The final post

It never ceases to amaze me what's out there on the web. The more I think I know, the more I don't know and NEED to. So, thank you Jayne Gutry for organising the web 2.0 training. It's been a lovely journey of discovery; I especially enjoyed setting up my blog, checking out the web 2.0 award winners plus seeing all those easy-to-understand YouTube tutorials by LeeLeFree. A+!

W9, pt trois: NetLibrary & Downloadable Media

So, it was only last Friday that I got a customer inquiry about NetLibrary, from the Pt Chev branch. The title in question was The Law Of Hippocrates, and there were only two pages when I got to the record. I know nothing about the Hippocratic oath, and thought, just as the Pt Chev librarian had, that surely this book covers more than five points spread over two pages! But, alas, the record was right, and we were quite wrong. So, NetLibrary, you rock!

It's a little disconcerting that one of Oscar Wilde's most celebrated works, An Ideal Husband, isn't available as a eAudio book via Downloadable Media! I have a soft spot for him, so I can recommend this title, which is available: The Importance of being Earnest.

What can I say? eBooks and eAudio books are just fantastic for commuters.

W9 pt deux: Podcasting

My other half if a Mac snob, so I was introduced to his podcasts via iTunes years ago. Very cool. Even now that I'm a PC netbook user, I've stuck to getting podcasts from iTunes - it's such an awesome access system/channel. I listen to a French station -  'Classique and Jazz' - which is just so fab - jazz for free!

Anyway, I checked out a the following directories:

PodcastDirectory:
As I wrote the recommendations for podcasting and multimedia recently for the ACL web content review, I thought I found a rough diamond in this screencast. It talks about how to do podcast book reviews: http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podshows/4672360 - how great is this!?

Podiobooks: http://www.podiobooks.com/title/letter-from-china - fantastic quality for a first choice audio book I found on the web in seconds. It's an insight into China, a country I know so little about, but is a vast and growing nation, with scary consequences e.g. slave labour, people having no access to Facebook (aren't I lucky?), and widespread poverty plus animal abuse. Nuts! Fascinating. Saddening. Even tho the narrator sounds a little robotic, his narration is still clear and easy to listen and follow. So many Chinese immigrants in NZ have a hard life.

Podcastalley.com seems to want me to dl software before I can subscribe, which I'm loathe to do as I already have iTunes. No thanks this time round.

W9 pt uno: YouTube

OMG. If I can write dialogue like this, I probably wouldn't still be an online editor. YouTube rocks, I can link to all sorts of crazy adventures about virtual libraries, library scenes from movies etc but hey, this is FUN, so enjoy the rocking scene from Thank You For Smoking.

W8: Online docs & winning sites

Before I got my job @ ACL, I was working for a small web co in Onehunga. This co went all progressive and decided that Google aps and docs were the way to go. He wanted full collaboration. In fact, we set up docs that we were editing simultaneously in real time! Wow, I thought to myself: "Imagine writing a screenplay this way!" You'd complete it in no time!" So here's the link to my Google doc: https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AT5xhAjP5yMMZGZkYjZwdGRfMG43ZjR2Mg&hl=en I set up just for the web 2 requirement.

I love Zoho too, but couldn't figure out how to link to a Zoho doc from this post.

OK, so I initially picked the winner for the SEOmoz 08 winner in the food category, and, hmm, the site didn't grab me in 2 seconds, so I moved on, and stumbled across One Sentence: http://www.onesentence.org/, the honourable mention in the Fun Stuff category. Well, I got onto the site, which is about true stories told in one sentence, and I found myself riveted. I love the ratings system, how the ups and downs balance things out. I really liked this one-sentence story:


true love

After 10 years of counseling, a full time career, and the support of 4 children, my dad still cries every night at the loss of Mom.

oh, and this one:

myfairmaybe

When he told his four-year-old daughter that the doctor just needed to look at her eyes to make sure they were okay, she whispered, "Will he put them back in when he's done looking at them?"

I don't know about you, but this is probably the first time i've stumbled across a site that had a sentence that could make me cry.

Like I said, the rating system is so groovy I'd like to plant that on the ACL site somewhere!

W7: Wiki woohoo

Well, aren't wikis fun? I've even taken the liberty of tidying up the T&D wiki homepage on the Zone for us! It's a way for me to get started on wiki-ing myself into the online world.

Actually, I've recently had the chance to do quite a bit of work for the Chinese Digital Community, which happens to be a wiki and one of Auckland City Libraries' sister site. We held a successful competition for Chinese New Year last month and the page views were off the charts (Unique visitors increased by 700%, and page views went up 900% during the month compared to the monthly average). Yes, it's very collaborative and a great way for the community to share information: stories, articles, research, images, video, audio.

So I've added my blog to the fave blogs page, and some movies to the fave movies page. It's fun, but I sure don't like the messy look of an amateur wiki site. Doesn't work for me!

Which reminds me, I should see if there's anything to update or tidy up for ACL on Wikipedia!

W6, pt 3: Library 4.0?

I believe ACL is as advanced as it can be for the online world of libraries. The video about web 2.0 is an apt summary of how the web has evolved into an online social place. People and what they do are ultimately what makes interesting reading and viewing on the web.

While our site, www.aucklandcitylibraries.com, hosts a number of web 2.0 features (tag clouds, My Discovery, RSS, shareability), it is still not the social space it can be. In fact, we’re a little bit behind the 8 ball, but we’re getting there! Roll on, Twitter! At least we can try to get some sort of two-way communication going with Twitter… hopefully!

The article ‘To a temporary place in time...’ is pointing towards library 4.0 which includes a “knowledge spa: meditation, relaxation, immersion in a luxury of ideas and thought. In companies, this may take the form of retreat space for thought leaders, considered an investment in innovation; in public libraries, the luxurious details will require private partners as sponsors providing the sensory treats.”

Sounds like a sci-fi movie to me, but I’d like to be there!

W6, pt2: Technorati

Ah, Technorati has outed the web 2 discovery exercises as a little.... out of date, should I say? The claim your blog page is defunct, and I couldn't find "Learning 2.0" or "web 2.0" in Technorati's tags or blog posts. However, the 'film' tag threw up an interesting article about film technology though: 3D Technology Has Yet To Work Out All The Kinks. Kinks -- it's so true. Altho 3D glasses have come a long way, when will they stop giving me whopping headaches?! During Avatar 3D recently, I also had to make sure I got a seat in the middle-back of the Imax theatre so as to get the best viewing experience. Amazingly, during wondrous forest scenes, the dewy drops of refreshing rain felt real! So real, in fact, these drops of water were actually from the leaky roof threatening to cave in on all of us that rainy day! Just ate a tin of Select Lime & Cracked Pepper tuna. I can you, blimey, it's limey!

W6: De.li.c.ious

O noooo, Decliious is a Yahoo co?! The registration process was a mite cumbersome, so was a little offputting. D's been around for ages, but I don't reckon it's overly useful. More and more people have their own lappies nowadays, so why would you really need to have an online space for bookmarks? You could easily just add your faves to your toolbar, and with Chrome, it's probably quicker just to search whatever comes to mind as soon as the browser opens as the url bar doubles as a very clever search bar. I've even convinced my other half to switch to Chrome from Firefox - now, THAT's something. Talk about the minutes you can shave off your browsing each day! Anyway, this is my Delicious: delicious.com/jolonz

W5, pt 2: Rollyo again

So, I'm not done withchoo, Rollyo. And this morning I had the pleasure to roll my own Flickz search engine: rollyo.com/jolonz/flickz - very cool. I love the search widget too, but am not sure if it's gonna trump my handy, trusty Chrome url + search bar all-in-one which, as a fervent web searcher, I can't live without.

Unfortunately the free photos page is a bit spammy. Well, you know what they say. If it's too good to be true, it probably is!

W5: LibraryThing & Rollyo

LibraryThing is a GREAT community for book lovers. It's quite easy to register and use, but the site tried several times to verify my account.

If you're an Aucklander who uses Auckland City Libraries' online catalogue on a regular basis, then the site's 'My Discoveries' feature might be handier to use than LT. MD lets you save book lists, rate books, write short book reviews; you wouldn't have to access two sites for virtually the same purpose. But LT seems to have other bonuses and features, e.g. interesting blogs and news from the book world that ACL does not cover.

Search LT for a book:


Oh, no! Rollyo

I was so very, very excited when going through the types of Rollyos. One said: Free photos! I thought - this could make my job a lot easier, you know. I struggle to find images (that aren't protected by copyright) for the web all the time. Unfortunately, with Rollyo down, I'll have to revisit some time in the future.

W4: RSS & rice

There is so much to say about RSS. I've been subscribing to RSS feeds for ages, but in reality, I hardly check these! So I'm now trying out Google's Reader and yes, have subscribed to some very important movie and lifestyle pages with the world's leading edge media e.g. NY Times, Washington Post, Oprah. Yes, Oprah! She's quitting the TV show in 2011 and I haven't stopped grieving. I personally never watch Oprah, but the times I've had the good fortune to catch her in action, I just think to myself now: "What are the good people of the planet gonna do for inpiration when her TV show ends?!!!" She is truly inspiring. (Stop laughing!) Anyway, Google Reader - definitely something I can use for myself, and to keep up to date with what's happening in my work world. Although... I decided earlier on prior web 2.0 training that Twitter was the way to go for work intel online - check out my account: http://twitter.com/jolonz. Anyway, we go from RSS to rice. Had to go to the Shanghai eats on Lorne St today to get my dose of Chinese. Yum, Shanghainese spicy tofu and cooked cabbage on rice are really a combo I'll never get sick of.

W3, pt 4: Funny image generator

I feel so virtuous. After five weeks of not blogging, I finally got back into it on Thursday with a lot of Web 2.0 catching up to do. And already, I've managed to jog back to Week 1 to check if I've left out any discovery exercies. For instance, I had to go back to Week 2 and include a link to social media. Today's experience with imageGenerator.net reminded me of one of my favourite segments on Whose Line is it Anyway? where two comedians get plonked in front of footage and they have to commentate. But it's just about making really funny comments, and I hope I've done that with Dumbledore: http://www.imagegenerator.net/browse/dumbledore/date/134384/

W3, pt 3: Life's a Piknik

I love photos and used to rely heavily on my other half's Photoshop. But now that I've got a netbook which cannot possibly handle the grunt of Photoshop/CS4 installed, Piknik's really making my life very much a... picnic.  I've been playing around with an original photo taken from this morning's getogether with the other mummas and bubbas... albeit sans cupcakes. I used Piknik to crop, sharpen and saturate Finny.

W3, pt 2: Flikr's colr pickr

I can’t believe just how beautiful things of the same shade can be. Flikr’s Colr Pickr (yes, the spelling of Flikr’s aps are driving my internal dictionary insane, BTW) is oodles of fun. Who would’ve thunk to create such a cool tool? Or maybe I'm just intrigued to see how many images are out there in the strangest shades of green or yellow or purple. Quite a few, and they're oh so stunning... in mauve, emerald, azure, olive, cocoa, violet, mustard.. Hmmm, speaking of mustard, which momentarily spins me off to foodland, I've just picked up dinner in a box from ReVive on Lorne. Initially, I chose the caesar, curried potato salad and slaw. But right in the last nanosecond, I said to ditch the slaw and give me the Mediterranean quinoa with cauliflower instead. A wonderful combo cuisine-wise, I'm sure, but colour-wise, oh, the mustard of the curried potato screamed out at me when the container was handed to me. And I thought, the three stripes of colour within the plastic box would've been prettier with the mustard of curry, beige of quinoa and purple of slaw, but ditching the slaw completely ruined the colour arrangement, and in fact, ruined my appetite a little. See how important colours can be for a person's Zen?

W3 pt1: Flickr

If you'd read my first post, you'd know I barely have time to eat. And if you've seen my second post, you'd guess I'm probably on Facebook already. So where on this planet would I find the time for Flickr?! The list of 3rd party Flickr tools could take a century to read, let only discover. But evidently, I could not go past the Movie Poster Maker... 

W2: Social media

I should've boldly claimed in 2007 my suspicions that Facebook was going to take over the world and stay at the top. MySpace was on the out, or least holding on to the music niche. Thank goodness for the new look. Twitter took off, to my surprise. Still think Facebook will hold strong for a long time to come. And Bebo. Bebo just doesn't grab me. Linked In... now, Linked In flabbergasted me for an entire year. I had a friend on FB asking if it was actually possible to get registered on Linked In, and I said NOOOO, it's impossible! But you know what? Right after I posted on FB, I jumped straight into Linked In, and a miracle happened. I. Managed. To. Register. On. Linked In!!!!!! OMG. I was overjoyed. Now I feel truly connected.


I'm gonna prove that I exist on Linked In - check it out: http://nz.linkedin.com/in/jolonz

Net-crazy...

aka can't stay away from the computer. A dangerous addiction. Some say boring. I say dangerous. Because boring can't give you OOS. Anyway, about my blog name, I want to tell you about the name 'ghrelin'. Ghrelin is a gastro hormone that stimulates the appetite, and I do love food. However, I only ever have a decent appetite when I'm not distracted by the computer. As I'm so often on the computer, you can imagine the conflict this creates. Often, my brain does not know whether to say 'stay on the net' or 'eat'.