Since signing up for my Gmail account several years ago, I have tried to keep abreast of Google's various extras, so this was not my first exposure to Google Docs. What I like about Google Docs is that I can treat it like an online memory expander, uploading things that I want to make sure I don't ever lose, or I can use it to edit the same material from any computer. This comes in handy for me, especially when I'm working on a new story. Recently, I couldn't get the opening line of a story out of my head, but I wasn't anywhere near my laptop, so I logged into Google Docs, wrote the opening, saved it, and then the next day accessed it from my laptop and was able to work on it more. I like that you can upload a document or start something completely new.
Before finding Google Docs, I'd been familiar with uploading documents to websites and then being able to edit the text there. The site I use to publish some of my prose fiction uses that type of interface; you can upload the story (in a supported format, of course) and then use the site's tools to edit it if you need to. One of my other favorite sites has the same feature (I think they were patterned after the same site), only you can also type your entire entry on the site. The pitfall with creating something original on the site, though, is that if your contribution is rejected, it gets deleted, so you'll lose your work unless you've saved a copy elsewhere.
wtorek, 26 lutego 2008
sobota, 2 lutego 2008
♪..A Wac shared her wiki with a naughty Marine..♪ (An homage to Mother and Barbara)
When wikis are monitored by editors, or even patrolled by non-users (through rating systems, etc.), I like them very much. I'm not such a huge fan of Wikipedia, because I think people rely on it more than they ought to (misguidedly expecting it to be more factual than it sometimes is), but I have a great respect for certain other wikis, and I think they could be useful for libraries.
I don't know what I thought of the provided library wikis. A lot of them seemed outdated, and I wonder how frequently they get used? I'm also not entirely sure what all of them were supposed to be. The Bull Run Library one? Not sure about the purpose of that. The Library Outreach one? Felt like a shared workspace more than anything else--or was that what it was supposed to be?
If someone could arrange for a patron's card number to serve as their login--to ensure that only valid library-cardholders had access to editing a library-sponsored wiki--I think that a library wiki could be very successful. It could provide a forum for discussion about books and the sharing of opinions and recommendations. Or can wikis--or wiki features--be combined with existing sites? Would be any way in Pamunkey to combine a wiki with PamCat?--so that, when a patron is logged in as him/herself, s/he can write reviews of library materials either from the account summary screen or just the browse screen. I don't know anything about programming--like, even HTML stumps me sometimes--but I wonder if there would be a way for patrons to tag books and make the tags searchable? I guess that would be along the lines of opening the record to patrons... And I wonder if patrons could offer suggestions about further reading? And the suggestions could link to other records in the catalog... kind of like the "Customers who bought this also bought..." feature on Amazon.
At any rate, I think that a wiki would be one of the more useful "Web 2.0" features that a library could employ.
My favorite wiki (non-library) is the user-edited, reader-rated, pop-culture dictionary found at UrbanDictionary.com. Is there a slang term with an alternate meaning you didn't know? Look it up in UrbanDictionary! People around you raving about the newest Internet craze, and you feel foolish not knowing what they're talking about? Do some research at UrbanDictionary! Did you just get a slur hurled your way and don't know how to react? Figure out your response with UrbanDictionary!
UrbanDictionary allows users to add their own words/phrases and definitions, as if it were a standard dictionary. Any one term might have as many as 25 authors writing definitions for it, but the merit of a definition can be easily judged by how many "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" votes it has. Any reader can give it a rating; if you agree with the definition or find it helpful, give it a thumbs-up. If you disagree or know the definition to be false (or the examples are terrible), give it a thumbs-down. The top-rated definition appears at the top of the page. Also, a lot of terms have different meaning or connotations, and different authors will provide different insight. You can peruse the various definitions and determine which one fits the scenario you're in. (Just like a regular dictionary, considering a word's context clues is vital. Example: "No one knows this, but I was actually a Chegwidden/Mac shipper during the run of 'JAG.'"* What does this mean? Do you know what a "shipper" is? If not, click here. Scroll down to Entry 5. Which definition seems the most appropriate, Entry 1 or Entry 5? Based on ratings, which meaning of the term is the most common one?)
There are also tagging features at UrbanDictionary to help you search for and connect to related terms, and if an author references another entry, s/he can link the new contribution to the other term. (To follow up on the "shipper" example, look at the definition of fanfiction. Within the first entry, there are direct links to the terms "fandom," "het," "slash," "AU," "blog," and "zine." Considerate authors will have linked their entries so you can easily define terms you've never heard of before; just click on the linked term, and you'll go straight to that UrbanDictionary entry!)
In general, I think wikis are helpful tools and good ways to open channels of communication among different people. They can create communities where there otherwise were none, and they allow for the free sharing of ideas. I think their validity and usefulness is increased when someone ultimately has the authority to edit and monitor available information--like on UrbanDictionary, there are editors, and a lot of freedom is given to the public so that one can consider the "general consensus" definition of a term. (See wikiality.) So yes, wikis have a place in the future of libraries... as long as we're smart about how we use them.
*For the record, this is so not true.
I don't know what I thought of the provided library wikis. A lot of them seemed outdated, and I wonder how frequently they get used? I'm also not entirely sure what all of them were supposed to be. The Bull Run Library one? Not sure about the purpose of that. The Library Outreach one? Felt like a shared workspace more than anything else--or was that what it was supposed to be?
If someone could arrange for a patron's card number to serve as their login--to ensure that only valid library-cardholders had access to editing a library-sponsored wiki--I think that a library wiki could be very successful. It could provide a forum for discussion about books and the sharing of opinions and recommendations. Or can wikis--or wiki features--be combined with existing sites? Would be any way in Pamunkey to combine a wiki with PamCat?--so that, when a patron is logged in as him/herself, s/he can write reviews of library materials either from the account summary screen or just the browse screen. I don't know anything about programming--like, even HTML stumps me sometimes--but I wonder if there would be a way for patrons to tag books and make the tags searchable? I guess that would be along the lines of opening the record to patrons... And I wonder if patrons could offer suggestions about further reading? And the suggestions could link to other records in the catalog... kind of like the "Customers who bought this also bought..." feature on Amazon.
At any rate, I think that a wiki would be one of the more useful "Web 2.0" features that a library could employ.
My favorite wiki (non-library) is the user-edited, reader-rated, pop-culture dictionary found at UrbanDictionary.com. Is there a slang term with an alternate meaning you didn't know? Look it up in UrbanDictionary! People around you raving about the newest Internet craze, and you feel foolish not knowing what they're talking about? Do some research at UrbanDictionary! Did you just get a slur hurled your way and don't know how to react? Figure out your response with UrbanDictionary!
UrbanDictionary allows users to add their own words/phrases and definitions, as if it were a standard dictionary. Any one term might have as many as 25 authors writing definitions for it, but the merit of a definition can be easily judged by how many "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" votes it has. Any reader can give it a rating; if you agree with the definition or find it helpful, give it a thumbs-up. If you disagree or know the definition to be false (or the examples are terrible), give it a thumbs-down. The top-rated definition appears at the top of the page. Also, a lot of terms have different meaning or connotations, and different authors will provide different insight. You can peruse the various definitions and determine which one fits the scenario you're in. (Just like a regular dictionary, considering a word's context clues is vital. Example: "No one knows this, but I was actually a Chegwidden/Mac shipper during the run of 'JAG.'"* What does this mean? Do you know what a "shipper" is? If not, click here. Scroll down to Entry 5. Which definition seems the most appropriate, Entry 1 or Entry 5? Based on ratings, which meaning of the term is the most common one?)
There are also tagging features at UrbanDictionary to help you search for and connect to related terms, and if an author references another entry, s/he can link the new contribution to the other term. (To follow up on the "shipper" example, look at the definition of fanfiction. Within the first entry, there are direct links to the terms "fandom," "het," "slash," "AU," "blog," and "zine." Considerate authors will have linked their entries so you can easily define terms you've never heard of before; just click on the linked term, and you'll go straight to that UrbanDictionary entry!)
In general, I think wikis are helpful tools and good ways to open channels of communication among different people. They can create communities where there otherwise were none, and they allow for the free sharing of ideas. I think their validity and usefulness is increased when someone ultimately has the authority to edit and monitor available information--like on UrbanDictionary, there are editors, and a lot of freedom is given to the public so that one can consider the "general consensus" definition of a term. (See wikiality.) So yes, wikis have a place in the future of libraries... as long as we're smart about how we use them.
*For the record, this is so not true.
środa, 30 stycznia 2008
If you haven't got a life, try a second one!
I, a person of uniformly little faith, have confidence nonetheless that, someday soon, there will come another "20 Things" assignment that will not make my skin crawl to consider. Until such a day as that arrives, however, allow me to blog my thoughts on Second Life...
My first exposure to anything like Second Life came from Snow Crash, which I read as a senior in college for my linguistics class. The class was "Babel to the Brain: The Origin of Language in Western Thought," and I think we were looking at it to project a future evolution of language and the agency of language (through the virus manifest, etc.), and I remember being creeped out by the idea of the Metaverse. I knew about RPGs--heck, my campus even had an active group of LARPers who held weapon-making workshops!--but I could not imagine a physical world in which such a virtual world existed. Oh, don't think me completely naïve: I puttered around The Palace for quite a while when I was new on the Internet and got myself into situations I shouldn't have been in at fourteen... but a completely made-up world patterned after our own? Ridiculous.
Or so I thought in 2005. The summer of 2006 introduced me to another aspect of Second Life when I met a man who encouraged me to check out Second Life--visit his shop there, chat. He was working for me at Kings Dominion and was about to start a messy divorce that he didn't talk much about. As his tenure at the park wore on, he felt increasingly more comfortable around me and eventually divulged that his wife didn't know he was leaving her, but he was in love with another woman and was moving to Texas at the end of the season to live with her. He would not be returning to North Carolina, where he attended school, and would not be reuniting with his wife and two children. No, he was giving it all up for the girl in Texas. When I asked if his wife knew about her, he said no. I asked where he had met her, if she was in school in Texas and he in NC. "Second Life," he said so quickly that the words just breezed past my ear. "Where?" I asked, thinking I had missed the name of a town or a university or a 4H conference. He told me again (and again and again until I finally caught what he was saying) and then revealed the kicker: he'd never met her in person. He was excited about his flight to Texas because he would finally be meeting her. That man threw away everything in his physical life to make his virtual one become a reality. To me, that went beyond creepy.
I am reminded of the Law & Order: SVU episode "Avatar" which is based on the premise of Second Life. Although that episode is generally lauded as one of the worst and least realistic (no puns intended) of the series (some even claim that's when SVU jumped the shark, if it has yet), it put a great big spotlight on problems similar to the one I mentioned above--the virtual world seeping into the physical. And I'll admit, watching the episode alone in the house where I was house-sitting, cut off from my friends and most of the outside world, there was a weak little part of me that thought, "Yeah... I'll just go online and create a personality for myself--the ultimate me. The person I should have been born but could never become!" But by the time I went to bed that night, that delusion had mercifully faded. There are some things that just shouldn't happen, and that's why they don't in the physical world. Give someone the ability to make it happen in a metauniverse, and you've just opened a can of flesh-eating worms--because no one's patrolling those things, no one is monitoring the RL users, there's no Jiminy Cricket standing by the users' monitors going, "Ah-ah-ah... you're about to log off this computer and re-enter your real life! Time to start thinking rationally again!"
I loved the videos I watched on YouTube. I watched some of the joke ones, of course, and I also watched the intro vid that sounds like it's being narrated by Thomas Sangster circa 2003. Cute stuff. Knew about the product placement in Second Life, didn't know about the things like Harvard lectures.
Does Second Life have a place in libraries? I feel like it has to, otherwise the question wouldn't be asked, and we wouldn't be exploring it as an exercise. Of course, I imagine that a library could set itself up as its own business in Second Life and serve the users who were interested. But... since I don't see the point of using Second Life in the first place, I'm not sure I see the point of libraries doing the same.
My first exposure to anything like Second Life came from Snow Crash, which I read as a senior in college for my linguistics class. The class was "Babel to the Brain: The Origin of Language in Western Thought," and I think we were looking at it to project a future evolution of language and the agency of language (through the virus manifest, etc.), and I remember being creeped out by the idea of the Metaverse. I knew about RPGs--heck, my campus even had an active group of LARPers who held weapon-making workshops!--but I could not imagine a physical world in which such a virtual world existed. Oh, don't think me completely naïve: I puttered around The Palace for quite a while when I was new on the Internet and got myself into situations I shouldn't have been in at fourteen... but a completely made-up world patterned after our own? Ridiculous.
Or so I thought in 2005. The summer of 2006 introduced me to another aspect of Second Life when I met a man who encouraged me to check out Second Life--visit his shop there, chat. He was working for me at Kings Dominion and was about to start a messy divorce that he didn't talk much about. As his tenure at the park wore on, he felt increasingly more comfortable around me and eventually divulged that his wife didn't know he was leaving her, but he was in love with another woman and was moving to Texas at the end of the season to live with her. He would not be returning to North Carolina, where he attended school, and would not be reuniting with his wife and two children. No, he was giving it all up for the girl in Texas. When I asked if his wife knew about her, he said no. I asked where he had met her, if she was in school in Texas and he in NC. "Second Life," he said so quickly that the words just breezed past my ear. "Where?" I asked, thinking I had missed the name of a town or a university or a 4H conference. He told me again (and again and again until I finally caught what he was saying) and then revealed the kicker: he'd never met her in person. He was excited about his flight to Texas because he would finally be meeting her. That man threw away everything in his physical life to make his virtual one become a reality. To me, that went beyond creepy.
I am reminded of the Law & Order: SVU episode "Avatar" which is based on the premise of Second Life. Although that episode is generally lauded as one of the worst and least realistic (no puns intended) of the series (some even claim that's when SVU jumped the shark, if it has yet), it put a great big spotlight on problems similar to the one I mentioned above--the virtual world seeping into the physical. And I'll admit, watching the episode alone in the house where I was house-sitting, cut off from my friends and most of the outside world, there was a weak little part of me that thought, "Yeah... I'll just go online and create a personality for myself--the ultimate me. The person I should have been born but could never become!" But by the time I went to bed that night, that delusion had mercifully faded. There are some things that just shouldn't happen, and that's why they don't in the physical world. Give someone the ability to make it happen in a metauniverse, and you've just opened a can of flesh-eating worms--because no one's patrolling those things, no one is monitoring the RL users, there's no Jiminy Cricket standing by the users' monitors going, "Ah-ah-ah... you're about to log off this computer and re-enter your real life! Time to start thinking rationally again!"
I loved the videos I watched on YouTube. I watched some of the joke ones, of course, and I also watched the intro vid that sounds like it's being narrated by Thomas Sangster circa 2003. Cute stuff. Knew about the product placement in Second Life, didn't know about the things like Harvard lectures.
Does Second Life have a place in libraries? I feel like it has to, otherwise the question wouldn't be asked, and we wouldn't be exploring it as an exercise. Of course, I imagine that a library could set itself up as its own business in Second Life and serve the users who were interested. But... since I don't see the point of using Second Life in the first place, I'm not sure I see the point of libraries doing the same.
Subskrybuj:
Posty (Atom)
