Wikispaces vs. pbwiki

Being a newbie to the world of wikis, I find them very interesting. For the group project this week, my partners and I had VERY different work schedules. It was difficult for us to find time to meet and chat, however our wiki made this much easier. We each were able to take a section of the project, work on it when our schedule allowed, and still create a great final product.

Both wikispaces and pbwiki are very easy to use and they seem pretty similar. I noticed in wikispaces a few things that I didn't see in pbwiki- but of course I could have overlooked them.

Wikispaces has:
-ads unless you pay which is usually the case with anything that is free
-usage stats like Google Analytics
-you can import a blog
-export as HTML
-have access to backup space
-more template options

I like the look of wikispaces better than pbwiki but as far as function- they seem to be equal.

B & D Reading

Just a couple of weeks ago my library had a major meltdown with our computers. When I read Ch. 3 last week I thought to myself that these guys were right on target about how important the IT people are. I don't know anything about networking and we had our IT people over everyday for 2 weeks straight. I felt hopeless when we were having comp. problems because we had come to depend on the computers to carry on with our quotidian work. Most of us take them and others who do behind the scenes kind of work for granted.

RSS overload?!

Can there be too much of a good thing? Hmmm...... well... this is my first experience with RSS and subscribing to it with a reader. I've been putting it off because I was afraid that it would be too much. I already have a lot on my plate as do many of you I'm sure, and this just seemed like one more thing that I didn't need. However, being able to sign up for a reader like Bloglines really keeps all of your feeds organized. You can subscribe to the things that you are interested in and it lets you know when there is something new. As much as I love this, I wouldn't give up my newspaper. Many times there are articles that I wouldn't necessarily subscribe to but when it's in the paper I tend to read it cover to cover instead of just a few articles.

I think all of this technology can be a lot to take in all at once but like anything, you need to learn how to use it to make your life easier. So to answer this question about RSS overload- I'm not sure where I stand. I love being able to read the news articles that I enjoy in an organized fashion, but at the same time I feel as though I'm missing out on other happenings in the world if I don't subscribe to them.

BvG - Bloglines vs. Google Reader

First, I love Google.... yeah, yeah, don't give me any crap about it. I know they try to run the world and I'm an automaton da, da, da...

Google Reader
-allows me to check my gmail
-use Google documents
-use the calendar feature
-chat
-and newly discovered- a feed reader

Bloglines
-made feed suggestions for topics that I enjoy
-visually pleasing!!!

I have to pick Bloglines for this. It's more organized, and since I am new to this, that is important to me.

New Social Software

A new social software site for me is Jing. We haven't covered it yet, sorry Steve to jump the gun, but I love this site. I heard about it from Steve at the NJLA conference in April. It's a site where you can create a screencast and record your voice. I had never used it before, but it looked like something I wanted to use on another project for class. It took me less than an hour to figure out how to use it and create a small screencast for my website. It's just like Camtasia, but free! Of course there are time limitations, but for basic things, it's great.

In the future, I'll use it for my website at work. I can create simple screencasts showing patrons how to renew books, place holds, and eventually demonstrate how to use Word, PP, or other computer basics. I'll also use it as a training session for new employees, this way they can watch it before they come to work, and hopefully to be better prepared. Additionally, it be used to show how to access new databases, or our new catalog, etc.

Feed

I'm only up to page 70ish but I'll start with some comments

-interesting language

-the one girl wants her lesions to create a "necklace"

-For a few minutes I thought that it might be cool to have a feed, this way I would have info. at my fingertips (or faster as stated in the book). I changed my mind very quickly when the kids wound up in the hospital as a result of being assaulted (getting their brains hacked).

-Last but not least, my favorite part from the chapter "Missing the Feed"- "I missed the feed....You can look things up automatic...like if you wanted to know which battles of the Civil War George Washington fought in and shit." I think Titus needs to subscribe to the History Channel feed.

kdscils598x08

I am very new to blogging. I really only have a couple of blogs that I read and I personally do not blog, other than for this course.

Looking at Blogger and LiveJournal....
-I like LiveJournal much more than Blogger, it lets me be more creative.

Blogger
-Blogger is great for beginners and for those who want to keep things simple.
-Blogger allows the user to post YouTube videos.
-Automatically saves the bloggers work.
-Spell check!!!

LiveJournal
-The user can post over the phone or text which is great if the computer is down.
-There is an IM service.
-Switch users if the blogger has more than one account and/or personality :-)
-More backgrounds.
-There is an expanded poll feature which allows for different types of polls to be created instead of using surveymonkey or something similiar. Click here to take my poll
-Down side- distracting ads.