Thing 15: Online games-Second Life

I signed up for an account at Second Life last semester, when I read in a scholarly article that Harvard University has hosting a "classroom" in Second Life for law students. It immediately peaked my interest. It was amazing to imagine the possibilities that a virtual classroom could have, especially one set up in Second Life, where people can interact with one another in a lifelike setting. Although I never got to see the Harvard classroom, I saw the appeal Second Life could have on people.
How many times have we been offered the opportunity to live a different life than what we are having right now? Did anybody envision that this new technology could offer us the chance to become someone else? Regardless of how we live right now, nonwithstanding the fact that we might live the best life we could ever live, I bet everyone have, at some point in their lives questioned themselves: If I had turned my life in a different direction, what would have become of me? Second Life, as its name implies, takes a shot at the question that has been in everyone's mind.
In my opinion, Second Life has integrated both the concepts of virtual reality and social networking, which is, I think, almost intuitive. It is a virtual world where you can meet other people, sort of like "the sims" integrated with "MySpace".
The marvel of this possibility is the ample range of opportunities this offers. you have a huge amount of landscape available where you can interact with other people in the closest simulation to real life available. Hyperbolaes aside, the possibilities are endless.

Thing 14: LibraryThing

To be absolutely frank, the first time I encountered LibraryThing, I did not see the benefit of making a list of favorite books and putting it in the Internet for others to see. This opinion was due mainly t the fact that I had never relied on other people's opinion, like friends or family, to tell me what was a good read. I grew up in a family and lived in a place where there were more pressing matters than worrying about what books were out there for us to read. My family had so many other things to worry about that concerns about reading material were never their top priority. It is true that everybody works for a living, and a reading habit makes for a healthy family, but, in the place that I lived when I was a kid, worries about where our next meal was going to come from occupied my parents' mind every hour of the day. In short, I grew without the concept of recommending readings.
It took me a while to realize that I am an isolated case. Most of the people are in the habit of reading and sharing what they read with others since early childhood. and it is very typical for me, when I engage in conversations about my reading habits with others, to say "there is this very interesting/exciting/funny/sad/etc. book, but I can't remember its name. I think the author's name is so and so, but it talks about...". In situations like these, sharing a favorite list of books is very easy and convenient.
I signed up for an account in LibraryThing. I uploaded some books in it and I found it very easy to use and convenient, given that now I have people around me who are habitual readers and I can share with them the books I like. Nevertheless, I have seen other sites like this one that look more attractive, that might appeal more to people. Another, perhaps unexplored possibility of having an account here is that people can tell who you are by looking at what you read. so a list in LibraryThing can tell more about your personality that you might want to let out.
I can see the usefulness of this tool for libraries in many ways. Most libraries have a "staff picks" shelf area reserved. This list can be incorporated in electronic form for library patrons to see away from the library. This tool can be very useful to organize items in non-traditional ways, in lists tailored to patron's general preferences.
This is a great tool, and I will be sure to take advantage of it constantly, both in my personal and professional life

Thing 13: iGoogle

It has been quite a while since I have driven a car. Before I chose bipedal propulsion as my main form of transportation, I used to own and drive many types of cars. A good indicator of the type of car that I was driving at the time was the dashboard. Cheap cars would have the bare essentials, a speedometer, a fuel gauge and, sometimes, a temperature indicator. Mofre expensive cars would have all the above as well as a tachometer, seat belt indicators, air bag sensors, ambient temperature gauges, a compass an even a device that would alert me whether the doors were open or closed ( I could never convince a certain car I used to have that a door was most definitely not a jar).
iGoogle is like a dashboard for your web surfing device. It is fully customizable so you can have all the information you are interested in, all in one place. Users can arrange iGoogle by adding those items that are required from the user everytime the user makes an internet connection. Some people always look at the current weather on the internet, others open a browser to check their email, others yer want to find sporting events scores as soon as they open their browser, this and more is possible thanks to iGoogle.

Thing 12: Reddit, Digg, StumleUpon

There isn't a single laundromat that does not have a bulletin board where people looking for a job, offering positions or searching a for a lost dog, post their information. You have seen those single sheets of paper with tabs at the bottom, usually listing a phone number or a address, where interested parties can make contact with the posters.
A similar concept is the "information kiosk", designated places, frequently found at schools and universities where people post information they believe is of interest for others.
Reddit, Digg and StumleUpon are, in a way, the electronic version of these information kiosks. They are a common place in the Internet where users can post interesting sites they have found that, they believe, should be viewed by others. It is actually a very nifty concept. Let's say for example, that I fing either an extremely funny site, the web site of a foundation that offers scholarships for library students, or other information that I deem of general interest. All I have to do is, after getting an account, tag or bookmark the website of my choice. Any other user of these applications would be able to see it from there.
The websites tagged using these applications are ranked based on their popularity. It is actually a very basic system. I tag a website because I find it interesting and worth viewing by others. Other people would likely find it either from inside or outside the program and tag it as well. if the website is popular, it will be viewed by many people and tagged accordingly by those who have the ability to do so, therefore entering in a vicious circle where interesting sites are viewed, tagged, viewed and tagged, ad infinitum.
I can see the utility of these tools for a library concerning news on the web. someone who is looking for the most relevant bit of news would look in one of these sites for the most popular web sites containing news. This way, the user would find out, from web users who have Digg, for example, what is the most talked about bit of news floating on the web. Librarians can use Digg accounts to tag popular web sites according to subject, gathering the most popular (dug) sites within the subject, ad allow users to browse them. It is a rather crude form of web information organization, yes, but a form of organization nonetheless.

Thing 11: Tagging ad Del.icio.us

I first became acquainted with tags somewhat in the reverse way that the 23 things on a stick recommends it. One time I decided to upload a video on YouTube. When I finally manage to successfully upload it, it asked me to tag my video. At first I did not know what they were talking about. Then I realized that YouTube was asking me to highlight the words that would link a user to my video. It was basically telling me to define the subject of my video using the most representative words, not sentences, not paragraphs, single words. The idea, I understood at the time, was to imagine that other people were searching for information that I thought my video was part of. If I wanted my video to be found by other people, I had to imagine people entering information on their browser that would describe my video. Whith this in mind, I chose the single words that I thought those looking for the information in my video would type. Choosing single words that would describe the subject of my video was very hard, but carefully chosen words or tags can mean success or failure in the Internet environment.
Just now, I signed up for a del.icio.us account. I believe that, even on the early days of the Internet, many people though it would be a pretty good idea to be able to categorize their favorite website using terms, or tags, individual to them that would tell them what a website was about, instead of memorizing URL's that made little or no sense to the user. A URL gives very little information about what a website is, but if the user defined him/herself what a website was about, based on his or her own perception, and could categorize a collection of sites based on the user's perception of a website, it would simplify bookmarking. Del.icio.us does just that.

Thing 10: Wikis

I have used wikis for some time now (not for any type of academic work, mind you ;)). At first I used wikipedia as a user only, and to the present, I still do. It wasn't until much later, when a radio program featured these new internet tool and explained how it worked that I understood the way a wiki is made and built upon. I have not contributed to any wiki or edited any existing one because I, personally, do not feel I know enough about any particular topic to pose in the internet as an expert or authority on it. I went and played for a while with the wiki sandbox, which allowed me to get a better feel of how a wiki works without risking an embarassing moment of posting an erroneous opinion without base.
I think wikipedia, and I suspect that other wikis do, too, suffer from a bad reputation from people in general. Time and time again we are told at our classes that we should stay away from wikipedia when doing our research. Many people are of the opinion that wikipedia is nothing more than the postings of people who don't have the credentials to post any kind of information about a topic. Many people believe that only those who cannot publish information credibly will resort to wikipedia to make their opinion heard. Neverhteless, every time I have had to check something on a wiki, their information seems sound and well researched.
So what is it? Is wikipedia a depository of common, legitimate knowledge? Is it the collection of opinions from wannabe experts? In my opinion, wikipedia is a good source to find information about mundane topics, but it is correct to stay away from it when doing serious research.

Thing 9: Collaboration Tools

I had the opportunity to use GoogleDocs during my first semester in the MLIS program. Incidentally, I was in a group with a couple of people who are in this class as well (you know who you are ;)). We had a term paper assignment for our LIS 5023 class and someone brought up GoogleDocs as an option. I must confess that, at first, I was somewhat skeptical about using GoogleDocs. I had never used it before and I thought that keeping our information out in the ether was risky. I thought "what if our information disappears?". Fortunately, my suspicions were proven to be unfounded, and we were able to come up with a great term paper. Our collaboration was made much easier and we had a great time using it.
Given my past experience using it, I can say that GoogleDocs is an excellent collaboration tool. It has all the necessary features to make a word processing, spreadsheet, or other documents that most office suites have. it is very user-friendly, and online collaboration is made effortless. We did not have a single problem using it.