Thing 22 - concluding thoughts

This has certainly been an interesting and worthwhile insight into the world of social media and other applications.  There are some I already used - OK - maybe just Facebook, but there are others that I am glad to be introduced to - Doodle, Flickr, Tagzedo.  There are others I will never use because I do not see the point, but at least I now know that I was right in not seeing the point - stand up Twitter and RSS feeds!  There are others that I actively dislike - yes, that IS you, LinkedIn - I smell your desperation.

But it has been a good excuse to get the measure of them and try them out whilst feeling that you are not wasting your work time.  In the same way, one of the huge merits of the Book Group I attend, is that books you would normally dismiss on a glance at the first page, turn out to be mesmerising marvels - "Agent Zigzag" by Ben McIntyre if anyone would like a recommendation.  It is good to be taken out of your comfort zone and shown what is out there and what could be useful.
Downside is that you end up with so many different log ins/passwords/email addresses that it can be difficult to remember how to get back in if used rarely.  For example, Flickr was one of our most recent "Things", and I found it easy to use.  Whilst visiting my Mum in Lancashire, I took some more photos and on returning after the Easter break, tried to load them onto Flickr.  This I confidently predicted would take me about 10 minutes.  In fact, it took me nearly an hour to remember my log in - not gmail or soton this time, but yahoo.  For goodness sake.  And then the photos would not load and it hung around with only the revolving doughnut for company till I heard myself weeping quietly.  Close it down, start again, and finally it is as easy as pie and all is sorted in 10 mins as predicted, but all in all it was half the morning.  So to actually get a benefit from using these facilities, you really need to use them a lot.

However, the one thing I have really enjoyed doing above all, is doing this blog, and if I am completely honest, the only thing that kept me going sometimes is that I could then blog about it and choose pictures to represent what I thought.  I actually signed this off and then realised I would miss the blog and that it had been one of the 23 things, which I had forgotten. It had become a working tool and an enjoyable part of my life.  I can see now why people blog and just wish I had something worth blogging about in the future that would interest other people or even just myself.  Blogging, I shall miss you.  But maybe I will be back..........

As far as the other Things go though, I am glad it is at an end as it has been challenging keeping up as a part-timer, but it has also been great to have had the opportunity to sample what is on offer.  It is a large box of mixed chocolates - some of which are more appealing than others.  However, there would never be any chocolates I would not eat, and I am glad I have tried all 23 things.  

It is Friday - my chocolate day - enjoy - and thanks for letting me share!



Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Thing 21  -  Google Drive

I think I have used this before when working with the IMDB project.  If it was not this, it was certainly very similar, and is a brilliant idea.  Very annoying if you are pleased with what you write, and then someone alters it.  The same apparently is true of Wikipedia.  I understand that both Mike Scott of The Waterboys, and Carrie Underwood (country singer) have both had problems and attempted to correct the misinformation put up there from fans.  Every time they try to correct it and put it right, they are informed they have no authority and it is changed back again. This must be extremely annoying and frustrating, and I could see that it is perfectly possible to do this here if you want to share the document.  Obviously, unlike Wikipedia, you can choose not to share the editing, but then that would render pointless the usefulness of Google Drive.

I found it very easy to upload and create files, and easy to work out how to share.  If I found it easy, it must be simplicity itself.  I created a list of favourite Easter Eggs, sent the email to 3 Sot23 participants, and then whilst looking at the document again to check it was OK, I was amazed to see words typing as if by magic on my list - it was literally seconds after I sent it, and I was able to watch someone adding to it.  I was well impressed.  This is certainly something I would use, and now that many co-workers are part-time or busy, it is a way of working together whilst apart.  

Creative commons image used (natch).

Have a lovely Easter!

Thing 20  -  Slideshare


As with other resources, this was more or less successful depending on the browser.  For instance, I found it very difficult to get to the Home page with IE.  It insisted I remained in Forums.  However, Chrome was fine and I searched the University of Warwick site and found the following presentation.  This was interesting to me as it echoed the reservations I have about Libraries using Facebook, but also said that at least if the Library had a presence, there was at least a choice and you did not need to use it.  In fact, a very interesting presentation all round, and some interesting facts and figures near the end.
This is also an example of a good presentation.  A few I looked at were extremely wordy with almost a leaflet of text on each slide.  It would have taken about 10 minutes to absorb all that information.  Also, many were much too long  - 50 slides plus of very detailed facts and figures which must have been excruciating to have attended.  However, I thought this a very good one:

Librarians, Libraries And Facebook from Jane Secker

Another interesting one I found on the chocolate theme is below.  I do quite like some American chocolate, and so I did find this interesting from a content point of view. But also, it would have been interesting visually as lots of graphs, pictures and figures which you could look at whilst listening to the explanation.  Far better than masses of text. I also like the title slide as they look like chocolates to share and fitted the theme.  Though I have to say that I never share my chocolates unless bought specifically for that purpose!

Confectionery final from sweetyroy


It has certainly made me think about my own presentations, and although I do try to make them fairly visual and interesting, maybe I could do better.  I would definitely use it again and like it very much.  However, I can see there are also dangers in using it - especially the slides with facts and figures, graphs, etc - you have no way of ensuring they are accurate or what was consulted to produce that information, so caution would be advised. I was amazed at sales of chocolate in the US - with an overwhelmingly large percentage being at Halloween and not much at all at Christmas - totally different to our own sales - but that is Trick or Treating for you! 

It may cut down on work producing presentations, but I think not on the whole as by the time you have searched and browsed, cut and pasted, you could probably have produced your own.

I must also say that I had problems with the embedding of these presentations as it was not clear that you had to switch to html to paste into your blogger, and then back to compose.  This may seem very simple to some people, but it is that omission of detail which can be frustrating to people less technologically gifted!  So thank you, Nicki, for sorting me out!

Thing 18           QR codes

I now appear to have sorted out the problem with Google Chrome and all seems to be as it should be once again, which is a relief. However, I have decided to use Internet Explorer to try out the QR code sites, just in case!  I began noticing these strange squares well over a year ago when they appeared on a cooker programme I was watching and you could download the recipes from it, which I thought was a really good idea.  I also noticed them on bust stops for timetable info, also a good idea.

However, like Facebook and Twitter, although it is really good for some things, for others it is not quite as appropriate, but because it is the "new thing", it is used anyway.  I do see much less of these codes nowadays and not sure if it is because, like me, it is much easier for web site links, just to go to it via a phone or mobile device, rather than trying to get your phone to read these things.  Or maybe, they are everywhere and I have stopped noticing them because so prolific.  However, I have only had a smart phone for a few months so only just been able to try them out.  My impressions so far are that they are fiddly and less than satisfying, certainly to go to a websitre.  I can see that they have uses for messages and instructions, but still not sure I would use them.

I have tried to generate this, and it should go to my chocolate tasting club - http://www.chocs.co.uk  but I am pretty sure it does not.  When I try it on my phone, it gives the address of the QRcode webpage (and says I have to sign up and pay to change the name), and nothing else happens.  I spend so long trying to centre it and hold it still that my phone just times out in the end, whereas I could have tapped it into the search facility and been there by now.  So probably will not use these, though I suspect I need a workshop on them first.

 

 

Thing 19             Tagxedo

Emma was right.  Tagxedo and Wordle were very quick and easy to get the hang of. No logging in, no registering, no password to remember, just a lot of fun.  I could play with this for hours, and it would be perfect for posters and fun pictures.  The text I used for Tagxedo is taken from my personal spreadsheet of my main choc stash (Yes - I have several different groupings and themed collections.  I am a Librarian.) The words are from the name/description field, not the manufacturers.  It was interesting to see how my favourite things came up bolder and emphasized my love of salted caramel.  It seemed appropriate to use the cup design as reading the words makes you want to kick back and treat yourself.

Thing 19             Wordle

  I found a poem by Langston Hughes, called 'Harlem sweeties', and this is the Wordle picture from it.  I changed the colours to chocolate colours and played around with the font a bit - lots of nice ones to choose from.  I also picked a nicer backgraound colour from a huge spectrum of shades, but did not seem to be able to combine it with my font range, so stuck with a white background.  Layout options were very simple - horizontal, straight, vertical or a bit of both (see below), but I fondly like to think that mine does resemble a cocoa pod.

The fun came when after snipping and saving, I could not load the image onto the blog.  It turns out that Chrome (who I am starting to despise) would not let me do this, but Internet Explorer would. A simple change of browser, and I have my image. 
Yes - really like these sites.

Sarah

Sarah, a photo by Choccypam on Flickr.

This was taken for the Daily Echo last year when Sarah was having her lunch in town. She was approached by a reporter and interviewed as to whether she thought she should propose to her boyfriend this year. I forget the words exactly now, but it was on the lines of "I have dropped enough hints, now it is up to him!"

Thing 16 - Flickr

Was not sure about this as I do not take a lot of photos - in fact whenever I use our digital camera, nothing ever happens, so was not sure I would be bothered about this one. I logged on, using Chrome, and eventually gave up on that one as the round doughnut would just have gone on and on circling so I had to stop it.  Internet Explorer again came to the rescue on this occasion, and subsequently.  I have upset Chrome very badly it seems. 

 However, I found it very addictive in a way that Twitter was not.  It was easy to use and I managed to upload photos, which I found amazing.  It was also fun to put them into galleries and sets.   I successfully managed to rotate images and feel delighted by my start.  I decided I would have a go at taking photos again on my day off, and my luck was in as I actually managed to take pictures this time and was again childishly delighted,  This morning I uploaded my photos onto Flickr and was able to sort them in a way I found very satisfying.  In fact, I now would like to gather together all my photos and put them on here. I could take them on my phone as well, but not sure how I then transfer them, so will save that for later.

  They were easy to arrange, label and find when you need them.  I am a convert and could play with this all day.  And so to the chocolate.  Given that I am not a huge fan of light and tasteless wafer biscuits, including Kit Kat, I am afraid to say, I did not expect to be bothered by KitKat Chunky.  However, this is a stupendously satisfying chocolate bar, and the added flavours make it even more exciting, so take this Flickr!  You are my happy surprise.


(Found doing a Creative Commons search!)

However, my delight in Flickr was given a bit of a cold shower when I got to:

Thing 17 - Creative Commons

I knew they would catch up with me, and my wanton use of chocolate images would be taken to task.  I consider my hand well and truly slapped.  However, there are lots of chocolate images available through Creative Commons, and I do feel I have refreshed my awareness of this and  feel suitably chastened.  I searched Google images for chocolate with creative commons and did find quite a few, such as:



which is from commons.wikimedia.org and labelled as such under Google images.  But there were also lots of other images with just their web addresses and no clues as to copyright.  But clicking on the image and then the tab "Visit page" showed you that the image was indeed credited with Creative Commons:



This is certainly something to bear in mind for the future.

Thing 15 - Library Thing


It is official - Google Chrome really hates me.  It refused to open up the instructions to Thing 15, no matter how hard I tried and just kept spinning that circle.  The Task Manager refused to acknowledge the difficulty and Google Chrome refused access to anything to do with Sot23.  I therefore had to creep back to IE, which worked first time.

I do like Library Thing as well.  This would be great if you were just setting up your Book Collection or wanted to catalogue a part of it - for instance my rather excessive collection of cookery books - which a friend could then consult if he/she wanted to borrow one.  However, the thought of cataloguing the hundreds and hundreds of books in our house is just too daunting and overwhelming to be feasible, and probably, ultimately, pointless.

Recommendations are useful, but it is true that you get them all the time from Amazon anyway.  And this is flawed as I am a member of a Book Group, so
 a) I have hardly time to read the books each month, let alone the recommendations of others I have never heard of
  b) a lot of the books I buy are to read for my Book Group and suggested by people with different tastes to mine, and I would not willingly read them again or others like them in a month of Sundays
But the local info is useful and if I was 30 years younger and had more time and less books, I would enjoy doing this. 
And I am speaking as someone who keeps an Excel spreadsheet of all the things in my Chocolate store with sortable columns for Manufacturer, Best By Date and Intended consumption date, updated with joy each week.  Enough said.



Google Chrome has just responded to this post by opening up 7 downloads of Library Thing, an hour after my request.  It is war.

Thing 14 - Mendeley

Still having huge problems with Chrome and have closed the whole thing down a couple of times by mistake whilst reading the Mendeley info.  Had to set up my pages yet again and the Delicious Bookmarklet has disappeared again, although all my other bookmarks are still intact.  I am beginning to feel that my Friday mood of despair is justified after all.

But I am a person who loves lists and organisation (is this a trait common to all Librarians?  Am I the only one who cannot resist rearranging the weights in the gym before I do anything - or is this just a delaying tactic?)  and Mendeley has restored my good mood.
Although I have no need of using this in my present situation, I can see that if I was a student again, a researcher, or someone needing to produce work of this nature, this would be an invaluable tool.  It seems quick to pick up, straightforward and certainly has all the features I would wish for, and others I had not realised I might need.  The five short videos are very useful, as are Michael's notes, and I feel that I could certainly set myself up with this and get the hang of it very quickly.  The groups are a really good idea, and being able to list your own publications on your profile (though I do wonder if there are any checks on these or if anyone could lay claim to articles without challenge) would be useful for Ref work.  In fact, I find it hard to find a problem with this - appealing in every way.  I have had training in Ref Manager, though not in Endnote, and I am wondering if these services which we pay for actually are worth it if Mendely can do so much for no cost.  I know that there are obviously some features, as Michael has pointed out, that Mendely cannot do, but how many people currently using Endnote would necessarily want these anyway?  And what about the time/cost spent training in Endnote which, talking to colleagues, seems very complicated and involved?  If students were instead directed to Mendely with its brief training videos, this would surely be more efficient for all concerned?  I await the storm from Endnote advocates.................

I reflected on my experiences again over the weekend, especially with Delicious, and decided I was becoming very negative.  Delicious clearly works for many people, and I vowed to give it another go this morning.  I think that often we find these things frustrating because we do not have the time to explore them fully and start to use them before we are on to the next thing.  So - fresh as a daisy this morning, I tried again.  

Firstly, the bookmarklet I had successfully place on my Chrome toolbar had disappeared.  This could be because Chrome has started playing up (since we did the Browser task strangely - I think it has got the huff).  Anyway, it now will not close down all my pages and restore them as before any longer.  It keeps telling me that it was not shut down properly (which it was) and I have to start again. So possibly not the fault of Delicious but I feel I am being punished by Chrome for my infidelity.

Moving on - Delicious to me is still rather impenetrable, though I did manage to add some sites and award tags, which I can see might be useful.  Though to be honest, I could find those sites quicker by other means.  However, it is a start, and I can see that given time it might be useful.  But I cannot see me using it , to be honest.

Thing 14    - Delicious

I have always wondered what that little word was doing on Websites in the past - though I must admit that I hardly notice it these days - is that because I am used to seeing it or because it no longer appears so much?  Mental note to look out for this in future. 
I subscribe to two magazines - Good Food and Delicious, so I was a little confused the first time I noticed this word on websites.  I assumed that it either referred to the magazine - but why?! - or it was some other delectable site that was worth a look.  My initial investigation many moons ago was obviously a source of great disappointment to me as I still had no idea what it was, only that it was not, in itself, delicious.

I was also disappointed to learn that it was another way of organising Bookmarks.  I love organisation, and was quite excited by this week, but I have Bookmarks on Chrome, and Favourites on Internet Explorer, so what could this offer me that these could not?

Michael's instructions made it look very easy, but I must admit I have struggled and struggled with this.  I used Chrome as my Browser of choice. The website did not tell me to check my email for validation, nor did it present me with a registration form  - just a request for a username and password.  After that, nothing really happened.  I tried searching for websites, but kept getting error messages which contained the words 'destroy', 'null' and 'javascript' which did not fill me with confidence.  Eventually I worked out which was my Bookmark toolbar and managed to drag the Add to Delicious tag there.  I also checked my email despite having no message other than Michael's instructions, and did find a link to activate.  OK - up and running, I thought.  However, whatever I searched for yielded the same error messages and no results.  After half an hour of this, I gave up.  Even clicking on the 'Help' gave me a blank page.  I know when I am being ignored and this was with bells on.  
Thinking back to my experience with Browsers, I decided that it may work better on Internet Explorer, so logged on there instead.  The page looked different when it cam up, but required me to log in multiple times - each time I searched for something (despite the confirmation at the top that I was logged in. Also, I could not drag the Add to Delicious icon into the Bookmark bar, which had worked with Google Chrome.  I did, however, start to get sites through searching though far too many to be of any use.  When I went onto a website of my choice and tried to add it, it refused to co-operate again.  Not only did that stop working, but other website tabs I had opened also stopped working and I was invited to Kill my Unresponsive pages.  What a great idea.  I can take a hint.  So not for me so far, "Delicious vill also go on my list"  (Dad's Army). It also involves using tags and @ signs which is so confusing on Twitter.  Give me the ordinary Bookmarks any day.  
CurlyWurly, you are chewy, tough, full of holes and take for ever to finish  -  meet Delicious.

Reflections - Thing 13 (who knew?!)

I did indeed reflect on the previous weeks, but I had not realised until today that Reflection was a Thing in itself.  I was allowing things to settle and to think what I would really use. 

 I know Twitter has its fans, and once you re logged on, it can be quite interesting  (Tyrone from Corrie and his real life actress wife are expecting their first child by the way).  It did give me a bit of a frisson to know I had tweeted back to him, though I am not sure he will see the funny side. 
Doodle I will certainly use again, and Facebook I look at most days.  Netvibes - I can see the attraction, but like Twitter, I will probably not bother to use it as I have my default tabs set up on Chrome anyway and could not be bothered to log in again and see all the feeds, etc.

So - Doodle, Facebook - you are my caramels and pralines.  Netvibes, my nutty centre.  LinkedIn you are the alcoholic chocolates that I would prefer not to eat, and Twitter the strawberry creams.  As a whole very nice, but some nicer than others




But it has been very interesting and I do feel more clued up now about things.  Also - up till now, they have all been achieved without any real problems, apart from my initial confusion with Twitter.  Up till now, because today I tried to get to grips with Thing 16.

A reflection on the week

Maybe a nice hot cup of something is called for as I muse.........




Had scheduled tete a tete with son vis a vis twitter.  Maybe I should be studying French instead, n'est-ce pas?   I am now clear in my mind what it is all about and am even clearer that it is not for me.  Also had not been aware that you could set privacy rules as to who you  allow to follow you.  My request to son was pending for a few days, and had to assure him that I had no intention of following him in real life - Stalker Mother strides the Earth.  Still, interesting to know that you can do that.

Also had a chat with LinkedIn user.  Can see that some people will benefit from this but there are also lots of other professional fora and lists.  Again, not for me.

Facebook - yes - you are my friend. You make it easy to keep in touch with family spread over the country and check that they are OK. I can see photos of them and send them messages quickly and easily which I know they will pick up within an hour or two. I know how to set the privacy settings and how to block people.  If only I could prevent some of my Friends from drivelling on about nothing most of the time, life would be sweet!

Thing 12

LinkedIn.  Five minutes was enough.  Another Thing that is just not going to happen in my world.  Sorry to all those who find it useful, and I would dearly love to know just how useful it has been for those on it.  Really and truly - please get in touch. But it does not rock my world and I can't help thinking it smacks of desperation.  I can fully understand small independent companies or free lance people using this for contacts - completely.  For them, it is a brilliant idea and necessary - I do see that.  But for those already employed in large corporations, the only message I am getting is "Look at me, I need another job.  Please give it to me because applying through the usual routes is not working."  I am sure this is unfair, but the purpose of this job is to reflect on our thoughts as we use these Things, and I am afraid that those are my thoughts.  I am happy in my job and do not feel the need to broadcast my status to the world, so will not be signing up.
My chocolate of choice here may appear strange as I do love Easter Eggs, but only those with yummy chocolates inside them, otherwise what is the point - it is just overpriced chocolate.  These are all hollow, enough said.

Thing 11

I have been a Facebook user for a long time now.  There, I have said it.  It has been roughly 6 years.  In that time I have enjoyed keeping in touch with my scattered family and keeping up with old friends.  I have spent time searching for old school friends and marvelled at how the intervening years have transformed them.  I have been privileged to allow to see my children's post ('Friend') and also my nephews.  I have even been added as a Friend by my daughter's best friends so I can keep an eye on things at a distance and enjoy their banter.  I have played games on Facebook and owned farms.  It has been a real pleasure, and for that I award them my highest accolade of salted caramel chocolate, who cares what make - they are all so damned good



HOWEVER.  For me, and certainly for many young people - it is a 'social network' - a way to keep up with friends.  I do not want to look at the Library site when I am on Facebook, and nor do many others.  Sorry, but it is true - you would go to the website for that surely.  Similarly, I object to Tesco popping into my feed all the time just because I entered a competition.  Why do I want to know what Tesco is doing?  For heavens' sake, these large corporate beings have web sites, they are not my friends.  It feels like everyone is jumping on the bandwagon, whether it is appropriate or not, it is deemed to be 'cool'.

Another problem is that if you go to your 'Friend's' website - you enter in on their timeline - a complete patchwork scrapbook of unrelated bits everywhere which I do find annoying - I tend to stick to looking at the Feed only on my page.  So when I dutifully visit our Library page, and others - it is just a confusing mish mash of info and rubbish posted by recruitment agencies, current students complaining about the heating and old students reminiscing. The information is much much clearer on the official website.  I did prefer Southampton's page because of the lovely large snow picture, but is this a good enough reason to look at it?  Not for me that is certain, but we cannot all be the same.