being listed under Twitter's Trending Topics).

Twitter

You can find me on Twitter as @laurajwilkinson


Here's a useful tool for finding new people to follow: http://twiangulate.com/
Enter the Twitter IDs of two or three people and find out who they follow in common

LinkedIn

I am on LinkedIn ID as Laura J. Wilkinson and I'm looking forward to making some more work-related connections this week.


I must remember to update my employment details this week as I am starting a new job next Monday!


I use my Facebook presence for friends and family, and Twitter and LinkedIn for professional connections.  This helps me make a clear distinction about the type of information I want to share with these different groups of people.

Facebook and Libraries

I like how libraries can use Fan pages on Facebook to connect with their readers: some of the content may be duplicated from the library's web page, but it's much easier to add multimedia, social interaction and announcements on a Fan page than a static website.


My ideal Fan page would include basic information about the library, how to get in touch, where to find the library, and frequent updates about changes, new items, the library staff and special events.

YouTube

My experience of YouTube to date has mostly consisted of the Monty Python channel, and library-related videos that I've found via other people's blogs.


I started to explore the site further and found a concise animation showing ionic and covalent bonding - a hard concept to explain, so great to see it demonstrated.  Reactions of alkali metals in water is also fun to watch!


Perhaps I began to stray too far into chemistry, so I began to look for library-related videos instead, e.g.
Michael Stephens on Using Twitter in Libraries
and lots of content about information literacy.  


In my current role, I don't use YouTube for work purposes, but I can see how libraries could identify useful videos (e.g. doing citations, how to use self-issue, navigating the library catalogue) and flag them up on their Delicious page for their users.

Podcasts

I have long been a fan of BBC Radio 4's Friday Night Comedy podcast, and this Thing has prompted me to explore pastures new, so I will now also be listening to Woman's Hour and The Moth - a storytelling podcast.

Expanding my Delicious network

I've added some more individuals and some libraries to my Delicious network.  I'm particularly interested to see how other libraries use tags to segment their bookmarks for their users.

Delicious

My Delicious ID is laura_wilkinson


I have been meaning to start using Delicious for years and I'm glad I'm finally getting around to it! I built up almost 100 bookmarks very quickly by adding my starred items from Google Reader, bookmarks from my work web browser and favourites from Twitter.


I have tagged some of my Web 2.0 bookmarks with “ox23” tag so that other members of the programme can find them.  I also use tags to identify bookmarks that I use for work, and bookmarks relating to crafting.

iPhone apps

I enjoyed reading JoAnne's iPhone app recommendations and thought I'd post a few of my own:


Tweetie - for Twitter
Facebook
Google - I use it for accessing Gmail and Google Reader mainly
Bump - for transferring contacts and photos with other iPhone users
Mobile Oxford - the University of Oxford app
Battery - tells me how much power remains for music playback / talk time / wifi use
London Bus - for finding out which bus to catch when travelling in London
iXpenseIt - for keeping track of your expenses.  You can log your expenditures, export the data as a .csv file and then import it into Excel 
German Tutor - I'm all set for my trip to Berlin next week


HarborMaster - best 59p I've ever spent
Sudoku
SolFree - various different versions of the solitaire card game
Font Game - this is genius.  Perfect for font nerds like me.  Current high score 23/25.

Photos

Here are some photos from this week's adventures with Flickr and Picnik

A collage of Staff Library images:

And just for fun, a baby quilt I made:

Scrabble bedspread: 

Picnik

I went to the Picnik site, connected to my Flickr account and had a play around with the features which allow me to make collages and edit my photos.


I made a collage of some Staff Library photos, and changed the background colour.  I also added a frame to one of my crafting photos.  You can see the results in my Flickr photostream.


I enjoyed using Picnik - it's a fun and easy way to change the presentation of your photos and I can see how this could be used to liven up illustrations in a newsletter or on a website.  I'm quite tempted to subscribe to the Premium version which  has even more options! 


Some more sites I've discovered:
Roundpic - making round edges on images
Pixenate - editing and touching up images

Flickr

My Flickr screen name is Laura J. Wilkinson


I've added some photos of the OULS Staff Library and tagged them with "ox23".  I have given these a Creative Commons attribution licence.


I've also added some pictures of crafty things I have made, and these have attribution share alike licences. Find out more about Creative Commons licences.

RSS feeds

I love Google Reader - I've been using it for a few years now.  Every so often I change the feeds I subscribe to, and currently have 47.

Some work-related recommendations:

Mashable! and BoingBoing - for finding out what's new on the internet

OxfordTrainees - find out what the graduate trainees are doing

Stephen's Lighthouse - Stephen Abram, Vice President of Innovation at SirsiDynix

The Google Blog - what's new at Google

Swiss Army Librarian - Brian Herzog (I particularly like his focus on library service)

And some for fun:

The CRAFT blog, Post Secret, XKCD

Registering for 23 Things

I registered for 23 Things Oxford 2010 by completing the form at http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGRJTjJwR09STkhSd3hLQ0dTcy1NbXc6MA

My thoughts on blogs:

I currently follow 47 blogs via RSS (more on RSS next week) and it's the best way for me to keep up-to-date with life.  I have different types of blogs that I follow: most are work/library-related, and some are relevant to my leisure interests.

As a blogger, I find it a useful tool for communicating with my audience.  It is very quick and easy to update a blog, and you can add interest by including photos, videos and links to other sites.

Welcome to my blog!

Welcome to my blog where I will be reporting my 23 Things progress.  This is the first time I have used Blogger.  I use Wordpress for my OxfordStaffDev blog.  I like the simple interface in Blogger, but the advanced features of Wordpress are an advantage once you are no longer a novice user.

Getting started - Google ID

I am so excited that 23 Things has begun!  I have already used many of the resources that will be included, but not all of them, and I'm particularly looking forward to playing with images in Flickr.

My iGoogle page looks like this:

I have chosen the Japanese tea garden theme, because I like how it changes during the day.

The gadgets I have chosen include the following:

- Google Reader - so I can see if I have any RSS feeds to read

- Weather (it is cold and snowy at the moment!)

- Guardian news headlines

- Wikipedia search box, To Do list and a thought for the day

I have another tab on iGoogle for all things Twitter - here I use BeTwittered to access my Twitter account and I have a saved search for #web2

Other start pages I've used include Netvibes and Pageflakes, but I've stuck with iGoogle because I use my Google ID for so many things.