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.

Assignment 4

I found it a bit tricky to grasp this exercise, but by the 4th tutorial I started to see a trend and it made a bit more sense. While the formatting is different, it is very similar to some 'tickers' I use on my home computer that automatically send me sports updates and weather changes.

Finding my own RSS's to use became easier when I realized that the internet explorer browser I use has the organe RSS icon on the top of the screen, and by clicking that I could automatically link with the newsfeeds.

From a work perspective, I could see this being useful to keep staff updated. We are constantly checking websites to see if there are any changes to funding, regulations, etc etc, and having a way to check all the sites in one convenient spot would be very efficient.

Week 3 Assignment

While I don't think our organization would generally use the photo applications or any of the more artistic features, the ability to combine data from multiple sites could be useful. The example that struck me was real estate websites which borrow from GoogleMaps in order to better represent the property locations.

Our office is connected with a variety of other services and offices (federal govt, provincial govt, private and community schools, etc.), so there is often a fair bit of confusion over where to go, and what to do next. If our organization was ever to create a website, the ability to take the relevant information from all the different sites and lay it out in a logical and user-friendly format could provide a much-appreciated service for our clients. This would limit confusion, and also save time (easier to navigate one website than 3 or 4).

Assignment 2

Q: Write a blog post about what you hope to learn from participating in this course and any hesitations you have. What are you most excited about? Nervous about? Have you used any of these products before?

A: Generally I am comfortable with online resources and interactive technologies, but the speed in which these programs change have me constantly wondering whether or not I'm fully up to date, or using everything to its full potential. Likewise, I can become very habitual online, so hopefully I can break out of that trend and start to explore different resources available.

After reading over the course content, I'm familiar with most of the products we are being introduced to, but I generally only use the basic processes, so I'm curious to see what else they offer.

Week 1 Assignment

10 September 2008
Matt Robinson

Community Development 2.0 -- Assignment #1


Habits I predict to be easy…

Accepting responsibility for my own learning – I understand and agree with the idea that I am responsible for my own learning, and likewise see in my day-to-day interaction with others that being personally responsible can make a big difference in forward progress. Personal and work experiences have proven the value of this, so I believe it will be an easy habit.

Have confidence in myself as a learner – Throughout my formal education I faced many obstacles, and through hard work my workmanship naturally increased. Seeing this steady rise and recognizing my successes has allowed me to have confident in my work.

Create my own learning toolbox – Although it may not be easy to physically acquire everything, I think stepping away from a learning challenge and predicting what I’ll need to succeed will be easy. Personal experience as well as dialogue with peers will hopefully able me to create a strong and diversified toolbox.

Use technology to my advantage – Through personal interest I feel I’m ‘up to date’ with technology, and already incorporate many aspects of it into daily life. The transition to using this for learning is a natural one, and I can’t foresee difficulties.

Teach and mentor others – I’m lucky enough to have a teaching role in day-to-day life, so I see the value in this.


Habits I predict to be challenging…

Begin with the end in mind – When undertaking learning projects in the past, I’ve always broken up the task into smaller subprojects, and approached each of those independently. If I look at the end goal, all the work needed to get to the end can seem too daunting. By taking smaller steps I can stay focused and motivated.

View problems as challenges – I think in principle this idea is very solid, but I have trouble with it in practice. A glitch in the plan or a slight diversion can be a welcome challenge, but often problems can be compounding and to erase them the learning has to go off course.

Play – In the past, ‘play’ has been the alternative, or the reward for learning. If homework is done, ‘play’ is the reward. Switching mindsets to merge the two will be a challenge to get used to.