Web 2.0 (Social Networking)

Tour de France Mashup by Richard Masoner/Cycleicious with Creative Common License: some rights reserved.

This week has been somewhat easier than last as it has not been so overwhelming with assignments to hand in and quizzes to take. Mashups, Wikipedia and VoIP are topics of interest this week. I have seen mashups and use wikipedia cautiously; however, I have actually never taken part of a VoIP session. I have placed a video call. This was used in my practicum as my instructor was located in Indianapolis and it saved her a trip. It proved to be an adequate service for such a project; though,there were transmission concerns. I had to keep the screen at the smaller imagery setting as apparently the distance complicated it to such a great detail that it was not practical nor clearly visible to view anything other than static and bouncing. I need to also mention my selection for our next projects. My selection is the Social Networking/Facebook Project and the Video Sharing/YouTube Project. I made these based upon the fact that I believe these will assist me to develop my knowledge of web 2.0 the most.

I am beginning to get excited about our approaching projects. This is what I have been waiting for. These little touches make a great difference in one's web page. As I have stated before, I have been interested in PSP which is making animated graphics. I am mainly interested in this out of a kosher issue. Many graphics are unsuitable for professional or religious applications. Gender is also of concern. My beliefs curtail selection based upon regulations to gender and this makes selection rather difficult, if at all possible. I think another issue that makes me so excited about this class is just the idea of being up on the world of information. I have felt so behind in the information of technology that it made my head swim. I can certainly understand why older generations are wanting to completely ignore it. This is a gender issue with me. If it involves technology, I leave it to men. I just have never truly held it as a woman's place, in all respect. I do have scientific interest; yet if it begins to rip things apart and examine under the surface, then it is very much like handing me a wrench for the automobile and who are we kidding?

Our Delicious blogs are due this week which will follow this posting and the two selections that I am following are WebJunction and Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki. I have previously stated that I have been somewhat unhappy with the updates that have been derived. I think, however, they are truly good resources and have selected not to side-track and pursue other links even though they are not as considerably active as other links. For the Library Success... site, there is a link to Web Tricks and Tips, which further redirects one to a list of suggestions. One of which is Successful Redesign Projects. This link takes you here: http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Website_Design#Successful_Re-Design_Projects. This page has a multitude of links that may be accessed to observe activity in this area to give librarians an idea of what may be working for others in this regard. Webjuction did not appear to have any new activity, so I followed a link under the Technology tab to Social Networking and Web Tools. I discovered a link to 31 Flavors: Things to do with Flickr in Libraries: How to use photo-sharing web sites for your library. This may be found here: http://www.webjunction.org/technology/web-tools/articles/content/450126 if you chose to pursue it.

Overall, I think this class has been very successful thus far and continue to enjoy reading everyone's blogs and taking part in the discussion boards. Have a nice weekend everyone!