IMAG-ine the possibilities

I have uploaded a few images from Flickr for the 23 Things blog.  When we first created the blog, we were still using the old editor, since it defaulted that way.  Little did I know that the new Blogger editor had some amazing features.  For one, the new editor makes it so much easier to work with images.  The first time I uploaded images from Flickr, I spent way too much time trying to figure out how to add a caption below the photo, to provide a linkback to credit the photographer. I ended up finding the HTML coding for adding a caption, and that seemed to work for the time being.  Then one day we realized we could upgrade to the new editor, and voila!... suddenly the images practically uploaded themselves!  When you click on an image you have uploaded, there is now a toolbar below the image with options to position, re-size, and add a CAPTION below the image!  I sure wish I had known this when we first started working on the 23 Things program.  Anyway, yes, it's a lovely feature, and I enjoy uploading images now.  P.S.  For anyone still blogging with the old editor, I highly recommend upgrading to the new WYSIWYG editor.

With regards to searching for images in Flickr, one thing I have been doing is limiting my search to Creative Commons licensed images.  I have only uploaded cc images to the 23 Things blog.  You can limit your search by clicking on the Explore drop-down menu, and choosing Creative Commons.  Or you can click on Advanced Search, and check off only cc images.

I prefer embedding the image (the way you would embed a YouTube video), rather than copying the URL of the image.  The options are "Grab the link" or "Grab the HTML/BBCode", and the second option is the embedding one.  I'm not sure why I prefer the second option, but maybe it seems to provide more control over the image (in terms of re-sizing or whatnot).

Image provided by mstephens7, on Flickr

Uploading images from Flickr is a great way to go, and provides beautiful, high-quality options for any projects you might be working on.  As far as other photosharing sites, I haven't used any personally... unless you count Facebook.  I only recently realized that Facebook is basically a photosharing site in a way too.  I have also searched for images via Google images, and since you can do an advanced search and limit to just Creative Commons images there as well, Google is also a viable option.

Wiki Thoughts

Wikis - another great collaboration tool.  I haven't had much experience with wikis yet. Our 23 Things team set up a wiki (well, Becky set it up, and the rest of us merely contributed), and that was probably my first real experience using a wiki in a purposeful way.  I think it was June 2010 that I took the basic training offered by Campus ITS - certainly a useful introduction.

It seems to me that wikis, blogs, and docs have a lot of the same benefits and functionalities.  I think the challenge comes in knowing which tool to choose.  Probably the greatest drawback of a wiki is the ability to overwrite changes others have made, as some of the 23Thingers have already experienced.  So it's likely not the best tool for synchronous editing.  Wikis do, however, keep a good history of revisions.  (But then again Google docs also keeps a history of revisions and is better for synchronous editing.)  Obviously, you would want to use something like Google docs if you needed to actually create some sort of document.  But in terms of sharing and collaboration purposes, blogs, wikis and docs have a lot of similarities.  Maybe some blogging software offers more interesting and dynamic templates than wiki software, so it might be fun to use a blog if you have a fairly small group.  Another advantage for wikis, on the other hand, is that they can be opened up for anonymous editing and commenting, probably more so than most blogging tools.

I tried adding the RSS feed for the 23 Things Wiki to my Google Reader (using the Feed Builder), but either I was doing something wrong, or it wasn't working.  Maybe someone can shed some further light on this for me.  I'll have to try again another time.

Audio/Video

YouTube is an excellent video sharing tool.  I have had an account for a while, but I have never actually uploaded anything of my own.  For my purposes, the main benefit of having an account is to be able to subscribe to other channels.  Some of the channels I subscribe to include TEDxTalks, The Rick Mercer Report, The Hour, NFB.ca, IFC, The Ellen Show, The New York Public Library, The Vancouver Public Library, etc.  It's just another way to stay informed (and entertained) - kind of like subscribing to more dynamic RSS feeds.  It is definitely a useful tool to promote library services.  I just subscribed to the Learning Commons channel, but it looks like I'm only one of four subscribers so far.  In other news, here is a lovely Kathryn Calder video:



Now, what can I say about podcasting.  I use iTunes, and I have downloaded a few podcasts here and there, mostly via CBC.  Some of my favourite podcasts include DNTO (with Sook-Yin Lee), CBC Radio 3 (with Grant Lawrence), Q (with Jian Ghomeshi), and The Bottom Line (with David Suzuki).  I subscribe to the RSS feeds of these and other podcasts using Google Reader, and I just added a few feeds to my blog as well.  Here's a podcast on what it's like to ride the bus:  DNTO is on the bus.  Like some of the people interviewed in this podcast, I sometimes find myself engaging in a sociological experiment when I ride the bus.

No time... NOT to learn

I came across this slideshare presentation recently, and it helped me realize the importance of 23 Things:Why learning about Emerging Technologies is part of every librarian's Job

View more webinars from sirexkat.

p.s. This presentation has audio, so if you're interested in watching it, you should turn on your sound.

Sit here for the present, or the prezi...

I like the Prezi concept - it's a bit more "outside the box" than, say, Powerpoint.  However, I didn't find it all that user-friendly, and it wasn't very easy to edit.  I think all the Prezis our 23Thingers have been creating this week are pretty great - most much better than my sad, uncreative attempt.  But it obviously just takes practice.  Prezi is still very new to me.  I think that when I need to create presentations (haven't had many opportunities in my career yet), I might opt to use the presentation feature in Google docs, and then if I need to share it, I'd probably go with Slideshare.  But here's a Prezi that I think is kind of neat, even though it makes me a little dizzy:

Social media and its impact on Information Library Services.

As LLDP4 starts up this week, I am looking forward to incorporating Google docs and maybe Prezi into my groupwork.  It will be interesting to actually use these tools in a work context.