TLC 2.0 - You Tube

I have been using You tube or quite a while now.

Music Videos - and Clips for old TV Shows are great...

There is a big question about copyrights on You Tube.

I think that the Legal world will be wrestling with it for many years.

While I don't have any real video equipment at my home PC - and I don't really want any videos on You Tube of my own - I do like the Video Blog Idea.

This kind of Production really levels the playing field between the amateur and the Film and TV studios.

Many younger folks don't care if the quality on the screen is small and fuzzy -- they would rather see the video for free.

Amateurs can build a resume and find finds all over the world without having to go through the TV or Movie business corporate machines.

Watch this video and look at the special effects.



Compared to a You Tube Video of a real Star Wars movie - it looks just as good.
Hurray --- I wish I had YOU Tube when I was a kind making stupid videos with Mom and Dad's Video 8mm and Video Cameras.

Of Course YOU Tube is not the only Video Hosting site... but it is the most well know.
Here is another one that has my favorite video.




I'll let you guess why ??


TJP

Web 2.0 Awards - Real Estate Maps

I've been viewing lots of Real Estate Mapping Web Apps lately.

http://www.realtor.com
is still the King as it has the most complete listings

http://www.floridamoves.com
is a pretty good one too.

Since I am a guy that likes lots of Maps I have been playing with the Google Maps Home buying featture. MY MAPS - Google Real Estate Search

http://maps.google.com

I Found these two sites at the Web 2.0 Awards that work much the same way.

http://www.housingmaps.com/

http://www.zillow.com/


I really like to get the Mapping features at all of these services.

It helps me with my current job hunting.

Thanks to this TLC project I have found a few more resources.

Online Productivity

I has trouble posting from ZOHO to my Blog -

but my thoughts were very positive about the applications.

Well this is my test of ZOHO.



I was also able to setup an account with Google Docs and try out their presentation software.



I would have to try some serious documents to stretch the limits.



They seem to be adaquate for general usage.



I am impressed at how wee developed they are - yet at this point I don't see them replacing Desktop Wordprocessors.



For Temp stuff, and sharing simple Docs online these Web 2.o apps work great.



---

You have two Cows - Distributism

In the tradition of the

"You have Two Cows" series of jokes, and political metaphor.

Others found at
http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/You_have_two_cows/17


I Shall submit the one for the missing "ism"

Distributism

You Have Two Cows
You use one Cow's milk for your family's daily needs. 90% of the rest is sold for profit. 10% of the rest is given to the poor.
You use the second cow to slaughter for meat, leather, gelatin, and every useful byproduct for your family's daily needs. 90% of the rest is sold for profit. 10% of the rest is given to the poor.
You use the manure to fertilize your garden.


Need more on Distributism ?
Read the ChesterBelloc Mandate
http://www.distributist.blogspot.com/

TLC Wikis Part 2

I fell a little behind this week - but I think I made up for it.

I played in the NSU LIBs Wiki sandbox.

• I added my favorite book

http://nsulibs.pbwiki.com/Favorite+Books?l=S

• Favorite Restaurant

http://nsulibs.pbwiki.com/Favorite+Restaurants?l=S

• Favorite vacation spot.

http://nsulibs.pbwiki.com/Favorite+Vacation+Spots+?l=S


This was Fun -

TLC Wikis

I believe Wikis are a great development in using the Web for exactly what it was designed for.

The old days of ARPAnet - and the original academic Internet were a time of collaboration.

The true purpose of the Internet.

Wiki's are finally that dream completely realized.

For Libraries the Wiki holds a great possibility for the staff to collaborate and add things to a Website without having to rewrite and FTP a web page.

It is easy web page writing.

The HPD Library has started it's own Wiki for Health Related pathfinders.

Alex & I have been working on it for the past few weeks.

Here you can take a sneak peek

http://aawachsler.pbwiki.com

TJP

Future of Libraries and Web 2.0

Well- I may change my mind in the future - but here is my take on the whole Web 2.0 in Libraries so far......

There seems to be a great deal of hand ringing about our changing profession. There also seems to be a great deal of job protectionism and grasping for a need to be "relevant" to our patrons.

Academics, library school students, and librarians with too much time on their hands seem to have a very ethereal idea of Librarianship. And discuss it as if Librarianship is now and has always been about bibliographic control and access to all information, everywhere, at any time, for everyone.

Yet, in reality Librarianship has always been like any other profession; doing a specific job, with a specific collection, for a specific patron base, during specific hours.

Furthermore, just like any other job - it will change. If I am no longer needed by my University to do technical services - then I will need to go find another job.

It is as simple as that.

If a small city no longer wishes to support a community library - then those librarians need to hit the pavement.

How often do we see Doctors and Lawyers pleading with local governments trying to convince them and all people how important they are ? Not often.

Carburetor manufacturers didn't stand in the streets trying the convince the world they are still important once fuel injectors were introduced. Blacksmiths reduced in numbers and found a small niche in a world without horses as common transportation.

If we need to convince people they need us, then maybe they don't ?

Eventually, some of them will fall into chaos in a glut of information resources and cry for help,
"Won't someone please be an information professional for us !"

And thus the cycle will continue. And we can make them "pay through the nose" for our expertise.

Web 2.0 does not threaten libraries or librarians. Nor do I think Libraries should be involved much with Web 2.0 beyond very practical applications.

Such as:
Using a Blog for Newsletters.
Making funny Patron Signs with Image Generators
Using a Wiki for committee meetings

Many of the other tools of Web 2.0 (Technorati, del.icio.us, etc) could be used as web tools for the individual librarian in their daily work.

Web 2.0 applications could be shown to library patrons as part of computer training classes.
But, this is better for a Community center to tackle. I have never felt that the Library and Librarians are best suited to do "computer training" for the community.

Local Governments should rather set up large computer centers and hire computer trainers and technicians to man them.

There should be a "City Computer Lab" that is _not_ the Local Library. (Although they could be in the same building.)

Leave the Libraries to only have access to "specifically selected" resources. Leave the Librarians to do what they do best - provide access to a collection of materials - take care and preserve a collection materials - provide assistance and training for research and patron selection of materials.

In general, Web 2.0 is not "part of the collection" it is only a set of web tools.



Web 2.0 tools need to be used under the criteria of serving the needs of the librarian's job.

Who is my patron ?
What is my collection ?
What is my job in relation to each of these ?
What tools are at my disposal to do my job better ?

Without a clear understanding of these things it is understandable that there may be much anxiety.


I really like a recently published article that has the most well thought out discussion of this topic. I also believe that the author's recommendations are very appropriate.
In short, he thinks Libraries should stick to what they do best - managing a small and specific collection of Books and a limited collection of "specifically selected resources".

Stop trying to control the web - stop trying to be all things to all people.

Unfortunately, the Library Community may not want to hear it.

Please read:

"The Peloponnesian War and the Future of Reference, Cataloging, and Scholarship in Research Libraries" prepared for AFSCME 2910 by Thoams Mann, June 13, 2007.

http://www.guild2910.org/Peloponnesian%20War%20June%2013%202007.pdf


Now, if you'll excuse me I have a job to do.
I am a Professional Librarian with a collection to care for.

TJP

Technorati

Hey - well this is a useful tool.

It is Blog search of Blogs !

I like it !

I think that this is one of the first "Things" we should have done - even before we created our own Blogs.

It is a middle of the road tool ---

It works much like a Web 1.0 search engine and a Web 2.0 Blog and links to other Blogs.

Wow it's a big universe out there.

Del.icio.us

This weeks Thing is to exploer social bookmarking.

I started my account with Del.icio.us and successfully imported all of my MS-Exploer Bookmarks into it.

http://del.icio.us/tjpaladin

I feel that it will be a bit of a time waster to go through them all and add tags.

The look and feel of Del.icio.us is a bit --- er uhm --- boring.

The idea of having our favorite books marks on the web is a good one.

Tagging them and being able to sort them out is good.

I'm not very thrilled with the Social aspect of the service. I do like the serendipty of finding new and interesting things from those people that are taking the time to do tagging and social interaction.

I'll force myself to use it a bit more.

Rollyo

Today's "Thing" exercise was to create your own

Rollyo "federated" search.

It is not clear about the reference of Rollyo as a "roll your own" tool being related to:
tobacco cigarettes ?
or
spliff, doobie, joint, ace, blunt, or pinhead ?
or
sushi ?

But the idea is a good one.

It wasn't very difficult to set this up at all.

I enjoyed the process of choosing my favorite websites and adding them to a list so that they could be search together.

Adding the widget to my Favorites/Links Bar was an interesting - {but it stops working if I clear my Cookies}

Adding the Widget to my Blog worked very well....
Look to the lower Right corner of my Blog

The Downside:

Unfortunately, the searches start at the "domain" level and can't specify a sub-directory.

This doesn't work well for my intended purposes. Often I find sites of Online Books. Each of them has a sub-directory for a specific Author. -- But the Rollyo search engine can't be directed to only the sub-directory of that author.

The result is that all of the authors end up in the search.

This make the searching less than ideal.

--- Thus making my "G K Chesterton" search into "GKC and Friends"


Also it is a little slow.

Additionally - with only a few specified sites one would miss the serendipity that an engine like Google could help with.

In short - The federated aspect of this product is not comprehensive enough to replace Google - nor is it precise enough to replace Google.

I would much rather use the Cluster by URL feature of Clusty - to distinguish specific websites.

This offers the same multi site searching that Google does - along with a visual Clustering of the Keywords or the Key Websites that the results were found in.

I'll play with Rollyo a little more to see how it goes - but for the long term I'll probably stick with Clusty

With Clusty I Made this Cloud for my Blog

Loading Clusty Cloud ...

Library Thing

Heh - here is my Library Thing entry.

It is an easy way to catalog - but certainly not up to Professional Cataloger standards
-- {he says smuggly}