Team Talk

Yesterday I finally delivered my team talk. I chose to talk about Flickr and set up a Flickr account for Fingertip so we can upload any of our team photos. I made it a private group. Using the laptop and datashow to demonstrate the uploading of photos, placing them in sets and adding names, tags and descriptions, I had a few problems as the photo uploading stopped loading in the middle of the process. Luckily I had already uploaded some photos so was able to demonstrate using those. But then the screen froze again so I was unable to show the archive where you can see the date the photo was actually taken and the list of tags for searching as my 10 mins was up. These technical hitches were very frustrating as it had all gone smoothly during my preparation. However the team were quite enthusiastic about it and thought it was agood idea to use Flickr to store any photos taken on either social or work occasions. Most team members had heard of Flickr but did not know how it worked and many are now keen to try it.

Public PC environment

The thing that I appreciated the most when using the public PCs was the time constraint and how quickly that one hour passed when I was working on a Word document or Publisher document. The importance of having a USB stick close at hand and continually saving my work was paramount and this is one aspect I will be emphasising to customers.

IGoogle

I had a play around adding and deleting gadgets and widgets from my IGoogle page. I also created a shopping list gadget which I can share with other members of the family and a countdown gadget to my daughter's wedding - now I have to add my screenshot!

I have been unable to upload the screenshot and just cannot seem to figure it out. Will keep trying!

Widgets & Gadgets

I started by reading the article Gadgets vs Widgets and while I didn't understand a lot of the jargon, the points I picked up were that Yahoo widgets came about when Yahoo acquired the paid software start up package called Konfabulator and renamed it Widgets. Google gadgets are a more recent addition. In comparing the two Google gadgets are more minimalist looking, while Widgets are more visually appealing. Both have to be installed but with Google you have to install each time you download a new gadget. For this reason Widgets are more accessible. Both use a lot of memory so are not so good on laptops.


The University of Auckland site had a number of symbols displayed on the front screen e.g. if you clicked on the facebook symbol then you could add the library search widget. I added it to my blog page.

In Library Thing you had to make your own widget which was fairly straightforward and just a matter of selecting options from drop down boxes. On my blog page I clicked on Add a gadget and pasted the HTML code into the HTML/Java screen. The widget appeared on my sidebar!

Pass it on

Managed to find 10 mins this afternoon to show a colleague how to set up an email account. We chose Gmail and I guided my colleague through the process. My colleague was surprised at how strightforward it was - the most difficult part was choosing a name. Having completed the sign in process we looked briefly at the main features. My colleague said she now feels more confident about helping customers to set up an email account.

Web 2.0

New Zealand Government Resources
Web 2.0 technologies allow interactive online information sharing where through the use of blogs, wikis and social networking sites users can contribute to and edit information. The New Zealand Government through its e-government is using these technologies to facilitate internal collaboration between government agencies in different parts of New Zealand and for information sharing between government agencies e.g. Principals Electronic Network - online discussion and information sharing for school principals and for engaging the public e.g. the ALAC blog for discussion and information on alcohol issues and also an opportunity for young people to respond to an online discussion topic posted by Minister of Youth Affairs Paula Bennett. The use of these wikis and blogs is hoped will result in a more cohesive approach between government agencies and will provide more opportunity for the public to contribute to policy making decisions.

The Auckland City Youth Council Bebo site seems to have been set up with good intentions but doesn't look as though it has attracted much interest with the last posting being August 2007.

The RSS feeds for Auckland and Wellington City Councils provide a quick and clear way to see the latest news from Council in both areas.

CPIT has a Library Blog

Auckland University has RSS feeds for News and Events
Vbase - couldn't see any evidence of wikis, RSS feeds or blogs

NZmuseums has a blog and podcast and is planning to add Google maps and virtual exhibitions

NZlive has a blog, RSS feed and tags

Matapihi could use Flickr to share its photos and an RSS feed for news of new additions to the site

For a community group I looked at the Salvation Army website. There are podcasts about their ministry and video clips of clients describing their involvement in particular aspects of the salvation Army's services. I couldn't see any evidence ofa blog or use of social networking sites.

Library Thing

I am having trouble accessing my blog - the lams link seems to be broken so I am recording my thoughts on Library Thing on Google docs and I will post it to my blog from here.

 

When I first joined Library thing I found the whole page a bit overwhelming so I went to customize this page and unclicked a lot of the links, choosing just those that I wanted to see. This made it more readable for me. Adding titles is fairly straightforward and you can choose to find and add titles from a huge number of Library catalogues from all over the world. Some titles had a picture of the book cover which I liked while others didn't. I guess you could find a picture and add it but I'm not sure how to do that yet. I think Library thing could be useful for customers who want to keep track of what they have read.

 

Google Calendar

Saturday, September 12, 2009 

I am using Zoho again and really quite like it. The insert functions are very accessible as I have used above.

 

Google calendar has good features - the create an event allows you to add more detail where the quick add is good for a one off brief appointment. You can change the colour and also add all the New Zealand public holidays. The task list is also useful where you can look at all the complteted tasks and also sort by due date - useful for seeing what you have to work on for the following week - would have been good for tracking CCL Learn progress. The print options are also good as you can print a copy of your calendar for the day, week or month.

 

Emailing an event to someone else can allow them to edit it if you have given permission. I haven't quite come to grips with the private/public setting up, but thought maybe this could be useful for meeting agendas where colleagues could add items to the agenda.

Blog posting Zoho

I used Google docs for the module exercise so thought I would now try Zoho for my blog posting. I think Google docs has great potential for use in the work environment. I can see it as being extremely useful when working on something with a colleague or colleagues - being able to edit and add to the one document will save much time. The link feature is great for adding hyperlinks.

 

Now in Zoho, I had forgotten to name and save this and after typing a few lines a little box popped up asking me to name and save the document - a really useful feature. I thought it might be difficult to put this on my blog but it looks pretty straightforward when I clicked on 'share' so here goes......

I shared my Google doc with Veronica and she made some changes and sent it back to me - what a great system. Under the share button there are several options you can choose, one of which is posting to your blog. You can also invite people to comment at any time and send a message to those people you are working with. I really like this tool and think I will use it in the future for things such as preparing a training session with another colleague.

Social networking

Having joined Ning, I have finally completed this module. I am quite enjoying being active on Facebook again and hearing from friends in different parts of the world - it is a quick and easy way to communicate.

Wikis

I have almost completed the Wiki module and feel I know more than I did at the start about contributing to a wiki but need to practice and experiment more to feel really 'au fait' with the whole web authoring thing.

Wikis

Having been on leave for a week, I have returned refreshed to make up for lost time on CCL Learn. First I had to revisit the Wikis module. I looked at the book lovers Wiki http://booklovers.pbworks.com/Princeton%20Public%20Library and liked the appearance of this - the layout is good and the index to reviews down the side is useful. However no one had edited this wiki in the last year.

I also looked at Library success http://libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Main_Page which has a layout similar to wikipedia I thought this was a great idea - to have a one stop site world wide for sharing success stories and useful tips for libraries. This is a well used site and was last edited two weeks ago.

To contribute to these wikis you need to create an account - more personal information was required to edit the Library success wiki but just an email address and message was required for the booklovers wiki.

Social networking

I already had a Facebook account but had not accessed it for ages and I had not really used it fully. I have yet to post a photo there, but updated my profile and added more friends who had contacted me. I also set up a 'family list' to communicate just with family members. I'm still exploring!

Rose ©

Rose ©
Originally uploaded by chrissie2003

Looking at Flickr mashups, I found this photo using Flickr Color Pickr where I selected flowers in the colour pink. It was easy to use but I have had trouble editing this page and have now realised It is best edited in html.

Kim & Phil arrive home

Xmas 2008 006
Originally uploaded by jdthschroder

I found this photo on Flickr - I must have put it there some time ago when I was having a look at it. On the 4th October 2008 Kim & Phil arrived back in Christchurch after spending 2 years working in London and 6 months travelling throughout Europe and the United States. Great to have you home guys!

RSS Feeds and podcasts

Having returned to this after a few days I had to refresh my memory. I found the copying and pasting of the RSS feeds (URLs) ok but have been having trouble with the podcasts - haven't quite got them sussed yet! The amount of information you get once subscribed to RSS feeds is rather overwhelming and I think I would be very selective.

Visiting Author

Tonight, I took my grandchildren to the Town Hall to listen to Australian children's author, Andy Griffiths. He had been invited to speak to groups of school children and families as part of the 150th Anniversary celebrations. Andy talked about his latest book 'Just Macbeth!' and how he linked his characters (Andy, Danny and Lisa from the Just series) with the Shakespearian play Macbeth.

When writing, Andy is always looking for the worst things that can happen to his characters and aims to 'surprise' and create the unexpected, always with humour. He likes to work with everyday events rather than fantasy and likes to create 'bad' characters rather than 'good'.

Andy stressed the importance for budding writers to have a cheap exercise book in which to write down their ideas.

With plenty of opportunity for questions and audience participation, this light and humorous presentation was enjoyed by a small but appreciative crowd. To find out more about Andy Griffiths and his books visit his website: http://www.andygriffiths.com.au/

Blog progress

I had trouble creating 'My blog list' but with the help of a colleague figured it out and have added three team members blogs so far. My next task is to write a comment on those blogs.

Have had fun playing around with the layout and changing the colours. Have yet to try and customize my blog.

Blog underway

Have set up my blog but still have a way too go yet adding pictures etc. Good fun so far!