Friday, September 25, 2009
#17 Playing around with PBWiki
Hmm... Not sure what I have done wrong, but I can't add content to the Learning 2.0 Wiki Sandbox. I've created an account, confirmed it with the link in an email, but I still can't edit! Very curious, I'll have to come back to this another time.
#16 So what's in a wiki?
I love wikis. But then, as a librarian whose job it is to understand concepts such as authority, I know to take them with a grain of salt. Yes, the content in a wiki can be subjective. But so can the content in a newspaper, journal, website etc...
I remember a skit on a comedy TV show from many years ago, which demonstrated the differences in reporting between Channel Nine news, ABC news and Channel 31 news. The subject was a police raid on a marijuana crop. The Channel Nine newsreader praised the brave and heroic police for saving the community from the scourge of drugs. The ABC newsreader reported on a raid on a "community farmer". The Channel 31 newsreader berated "The Man" for keeping the working man down. Everything is subjective. At least with wikis, we are prepared for it.
And look at the benefits. You no longer need to be a published academic to share knowledge in your area of choice. As a community, big or small, we are sharing our information, our knowledge, and our wisdom. How can that be bad?
I remember a skit on a comedy TV show from many years ago, which demonstrated the differences in reporting between Channel Nine news, ABC news and Channel 31 news. The subject was a police raid on a marijuana crop. The Channel Nine newsreader praised the brave and heroic police for saving the community from the scourge of drugs. The ABC newsreader reported on a raid on a "community farmer". The Channel 31 newsreader berated "The Man" for keeping the working man down. Everything is subjective. At least with wikis, we are prepared for it.
And look at the benefits. You no longer need to be a published academic to share knowledge in your area of choice. As a community, big or small, we are sharing our information, our knowledge, and our wisdom. How can that be bad?
#15 On Library 2.0 and Web 2.0
When I was studying Librarianship back in 1996, the buzz was all about the Internet, and its potential to make Libraries, and Librarians, redundant. At the time I thought it was all a storm in a teacup. The Internet would simply change the way we Librarians did our work - even make our work more valuable. I believe the same of Web 2.0 - and beyond. The world is changing, just as it always has (even though the change does seem to be becoming more rapid). We need to change with it. We can change with it. We are changing with it.
Rick Anderson's article "Away from the icebergs" makes a good point. We need to loosen our grip on certain "truths". In addition to the three icebergs he discusses, there are others that could be added. Our love for, and reliance on, a controlled vocabulary for instance. I find this one particulary hard to let go of. I was initially appalled at the thought of users being able to tag pages with whichever term they chose! But then I realised that, although it wouldn't result in a beautifully indexed world, a lot of people would still be able to find a lot of information. Perfect - no. Acceptable - yes!
Rick Anderson's article "Away from the icebergs" makes a good point. We need to loosen our grip on certain "truths". In addition to the three icebergs he discusses, there are others that could be added. Our love for, and reliance on, a controlled vocabulary for instance. I find this one particulary hard to let go of. I was initially appalled at the thought of users being able to tag pages with whichever term they chose! But then I realised that, although it wouldn't result in a beautifully indexed world, a lot of people would still be able to find a lot of information. Perfect - no. Acceptable - yes!
#14 Technorati
Browsing around Technorati today. Did a search for Pontipines - nothing! Not sure I'm too upset about that.
A search of the terms Learning 2.0 and Australia led me to an interesting article that asserts it is Gen X not Gen Y which is leading the charge in bringing collaborative technology into the workplace. Something to think about... Have a look at it here: http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2009/09/forget-gen-y-gen-x-is-making-r.php.
A search of the blogoshere for eLibrary and tax was disapointing - only two relevant entries! One from one of our very own LIS bloggers, and another from eGov AU. A search of tags found nothing about our eLibrary. Let's get blogging!
A search of the terms Learning 2.0 and Australia led me to an interesting article that asserts it is Gen X not Gen Y which is leading the charge in bringing collaborative technology into the workplace. Something to think about... Have a look at it here: http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2009/09/forget-gen-y-gen-x-is-making-r.php.
A search of the blogoshere for eLibrary and tax was disapointing - only two relevant entries! One from one of our very own LIS bloggers, and another from eGov AU. A search of tags found nothing about our eLibrary. Let's get blogging!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
#13 Del.icio.us
Have spent a while exploring Del.icio.us today. This is a wonderful tool with great potential for making web-life easier. My one concern, which I'm sure is shared by many, is the potential to lose all that wonderful organisation if it all goes "belly up"! This could be my own pessimism speaking, but relying on a website to organise so much of our important information is a bit like putting all our eggs in the one proverbial basket. However, having said that, I have set up an account and played around with it a little. I bookmarked and tagged a number of Web 2.0 sites and experimented with renaming tags (web20 to web 2.0). I also created an RSS feed into bloglines to see how that would go.
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