CPL 2.0 and Twitter

• Armed with a bit of knowledge about what Twitter is all about, share your thoughts on this fast growing online phenomenon.

This info from the Twitter site sums it up for me:

Twitter lets you write and read messages of up to 140 characters, or the very length of this sentence, including all punctuation and spaces. The messages are public and you decide what sort of messages you want to receive—Twitter being a recipient driven information network. In addition, you can send and receive Twitter messages, or tweets, equally well from your desktop or your mobile phone.
When you combine messages that are quick to write, easy to read, public, controlled by the recipient and exchangeable anywhere, you’ve got a powerful, real-time way to communicate. And real-time communication is turning out to be ground-breaking for users and businesses alike.

CPL 2.0 and LibraryThing

Question • Do you see any practical applications for LibraryThing either at home or at work? Will you start using this site?

I love LibraryThing and have used it for the last couple of years. I belong to a book club and we've all enjoyed keeping a running list of books we've read and books we want to read. I've also loved reading and participating in reviewing titles. Be careful though, once you start using LibraryThing it can become rather addictive!

CPL 2.0 and Online Productivity Tools

Question: Do you see free online tools like these eventually replacing expensive software like MS Office?

Answer: Yes, I think it is happening already! I use Google's free online software such as Picassa, Google Calender and Google Documents exclusively and appreciate the free factor and that it is with me wherever I go!

Flickr and YouTube with CPL 2.0

Flickr and YouTube are extremely user-friendly! I've enjoyed viewing photos of Mt. Everest, Base Camp and Kathmandu in Flickr as a means to stay connected to my husband who is currently trekking in the area. I can hardly wait to see all of his pictures when he gets home! I've also used YouTube often over the last few years. This particular film of a landing strip that my Mountain Man landed on three weeks ago had me regretting I'd agreed to let him go!

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqgZvb37NX0

PS - Did you know that the world's highest Internet Cafe is at 17,500 feet at Base Camp, Mt. Everest, Nepal. Amazing!

The wonder of RSS feeds as explored through CPL 2.0

I was able to successfully set up my RSS feed without difficulty. I look forward to the convenience of information-gathering through my Bloglines account. I will especially enjoy the many library and book websites with updates that I've subscribed to. Libraries rock!

Exploring Google Universe with CPL 2.0

Several Google products that I utilize and love are GMail, Picassa Web Albums and Google Documents. I would highly recommend these to friends and colleagues. All are extremely user friendly and are with you at any PC with a simple user name and password sign-on. This is very convenient when you want to work on documents or show folks your photo albums. If I had to say anything critical, it would be in regards to the optics in GMail. Unlike Yahoo Mail, when you hit reply it displays at the bottom of the screen instead of the top and you need to click 'show details' to see the full body of the communication. These are minor nuisances however and would not stop me from using this great Google product. Oh one last thing . . . incredible storage capacity in all products, virtually limitless! I'm just wondering if Google will start charging one day for all of these goodies.

Social Networking as explored through CPL 2.0

• Why do you think social networking sites are so popular? What are the main appeal factors?

I think social networking sites are popular because they are a way of staying in touch with friends, family, colleagues etc. and keeping them up to date on what's current in your life. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by workplace (such as Sharepoint), school, or college.

I have used Facebook for several years and appreciate how it has enabled me to keep connected to my family and friends all over the world. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. The addition of photographs and video clips is a great way to reach out as well.

I am selective with whom I communicate with however and I am very careful with what I post. I was made aware of an acquaintance who posted information that she was attending a local concert only to be robbed while she was out. Sure enough, the culprit was captured on camera and it was indeed someone that was a "friend" on Facebook. Yikes!

Wikipedia as explored through CPL 2.0

Regarding the question: Were you able to find a topic obscure enough that Wikipedia doesn't cover it?

Yes I was able to find a topic that is not written up in Wikipedia yet. It is on the topic of a new Spa procedure offered in a spa that my sister was in while visiting San Francisco. I won't describe the procedure but I will say that it was quite a shocker to my sister who expressed that she was amazed at some of the things that people will pay for!

The item that I was delighted to find was the following article about my grandfather;

Viktor Crondahl
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Viktor Gustaf Crondahl (April 5, 1887 – January 8, 1953) was a Swedish diver who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics.
He was born in Karlskrona and died in Seattle, United States.
In 1912 he finished fourth in the plain high diving competition.

And of course, there was a great article on the Calgary Public Library. I added our Vision, Mission and Value statements to the page.

Wikipedia is a wonderful source of information!

CPL 2.0 - Delicious is Yummy!

Advantages of storing, sharing and tagging web content through social bookmarking:

The way to wrap your brain around something like Delicious is to think of it as something like our CPL WorkFlows Procedures Binder. Without all the subject tabs or 'bookmarks' you'd be searching for one heck of a long time for what you're in need of. Like our binder, the Internet is a rapidly expanding source of information, it requires some form of organization to make sure that useful and relevant information is easily discoverable. The big advantage of social bookmarking is that it allows individuals to reap and store the fruit of their own research, while enriching the knowledge and experience of others through the sharing of bookmarks. You can pick and choose and control what is relevant as a bookmark or 'favorite' and store it in your own Delicious account that is available on any computer with Internet access at anytime. Very cool stuff!

Disadvantages of social bookmarking:

Because tag-based systems have no standard set of keywords they can be subject to errors and ambiguity. Mistagging due to spelling errors can produce tags that have multiple meanings which is one little issue with Delcious. Social bookmarking is also susceptible to corruption that may be introduced by users with a bee in their bonnet, or a product to promote. Spammers sometimes try to bookmark a page many times, or tag it with popular but irrelevant tags, hoping to fool viewers and influence their search engine rankings.

To me, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. Delicious is as great a tool as the bookmarks I place in the books I read.

Why I Chose a Career in Public Libraries

"Libraries store the energy that fuels the imagination. They open up windows to the world and inspire us to achieve, and contribute to improving the quality of our life. Libraries change lives for the better."
A quote from the author Sidney Sheldon.

That's why!

Regarding CPL 2.0 - I'm looking forward to increasing my technical savvy, broadening my web-wiseness and just generally having some cyber fun!