Reminder about the Wiki

Just a warning -- when you make edits to the wiki, you will be asked for a password. You will also be told to enter your name and you email. For "name" please enter a nickname if you do not want your real name to be used on the wiki.

Thing #8: Try Out Either Google Documents or Zoho

Description:

Google Documents and Zoho are online wordprocessors. Well, actually, they are suites of productivity software, including spreadsheets, presentation software and the like. I even showed you a demo earlier on that described why these products are important. Now, I just want you to try it out. Create a document. Write out a brief letter, or fill in some blanks in the spreadsheet. That's all.

Hints:

• Common theme -- you will have to sign up with the service, and that may require an email. The good news is if you've signed up with Blogger to get your blog, you can use your Google ID to use Google documents.
• Another Common theme -- Both Google Documents and Zoho use a WYSIWYG, just like your blog and just like the wikis before it. This may seem just like repetition of your blog!
• There are alot of features available, including the ability to share your document with others and publish it to the Web. How far you go is up to you, but I only expect you to play around with a few things on the page.

Resources:

• Google Docs Tour
• Type and travel: Web-based word processors
  

Thing #7: Read an article in Wikipedia on any pet subject and assess it in your blog.

Description:

Wikipedia.org is a free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Yes, anyone -- even you! This fact has led to controversy about the validity of the information available there. I want you to look at a subject of interest to you (maybe something you know lots about) and tell me what you think. Are there mistakes? Misinformation? Poor writing? Would you user or want your child/niece/nephew using this resource in a school paper?

Please speak to the article itself, and not to the idea of Wikipedia. I am more interested in hearing whether the particular information you found was useful or not and why.

Hints:

• Choose something you enjoy. For instance, I liked the entries on Spiderman, saltpeter and Daphnia.
• If you google your subject, the first entry may very well be a Wikipedia article.
• Use the 50 words rules for quantity if you just want to do the minimum here.
  

Resources:

• Another Wiki Mess Robert McHenry, Britannica blog.
  
• Jabberwiki: The Educational Response Michael Gorman, Britannica blog.
• Jimmy Wales Time Magazine
• Wikipedia's Aukward Adolescence Karen Schneider CIO
  

Wikis in Plain English

Dang if I won't let Commoncraft do all my work for me. :)




There's a headstart on next week! If you didn't notice, I've already added "Thing #6."

Thing #6: Change the Learning 2.0 "top ten titles" Wiki

Description:

I created a Wiki at http://hpllearning.pbwiki.com with an arbitrary list of the top ten books of all time. I want you to change that list to your liking, including a favorite book or two of yours.

Hints:

• The password is "Learning20" "learning20" (no quotes) UPDATE: I originally had the "L" capitalized. If you tried the password and it didn't work, please try again.
• UPDATE: Please remember that the email and name you enter on the password screen will be visible to others.
  
• Look for the word "edit" on the wiki page.
  
• You are going to find editing the wiki very similar to writing a post on your blog.
• The interesting thing about wikis is the collaborative part -- that's why I have the "Wiki War" mini challenge for chocolate.
• Yes, you can change anything you want on the wiki.

Resources:

• What is Wiki?
• Commoncraft -- Wikis in Plain English
• New Media: Who are the real winners now we've all gone wiki-crazy? --
  Ana Kronschnabel and Thomas Rawlings

Del.icio.us Tutorial

Common Craft is a great organization for creating understandable tutorials. Here's one for del.icio.us, which, as I said before, is "Thing #16."

Oh -- and they also have a tutorial to help you avoid a Zombie attack on Halloween. :)

Copyright, Copyleft and Hyperlinking

1. I added an RSS feed showing comments as they come up. Pretty much all of the comments are really helpful, so I thought I'd try as hard as I could to make them accessible.

2. Sara had a question about copyright and using other people's information. I'm no lawyer, but here is a summary of what I know:

• Hyperlinking -- linking to other content is pretty much legal, unless you are pointing to illegal content for the explicit purposes of disseminating the information. Don't point to illegal content and you are safe. Here's a good resource for this.

• Fair Use -- you can use portions of other people's content so long as it is to make a separate point, such as in a review or a parody of a work. The key points here are a) don't copy all of the work b) have a point other than the one illustrated in the work -- you have to be adding to the conversation. Here's a great comic on the subject of copyright and fair use.

• Common Knowledge -- you cannot claim a copyright on factual information. Things like gas prices, weather facts and the like are not copyrightable. Recently, a court case declared that information like batting averages, and hockey point totals are also not copyrightable.

• Licensing -- many blogs, wikis, and photo groups offer Creative Commons licensing on their writing, art and/or photos. This means you can copy without asking so long as you follow certain conditions depending on the license. Flickr, for instance, has a collection that points to photos that have applied a creative commons license to their works. An artist can choose to add any or all of the following four restrictions to their license:

• Attribution -- you must give the originator credit for the work.
  
• No derivs -- you cannot change/re-purpose the work.
• Non-commercial -- you cannot use the work to make money.
  
• Sharealike -- you have to include a similar creative commons license on your work.

There's a quick summary. I hope this is helpful for any of you who are concerned about what you can or cannot put on your blog. In general, if you are in doubt -- ask permission to use the item. And if you are told to take something down for copyright reasons do so right away unless you are absolutely sure you are within your rights to use the item.

RSS on the website?

Yup! For programs by branch. You can see the feeds on the test site which you can access if you are on a staff computer.

There's a small technical problem, though -- because the test site is behind a firewall you cannot use a third-party site like Google Reader, My Yahoo, or Bloglines to see the feed in action. If you understand how to use a live bookmark to grab a feed, that will work though. There are other ways too, it's just that I do not want to make this post too long.

You'll just have to trust me that it will work when we go public. :)

Promoting your blog and a preview of Thing #16

A number of you expressed interest in sharing your blog either with me, or to promote it more widely now that you have it. That's great! Here are a few notes:

• There's going to be a 10-question quiz (via surveymonkey) to help me know if you completed the 23 things -- one of the questions will be: "what is the address for your blog?"
• If you would like to have your blog linked from this blog, just let me know, either by using the feedback form or by leaving a comment on this post. If you look down (waaaay down) you'll see that Sara Gillis & David Lewis already did ask me to do this (UPDATE: Cheryl Black and "Library Doodling" are added as well). I'm going to start by adding RSS feeds and then move to links if there are too many.
• 
  

Later on, I will ask you to "tag" a website (perhaps your blog) using del.icio.us (and write a quick post about delicious on your blog). That will be "thing #16" in fact.

If you want try del.icio.us (and I would consider this "advanced" unless you consider yourself a "techie") go ahead. My only caveat is to either

• do this from home or
  
• skip "Step #2" in the registration process (just go on to step #3) if you are applying for an account from a work PC. (delicious wants you to add an extension to Firefox or Internet Explorer when you apply and I do not want the extension on staff computers -- yet.)
  

When we get there (in early January), I will offer a way to make the del.icio.us "thing" easy to do for any non-techies out there.

Serendipity

During the creation of a screencast, I found an article from Helene Blowers via my RSS feed about the latest video by Michael Wesch, who did The Machine is Us/ing Us video.

Here it is. For example, via things like RSS, information can find us -- that's what happened to me as I discovered this video right while I was demonstrating Google Reader!




People used to talk about the Internet and searching removing the "serendipity" benefits of browsing through shelves. Web 2.0 seems to be trying to put some of those things back -- but by using social networks, rather than spatial proximity. Very interesting development.

Web 2.0 Screencasting!

So I discovered a neat online tool called screencast-o-matic via Amanda Etches-Johnson who I met at a Computers In Libraries conference and again at a Canadian Libraries Association preconference last year. So, I created a small tutorial on how to install an RSS feed in Google Reader (using Firefox 2.0).

It is unedited and has maybe about 300 too many "uhs" in it, but it does go to show how easy it is to do cool things with these technologies. Oh -- and I should warn that a news article title spells out "B.S." during the tutorial. Don't view this if you do not want to see the "S" word.



And that is one of the neat things about the Web 2.0 movement. I get information from people that have information I need, neato tools to help me do my work better, and then I get to share with you!

Death, Taxes and . . . SPAM!

Just a few words on blogs and spam.

Just like email, blogs can get spammed.

There are two general ways that spam on blogs works.

1. they put ads directly on your blog (to sell viagra for instance) or
   
2. they create a "splog" or spamblog with ads for un-tech-savy visitors to click on.

The first one is fairly easy to recognize. The comments usually have lots of links, are off-topic or pointless ("great post!"), or downright shameless in what they are trying to promote.

Splogs are more tricky. The way they work is by linking to your blog. This creates a "pingback" (a comment on the blog that tells people another blog linked here), which in turn links to their blog where they hope people will click on ads and make the owner money.

Having people link to your blog is often flattering (particularly when someone has something interesting to add to your discussion) and it's the way you can increase your "authority" ranking in a service like Technorati. Splogs play to this need, so you will want to use some of those website evaluation skills to figure out if your pingback is legit or if it's a splog. Here are some ways to tell if a blog is a splog:

• There are lots of advertisements, and nothing much else of value.
• All of the posts appear to do nothing but link to other blogs.
• The posts contain lots of gibberish.
• There is no "about this blog" page, or the page does not have a whole lot of information about the author of the blog.
  

AVOIDING SPAM

In the end, -- avoiding spam on your blog is pretty easy. Here are some Dos and Don'ts.

• DO set up your blog so that you get to moderate your comments before they go up.
  
• In Wordpress, you do this by clicking "Options," then "Discussion" from your dashboard.
  
• In Blogger, it's "Settings" then "Comments."

• DO mark any spam you moderate as "spam." This will help your service eliminate the spam from the system.
  
• DONT allow anonymous comments. Spammers tend to be anonymous.
  
• DONT leave a blog unattended for long periods of time. If you are done with a blog, delete it. "Ghosttown" blogs are prime for spam.
• DO use the built in spam filters from your blog company. Wordpress uses Akismet spam blocking, which I really like.
  
• DONT click any ads or links on a spam blog.
• DO report any splogs to your service. Most bloggings services do not allow spam blogs to exist on their servers.
• DO let a blogger know when you have encountered a spam comment or pingback on their blog. They will thank you for it.
  

Blogs, blogs, blogs!

So we are entering section #2 of the ever illustrious Learning 2.0 challenge! The next two weeks are going to be about blogs.

Chances are, you've already encountered blogs as you went along your daily business of finding information. This section is focussed a little bit more on how to create a blog and why they are so popular. However, there are a few more things that might be of interest to you.

Searching for a blog is a little bit more challenging than your average website. That's why there are search engines like Technorati and Google Blog search that specialize in searching for them. The main difference between a regular search and a blog search is that a regular search will tend to focus in on *particular* blog posts. Blog searches will get you the particular posts and then provide links to the entire blog, in case you want continue reading the authors thoughts about your favorite subject.

Technorati also provides authority rankings for blogs, based on the number of people who link to the blog. This is a helpful (though not perfect) way to see if a blog is worth the page it's written on.

Later on, we will be doing some "things" related to RSS. RSS is a great way to read blogs (among other things). In my view, RSS is *the* most important subject area for libraries to know right now. Itsa little bit tricky for beginners, so you'll find that I will be offering as much help as I can on the subject. Once you know how to use it though, I think you'll find that it can really help keep information overload under control.

Thing #5: Write a 50-100 word Post (on your blog) About Your Article from Thing #2

Description:

Write a post on your brand new blog, describing the article you read as part of thing #2.

Hints:

• You can be longer than 100 words if you want, but try to reach 50 if you can.
• Answering these three questions should get you to 50 words pretty quickly:
• What was the title of the article?
• Who was the author of the article and how did you find it?
• What did you think of the article? Was the writing clear enough that you "got" what he/she was saying? Did you agree? Disagree?
• This is not mandatory, but try and play around a little bit when you write your blog post.
  
• See if you can figure out how to add images, movies, or hyperlinks to your post (remember copyright, though -- don't use someone else's stuff without their permission!).
  
• You can change the colour of your text, provide bullet points, add italics and bold print and so on.
  
• Chances are, the compose box is very much like Word or Wordperfect. Geeks call this a "WYSIWYG" editor. It makes doing web pages a lot easier.

Resources:

• What do all the icons mean? -- Wordpress help
• All about Blogger's Post Editor -- Blogger help
  

Thing #4: Write a comment on the Learning 2.0 campaign blog or any other blog

Description:

Most blogs offer the ability for readers to comment on specific posts. This blog is one example (and yes, you can do this anonymously). Just comment on one of the posts on this blog or another blog of your choosing. Did you like doing one of the things? Did you dislike it? Want to learn more? Have a tip that can help others do it? One line or ten, it's up to you!

Hints:

• You can do this at any time from now to March 31st.
• Look for "[x] comments" at the bottom of the blog post. It is located between the posting time and the "email to a friend" icon that looks like an envelop. Update: If you do not see the comments link, look for "Post a Comment" at the bottom of all the other comments you see.
  
• Remember netiquette? That applies to blog comments too.
• Blogs have different policies on how you are allowed to comment. You may be required to:
  
• 1. Include your real name.
  
• 2. Have an account with blogging service (Google/Blogger is what this blog uses).
  
• 3. Enter special code words (called captchas) before you submit your comment.
  
• 4. Provide an email address (that does not get posted with your comment).
• 5. Wait a little while after you post before you can see your comment so a moderator can see it first.
• This blog applies #s 3 & 5 to prevent spam and/or abuse of the blog.
• To be anonymous (on this blog) you have to choose "anonymous" as your identity, or you can make up a name for yourself (or, as they say, be "pseudonymous" ).
  
• Blogs may also ask you to add the address of your personal website or blog. This is usually optional and is a good way to promote your blog, provided you are offering something useful to the blog discussion.
  
• You are permitted to break the "add something to the conversation" rule on this blog. "Good idea" or "I agree/disagree" is fine. I just want you to have tried commenting. Of course, if you really have something to say. . ..

Hype:

• People who advocate Library 2.0 often talk about the blog as a way to engage in a conversation with your users, particularly online users, via comments. It's an interesting theme that will rear its head again as we learn about other tools.
  
• Ann Arbor Public Library is known for its attempt to develop conversations with its blog-style website.
• Hennepin County Library even offers comments on their catalogue!
  

Resources:

• How to comment like a King (or Queen!) -- Cool Cat Teacher Blog
• How to Blog for Fun and Profit -- Blog Commenting Etiquette? -- T. L. Pakii Pierce

Additions to the FAQ

Just a few items that I will add to the Frequently Asked Questions portion of the blog. If you have any questions or comments, or if something is not clear, please let me know.

New Questions:

When are we going to see the rest of the 23 things?

I have created a timeline that goes through the 23 things and when they are due. I'm going to evaluate this timeline as I go through the process. The only reason I am doing it this way is so that I do not inundate you with "things" right off the bat and scare you off. Also, I have other projects I need to be working on as well.

You can help me out by giving me feedback (it's anonymous, so you can be mean if you like :) ). I may be able to speed up the release of the "things," though I think the March 31st deadline is going to have to stand.

I have concerns that regular work will get missed because people are playing with Web 2.0 technologies. What should I do?

The rules on the 23 things are fairly clear: supervisors get to determine priorities on work time.

This program is not intended to interfere with day-to-day work and clearly, if you have customers in front of you, or a deadline looming, you should be working on that instead of doing the 23 things. Another point about the program: it's about trying 23 things, not doing 1 thing for 23 hours. :) Please be respectful of your co-workers, and library customers and use common sense about the amount of time you are spending learning these new technologies on the job.

If you are not sure if you are in the right, ask your supervisor.

Are the "things" going to be mandatory to learn in the future?

The answer is "yes" and "no." "No" because the goal of the 23 things is really just to expose you to some to the themes surrounding new technologies.

That said, some of the "things" may be used in the future to support library services. So, some (and I do not know which ones) may become a "yes" in the future. That said, I would expect that the "23 things" training would not be sufficient to support a new service. If, for example, the library were to offer "blogging help" as a service (this is just an example), then I would expect that specialized training would be required beyond the 23 things.

What about new staff? Can I do the 23 things if I am on a sick/parental leave?

New staff are welcome to try the 23 things with the only caveat that the March 31st deadline stands. If you are able to complete the "things" while you are gone on a leave, then you will also qualify for a prize -- the only minus is that I will not send you poster emails. I'll have to get back to you on the status of staff who leave the system entirely. Update: Since the program is only available to library staff, anyone who leaves the system before the deadline will not be eligible for a prize.

Are we going to be expected to help customers blog?

The 23 things should not change expectations about the level of service we offer at our public use computers. If someone were to ask you about blogging at the desk, I would think that you could provide them with 1) information about blogging or blogs 2) examples of a blogging services such as Blogger, Typepad or Wordpress and 3) offer some advice about what is required to start a blog (ie. an email address). I would not expect you to help a customer create a unique design for, add flashy sidebar features to or create convincing promotions for a blog.

You may already realize now that starting a blog is not unlike trying to start an email account.

As you will discover in the future, most of these services will be similar to Google search in terms of what they offer. I *do* expect you to know how to use Google (and know you already do because you told me so). While there may be the occasional frivolity added in for fun, I think you will find most of the 23 things relevant to you professionally, personally or as a possible service in the library.

Can we share a blog together?

Going by the "if it's literally done and you feel no reason to move on" rule, if you can honestly say that you were actively playing a part in "creating a blog" then I say, sure -- go for it. Anything that makes it easier to do these things is fine by me. Maybe there's a "techie" out there you can partner up with to help you with this stuff. Great!

I only do 3 1/2 hours per week and don't have time to do the 23 things, but I really really want to get them done, what can I do?

Talk to your supervisor and we'll see what we can do. In the end, all 23 things can be done at home if you want to. Also, the program is voluntary, so if there just isn't time enough in the day I fully understand. Finally, I am of the sort that thinks there is a way to solve any problem -- talk to your supervisor and we can see if something can be worked out somehow.

Why I Love the World Wide Web

Here is a very common sense explanation of why Google docs is a useful product. It is quite amazing, actually. And (hint hint) might get you a headstart on a few of the "things."

. . . and we're off!

Now that the first two "things" have been released, I can already see quite a bit of enthusiasm around new technologies and the program. Some folks out there have assumed that one of the "things" in the future will be "start your own blog." Ok. I admit, it is. As you can see on the right, thing #3 has already been released early.

That brings me to another point -- what is the value of peeking at this blog every so often? Well, it's like this: I would like to establish a communication device to identify new technological trends and ideas. I do not want to fill up people's email to do it. A blog is one of many ways to do this. In fact, *this* blog may be the way this happens in the future.

So, I'm going to make it worth your while to view this blog periodically:

• For one, all of the "things" have a post on this blog with tips on how to complete them.
  
• Besides the 23 things, there will be some mini-challenges with prizes (perhaps involving chocolate) to help illustrate a point about new Web devices.
• I will drop hints about what the future 23 things will be from here. If you visit this blog, you will have a head-start on them.
• I will announce other "23 things" prizes via this blog. (Did you think I was just going to stop at a laptop?)
• There will be pointers to some fun and silly things happening on the web via this blog.
  

Set Up My Own Blog and Add My First Post

Description:

Go to Wordpress.com or Blogger.com (or another blogging website if you like) and create a blog. Both Wordpress and Blogger offer fairly easy-to-understand instructions to get started.

Hints:

• A blog is just a personal webpage organized in a special way.
  
• You will need to create an account with the blogging site to create your blog. For that, you will need an email address.
• If you already have a blog, just create a post that says you have completed thing #3
  

Some Websites to Learn More:

Ask Bob Rankin on Blogs
Siteground Blog Tutorial

FAQ (will be updated as questions come):

Do I have to use my real name on my blog?

No. You can blog anonymously. However, the blog is the main way that I will be able to tell you have completed the 23 things, so you will need to let me see it somewhere along the line.

You said that I will have to use the blog to describe some of the other "things." How much do I have to write?

You can write as much as you like. :) A good minimal approach to this exercise is to answer four questions: 1) What is the technology? 2) What did you think of it? 3) How might this be useful [or not] to you personally? 4) How might the library use this [or not] to serve patrons better? If you want a minimum word count, let's say 50 words. But if you think I'm going to count the words on a potential 890 blog posts. . .