Week 5: Social Networking

It's interesting that this week was all about "social networking" and I had trouble accesing the main sites! My work place recently blocked both FaceBook and MySpace so I had to wait until a friend took pity on me to do much work on this one...

Why don't I have a computer at home? My answer has always been "because I am on a computer all day, every day at work''! But now... with so many things to play with out there I am thinking... "stupid, stupid girl" Perhaps, Easter might be a good time to buy a lovely laptop.... just in time to claim it on my tax : )

Luckily I already had a Facebook account - and yes, it's under my real name! Obviously I don't manage to access it all the time but do access it often enough to be extremely - well a bit - jealous of people who have lots and lots of friends. I think I have 39 and those took me quite a while to gather - two I don't even know but they seem harmless...

For the purposes of this exercise, I added an application to my page, accepted a friend request from a colleague and sent a few messages to some people that I do know : ) There were also various quizz requests waiting for me and I now know that I would be Marilyn Monroe if I was a movie star - must work on the voice or should I focus on the body?! On the other hand, another quiz told me that my "real" name is Tom... hmmmm. Whilst I was "playing" I also mentioned to a friend's son that he should be careful of the language he was using - was only teasing him but... his mother who was standing behind me at the time is also one of his friends!

BTW, I usually access FaceBook at the shopping centre whilst my Mum is doing her shopping - that way I am a "good" daughter but don't have to walk up and down aisles in the supermarket!!

I managed a quick look at MySpace - quickly searched for a friend who I know has a page. Also looked at the looooong list of libraries that use MySpace. Only had time for a quick look at Yarra Plenty's page as it was very slow loading... and I was stretching a friendship... but I can see how this sort of page lends itself to public library use - attracting people, especially teenagers, using their favourite technology is a very good marketing ploy.

I was tempted to look at Twitter - the publicity is drawing me in but... might leave that for another day. I wonder how long before work blocks that one??? It looks/sounds a bit addictive!

Oh... should probably mention that FaceBook was always, always a break time thing for me... not that I am a goody two shoes though but don't want people talking about me : )

PS I do like the look of Ning and when I am done with this Course and the other online course I am doing... I will definitely revisit.

Week 4: RSS Feeds/Feedreaders

So...

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" and is a file for format for delivering regularly updated information over the web... interesting how a simple definition makes you think about something that is already part of your working life.

The video at Blip TV (http://www.blip.tv/file/205570/) is easy to understand and makes you think "how obvious" and, of course, the next step for me is to set up a personalised reader (or aggregator)!

I had a quick look at Bloglines but went with Google Reader because I already had a Google Account... having already moaned about having to create new accounts in an earlier post. : )

Google Reader was very easy to use... so easy that thought I was doing something wrong at first! Now... what does that say about me?

I subscribed with a minimum of fuss to: Incite, Library Bytes, Read Alert, Recent Australian Publications, Unshelved and Herald Sun AFL. Adding a number of "feeds" was a good exercise - as the RSS icon on each page wasn't always obvious. The Herald Sun AFL site will, hopefully, help me with my footy tipping.

Week 3: LibraryThing

Finally I had time to have a quick look at LibraryThing... another new account to create but it was an easy and painless process.

Interestingly enough, although I have many, many books and love reading (have never, ever said that in an interview though!), nothing much came to mind when I was testing the site. So I just went a with few "fantasy" favourites and the wonderful Marley and Me.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/deansei

Week 3: Image Generators

Why has it taken me so long to write something about "Image Generators"??!!

Because... there are so many things to play with out there especially on http://says-it.com/ and http://generatorblog.blogspot.com/. I clicked on about a zillion links (slight exaggeration) and conveniently forgot the purpose of the exercise which MUST have been to discover useful tools for work purposes. But... I do now know what my "Hillbilly" name is which is very important : )

The only negative I have found so far is the need to create so many accounts to fully utilise these sites!

Week 2: Flickr and Photo Sharing

What can I say... I thought this would be difficult and spent ages doing something that took me seconds in the end. Is there a lesson there? Will I learn it? He he

But... I do like the pictures I added and plan to add some more whilst I am on a roll...

Here's another of mine now... from Flickr...

Today

I have absolutely nothing to say but felt that I should say it anyway : )