KRH’s Library Blog

I started reading up on Web 2.0 at home.  It’s kind of a strange topic, because I can understand this:  “Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, has questioned whether one can use the term in any meaningful way, since many of the technology components of Web 2.0 have existed since the early days of the Web” (from the Wikipedia article on Web 2.0).  What I’d like to know is, who decided what was worthy of Web 2.0, what made it so, etc.?   I can see what they’re saying, that Web 1.0 (or whatever we’re going to call it) was really basic, but as Berners-Lee said, many of these components have been around.  Certainly not all of them, but still.  That’s really more semantics, though, I suppose.

It’s great to have things easier to use, like, say efiler (e-mailing things to yourself via the Web).  I’d consider that part of Web 2.0.  Anything that makes your life easier, great.  And bookmarking sites–very helpful.  There are so many sites out there; anything that can help organize them all is fantastic.  (Do you see a trend here?  Organization…I need more in my life.)

SEOmoz’s Web 2.0 Awards page is really great to have around; so many useful links.  So many that I know I’ll never have enough time to explore them all..but I’m going to try.

Podcasts are great.  My husband has one, and I thought it was on our website, and now I can’t find *that.*  After this and thing 21, people are going to think I’m making everything up.  I’m coming back to this (going to the floor now).

Nope.  Still couldn’t find it.  But I really like that you can find certain NPR shows/broadcasts as podcasts since I don’t always have time to listen when things are broadcast live.  I know I’m going to find other interesting podcasts as well.

Oh, YouTube.  How I love thee.  My 3-year-old can navigate it already.  (I am not sure if that is something to be embarrassed or proud of.)

One of the things I really like is that you can add videos to your favorites list.  This comes in really handy for a child who doesn’t spell that well yet.  But she can figure out the favorites list!

I picked the category Guides and Reviews from the Web 2.0 Awards nominees, and 1st place went to Yelp.com.  From one of the founders:  “My co-founder Russ Simmons and I realized that word of mouth was the best way to find great local businesses, but we weren’t sure how we’d bring that to the web. We ended up building a website about asking friends for recommendations and later realized some of our early users really just wanted a platform for sharing their favorite local businesses, which is what you see today.”

It’s very user-friendly; reminds me a bit of CitySearch in its search capacity.  I like that it’s user-driven, and the Google maps/flags that appear on the results page is useful.  I think it’s funny that there’s a box you can check that says “Map, don’t follow me!” if you don’t want the map to follow you down the page.  I will probably use it again.

I think this is where I’m supposed to be…(I think that a lot).

I have used Google calendar in the past in an effort to keep updated on family goings-on with my husband.  It only works if everyone looks at it and uses it.  I also often check my Yahoo! calendar just for convenience when I’m online (as a date reference). 

I am going to try to use one of the to-do lists, but currently, I think I might have more success using the paper calendar/family planner we have at home.  We are all about technology in our house, but sometimes, the old-fashioned way seems a bit less cluttered, tried and true.

Let’s see how long that lasts.

I’ve read about it.  But I wasn’t exactly sure what it did until now.  I joined up…now I just have to start bookmarking things!  (I usually don’t.  But there are definitely sites I visit more often than others.)

I am a little too familiar with Facebook.  Some of you are my friends on there.  I don’t spend as much time on there as I first did, but I do love some of the games on there (Word Twist, and the much-lamented, recently departed Scrabulous).  It’s been great getting back in touch with and seeing photos and updates on high school and college friends.

I also have an account with LinkedIn, but I think that’d be more useful for someone in the business world wanting to make contacts.  I’m a librarian.  This is what I’m doing, and where I’m doing it, and I’m happy with it.  If I ever decide to change career tracks (highly unlikely), I might use this more often.

I remember when I was in college, and my junior year, we got VAX mail on the computers in the library.  We could only e-mail people on campus, and you could really only check youre e-mail in the library.  So we’d be e-mailing or instant messaging (a very crude, early version of it) each other when we were in the same room together. 

Now there’s texting, IM’ing, blogs, chat rooms, forums, social networking sites (MySpace, Facebook), etc.  I have seen tags for Digg, etc. on blogs and websites, so now I’m learning what it is.  (This is where the “I’m feeling old” part comes in:  I remember when it was dial-up, just e-mail and chat rooms.  There’s so much out there now!  I’m starting to feel like my grandfather who didn’t even want to use a touch-tone telephone because he was used to his rotary dial phone.  Not quite, but…)

Although I do like seeing what other people are interested in reading.