Facebook Thing 23: TLC Week 9

I registered for Facebook.

Completing the privacy profiles could have been an easier experience.

Networks:
Hmm. 71 thousand in the Fort Lauderdale network. That's too many.
I couldn't join the Nova Southeastern Network since I don't have a Nova e-mail.
I'll have to fix the next version of TLC to have a Browardl Library network.

Search your local regional network or the Nova Southeastern network and send a friend request to co-worker or classmate and try posting a message to their wall. I joined Digital Reference to see what it's like. It has only 688 people so it is much more manageable. I also joined the library 2.0 group. There are only 4526 members to review!

I couldn't find any coworkers from this TLC project. Next time we'll have to seed a few people to make it easier for people.

I found searching for people useless as Facebook doesn't have a very good filter system. The groups are too large to be useful. The Advanced Search doesn't work for filtering a group, only your networks and individual friends.

Overall, I would redesign this exercise to make it a better experience for the next group.
At this point I don't see Facebook as a library application. We'll see what ideas other people have about Facebook.

Thing 21 Podcasts; Week 8 TLC

Take a look at one or two of the podcast directories listed and see if you can find a podcast that interests you.

I started with Podcast Alley. I didn't care for the interface. My concerns are the same as YouTube. They could do a better job of classifying using more categories and tags. I selected Grammar Girls Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing since I can always use help with Grammar. Though I think grammer would be better as a video podcast.
I liked the Digg Podcast directory better because it had a less cluttered interface and it directly linked to the actual podcast in addition to hosting it on their site.

I decide to use Podcast Alley to look for a library related podcast. I chose the Library Channel to add to my Bloglines account.

However, I ran into technical challenges as the url had changed. When I went to the Arizona University site I had to hunt around for the subscription url. I ended up using the google link and just copied the link into my bloglines account. I really like how bloglines makes it easier to look at the podcasts. It also means one less account and password to remember.


Create a blog post about your discovery process.
Podcasts can be very useful for providing additional learning experiences for people. However, finding good material is the difficult part.

I tried the extra credit to create a podcast using gcast.
It turns out it is harder to make a podcast since they don't tell you how to create mp3 audio files and they don't use wav files which is a Windows sound recorder format. Of course you create a telephone podcast but that doesn't give you the ability to save your files on your computer to use on other podcast sites.

I decided to use the telephone option to record a podcast. The recording posted to my site, but when I tried to play it I got the message "error on page" I''ll have to come back to this later.

The library application for podcasts is excellent for provding training material and announcements.

Thing 20 YouTube, Week 8 TLC

I explored YouTube and decided to find some videos with Myleene Klass, a new age classical pianist. I had been listening to her song "For the love of a princess" on Pandora (another web 2.0 tool) and wanted to see the artist.

I chose her video "Toccata and Fugue". It was a pop version very much in the vein of another female classical group Bond. It was not your typical classical music video and it was very enjoyable.

What I like about YouTube (copyright considerations aside) is that you can explore your interests from politics to music to viral videos. YouTube is a powerful tool for creating a community that doesn't exist on cable tv.

What I disliked about YouTube was the searching format. Unless you know what you are looking for exploring is not easy given the numerous videos.
It would help if they had more channels with subcategories and tag clouds.
In addition, the video image on YouTube is only fair. As people begin to use the Internet as a major video tool they will demand that the video image quality be improved.

I can see YouTube as a promotional tool for library events. Perhaps we could video the presentation for the Web 2.0 Grand Prize?

Thing 19 Discover Web 2.0 Tools; Week 7

I enjoyed browsing through the web 2.0 Awards.

I decided to take a look at Peer Trainer.

It seems strange that each group is limited to 4 people. It seems to small given the number of people who want to join.

If you scroll down you'll see you can join Peer Teams that consist of unlimited number of people.

It's a free service. However, everyone (at least in your group) can see your daily activities.
The page is a little busy and hard to read. You really have to spend time exploring the site if you want to be sure if you want to join. It does seem like a pretty good site.

The best thing about this website is the social network of peer accountability to the group. I guess you could call it a virtual weight watchers group for cyber people.

This particular website does not have any application for libraries. However, the concept of group accountability and daily logs on a website could be useful for future classes. Maybe we could divide people into teams so they could push each other to complete the TLC Things?

I decided to join this website.

There's so many teams and groups to join. I'll have to come back and take and choose a group later. It's taken awhile to explore.
I'll have to post again after I've had some experience actually using the web site.