Zoho Writer, an Online Productivity Tool

I am angry I am ill and Im as ugly as sin
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking
I know the meaning of life, it doesnt help me a bit
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it

This is a song from under the floorboards
This is a song from where the wall is cracked
My force of habit, I am an insect
I have to confess Im proud as hell of that fact

I know the highest and the best
I accord them all due respect
But the brightest jewel inside of me
Glows with pleasure at my own stupidity

This is a song from under the floorboards
This is a song from where the wall is cracked
My force of habit, I am an insect
I have to confess Im proud as hell of that fact....

I used to make phantoms I could later chase
Images of all that could be desired
Then I got tired of counting all of these blessings
And then I just got tired

This is a song from under the floorboards
This is a song from where the wall is cracked
My force of habit, I am an insect
I have to confess Im proud as hell of that fact

Zoho Writer is the online productivity tool I experimented with for this exercise. I decided to use Zoho Writer as a text editor, then I selected the Share tab before choosing the Post to Blog option. After a couple of attempts (what was my Google Account username and password again?) this worked well. I did find changing text colour cumbersome compared to Microsoft Word but most of the tool icons were immediately recognisable. Due my familiarity with Microsoft Word, and because this software is already available to me, it is the word processing software I prefer. Some of the positives of Zoho Writer include the fact that it's freeware so that can only be a good thing, no software needs to be installed and documents saved online can be accessed anywhere.

The lyrics used in my experimental document above are from an old favourite of mine; "A Song from under the Floorboards" by the early 80's, English band Magazine. It may be of interest that Howard Devoto the lyricist and vocalist of Magazine later worked as a Librarian.

Learning 2.0 Wiki Sandbox

Creating an account on the PLCMC Learning Wiki Sandbox site was completely straight forward. Adding my blog to the Favourite Blogs page was another matter (see my plea for help on the 23 Things @ UniSA Blog). 3 days after creating an account I still am denied access to any sandpit fun. As I noted in an earlier post I'm not sure if the words 'technology' and 'me' belong in the same sentence.

Wiki

I love the 'open access' of wikis, the fact that anyone can edit and supply information, how egalitarian! Obviously, on the flipside, this also means that anyone with malicious intentions can make unwanted changes.
Library Success was interesting and very reminiscent of Wikipedia.
Book Lovers Wiki promised much but delivered little although I did enjoy reading the contrasting critiques of The Kite Runner. Princeton Public Library's 2006 Summer reading wasn't as interesting as I hoped.
I also browsed the UniSA Library Wiki's notably WikIRT, the Law Wiki: Legal Brief and V_Double_Wiki and noticed (for what it's worth) that the most recent changes were made in May, February and January 2009 respectively.

Web 2.0 Library 2.0

In the beginning of the 23 Things saga I viewed a short video extolling the virtues of Web 2.0 technologies where scenes and characters from Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland featured prominently. I wondered what was the point this marketing exercise was trying to make.

Now after 6 weeks in the 23 Things wonderland I think I have some small understanding and will try to apply this analogy in this post about what Library 2.0 means to me. (If it's ok for Rick Anderson to have his 'icebergs' and 'paddles' comparison, then it's open slather as far as I'm concerned).

Alice in Wonderland begins with Alice nervous about the recital of 'Cherry Ripe' she will be performing for her parents' guests later in the day. So if I use Alice as an analogy for libraries then the song 'Cherry Ripe' is the services libraries provide that meets our clients' needs today. Like Alice libraries need to follow the Web 2.0 White Rabbit down the Web 2.0 rabbit hole, to adapt and stretch themselves encountering, experiencing, discovering, and developing new hybrid technologies to eventually provide the services (aka the 'Will you Wont you join the dance' song) that match the needs of libraries' clients in the 21st century and beyond.

This post is probably as clear as the smokey atmosphere created by the Caterpillar's hookah but imagining the future can be like that.

Attached is a portion of one of Charles Blackman's Alice pictures.

Del.icio.us Tagging and Discovery

Any doubters click here for proof that I've discovered the joys of Del.icio.us tagging.

I'm possibly not quite as enthusiastic about Del.icio.us as some 23 Things participants seem to be. Maybe this is due to the fact that I have only around 10 different tag categories in Del.icio.us at the moment. I've come to the realisation that I don't have that diverse a range of interests; books, design (see Philippe Starck's juicer above), sport, current affairs and gardening about sums it up (something to do with my obsessive personality perhaps?). Nevertheless I can see that over time my range of tag categories could increase substantially.

I initially thought just adding 'favourite' sites to my internet bookmarks was sufficient to my needs rather than laboriously adding and tagging each entry into Del.icio.us. Using Del.icio.us does enable me to access my Del.icio.us bookmarks from any computer with internet access; no need for my favourite bookmarks to be replicated on every computer that I use. The "RSS feeds for these bookmarks" option is also a very handy little tool providing the latest updates of all sites in any selected tag category.

OK, this cynic has been won over.

Roly-Poly Pudding

Select...CactipleaseSearch The Web

Here's my Rollyo searchroll entitled Cactiplease. As the title suggests this Rollyo search tool contains website urls devoted to the weird and wonderful world of cacti and succulents. This personally customised search engine allows me to search only my favourite sites on this subject rather than searching, for example, in Google and then wading through potentially numerous unsuitable search results. Very handy indeed. I can certainly see a use for Rollyo on my home computer.

Library Thingamajig

Eventually managed the simple task of creating a Library Thing account. Well, OK I may well have created 3,207 separate accounts when 1 would have sufficed - obviously a computer error. (How will I ever remember all the usernames and passwords?) Thank you Karen J. Mc for putting up with my cursing and for your invaluable assistance. The suggested username of Camry wasn't appreciated quite as much though.

I'm content with the cataloguing of books taking place in IR&T and with the actual reading of books occuring at home, so I can't see any practical, personal use of this software eventuating at 7 Lawrence Ave. Was a little disappointed that I couldn't find any matches for my collection of Dick and Dora books and with the lack of available covers for anything printed over 20 years ago. Yes, most of my purchases occurred many, many moons ago and were obtained from second-hand bookshops. Therefore the covers featured in my Library Thing catalogue may not exactly match the actual books on my home bookshelves (yes I cheated). My Library Thing catalogue can be found where X marks the spot.