Note to Andrea and Bob

Technology Tapas was a great idea, and along with Andrea's Google classes very helpful to me. If nothing else, I am beginning to understand what Web 2.0 means. Considering the amount of time I spend on the web, it was about time I got to know the neighborhood a little better.

As for any future offerings using the same approach, sure I would consider participating. The only downside is time. It takes time to get through these exercises, and as much time as I did spend with the lessons, I should have spent more. I do know that the time I did spend was time well spent.

I now have ids for Google, Blogger, Bloglines, Delicious, Zoho Writer, and PBworks. It seems unlikley that I will be able to keep all the ids and passwords at hand, but I will try. In addition to these, I am thinking about setting up an account on Flickr.

The Technology Tappas worked well for me. It has been most useful to actually use services that I knew about but had little hands-on experience with. Of all the various programs, I found Bloglines the most useful. There were some web sites I enjoyed visiting occasionally and reading, but I never knew when something new was available. Now I do. Great.

Delicious was also somewhat useful and fun. I find it helpful that I can now get at my favorites from different computers. I use to have the problem of being at home and wanting a link I saved at work and vice versa. Delicious has solved that problem.

I found Zoho Writer (and Google documents) to be completely useless. They don't give me enough control over format and when I move documents from one place to another, the format gets messed up. Word works fine for me.

The work with wikis and flickr have given me some ideas on how to build some pages that integrate photos and text. I may try building something if I can find the time.

As for Blogger and blogging, I'm not too excited. Usually, after adding to my blog, I don't even find it interesting. I'm pretty sure no one else would either. This idea of self publishing seems like a good idea, but for the most part I don't see much I would actually want to read.

I listened to a few podcast from WNYC. I selected WNYC's Fishko Files for the entry on my blog. I think it is linked properly. Let me exit and try it out.

Actually, the link did not work correctly the first time. I am going to replace it with another.

It now seems to work properly. I also added the feed for these to my bloglines. That also seems to work.

Podcast

It's time to study podcasts. For this I am going to have to borrow some headphones. Up until now I have gotten away with no sound, but this topic will be hard to do without it.

YouTube

There is no end to what one finds on YouTube. Browsing YouTube is like being condemned to watch peoples' home movies for an eternity--and you keep watching. I tried to find something useful and interesting. Lately I have been reading about the history of how books are made. I had hoped to find a short video on how the pages are folded and cut after being printed. I did not find anything that specific, but I did find a video of a film made in 1947 that shows the full manufacturing process at that time. It is called "Making Books is Fun (to watch)."

This is a good example of where pictures communicate much more than words. When reading about the process of printing, it is hard to picture what is actually being described. This video makes it much clearer.

Flickr

This is my flickr exercise. I was browsing around wondering what picture to use when I happened on Toshio. He has taken many pictures in Washington D.C. I found one showing an interior of a building I had not seen before. It is the National Building Museum. It looks like it is worth a visit.

I also found an interesting picture that he took in the Library of Congress.

Now I am going to publish this post and see if the links work.

I successfully added this blog's link to the NJ State Library Technology Tapas wiki. And I even got the link to work properly.