Thing 14 - YouTube & Online Video

A person could "waste" hours and hours on this Thing. I remember in high school thinking that Pink Floyd was the greatest band ever (I still love a couple of their official releases and enjoy listening to bootlegs of the early stuff a lot). Anyway, finding video of Pink Floyd back in the day was very difficult. Learning of the existence of and watching Pompeii for the first time was a real treat. But other than that, the unofficial video for "Echoes" at the end of Crystal Voyager (which didn't even feature footage of the band), and Alan Parker's The Wall, there wasn't really anything else out there.

In the age of YouTube there's so much Floyd out there that it actually becomes a chore to wade through it all. In a sense and given the ease with which we're able to access information and entertainment via resources like YouTube, we've become incredibly spoiled. As mentioned, it used to be very difficult to track down video of Pink Floyd performing. Now I can actually find archived television appearances from the Syd Barrett era or grainy footage from the Animals tour. Yet I now find myself frustrated with the poor quality of much of the footage, though, truth be told, I'd rather have access to grainy VHS transfers than nothing at all.

Below I've embedded a video from a Neil Young concert. This song has never been officially released on CD or LP, so this is the only way to experience it--and, good golly, I'm thankful for that because it's one of the better songs he's recorded in the past 10 or so years:



I have used Hulu.com, too. However, Hulu seems geared much more toward television programs than fan videos. In that sense, it's more like a outlet for "official" releases. And, again, I'm thankful. Back in the day, if you missed a TV show or heard about a great skit on SNL after the fact, you were out of luck. Now I can watch a whole library of television shows and catch up on episodes I've missed. A real life example: I've been watch LOST on Hulu with friends as a way of reviewing episodes in the run-up to the series finale. Good times.

In the library, I would think there'd be a lot of applications for these types of Web 2.0 tools. In YouTube, you can create channels where videos you've uploaded are hosted. CATS could easily set up a channel and begin archiving video from past programs on YouTube--especially performances by local musicians and artists in the library auditorium. Another obvious use for these types of tools is as a supplement to our own collection of audio-visual material. Historical recordings, speeches, and more are all excellent adjuncts to the printed word.

A major downside to these tools--especially in a library with multiple internet users--is the amount of bandwidth they use. But as internet service providers switch from phone lines to dedicated fiber optic cable, these types of obstacles should go the way of the dodo and the passenger pigeon. Time will tell.

Thing 13 - LibraryThing

I tell you what: the more Things I do, the more I think about privacy. And I think that's a very important "thing" to consider before diving into social networking tools and/or posting all manner of personal information on the web--information that--once cached by Google or the Wayback Machine--is next to impossible to remove.

LibraryThing is yet another tool with all kinds of possibilities, but then it's also another way to put an immense amount of personal information on the web. Yes, I could self-censor and only add "safe" books to my profile. But if I'm going to self-censor, then what's the point? On the other hand, what would a potential future employer or patron think if they saw that yours truly was a big fan social histories of the 60s counterculture, or the writings of neo-Marxist thinkers like Wilhelm Reich? What conclusions would they draw about me based on such titles, and would they be justified in doing so?

Regardless, I did create a LibraryThing profile. Actually, I created it back when I was putting the 23 Things together. Now, in retrospect, I find myself questioning that decision and sit here contemplating my compromised privacy. Should I delete my profile once I finish the 23 Things, or do I have an obligation to leave everything in place for the sake of staff members choosing to explore the 23 Things in the future? And does it even matter at this point? Tough questions.

With regard to the mention of incorporating LibraryThing into our online catalog, I would add the following update: the committee looking into this decided against purchasing the LibraryThing for Libraries enhancement. The main issue was cost. However, Adult and Teen Services staff have addressed this to a degree by creating the For the Love of Reading Blog. This does allow for reviews; however, there's no direct link from the PAC. Oh well.

When all is said and done, I'm not against LibraryThing. Yes, I'm reluctant to catalog my entire book collection. But what I find most useful is that LibraryThing can be used in the readers' advisory interview as a way of identifying similar books/authors--especially when used in concert with Amazon recommendations and NoveList Plus.

Thing 12 - Social Media Websites

This Thing provided me with a lot of food for thought. Up to this point, I hadn't paid much attention to these types of services. Yes, to be perfectly honest, I'd poked around on Reddit a bit, but only to check out their LOST page, which I've bookmarked and continue to check somewhat regularly (though I'll likely stop when the series wraps up).

Anyway, my approach to this Thing was to first explore the four social media sites mentioned in the Thing (i.e. Mixx, Digg, Newsvine, and Reddit). As a test, I searched for left-leaning political commentary and LOST news on each. In the case of the latter, I looked for something like a group or page dedicated solely to the topic. The results are as follows:

• Mixx - I looked at this tool first, but ended up liking it the least. While it does have a tagging feature, the tag 'lost' does not apply solely to the show. It is, however, possible to create a community, but there currently isn't one devoted to LOST, which didn't sit well with me. With regard to political opinion, there is a sub-category devoted to news opinion stories, but I just couldn't connect to the randomness of it. Actually, it's not the randomness per se (a certain degree of randomness is good and allows for disparate points of view). Rather, it's the lack of depth. It's blurby and sound bitey in nature, and I, personally, need more meat and less bone.


• Digg - This is one of the most popular social media sites, and it did offer a little more than Mixx. But that likely had a lot to do with the fact that there are a lot more Digg users than Mixx users. My issue with Digg was the lack of tags, i.e. you're basically stuck with Digg's categories, and, according to their FAQ, if you want to submit a story that doesn't fit within their categories, it's suggested that you don't. The interface is nice, but not nice enough to make up for Digg's shortcomings.


• Newsvine - At least Newsvine allows for tagging, but the interface is so ugly and busy that I was turned off before I even started to explore. Which brings me to...


• Reddit - Of the social media sites I explored, this is the one I liked best. Not just because there's a category devoted solely to LOST (as well as a plethora of other topics), not just because the interface is fairly clean and straightforward, not just because of the robust social community that makes reading the comments associated with each submission as much fun as trolling through the stories themselves, and it's not just the ease with which one can find stories of interest. No, it's not just these things. It's actually all them considered in concert. Just my opinion, of course, but I'm not likely to ever look at Mixx, Digg, or Newsvine again. Reddit, on the other hand, will continue to attract my attention.

But there is a dark side to all of this. I learned this by checking the four articles associated with each tool on the Thing instructions (i.e. the links labeled "one person's opinion of..."). Basically, there are two main problems. First, the development of potential echo chambers. For example, if you search for "chris hedges" on Reddit, you basically get links to articles written by Chris Hedges, but not a lot people who disagree with him. As such, you're not really get disparate points of view. But when you expand your focus, I think this issue is addressed to some degree. And, of course, a critical thinker would recognize this and actively seek out disparate points-of-view on their own. Sadly, critical thinking is no longer in the norm in this country, and, trust me, we'll all eventually pay the piper for such folly.

The second issue is that the stories that achieve the highest ranking on these sites are often placed in that position by a handful of contributors. Me? I don't really care about either criticism. I take everything I read with a grain of salt and do actively seek contradictory points-of-view. When it comes down to it, I just like being able to find information of interest easily, and Reddit is just one tool in a vast arsenal employed by yours truly.

Thing 11 - Tagging & Delicious

I've been using Delicious regularly since July 2007, so a lot of the material in this Thing was old hat. As of this posting I've bookmarked 746 web pages. Obviously, I'm a fan of the service. It is a fantastic way to organize content and discover new websites (I'm a big fan of the list of current popular pages). In addition, I love being able to type in a keyword or browse my list of tags to find an article I stumbled upon a couple weeks ago that I now want to share with someone else. And it's also a great alternative to Google. Though, truth be told, I don't use that way often; however, if I'm looking for something technology-related, I always make sure to check Delicious. Why? Because most Delicious users seem to be techies, and the stuck being bookmarked is often of interest to techies--not that that's reigned in my inclination to bookmark everything from YouTube videos, to political commentary, to the odd reference site.

Tagging in general is something that I embraced slowly. When I first started using Flickr in December 2005, I was like, "Tags? Bah! That stuff is for kids". But as I began to upload more and more photos (eventually upgrading to a Pro account), I was like, "Well, golly, these tags are the bee's knees!". I even spent the goodly portion of one afternoon going back through a lot of old photos and updating the tags. Another tag issue that garnered my attention was proper names. At first, I just tagged photos with the first names of the people in pictures. But as I started to tag more and more photos containing more and more people with the same first name, I was like, "Well, shucks, looks like I should've been a-taggin' people with both first and last names". So, again, I spent another afternoon re-tagging all of my friends. That said, I have not embraced labels in this here blog--and I probably never will.

With regard to some of the sites linked to in the Thing 11 instructions, I have to admit to being disappointed. It seems that all of the libraries that were using Delicious when this Thing was first created are no longer using Delicious. And that really is a shame. "Why would you say that, Phil?", you say. Well, it's because I think Delicious is a much better approach to bookmarking reference websites and such than the current method. That's my opinion, of course. But I'm convinced. So there.

Thing 10 - Setting Up a Wiki

It's been quite interesting to see how people have used the wiki platform in various contexts since the software started to garner serious attention around the turn of the millennium. I've seen contexts in which wikis worked really well and contexts in which they've failed miserably.

First, let's consider the tasks required by this Thing. The readings and examples of wikis in action were interesting, but what struck me most was the optimism with which some libraries embraced wikis prior to the advent of content management systems (CMS). Prior to CMS like Drupal and Joomla, wikis actually provided a straight-forward, relatively user-friendly way to create web content. Some libraries embraced this with gusto (like the St. Joseph County Public Library subject guides mentioned in the Thing 10 instructions). In an MCPL context, this sort of approach could result in our librarians creating subject guides, book maps, and pathfinders on a broad range of topics, and the plus is that it's all be possible without the need for additional Dreamweaver licenses and training in HTML, etc.

With regard to the MCPL wiki, which we were asked to edit, I found the actual process of working with and editing a wiki to be quite simple--that is it's fairly easy once you find the help page that explains the commands. It's also fun to see how creative my co-workers are. The tale of Bilbo Dreamweaver is awesome, and I liked hearing about my co-workers cats. And using the page history to see who added what and/or made revisions is a great example of the real potential of wikis.

Which brings me to my main point: wikis, when you get down to the nitty-gritty, seem suited to a very specific purpose. Yes, they've been used in all sorts of ways, but the online encyclopedia entry seems to be the best application. This is attested to by the popularity of the Wikipedia and other topic-specific online encyclopedias, like the Lostpedia. At one point, MCPL gave wiki software a shot, but it never caught on. Two thoughts there: 1) I really think that given our in-house access to the Office suite and networked drives, the potential for commenting and tracking changes within programs like Word is a much more viable alternative, and 2) our switch from a static web-editing platform to the Drupal CMS allows us to take advantage of certain wiki-like features (like a revision history). I also think staff were turned off to the MCPL wiki because they were asked to use it for tasks and discussions for which it was never really intended. This--coupled with the learning curve involved in mastering the editing commands--led to the development of staff resistance to the wiki use (at least, that's my take on it).

All of which makes me ponder again the goal of 23 Things: to familiarize staff with different technologies and interfaces so that everyone has a better understanding of which online tools are best suited to which jobs. I think one potential application of the wiki at the community level has already been addressed by the Bloomingpedia. Of course, I may be wrong. Time will tell.

Thing 9 - Collaboration Tools

I don't think I'd laughed out loud doing any of the previous Things, but reading through the revised Declaration of Independence was a gut-busting laugh fest. Wow! Of course, the point of collaboration tools is not comedy, but some of my colleagues definitely ran with this one. I especially enjoyed the Lovecraftian overtones and the multiple nods to Yog-Sothoth. Good stuff.

Regardless, I can see the appeal of these tools, and can also see a lot of applicability. In general, these types of tools are great because they're free, easy-to-use, and compatible with basic features of the Microsoft Office suite, i.e. text, paragraph, and image formatting. They're also handy in that a person can access their documents anywhere in the world as long as they have an Interwebs connection.

That said, my one reservation about these types of tools is privacy. Once you start putting documents and spreadsheets and the like on the Interwebs, then your control and ownership of said files is greatly diminished. A few days ago, a pal forwarded me a link to an interesting article on this very topic. That article is mainly geared toward people concerned about the amount of personal data Google is accumulating--especially in the cases of those who use multiple Google products like Gmail, Blogger, Calendar, Picasa, and Docs! These are real concerns of mine, and if there were to be any reason to choose Zoho Writer over Google Docs, it'd be out of concern for such issues.

However, if I didn't really care about all that, then I'd probably choose Google Docs--especially given my fondness for Gmail. I mean, really, how complicated do things really need to be?

All in all, this was an ideal Thing, and it was probably the first I was actually able to wrap up in a single hour.

Thing 8 - Sharing Your Creations

I took time to explore all of the programs highlighted in this Thing. First up was sharing slide shows online. The two programs mentioned were Zoho Show and Slideshare. To get a better grasp of the strengths (and weaknesses) of these products, I did a little digging around on the Intertubes and dug up a somewhat dated but, nonetheless, interesting article comparing the two. Good points to keep in mind:

• Zoho Writer is geared more toward people who are looking to create presentations online--as opposed to uploading an existing presentation. In addition, Zoho Writer allows you to edit a presentation once it's been uploaded.


• Slideshare does not allow you to create your slideshow online, nor does it allow you to edit a slideshow once it's been uploaded. However, Slideshare seems to do a much better job of converting an existing PowerPoint presentation to a web-based format than Zoho Show.

Having zeroed in on the above--and after poking around a little--I've come to the conclusion that if you want to create something online, then you want to go with Zoho Show. But if you want to upload an existing PowerPoint presentation, then you want to go with Slideshare. I gave it a shot with a 2MB presentation I created for a library program (the maximum allowable file size is 100MB) and had good results--though it did take a good 30+ minutes to upload. All in all, this would be an ideal way to share a presentation with colleagues after a talk at a conference or following a program.

Next up was the fun stuff: sharing photos in formats with a little pizazz--not that I'll ever give up on my beloved Flickr. For this Thing, I decided to explore Picture Trail and Big Huge Labs. The most obvious application of these tools our public website. In fact, the Children's Department created a Flick using Picture Trail to highlight the recent renovations in that department. And such slide shows need not stop with shots of staff and empty rooms. Indeed, our photography policy states that staff can take pictures of event attendees and post said pictures to the Intertubes.

However, I chose not to focus on the library. Instead, I present to you some excellent photographs of the one and only Fliffity Fluffers!:

Working with the tool was fairly easy, and I had a lot of fun messing around with the options...though, in the end, I opted for something fairly plain. Next up was Big Huge Labs, and, I gotta admit, I'm a sucker for the Motivator and the Magazine Cover generators. But before I dove in and created the image you see below, I took some time to explore the other options. And, boy howdy, there's some interesting stuff. You can create a calendar with your own photos, make photo mosaics similar to those in Picture Trail, stylize image headers for Wordpress blogs, or put together mock magazine covers. They even have a list of recommended digital cameras that's updated weekly, the times for sunset and sunrise for numerous locations around the globe, and a couple tools for managing Flickr sets. Really cool. Regardless, here's my magazine cover:



All in all, I found this to be a rather enjoyable Thing. Working with images is always fun, and this Thing allows for a lot of creativity. I suppose the one drawback is that a person can get carried away and spend an inordinate amount of time tweaking projects. But the payback is just too great. Good times.