Thing #23 - My Thoughts

Wow, I can't believe I finally finished, and it's only August 17th! I really thought this would take me so much longer, if I was able to finish at all! I'm so excited!

I really enjoyed learning about all this new technology (new to me anyway!) I am surprised at how much of what I learned I think I will actually use. I expected that I would learn alot of neat stuff but very little that I would use in my everyday life. Boy was I wrong! My favorite things were the photo sharing sites like Flickr, and the RSS feed and bloglines. I'm already using these on a daily basis. I think the ultimate thing for me though will be the downloadable audio books.

I think the Technology Fair was a great way to start, and I found the entire process very enjoyable. I would look forward to participating in similar programs if the library offered them. Congratulations to Maurice, Irmgarde and Annette! They've done a fantastic job!

Thing #22 - Audiobooks

I finally got to audiobooks...which is what I was most looking forward to when I started this whole thing! It was actually very simple to browse the collection, download and play the book I found (which by the way is a book by Dave Barry, who I always turn to when I am in need of a good laugh - the title is "Boogers Are My Beat: More Lies But Some Actual Journalism from Dave Barry." I am so excited about listening to this on the new MP3 player I'll be getting for finishing this project. Right now the only time I listen to talking books is in my car because taking the discs from one place to another just doesn't work for me. Now my books will be portable and I can listen to them anywhere!

Thing #21 - Podcasts

I did find some podcasts that I liked. One was a cast recording of songs from the Broadway musical "Kiss Me Kate", and another was a podcast from National Geographic of Cesar Milan - "The Dog Whisperer" - on rescued dogs from Hurricane Katrina. I was never able to add the RSS feed for either one of these to my Bloglines account though. I got a message on each one that said the feed contained errors. This is something I would like to learn more about since I did find alot of interesting podcasts I would like to listen to.

Thing #20 - YouTube

With football season right around the corner I thought I would search YouTube for a Ravens video. It was easy to find and easy to get into my blog. YouTube is a very cool website with videos on probably anything you could imagine. You have to use caution when searching and playing videos because you may find some things that you didn't expect to find.

Thing #19 - Web 2.0 Awards

I really like the cocktail builder under Fun Stuff on the awards list. It's a really cool website where you can look for recipes for your favorite drinks, or you can find recipes for drinks you can make with what you already have in your bar! A fun place to explore!

Cheers!

Thing #18 - Zoho

THIS IS ONLY A TEST!!!!

So far I like this Zoho word processer.

I really like the idea of it being online with no need to install or download anything to your computer. It's nice not to have to purchase expensive software and being able to share a document without having to worry about what program anyone else has or doesn't have.

This is a great concept that I think I will be using quite a bit.

Thing #17 - Sandbox Wiki

I added my blog to the sandbox wiki. I'm not sure about the wiki thing yet, but I haven't given up on it!

Thing #16 - Wikis

To be honest, I really didn't have much interest in wikis before now. I never got a warm fuzzy feeling about just anybody being able to edit the content, therefore making it completely unreliable in my eyes. Now, however, I really like the idea of wikis for the right things. I really liked the book lovers wiki, and I like the idea of a wiki for a particular event, such as the ALA New Orelans 2006 one. It's a great way to get alot of coverage of an event, and alot of valuable input from various contibutors. I think this could be a very valuable tool, and one that I may use myself!

Thing #15 - Library 2.0

Obviously the library is not the same as it was when we were young, and it continues to change with the times. Our vision of the library is no longer a building that houses thousands of books and provides a quiet place for us to read or study. It is now an information center where we go, physically or virtually, to access almost any type of information imagineable. The library's physical collection is being replaced with a virtual collection of so many things, making it a very powerful source of information.

Things #13 & #14 - de.licio.us & Technorati

On del.icio.us...I like using that one. I only added a few favorites so far but I think I could actually get alot of use out of that one. I've added a link to my del.icio.us account here too!
On technorati...so far I'm not so sure about it. I played around with it a little but didn't find much I could use. Maybe as I explore more it will become more useful.