the Rssa is gssa nu thang.

sooo...RSS we meet again. I always knew your wraps on the latest low down on the tech beat were something well beyond my hollow stringy skills. I've been keeping up with you via our mutual friend Bloglines, where you have gathered quite the entourage to keep me constantly engaged without getting to know the real you. So do you have more to offer me and my fellow homes?

The answer would appear to be yes. Feedrinse has the sound of a dishwashing detergent, but it does claim to have to have the power to blast away those skerricks of spam and leave behind only the mightiest germs (or gems) that are of interest. Sadly, Bloglines does not seem to be such a big fan of sharing its home RSS feeds, and besides, I do prefer my own filtering.

I seemed to get the ol' 404 on filtermyrss, seems it needs the ol' 101 on how to run a website, though I suspect its just for today. feedsifter is a simplified version of Feedrinse, but it simply makes me want to have the option in Bloglines to filter my own. I can filter from the web but not my own list? Silly.

As for RSS going places? some say 'over the hill' but with tools like spokentext its really a powerful tool, as you can listen to that lengthy proposal from mike on your ipod on the way home from work rather that read it. I hope it has a Vulcan accent available.

As for being more efficient with my RSS I'm still fail at 1500 wpm, which really would have increased my capacity to get through my feeds. However I'm sure my comprehension and love of reading would convert to fail on a said win. As for the caring of sharing...its likeness has been added to my own blog.

As for my RSS use, I regularly check it 1-2 times a week, alternating which blogs I read if I don't get through them all, and comment on them occasionally here. The feeds are organised according to the rules of chaos, much like my cd collection as I never know what turn my tastes will take. As for what tools I used and liked, take a trip back in time to the start of the post to find out!

Casting from couch to screen

Ahh screencasting, how I have waited for thee. Multidue is the time I have spent lending my voice, prompting my audience with handy navigational hints with my musings and mousing to traverse there way across the cathode lit screens to find the drive users of computers have been lacking to complete their purpose for coming to the library.



first port of access is to the address of slideshare. Seems to me to be filled with lots of presentations etc used for, well, presentations. from the wealth of information available it would be an alternate to acquainting yourself with an unfamiliar product or service, or learing about one from another perspective. Lots of how to's for social networking are available. I myself have assisted in creating a powerpoint presentation for social media at my Library (with a little help from the common craft lads)which would fit in to what is being presented here. Neato, but still lacking a little something...



Authorstream was the next viewing, and once again similar with plenty of linking features. Now to see some in action!



I really liked the Public Library presentation on talking books, something we here are looking at. Was good to see how it had evolved over time into what is available to the public now. But still, these are often used as aids to a presentation, they are lacking a voice (you can add one, but still, not quite the same effect). What intrigues me is online screencasting.

So behold! by Awful attempt at a screencast. I was so unhappy that captions could not cover up my shonky work

Free online screencasting tool

Ninger is not a dirty word.

Ning, I never thought I'd see you filling these computer parts of mine again, its been ages since I saw you, August 5th 2009 to be precise. So this little adventure into the nings of other institutions is a good chance to rejuvenate the little bit of turf some of my fellow contemporaries have staked out.

1st stop is the Mosman ning, can they do no wrong? but I really like their embedded vimeo videos and collaborative forum section for book reviews that anyone can participate in. with good presence on their website (part of their reading lounge seamlessly inserted for their borrowers convenience). it offers a greater chance of interaction than what you would get with book reviews simply embedded into a catalogue via Librarything for instance, making it more akin to a book club online (though Librarything also offers this). It all depends on what level you want to engage at.

Next stop is the boldly stated Museum 3.0 not to be confused with web 3.0 (the push from sites to services if you need a catchphrase). Good to see that its pushing 2k members and they encompass the globe. Also it is comforting to see the existence of such a group that understands the need to think about pushing their collections to the user from beyond the confines of the traditional building, much like the Powerhouse Museum has.

Bibliotheek 2.0 tested my language skills and I deduced its Dutch. But even if I fail at languages, they do not fail in their efforts to comprehend the web as we know it, no matter how many upgrades it receives.

The final stop was the Library 2.0 Ning, where I was delighted to see some of my very own handy work on display via some of the images I had uploaded to flickr via widget action! Spurred on by this tangible thread of 2.0 communal togetherness pouring from my monitor to my digital heart I hastily applied for membership, but noes! the failure to encapsulate my digital persona with a picture has ruined all hope of becoming a member. True, I could have simply uploaded an image of a pen to suffice, but I will ponder how I want to be represented when words are no longer enough to capture the minds of my ningers.

Still, all in all a useful location that ties in to a lot of different social networks that may be associated with your institution, or even something of your own interest.

Evolving Evaluation. Evoluation?

Ahh yes evaluation, it is not just what you are saying anymore, it its what others are saying about it. Kind of like closing your eyes in public and saying something vitally profound to your own little universe, then opening your eyes to see if anyone stuck around to hear it. If nobody did, does it make it less important? Did anyone actually hear it?

It is in this so called 'closed eye' state where evaluation comes into play. I know the library where I am stationed monitors our library website usage, even down to what pages they are accessing and what browser/platform they did it with. Even if it was a referral from another site. As for 2.0 tech, I've noted blogs that track and display comments made on recent posts from outside sources (sadly none of mine have been there).

Reading through the State Library report on 2.0 implementation I found it interesting that 57.4% of Libraries in fact do not evaluate their new technologies. From what I've seen here, We collect flickr statistics, use survey monkey, monitor the video stats on vimeo, even monitor the use of Hornsby Library in google alerts (which I'll bet appears there, hi library reader!). It is a great way to discover up to date information on what people are saying about your library, which is generally generated without the prompting of feedback in the way the library collects such comments in house. It also means writers are often less inhibited in what they have to say, which has its good and bad points obviously.

As a side note I actually waited top finish this while my feedburner stats populated, and as my zero subscribers would confirm my status as that nutter rambling at the back about some sort of poppycock notion. Still, I can see if I indeed had a interweb reach, it would provide good information on where my hits were coming from, and an over-arching view of my readership landscape. But as this is not the case, I will merely substitute my own reality for the minds of others. Till next week!

Tasty titbits revisitied

Well delicious, it certainly has been awhile since we last met. you seem to have shed some of your unnecessary mid letter punctuation, slimming down in the process into one fine streamlined website. I know I promised to drop by and tell you all the places I've been and like to go, but I've been between computers you see. Forgive me?

I see you are getting serious with that Yahoo, even hitting me up for ID before entry. But I knew you before then, won't you let me back in? After much convincing and a little site searching, I was able to get through to you without having to go through your 'mate' Yahoo.

And when I got through, what did I see? a single post from April 08 was there, waiting for me.

OK, so I haven't lived up to my expectation that I would use delicious since the last course, despite my feeling at the time it would indeed be valuable at work considering the amount of computer hopping I do (I am on about 5 PCs during any given week).



So anyway I found my old account, added a blog or two and signed up to the State Library network. I had a go at the web address searching but it didn't seem to want to play for me today. So instead I used the search and tag options in delicious to find the tweeted item in the course. having no idea what the tags were proved a bit hard to compete with the sheer amount of game tags, but searching its exact title found it, even though it wasn't ranked #1. I really like the tag rolls option to add to a blog, despite the fact that mine is a little lacking at the moment.

So in summation, what would make me a dedicated lover outside of bookmarking places to go? well searching if done on a random keyword basis really does need narrowing, which is fine. Tag searching requires thorough tagging by users, so all in all beyond tagging I would find it would use up a lot of my time to find items I may have better luck searching the web for myself, which is how I would find my own bookmarks most likely.

as For how I would use it I think it would be a great way to keep a list of all the interesting articles I find on blogs though my RSS feeds so I won't lose track of where and when I read something, as well as all the important pages I need. Whilst it has further uses, That is what I want out of it.

Twit Wit

Ahh yes twitter, I've had experiences with you before and you left with a rather wigged out feeling in that cerebral area of my body. Why did you do this to me? WHY?

The interweb life of the twit KeithSuburban has gone through many shades of use: sparse, disparate, barren. I think you get the picture. I even garnered a few followers early on, but I fear they only latched on due to an Australian affiliate of a similar name.

Twitter has definitely gone through its paces since my last visit, with the addition of lists, and a new shiny list of hot twits to follow. Despite my seeming pessimism towards the social networking site I actually ran a short course on it at my library, focusing on its usage as an information medium for new users that may not have friends on there.

So on the topic of libraries, I did some sleuthing on what the word on the walls was like: Librarians, Libraries, Librarian were my weapons of choice. People seemed to like writing about their experiences of being in libraries, whether they were studious or stupendous, or stifling under the harsh regime of the enforcing librarians. Some of these were even viewed to be quite comely, always a good sign. interesting to see different perspectives out there, and the mix of new breed/old vanguard attitudes of librarians themselves that seep though the comments. People also seem to appreciate their libraries a lot, even if they do not use them much, by their own admissions.

As for my own use? My belief that its like talking to yourself in a crowd and hoping that someone likes what they overhear enough to respond stance does noting for it growing on me. Also the fact that I prefer to keep my socialising off the net as much as I can forebodes that I only would want to use it as a news push service, the kind of thing a library would use. So all hope is not lost.

For instance, I could foresee the library using the service to update users on events and services (especially interruptions to services) and even questions from the public, which I wrote about here. it could also host lists of businesses and other important centres in the regional area that may be of interest to users, such as on local elections, building developments, and so forth. So whilst the verdict on social use is a no, for the library its a big yes. Now to deal with that tape...

Library Returns

Well it has been quite a while indeed since I last posted to this little corner of the web that write home about, for a few reasons I suppose. One that I have still been tumbling my thoughts out on another blog where my fellow contemporaries in the age of information shine a spotlight on big events in technology, and the occasional torch light on something we happen to find personally nifty. So I kinda felt writing about the same style of thing in two places a bit tedious, and I didn't want to do ye olde cut n paste from another blog. So feel free to what we have been up to.

The other reason is that I'm still not much of an interacter over the interwebs. I even gave myself a facebook account for my birthday and almost gave it away, but I have found it to be somewhat useful, but not somewhere I can fully articulate some of my more zany findings about life on the web. And of course, I'm still more a people person with introverted tendencies, so no need to constantly regale people with my inane activities. so the occasional blog post for me is quite satisfying to pour some of those excess thoughts and words onto the screen.

I've also enjoyed keeping abreast of new technological developments of Internet applications and how libraries are adapting to technological change through the blogs that I follow via bloglines. I try to keep up to date with my reading once or twice a week, and I always enjoy finding something new, especially the posts I find displaying bizarre library signage.

Still, I'm not much of a commentator on blogs just yet, though I must admit reading though some comments and thoughts on people's blogs are sometimes more interesting than the post itself, which should prompt me to add some value to the posts I love, but I haven't felt the need.

But, I'm happy that I have taken up the challenge yet again to expand my empire of knowledge on technological advances, along with setting up my posts on frontiers that are out there.