To Web 2.0 or not Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is something that has emerged slowly but surely, and most people would have either used it, or heard of aspects of it without knowing it was "Web 2.0". (Think YouTube, MySpace, Bebo for example.)

I spend a bit of time on the internet, so the majority of these sites weren't new to me - however, the programme did give me an excuse to look into some things a lot more than I would normally have. This meant that I did discover new things/aspects/features of sites that I didn't previously know about.

I enjoyed reading and posting for this Web 2.0 bizzo (and the promise of a mp3 player helped a bit too!). It's created a bit of a buz around the workplace, and has meant that in this (online) area, we have all started to speak some of the same language!

Chocolate chip wiki anyone?

Week 9 : Exercise 3 : Thing 1 - Judging eBooks by their Covers

Today's theme is judging by covers.

When I first looked through the library of titles at NetLibrary, the first thing that struck me was that I wasn't immediately inspired to click on any of the books. Maybe we've been a bit spoilt with all of these flash LibraryThing etc sites, that access images from elsewhere on the net to create their covers, but the first book that I decided to peek into was also the first one with a cover image.

There could be a couple of reasons for the lack of covers - the nature of eBooks is often that copyright has expired on the book, so it is able to be transcribed without any legal ramifications. These books are therefore often older texts, which may never have had any distinctive cover. Or, the site could just be in the process of adding these now.

Just to put my choice into perspective - the book that I did choose by cover, actually turned out to be the least interesting of those I looked at!

Content wise, I've never been a fan of reading eBooks on a computer. Sometimes I might do it if I'm researching a topic, but that's because I can use search tools to skip large chunks of text. When reading a book - it's just not comfortable. However... using the search function, I realised that I could search by subject for short stories that might possibly be short enough to hold my attention without my eyes turning square.

In the end, this method produced some titles I may go back to. The whole process of finding books and adding to favourites was completely intuitive and easy, and while I'm not keen on reading a whole book in this format - I did also find some good ones that I'd like to read, if only they weren't so long!!!

Week 9 : Exercise 2 : Thing 1 - Is it cheating if I have an iPod?

So, yes, I do have an iPod, and I do listen to podcasts.

I started listening to podcasts in 2005. In those days we had to download the mp3, then manually add it to iTunes to play it* - you kids don't know how easy you've got it.

The thing I've found podcasts most useful for in my life, is finding music that I wouldn't normally get to hear, or news items that I often miss... and a bit of comedy. (a couple of these are video podcasts, viewable in iTunes.)

Morning Becomes Eclectic - from KCRW FM : RSS
The Arts on Sunday - from Radio New Zealand : RSS
Flight of the Conchords - from Wellington : RSS
The Ricky Gervais Podcast - from ...well ... Ricky Gervais : RSS

So there we go. I don't know what Bloglines is like for picking up podcasts, but Google Reader can play the audio straight from the feed, so there's no need to download the mp3 if you don't want to.

*Actually, I'm not sure if that's true, but like all good Grandparents, I'm sticking to my stories of the old days.

Week 9 : Exercise 1 : Thing 1 - YouTube

Kiwi! by Dony Permedi

I chose this animation because it's cute - it's a nice image of a bird, (a people) that strives and spends its whole life to achieve a moment it has only dreamed of. I was working on a selection of short films last year for a festival that never got off the ground. This was going to be one of the main animations... so putting it on here is my way of having my own little festival!

This is the most popular animation of all time on YouTube*. Surprisingly, the animator actually didn't know much about kiwis when he made the film, and hadn't been to NZ. There's an interview here.

I think the graphical interface of YouTube would translate well into a library search - if there were two views: list view and cover view. List view would be the normal list of titles, and cover view would be a grid of front-cover images with titles beneath. This would feel more accessible for the Web savvy (often younger patrons), who are used to making decisions based on a combination of data, including sound and graphic information, rather than just text. I don't think a cover view would be great for mining through a lot of titles, but more suited to patrons who wanted to explore visually.

This would be great for exploring books in the format that YouTube allows - by applying limits such as: browse "most viewed", from "this year", category "sports" - and it pops up with those books. I think the key here is that - like YouTube - some people aren't searching for books, they just want to see what they find. With an interface like this, we make this possible without requiring any search query.

The other thing that stands out to me on YouTube is how I always spend more time on there than I intended. The sole reason for this is the recommendations that come up when I view a video. After watching the initial one, another catches my eye, and I end up caught in a chain of hypnotic squares of video frames. Amazon's website works in a similar way - "other people who bought this, also bought: ..." and has the same effect on me, though I've never actually bought anything!

Perhaps the emphasis though should not be on the ability to keep patrons on the website for longer, but to allow them to search laterally, making connections that they wouldn't normally find.

*there is another video in the category with more views, but it isn't an animation.

Week 8 : Exercise 2 : Thing 1 - Fuzzmail

Fuzzmail came in 3rd in the "Fun Stuff" category of the Web 2.0 Awards.

Fuzzmail was fun - I sent an email to my partner, then stood behind her as she read it. The idea behind Fuzzmail is that when the recipient of your email receives their message, they don't read it in a static way - line by line - but rather see the message as you typed it, errors, second-thoughts and all.

It's a nice idea, to see how someone was thinking, then adjusting when they composed your email, but as usual, I do have some caveats, just to be a downer:

Caveat 1: Don't use this method to send a message to anyone who you need to take you seriously. A break-up email for instance, would not go down well.* But maybe you just shouldn't use email for breaking up with someone anyway.

Caveat 2: It would be infinitely better if the receiver could view the message inside his or her own mail program/web-app. This probably falls to the mail program/web-app people, rather than the makers of Fuzzmail, but it lessens the impact of the experience when you have to leave your mail in order to receive it.

But really - for what it does, I quite like Fuzzmail, although I'm not sure of any way that it could work in a library application


*In other instances though, this method actually has the ability to convey more emotion than a regular email - because the receiver is getting to see the way you are thinking and trying to convey your message.

Week 8 : Exercise 1 : Thing 1 - online productiveness

I already use Google Docs, and I think it's great. I use it for documents that I work slowly on, or between different computers at home, work, and elsewhere. I've also started a few spreadsheets that other people can collaborate on, such as a to-do list which we then tick off as we complete tasks.

Website, Lifehacker did a survey on the choice between the two, which is interesting: (ignore the strange bar graphs - they look fine in the editor, but come out weird - it's some problem with copying the images.)

Google Apps or Zoho Suite?

Zo-who? Google all the way.  17.8% (273 votes)

Zoho. I don't trust our Gevil Overlords.  4.0% (61 votes)

Google, because I'm lazy and already had a Google account.  42.4% (649 votes)

Zoho, because I tried both and it's better.  18.2% (279 votes)

Google, because I tried both and it's better.  8.5% (130 votes)

Neither.

 9.0% (138 votes)

From 1530 votes, it seems that most people choose Google Docs, since they've already got a Gmail account (that's me), but those who have tried them both have found that Zoho is the better choice.

See the original survey here

Week 7 : Excercise 2 : Thing 1 - PBwiki

I quite liked the PBwiki thing...

It hands over the creation of a page to a group of people - in an easy and sensible format. The strength of the wiki is that pages can be updated/changed very easily, and by (potentially) everyone in the group - thereby allowing the communication of information/knowledge/etc to take place in a fluid manner.

This - including social-networking and collaborative documents - is another way of fostering a community approach to web growth and development.