Discovering Web2.0 tools

There are about 300-500 web2.0 tools available online. Amazing! Exploring the web2.0 Awards, I selected the link to the 'short list' for just the winners. Over there, I noticed that a few familiar name of Web site, which we've explored in the past. eg. Technorati, Bloglines, LibraryThing etc. I chose a few new sites to have a look.
1. Ma.gnolia http://ma.gnolia.com/
It's got a sign with a beautiful flower and a word 'Magnolia'. I like the design and it's colour. Also, there are quick links with several little windows, and we can open them by clicking on. There windows keep on changing after each clicking and give people more choices. How clever it is!

2. Lulu http://www.lulu.com/
I like the interface in Lulu's home page. But look around, it just like an online shop. People can sell, buy and even publish their books online by uploading the files. Everything is so easy just clicking the mouse. Continually explored the secxtion of "sell" and " buy", the only thing we need to do is following the simple instructions, step by step.................

3. Judy's Book http://www.judysbook.com/
I typed my city's name in the searching box, but it respond like this " Sorry, we did not understand your location...". So I supposed that it's may only for people who live in the USA. If this is true, then there will be no point for us to use!

Week 8 Online Productivity tools: Zoho Writer

I created an account in Zoho Writer. This is the first time I use it and I've never heard about it before. I think I really need to have more chances to know more new knowledge online.

When I logged in the web of Zoho, initially, I supposed that it just a kind of Microsoft Office Word. But when I looked around those features and I was surprised with its special functions. eg. with Zoho Writer, we can have our documents done online or even offline. We also have access to them from any computer. So we don't need to email the uncompleted work back-and-forth. It's such a cool new stuff. I think it's very useful , in particular for people who are studying while working, they can continue their documents at any convenient place and time.

But it's a bit disappointing, because it's very slow when I tried to add pictures or colour to it. It seems not easy to edit my document, compare with Microsoft Word document. Other than that, it's quite a useful tool!http://writer.zoho.com/index.do?docId=Week-8-Zoho-Writer

Playing around with PBwiki

I signed up in My PBwiki. I created an account simply by typing in my email address and password. That’s all! It’s so easy, I love this. Then I’ve successfully logged in My PBwiki. But I’ ve got problems with the next step: add my blot to the Favorite Blogs. I spent about 1 hour to get this task done and I’ve tried several times. Password? Edit Page? etc. I have been a bit confused about the instruction for a while. Finally, I did it in right way and my blog name appeared on the page of “Favourite blogs”. However, I don’t get the point for doing this. Why doing this? please find my blog in the Favorite Blogs page: (http://acllearn.pbwiki.com/Favourite+blogs)

Week 7: Wikis

Wiki is one of the most incredible new tools on the internet. Initially, I didn’t know that the information could be inserted by anyone in the Wiki. I think this affects Wiki’s credibility. We can’t trust the information on Wiki’s unless we double checked with other formal and accurate source.
Anyway, I still admire the concept of Wiki. It’s a cool idea for gathering information by a kind of ‘DIY’ way. I like it personally, and we still can find some general information there easily and quickly. I’was shocked by an article, it says ‘the chance of Wikipedia having mistakes is less the Encyclepedia Britannica’. Sounds funny?

I was not sure about the meaning of “OPAC”, so I search it by Google. Guess what? The first web I found is exactly “Wikipedia”!!! How popular Wiki is nowadays! We can feel that. Also I’ve got the right answer from there. Not bad! I like it.

On Library 2.0&Web 2.0

From my exploring webs this week, the most important thing I found out is the term ‘Library 2.0’ and ‘Web 2.0’. Web 2.0 means a second generation of web-based communities and hosted services, like Wikis, Weblogs, RSS feed etc. Their aim is facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. The term ‘Library 2.0’ is a modernized form of library service that reflects a transition within the library world in the way that services are delivered to users. It’s borrows from that of Business2.0 and Web 2.0. Such a good idea, vivid and easy to follow! It includes online services like the use of OPAC systems.

I’ve read through those five perspectives, and I chose two of them to disscuss.
1. Away from the ‘icebergs’—Rick Anderson
Reading through this article, I was quite shocked by the author’s opinion and the statistic that mentioned in the article, he said “in my library, we’ve seen a 55% drop in circulation rates over the past 12 years’. In this Digital era, traditional libraries are facing a huge challenge. They are losing traditional customers who borrow books regularly, mainly because the using of other electronic resources, such as Internet, DVD, CD-ROM or CD. After reading the article, I started to worry about the future of libraries. Perhaps we really need to think about it seriously.

2. Into a new world of librarianship—Michael Stephens
This article also talked about the libraries’ circumstance and challenges they are facing. As technology keep on developing, the librarians are also required to develop their skills to catch up with it. Though we don’t know exactly what change our libraries may have, but we can equip ourselves to adapt any change. Perhaps, the things we can do including planning further studying, grasping Web 2.0, recognizing the contemporary world, seeking information and so on, to receive any challenges, Be Brave!

Technorati

I took a look at Tchnorati and tried to do the keyword search for ‘Learning 2.0’ in posts, Blog and tags. I found out 6965 results in posts, 715 in Blogs and 345 in tags. I assumed that not everything was added the same tags about ‘learning 2.0’. With the function of Technorati, we can check out those popular tags or blogposts to find out easily what people’s hot topics are currently.

Week 6 Tagging, folksomonies & social bookmarking in Del.icio.us

I have heard about ‘tag’ for a while but I’ve never found opportunities to know more or practice it. I’m a ‘bookworm’ instead of ‘webworm’. I read quite a lot books but not websites. Basically, I’m still a traditional type of person. Nowadays, everything seems become new to me, new terms, technologies or devices etc. I’ve to catch up with others, and that’s a big challenge fro me.

From WiKipedia, as a term in computing science, ‘tag’ can be Tags, HTML tag or Tag system etc. I assured that the ‘tag’ here refer to the definition of tags, which is a relevant keyword of term associated with or assigned to a piece of information, thus describing the term and enabling keyword-based classification and search for them. Tags are usually chosen informing and personally by people. I’ve also learned ‘tag cloud’, which is a visual description of content tags used on a website. I’ve ever seen them a few times but I didn’t realized that they are ‘a group of tags’.
The ‘tag’ we’re talking about here is different from the one for library subject cataloging. It’s more freedom and casual, they’re chosen by us, we can rename, save or delete them anytime.

I’ve explored Del.icio.us. I love this name, it’s pretty cool. I found out that a huge number of links already there for nearly everything. We can find anything we interested. I’ve tried to search the tag ‘web 2.0’, and then I got quite a few links and clicked some of them, they are very relevant. Next, I created an account in it, which is very ease to access. I added 3 tags in my account and saved them in my favourites. See http://del.icio.us/kathyfu2007/. It’s not hard but takes time to get familiar with it. I’ll do more later.