Ning seems interesting!

I can see Ning as a more compelling use of SNS...building a social network of specific people for a specific purpose makes some sense to me.I could see using it to prepare and promote a conference that would showcase events and the people involved or to gather feedback on an idea from a specific user group, etc. In the library world I could see creating a Ning based on shared interests...bookclubs, online gaming clubs, etc. Having the ability to appeal to the social networking principles but with a more selected and purposeful group...yeah I see that.

I am sure that the limitations of "upkeep" are more difficult than with MySpace or Facebook exposure - you would have to explain more and justify why you weren't just using a mainstream SNS. But I think the overriding usefulness would be compelling enough if the ning was well thought out and designed.

Sticky = voyeurism

So I have decided that voyeurism is a huge part of why MySpace and FaceBook are "sticky" sites! As a brand new SNS user I found that I could have spent quite a bit of time strolling down memory lane to see what old classmates (that I havent communicated with in over 25 years) are doing. But really do I need to? Or is it some crazy desire to peek into their windows without just knocking on the door? Same goes for old co-workers...I worked in the Silicon Valley during the crazy internet years - there were alot of shared experiences that are not easily repeated and you develop oddly intense relationships at work at 3 AM. But I left that world and the people behind, until I started peeking at them too! So I guess I am just a voyeur at heart - didnt want to actually communicate but had a great time poking around! I think that is a large part of what makes these sites "sticky" - you can see what many people are doing with little personal committment.

Then there are the other users, who use the sites to truly live their life in a digital world. I think I am too old to get on that bandwagon!

Deleting friends in MySpace

Screencast of how to delete a friend on MySpace. Since my account is getting deleted every night I have now mastered the deletion of "Tom" the random MySpace friend - so thought I would share it with any other new to MySpace users.

http://screencast.com/t/nIC1eAwn

How To use WordArt

This screencast will give you simple instructions on how to use MicroSoft Word to make bookmarks for storytime at the library.

WordArtDemo

Learning how to perform the Cruyff turn

In this short video a soccer player can learn how to perform a Cruyff turn, named for the famous player Johan Cruyff. It is used in order to change the direction of play if an attacking player is approaching.




Click to play

link:

http://blip.tv/file/1423187

educational vs. entertainment

In the Pew report on Online Video usage, the general statistics certainly point to much higher viewing numbers for entertainment videos versus educational videos. This statistic is not surprising nor is the data that points out the significantly higher viewing stats for younger vs. older viewers. What was interesting to note in the report was the consistency of viewing for educational videos across all demographics. While the numbers are not as high, they are much more balanced - old, young, male, female - roughly 20% of the population turns to the Internet to learn something via online videos. So while educational videos may not ever see the sheer number of hits that an entertainment video might, there is a significant market "out there" for online educational videos!

As the digital generation ages, I would imagine that online use of educational videos will keep pace. It is a format that they are used to and turn to quickly when looking for information. Producers of online educational videos should feel comfortable and secure in the market place (as long as they don't expect anyone to pay for the use!).

It is all about balance

With shelf space being a "fixed" quantity, pushing collections into the long tail requires balance. By lengthening the tail in each library that would require shortening the head. There is only so much physical space, so the more that libraries play into the niche's, the less they can provide for the masses. But is a niche in one library a part of the mass in another? The best way for libraries to effectively represent the entire tail is the use of consortium's and inter library loans. Page 148 of Anderson's book says it all about the balance between heads and tails:

" If you just have the products at the Head, you find that very quickly your customers want more and you can't offer it. If you just have the products at the Tail, you find that customers have no idea where to start. They're unable to get traction in the marketplace because everything you're offering is unfamiliar to them. The importance of offering the stuff at both the Head and the Tail is that you can start in the world that customers already know: familiar products that tap into and define a space."

Libraries have to work hard at balancing the head and tail as well as locating for their patron's things they cannot immediately provide. Then they can tap into both the Head and the Tail.

Heads or Tails?

When thinking about the long tail vis-a-vis (that's a fancy word for in relation to - for you "Fancy Nancy" fans out there) the library I am pondering the space versus potential use continuum. In order for libraries to serve their communities they need to provide a balance between "head-y" things and "tail-y" things.

Everyone that walks in the door is equally capable of asking for the latest James Patterson novel or a book published in Mexico about the Mexican Army and specifically General Miguel Lamego. So the trick is in the balance, because while there may be more people looking for "The Dangerous Days of Daniel X", they can readily find it if you happen to be out. Whereas the user looking for the book on Miguel Lamego probably doesn't have anywhere else to turn. The library can prove its ultimate usefulness in being able to provide materials (either in house or via ILL) that are clearly the tail end of the spectrum.

Are they ready for some collaboration?

In every class you hear the dreaded words "group project" and your palms start sweating, heart starts racing, and eyeballs roll all the way back in your head...why? ... because until now it was just such a pain to parse out the duties and keep track of the work involved in group work. Collaboration tools like Google Docs and spresent can certainly take some of the pain away and should be used for both on-campus and online students for their group work. I have only been in this program for a year and thinking back to my first group project and the weekly phone calls and 3 trillion emails back and forth to put together a PowerPoint presentation literally gives me hives.... If only I, or my professor, had known about these tools life would have been much better (shout out to Sue for our weekly phone calls!). So the short answer to "would it make project creation easier/faster?" is YES YES YES YES YES.

But the real question..."would professors accept them"...
I think within our academic community there is as big a mixed bag of skills as anywhere - there are some professors who are completely on top of all that is new and helpful and some professors who may as well be taking notes on a stone tablet. Each professor has the apparent flexibility to set their own technological requirements so trying to get some to think outside their box just wont happen. The best case scenario would be teaching the students the value of the tools and making it so easy for the professors to view the final work that they would not care how it was created.

the virtual me

So I was/am brand new to delicious so you are more than welcome to take any comment I have with a grain of salt...

I thought the bookmarking exercise as a means of getting to know more about each other was only okay for that purpose...because there are ding-dong's, like me, that didnt put anything in the description to say why the site was important, some of the bookmarks, like mine, just didnt grab my attention. The other thing that I got very confused about was who was marking what...if it is meant to represent "us" as a "whole" I think it does that fine - but if it was meant to have me get to know Tara, for example, not so much...as I struggled to piece together who was marking what and building a profile for that person.

So if you want to use this tool as a "virtual introduction" for another class setting then I think there have to be a few more ground rules...
1. you must provide some insight as to why that site was important (I WAY more enjoyed those bookmarks than anyone could have enjoyed mine...)
2. I think you have to tag each with the user name ...tascils... etc and then look at the lists individually as well as a group tag ...fall08... to see the overlap.
3. you would have to assume that there is the possibility that there are users unfamiliar with delicious and account for that in the beginning

so that's my .02