23 things - Deakin University Library

25. Mashups

2009-04-02T11:38:00.003+11:00

A mashup is a web application that combines data from various sources into a single integrated tool. For example, the use of cartographic data from Google Maps can be used with real estate data providing more valuable information to the user looking at buying or renting in a particular suburb.

Some great examples of mashups include

Diaroogle - helping New Yorkers find clean public toilets
RottenNeighbor - helping people share information about rotten neighbours. Zoom out at Glenferrie, there’s a few around there!
Frekfly - Information for travellers regarding temperature, currency, local hotels etc.
LazyLibrary - finding books on a topic that are less than 200 pages long
Perspctv - follow the US election via twitter, blogs, news on the one webpage.

There are various mashups that allow you to post your status to the various social software sites out there such as myspace, Facebook and Twitter all at once. An example is Hellotxt.

Task

Go to http://mashupawards.com/ and explore the various mashups.
Can you think of a new mashup that could use services from two or more web applications that would make life a lot easier?
Talk about your mashup ideas in a blog post.

Resources

Videos

Websites

24. Twitter

2009-02-02T07:49:00.004+11:00

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? Similar to the “status” on Facebook.

Why?

Family members, friends, or colleagues are interested in even basic updates about what you are doing. Research shows that mums want to know you are eating soup, co-workers are interested that you are running late to a meeting and friends what to join you if you are partying!

Twitter the newsbreaker…

During a minor earthquake in February 2008, Twitterers (Twitter users) reported the UK earthquake before any major news outlets. Check out the readwriteweb blog post for more information.

There’s also the story of a graduate student, James Karl Buck, who was arrested in Egypt while documenting local riots. Just before he was arrested, Buck managed to send an update to twitter, via his mobile phone, with the word “arrested”. Buck’s twitter network got the word out to the government and media agencies which created enough pressure for Egypt to release Buck from prison.

There's also the detailed information given out via Twitter during the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Task

Sign up to twitter by clicking the Getting-Started-Join button on the Twitter homepage.
Post a tweet.
Find some people to follow (ie deakinlibrary, springshare - creator of libguides, lancearmstrong, abcnews, 774melbourne, katclancy)
Go to the Everyone tab and check out the latest tweets from around the world
Go to http://search.twitter.com and search for something specific about what people are tweeting (ie a football team, suburb, company, deakin)
Create a post in your blog page about this exercise. Don’t know what to write about? Think about how the library can use twitter as a communication tool.

Videos and other information

Week Thirteen - 23. Conclusion

2007-12-13T15:13:00.000+11:00

The last task is to provide feedback regarding the 23 things program. Could you please fill out and submit the 23 things feedback form located at http://www.deakin.edu.au/library/intranet/forms_templates/eforms/23thingsfeedback.php.

After completing the form you have successfully finished the 23 things program! Congratulations!!!! :)

Please ensure you have published a post in your blog for each task. This post is to reflect on all the good, bad, interesting, stupid and frustrating things about the 23 things program. This will need to be completed by Friday February 4 to be in the running for an ipod shuffle. You will need to publish a post for each task to ensure you are in the running for an ipod shuffle!!!

The draw for the ipod shuffles will be on Wednesday February 13 at 11am.

Week Twelve - 22. Second Life

2007-11-16T14:39:00.000+11:00

Since its launch in 2003, Second Life has been gathering momentum across the globe. Although not yet as popular in Australia as in other countries, it is a fascinating Web 2.0 application.

Developed by Linden Research, Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its Residents (users). Echoing the "real world", in Second Life, you can own land (islands), trade goods and services, engage with the artistic community and participate in educational activities.

Residents are represented in Second Life by avatars which are human in appearance but may be of either sex and have a wide variety of humanoid of other forms. Avatars communicate through two main methods of text communication: local chat and "instant messaging" (IM).

Some interesting facts about Second Life:

There are 9,112,551 residents (as at 27/8/07).
9,195 islands were added during July 2007.
The currency of Second Life, the Linden Dollar, can be converted to US dollars at several Linden Dollar exchanges (sparking the interest of various Taxation Departments and Internal Revenue Services across the globe).
The Maldives was the first country to open an embassy in Second Life.

Many international universities and libraries have bought islands in Second Life. The way these universities and libraries use the land is unique (check discovery resources below). Some use it as a marketing tool, others use it as a new way for people to attend university in the virtual world. Deakin University has bought an island on Second Life, but it is just that, an island. It is currently in an experimental stage. Only restricted users are allowed onto the island and there are no buildings, no classes taking place and no virtual campus life apparent.

For more information on Second Life, go to:

What is Second Life? http://secondlife.com/whatis
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_life

Discovery Resources

Videos

Info Island - Second Life's library
Ohio State University Second Life campus
Introduction to Second Life
Second Life Apple Store
Murdoch University on Second Life

Other resources

Tasks

View some of the videos and articles under the Discovery Resources link. Write on your blog page about the following:

Second Life trends in education.
How can your own university library use Second Life?
Is this the future of learning at a University level?

Week Eleven - 21. Find and listen to a Podcast or two

2007-11-12T13:23:00.000+11:00

Play audio for this task

What is a podcast?

The word "podcast" comes from joining Portable On Demand (pod, like iPod) and "cast" from broadcast. Get it? Podcast!

A podcast is an audio (or maybe video) file that is distributed over the internet using syndication feeds (like RSS) and can be played on portable media players (eg. MP3s) or a personal computer.

Podcasting means that listeners can "time shift" their favourite programs by listening when it suits them. What makes podcasts different is the ability to "subscribe" to a feed, and when a new episode become available it will be automatically downloaded to the user's computer or player. You can then choose to listen to an episode when you want. Or delete the file if you don't!

You can also download or stream programs without subscribing.

Your task

Find a podcast that interests you using Google or a directory such as Podcast.net or PodcastAlley.com or from the links in the Discovery Resources section above.
Subscribe to it in your feed reader and listen to an audio file or two.

Resources

Week Ten - 20. Watch YouTube videos people have made about libraries

2007-11-12T13:14:00.000+11:00

Play audio for this task

YouTube has scores of videos that people have made, covering just about every topic you can imagine, ranging from very amateur to professionally produced.

Your task

Have a look around YouTube and see if you can find some interesting videos about libraries or librarians, or perhaps new web technologies.

YouTube makes it easy to do a search, and then to find similar videos to one you have already watched. You may find a funny video clip or maybe something more informative.

Post about your YouTube experience on your blog. If you're feeling adventurous, you may like to insert a YouTube video into your blog so others can see it! Also, share your interesting youtube videos via the comments section of this post for everyone to see.

Resources

YouTube Official Site

Week Ten - 19. Put a photo of your pet on the Wiki

2007-11-02T11:20:00.000+11:00

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A wiki is a type of web site which is edited collaboratively. That is, anyone with access can edit any page of a wiki, and add new pages. It's great for sharing information between staff of an organisation, or for developing documentation. Wikis keep a record of all edits made to a page, so it's possible to see who added what, and even to reverse edits.

The most notable wiki is WikiPedia, an online encyclopedia. However, wikis can be used for a number of purposes. Today you'll learn how to resize and save a photo for the web, and how to edit the staff wiki. You'll then put a photo onto the wiki 'pet's page'.

Preparing your photo

When preparing an image for the web, it's important that you save it in the correct format, and at an appropriate size. Otherwise, someone may not be able to view it, or it may take too long to download on a home internet connection. The photos out of a digital camera or scanner will usually be too high a resolution for a web page, so they'll require shrinking.

First, you'll need to find a digital photo of your pet (or someone else's, if you don't have one). If you have a digital camera, you can simply use a photo from that. If you have a printed photo, you'll need to scan it instead. Scanners are available at the library.

Open your favourite photo editing software. I recommend Fireworks, because it's available to all Deakin Staff.

Installing Fireworks

If you don't have it already, you can install it easily and you shouldn't even need to call ITSD.

Fireworks is part of the Deakin University Software Cataogue, which is available under Start => All programs => Phoenix Software Catalogue.
To install, wait for Phoenix Software Catalogue to load up and then scroll down to Macromedia Fireworks, right click and left click install software
Once it is installed, you should find Macromedia Fireworks under Start => All programs => Macromedia.

Resize your image

Open the photo you want to resize. Using the menu, use Modify => Canvas => Image size to change the size of the image. A web page is around 72 to 96 dots per inch, so you should resize the image so that it is only around 200 to 600 pixels wide, depending on your preferences. Never resize the image more than once, or you'll lose quality. Always go back to the original and try again.
Now save your image using File => Export. This will allow you to save the image as a JPEG file (the filename should end in .jpg). JPEG is the format you must use for websites, if the image is a photo (there are other formats for simpler line-drawings, etc). Save it as a separate file. Keep the original file too.

Upload your picture to the wiki

The Upload File link on the library wiki allows you to add a photo to the wiki. It's on the left hand side of the page once you've logged in.
Under Source Filename click Browse and locate the resized version of the photo you just saved, and upload it by following the instructions.

Add it to a wiki page

Locate the Pets page on the library wiki by searching for Pets and edit the page using 'Edit'. You should be able to follow the example of the photos that are already there, and add your image using code similar to the following:

[[Image:filename.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Description for your image]]

This code ensures that the photo is a thumbnail, aligned left on the page (like the other images), and 150 pixels wide, the same size as the other photos.

What's next?

Other wikis

If you're adventurous, try contributing to WikiPedia on a topic you know a lot about or are prepared to research. Like other wikis, anyone can edit or add pages. With WikiPedia, you don't even need an account to do so.

You may also like to look at the first ever Wiki, WikiWikiWeb. It's mainly about computer programming, and its software works differently to other wikis you may be familiar with. All page titles on WikiWikiWeb had to have a one word (run together) title with capital letters and lowercase letters, like 'WelcomeVisitors'.

Resources

Week Nine - 18. Read about the Library 2.0 movement

2007-10-26T15:54:00.001+10:00

What is Library 2.0?

The concept of Library 2.0 stems from the Business 2.0 and the Web 2.0 movements. This includes online services like the use of OPAC systems and an increased flow of information from the user back to the library. The Library 2.0 movement is really about innovation, people and community building. According to Wikipedia the vision of the Library 2.0 movement is accomplished through trust and by encouraging users to share ideas through writing, rating and commenting about everything in the library’s collection. Proponents of the the Library 2.0 concept expect that ultimately the Library 2.0 model for service will replace traditional, one-directional service offerings that have characterized libraries for centuries.

General Principles of Library 2.0

It is difficult to identify the exact parameters of Library 2.0 since it is in a perpetual beta state. However, there seems to be a general consensus around the following principles:

Librarians are allowed to create resources for their users quickly and easily
Library Services are frequently evaluated and updated to meet the needs of users
Library collections are made available via open, personalized interactive services that encourage content creation, editing, commenting, bookmarking, rating, tagging etc. by users
Two way flow of information from the library to the user and from the user to the library
Libraries embrace radical trust
Libraries give users some measure of control
Librarians are knowledgeable about and utilize information tools favoured by users

Resources

Your Task!

Read through a few of the opinions on the Library 2.0 movement that we provide, or search for blogs about Library 2.0 using Google or Technorati then write an entry in your blog on something you have learnt about the Library 2.0 movement.

Week Nine - 17. Play with del.icio.us

2007-10-25T09:19:00.000+10:00

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Categorise and share your bookmarks online!

Social bookmarking

de.icio.us is an online bookmarking manager. It allows you to add bookmarks and share them with others. It's great if you want access to your bookmarks from multiple locations, eg home and office.

Just like Flickr where you can organise your photos using tags, using del.icio.us you can also organise your bookmarks with tags any way you want to.

What makes del.icio.us attractive to its users is the social aspect. You may think you have found some great web sites and then you tag them, but you are also able to see what other people have bookmarked and see what else they have tagged that may be of interest to you. It's a great way of sharing interesting links with colleagues or friends.

Discovery Resources

del.icio.us Official site

Your Task

For this exercise, you need to visit del.icio.us and type something of interest to yourself into the search bar. Find another user's trail and you may just discover a new wealth of information. Let us know what you find and what you think of social bookmarking on your blog.

If you are really keen sign up and become a del.icio.us user it's a great way of keeping track of interesting websites, especially if you are someone that works from a few different locations or you want to share links with others.

The student of today...

2007-10-18T15:48:00.001+10:00

And another video you may be interested in. Information R/evolution.

Week Eight - 16. Google Homepage

2007-10-18T13:27:00.001+10:00

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Remember the list of Google products and services from last week. Imagine being able to access all of those products from the one website, using the one account. Well thanks to iGoogle you can.

Google offers the ability to create a personalized iGoogle page that gives you at-a-glance access to key information from Google and across the web. On this self-designed page, you can choose and organize content such as:

Your latest Gmail messages
Headlines from Google News and other top news sources
Weather forecasts, stock quotes, and movie showtimes
Bookmarks for quick access to your favorite sites from any computer
Your own section with content you find from across the web
Google Book Search

Discovery Resources

Before completing any of the tasks below, please login to your google account using the email address and password setup in last week's task or when you created your blogspot blog.

iGoogle

Go to iGoogle and login if you have not logged in
Add the following gadgets (check out the discovery resources to show you how to do this):
- Google Map Search gadget
- Google Book Search gadget
- One of the facebook gadgets
- Google Docs and Spreadsheet gadget
Search for a library gadget and add this to your homepage

And finally...

Check out the following youtube video about working at Google.

4. Create a post in your blog page about this exercise. Don’t know what to write about? Think about these questions: Do you like iGoogle? What improvements would you suggest to Google? Would you like to work at Google?

Week Seven - 15. Google Book Search

2007-10-12T09:27:00.000+10:00

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Discovery Resources

About Google Book Search

Your tasks

Read about Google Book Search (see link above)
Go to Google Book Search
Search for your favourite book.
Create a post in your blog about this Google Book Search. Don't know what to blog about? Think about these questions: Is Google the new Microsoft? How can your library use Google book search?

Week Seven - 14. Google Docs & Spreadsheets

2007-10-12T08:46:00.000+10:00

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Discovery Resources

Tour of Google Docs and Spreadsheets - the official tour of Google Docs and Spreadsheets

Your Tasks

Take a tour of Google Docs & Spreadsheets.
Go to Google Docs, login and create a new document.
Start Typing a letter to me!
Save the document
Share the document with me as a viewer (kclancy@gmail.com).
Save the document and return to the homepage of Google Docs.
Create a new spreadsheet
Type the following in the spreadsheet:
Publish the spreadsheet so everyone can see.
Place the address on your blog.
Finally, write a brief post in your blog about Google Docs and Spreadsheets. Will you need to purchase Microsoft Word for home now?

Week Seven - 13. Play with Google Maps

2007-10-11T10:16:00.001+10:00

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If you haven't heard of Google by now, I'm not sure what planet you have been living on, but it definitely hasn't been Earth. Everyone knows about the famous Google search engine, but did you know there is a complete suite of Google products that are available for the everyday user? These products include gmail (an online email application), google docs and spreadsheets, google maps, google calendar and google talk just to name a few. In the past few years Google has also bought out successful web companies such as youtube and picasa to add to their suite of products. Check out the full list of Google products and services.

In the last few years, there have been many reports that Google has become the new microsoft. Even if this is the case, Google is offering web based applications at a minimal cost to the user (usually only exposure to some advertisements) and the new generation is utilising these applications more and more everyday. This week's task will introduce you to some Google applications including Google Maps, Google Docs and Spreadsheets and Google Book Search. Next week you will be able to join these applications together on your new google homepage.

Discovery Resources

Tour of Google Maps – the official tour of Google Maps
Information on Google

Before completing any of the tasks below, please create a google account using your Deakin email address. If you are using blogspot for your blog, you already have a google account. Please use this for all google tasks.

Take a tour of Google Maps.
Go to Google Maps Australia and find the following:
- your place of work
- your home
- hotels in brunswick (remember there are many places in the world named Brunswick so you may need to put the state or country in the search field too).
Find directions from Swinburne University Hawthorn campus to Deakin University Waterfront Campus. Hint: type in john street hawthorn to gheringhap st geelong.
Finally, create a post in your blog telling the world about google maps. What did you think of google maps?

Rest Week

2007-10-03T14:38:00.000+10:00

Congratulations on reaching the half-way point! It’s not as hard as you first thought is it? Okay, by reading the blogs, RSS and flickr has come out on top as being the hardest to conquer. As a few people have mentioned, bloglines isn’t the best way to receive RSS feeds, Google Reader and even through the firefox browser is much easier. If you would like any assistance, remember I am only a phone call/email away!

A lot of people found flickr frustrating. If you did, but would still like to explore the ability to post images on the web, check out Photobucket. I have been using this for years and find it a lot easier to use than flickr. Yes, it doesn’t have a lot of the “extra” functionality that flickr does, but it does what it does well (excuse the English!).

Enjoy your week off! Next week we start looking at the Google suite. Some interesting times ahead!

GO CATS!!!!

Week 6 - 12. Explore MySpace and Facebook

2007-09-28T15:34:00.001+10:00

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I'm sure you have heard of MySpace, and not necessarily in a positive light. Recently, MySpace has appeared in the news for all the wrong reasons.

MySpace is an organised space that allows you to personalise your interests and activities on the Web. You can browse, search, invite friends to connect and interact, share film reviews, make comments, post mail and blog entries, view videos, post classified ads and much more. It has also gone mobile.

MySpace is an incredibly popular communication tool amongst teenagers, and libraries have begun using MySpace to market to their teenaged patrons. Despite controversy over the issue, the use of creating Library spaces in MySpace is really taking off. Read through the Discovery Resources links below to get an idea of what different libraries are doing in MySpace and what librarians are saying about MySpace!

MySpace is busier than Google, with reports showing that it gets between two and three times Google's daily traffic. Over 150,000 new MySpace accounts are created daily, so its capacity to each a wide audience is mind-boggling.

Discovery Resources

Tasks

In your blog, answer the following questions:

View several library MySpace pages and examine their content. How are they using MySpace?
List the useful headings on these pages that you feel would be of benefit to your own Library MySpace.
Does Deakin or Swinburne University already have any MySpace pages?

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking web site that connects people with others. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.

Originally, the membership was restricted to students of Harvard University but since 2006 it has been open to all email addresses. Users can select to join one or more participating networks, such as a school, place of employment, or geographic region.

In June 2007, Facebook was ranked in the top 10–20 web sites and was the number one site for photos in the United States, ahead of public sites such as Flickr, with over 8.5 million photos uploaded daily. It is also the seventh most visited site in the United States. Time magazine reported in its 3 September 2007 issue that Facebook's fastest growing demographic consists of people 35 years or over.

The name, Facebook, refers to the paper facebooks depicting members of the campus community that US colleges and preparatory schools give to incoming students, faculty, and staff.

Discovery Resources

NB: Please note that Facebook has only been released to the "general public" recently. Although some of the following resources state that facebook is only available to students registered at certain colleges, this statement is no longer correct.

Tasks

Go to Facebook and register. Check out this tutorial for assistance on how to join.
Edit your Profile
Search for a person you work with. See if you can find them and add them as your friend.
Add yourself to the Deakin University or Swinburne University Network.

Week Five - 10. An introduction to Social Networking/Bookmarking - digg.com

2007-09-21T08:50:00.002+10:00

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Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by their users. You won’t find editors at Digg — Digg provides a place where people can collectively determine the value of content. Digg is changing the way people consume information online.

I have mentioned in the audio for this week that Digg is geek and American centric. However, over the past few weeks some Australian stories have made the front page of digg, including the Chaser antics and the <tongue in cheek> OPEC forum</tongue in cheek>.

Your Tasks

Check out wikipedia's definition of social bookmarking.
Subscribe to the digg.com RSS feed through Bloglines.
Finally, create a post in your blog telling the world about digg.com. Do you think this would be a great way to read the news in the future?

Resources

A list of social networking websites

Week Five - 9. RSS Feeds

2007-09-19T15:42:00.000+10:00

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Have you heard of RSS and seen those small funny orange tags on web sites? You might have heard co-workers and acquaintances swear by it, but do you have any idea what RSS is?

In the information world, RSS is not only revolutionalizing the way news, media and content creators share information, but it also is swiftly changing the way everyday users are consuming information.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a file format for delivering regular Internet feeds

CNET Video: RSS – Feel the Need for Feeds (3:32) – a good overview of what RSS is and the benefits to users.

Feed Me: A gentle introduction to Internet feeds - a good tutorial from Palinet, a library cooperative.
What is RSS?
Youtube Video - Creating an RSS feed in Firefox

Task

Follow these discovery exercises to set up your own personalized RSS feed reader.

Check out this tutorial for steps on creating a Blogline account and how to add feeds to your blogline account. Additionally, you can check out this YouTube video on adding feeds to your Blogline account.
Create a free "RSS aggregator" account at Bloglines and subscribe to at least 5 newsfeeds.
Finally, create a post in your blog telling the world about the 5 newsfeeds you subscribed to. You could even post the public Blogline URL into your post (see below for details on how to do this).

RSS Feeds you could add

Library Related RSS Feeds

General

How to find your public Bloglines URL:

Click on the Share tab within your Bloglines account.
Scroll down the right screen pane and locate the public URL.

Why have a public account? To share blog rolls with others, of course.

Week Four - 8. Play with LibraryThing

2007-09-14T10:34:00.000+10:00

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As our next adventure I would like you to take a look at LibraryThing. Whether you are a librarian, publisher, bookseller or just a lover of reading, LibraryThing allows you to catalogue your own titles.

There are thousands of books already listed on LibraryThing - in most cases, adding a book to your personal catalogue is as simple as adding the ISBN, or the title and author.

LibraryThing also allows you to share your book collection with others and get book recommendations from other people with similar tastes. It doesn't make a difference if you have a large collection of books or just a handful of books.

It's also not just limited to new releases or best sellers - you can find interesting books you may never have otherwise picked up.

Your Task

Take a look around LibraryThing and create an account.
Add a few books to your library. These can be books you own or books you have read.
Blog about your findings and be sure to link to your LibraryThing catalog!

Resources

Week Four - 7. Play with a funny image generator

2007-09-13T10:40:00.000+10:00

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So, you may be wondering what an image generator is. Sounds like something you would take camping just so you can watch a movie in the middle of the bush. I'm not talking about those gas powered back-up things. The generators I'm talking about allow you to easily manipulate image and graphics to create fun images like these:

Your task

For this exercise, I just want you to have fun.

Have a play around with a few of the sites below or type the words 'image generator' into Google, and you may find some great sites yourself. Have a play around with some and write a post in your blog about one of your favorites and display the result.

Often adding the image you mocked up to your blog is as simple as copying and pasting code that the page provides. If not, you may need to right click on the image and then save it to your hard drive before using your blog's 'add image' button to add it to a blog post. If you're having difficulty getting your image added to a post in your blog, ask a co-worker for help.

Discovery Resources

Also try searching for online generators and text generators!

Week Three - 6. Join a Flickr Group

2007-09-10T10:16:00.000+10:00

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At this point you should have created a Flickr Account and perhaps have also discovered some of the interesting and exciting features that Flickr offers. This exercise will take you a bit further into your exploration with Flickr.

What are Groups?

Groups are a great way to share photos and have conversations, either privately or with the world. The creation of “groups” or “pools” of photographs is one simple and basic way of sharing information about a subject, whether it is popular or esoteric. For example there are groups for people who wish to improve their photography. Members of the group can post photos for others to comment on and they can in turn comment on other's work. Flickr can also be a useful resource for obtaining photographic information about a subject (Bradley 2007). If you can’t find a group that is of interest to you, just start one of your own.

How to join a Group!

Joining a group is simple and straightforward:

Log into your Flickr account
Click on the down-arrow by groups
Select “search a group”
Type in the name of the group
Select the title of the correct group from the result list
Click on the link to “join this group?” under the search box
On the next screen click on the link “Join this Group”

The strength of Flickr lies in its social networking, with participants working together to create many different “pools” for sharing photos and a discussion board for talking. So join a Flickr group!

Important: Remember to add this task as an entry in your blog!

Resources

Bradley, P c. 2007,
How to use Web 2.0 in your library, Facet Publishing, London
How Groups work!
FAQ about Groups

Stephen Abram's Powerpoint Presentation

2007-09-07T16:48:00.000+10:00

Stephen Abram's powerpoint presentation is now available.

Week Three - 5. Create a Flickr Account

2007-09-07T11:38:00.000+10:00

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What is Flickr?

Flickr is a free website to host your photos online. It is one of the fastest growing photo management and photo sharing sites on the web. Flickr allows you to upload your photos and tag them (describe them with keywords).You can arrange them into groups too, so they are easy to search for. Basically it is a way to display your photos publicly for family, friends and if you wish, the general public to access.

Explore Flickr!

For this exercise you are required to take a look at Flickr and discover what it has to offer:

Discover the fascinating things people and otherlibraries are using Flickr for
Find out how tags work
Find out what groups are
Then create a Flickr Account!

Register for a Flickr Account

A basic Flickr account is free. Since Flickr is owned by Yahoo! it is necessary to create a Yahoo! account first. If you already have one, you will be able to login to Flickr straight away. Creating an account takes just 3 easy steps. Just follow the necessary Yahoo! link which takes you to the sign up page and enter your details to register. You are then ready to sign into Flickr and register.

Important: Remember to add this task as an entry in your blog!

Resources

Week Three - 4. Comment on each others' blog

2007-09-04T10:18:00.000+10:00

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Blogging is not just about getting your message across. It's also for communication - other people can comment on what you have written, or respond to you on their own blog and link back to you. This is a public discourse. It could also be a way of starting arguments.

By now we have a nice list of staff blogs. You may not know which blog belongs to which person, but you can take a look at the blogs and see what they've written.

Your task

Go into a few other people's blogs and leave some comments. You may offer a word of encouragement, or read some people's reasons for blogging and tell them what you think of it.

Other people may comment on your blog.

Blog about your experiences contributing to discussions on other people's blogs, and how you think blogs can be useful for you or the library.

What's next?

You may want to keep watching some people's blogs for new posts and adding comments where-ever you feel like encouraging, helping out with a problem or responding to what they've written. There's even ways of subscribing to their blogs, but that will be covered in steps 9 to 11 of 23 Things.

Resources

Week Two - 3. Send us your blog!

2007-09-03T12:27:00.000+10:00

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Show us your blog!

By now, you should have created your very own blog and written a post in it. If not, you'll have to complete the previous step now.

Your Task

Your next task is to tell us about your blog. Remember, you can remain anonymous if you like - the only ones who will know who you really are will be the 23 Things committee.

To tell us about your blog, you'll need to use the 23 Things registration form.

Using your blog

From now on, you'll need to use your blog to write about each 'thing' you complete. We'll use this as a record of where you are up to in 23 Things.

Even though we number the things and have a schedule, you may complete tasks out of order if you really want to.

Resources

Week Two - 2. Create your own blog and write something

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'blog' is short for 'web log'. It evolved from a 'web journal', like an online diary. Blogs serve different purposes. They are promotional tools, communication tools, social tools, or tools for sharing or commenting on news.

Why blog?

People blog because they want to share with others. They may share their opinions, rants on particular topics, or news from a holiday. They may even have a professional blog where they share views on their industry, or they may have a blog all about their cat.

When you're blogging, you can adopt any persona you like. One blogger adopted a persona they called Fake Steve Jobs and tried to write from the perspective of Steve Jobs.

Many companies have an 'official' blog, where they release news about the company and views about the industry. Some blogs are highly successful due to the personality of the blog's author. Some blogs have multiple authors.

Your task

You'll need to create your own blog. Have a look at Blogger.com and WordPress.com. You can get a free blog at either of these websites. Click the "Sign Up" or "Create a free blog" link to get started, and follow the directions.

I would also like you to write your very first post on your blog. You may want to introduce yourself, or your persona, or explain what the blog is for. Simply go to your blog and click 'New Post'.

Over the course of 23 Things, you'll need to write a blog post about each 'thing' you complete. That will let the 23 Things committee know what you're up to. You should also have a think about the audience for your blog - who are you blogging to? Anyone can read your blog - will you show it to your family, your friends, or will you just keep it to yourself? Will you want to continue blogging after you've completed all 23 Things?

Have a look at the links below for ideas on what to blog about, and why people blog.

Important: Bookmark your blog!

Save your blog to your bookmarks or favourites folder so you can return to it quickly later. You'll need to add an entry to it for each 23 Things task you complete.

Want to be anonymous?

If you prefer, you can create a blog under a pseudonym - you don't have to give your real name. The only people that will know whose blog it really is will be the 23 Things committee.

Resources

Week One - Read about the 23 things program

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Your task

Congratulations! By coming here and reading about 23 Things, you have completed your first task.

Resources for Week One

Official Launch

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As some of you couldn't view the official launch video, I have included it below.

Enjoy doing the 23 things!

Need Help?

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Need help with the 23 things? There are various ways you can ask for assistance.

Everybody else is in the same boat as you; try asking someone else for help.
Every campus has at least one 23 Things champion, who is there to help you when you're really stuck.
Leave comments on this blog asking for help and they will be answered!

Campus Champions

Waterfront: Kat Clancy
Burwood: Terry Roache
Waurn Ponds: Colin Bates
Warrnambool: John Berry

The 23 Things

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Here's a summary of what you'll be doing as a part of 23 Things. Return to this summary at any time using the 23 Things Deakin button on the right.

Week 1: About 23 Things

1. Read about the 23 Things programme

Week 2: Start a blog

2. Create your own blog and write something
3. Send us the link to your blog

Week 3: Blog comments and photo sharing

4. Comment on each others' blogs
5. Create a flickr account
6. Join a flickr group

Week 4: Play week

7. Play with a funny image generator
8. Play with LibraryThing

Week 5: RSS feeds and blogs

9. Install a feed reader
10. Subscribe to digg
11. Subscribe to some library related blogs

Week 6: Get social

12. Explore MySpace and Facebook

Rest week

Congratulations, if you have completed all 12 Things so-far, you get a week off!

Week 7: Google tools

13. Play with Google Maps
14. Play with Google Docs & Spreadsheets
15. Play with Google Book Search

Week 8: Google home page

16. Create your own iGoogle home page

Week 9: Social bookmarking and Library 2.0

17. Play with del.icio.us
18. Read about the Library 2.0 movement

Week 10: Wikis and video sharing

19. Put a photo of your pet on the wiki
20. Watch YouTube videos people have made about libraries

Week 11: Podcasts

21. Find and listen to a Podcast or two

Week 12: Second Life and libraries?

22. Read about Second Life and how libraries are using it

Week 13: Conclusion

23. Give feedback about the programme