# 23 Is this really the end? Or just the beginning?

Patted myself on the back (see a suitable flickr image on left). It certainly was an interesting but often frustrating journey. From a person who rarely uses the computer and used to rely on more computer savvy teenagers to acess any information for me, I found it very time consuming because as well as understanding the various sites I also had to refamilise myself with the computor features. However Learning 2.0 has made me so much more confident and interested in using the web and its many new capabilities.

Some of the highlights were:

• The discovery of free eaudiobook site. As a using of audio books I certainly will be using this site while awaiting free eaudiobook from libraries.
• Learning to use podcasts.
• Flickr and YouTube were sites I have heard so much about and now I can confidently use them.

While I certainly enjoyed the challenge I would have preferred that the program was structured more as a tutorial rather then explorational base program. This would have been less time consuming and may have resulted in a more consistent outcome.

And yes I would certainly participate in future programs.

# 22 Audiobooks

http://www.audiobooksforfree.com/

I was unable to create an account for Netlibrary so I decided to play around with other EAudiobooks sites and discovered the above site which offers free download for a selections of Eaudiobooks. I downloaded a Mark Twain book "1 million pound note" which was of quite good quality. There were many site selling eaudiobooks for a fee.

#21 Podcasts. Smodcasts

I looked at two of the podcast directories but decided to search the ABC radio site instead, because as a regular listener I have heard them advertise their podcasting program and I have always wanted to visit it. So I went to their site then pasted the selected POD url to my Bloglines feed reader. Now I can listen to the new broadcasts as they arrive.

http://www.bloglines.com/blog/happypappy.

Exercise 20 - Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shlzG-LZteA
What a find! My favourite TV show Get Smart. This should tie me over until my Get Smart complete dvd set arrives.
This site was great fun although annoying because the videos that interested me were not complete. I was also concerned that it seems very easy to post videos which might upset and offended people.
Try as I may I can't think of any YouTube site features or components that are applicable to the current library website.

Exercise 19 Discovering Web 2.0 Tool

Golly that took awhile! Heaps of interesting sites to explore. I tried to post to my blog a short video but it took so long for the email to complete registration to arrive that I couldn't wait. So if its there next time i check my email, I'll attempt it. However the site which interested me most was the podicast site odeo.com. As a ardent listener to talkback and current affairs radio when houseworking, gardening exercising etc, I will find it very handy to be able to download programs which match my interests so that I can listen to them when it suits me. Theo Odeo site had a simple classification by topic which makes it easy to find what you want. I imagine that this type of thing could also be useful in a library where people want to access broadcast information about specific subjects.

Exercise 18 Zoho

These applications must be of great concern to Microsoft. Beside having all the keys features of Microsoft's office, the most attractive feature I think is the fact that you can sit at any internet-enabled computor and access your documents without having your usb stick,cd,or floppy disc. I made a couple of attempts to post my documents to my blog but unfortunately was unsuccessful.

Exercise 17

I enjoyed telling everyone about my favourite TV spy spoof Get Smart.

Exercise 16 - So what's in a wiki?

So what's in a wiki? Well in the SJCP Library site a whole lot. I was especially pleased to see information about local activities available under subject list, such as Farmer's Market under Gardening.

Certainly discussion pages, especially book recommendations and reviews might work well within a library wiki.

Exercise 15 - Read a few perspectives on Web 2.0 Library 2.0 and trhe future of Libraries

Well what can I say? A bit too involved and technical for me. The gist of the perspectives is that we must change our ways to make us more relevant as evidenced by the gradual decrease in circulation rates. It is quite a challenge and makes me a little apprehensive because as this learning experience has shown there is sooo much to learn. I certainly hope the YPRL continues to offer training and support to staff in this area.

Exercise 14 - Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

The keyword search for "Learning 2.o" resulting in the following :-
-In blog posts - 33,762
-in tags - 160
- in blog directory - 29

When the blog writer puts the blog in a category or tags the blog posts, they are saying that the blog or post has a lot of relevance to that subject, but it takes more work for them to do that. So there are fewer search results in tags or blog directories, but we would expect them to be much more useful.

I also explored 'popular blogs,searches and tags' and I noticed that the blogs listed under 'top favourite blogs' and 'top blogs' were reference type blogs whilst under "top searches' and 'tags' were more general interest or topical.

Exercise 13 - Tagging and discover a Del.i.cio.us

Browsed Del.i.cio.us and can understand it usefulness in especially saving time by focusing on more popular and useful site by taken advantage of other people's experience.

Exercise 12 - Roll your own searchlist

Played around with the Rollyo site and made a searchlist of Australian gardening sites. You can access it here: http://rollyo.com/greenpea/australian_gardening/

Exercise 11 A thing about Library thing

I played around with the Library Thing (http://www.librarything.com/) and really enjoyed it.

It was a lot of fun because I found it to be so far the easiest of the exercises. It's a site that you can easily recommend to borrowers who like to keep a record of the books that they read. You can find my catalog at http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=greenspot

Exercise 10 Playing with Image Generators

The FD's Flickr Toys (http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/) interested me because of its many useful options. I have just created a CD cover (see left). The slide show creator was something that I have seen in use, and have always wanted to learn have to use. I had a go today, but it was too time consuming. Maybe another day.

RSS is a great find

I really enjoyed using
RSS and I will be definitely checking my feeds on a regular basis.
http://www.bloglines.com/blog/happypappy

Here comes the sun

Exercise 7

I was just reading an article with the above title concerning the near completion of a Solar Thermal Electric Generating Plant in Nevada USA. It will be the third largest solar power plant in the world and could power a city of almost 50,000 people. Since this is tried and true technology, why aren't we using it here in Australia with our abundance of sunshine?

more flickr fun

Item 6
I can see that 'mappr' can be useful (to those of us outside the US) if a map of other parts of the world was available. You can document your trip by associating your favorite photo with each location.

morning walk

morning walk
Originally uploaded by johncarney.

Learning 2.0 exercise 5.
Doing some flickr flicking I found this lovely picture of the location near our local station, where I sometimes meet my friend (who lives on the other side of the tracks!) for a walk.

getting greener by the day

One of our first steps to greendom has been successful. We have been pleasantly surprise at the water we have collected in our watertank, considering that we in Australia are in the midst of a major drought. With water getting more precious by the day, every little bit helps.