Although I could say I knew alot about the internet already when taking on this course I can say that it has shown me some neat sites and possibilities that I hadn't explored and shown me that I was a little naive with my thoughts on what I was limited to doing on my computer was by the software I had when there was so much free things you could use for the same effect. Bravo web 2.0!
That said, lets answer task 12. Facebook, myspace, bebo, live profile (Which can be used by an xbox console as well as a computer to communicate) and things like that as dominating the way we currently communicate. As long as I can remember using the internet things like MSN chats have been hugely popular - The ability to conveniently hold several conversations without having to be near eachother or on a phone and as technology has increased, now you can have webcam conversations called "Video conferences" on just about everything including chat programs like yahoo, msn and even Skype a very popular talking program. People feel safe when using these things to talk to others, and allows them to express themselves without the same fears of reprisal which makes them very very popular because people can be themselves without little things like their "mouths" getting in the way.
Now, lets take a idealistic glance at using it for a business or library. I know libraries have made a facebook page and use it to get their information out there about their services and ease at which customers can find things out. Facebook notifies friends (which in this case members?) when there is a profile update which could be a event or even some new hot titles coming out. I can see it working and being popular due to it could just slot into the use they are already having of facebook and the internet conveniently and advertising almost as they enjoy they're community online base. However, this could also be seen as bad form from a business view I would think and not as official as a business should be.
So would it work? Yes, I think it would, and be quite popular. Is it appropriate? I'd have to lean towards no - simply because it's not your a real person and if it was suppose to be used this way people could just subscribe to the libraries online updates as a choice rather then using facebook or some other such site which keeps it more official. Not that I'm saying it's a terrible idea! Marketing wise, bands are doing it now, and alot. But... Is it the way we want the libraries to go? That's questions that will be asked for years as well as other businesses I would think.
I'd rather the business created a social network of its own through its own website by making mailing lists, forums, blogs, voting polls, link lists, all this wonderful stuff but off their own website in summery. A forum especially could be HUGE to get people interested in the library and everything about it.
I also can't believe a mention of Second Life found its way onto the program heh. Second Life is highly addictive and so far I've kept away from it but I know of it! I was heavily into World of Warcraft for the better part of two and a half years and I have to say those things can chew up alot of your time. I'd definitely say that a library on Second Life would take more time to run and manage then is worth the effort, also you'd want to keep people off online and actually coming into the library for books so I'd discard the entire idea personally :)
Finally, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to do this online, smoothly and easily at my own pace and I have enjoyed the entire program.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Task 11 - Docs online!
Word pad writing documents and having access to that online is a fantastic idea! You don't have to worry about loosing it, can access it anywhere without needing a flash drive or some kinda portable storage device. Heck I'm gonna start suggesting this to people and using it myself. Fantastic! Below is the short story I wrote on my email to the markers - It's themed in with the rest of my blog on the game Left 4 Dead.
* * * * *
The sound of gunfire echoed like rain on a hard iron roof down through the tight compact alleyways until it reached the ears of the few survivors huddled to small blocked off room. They were hurriedly sorting through the items they had collected and picked up as they had escaped through the terror that could only be vividly remembered in flashes of moments and ear-shattering screams punctuated with the drowning sound of their guns. For two terrible weeks these people had defied impossible odds to get to where they were now, a small team sharing ammunition, first aid and watching eachothers backs as they rushed through what was once their cities streets and now belonged to the mindless infected.
"Well, least we're not alone;" Muttered Francius as he gazed out the bared exit door into the almost pitch black alleyway only illuminated by a tiny light somewhere out of sight along the walls outside. Somehow the city had become so much darker then it was before, then perhaps it was even possible to actually become.
Louis moved to the bared window and with a smooth aimed action fired some shots out into the black with his pistol. "I think they're towards the school, just down a few blocks."
"And right through the central mall complex." Added Bill sourly. "That means thousands of them between us and those folks, and since they're firing they're probably attracting them to them by now." He added as he cast a glare to Louis's pistol.
"So ... We go to the school?" Asked Zoey, looking over the rooms other three occupants. "Anyone got a better plan?"
Francius shrugged, walked to the door and in one swift motion kicked up the bar holding it closed and pulled it open, only to be set upon by a infected out of sight to his left as he came through it. It was sorted out with a quick punch and a crack of pistol fire followed by a spray of blood and gore.
* * * * *
Now... The use of this for -everyone- is potentially massive, doesn't matter if your a library staff all contributing to work in a online fashion (E.G. All share one account, and when things need to be added for say a newsletter everyone does their contributions to the one google doc account) to anything else you could imagine in anyones life. I'm very impressed.
* * * * *
The sound of gunfire echoed like rain on a hard iron roof down through the tight compact alleyways until it reached the ears of the few survivors huddled to small blocked off room. They were hurriedly sorting through the items they had collected and picked up as they had escaped through the terror that could only be vividly remembered in flashes of moments and ear-shattering screams punctuated with the drowning sound of their guns. For two terrible weeks these people had defied impossible odds to get to where they were now, a small team sharing ammunition, first aid and watching eachothers backs as they rushed through what was once their cities streets and now belonged to the mindless infected.
"Well, least we're not alone;" Muttered Francius as he gazed out the bared exit door into the almost pitch black alleyway only illuminated by a tiny light somewhere out of sight along the walls outside. Somehow the city had become so much darker then it was before, then perhaps it was even possible to actually become.
Louis moved to the bared window and with a smooth aimed action fired some shots out into the black with his pistol. "I think they're towards the school, just down a few blocks."
"And right through the central mall complex." Added Bill sourly. "That means thousands of them between us and those folks, and since they're firing they're probably attracting them to them by now." He added as he cast a glare to Louis's pistol.
"So ... We go to the school?" Asked Zoey, looking over the rooms other three occupants. "Anyone got a better plan?"
Francius shrugged, walked to the door and in one swift motion kicked up the bar holding it closed and pulled it open, only to be set upon by a infected out of sight to his left as he came through it. It was sorted out with a quick punch and a crack of pistol fire followed by a spray of blood and gore.
* * * * *
Now... The use of this for -everyone- is potentially massive, doesn't matter if your a library staff all contributing to work in a online fashion (E.G. All share one account, and when things need to be added for say a newsletter everyone does their contributions to the one google doc account) to anything else you could imagine in anyones life. I'm very impressed.
Mashups.. I been wanting to know how to make these!
Yay, something I've always wanted to know about. How to make these funny little motivational photos you see around the net cause I always thought I could do alot with them :) Heh. Rock on, I'm gonna stick with the Left 4 Dead theme for now..
Mashups could have alot of uses rather then just making people laugh, for library use I could see us throwing covers of books up there and using them in creative and interesting ways to make readers stop and have a look which is half the battle and once they know what its about they may decide to check it out. Half the battle is getting them to look and visual effects help immensely with this!
Mashups could have alot of uses rather then just making people laugh, for library use I could see us throwing covers of books up there and using them in creative and interesting ways to make readers stop and have a look which is half the battle and once they know what its about they may decide to check it out. Half the battle is getting them to look and visual effects help immensely with this!
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Podcasting, jumping without a parachute and other fun ideas
Podcasting is a impressive way of spreading information in the form of words. All you have to do is take a recording on audio of what you wish the world to know, and share it. With the aid of RSS you can bring instructions in a hopefully clear and easy to understand manner for anyone to understand by allowing them to hear it.
Now... we do have joys of a restrictive internet however the basic concept works for me and I understand it quite well. I believe that it could be very helpful especially allowing a service for those who have difficulties reading. The library could also provide a news feed of sorts linked straight to a podcast that sounds more like a live shot of information concerning everything and anything the library wanted people to know, being updated regularly this could work to make the place seem alot more alive.
Now... we do have joys of a restrictive internet however the basic concept works for me and I understand it quite well. I believe that it could be very helpful especially allowing a service for those who have difficulties reading. The library could also provide a news feed of sorts linked straight to a podcast that sounds more like a live shot of information concerning everything and anything the library wanted people to know, being updated regularly this could work to make the place seem alot more alive.
I'm on the board! Vote for me... You know you want too.
So you've got a question that has been bugging you, and you can't find the right resouces to answer it yourself correctly, infact you've searched and searched and now it'll disturb your sleep until you answer it!
Well, grab a coke and turn on the computer because you can now find it out quickly and hopefully painlessly. An answer board - Or slam board if you will is like a forum where all you do is post a question and people answer it. Awesome. If it's correct of course - This is a webpage made for that sole purpose however and has a huge benefit in that respect. But I still think a library may be better off having their own forum where they can link in these sorts of things including having a FAQ thread for the members to ask questions. I can see its use but I think a whole page dedicated to it might be like grabbing howitzer to kill a fly in respect for our library here personally. Forum with a Q&A threat would be perfect however!
The only benefit over a forum I could see would be that it can allow you to vote where a forum can only do that if you link it in .. Internet is a tricky tricky place.
Well, grab a coke and turn on the computer because you can now find it out quickly and hopefully painlessly. An answer board - Or slam board if you will is like a forum where all you do is post a question and people answer it. Awesome. If it's correct of course - This is a webpage made for that sole purpose however and has a huge benefit in that respect. But I still think a library may be better off having their own forum where they can link in these sorts of things including having a FAQ thread for the members to ask questions. I can see its use but I think a whole page dedicated to it might be like grabbing howitzer to kill a fly in respect for our library here personally. Forum with a Q&A threat would be perfect however!
The only benefit over a forum I could see would be that it can allow you to vote where a forum can only do that if you link it in .. Internet is a tricky tricky place.
Delicious = Yummy?
Okay here I stumbled... But I never fell! I had difficulties signing up my own account to delicious (sorry!) due to the display image for the verification text never coming up. However I discovered due to a very generous staff member that our library had an account and I thought it may just be fine that I used it instead so here goes;
http://delicious.com/Inverell.Library
Now as for what I think of it and how it can be used, it's a fairly easy concept to grasp - A website created by you linking people to everything that they may need to look at concerning the topic you had in mind (Or something close to that). How can it benefit libraries you ask? Well! It's one of those beautiful little things where if someone needs to get a page up that alot of people ask for, like for example the RTA homepage, or a direct link to the drivers knowledge test which for us would be one of the most asked for things that I have come across - Perhaps even some free online educational games for the little ones or even to emails for those wanting to sign up a email account which is another highly asked question. It could just as easily be used to research topics if we take them to wiki's or any database of information.
So in closing, - Can be very useful! Perhaps the best use I could imagine is throwing it as a link onto the libraries website with more "useful links" which might be a nicer and more organised way of making a the links page.
http://delicious.com/Inverell.Library
Now as for what I think of it and how it can be used, it's a fairly easy concept to grasp - A website created by you linking people to everything that they may need to look at concerning the topic you had in mind (Or something close to that). How can it benefit libraries you ask? Well! It's one of those beautiful little things where if someone needs to get a page up that alot of people ask for, like for example the RTA homepage, or a direct link to the drivers knowledge test which for us would be one of the most asked for things that I have come across - Perhaps even some free online educational games for the little ones or even to emails for those wanting to sign up a email account which is another highly asked question. It could just as easily be used to research topics if we take them to wiki's or any database of information.
So in closing, - Can be very useful! Perhaps the best use I could imagine is throwing it as a link onto the libraries website with more "useful links" which might be a nicer and more organised way of making a the links page.
Youtube, Metube, we all Tube together
Youtube has always been awesome, and always will be. Moment I saw this up there I knew this would be a fun one to write a little about after the slow paced push to get something up there about wiki's other then the way to basically always discribe them as "An organised database of user contributed information" Youtube was gonna be a breath of fresh air. Now... I didn't need to search for lego to know what was on there. I already did... Lots over the years. I'm not a kid. I'm just special :P
I onced watched a very funny video on youtube about lego aliens, predators and jason. Jason was winning and near the end gets jumped by a lego face hugger! So cool. I had a hard time loading the clips due to some technical... Difficulties, however I decided eventually instead of looking for the video I wanted I'd just throw this one up related to it, and massively funny aliens vs predator xbox game commercial - Enjoy!
The value in using a media engine like this for use in the world place is immense. As long as you had a service that could provide the internet in a smooth running fashion for everyone to view you could make your instructions in a video format with demonstrations. I can see the use for this perhaps making a video to use our website avaliable online however - If it would be used is the question however by people wanting to learn how to use our resources better.
I onced watched a very funny video on youtube about lego aliens, predators and jason. Jason was winning and near the end gets jumped by a lego face hugger! So cool. I had a hard time loading the clips due to some technical... Difficulties, however I decided eventually instead of looking for the video I wanted I'd just throw this one up related to it, and massively funny aliens vs predator xbox game commercial - Enjoy!
The value in using a media engine like this for use in the world place is immense. As long as you had a service that could provide the internet in a smooth running fashion for everyone to view you could make your instructions in a video format with demonstrations. I can see the use for this perhaps making a video to use our website avaliable online however - If it would be used is the question however by people wanting to learn how to use our resources better.
Whoot! Wookieepedia :)
Wiki's... I know them. I like them. And I can't believe Wookieepedia is on the recommended have a look list! With my sort of life I generally will open a wiki and have a browse to discover the information I need - For work or for my own personal life. You can find a wiki for just about anything and everything and I already knew of the star wars one for I read over it quite often back when I use collect the star wars miniatures game and read the New Republic series of books to find out about the characters I was collecting. At the moment I've used it quite often to pull up stats and historalic information on world war II and battles surrounding it so we can somewhat recreate them in our Axis and Allies games.
A few of the links were to libraries who used their wiki's much like a forum to get information out there about their library and what they are doing. I also noticed one of the wiki's was being used to catalog the book reviews they had recieved - Which is one way of dealing with the problem of how to best present book reviews.
One library broke down the library, and how it was present by branches, locations, phone numbers, associations and then also supplied their services and series by a title page link system which was quite easy to use when broken down into catagories then again by topic headings.
One of ways of communicating with the outside world a wiki could be a important source of information on everything to do with the library especially if you allowed all the members to edit the topics when concerning novels and the series. Even just allowing the staff to edit and change could be a nifty thing if the staff is larger.
Anywho, onto ... media online stuff :)
A few of the links were to libraries who used their wiki's much like a forum to get information out there about their library and what they are doing. I also noticed one of the wiki's was being used to catalog the book reviews they had recieved - Which is one way of dealing with the problem of how to best present book reviews.
One library broke down the library, and how it was present by branches, locations, phone numbers, associations and then also supplied their services and series by a title page link system which was quite easy to use when broken down into catagories then again by topic headings.
One of ways of communicating with the outside world a wiki could be a important source of information on everything to do with the library especially if you allowed all the members to edit the topics when concerning novels and the series. Even just allowing the staff to edit and change could be a nifty thing if the staff is larger.
Anywho, onto ... media online stuff :)
Thursday, March 19, 2009
RSS or RRS? Whoops! Hey ... Feeds... Cool.
My searches were quick and easy, chasing up things about video games and movies and the popular online comics about gaming such as ctrl alt del and penny arcade jumped up with a huge selection of hits which I could of spent hours pouring through. I even through in quotes of the day, cause who doesn't like reading smart, intelligent or quick one-liners they wish they could remember later? Aftering adding several of interest I threw in the Powerhouse Picture of the day feed for good measure and finished it up. These can be used to link important news, features or just get the information out there for people to know! I think this tool is fantastic in the modern day being able to just throw up a way to get it all out there. I choose some work related bits for the library and for new best seller books, I tend to like the new york times best seller list for its had a few of my all time favorite series included in it such as the Horus Heresy and the Dark Elf Trilogy. I think we could use this quite easily if we kept up with our RSS and used it to public it for the library's benefit :)
I touched on this last time...
Last time I touched on that I enjoyed movies and gaming so this time I thought I'd mention more those games I find myself pouring endless hours into. At the moment this one such game I constantly play with a friend, - It can also be played online with a total of 4 players and 4 "infected" players trying to hunt them down heh.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gogdog/3042999356/
The idea of the game is simple, there has been a zombie apolocolpyse and now they plague the streets looking for those lucky few survivors who are immune to the desease. The games story is much like the story from the game 28 days later and it's sequal 28 weeks later, where the zombies are created from a virus strain that causes them to enrage and attack other people rather then being actual "living dead corpses". It also incorporates the idea of "special" infected who can be controled by players to hunt the survives online, these stray away from the very good theme but add a challenge to the game that the designers felt was needed.
The game is done with steams wonderful valve engine, that was used in the game Counter-Strike source. They actually got the idea while play testing counter-strike against things called "Bots" which are Artifical controled characters who are run by game using pre-designed code. These bots can never be as good as players, but hordes of these with knives rushing them gave them the desire to make a thrilling game about zombies in the same style where players fight through the stage to make a safehouse and eventually evacuation.
Computer games such as Compant of Heroes, Dawn of War II and Halo Wars are also absorbing some of my time currently. I also play a bit of a board game called Axis and Allied Miniatures by Wizards of the Coast (Who are now a huge game retailer!). But I'll leave these alone as I've already had a good rant about Left 4 Dead... And yes I -will- leave people for dead to make that safe house.
S.A.
Who would trust me with a blog?
Hey folks,
This is my first time using a blog although I am more then a little familiar with forums and most internet things having raised myself chained to a computer since probably the age of 14. I've been intending to use it more often for personal uses to review movies, games and just get my oppinion out there ready to be either loved or hated! :)
Learning doesn't really end, at each age you progress and learn more be it for your work, love life or simply just life in general. School of hard knocks hey? I use to moderate a forum for a text-based game I once administrated on (A MUD - Multi-user domain) and I've found these blogs to be vastly similiar just less chatty and more one person ranting which is just fine with me! Administrating on the game and the forum was probably some of the best times of my young life, as I spent a great deal of my time helping people along what they needed or wanted to know about the game and to be honest, it's alot like blogging :)
I've been pestering everyone around here to let me have a library blog to type reviews, chat or just get people talking as a community about the library and its books. The benefits in this could be endless with the proper amount of supervision to stop "flaming" we could have people get involved and really just harness the gains of a community.
If I was to blog, I don't think I could blog to well for a corporate audiance, I'm more set to talk my way and style about the things I enjoy, be it novels, movies, games or just personal oppinion in a way that adds my own imaginative flare :) Although difficult as it may be I can hold myself back when required and speak as officially as I need too heh.
Hawt! P.S. I also enjoy long walks on the beach at night, Earshot and many many other bands .. Rawr.
This is my first time using a blog although I am more then a little familiar with forums and most internet things having raised myself chained to a computer since probably the age of 14. I've been intending to use it more often for personal uses to review movies, games and just get my oppinion out there ready to be either loved or hated! :)
Learning doesn't really end, at each age you progress and learn more be it for your work, love life or simply just life in general. School of hard knocks hey? I use to moderate a forum for a text-based game I once administrated on (A MUD - Multi-user domain) and I've found these blogs to be vastly similiar just less chatty and more one person ranting which is just fine with me! Administrating on the game and the forum was probably some of the best times of my young life, as I spent a great deal of my time helping people along what they needed or wanted to know about the game and to be honest, it's alot like blogging :)
I've been pestering everyone around here to let me have a library blog to type reviews, chat or just get people talking as a community about the library and its books. The benefits in this could be endless with the proper amount of supervision to stop "flaming" we could have people get involved and really just harness the gains of a community.
If I was to blog, I don't think I could blog to well for a corporate audiance, I'm more set to talk my way and style about the things I enjoy, be it novels, movies, games or just personal oppinion in a way that adds my own imaginative flare :) Although difficult as it may be I can hold myself back when required and speak as officially as I need too heh.
Hawt! P.S. I also enjoy long walks on the beach at night, Earshot and many many other bands .. Rawr.
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