Things 13 - Online "Productivity" Tools

I sort of yawned through most of these tools. I am a list-maker, but I make my lists on little scraps of paper or on the backs of obsolete library-hour cards. Then I leave them scattered all over the house and later wonder where they are or, more likely, why whatever it was was important enough to write into a list. It's sort of messy but it works for me.

I've been using "my yahoo" for quite a while, and like the "everything on one page page" idea. I did like iGoogle, and since I've become so enamored with google-docs lately (I'm telling everyone), perhaps I'll look at changing to that.

One thing about Remember the Milk -- did you know that there's also a dontforgetthemilk.com. And I know this because I misplaced the scrap of paper with notes about Thing 13 and then attempted to rely on my memory. Dontforgetthemilk is not nearly so pretty as Rememberthemilk.com.

I looked at the calendars as well, but they didn't rock my world either. I adjusted my lifestyle several years ago so that I don't need a fancy, thorough, detailed calendar. I like my life that way, thank you very much. The freebie purse calendar that came in the mail is plenty for me.

I think one thing that comes across to me with the calendar, sticky notes, lists etc. is the overwhelming notion that I don't want to be that attached to a computer. Scraps of paper lists are messy and sometimes do get lost, and that does occasionally result in embarrassing moments of double-scheduling, but I'd rather have that than feel like I was one-limb short if I didn't have a computer and Internet access with me at the moment that I have a burst of inspiration.

So, thanks for introducing me to these lovelies. Glad they're cool and useful to some folks, but they don't do much for me.

Thing 12: I Reddit but don't particularly Digg-it

Oh I'm going to sound like such a elitist, snobbish putz for this one, but wow. I am so unenthused by this Thing. It really seemed like the most grating waste of time since (completely out of morbid curiousity) I bounced onto Fox news and ETonline. I don't care about the latest narcissistic and ill-advised stunt pulled by some celebrity. I don't want to know (at least not on good days) what warped conspiracy theory is being promulgated by far-right nutcases.

Actually, I really like editors. I'd rather find sites that have good, competent editors and let them do their jobs. One of my favorite sites: Common Dreams. I also like New York Times online and the Christian Science Monitor. I know I'm showing my progressive/liberal bias. As I write this there is granola baking in the oven.

So, yes, I browsed all these sites. There were a couple of interesting stories or pictures. There were far more annoying ones (that showed up on more than one site).

I also was reminded of an article I read somewhere that said that every day there are 100,000 new blogs created (I will try to find the source). I don't want to sound dismissive, but I suspect that the vast majority of the people starting those blogs are not really up to providing reliable analysis on issues of Mideast peace, global climate change, or even the best-tasting brand of dark chocolate.

Can Flickr get me through the morning?

I just keep telling myself... Spring will come again. Spring will come again.

If these pictures are proof, just two short months from now and I will have my garden again.

And then, there won't be ANY time for this Web 2.0 foolishness. I'm so glad it's happening during the winter. I would never waste this much time indoors when I could be having fun outside.

Thing 11 -- Delicious

Onto another thing which, like so many other things, has led me on to so many other things that I could easily fiddle my day away at the keyboard and accomplish not one single thing on my list of many things to do on this absurdly cold Friday.

Okay, is anyone else out there COMPLETELY SICK OF WINTER YET? It is March 6, and this morning IT WAS 18 DEGREES BELOW ZERO... STANDING TEMPERATURE.

Sorry. Please forgive the shrieking. I'm just do damn sick of winter I can hardly focus on anything else. At the library we put up tropical decorations to try to take our minds off of the weather. Patrons get a laugh out of it, in between grumbles. We did this a couple of weeks ago, thinking it would be warmer by now. Now, we're cold and starting to get weary of the hula-skirt look. These things shouldn't happen.

So, anyway, back to Delicious. I like the idea of it, and am eager to spend more time getting comfortable with it. There have been many times that I've been either at home or work and wanted to get to a page that I had bookmarked on my computer at the other place. Delicious can help with that.

While putzing around Delicous I found a blog called "Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies," by Charlene Li and Jeff Bernoff. Their post for the day is called, "The Future of Social Networks: Social Networks will be like air." In other words, ubiquitous, and if we find ourselves without them for any amount of time we'll start gasping and feeling freakishly anxious. (Okay, I'm paraphrasing.)

Although I haven't a clue who Charlene Li is or whether she is someone I ought to be paying attention to, it does seem like a noteworthy article on a few points. Li suggests that five to ten years from now, "[W]e will look back to 2008 and think it archaic and quaint that we had to go to a destination like Facebook or LinkedIn to 'be social'."

Fortunately, Li does point out that the technology needs to be ubiquitous. Like phone service, Internet service must be available everywhere. However, when will Internet access be as easily affordable as a telephone? I've yet to find an article that addresses this. Yes, just about anyone can purchase a phone, thanks to Walmartization (don't get me started). How long will it take for that to be translated to the Internet?

This also makes me think of an article I read a couple of weeks ago from Multi Channel news. The article, "Cable 3.0 Is Aiming to Co-Opt Web 2.0," speaks to emerging cable technologies that will bring social networking to our television sets. In this future, "a 'My TV' personalized screen... [will] combine a list of someone's favorite movies and TV channels with recommendations on videos to watch from friends and Internet content-like video blogs."

And right below this article, another one titled "Advanced Ads on Tap," telling us that "Google wants to take the ad-targeting capability that powers Internet ads and marry it with the 'emotion' provided by television advertising." It's coming soon, as some companies are "already selling interactive overlay ads to let viewers request more information from a sponsor."

Oh brave new world...

Thing 10 - Wikis

The GRRL staff page is slowly moving toward more of a wiki format, and I think that is a really positive thing. It will hopefully make updating staff info quicker and easier. Our work, by nature, is so putzy and detail oriented. Some days I'm just astonished at how many bits of information are jammed in my head. You'd think I'd have a constantly glazed and dazed expression. Anything we can do to make it easier to stay current on procedures and policies - not to mention authors, bestsellers, websites, etc. - will be helpful.

I really liked the SJCPL Subject Guide wiki. Very easy to navigate. Also, it was very accessible and personal (ie. staff's favorite recipe of the week) yet comprehensive (ie. listing all the cooking related magazines that the library receives, and linking the titles to the catalog). Thanks for providing this example!

I did add an entry on the 23 Things wiki. The only challenge was coming up with something to say.

Thing 9 - Online Documents

Ooh. Now this is a Cool Thing.

My mind is just a-spinning with the possibilities on this one, for work and volunteer duties. I can easily think of dozens of applications for Google Docs. In fact, if I were working on this from work instead of home I'd be uploading a current project and inviting two other staff people to work on it with me. We've been doing the e-mail attachment thing. That suddenly feels so 15 minutes ago!

I didn't go into Zoho much beyond the intro "this is what we can do for you" pages. Google docs felt comfortable and intuitive.

I have to admit that one reason I didn't go into Zoho is that I simply don't want to have to keep track of another user name and password. It just gets ridiculous how many of these a person needs to come up with and remember in order to do anything.

Some of these productivity tools are really cool. Half the battle, I think, is just re-training ourselves to think that we might use an online tool. In April I and another staff person need to do a follow up survey to branch managers about a collection issue. Last year we sent out an e-mail and asked everyone to respond, then scribbled and tallied the results. This year, thanks to the 23 Things program, I had the craziest idea... ooh, maybe there's an on-line tool for this... ooh, there IS. It's called surveymonkey.com. I don't even know if survey monkey is mentioned in the 23 Things program, but it's cool and we're planning to use it. And let it tell us how many people answered in which ways.

And I can see Google Docs providing a similar -- and similarly time-saving -- service.

Thanks!

Thing 8 - Online sharing

The presentation sharing possibilities in Thing 8 look very promising. I did an early literacy presentation last month for expectant parents, and was frustrated with the pile of left-over handouts at the end. I can see uploading my presentation (I'm assuming that PowerPoint presentations can be uploaded into Zoho or the others...) and then just offering a few printed copies to those participants without easy Internet access.

Of course, this brings me back to that first blog and my concern about the gap between the haves and have nots with respect to online access. My partner is a high school science teacher, and yesterday she received the March issue of NEAtoday. The cover story is "Mind the Gap," about the "participation gap" between those kids who have access to online technology and those who do not.

"For more affluent kids, using technology is like using a pencil... After second or third grade, they no longer think about how to hold the pencil; it's become second nature.

But at-risk kids aren't able to use technology every day and haven't had exposure to it at home and have to play catch up to learn the technology as well as the lessons. When they're concentrating so much on the tool rather than the lesson, it costs them time and presents a steep learning curve."

Later in the article a teacher suggests that kids who feel more comfortable using computer and Internet technology are more likely to want to go to college. If they don't have an understanding of the technology, then college may feel doubly intimidating to them because they know the technology is out there and that they will have to learn both it and whatever subject matter they are interested in pursuing. When kids don't have computer and/or Internet access at home, they rely on their schools and libraries for that access.

What excites me about the 23 Things program is that I am learning about this stuff so that hopefully I can help some of those kids. The problem is that I don't see them very often. Most of the kids who come in to the library to use the Internet are coming in to access myspace and facebook, and they are already familiar enough with the tools to neither want nor need my help.

What makes the technology so exhilarating is the opportunity for spontaneous exploration and creativity. But I wonder how enticing the library computer will seem to someone when they know they can only have it for up to an hour and anyone else in the room can see their frustration when things don't work out properly the first seven times they try.