Online applications & Tools

Back to the second part of learning about emerging technologies on the web..........
It is very interesting to see so many new tools coming out that makes sharing of documents easy.
The availability and use of online productivity web based applications has exploded.
Google Docs helps to create basic word processing documents, presentations, spread sheets etc that you can share with a select group or make public. No need to Email ping pong.
Now more people can work simultaneously on the same draft.
These web based applications have become more oriented towards easy collaboration.
I have found that Google Docs & Zoho easy to use.
DimDim. Silly name, very cool idea. The idea is to bring simple web conferencing to the cheap! With DimDim you can get web conferencing tools - desktop sharing, slide presentation, chat and voice chat capabilities - without paying for them. Definitely a useful service. It would be great for meetings. I'm involved with some groups, and it's always difficult to get people together from across the state. DimDim would be an answer for some, but not all, meetings throughout the year.

Final Reflections

This was quite a journey. I feel confident now that I can do alot more technically than ever before.
I must admit that I would never have done this if it wasn't a "work" thing, but I am really glad that I was given the opportunity to learn this.
I had many wonderful challenges and discoveries. There was not enough time to thoroughly understand all of them.
It was a fun project, but definitely overwhelming to try and get so many exercises done in such a short period. I concentrated more on just completing the exercises than on actually "learning" the exercise. To actually understand the technology listed in each exercise I would need to be able to devote more time to it.
I must say that this program was very effective. I've learned some new jargon. I've also discovered that there are some cool programs such as Youtube and flickr.
I would certainly be willing to take part in future exercises, but more time needs to be allowed for completion if learning the technologies is the point of it all.

DeadlyDrivers Books

Well I was in my element here - I could spend all day listing all the really great books I have read!
My only concern would be how well represented Australian titles/authors are - if it uses amazon to search for the info it will definitely have a US bias, I searched for a couple of Australians and got them but they were fairly recent publications.
This is a site I can see myself coming back to in my private life but not sure has a great use for libraries except as a readers advisory tool to recommend to readers that they start their own shelf so they can gain reading recommendations/reviews from other people.
As I have a fear of becoming forgetful in my old age I think this is a great site to help me remember all those books I loved to read.

Tagging

I can see real value in tagging worthwhile sites - I have a vast number of favourites bookmarked on my browser but it is quite unfriendly to use so the idea of a simple tagging system sounds great. Working in a library makes you want to see everything in categories so the standard browser favourites set-up just doesn't cut it.
I like the idea of having specific buttons/icons on your browser to go straight to del.icio.us rather than having to remember yet another login and password.

The cloud idea is great! - it is simple and easy to understand that "bigger is better", but having the ability to also view the list to see the number of items with each tag is also beneficial.

Simply Delicious

Del.icio.us Social Bookmarking
I've just discovered Del.icio.us and I'm impressed! I've used it to create a list of websites related to family history research.
I think this tool would be of great benefit with relation to reference work. I can envisage Del.icio.us being used at our reference desks to aid staff with access to appropriate websites for those "curly" reference questions.

Technorati
I know I've said it before but it still amazes me that people have time to create blogs on such a variety of topics, this was particularly obvious when I looked at "Blogger Central" and selected the "popular" page on Technorati.

Before finding out about Technorati, I would just have done a Google Blog search to find blogs on a subject of interest so it is good to know there are other ways of finding blogs if you need to.


When I searched for "bookmobile" as a keyword search 207 results were located. When I used the same search term but selected the tagged advanced search option I retrieved 37 results, many of which were the same results as found during the keyword search. I'm presuming this is because the blogs have included the tag "bookmobile". I was particularly intrigued by The Camel Bookmobile of Kenya, books delivered by camel!

A Good Feed

RSS saves time. When you haven't got the time to visit your favorite website, news or information you want can come directly to your computer at intervals you want. You can quickly scan small amounts of data found in the RSS feeds as they contain only links, headlines or brief synopses of new information.
One of the sites I selected is Cool Tools. Cool tools really work. A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. Technology is always changing cool tools can help keep you up to date and show what really cool new tools are out there.
Many news sources have RSS feeds. A particularly useful site is moreover.com which maintain a large list of news feeds.
There are many libraries that feed us. They let us know what new items have just arrived. There are feeds for new materials, website updates, links of interest and library events. Databases and indexes online and calendar feeds.