Week 12

Thanks Jenny et. all.

Assignment 10

While I do enjoy using various podcast mediums for personal use, they unfortunately wouldn't have any use for our business. I find the sites to generally be easy to use, and the are a great resource for 'entertainment', especially post-dated -- for example, television shows, compilations or radio broadcasts that can be enjoyed after the fact.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU1jra7RKCQ

My favourite commercials!

Assignment #9

In the past I have seen applications very similar to Zoho, but not quite as advanced as that. I have a friend who is a bar manager, and from his own laptop he can access any computer in any of his bars, and 'lock-out' the user and edit the documents. But aside from that, this was entirely new to me.

I can see the value in having online documents, and being able to share it with other people. I don't really see emailing documents to be that big of a burden, but I suppose this is still a way to make it easier. I might explore it's options and processes a bit further, to see if adding and cropping pictures, putting in spreadsheets and cells etc is as easy as they make it out to be.

There is talk that our office might open a satellite-office. If that is the case, I could see having an online collection of documents and notices could be easy and beneficial, and increase communication between the two branches.

Assignment 8

My opinions of Wiki's are very similar to those presented in the initial article we read on the subject. I think there usefulness comes from being a quick and accessible spot for information. If someone was interested in researching something totally foreign to them, I think a Wiki could provide the first 'overview' of information, and create different avenues for future exploration. As far as being a source within itself, the fact that it is an uncontrolled and only quasi-monitored medium would make me think twice about citing it.

I think if our office was to use a Wiki it would be to get information to our clients in a simple manner. Most of our interaction to the community is done on a 1-1 basis, so if at some point our efforts need to change, being able to host discussions and to pass on information on an easily-accessible site would help out. That being said, I'm not too sure what the difference between that and a traditional webpage would be...

Assignment 7 (whoops, a day late)

One thing that I felt was missing from the articles in 2.0 was the question of scholarly validity and the quality of content that is available. When using 2.0 applications for academic pursuits, it seems a bit dangerous to be promoting a lot of the services when they are not necessarily reputable. In a University setting, amongst others, it is common teachings to avoid taking information from opinion pieces, or 2nd hand information. I agree that having the resources available is helpful, but hte quality of those resources needs to be closely scrutinized.

I also thought some of the articles (particularly the Essence of 2.0) spoke in a overly-idealistic setting, about how this should effect libraries etc. Many of the points listed were not directly related to the 2.0 developments, so I feel that the wanted-result and the method proposed do not directly line up.

A final point is that a lot of the 2.0 could be seen as idealistic. One question I have is are 'older' library techniques really THAT archaic and problematic? Furthermore, is it fair to expect (or possibly require) all people to adapt to 2.0 when they have been able to succeed with traditional methods? There seemed to be a bit of elitism, or the 'us and them' mentality to the articles presented.

Assignment #6

Although I found exploring the Delicious website, I can't see it being particularly useful for our organization. The results are interesting for curiousities sake and for personal interest, but not for what our office does.

I could see myself using this website for personal use. For some things that I'm interested in (sports sites, for example), I'm stubborn and use the same 3 or 4 sites to get my information. A site like this could allow me to broaden out and see what else is popular. I think the same goes for Technorati. It would be great for personal interest, but it lacks the 'professionalism' that we often need in our workplace.

Assignment #5

A big benefit of having a facebook based organization is the free advertising and networking abilities. Curious individuals can access and read-up on the organization without hastle or delay. Likewise, the organizations can partner with like-minded groups in to appeal to a wider audience. Another benefit is that it is free for the organization itself -- no cost to set up.

While easy access is a benefit, it is also a concern. The organization is left open for spammers, and also people who are against the cause (in this case not followers of the green shift) to leave sour messages and voice their opinions, which can be counter productive to the group. Ideas can easily be stolen, and administrative control wavers.

Library Thing was interesting -- very similar to Facebooks 'Visual Bookshelf'. Being a reader I have found the latter helpful in scouting out books and seeing what 'like-minded' readers are reading.