Final ruminations

I feel the urge to offer some final thoughts on the CPL 2.0 technologies assignment to provide a sense of closure for myself.

For one thing, this exercise gave me the motivation, structure and deadlines I required to overcome the procrastination that plagued my good intentions to embark on such explorations myself. And just as promised in the CPL 2.0 blog header, I certainly do feel more "tech-savvy and web-smart." I can see how many of these technologies are useful tools to recommend to library customers, and to utilize in order to get the library's message out there in less traditional ways.

I was already using some of these tools before this assignment began. But, the most exciting discovery for me is blogging! I love having a venue to write down my musings for anyone who cares to read them. And I think I might continue doing just that, on random topics of my own choosing. So check back here - you never know what I might be rambling on about!

I've thoroughly enjoyed following the journeys my colleagues have been on. Everyone had such different approaches to the exercise, and unique writing styles. I feel I know you all just a smidge better than I did before March 15, 2010.

I've come to a few conclusions about the role of technology in my life. In selective, controlled doses it can enrich my relationships, help me connect in a variety of ways with more people more often. It can provide access to a "wealth of information and ideas" - not unlike the library!

But technology can easily overwhelm me and consume my time in all sorts of unproductive ways. Part way through the exercise, I started feeling the weight of all the possibilities threatening to pull me under. More is not always better! I will intentionally remain a techno-peasant in certain areas, so as to preserve my sanity.

Now for the heavy stuff...

I'm concerned that the way we are inundated with such a plethora of information and entertainment options may distract us from what is really going on in the world around us. Maybe we think we're more closely in tune with things because we're following newsfeeds and friends on a minute-by-minute basis. But maybe we're so busy Facebooking, tweeting, and LibraryThing-ing, that we're not really paying attention to important issues in our families, our communities, our workplaces, our world. Just something to think about...

Bitter about Twitter

Twitter was the technology that I thought I was the most curious about at the beginning of this assignment. Turns out, I was wrong. Maybe it's CPL 2.0 blogging fatigue setting in. But I'm not curious enough to try to dissect the anatomy of a tweet. I'm not interested in acquiring a new vocabulary of hashtags, retweets and hovercards.

"Twitter asks “what’s happening” and makes the answer spread across the globe to millions, immediately" - according to the website.

I understand there are situations where this is fun, handy, maybe on rare occasions a necessity. But as a rule, I don't need to know the instant that Al and Tipper Gore have decided to separate. I can wait until I watch the "news" to find out about important, earth-shattering tidbits like that.

"Twitter is a rich source of instant information." - advertised on the website

Instant information = unreliable, gossip, not the full story. Reading tweets on Twitter is like getting your news from reading only the headlines in a newspaper or tabloid - it doesn't give you any context or background. So while I may have more information coming at me, I don't have more knowledge about what's going on in the world. I have the illusion that I'm well-informed, well-connected. Don't any of us have the time and patience, the desire to look beyond a 140-character micro-blog to get the whole story?

"Friends and industry peers you know. Celebrities you watch. Businesses you frequent. Find them all on Twitter." - from the website

Industry peers and businesses = advertising, doesn't it? Why would I voluntarily sign up for more of that? And celebrities! Why would I value Ashton Kutcher's opinion about something any more than I'd value the opinion of a complete stranger? I am unavoidably inundated with advertising and celebrity gossip in so many other places, I can't fathom why anyone would want more.

Surprise, surprise - I'm giving Twitter two thumbs down.

I've got just the thing for you - LibraryThing

"Library what?" my husband asked, thinking I'd forgotten the complete title.

"Thing. LibraryThing. That's actually what it's called," I said, trying to explain that I wasn't substituting "thing" for the real word that I'd forgotten.

I know I didn't have to, but I couldn't resist signing up for an account. Not that I needed yet another place to keep track of the books I read. I already use at least two other social networking sites centered around books, and I still haven't been able to relinquish my hand written Book Lovers Journal that I keep on the shelf by my bed.

And there's the rub. The question isn't whether or not such sites are useful - the answer to that is obvious to any bibliophile! The question is which site or method for cataloguing my literary conquests is best - most complete, easy to use, fun.

I use the Visual Bookshelf application to display the books I read on Facebook, although as FB has modified over time, I've become increasingly disillusioned with it. I was forced to turn off the "publish" feature because whenever I finished reading a book, about 4 notices to that effect would be posted to my friends news feeds. Now I know my friends are all incredibly interested in my literary life, but I felt that was slight overkill!

A few weeks ago I created an account using GoodReads. And of course, a few days ago, I jumped into LibraryThing. Honestly, I haven't used either of them long enough to compare and contrast their various features. I'm open to being wooed by either, but I think I'd be most likely to commit to the one that most of my friends use, or the one that has the best Facebook application. Which means I could go either way at this point, as I know one person who uses LibraryThing devotedly, and two people who use GoodReads infrequently. And while GoodReads already has a Facebook app that I downloaded, I can't get it to work properly. LibraryThing on the other hand, is only in the beginning stages of interfacing with Facebook, meaning you can only publish your book reviews there and nothing else.

So, until I overcome my fear of commitment, I'm compelled to quell my obsessive compulsive tendencies by keeping all three sites up to date. And there's just something about flipping through the pages of my journal, counting up the titles I've read so far this year...

Oh! Did you all notice? In the column on the right? I managed to embed a LibraryThing widget on my blog! You can see what I'm currently reading and click on the link to visit my profile on LibraryThing. How technologically advanced is that, eh? I might have to change the title of my blog from Techno-Peasant to...hmmm...what's the next rung up from peasant...

Online Productivity Tools: taking longer to make your life "easier"

Maybe six years ago, I spent some time setting up my schedule on Yahoo's Calendar. Entering my work routine and creating a Tasks list made me feel very organized, although I could probably have used that time to actually be productive, instead of planning on being productive. I don't recall ever using the calendar again. It's not practical for me as I don't have a mobile device on which to consult my calendar. And it's usually when I'm out and about being mobile that I need access to a calendar most, not when I'm at home in front of my PC. Besides, I challenge anyone to a quick draw: you and your mobile device, me and my trusty 2-year pocket daytimer. I'm sure I can whip that out of my purse, flip to the month I need and pencil in my next hair appointment way faster than you can!

So I chose to explore Google Documents instead...

I can see the usefulness of creating and sharing documents online. Especially for someone like myself who doesn't have the convenience of a laptop, being able to access any document from any computer is an attractive feature. And I can also imagine a number of scenarios in which people could share and edit documents collaboratively. There's no question, the idea is a very good one.

Except...I didn't like it. A few minor irritations presented themselves rather quickly. I couldn't see what page of my document I was on unless I went to Print Preview. And the comments that were present in the document I uploaded didn't display on my home computer, although they did on the computers at work.

But the big drawback is the speed. While it uploaded a Microsoft Word document from my PC in a jiffy, it slowed to an absolute crawl when I tried to edit it. The same thing happened when I created a document in Google Docs from scratch. Slooooow! So slow that I had to stop typing every so often and wait for it to catch up. And if I used the vertical or horizontal slide bars, clicked elsewhere in the document to reposition my cursor, or used the arrow keys to manoeuver around my document...well, let's just say you've got time to brew a cup of coffee, clean the cat's litter box, or maybe even phone your mother between moves! I'm assuming this happens because it's in constant saving mode. And admittedly, my computer at home runs at snail speed to begin with, but the same thing happened when I tried using Google Docs on the computers at work.

So, what I've gained in convenient access, I've lost in speed, and therefore in productivity as well.

Flickr and YouTube: You're a star! I'm a star! We're all STARS!

Now would be the appropriate time to discuss the exhibitionist and voyeur that lives inside us all. But I'm not going to because I think I made that speech somewhere back in the excessively long post about Wikipedia. Ha! Fooled you, didn't I, hmmm?

As I believe I've confessed previously, anytime I encounter a new technology that I like, I go through a period of "enthusiastic use." Some might also refer to this as addiction, abuse, misuse, overuse...

When I first discovered YouTube, this meant that I was occasionally found watching concert videos of Pearl Jam at 2am. While that phase has now passed, I still use YouTube primarily for the same sort of entertainment purposes. I have infrequently used it to find "how-to" videos to assist my resident handy-man in his endeavours to do such things as finding the correct method of removing the uncooperative bathtub drain stopper.

I have never felt the need to create a YouTube account. I have not subscribed to any channels. I'm not a big fan of the video links I'm sometimes sent of people's cats flushing the toilet, their dogs singing "Silent Night," or their kids reciting all the U.S. presidents in reverse chronological order. And I have never felt compelled to upload any of my own videos - those 15 second masterpieces containing riveting footage of my husband sitting on the beach in the fog.

Now, while Flickr looks like an easy enough site to use to edit and share photos, the fact is that I already do that someplace else. I do the editing part on my computer at home using the software that came with my camera. And I do the sharing part by creating photo albums on Facebook. I find this arrangement very convenient as most of the friends and family that would be interested in my photos already use Facebook, and those who don't can still view my photos when I send them a link to the album.

This is in keeping with the New Year's resolution I've just made, despite the fact that it's mid-May: 

To prevent myself from being completely overwhelmed by technology and crawling into a tiny dark crack in the earth where I can ignore it all, I will strive to use the minimum number of technologies, websites, portable electronic devices as possible to do what I need to in order to maintain contact with friends and family, keep up with my job, and not feel like a complete Luddite. 

RSS: Really Simple (to get overwhelmed) Syndication

I managed to set up my RSS feed successfully despite having a few problems, which I muddled through. 

BUT...

I have this distinct feeling that I'm following too many things in too many places:

• on Facebook I'm a fan of certain pages and get updates posted on my newsfeed
• on Blogger I'm following other people's blogs and get updates on my Dashboard when there's a new post
• I have a list of Favourites on my computer at home which are websites that I check frequently
• and now on Bloglines I'm accumulating a list of websites and blogs that I think I might possibly want to follow regularly...perhaps.  

And there could be more! I could also have a Delicious account with a list of my favourite websites, and a Twitter account with updated tweets.

To add to the mayhem, most things you can follow by more than one method. For example, I've subscribed to CBC's RSS feed, but I could also be a fan on Facebook, and get Twitter updates.

Too much! Too much information to be gathered. Too much gathering of information. It's just TOO MUCH! Convenient - yeah, if you're stuck for ways to waste time!  

By the time I check my Yahoo email, my Outlook email, my CPL email, log into Facebook and see what all my friends are up to, check Blogger and Bloglines and catch up on all my favourite technology, restaurant and book reviews, I will have precious little time left to......write about ME!

No Refolding Required: Navigating Google Maps

I spent the past week sipping wine amongst the vineyards and orchards of the Okanagan's Naramata Bench, so I guess it's time I took a sober look at how far behind I am in my blogging assignments.

Google products I use: YouTube (which I didn't realize belonged to the Google universe and which is a whole other assignment!), Blogger, Image search, and need I even say it...Web search. I also use the product I've chosen to discuss here - Google Maps. And I'll use my recent vacation to illustrate - maybe it'll help me hang onto my holiday bliss a little longer...

I ain't no gadget gal, so while I've heard wild rumours that all of this can be accessed via mobile devices, I'm still rockin' it old school on my desktop PC at home! For the rest of you tech savvy folks out there, I'm sure this is mostly old news, although you may find some small entertainment value in observing my lack of savvy-ness...

Off the top, I like the variety of search options available depending on the information I have at hand and the information I'm looking for: I can type in a specific address, the name of a road, the name of a specific business or attraction, the name of a town, or something quite general like "library naramata." As I'm typing, Google offers a helpful list of suggestions on a drop-down menu that I can also choose from to save precious time and key strokes.

Then I get a hit list and an accompanying map which I can view as a simple street map, a satellite map with a street map superimposed on it, or a 3D Earth view (which I haven't downloaded). My favourite view is the satellite map as I find it helps me get the lay of the land a lot better than just a street map when I'm looking something up that's in completely foreign territory. Included on the map are other nearby landmarks, businesses, towns or roads that help me get my bearings.

If I click on one of the items in the hit list, I have access to a raft of useful information such as: a complete address, a photo and a link to a website if one exists, directions, links to reviews if there are any, the option to save my map to my Google account, and the option to "search nearby" for whatever other amenities I might need.

At the bottom of my hit list, each successive search is saved and can be added to the map using colour-coded dots. So my search for restaurants, wineries, hiking opportunities, and a library, can all be added to my initial search for accommodations and I've got the necessities of my whole trip mapped out before my very eyes in no time at all!

If I've looked up a place that's located in an urban area, I've also got the option to look at a "street view" of it, which essentially looks like someone stood outside and snapped a photo of it. (Kind of eerie when I look up my own residential address - brings my "big brother is watching you" paranoia out!) This feature helps to prevent having to drive around the block multiple times trying to spot that little hole-in-the-wall amazing restaurant that only the locals know about! And when I access the driving directions, I can see a split screen street view and corresponding satellite map for each intersection. Guess that's not such a handy feature if I'm not viewing it on a mobile device...hmmm...might have to get me one of those! 

Of course there are inevitably flaws and glitches with technology like this. Google Maps states clearly that "Placement on map is approximate" which can definitely be a big problem. If I'd used only the Google map to find our accommodation in a rural area of the Okanagan, I'd have been camping in the bush near the local landfill a few kilometres from the bed and breakfast I'd reserved! I have the option to move a marker on the map if it's not in the right location, although if it's moved more than 200 metres from it's existing location, the change will not be posted immediately. I tried moving the marker for the Bed and Breakfast we stayed at, but the change has not been posted yet. But editing the map after I've returned from my vacation doesn't really help ME - only the next B and B guests maybe!

Another thing that one needs to be aware of is that both street maps and the satellite maps appear to be out of date by at least a couple of years. Residential areas where I live that have gone from cow pasture to fully built out communities are still showing up on the satellite map as pasture!

All in all, I still think Google Maps is a useful tool, as long as the user is aware of it's potential shortcomings.

Now, where's that stash of wine I transported illegally across provincial borders...