Summary

I found this whole exercise to be a lot of fun and very informative. I had played around with almost all these elements before but had never used them to actually create anything. I love the flexibility of the blog and the ability to update and change it at the drop of a hat. Very cool. I actually found myself going back time and again and making little changes, tweaking this or that, adding an element here or there. I would find some neat thing and think "I could put that on my blog!" and then spend an hour or so figuring it out and posting it. I think one of the most important things was finding that level of comfort where you felt you could tackle any task and figure it out, no matter what it was.

I found the RSS feeds to be the biggest challenge and honestly, there is quite a bit about them I still don't understand. The ability to have instant access to a variety of feeds is very cool but I wasn't sure how that would be better than simply having links within your blog. I will defiantly be researching this more thoroughly!

At PVLD we already use the blog model with our many library related blogs and I think it works great! It's such a quick and efficient way of getting information out to the patrons and can be updated easily. I also think people have gotten used to checking the web for national and local news, celebrity gossip and just about everything else; so keeping in a format they know and understand makes it that much easier to get your message out.

I thought the "self-directed" learning was great. It allowed everyone to move at their own pace which was good because some people really got into it and roared through all the tasks in no time. Other people were more hesitant and being able to take their time, and even ask for help from those who had finished the tasks, was very appreciated.

Task Number Ten

MySpace!

Find me on MySpace and be my friend!

PLEASE NOTE: THIS ACCOUNT HAS BEEN DEACTIVATED. SORRY!!

I had a MySpace account a long time ago when it first came out, but of course I couldn't remember the name or password, so I just started up a new one. Now, I'm on and ready to network! First things first though... who's this Tom guy?? It took me a minute to figure out how to get all the information I wanted on the site, and I can certainly see how you could spend hours on this. I put out a request to a few fellow 2.0ers to "be my friend" so we'll see who writes back!

Everyone on the challenge.. check your site for invites! :)

I do like the social sharing aspect of MySpace, the internal blog, the photo and video sharing, its all very cool. As with most of these though there is a serious time commitment to be made in order to be current and keep an informative site. I can see libraries making use of all these tricks to keep patrons updated on programming, new products and what not, not to mention just keeping the library name out there as a hip place to be.

Task Number Nine

Google Docs & Spreadsheets


There are a lot of really cool things about having your documents available at all times, and not restricted to your own personal hard drive. The ability to upload and open up the document to collaborative work is also very neat. I think it would be great for kids doing collaborative school projects or something like that. I found the whole site very easy to navigate, simple to start up a new document and begin typing or manipulate your text.

PS: I like the fish so i'll just leave them there for your enjoyment! :)

Task Number Eight

YouTube!

Okay - this site I know and love! People post the craziest things, some hilarious and others downright nasty, but overall what a great resource for video sharing. My username is PVJenniferA and I tried to post a comment to a video I liked but the comment posting aspect had been turned off. I found another one and posted to that instead. Wouldn't it be neat to see Mrs. B. doing her thing on YouTube? Or maybe a snippet of a musical performance at Malaga Cove? Just a few ideas.....

This one made me laugh and laugh!!

Task Number Seven

Explore Wickipedia

Done! Went to Wickipedia and made some minor changes to the Palos Verdes Libary District entry. Nothing too big - just added our mission, motto and vision. People might like to read that, you know. I like Wickipedia, always have, but it seems we all have problems with the idea that the information can be so easily altered by anyone. While I think this is great as a general idea, it does lead to suspicions about the material presented. I did a search for 'pilates' and was given a disclaimer at the top of the page saying:

The factual accuracy of this article is disputed.
Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page.

Not very encouraging.

Task Number Six

AIM - Instant Messaging

This turned out to be a lot more fun than I thought it would. I'm a big fan of Google Chat and really enjoy it. However, each person needs their own GMail account and you can only chat with one friend at a time, so there are real drawbacks. Once I went to AIM and got my screen name, I was able to hook up with a couple of the other staff working on this project and open a multi-person chat window. We sure had a blast! And the added font styles, colors and little smily faces were a lot of fun too.

The Buddy List is very similar to the one used by GMail. You can see the screen names of the people you have selected as a "buddy" and can tell if they are on or off-line. It's a great way of knowing who you can start up a chat with!

My screen name is PVJenniferA.

Here is my confirming message:
Auto Response from PVLD2007 (3:37:23 PM): Conratulations! You have successfully sent an Instant Message. Please copy and paste this text into your blog.

Task Number Five

Flickr!

I really enjoy Flickr and have used it in the past to view photos from family and friends. It's such a quick and efficient way to share photos with people anywhere (as long as they have an internet connection!). My brother took a trip to New Zealand and when he got back it took about a day for him to have an entire album of photos available for all of us to see. With one quick e-mail we all knew it was there and were checking them out. These may not be amazing travel pics, but here is an assortment of excellent photos for you people. Enjoy!

Jennifer's Flickr Photos

I really like the tag option too, but as with many technology things, it can be time consuming at first to place each tag. If you think about it and take the time though, its a great way to find what you're looking for quickly.

Task Number Four

This task is to take and post a digital photo. I think the hardest part of this task was to choose which photo to use! This is Sophie. She's about 3 years old now and lives in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho with my folks. Isn't she adorable?

Task Number Three

Took me a minute to figure out exactly how to link the Bloglines, but it all seemes to have worked out now. Some of the links I like to read all the time are:

CNN Headline News
http://www.cnn.com

Boing Boing
http://boingboing.net

Museum of Bad Art (MoBA)
http://www.museumofbadart.org

Task Number Two

Well... you're looking at it right now!

Although I've been an avid blog reader now for some years, this is my first attempt at actually creating one. I always thought it would be a great way to keep your family and friends posted on what's happening in your life and express your opinions on ideas but it also seems like it would take quite a good deal of time to actually keep it updated and current. I've never been a journal writer, kept a diary or anything else that required constant attention so keeping a blog may not be for me! I'm happy to leave the blogging to others. :)

First entry

Well... number one on the list: get a free e-mail account. You can't go wrong with Gmail so that's where I headed and got myself all signed up. If anyone wants to drop me a line I can be reached at jenniferA2.0@gmail.com.

Hope to hear from you!

Looking forwad to those comments too! :)