Web 2.0: RSS

A word of warning: While I have been Little Miss Sunshine so far in Web 2.0, today I have my grouchy pants on!

I was successful in setting up RSS feeds. I waited fquite a while to get my confirmation e-mail back from bloglines, which was odd. Tried- many times- and finally gave up on setting up a blog on the site. The process for setting up a blog was confusing and frustrating! Blogger was a lot easier. Spent some time surfing my feeds and was a little underwhelmed...if that's a word. I can see how it's great for someone who follows dozens of blogs, but for an average person like me it's no big deal.

I understand the concept of RSS, and I am glad for the exercise in playing around with Bloglines, but the question I have is why do I have to create a user profile in yet another website just to get something that seems to be a pretty simple piece of computer programming? Is it really that tough to just save your favourite blogs in your web browsers "favourites" tab? Sure you would actually have to visit the sites from time to time to see if they've been updated, but if we can find two hours a day to spend on facebook, I think we can waste a second or two seeing if a blog has been updated. I guess it would be a different story for someone who follows a great many blogs.

Whether you find it useful or not, I predict that sites like Bloglines are doomed. Why? Because creating a list of favourite sites and getting feeds whenever they are updated is something that could be built right into your web-browser! And if someone like me has figured that out then you can bet the big brains at Microsoft or FireFox are going to roll that out sometime in the next 15 minutes, and we'll all have one less password to remember.

Web 2.0: Google- The Way of the Future

As far as I am concerned, Google is well positioned to dominate the internet.

I was introduced to GoogleDocs over a year ago. For some reason my new computer did not come with a usable word processing program and I desperately needed one. A friend showed me GoogleDocs, and I was amazed. Now I can store any document I want to the Google server, access it from any computer with an internet connection, and I don't worry about losing it if my hard-drive gets fried. When I teach the Web 2.0 class at the CPL, I try to take a minute to show people GoogleDocs- for people who work on the same document at work and at home, it makes much more sense than moving things around on flash-drives all the time.

I checked out the "labs" and I am very intrigued by Aardvark. Aardvark is a service where you can ask any question you want, and a real live person will get back to you within minutes. I tried it out by asking a pop music question - I had to open the chat window in my Gmail to converse with the person who worked on my question, and I got my answer in about 30 seconds. My first reaction was "Holy &*@! this is going to put all reference librarians out of work!" But when I calmed down I realized that Aardvark is to AAQ what Wikipedia is to World Book. It's fast and easy to use, but you wonder about the veracity of the information, I also found the "chatting" in my IM was confusing- but I'm sure with practice I'll become more adept. One must admit it is an amazing service! Maybe I'll mention it in the next 2.0 class I teach!

Ah, Music!

I used to really be into music in my youth but somewhere along the way I lost touch with what was new and exciting on the music scene. As I age, I find myself less adventurous in my musical explorations, listening to the same old cd's I've heard hundreds of times before rather than trying something new.

No more! The CPL offers a fantastic selection of cd's, including tons of stuff that's new and interesting. I decided to start checking out cd's, but I gave myself one rule to prevent me from just listening to Abby Road for the the seven-hundredth time: I had to listen to artists I had never even heard of before.

Over the past month I have checked out well over one hundred cd's. A majority just didn't resonate with me, but I have discovered a few artists that I really like. Here are a few of my finds:

• Todd Snider is a singer-songwriter who reminds me of Warren Zevon, John Prine and Tom Waits. By that I mean he writes brilliant, witty songs in a voice that sounds like bicycle crashing into a garbage can. If that craft of song writing matters more to you than blandly flawless singing, then check him out.
  
• This might be cheating a bit, because even though I had never heard of The Apples in Stereo before, they remind me so much of the pop music I loved as a kid that it's not exactly expanding my musical horizons to listen to them. Still, it's good to see that people out there are still trying to craft the perfect pop song. As long as they try, I'm willing to listen.
  
• Apparently I was the only person on the planet who did not know Eels, but now I'm in with the rest of you. I won't say anything because you know more than I do. Why didn't you tell me sooner?

I'd recommend you check these cd's out on your library card and give 'em a spin (as we used to say). Or better yet, wander in to the cd stacks and discover a gem of your own.

Web 2.0: Social Networking

Q: Facebook - useful or a time-waster?

A: For me, I'd say useful- as long as you view entertainment as having a use. It has also allowed me to stay in touch with friends and family more easily, which is fantastic as I have family in Montreal, Boston, Cold Lake and Vancouver Island. I have one brother who is very hard to get a hold of, but I can always leave a note on his facebook page and know he will check it every week or so. For many of my friends "facebook me" has replaced "email me"- it's easy to forget or lose an email address, but as long has you have internet access you can send messages to any of your facebook friends.

Last November I participated in a fundraiser - Facebook let me send one blanket email to all of my friends, it made it easy to raise money for a good cause.

I think facebook rocks.

Web 2.0: Wikipedia

Boy I'm glad we did this exercise. Before today I thought Wikipedia had something to do with witches on the internet. Ha ha! But seriously, this was a lot of fun.

Like a few others, I took a look at the Wikipedia entry for the Calgary Public Library. I couldn't see any glaring mistakes to correct, but I thought it was a little skimpy on the history of the CPL. I thought at least a mention of our first "C.E.O.", Alexander Calhoun was in order, so I added a couple of sentences about his appointment. I'm not sure I cited my source correctly- it came from an article in a book. Do I cite the article first or the book first?

Really fun! If knowledge is power, then being able to contribute to this large database of knowledge puts the power in everyone's hands.

Let's use it for good, not evil.