Thing 5: Doodle

This week’s cam23 things are all about time management and event scheduling using new technologies. I have used doodle a fair amount in the past and have always found it very straightforward and user friendly.  Doodle allows us to prevent the horrible inertia of those stalemate situations when attempting to schedule a meeting or an event between a group of people.

 We’ve all been there. Emails bounding back and forth between all potential participants. Mrs X can make Tuesday morning but Mr P is out of the office that day. Ms B can do Wednesday afternoon but Mrs X is on a training day in Basingstoke. Doodle eliminates the administrative side of this problem (if not the actual timing clashes themselves) by letting an application see when everyone could attend or could not attend or could-but-would-rather-not-right-then attend. Gone are the days of paper and pencils. We no longer have to make tally marks under each possible time and date combination. As a way to schedule meetings and arrange events, doodle is an extremely useful tool.

So I shall wait to see what happens with the cam23 doodle and hope to catch up with others following the programme during this week.  Happy doodling everyone!

Thing 4

Thing 4 of the Cam 23 programme involved a great deal of reading, commenting, and reflecting on other people’s blogs. So far, the diversity in blog type is teaching me a lot about presentation and audience within the blogosphere. Creating a blog roll specifically for the cam 23 bloggers has really helped me to keep on track whilst following the experiences and ideas of other participants. My previous experiences of web 2 tools have centred on Facebook for my personal life and Twitter for my professional networking. RSS feeds have become invaluable to my professional current awareness levels over the last two years. I have recently been more of a passive consumer of blogs rather than an active producer of content and I am looking forward to changing this situation through blogging for the cam 23 project.

The issue of commenting on blogs is indeed a thorny one: to comment or not to comment, this post sums up the argument nicely. I for one think that commenting on blog posts is an invaluable resource for the blogger, the reader who comments, and any subsequent readers. It allows a picture of opinion, a debate, to build. If anything, it gives confidence to the blogger that someone is reading his or her blog and is sufficiently moved by the post to take the time to give an opinion.

Like any form of social media which is open to all, all sides of human nature are exhibited. This at times includes the darker side of the species: offensive language, bigoted opinions, rude remarks. Once we open the gates of the town to free speech, we're on shaky ground to then moan about the opinionated comments of the metaphorical bigoted sheriff. Blogging is an open media, comments are thus open. There is a difference between offensive comments and comments to which the blogger happens not to agree. I think the tip that I’ve learnt is not to be too precious about blog posts; they’re not the first draft for that long-awaited novel! And although negative comments can leave me feeling glum on a personal level, I remind myself that professional challenges to my opinions lead to further reflection and a stronger future position.
 

In the spirit of cam23, I have been commenting on the blog posts of other participants and have in turn received some positive comments in my blog. But for me this programme isn’t just about developing my own social media tools, it is also about thinking how these tools could be used within the library / user interaction. I have been particularly impressed by the Medical Library's blog's ability to inform users of both general library information and current awareness within the medical profession. Comments are a positive addition to blog posts. They show engagement of the blog with the wider blogging community, they can give credibility to an argument, and conversely they can spark furious debate. Comments on a blog post can lead to further blogging to show another side of the debate and can ignite strong opinions.  So far I am enjoying regaining my inspiration to blog and am trying out tools that I had not previously considered useful. Even if I am struggling with my linkedIn profile, I am discovering that the key to this whole process is to try, to play, to evaluate and to only then form opinions.

New Addition

I forgot to mention, as of last week, we officially have a new addition to the family:

Yrrsss, KitKat is officially in his new houses! All your sinks are now belong to me. K thnks bye.

Thing 1 Revisited

In my eager desire to get cracking on the Cam23 23 Things Programme, a screenshot of my igoogle page is currently missing from the consciousness of my blog. After a privacy issue that was kindly brought to my attention, here is the current igoogle page:

There are some features of igoogle that I really like: the word of the day, the date and clock, the weather and the news. I prefer to read my rss feeds in a browser and I admit, the amount of time spent deciding on a theme for my igoogle probably outweighs any time saving inherent in grouping all my information together in one place. And now I know that each tab can have a different theme, the possibilities are endless...
So that others are aware, do check in your screenshots if your gmail address it visible and you don't want it to be there!

Thing 3

As the proud owner of this blog, I feel that it is within the rules and the spirit of Cam23 if, instead of creating a new blog for the project, I experiment a bit more with the one that I have. This blog began several years ago during my graduate library traineeship and as such originally focused on professional matters and library events attended. It has since evolved into a mix of personal, professional and general news-worthy posts but one key factor has remained the same - the posts continually reflect on the experiences which they describe. Whether it is a film I've seen or a conference attended, the reflective element for me has always been the most crucial and helpful aspect of blogging. Through the blog, I become a better person (professionally and personally) as I reflect on experiences.

So, blogging. Web logging. Blogs, blogger - what's it all about anyway? People with nothing better to do sitting down and typing their meaningless drivel into the void, forcing the whole world's population to consume their unwanted opinions. I admit, when I first heard about blogs and blogging, I jumped to this conclusion. Why does the world need more unsubstantiated 'facts', opinions from people no one cares about, or bizarre conspiracy theories? Who has the time to blog let alone read the thoughts of these oddballs? It was through my profession that I started to read library blogs such as The Vampire Librarian and Librarian in Black . Once I realised what blogs were for, my opinion turned around quicker than Lewis Hamilton going the wrong way into the gravel pit.

Aha, I realised, blogs don't always have to be about the unsubstantiated opinions of others about tedious and random subjects. Sure, there's enough of that out there, but that doesn't have to be it. Really, what is tedious dross to one person can become interesting information about a vital part of a particular sub-culture. If we all selectively decide which blogs to follow based on our own interests, and similarly when we blog we will naturally be drawn to write about similar topics, then we create a live dynamic interchange of information between individuals. The power of the news returns to the people from the hands of the media. No longer are the newspaper conglomerates the only people to decide which news events get into print and what is, for whatever reason, shunted aside. Bloggers report and reflect on news, aspects of various professions, films, music, gadgets, technology - and if you're not interested in a particular topic, then don't
read that particular blog!

Blogs are powerful. I have spent time today redeveloping my blog. I've changed the layout to a more visually enticing format (although, my librarian lady had to stay!) I've managed to add a 'follow me' twitter button which actually links through to my twitter profile! I've added a blog roll which I hope will expand throughout the Cam23 process. I have also learnt how to link to other sites within my blog. To be fair, my online blogging presence reflects my physical presence when it comes to diaries of any kind; I do have an unfortunate habit of simply not finding the time to write. The Cam23 process is really helping me there as well. Having a concrete purpose to write makes it easier to sit down and share my thoughts with the world (well, the small part of the world that reads this blog, anyway.)

Things 1 and 2: igoogle

After attending the launch party for the Cam23 project last night, I felt inspired to really take on the first Thing. I am one of those people who already uses igoogle, so setting up a personalised page was not a new concept for me. I instead began by looking at pageflakes and netvibes, and was particularly impressed by the latter. Like all these tools, I feel that their usefulness has more to do with the ability of the individual to design and maintain a page rather than the innate usefulness of the tool in itself. Even when personalising a page with these tools, I find that there is always something that looked useful at the start but then clutters up the page, but I only realise how useful it really is after I remove it. Perhaps this says something about my psyche rather than the tools involved!

I did learn something new about igoogle despite already using it: I had no idea that it was possible to set up tabs in the igoogle menu bar in order to separate personalised pages into different groups of useful gadgets. This is such a fantastic idea in theory: something like the COPAC widget may be wonderfully useful whilst cataloguing but then redundant whilst browsing personal things like horoscopes or the weather. It is the perfect solution for people who like to compartmentalise their lives; one tab for work, one for home, one for weekends etc. However, whilst I am glad that I found out about the tabbing potential of igoogle, I do not enjoy segragation of life spheres. For me, web 2 technology and the developing way in which we connect and work leads to our work and personal lives merging. This is no bad thing; in fact, it allows us to see ourselves and each other as rounded people. Obviously, a degree of professionalism needs to be maintained, but surely that is also the case when people exercise restraint when  posting personal content. As information professionals, it is a positive thing that these web 2 tools inform our professional lives, and inevitable that they impact on our personal spheres.

I did add an rss feed to my igoogle and was impressed with the box that comes up to contain the feed and the ease of adding the feed. However, personally I prefer to use a reader and already use bloglines. The thought of moving my feeds across fills me with a type of dread akin to repackaging all my books for a house move. I also quite enjoy the fact that I do not have everything that I need to look at in one place; the concept of giving igoogle or netvibes access to my twitter feeds, my rss feeds, my email and everything else is one that I find slightly worrying. I need very much to stay in control and not to place too much information in the hands of one provider. Already, I do not like the fact that, if I am logged into igoogle or gmail, my ID is remembered if I use google as a search engine. I fear personalisation of results and the resulting commercial exploitation of my data. Therefore I prefer to keep things in a variety of places, under different logins and passwords. But the main reason for my need to keep some information separate is simple: I love that feeling when I log in to a particular tool - be it gmail, igoogle, twitter or bloglines - and see the notifications or feed numbers or new messages. Having everything in one place would diminish that slightly.

Looking at how libraries use netvibes was really interesting and I was impressed with how so many libraries are designing pages that pull together their electronic resources and content to one place which looks and feels fresh and current. It is important when looking at these types of tools to remember their relevance to library users as well as to librarians.

23 things

I note with excitement that the 23 Things concept is coming to Cambridge! This is such an interesting way of developing knowledge of web 2 and becoming more of a reflexive practitioner. I can't wait to get started!