Back to Thing 8 and thinking about not finishing Learning 2.0

I knew sometime ago that I wasn't going to finish the Web 2.0 training before the due date of March 30. I've skipped ahead and never completed Thing 8 the RSS portion, so I'm going back to that step and try to really gain an understanding of this particular technology.

The steps I've completed have been mostly fun, and at the very least, I will recognize the words I hear and have some basic clue as to what they mean - Rollyo, Flickr, etc. So I won't keep up with my Blog after today, but I will try to come back to this tutorial occasionally when I hear a term that I don't understand. I'll know I can find a basic lesson and good background information.

Thing 12

Rollyo - The first couple Roll Your Own searches that I tried were very disappointing - slow!! I would rather target my searches and refine my search terms using Google. But today I actually found some fun and quick Rollyo sites, so I was happy I kept on with this portion of Learning 2.0.

I tried Quick Quotes Search and Reference Rollyos. Both of these I can imagine cases where they would be very useful personally or on the Information Desk. And they were both fairly quick to provide results even to my very broad searches.

SJ_Learning 2.0 Rollyo was good find. I saw the list of sites included zip4.usps.com so I tried typing in a zip code (15650) just for fun. One of the early hits that was a match was from InfoPlease - a college in that local area. So not what I expected, but good nonetheless.

Thing 11

Web 2.0 Award Winners


wayfaring.com - my initial attempt to create a map was a complete failure. I couldn't see any Help or How-to instructions and I quickly became frustrated. And today, the site caused an IE problem and shut down. I'm moving on, no more Award Winners!---KL

Wayfaring allows you to create personal maps with and share them with your friends. Explore maps created by others and connect and collaborate over a vast social network. Mapmaking has never been so easy!


spurl.net - this site was partially disabled due to spam attacks ---KL
Never lose track of a web site again with Spurl's free on-line bookmarking service and search engine. Spurl stores addresses quickly for easy access with a one-click bookmarklet and provides recommendations for new content based on your preferences.

furl.net - interesting concept and it certainky sounds like an improvement over the standard IE or Firefox Favorites list. ---KL
Make your favorite web bookmarks accessible from anywhere with Furl's lightweight bookmarklet. Furl allows you to easily save, take notes on and share the links you've stored, or browse others' most popular bookmarks to find new and interesting things.

Thing 10

Image generators - The first one I tried out was Ben & Jerry's Flavor Generator - not exactly creating an image, though at the end you do see your named flavor on a picture of a carton of B&J's ice cream. Thought of lots of mixtures of flavors and ingredients for new and wonderful ice creams.
http://www.benjerry.com/scoop_shops/dousaflavor/flavor_generator.cfm

Then I tried Make-a-Flake at http://snowflakes.barkleyus.com/viewflake.php?id=14448975 The result of my effort is shown here. And in the process though I thought I had done the download to the Blog incorrectly, I discovered you don't actually see the picture till you Preview or Publish the Blog entry. So success with Thing 10.

Thing 9

I enjoyed reading my NPR Children's Books feed today. I've never read the Lemony Snicket books, but found a nice overview of the series characters from Oct. 13, 2006.

Thing 8 - RSS

"Make Life “really simple” with RSS & a news reader" I don't know yet if a RSS feed will really make my life really simple, but it was really simple to register with Bloglines and subscribe to my fist feed - The Shifted Librarian. Time will tell.

Thing 7

I'm finally getting back to Learning 2.0 today with the deadline looming, and I'm almost to my personal goal which was to figure out RSS feeds.

As far as what interests me about technology in general is just the sheer numbers of technology "things". It is overwhelming! How do people find time to play games, blog, mash, Flickr, use iPods, take pictures and upload them to photo galleries, and so on. What do they do about all the other everyday activities - work, pay bills, cook & eat, clean, do yard work, shop, etc.?

I love the ease with which I can write using word processing software and make spreadsheets. Powerpoint is a wonderful tool, and I'm not sure how I ever got along without the Internet and the wonderful search engines! But at some point I want to leave technology behind and DO things. None of which involve sitting in front of a computer.

So that's my technology-related blog entry. Not what you expected, but....there it is.