The Final Encore...

I must admit that I was not particularly happy about having to do Web 2.0 at the beginning of the program, as it seemed to be just one more work task (and a heckuva lot less fun than doing storytimes)...but as the days wore on, I found myself drawn in by the various projects we were introduced to, and I really enjoyed the process. The most challenging exercises for me were the RSS and Feed Readers, and the Online Applications and Tools as I'm not a computer kinda guy, and it seemed like one really needs to spend a lot of time with these 2 in order to get a solid handle on how to utilize them more fully. My favorite exercises were Music Networks and Streaming Music, Wikis, and Photos and Images. I've been able to incorporate what I learned from them into my blog postings, both personal and the Mill Creek branch blog. The most "unexpected outcome" for me is that I found I love blogging, and as a consequence I've volunteered to do the branch blog on a monthly basis. And as far as participating in a future discovery program, count me in.

And since this is my last official blog posting, I want to thank Jim and everyone associated with the Web 2.0 project for making it as easily digestible as it was. Without clear instructions and prods, it could've been pretty painful, but it flowed really smoothly. Thanks...and a couple of last thoughts: Let's Go A's...and it ain't over until the fat man leaves the stage...

Game Time!

I had never really checked out gaming on the internet, so this was a good opportunity for me. I played Wordsense on Yahoo, and did okay, but when I tried to play "Chevy Cobalt Track Challenge," I was crashing constantly (guess I should've played some video games when I had the chance!). I tried Funbrain and played "Math Baseball" and "Power Football" and I can see how this site can make learning math more exciting. Playing these games was a lot easier than I thought they would be (exceot for "Track Challenge" where I got my butt kicked), whic is exactly why I don't have a computer at home...I know that if I did, I'd be on it all night playing Madden 09 (a realistic pro football game), and I'd never go out of the house again or read or see the sun...

As far as the question about the 6 aspects of gaming and the question "Did you see any implications for our workforce?," the answer is, sadly, yes. #5 reads "When you do something especially great, you're rewarded in some fashion," and #6, "When you reach your goal, even if it's an intermediary one, you are acknowledged in some way." My experience at Sno-Isle has led me to conclude that the library system does a poor job of abiding by those gaming rules. A couple of cases in point: I wrote, directed and acted in the promotional video for Sno-Isle, but when it was completed there was not one word of thanks for the job I did from anyone in the administration; the only compliments I received were from my former branch manager and a few coworkers who just happened to see it on the website and knew what it was (as Sno-Isle did not give any information about what the heck it was, it was just posted as a YouTube link. I (and my colleagues who did a great job with the filming, soundwork and editing) didn't expect to get a red carpet rolled out for us, but we did expect to be acknowledged...and now the video has been basically forgotten. The other instance was the effort I put into coordinating a series of programs by a Bay Area children's entertainer (who, incidentally, is not a friend of mine; I only met the guy once 35 years ago) that included performances at 6 Sno-Isle branches and 4 King County Library System libraries. The only people who thanked me for putting this together were several of the children's librarians...and that was it. No acknowledgement from anyone in the programming department or anyone at all in the administration. Once again, I'm not looking to be fawned over; I would just like someone at Service Center to, for once, say "thank you." But it appears that even that is asking too much...very sad; doesn't do much for morale. Hey, be careful what you ask for...

Google Earth

Google Earth is very cool. I was able to find the house that I grew up in in Oakland and check out what Oakland High School looks like now (totally different from when I went there). I went to Red Square and saw the Lenin Mausoleum, St. Basil's and GUM department store all over again. The street level view is an amazing tool, and I can see patrons using it to get a sense of what a place looks like before they go to visit. But my favorite toy on the site was the flight simulator; it was a blast to feel like I was flying (even if I did crach a few time). Definitely a site to suggest to patrons for a wide variety of reasons/uses.

Avatars and Second Life

I'd heard a lot about Second Life, but I had never checked it out until now. First, I went to tektek.org and built an avatar (looks nothing like me, of course). Then I went to Second Life, signed up and gave myself the name "Hawkins Mavendorf." I started the tutorial and spent about half an hour getting a body and then clothes, but the clothes wouldn't appear on my avatar, so I must have been doing something wrong. Anyway, it's a fascinating world, but I wouldn't want to spend much time as a "virtual self"; spending a lot of time pretending to be someone with a lot of other people pretending to be some other ones strikes me (personally) as a rather sad way to spend one's prescious time -- it seems to be a way for folks who don't like who they really are to make themselves into their desired self in virtual reality, instead of trying to find ways to accept and like who they really are. Second Life seems to be another drug that enables people to not face reality. Anyway, that's just me.

Google Docs: Si -- Zoho: No

In Google Docs, I was able to put together a slide show incorporating video and text, with the 3 different covers of the song "Promised Land" (my blog name!), one by Bobby Weir and Kingfish 1989, another by the Dead at Venata in 1972, and a third by Chuck Berry (the real King!) himself, followed by a 4th slide that asked viewers/collaborators to respond by adding their favorite Rock'n'Roll song and a video to support it. It loooks pretty cool and Google Docs made it relatively easy to figure out how to create it.

Now Zoho... I tried to do basically the same thing (create a slide show with text and video) but the Hyperlink that was supposed to allow me to add video from YouTube wouldn't work, even though I attempted it with a number of different videos. After about 15 minutes trying to figure it out, I just gave up. But I think Google Docs would be a great tool for library workers to use when creating a collaborative slide show or other type of document.

Search Engines

I looked for information about Theodore Adorno (German philosopher/cultural theorist) on Rollyo, Mamma and Dogpile. Rollyo was the best search engine of the 3, as I found an excellent essay at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, a good short essay at the European Graduate School, and several specialized essays from academic journals (the type of information I was most hoping to find). At Mamma there was a decent essay at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, but the site that looked most promising, mythosandlogos.com/Adorno.html, had way too many dead links to make it useful. Dogpile was primarily a list of links to books by or about Aorno, along with a few sites of basic biographical info. 0-- in other words, no graet shakes. Rollyo was by far the best search engine for this particular search. I was surprised that Dogpile didn't give me a greater diversity of links, as it is my understanding that it has the largest group of search engines to choose from.

Podcasts

I looked at quite a few podcasts from the Wikipedia Podcasting page and settled on 2: Denver Public Library and Sunnyvale Public Library. Denver PL was valuable for its extensive list of children's picture books podcasts (many of these titles were also recorded by Sno-Isle folks), and Sunnyvale PL had a number of business-related podcasts (Developing a Business Plan; Basic Business Research; Small Business Administration) that would be useful for Sno-Isle patrons to be able to access. I also subscribed to "The Dead Show on KOPN 89.5 FM" (a weekly Grateful dead program from a station in Columbia, MO) for my own personal interest. I have experience with podcasting as I recorded 5 children's picture books for podcasts here at Sno-Isle.

Playtime with Pictures!

Pretty cool. At Custom Sign Generator, I put my face on a copy of The Economist magazine with the caption, "America's Tragedy." And I made a Monopoly card that you see to the right...hey, you said to have fun with it!

Mr. Sulu, Put It in OverDrive!

I had used OverDrive a year ago when I was setting up a "TumbleBooks and other audio/video available from the Sno-Isle website" presentation for parents and caregivers, and I had already downloaded video as part of those presentations; I had also promoted it to many patrons who weren't aware that Sno-Isle offered such a great service. But it was fun and instructive to look at it again. I particularly liked the "Always Available" feature for audio and video, the fact that you can tell at at a glance if an item is available ("add to cart") or not ("place a hold"), and that quite a few titles can be burned to CD. Things I didn't particularly like: you can't search nonfiction audio books by subject or Dewey, and, of course, the familiar patron complaint that these titles can't be downloaded to iPods (although I see that this will change in the near future). Oh, I also really liked the large catalog of Italian horror movies that can be downloaded and the Radio Classics section. I was also very impressed by the breadth of music available and I have showed patrons how they can access a particular piece of music on OverDrive when all the CDs of that piece are checked out: patrons love that!

What I'm not loving is that the A's are now 4.5 games out of first after losing last night to the Angels, but hey, they're still 5 games over .500. If you had told me in March that Oakland would be over.500 on June 7, I'd have suggested that you check into a drug rehab center. But the youngsters are coming along and the young pitching has been outstanding (and Rich Harden is still healthy -- be still my beating heart!). And Jack Cust, designated hitter ('cause he's a butcher in the field) shown in the photo above, is still jacking balls out. So, all is pretty well in my world...and Bobby Weir and Ratdog are coming to town 2 weeks from today -- Yeehaw!

Tagging and Delicious

The video and the delicious tutorial were very helpful in explaining what at first appeared to be a very complex concept (at least to the technologically-challenged like me). I set up an account and found several useful links to tag that concern Louis Althusser (the gentlemen you see here and near the bottom of the page). The obvious advantage of delicious has been stated several places: the tags can be accessed from any computer, not just the one being used at the present moment. I could see this being a very useful tool for students who are working collectively on a school project, as they would be able communicate their findings about building up a list of resources that all could use. It would be of use to librarians (such as seen on the San Mateo Public Library site) to compile lists of titles on a topic of interest for the public by using tags.

Wikiwikiwikiwooo!

The video made the purpose of a wiki very clear. However, when I went to Wikimatrix, it was downright bewildering. So many wikis and so many possible features (most of which I had no clue what a word or term was referring to); I guess once one starts to really delve into wikiland, it becomes a lot easier to figure out. That said, I could see public libraries using wikis for quite a number of things: ongoing committee work; adding book reviews from patrons (as Princeton Public Library does); and the creation of more patron-friendly search terms with links to "official" Libraryland subject headings. A recent reference interview which turned into a referred question on finding a list on nonprofit organizations in south Snohomish County would have benefitted by us here at Sno-Isle having a wiki dedicated to this purpose (as we couldn't find any such list anywhere). Something for us to think about...

On the baseball front, the Athletics are starting to show their youth and inexperience by losing game after game after game, and are now just 2 games over .500. But I had no illusions that they were going to be a factor in the AL West race this year; now, next year could be a totally different story: if some of the kids who are just learning what it's like to be a major leaguer this season can refine their hitting skills by next April, Oakland could be back at or near the top of the standings come September 2009. Ah well...at least I have those great memories of the 1972/73/74 World Championship years to fall back on...like watching Captain Sal hit a grand slam against current M's pitching coach Mel Stottlmeyer and the Yankees on July 4th, 1972, and seeing the Finley fireworks explode into the Oakland night...

Streaming Video...and the A's are still...amazingly!...in First Place!

I'd already explored YouTube when setting up my blog and I'd downloaded several videos to my blog, which you can check out below: Bobby Weir and Kingfish performing "Promised Land," the Dead doing the same song at the 1972 festival in Venata, Oregon, and "The Play" (the kickoff runback for a touchdown on the very last play of the 1982 Big Game between Cal and Stanfurd that brought victory to my Golden Bears). If you haven't looked at them, you should; they're all pretty cool. I like Hulu a lot; I found the original "Bedazzled" with Dudley Moore and Peter Cook, and if I had a computer at home, I could watch the entire movie. I also looked at brief clips from TV shows "Miami Vice" and "Buffy" and was impressed with the site. Not so much with Fancast: it wasn't as easy to use as Hulu, and even though there were more TV shows available, their film catalogue was pathetic. Anyway, these sites could be very useful to show to patrons, as they could watch TV episodes immediately rather than waiting for months on a long hold list for library DVDs.

And although Oakland was shut out last night 4-0, they're still tied with the Angels for first place in the AL West at 22-15. And as for the Mariners, well...they were shut out for the THIRD STRAIGHT GAME! Too bad, so sad... And here's a photo of some of the key A's players (and the owner they loved to hate, Charlie Finley) of that great 1972 World Championship team, the first of 4 in the illustrious history of the Oakland Athletics. More on that club on future blogs...Let's Go A's!

Facebook and International Workers Day!

I set up an account on Facebook and entered a substantial aImount of information to my profile. I was also -- amazingly, but I guess that's part of what's so great about social networks -- able to find an old high school friend on Facebook who now lives in Placerville. Haven't contacted her yet and wasn't able to locate any other old friends from high school or college days, but I can see where this kind of network could play a great role in reconnecting folks from around the country (or world, for that matter). I haven't found anything yet that I don't like about Facebook; as I continue to explore, I'm sure I'll encounter more positives and negatives, but for right now, I'm really excited about it (which is why -- duh -- it's become so popular).

And since it's May 1st (May Day), I thought it only right to post a photo of the monument in Highgate Cemetery to the Grand Old Man himself...

A Flickr photo...and the A's are still in first!

I had to ask for help from a coworker to add the image you see to the left (Snoqualmie Falls, about a mile from my house) because I wasn't able to upload it using the directions provided. We had to save the photo to my desktop, then copy the image to this blog. I tried to upload more than 5 different photos from Flickr, but all I ever got from putting the URL into the "Add image" box was an outline on the blog. So, at any rate, I found a way to make it work. That being said, Flickr is a really cool site. There were all kinds of photos covering a huge variety of subjects and I'll be using it in the future to enhance my blog.

And the A's have split the first 2 games with the Angels, so they're still tied with L.A. for first place. I have no illusions about this lasting more than afew more weeks at best, but it's great for all the young kids on the club as they're gaining confidence in themselves and their teammates, which can only be a positive for the future when reaching first place won't seem like an anomaly. Beat LA! (Oh, and I just found out that Bobby and Ratdog are gonna play Seattle on June 21st; I gotsto go!)

Streaming Music...and it's free!!

I registered for FineTune and it's fantastic! I had tried Pandora a bit last week, but I didn't like the fact that I was at the mercy of its suggestions. With FineTune, I can pick an artist and choose from a generally large catalog of songs, and because my musical tastes are all over the place (from the Dead to Tower of Power to the Texas Tornadoes to Kinky Friedman) I can have a wide variety of musical sstyles/genres to choose from. And if I don't want to hear the song that's playing, I can stop it and move on to another one. Awesome.
Not much to say about the A's after getting swept in a 2 game series by the M's...they were dominated. But hey, they had a 6-2 road trip, so they've been playing good ball recently, and the kids aare getting valuable experience. But the negatives have been injuries: Harden's on the DL again (I know, you're shocked) and so is Duscherer. So we've got even more youngsters starting than was expected. But it's April and Oaktown's only 1 game out of first, so things are a lot rosier than I figured they would be. And the A's come to town next weekend and I'm gonna be at the Sunday game...let's go Oakland!

RSS feeds and other important stuff...

I set up a Bloglines account and subscribed to the following feeds: Athletics Nation, The Grateful Dead Hour and The Cal Footbal Fan (all very closely related to library work, of course). I like the fact that I can go to one site and get updated info on these topics without having to go to each site. As far as using this technology at work, I could see subscribing to feeds that are of specific interest to librarians (although I haven't delved into it enough yet to know what they are, but I'll start looking around). And on a more important note, the A's beat the Indians last night 9-7 to take over sole possession of first place in the American League West (thanks to the Mariners for beating the Angels). I have no illusions about the A's staying in first place for more than a couple of days, but hey, it's fun right now! We beat their ace Sabathia, now on to Fausto Carmona! Let's Go A's!

I am because I M!

I was able to successfully IM a couple of cellmates here and to send a YouTube URL to one of them. It's a great tool that will definitely help with speeding up communication here at the branch, and I'm hoping it will be used by committees/small groups to deal with questions/concerns more efficiently.This was the first time I had ever used an IM program but there was nothing that really surprised me about it; it worked very smoothly. I intend to use it a lot, particularly to communicate with the branch manager.

Instant Messaging ...and the A's take 2 out of 3 from the Tribe!

I'm embarking on the Instant Messaging part of the project, which should be a challenge...but not as much of a challenge that the Oakland A's overcame this past weekend to win Friday and Saturday against Cleveland, while just barely losing a 2-1 game on Sunday. All 3 starters (Duchsherer, Eveland and Blanton) pitched really well, but the problem, as it will be all season, was run production. But hey, it's early in the season, the Boys in Green and Gold are 3-4 and are NOT in last place! So, about that Instant Messaging...

The 2.0 Project Rolls On!

I successfully posted to another's blog! I'll be moving on to IM next...but since I'me here, the A's lost 2 straight at home to the Red Sox, so they're now 1-3 (all against Boston). But the starting pitching has been excellent, so I'm hoping the Boys in Green and Gold will win at least 2 out of 3 this weekend against Cleveland at the Coliseum. Converted reliever Justin Duchscherer gets his first startof the season Friday night against Paul Byrd; let's go A's!

Chuck Berry would be proud!

I've titled my blog "The Promised Land," as that's my favorite R&R song of all time, particularly the many covers of it done by the Grateful Dead. Anyway, I'll be using my blog to track my progress on the Web 2.0 project, as well as posting thoughts on such disparate topics as the Dead, Oakland A's baseball, and Althusserianism. Until next time...play ball!