Something I did this time worked and I have a mySpace account. It is far creepier than I imagined. As soon as I joined I already had a "friend" -- Tom Sherwood -- who I immediately stood in front of a wall and had shot. This instant friend business is a sure sign of social decay.
There is all sorts of other garbage on my page I really don't understand or want. I don't want to take the trouble to fix it or clean it up since I'm not staying any longer than necessary.
The Randy Newman song, "Mama told me not to come..." keeps running through my head.
I was in San Diego this weekend and saw a t-shirt that read, "You were much cuter on mySpace."
Monday, July 16, 2007
Thursday, July 12, 2007
notMySpace: week 4.2
OK, I decided to suck it up and join MySpace for the sake of the assignment. That part about "invite Library Learning 2.0" made it hard to move forward without doing this. But it wouldn't let me join! First, as a joke (and a test of what I encountered with NING) I tried entering my birthday as 2/31/06 and it wouldn't let me in. The first few times it didn't say why, but on the third try I changed the date to 2/28/06 and got an error message:
We’re sorry. Based on the information you have submitted to us, you are ineligible to register on MySpace.com.
So then I corrected the date, making it 2/28/54 and I got the same error message. Am I now too old? That's ok by me.
I tried, I really tried, but I can't say I'm too disappointed that I couldn't register.
We’re sorry. Based on the information you have submitted to us, you are ineligible to register on MySpace.com.
So then I corrected the date, making it 2/28/54 and I got the same error message. Am I now too old? That's ok by me.
I tried, I really tried, but I can't say I'm too disappointed that I couldn't register.
social networking: week 4.1
This is starting to enter into uncomfortable territory for me. I've lived a good part of my life online, so the "virtual world" is not exactly new to me. But lame is lame. I just couldn't bring myself to set up a MySpace site with all the implications of sexual predation involved. Afterall, I'm a 53 year old male: what am I going to do on this site? Again, trying to honor the spirit of assignment rather than the letter, I set up a Ning account instead, since the intro explained that it focused on groups. I've been maintaining a Yahoo mail group for my high school class since 2000 and thought that a social networking site might be a better platform than the stale (and stalled) email exchanges we've maintained. Therefore I created a group for my class at http://chs1971.ning.com. I've sent mail through the Yahoo list to invite members.
One odd item about ning: When first signing up it asked almost nothing of me. However, the photo I uploaded didn't display right. Going back to change that required editing my profile. But this insisted on supplying more information than I wanted to share. In frustration, I entered my birthdate at February 31, 2006 and it accepted it!
I think that as these exercises continue I'm going to find I'm more and more uncomfortable with conducting silly activities online. While I've been pretty open to some sort of online existence and have been active in a wide variety of network initiatives, there are some places where I draw the line. In this case, have a space for a group I already belong to makes sense to me. Getting online to join a group which interests me also seems like a good use of the medium. I've been part of discussion lists for library technology, pottery, and 18th century studies.
I'm also interested in tools that let me do things I cannot do in any other form. I was an early member of librarything (http://www.librarything.com/catalog/ldjaffe) and I've been posting pictures on Shutterfly for years. I belong to the Long Now Foundation and participate in discussions there. I even had a blog for a little while but dropped it when I found I couldn't maintain a reasonable level of currency.
But I have to say that I don't get some of these social networking tools for their own sakes. It reminds me of the Dave Barry column where he compared the Internet to CD Radio, "only with more typing." Trying to get beyond the personal to the professional aspects of these tools, I can see where some might have library applications. We looked, for instance, at a wiki tool for the suggestion box (but the available system at the time wouldn't support our needs) but perhaps a public blog might be the way to go in the near future. I could also see a more interactive set of Web tools as a future platform for the Library's Web site. I mentioned earlier that I could see something like a blog for different "what's new" pages. I already maintain a series of pages for Jewish studies research, including a fairly static set of "new titles" pages. A blog could replace this in a snap.
But do I want to be a librarian in MySpace? Categorically and unconditionally, no!
One odd item about ning: When first signing up it asked almost nothing of me. However, the photo I uploaded didn't display right. Going back to change that required editing my profile. But this insisted on supplying more information than I wanted to share. In frustration, I entered my birthdate at February 31, 2006 and it accepted it!
I think that as these exercises continue I'm going to find I'm more and more uncomfortable with conducting silly activities online. While I've been pretty open to some sort of online existence and have been active in a wide variety of network initiatives, there are some places where I draw the line. In this case, have a space for a group I already belong to makes sense to me. Getting online to join a group which interests me also seems like a good use of the medium. I've been part of discussion lists for library technology, pottery, and 18th century studies.
I'm also interested in tools that let me do things I cannot do in any other form. I was an early member of librarything (http://www.librarything.com/catalog/ldjaffe) and I've been posting pictures on Shutterfly for years. I belong to the Long Now Foundation and participate in discussions there. I even had a blog for a little while but dropped it when I found I couldn't maintain a reasonable level of currency.
But I have to say that I don't get some of these social networking tools for their own sakes. It reminds me of the Dave Barry column where he compared the Internet to CD Radio, "only with more typing." Trying to get beyond the personal to the professional aspects of these tools, I can see where some might have library applications. We looked, for instance, at a wiki tool for the suggestion box (but the available system at the time wouldn't support our needs) but perhaps a public blog might be the way to go in the near future. I could also see a more interactive set of Web tools as a future platform for the Library's Web site. I mentioned earlier that I could see something like a blog for different "what's new" pages. I already maintain a series of pages for Jewish studies research, including a fairly static set of "new titles" pages. A blog could replace this in a snap.
But do I want to be a librarian in MySpace? Categorically and unconditionally, no!
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
RSS or blogs: week 4
We seem to be back at blogs and there seems to be some confusion about blogs and RSS. Almost any Web content can be shared as an RSS feed and the fact that it makes most sense to syndicate regularly updated sites shouldn't lead to confusion between RSS feeds and blogs. I wouldn't call the NYTimes news feed a blog. Referring randomly to RSS feeds as blogs makes me feel like we're going backwards. I'm experiencing deja vu and not enjoying it much.
I managed to add a Flickr site -- the "interesting, new photos" feed but not the main page -- to the feeds on MyYahoo. Again, not a blog (as far as I can tell) but still an RSS feed. I already mentioned adding the 23 Things blog to MyYahoo. Oddly, I can't add my own (this) blog. It tries and says it can't do it and suggests I try again later. So maybe it is just some temporary issue at Yahoo's end.
Setting aside my hairsplitting, I think that the potential for RSS in the library is enormous. I think blogs by themselves are pretty tedious if the user needs to seek them out and read them. Coupled with the RSS feed capability where they can be published to a space the users already visit it is an entirely different matter. I mentioned finding a Jewish studies library blog -- the selector at a library communicating news about the collection and services to his constituency -- and can see adding this tool to our kit just as it is. It would be even more useful if it can be syndicated and therefore fed to another site. We do have feedsplitter on the Library's Web site that allows displaying RSS feeds within a Web page. I don't know if any live sites are using it but I've been experimenting with it for a project . You can see an example at http://library.ucsc.edu/~ldjaffe/admin/educ.html
One question is where the potential for RSS publishing exists within the tools we have. Does cruzcat or melvyl allow syndication? Wouldn't it be cool to feel a canned search (e.g., most recent titles on a particular subject)? Can we feed from wiki or RT or cruztime? I know Zope supports RSS in both directions.
The other item is publishing outside info within our sites. On a simple level it maybe just a matter of including the RSS address with the sources we list. But if we can include (feedsplitter, again) live content within our pages that's so much better.
I managed to add a Flickr site -- the "interesting, new photos" feed but not the main page -- to the feeds on MyYahoo. Again, not a blog (as far as I can tell) but still an RSS feed. I already mentioned adding the 23 Things blog to MyYahoo. Oddly, I can't add my own (this) blog. It tries and says it can't do it and suggests I try again later. So maybe it is just some temporary issue at Yahoo's end.
Setting aside my hairsplitting, I think that the potential for RSS in the library is enormous. I think blogs by themselves are pretty tedious if the user needs to seek them out and read them. Coupled with the RSS feed capability where they can be published to a space the users already visit it is an entirely different matter. I mentioned finding a Jewish studies library blog -- the selector at a library communicating news about the collection and services to his constituency -- and can see adding this tool to our kit just as it is. It would be even more useful if it can be syndicated and therefore fed to another site. We do have feedsplitter on the Library's Web site that allows displaying RSS feeds within a Web page. I don't know if any live sites are using it but I've been experimenting with it for a project . You can see an example at http://library.ucsc.edu/~ldjaffe/admin/educ.html
One question is where the potential for RSS publishing exists within the tools we have. Does cruzcat or melvyl allow syndication? Wouldn't it be cool to feel a canned search (e.g., most recent titles on a particular subject)? Can we feed from wiki or RT or cruztime? I know Zope supports RSS in both directions.
The other item is publishing outside info within our sites. On a simple level it maybe just a matter of including the RSS address with the sources we list. But if we can include (feedsplitter, again) live content within our pages that's so much better.
RSS: week 3
I already have a lot of experience with RSS and I really didn't want to create yet another account on another service. I have a MyYahoo page that allows me to install RSS feeds on my main page. I already installed various news sources, a couple of cartoons, and local movie times, local weather and a mapping tool. Since one of the sources mentions using Yahoo as an aggregator instead of BlogLines, I'm going to honor the spirit, if not the letter, of this exercise. For the sake of this exercise I've added the 23 Things feed to MyYahoo page.
This brings me to another issue, the proliferation of sites to manage an online life. Yahoo was already my main site for my personal life online. As mentioned, I have some stuff on my MyYahoo page and it is my email site. I belong to a Yahoo email group (it started out independent but was acquired by Yahoo later). My personal Web site started as Geocities until it was acquired by Yahoo. Now I have a Flickr site (again owned by Yahoo). I did try blogging within my Yahoo site but the editor really sucked. In a way Yahoo was my online aggregator.
But now with these exercises, I'm getting new sites to manage. We're only 3-4 weeks into this and I've got several more new places to keep my stuff than I did before. I thought the virtual world was supposed to make things simpler or better!
I think that as part of a side issue, I'm going to look for ways to integrate as much of this stuff as I can. I've already added an RSS feed from Flickr on MyYahoo. I'm going to see if I can also add this blog to MyYahoo.
This brings me to another issue, the proliferation of sites to manage an online life. Yahoo was already my main site for my personal life online. As mentioned, I have some stuff on my MyYahoo page and it is my email site. I belong to a Yahoo email group (it started out independent but was acquired by Yahoo later). My personal Web site started as Geocities until it was acquired by Yahoo. Now I have a Flickr site (again owned by Yahoo). I did try blogging within my Yahoo site but the editor really sucked. In a way Yahoo was my online aggregator.
But now with these exercises, I'm getting new sites to manage. We're only 3-4 weeks into this and I've got several more new places to keep my stuff than I did before. I thought the virtual world was supposed to make things simpler or better!
I think that as part of a side issue, I'm going to look for ways to integrate as much of this stuff as I can. I've already added an RSS feed from Flickr on MyYahoo. I'm going to see if I can also add this blog to MyYahoo.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
week 2.21 (flickr searching)
First rule: Do not search for the term "library" unless you can dedicate the next 8 hours to sleep and are not planning to drive or operate heaving machinery. I was actually hoping to see some sort of assessment project using photography that I could use as an example for a future project here. (I did find a collection of photos from the library assessment conference I attended last year, but I'm not in any of them.) The assessment project was probably not a realistic expectation, but I'm thinking that we should post any assessment pictures we do on Flickr now that I've seen it.
I generally like the intersection of lots and lots of pictures and tags. Most search results -- with some humorous false hits -- are right on the money. It ain't precise but it is fun. For instance, search "UCSC". I also searched "hummingbird" and saw an amazing variety (10s of thousands) of photos like mine. Even searching "hummingbird UCSC arboretum" brings on about a dozen hits.
On the other hand, I didn't see my own pictures. Even though I uploaded my photos last evening (July 2) and reviewed them by most recent first, my pictures don't show up. Hmmmm. It isn't a case of recentness, because I see other July 2nd uploads. I guess I'll double check my tagging or maybe my permissions...
In the meantime, I did some other searching with mixed results. The map business needs rethinking. They can only show about 25 photos per page, so when you browse or even search via maps, you have to page through page after page. Focusing on Santa Cruz means many pages with no SC content for every one that has. I don't get the point. Somehow it should be able to show only pages with photos in that region, no?
One other interesting approach is looking at groups. There are 190 "librarians" groups. (See health alert above.)
Again, I think this is more fun (i.e. social) than practical. Library apps? Still thinking about that.
I generally like the intersection of lots and lots of pictures and tags. Most search results -- with some humorous false hits -- are right on the money. It ain't precise but it is fun. For instance, search "UCSC". I also searched "hummingbird" and saw an amazing variety (10s of thousands) of photos like mine. Even searching "hummingbird UCSC arboretum" brings on about a dozen hits.
On the other hand, I didn't see my own pictures. Even though I uploaded my photos last evening (July 2) and reviewed them by most recent first, my pictures don't show up. Hmmmm. It isn't a case of recentness, because I see other July 2nd uploads. I guess I'll double check my tagging or maybe my permissions...
In the meantime, I did some other searching with mixed results. The map business needs rethinking. They can only show about 25 photos per page, so when you browse or even search via maps, you have to page through page after page. Focusing on Santa Cruz means many pages with no SC content for every one that has. I don't get the point. Somehow it should be able to show only pages with photos in that region, no?
One other interesting approach is looking at groups. There are 190 "librarians" groups. (See health alert above.)
Again, I think this is more fun (i.e. social) than practical. Library apps? Still thinking about that.
week 2.2 (flickr)
I set up a Flickr account (http://flickr.com/photos/ldjaffe) but had to do the uploads from home since that is where my iPhoto library is.
I found out that flickr's uploader isn't compatible with Safari, but that's hardly news. I got bogged down trying to figure out Uploadr's "authorization" process which was launching Firefox in another window. I think maybe because this is a kind of backwards assignment the process of finding photos to upload into Flickr was more awkward than it needs to be. It doesn't really let you browse the iPhoto library with ease so I had to first find photos in my iPhoto library, note the date and filename and then browse directories accordingly. It's a little cumbersome.
By comparison, I have had a Shutterfly account for a few years and that let's me "share" (upload) photos directly from iPhotos via a free plug-in. That way I can be looking at a photo in iPhoto and decide then and there to upload it without a lot of extra steps. I will note that Shutterfly has a different focus - they sell prints and sharing is a secondary proccess. I did set up a shared album for this assignment. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AaM2jhq0bs2FE¬ag=1 But there is no general access to photos in Shutterfly.
Back to Flickr ... I'm slowly getting on top of some of the basics. For instance, I noticed that some photos were tagged with the camera model. I tagged mine accordingly and then did a tag search for this model. I saw a lot of photos come up without the tag and discovered camera information ("taken with..." ) embedded in a "further information" section. I spent a bit of time trying to figure out how to add or edit this part before discovering that it was included automatically when I uploaded my photos.
My other issue is that the "My Photos" display defaults to showing the photos in the order they were loaded. I was working backwards through my iPhoto album during the upload process and so the images are in reverse order. I was able to resort the photos in the set (there is a sort order option), but I can't discover any way to change the order on this opening screen. it is a small thing but annoying.
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