Photosharing Video/Tutorial

For those of you on Thing #17, here is another of those great tutorials on what Flickr and Photosharing is all about.

Innovative Idea from Alderney Gate: 23 on the 23rd!

If you are working at Alderney Gate, or may be you want to look at doing one at your own branch, Linda Langille and Helen Hughes got the idea of doing the 23 things on the 23rd as a way to promote the program and work together.

I found this out via Alison's blog and couldn't resist sharing it. I think it's a great idea. Thanks to Linda and Helen for thinking it up, and thanks to Alison for being a "sharer." The only problem is that Alison already has a shirt (did I mention that they arrived and they have begun their long trek through our delivery system to already nominated "sharers?") from the Wiki War!

Social Software -- What is It?

The next four weeks will be dedicated to services called Social Software. In answering the question "what is Social Software" the obvious question is "what does social software do?"

That's the problem: there really isn't a single "do" that can describe all social softwares. There are some fairly common threads, however.

• Social softwares usually cover a particular theme or purpose. For instance, del.icio.us is about website bookmarks, Library Thing is about books and Flickr is about photographs.
• Social softwares usually offer something called "tags." Tags are common words applied to objects (like photographs, or bookmarks or books) in order to describe them and trace them for later.
  
• Social softwares usually encourage you to add "friends," "contacts," or whatnot so you can easily share information with others in real time.
• Social softwares are usually developed using something called an "API" or Application Programming Interface. That's technical jargon, but the main thing you need to know is that people who understand code can use a service's API to create websites that use multiple social softwares in a mashup. For example, flickr.no-end uses flickr to create large-scale mosaics based on search terms. Flickrvision takes Flickr pictures and applies them to a Google Map. If you think about how "widgets" can be put on to your blog, that's an "API" at work (although some bright young coder already did the work for you).
  
• Social softwares usually encourage users to add, edit, and change the content on the website. This is different from standard websites, of course. Take, for instance, how the library's website currently does not allow users to "change" the information there.

In the end, I'm saying that social softwares are complicated and varied. There's a social software for just about every interest.

That's why the "Things" for this week are vague. I want you to try them out, in whatever way you want to. After that, I will ask you to try out a few "tasks" (tagging, for instance) using a social software that matches your own liking.

Have fun!

Thing #17: Give Flickr a Shot

Description:

Flickr is a photo sharing tool. You can create an account and upload photos (which can be made seen by public or made "private"). You can have a list of "contacts" on your account, so that you can see your friends photos as they upload them. You can even add little notes to your pictures that can more easily describe what is going on in the photo.

As with Library Thing and del.icio.us, I would like you to just "try it out." What that means is up to you. You can get an account or just look at the photos. Just let me know what you thought of it on your blog.

Hints:

• One of the more interesting sections of Flickr is the Creative Commons, which is a repository of photos with licenses automatically offering permission to users to copy them, with certain restrictions (usually related to attribution -- ie. giving the photographer credit).
• Flickr is a Yahoo! product, so you may need to get a Yahoo! account in order to use it. As I think of it, del.icio.us is a Yahoo! product too.
• Flickr utilizes RSS as well -- so you can grab feeds of your favorite collection of pictures and have any updates sent out to your RSS aggregator.
• Next week you will learn about tagging which will definitely make these tools make more sense as you go along.
• "I tried and I failed" works as a successful completion for Things #s 14-20. Just give it a shot and if you don't understand it, try it when you are interested.

Resources:

• Flickr + Libraries = scary, scary, scary to some (Michael Stephens)
  

Thing #16: Try Out del.icio.us

Description:

del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website. Your task is very simple. Try it out and tell me what it does on your blog. I do not care how far you got, or even if you just read the wikipedia article about it -- I just want you to play around with the site to see what it does.

Hints:

• Maybe you want to see my del.icio.us account.
• No "www" before the del.icio.us in the web address. Just http://del.icio.us .
• If you want to add bookmarks to the account, you will need to create an account. There will also be a "step" where you will be asked to upload the Firefox or Internet Explorer extension. That's up to you if you want to do that. It is not necessary for the thing.
• For Things #s 14 through to 20, I will accept "Tried it and Failed" as a successful completion.

Thing #15: Find a Similar Reader on Library Thing

Description:

LibraryThing may be the most relevant-to-libraries Web 2.0 service out there. It is a service that lets you catalogue (yes, with Library of Congress headings!) your own collection of books. Once you have a collection yourself, there are lots of things you can do, the most fun (I think) is use the Suggestions button to find people with similar reading interests. Or if you want to be even more social, you can look at your profile and see who has the same books that you have.

Hints:

• You will need to create an account with LibraryThing and this will require an email address.
  
• You will need to figure out how to add some books (say about 3) to your library to do this.
• Similar readers will be shown on your profile page.
  
• You do not have to put in books that actually exist in your real library. Put in whatever you want.
• On things #15-20, I am willing to accept "I tried and failed" as a successful completion of the thing. No need to spend hours on these if you get stuck.
  
• I am "Greebie" if you want to see my collection.

Resources:

• Tag Your Books with Library Thing
  
• Library Thing the Best Website Ever!