Week - 24 The Dark Side of the Web

I felt quite ill when I read about Malware and phishing scams!! I'm sure I have some sort of corrupt virus on my Laptop at home! Suddenly my Laptop simply stops working if I have left it idle for more than 15mins. Has behaved like this previously so I am very suspicious about it. I have also received phone calls on my Landline telling me I have a virus on my computer and 'they' can assist! I wonder if I really do have one and how do 'they' know if I do!
The Internet and all the 2.1 tools that are part of our lives are all so so exciting and mostly alot of fun and very useful. The one dark side is that there are people out there ready, willing and capable of disrupting and damaging innocent lives by corrupting the very device that has us all sharing and caring around the world!

Week 23 - Mashups Revisited

I've enjoyed looking at some of the newish Mashups as part of Week 23. The news Mashup was one I liked. I guess because the others were mostly US based I didn't really get into them. The one I use most often though is from 2.0 - Google Maps. It's just so good for finding your way to somewhere you are unfamiliar with! Also good for highlighting the location of your library. Has actual photos of particular building at a particular address so have a visual idea of what building you are looking for - as long as it's up to date.
I haven't actually played with Mashups or made my own but appreciate the value of many of them.

Week 22 - Instant Communication

Now this is an area I use more often than some of the other 2.1 technologies. I have been using Skype for about a year now mostly to chat to my daughters. It's wonderful. When I am using my pc I receive a message to alert me to them being online. I can then decide whether to give them a call or not. Same as with using Facebook. It alerts me to people online at the same time. I often have a chat to sometimes 2 or more people.


As far as using these tools for work. I can see that Twitter could be very useful in marketing library events or simply by commenting on current events/seminars.
Skype though would be awesome for Author talks in the library especially for libraries in country areas. Authors talks/discussions could be organised more often in future via Skype saving travel expenses.

Week 20 - Event Management

I have created an event on Google calendar. I have also set up an account with Doodle and created a Poll with Doodle. Both were very easy to set up and schedule an event. I'm keen to hear back from those people I included in my event!

Week 19 - Productivity - More ways with RSS feeds

Previously in 2.0 I had subscribed to a number of Radio National RSS feeds. It's something I did especially for 2.0 however I haven't gone any further with it. I'm interested in RSS to Twitter particularly on a mobile phone. I think this would be alot more accessible. Currently I find logging into sites time consuming.

Week 18 - Slideshows, screencasting & digital story telling

This is fantastic! So many opportunities here. For those of us who cannot always attend library seminars then this is the next best thing - without the travel costs! I really like the whole concept of people sharing their Power Point/slide presentations. It's also a convenient way of training all staff or allowing all staff the opportunity to view presentations at a time suitable to the workplace and where the costs of staff attending some seminars is prohibited. Lots of potential.

Week 17 - Nings

I have joined library 2.0 ning and was pleased to find some 'friends' who were already members. I haven't included a photo of myself as yet but intend to do so. The alternative to Nings was quite overwhelming! There is just so many choices and information about the alternatives that I barely scrapped the surface. Including Nings on a webpage probably gives it a 'family' album type look and a feeling of belonging to those who have joined. I recently viewed a Facebook page of my up and coming school reunion and there were hundreds of Nings to have a peek at.