#36 - Image editing at Splashup

Wow! I can't believe I missed this site. Splashup (formerly called Fauxto) is an image editing site and a fairly powerful one at that. It has a lot of features that one might expect from Adobe Photoshop or GIMP. You don't even need to sign up, you can jump right in and edit an image. I'm sure that after editing one image you'll register. I can't wait to tell friends about it.

Some of the features include:

• Tools like crop, lasso, pens and brushes, fill and shapes.
• Filters to sharpen, blur, pixellate, desaturate, adjust hue/saturation or brightness etc.

There's quite a lot to do. I quickly created the following image



You can work with new images as well as existing ones from your computer, Flickr, Picasa or Facebook accounts.

I'll use this site again!

Cheers, webgurl

#35 - Mini-blogging with Twitter

Well I tried joining up to Twitter. I must say I've never really seen the point of Twitter. I'm not really that interested in what people are up to at any point in the day.

Anyhoo, I started filling out the form. At the moment I'm stuck on Stage 2 - Fetching contacts. First up you have to fill out a Yahoo/Hotmail/AOL email address and your password so that Twitter can check your contacts. There is no skip option. So I finally thought oh well I'll add my Yahoo address. Twitter is stuck trying to load the contacts.

In searching the web to see if there were any problems using Twitter in Australia I did find several blog articles that mentioned Twitter via SMS had been suspended because of the high costs.

So I'm done with this. I surfed on over to Jaiku. I had to request an invite - they'll let me know when there's an account available.

Cheers, webgurl

#34 - Better health

Fit day is a website to assist in monitoring your diet and exercise. You can fill out a food and exercise journal, set goals and obtain reports. Once you set up the minimum intake of vitamins, calories, water etc and you regularly fill out the food journal you can get a report to let you know if you are meeting your requirements for all of these nutritional items.

It's great to see the things you need to work on. For example if you need to add more calcium to your diet.

If you have a PC, you can also purchase a copy for your computer.

Cheers, webgurl

#33 - Online Art

Had a lot of fun with this one. I'd already knew Mr Picasso Head so I played with the Falling Sand game. The game involves four main falling particles: sand, water, salt, and oil. Each of these particles have special properties that can be manipulated and combined to model. You can draw shapes on the page to divert the particles. A twirling namekuji can delete anything you draw. Work quickly!

Cheers, webgurl

#32 - Omnidrive

Omnidrive is an online storage site. I could sign up for a free account with 1GB of storage. If I pay for a Pro account I can get up to a Terabyte of storage. The pro accounts also have encryption for extra security.

You tell Omnidrive who you want to share a file with and the file can only be read or edited by those people you share it with.

It's great if you want to do some work at home. You can upload the required files to Omnidrive and work on your home computer. It goes hand in hand with Zoho.

Curious though that I've used up 2.7MB and I haven't uploaded anything yet.

I uploaded a phone manual for work that I had been working on at home. Once uploaded I double-clicked on the file and it opened up in Zoho. I could then edit the document.

This is pretty good. I would probably only use it as temporary storage but it works for me. Of course I would need to use it regularly because if I don't log in for 60 days the account is removed.

I uploaded an image and the procedure for editing wasn't very obvious. You had to right-click on the file and select edit from actions. Could use some icons in a toolbar to make it more obvious. I could resize, rotate, make it greyscale and crop. I might suggest using omnidrive/snipshot for those people needing access to an image editor. Cool!

Cheers, webgurl

Tutorials

I stumbled across the following tutorials site while looking for tutorials on drawing with Adobe Illustrator. Did I mention I came up with an idea for my Threadless t-shirt design?

Anyhoo, Tutorialized has tutorials for creating graphics, websites, Powerpoint presentations and more.

Some other tutorial sites I've had a look at include:

Lynda.com
Subscriptions from $25 a month, also offers volume discounts to groups and organizations. The Online training library contains tutorials on blogging, digital photography, javascript and so much more.

So You Wanna teaches you how to do all of the things nobody taught you in school. Find out how to make French Toast, play Poker or paint a house.

My tutorials has tutorials on business, writing a CV, how to open a coconut, how to fix car brakes (I'm not too sure about this one. I wouldn't like to find out I did a bad job when I was driving down a hill).

Cheers, webgurl

#31 - Plaxo - Just like Facebook but no sheep throwing

I joined up with Plaxo looking for some organisational tools as I'm not the most organised person.

What I found looked suspiciously like Facebook. Plaxo wanted me to list where I worked and where I went to school and wanted me to search for friends in my network.

It does have a calendar and task listing but I don't really want to share that with anyone. I'd keep that private. I share my work calendar with my colleagues using our email program. That's enough for me.

I had a look around to see if there was anything useful on this site but there really wasn't.

Cheers, webgurl

#30 - LOL Cats

Well I don't think I can bring myself to use LOL Cats text speak for this blog but this was a cute site. Basically people upload cute or funny photos of cats with humourous captions.

My faves are:







Cheers, webgurl

#29 - Scrapblog - Stephanie Plum rocks!

I'm a Scrapbooker so I had huge fun with Scrapblog. I used my Stephanie Plum images from Photobucket to create my album. It was easy and very creative.




http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/viewer.aspx?sbId=124682

Cheers, webgurl

#28 - I finally made a magazine cover

At Condenet.com you can create your own magazine cover for the tech themed mag Wired. It's a simple 3 step system. Choose the colcour for the header, add the headlines (choosing font size and colour on the way) and adding a photo.

Here's my cover:



Nice bit of fun. Couldn't use it for work of course with copyright and all.

Cheers, webgurl

#27 - Don't kick the photobucket

I've had a Photobucket account for years under another screen name. I love Photobucket. It's a cool place to store and share images to use in forums and websites.

Flickr allows you to store and share photos, however Photobucket allows you to do more. You can add animated images , create a slideshow, remix videos or create an avatar (TizMe has better avatars though).

I did a search for my favourite book. I love Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series so I typed in Stephanie Plum. As well as book covers and a couple of avatars I found and interesting image of someone's casting ideas for the movie - Lauren Graham for Stephanie, Patrick Dempsey for Morelli and The Rock for Ranger. McDreamy and The Rock? - Seriously deluded. Lauren Graham is excellent though, much better than Reese Witherspoon, although I picture Mira Sorvino in the role.



Anyhoo I added it to my album.

Cheers, webgurl

#26 - Little bits of the Internet or widgets

I love widgets. I use them everyday on my Mac. I can click on the dashboard and bring up a clock, calendar, calculator, weather, to do list and a tile game. There are heaps more I can download.



Yourminis has widgets for your desktop, blog or website. Some of the widgets include Moviefone with reviews and trailers for upcoming movies, The Weather Channel and Amazon.

It would be nice to create a desktop widget for the library. With a catalogue login and search box. Hmmm........food for thought. I'll let you know if I come up with anything. I've already been checking out library toolbars to download for your browser.

I created a start page and added some widgets. If I signed up I could publish the page. Below is the page I created.



I'm not sure if I'll revisit yourminis. I'll probably keep downloading widgets from Apple, but this is quite cool.

Cheers, webgurl

#25 - Letterpop to create and deliver newsletters

Letterpop allows you to create your own newsletter. You select from over 50 professional-looking templates. You drag and drop images into the picture boxes and create text with the text editor.

Once you've joined up you can add email addresses to send your newsletter.

The free basic version allows you to create 10 newsletters per year and send to 25 addresses. There are some ads. Upgrading to a premium account allows you to publish 52 newsletters per year to 500 addresses.

I joined up for the free account and created a newsletter in about 7 minutes. It might have been even quicker if I was a better typist :-).

You could use this is a library environment to email Library newsletters. You could set up an email group on your mail server and add this address to send to more than 25 people however you'd have to set it up to be able to send email from Letterpop to the group.

A great little application . Cool use of Ajax.

Cheers, webgurl

Learning 2.1

Now that I've finished the Learning 2.0 program I had a quick look at Learning 2.1. I hadn't realised Zamzar was one of those activities. Cool! Anyhoo I've decided to forge ahead and do L2.1.

For those still struggling to find time to complete 2.0, keep plugging away. Even if you do one exercise a week, it's something. If you need help, please ask.

Cheers, webgurl

Christmas ideas

Well the Christmas decorations are starting to appear in shopping centres so I guess it's time for the organised people to think of gifts (not me of course, I'm not organised).

For those that like to give hampers have you had a look at Berkelouw Book Hampers? They sell hampers containing books, food and leather stationery.

The Literary Feast Hamper contains the following:

• The Gathering by Anne Enright


• The Road by Cormac McCarthy


• Neoma South American Blend coffee (250g)


• Neoma English Breakfast tea (100g)


• Byron Bay shortbread cookies (150g)


• Greeting Card


• Berkelouw Book Box

I'm not too sure about The Gathering - might be a bleak gift to give but this sounds like a wonderful idea.

Do you know any great websites to find that elusive gift?

Cheers, webgurl

#24 - Zamzar file conversion

Zamzar is a fantastic site for converting files. Let's say someone comes into the library with their resume saved as a Works document and they want to open it up in Word.

They can go to Zamzar and follow the 4 steps. There's no need to register and it's totally free.



Step 1 - select the file.

Step 2 - choose the format to convert to

Step 3 - enter your email address

Step 4 - click the convert button.

The converted file is emailed to the email address you supplied.

The following are the examples of the file formats that Zamzar converts:

.doc to .html, .pdf, .txt
.docx to .doc, .pdf, .txt
.wps to .doc, .pdf, .txt

and heaps more, have a look at the conversion types

It's very easy. They've even now added the capability to convert files from video websites such as Youtube and Google Reader so that you can store them.

I created a To do list in Microsoft Word and converted it to a pdf document. It worked beautifully.

Cheers, webgurl

Week 9 - #23 Thats All Folks

A lot of people have asked me through this program,

"Why are you doing this, you do this every day?"

I believe that you never stop learning and it's been fun sharing with others all of the things I've learned over the years. I think it may give people a bit of understanding and appreciation of what I do in this organisation.

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

I set myself a goal at the start to create a podcast for the library's radio show so this has been my favourite exercise. I also had a blast evaluating wikis.

My fave discovery was Zoho. I'm sure i'll use this in the future.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

I think this program has confirmed that I'm on the right track. I'm happy doing my own thing and learning at my own pace and this program has been great for that. I'm also accustomed to training so helping others out has also worked out well.

Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

I don't think there were any unexpected outcomes. I did everything I set out to do.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

All I could suggest is that there is more support at the libraries. I see some people who are struggling and are stuck on the first few weeks. Perhaps they need some help.

Also, I think there is sometimes a problem with some staff taking up too much time when they should be on desk or shelving. There needs to be a balance. The organisation can't afford to have everyone drop everything to blog. We still need to offer a service to our library members.

While this might be the final post for the program I'll still keep blogging about Web 2.0 and library 2.0 and helping people out with the program. Thanks to everyone reading. Keep checking back.

Cheers, webgurl

Week 9 - #22 - World eBook Fair

I'm not a big audio book borrower, the trip to work isn't long enough and I'm not sure that I'd be able to concentrate on the story and on the road :-). Anyhoo I checked out the World eBook Fair site and decided it's not really for me. Apart from Sherlock Holmes there aren't any books to which I'd be interested listening. I listened to a bit of A Study in Scarlet. I didn't think all that much of it. The chapters weren't clearly marked and it would be great if you could schedule downloading the lot off-peak.

Good luck to them though. I'm sure someone likes it.

Cheers, webgurl

Week 9 #21 - Searching and downloading a podcast

I tend to stumble across podcasts while surfing, so I haven't often done a lot of searches for podcasts. Seeing as though I have iTunes on my Mac I thought I'd download onet from there.

I did a power search and found one called Library Geeks. The following is the description I found on PodcastAlley for this episode:

"Gary Price joins Dan to discuss his work of politely getting in people's faces to share the best of what's on the web at his job at ask.com and through his other sites like ResourceShelf and Docuticker."

I hadn't come across ResourceShelf before so this was interesting. Gary said he made sure not to include the word 'library' into the blog name as this tended to scare people off. The site also goes beyond libraries. It's basically a site where Librarians and researchers share the results of web searches for information requests.

He says the number one thing to get people through the door is to show them how they can save more time. They'll come back to you for other things. He stressed that the main ingredient of a good information librarian is knowing the collection and what make one resource better than another.

Gary also urges library students to take a cataloguing course. It is still relevant. When people ask him what do we need Librarians for, we've got Google, he explains about controlled vocabulary and how this knowledge can improve your search results.

I found the interview really interesting and would probably look at the sites mentioned as well as search for other podcasts to subscribe. I would also encourage my colleagues to subscribe to library-related podcasts as this keeps them up-to-date with what's happening in the library industry.

Cheers, webgurl

Pausing a Youtube video

Youtube videos can eat into your downloads so if you want to stop the embedded video just click on the Pause button II to the left of the player toolbar.

Cheers, webgurl

Week 9 #20 - Youtube stars

Everyone always sends me links to cool Youtube videos so I was familiar with the general layout and playing of videos on the site, however I hadn't embedded any Youtube videos into my blog before.

Working in IT, the medieval helpdesk tickled my fancy so if you haven't seen it here it is.

The introduction of The Book

Cheers, webgurl

p.s. My other faves I'll provide as links:

Stargate Continuum Movie Sneak Peek
Star Wars hands
Daft hands
Zac Selwyn's Atlantis rap (and yes he did get a part on an episode)

As you can see I'm a SciFi fan :-).

OK so how could we use Youtube in a library setting? Well we could record some of the author visits for one and upload them to Youtube or Google Video and link to them on the blog.

Oops it's really late....off to bed.

Cheers, webgurl

Week 8 #19 - Web 2.0 Awards

I was browsing the list of winners and found one of my absolute fave sites - Threadless. Now I'm a jeans and t-shirt girl and I love witty t-shirts and Threadless has them in spades.

OK, to explain the concept to the uninitiated...... Basically creative people around the world come up with cool designs for t-shirts and submit them to Threadless. The Threadless community scores and comments on the submission. You can get paid UP TO $12,500 if your design is selected for printing and sale on the site.

You also don't have to be a graphic designer. You just need a cool concept. I'm still thinking.....

Here are some of my faves:



What would MacGyver do?




Safety in numbers




Loch Ness Imposter




Haikus are easy




Break Dance!

Happy to share the site with you. I'll keep on brainstorming for an idea for a submission. It's use in a library setting? Well there is none but I guess you could use the money you earned to fund some projects for the library.....who am I kidding, it would probably pay for a holiday or a new Plasma :-)

Cheers, webgurl

Week 8 #18 - Web-based Apps

I've tested a few web-based applications like Google docs but haven't used them frequently as I've always had Word or Open Office on my PC. I joined up to Zoho and started off by having a look at the notebook. I grabbed some notes from my uni days and started transcribing some of them.

This would have been great at uni although I think I would have wanted to perfect my touch typing. I could log onto Zoho, create a book for a particular subject and add blank pages. I could add text, images, URLs etc in my notes of the lecture. I could add links for articles from online databases etc. Once finished I could share this with another person and give them read or read/write permission if they wanted to add something to it. It takes studying together one step further. Perhaps lecturers could use this service for the class notes and save a few trees.

Here's a sneak peek at what I created:




Wow that takes me back to the fun days at RMIT <:-D

Zoho Meeting looks interesting as well. I created a Learning 2.0 meeting for tomorrow and invited my sister. Interestingly it said the presenter should be on a Windows PC. How rude :-)

I had a look at the FAQs for Zoho Meeting and it says the service can be used to share the desktop online and provide remote assistance to customers. Working in IT this might be a useful service to assist with web or PC problems.

Google Docs offered a little less. I could create documents, spreadsheets and presentations and share these docs with others.

Hmmm I think Microsoft should be a little worried. Who wants to spend approx $750 for Windows Office 2007 Professional when you have access to these tools?

Lastly I had a look at Google Calendar. I did have a look at this a few months ago, thinking about using it as an organisational calendar for events. I could share the calendar with everyone and embed it into the sidebar of my library blog. Still thinking about this. I don't want things entered multiple times as we already have our events added to the Intranet for the bookings system. Anyhoo it has potential in and organisation and at home. You could set up a private calendar for members of your family and share it with each other.

Cheers, webgurl

Week 7 #17 - Editing the sandbox

I headed over to the PLCMC Favourites wiki and I add some information about some of my favourite TV shows and added my blog to Favourite blogs page.

PBWiki has added a new editor which is really easy to use.

Cheers, webgurl

Week 9 #21 - I created a podcast!

I guess I skipped ahead a little here, but it was just what I was up to doing at work.

Some of our staff at Eastern Regional do a radio show every Wednesday and we finally managed to obtain a recording of some of the shows.

Cathy in IT edited out the ads and music for me and I've joined a site called Twango. It's a site for hosting and sharing audio, video and images. (I had a look at Odeo but from what I could see they wouldn't let me upload podcasts).

So here's my public channel. At present there are 3 radio shows available. July's show features an interview with children's author Hazel Edwards.

Cheers, webgurl

p.s. I just read that Nokia have acquired Twango. Interesting.

Week 7 #16 - Choosing a wiki

I've been working hard this week evaluating one of the wiki software we downloaded. We've installed it locally for the moment so I can show you all yet. It's called Wikka and I can do the following with it:

1. Hide the registration so that we don't have lots of spammers registering. We'll provide links to a form where people can register to become editors. I'm hoping that with the Learning 2.0 program people will feel confident enough to volunteer to help out.


2. Tinker with the style and layout.
   
   

It has a fairly simple text editor so you don't have to remember all of the complicated tags. You just point and click and the editor inserts the tags for you.

At first I'll transfer content from the existing Online Information and Links section but I'll also be adding some pages where staff can add tutorials for using the library resources e.g. searching for magazine articles, finding a book to read next etc.


Have you got any great ideasfor the Online Information wiki? Why not send me a comment.

Cheers, webgurl

Week 7 - #16 - Wikis

This week comes at just the right time. I'm currently evaluating wiki software to decide which is the best one to use for our online information links.

First up I went to WikiMatrix. This site has a Wiki choice wizard which guides you through the evaluation.

Questions asked include:

1. Do you want a page history?
2. Do you want a WYSIWYG editor (What you see is what you get)?
3. Do you want to load software on your server or have it hosted?

Some of the issues I need to consider are if the page editing process is easy and if there is access control. You want to have several levels of access for administrators and editors. I don't want everyone around the world editing. I want to set up a system where people register to be editors.

I had a quick look at the two main players in the hosted wiki arena; Wetpaint and PBWiki. If you want to have a look at the results check them out:

http://erlonlineinformation.wetpaint.com/
http://erlonline.pbwiki.com/

I haven't given up on hosting our own wiki either. We'll see what happens.

Cheers, webgurl

Week 6 #15 - Library 2.0/Web 2.0

As a web designer I spend a lot of my time testing emerging technologies and thinking about their application in our library service. I don't decide to adopt something because it's cool or shiny and new. I like to imagine how it can improve someone's access to our services or their experience on our website.

I loved Wendy Schultz's comment that, "Libraries are not merely in communities, they are communities". Previously it was common library practice for staff to decide what their members wanted. Some books did just sit on the shelves just in case a particular question was asked. The advent of online resources has changed that immensely. Our printed reference collections are shrinking in favour of online resources. At present I'm working on setting up a wiki for our online information links. I hope to see library staff collaborating with school staff and members to maintain these pages. I want to extend it to tutorials for our online resources and study guides.

I anticipate this being warmly received by our younger members and those who are down with Web 2.0 but what about the rest? I think it's important these members are not forgotten. Perhaps offering some training sessions so interested members can find out what it's all about. That's another reason why Learning 2.0 is a great project. When library staff learn about blogs, wikis and social bookmarking etc they can talk to others about it. Perhaps mention it while showing a member some sites while doing a reference interview.

Cheers, webgurl

Week 6 #14 - Technorati

Technorati is a great search tool for find blogs and posts. There is so much to explore for those with an interest in web trends.

I did a search for Learning 2.0. There were 6,975 results - I'm sure we're in there somewhere. Upon browsing the results I found an article from Stephen Abram (Stephen's Lighthouse) about the State Library Learning 2.0 program. The authority number next to the result gives an indication of the number of blogs that link to the website. It isn't the number of links because one blog may link to your blog heaps of times. It only counts as one link. The higher the authority, the more sites linking to it, therefore the more authoritative it is.

While you're looking at the results page cast your eye over to the right to see a graph of the number of blog posts mentioning your search term per day. I like this feature.

Of course I also searched for my own blogs. Firstly Eastern Regional Libraries events blog (What's New @ Eastern Regional Libraries)

I found a few blogs that link to it. A summary is below.






I also looked up this blog, 23squared. I found 2 blogs linking to this one. Thanks Zoya and Christian.



Cheers, webgurl

Week 6 #13 - Tagging at del.icio.us

I've had a del.icio.us account for a couple of years now. Mostly I've used it to tag some of the sections of our library website and to bookmark interesting articles I've come across that I may want to get to later. It is a great way to save your bookmarks so that they are always available and not stuck on a pc at work.

How do you add sites?

Once you have created a del.icio.us account:

1. Click on the Post link at the top of the site.






2. Type or copy/paste the url (website address) of the site and click save.





3. Enter the following information - description, notes, tags and click the Save button.

Once you go back to your list of bookmarks you can see if the site has been saved by other people to their del.icio.us bookmarks. Learning 2.o has so far been saved by 14 people.

While it's good to have access to your own bookmarks, it's even better to check out other people's bookmarks. That's the true beauty of del.icio.us. It's a social bookmarking tool so sharing is encouraged. In the top right hand corner of the site are links to popular and recent bookmarks.

Some examples of popular bookmarks are:

Install Leopard on your PC in 3 easy steps!
save this

first posted by peety on 2007-10-27 ... saved by 480 people ( 122 recently )

Leopard vs. Vista: feature chart showdown - Engadget save this
first posted by lo_fi_librarian on 2007-10-27 ... saved by 66 people ( 21 recently )

I added an article called CSS Round Corners by clicking on the Save This link next to the article title.

While you're browsing the popular bookmarks you can also browse the tags on the right-hand side for items of interest.

Cheers, webgurl

Punctuation and other snarks

Well I was just closing down Blogger when I spied an interesting title in the Blogs of Note - The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks. BUQM pokes fun at the misuse of quotation marks and is worth a look, especially if you have a thing about punctuation.

This sent me checking Bethany's blogroll and so on for other rants.

Check out the following:

• Literally, a weblog
• Apostrophism
• Passiveaggressivenotes
• Lowercasel

"Enjoy". Sorry I couldn't resist :-)

Cheers, webgurl

New template and tagging

Well I was feeling a little cramped with the last template so I decided it was time for a change. What do you think?

I'll have a think if I want to add another coloumn. I haven't decided yet.

Anyhoo onto the exercises for this week - Tagging, Folksonomies and Technorati. Well most of us would have started tagging our blog posts already. The great thing about adding tags is that I can click on the tag and quickly get all of the articles that person has blogged about that tag.

Cheers, webgurl

Widgets all over the place

Well by week 5 this blog is having widget overload. I think I'll start working on a new template to fit them in. Is anyone else having the same problem?

Cheers, webgurl

Week 5 #12 - Rollyo

I must say that I wasn't too impressed with Rollyo. It might be nice to create your own search engine for your website but I found the layout of Rollyo to be confusing. I managed to create a Searchroll and widget for "Stuff to do if you're bored" but I could imagine others having great difficulty finding their way around. I think I added about 10 links or so. Try searching in the search box on the left for quizzes or puzzles etc.

cheers, webgurl

Week 5 #11 - Library Thing & All Consuming

Don't we get enough cataloguing at work, now we want to catalogue our books at home? It's quite puzzling. I joined up to Library Thing and added a few titles from my bookcase. I guess it's a little insight into my tastes - true crime, zoology and web design. You can have a look at the sidebar because I added a widget displaying some of the titles or the full library.

I also joined up to All Consuming. It's a similar concept. You list the books, movies, food, drink etc that you have or are consuming at the moment and rate it. You then share what you're consuming. Check out my consumptions at http://allconsuming.net/person/webgurl/.

Cheers, webgurl

Week 5 #10 - Image generators

I had a look at Comic strip generator and created the following cute ad for my blog? Image generators can be used for entertainment and humour but they do have a practical use. The right image with the right caption can get people's attention. The one thing I wonder about this is the rampant abuse of copyright. While the kitten image might have been uploaded with permission I'm sure the images of The Simpsons, celebrities and the "Dummies book" is not used with permission. I wouldn't use those on my site. What do you think?


Cheers, webgurl

Who doesn't love frogs?

All of the people who love frogs should check out Sea's Place. Suzanne has an online poll running with the cutest frog pictures she found on the web while doing the image generator exercise. I'm finding it difficult to choose between ET and Prison Break. Vote now!

Cheers, webgurl

Ribbet! Ribbet!

Week 4 #9 - RSS & newsreaders - searching for feeds

I tried using the search tools suggested into the instructions to search for RSS feeds but had mixed results. In the past I've used Technorati, Blogger Blog Search and Google with great results. I also use bloggers blogrolls a lot. If I find a blog of interest I check to see what they're reading. I often find cool blogs this way.

Here's some of the new tools I tried.

Feedster
I tried searching libraries and public in Feedster and found only one article in the first page that concerned public libraries. I even tried adding quotes but didn't find anything useful. Big thumbs down.

Topix
Topix gave me some better results however I had to search with quotes to get more valid results.

I find that if you get offered a link to related tags it's best to click on this for better results.

Cheers, webgurl

Week 4 #8 - Advertising your feed

If you scroll down to the bottom of your Blogger blog you'll see the following link - Subscribe to:Posts (Atom). If people were to click on the link they could add the address to their newsreader to subscribe.

If you look at the sidebar of my blog you'll notice a nice little orange icon with a link Subscribe in a Reader. What I've done in this blog is to set up my feed with Feedburner. It's totally free and quite easy, especially now that Google has bought Feedburner.

Once you've registered at Feedburner:

1. Type your blog address or feed address in the box where it says Burn a feed right this instant and click on the next button.



2. 


3. Feedburner will confirm the feed. In this example I am adding the library blog's feeds. It actually displays 2 feeds Atom and RSS and asks me to choose. It doesn't matter which format you choose. Click in the circle next to one of them and click on the next button.
4. 
5. You'll now be asked to give a title for your feed and to choose your Feedburner feed address. Then click on the Activate Feed button.
6. 
   
7. 
8. You can set up stats in the next step but let's click on the link to go directly to Feed management.
9. 

Promoting your FeedBurner feed on your Blogger site (thanks to Feedburner for)

1. Click on the Publicize tab.
   


2. Click Chicklet Chooser. The form shown below contains options that link to your FeedBurner feed.
3. 


4. Click the radio button next to the button you want to display on your site. eg Subscribe in a Reader
   


5. Click the drop-down and select "Blogger" to add the chicklet as a Blogger widget and click the Go button.
6. .


7. Blogger will open in a new window. Follow the prompts there to continue to add the new widget
8. 
   
9. .

Go check out your blog and see if it all worked.

Feedburner is fantastic. I can read the stats for the number of subscribers to my blog. I can create email signatures to advertise my blog. If you've ever received an email from me you may have noticed the scrolling signature.

Anyhoo, give it a go.

Cheers, webgurl

Week 4 #8 Organising your feeds into folders

Maybe it's the librarian in me wanting to have my feeds in nice little folders but it does help if you have a lot of feeds.

To organise your Bloglines feeds into folders:

1. Click on the edit link at the top of the left pane.
2. Click on the New Folder link.
3. Type the name of the folder in the pop-up window and click on the OK button.

You can simply drag the feeds that are in the left pane into those folders you have created. How cool is that?

Cheers, webgurl

Week 4 #8 Adding a blogroll using Bloglines

After organising my feeds into folders, which I recommend to everyone, I decided to add a blogroll to my sidebar. A blogroll is a list of the blogs that you read.

To add a blogroll in Blogger:

1. Go to Bloglines and click on the share link at the bottom left.
2. Type in the name of the folder you want to display.
3. Click on the Generate HTML button.
4. Highlight and copy (Ctrl-C) the Javascript given at the top.
5. Go to the Blogger dashboard and click the Layouts link.
6. Click on Add page element.
7. Click on the Add to blog for HTML/Javascript.
8. Add a title for your blogroll e.g. mine is Tech blogroll
9. Click in the big box and paste (Ctrl-V) the javascript.
10. Click Save changes button.
11. Save your template.

Go check your blog and view your blogroll.

Cheers, webgurl

Week 4 #8 RSS & News Readers

Well I already had a Bloglines account that I only used occasionally. I actually have access to about five newsreaders; Bloglines, My Yahoo, Google Reader, Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird. Mostly I use Firefox as I always have this open.

After remembering the login, no mean feat I must say, I set about adding a few more feeds. I actually organised them as I went by putting them in folders. I used the search box in the top right pane to search for feeds on particular subjects of interest; library, web design and technology etc.

I followed the instructions for sharing the blogroll (or list of feeds) only to find that these instructions are out of date.

To adjust your settings to share your Blogroll:

1. Click on the Account link at the top right.
2. Click on the Blog settings link at the right.
3. Select Yes, publish my Blogroll.
4. Click the Save changes button.
5. Click on the share link at the bottom left.
6. You'll find the link to the public version of your Blogroll at the bottom right.

Webgurl's Bloglines blogroll can be found at http://www.bloglines.com/public/webgurl.

If you want to add my feed to your Bloglines blogroll the address is http://feeds.feedburner.com/23squared

Cheers, webgurl

Woo hoo!

What a fun start to the week. I just won a prize for Week 3 of Learning 2.0. How cool is that?

Now onto week 4 - RSS and newsreaders.

Cheers, webgurl

Week 3 #7 - Webgurl on Tech

My life revolves around technology and I wouldn't have it any other way. I love creating websites and blogs and finding out about new ideas and sharing them with others.

I check in every now and then on my favourite blogs or download my favourite podcasts/vidcasts, some of which include Lab Rats (I'm not sure who's cuter Biff or Boo? Oh wait, it's Sean), A List Apart with it's super cool articles on web design, or This Week in Tech ( affectionately called TWiT).

Some of the websites that help me get through my day are IMDB (Internet Movie Database). It's the ultimate reference when I'm discussing movies with my family or friends. Now we don't site there and wonder.....what's that actor's name and where have i seen them before. I just consult IMDB. It settles many an argument....er discussion. I absolutely adore StockXchng, a stock photo website. Sometimes I need an image for my websites or blogs. I don't have the time or facilities to capture the photo myself but I can find it on StockXchng for free. There are some superbly talented photographers uploading photos there as I'm sure you can tell by the image below.


Here's to the next new thing I discover. Maybe it will be something that I'll use every day.

Cheers, webgurl

p.s. the canoes photo is from ngould

Week 3 #6 Photos and images - Flickr mashups

Well I've having a bit of fun this evening with some Flickr mashups. The term mashup originally comes from music where someone combines the music and vocals from two different songs to create a hybrid song. When done well it's a piece of art and soooo catchy - think Kylie Minogue - "Can't Get Blue Monday out of my head" or "Horny like a Dandy" - Mousse T/The Dandy Warhols.

Anyhoo I digress. We can have mashups with web applications too. People can create a mashup that will pass data through several web applications and produce interesting results. One I liked was Spell with Flickr. You type in the word and the application will display that word using images of letters found in Flickr. I tried inputting webgurl and got the following result. Cute huh?


Looking for more mashups? Check out the Programmable Web's Mashup directory. They include more than just Flickr e.g. Google maps etc. Some are cool, some are just plain weird. For all of the book nerds out there check out 4isbn, search for books at Amazon by ISBN.

Week 3 #5 - Photos and images - Uploading to Flickr

Hanging out with the big cats
Originally uploaded by webgurlrules

I've had a Flickr account for almost 2 years but haven't gotten around to uploading photos. I thought it would be great to take this opportunity to share my most favourite thing at Dreamworld - the tigers.

I used up 3 rolls of film on the tigers on my last visit. My friend explored the rest of Dreamworld while I stayed with the tigers. I always wanted to be a zookeeper so this would be a dream job for me.

Flickr is a great way to share photos with people around the world. You can also adjust the privacy settings and decide who see the photos and who can comment on them. If you change the privacy setting to you instead of everyone and tick family and friends then only your family and friends can view the photos. Of course you'll have to set up by either inviting them (through the Contacts menu) to become a member or do a search for them through the Contact menu and add them as your contact (family & friends)

Check out my photos at webgurlrules.

Cheers, webgurl

Week 1 #1 - Podcast

I listened to the podcast last week, only getting around to blogging about it now. What a slacker! It's so important to take control of your own learning after all you know your preferred way of learning new things. For me it's mostly visual. I like going through tutorials and I'm curious enough to wonder "what would happen if I clicked that" and bold enough to do it.

It's often easy to make excuses and say you're too busy or you'll get around to it. I occasionally fall into that trap. Sometimes you might feel guilty for "playing" but really I think it is the best way to learn.

Cheers, webgurl

Week 3 #5 - Photos and images - Flickr badge

While I'm waiting to scan some images at home and add to my Flickr account I thought I'd add a Flickr badge to my sidebar at the left.

I followed the instructions from Flickr's Create your badge page.

1. Choose HTML or Flash. The HTML oprion will produce the static images whereas the Flash option creates a badge with changing images. Of course I chose Flash.Next click Next: Choose Photos button


2. Choose the photos yo use. You can use your own or everyone's. When you choose everyone's photos you can select to show everyone's photos whatever they may be or choose to select only those photos that contain a particular tag (or subject heading). In my case I chose to select those photos with the tag library. The click Next: Colors button.


3. Then it's time to choose the colours for the badge. Start with the background colour. By default this is already highlighted. Click on one of the colours in the colour picker and the right and see how it looks in the preview badge. Click on the Next: Preview and get code button.


4. Highlight the code in the box and press Control-C on your keyboard (or Edit> Copy on your browser). This is the code that you need to copy into your blog to get it to work.

5. Open your Blogger blog and click on the Template tab.

6. Click on the link that says Add a page element.


7. Click on the link Add to Blog under the HTML/Javascript option.


8. In the pop-up window, give the widget a title e.g. Flickr - Libraries, click in the content area and press Control-V on your keyboard (or Edit > Paste in your browser menu) to paste the code.

You should see Start Flickr badge at the start of the code and End Flickr badge at the end. Click Save changes.


9. You can move this widget around in your sidebar and when you are happy where it is located click the save button.

Now go and view your wonderful creation.

Cheers, webgurl

Week 2 #3 - Blogging - Why and how would you subscribe?

So you've found quite a few interesting blogs in the past few weeks and you want to keep up with the articles but you don't want to visit each blog every day to read them. What can you do?

Give yourself a pat on the back if you said subscribe!

Each blog has a feed which contains a title and description. Software or applications such as feed aggregators/feed readers can collect and organise these feeds and display updated articles from the bogs (or even some web pages).

Wikipedia explain aggregators/feed readers quite well:

"Aggregators reduce the time and effort needed to regularly check websites for updates, creating a unique information space or "personal newspaper." Once subscribed to a feed, an aggregator is able to check for new content at user-determined intervals and retrieve the update." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_aggregator


Examples of the aggregators or feed readers include Google Reader (to which you already have access if you have a Blogger blog), Bloglines, Rojo. Even Firefox and later versions of Internet Explorer have built-in feed readers.

How do people advertise that their pages have a feed? They use a little orange broadcast symbol such as the one in my sidebar or they might use the terms subscribe and RSS or Atom. If I click on the orange subscribe symbol in my sidebar I'm taken to the Feed. I can select my reader from the list.




For more information on subscribing to blogs, please check out my blog help page on the Eastern Regional Libraries website.

Next up I'll show you how to advertise your feed.

Cheers, webgurl

Week 2 #3 Blogging

It's been a busy week. So far I've added a few things to the sidebar. The feed from Google Reader looks cool. I'll try to keep changing the articles. Any suggestions for topics? At the moment I have fiction (this feed also appears on the What's New @ Eastern Regional Libraries blog).

I've been spending some time visiting lots of blogs from other participants in our library and other library services. Keep up the great work! I've added a link to some of the cool blogs I've found so far. Have I visited yours yet? If not, comment away and let me know.

Found this really cool pic on StockXchng, my favourite stock photo site. I've popped it over on the sidebar there. Once I get started with the Flickr activities I'll add more photos.

Finally I've been helping a few people out with blogging and Blogger in particular. If you've got a question, please Ask webgurl. I'll try my best to answer.

Cheers, webgurl

Week 2 #3 - Logging into Blogger

Well I've had a few enquiries from people that have had trouble logging into Blogger. So I'll try to go through the login procedure here so it may assist some of you eager to login in and get blogging.

There are 4 main bits of information you will have set up with your Blogger blog/Google Account.

1. Username - this is the email address you provided when you signed up for a Google Account. It may be a Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo or library email address. Once you signed up you will have received a verification email at this address. You need to open the verification email from Google and follow the instructions (they will tell you to click on a link inside the email).



2. Password - this is the secret password you set up for your Google account.



3. Blog Title - this is what your blog is called. An example would be this blog, it's called 23squared. The main Eastern Regional Libraries blog is called What's New @ Eastern Regional Libraries. A bit of a mouthful I know.



4. Blogspot address - this is the website address of your blog. It could be similar to your title. The Blogspot address of 23squared is http://23squared.blogspot.com/.

So now let's look at the login procedure.

1. Go to http://www.blogger.com and enter your email address in username and your password in password and click on the sign-in button.





2. This will take you to the dashboard. Not sure why it's called that, anyhoo....the dashboard is the space where you can move from one blog to another. As you can see below I have more than one blog. I click one the New Post link attached to 23squared for example to add a post to this blog. I can also click on the links to manage posts (e.g. edit a post), settings (change the time etc) and layout (change the colours etc). I can also edit my profile at the right. I might want to include a little information about myself. If you click on the View my complete profile link on this blog you'll see my favourite books and movies
   

Cheers from webgurl

Week 1 #2 Introduction - Learning contract

I created my learning contract today. I'm going to be setting up podcasts of the library radio show and vidcasts of author interviews for the main library blog. It's a perfect opportunity while I'm exploring 2.0 technology to learn how to create a podcast and practice on 23squared without embarrassing myself.

Goal: Learn to create a podcast and upload it to my Blogger blog.

I'll keep you all entertained with my progress.

Cheers, webgurl

Week 2 #3 Blogging - Adding feeds

The great thing about Google taking over Blogger is some of the cool new features. I can add links to my shared articles in Google Reader to my Blogger blog.

I can sign into Google Reader using my Blogger/Google login and search for any feeds from blogs or podcasts that people might be interested in. Feeds are files that contain titles and descriptions of content updated from websites or blogs. Bear with me with these images as this template is not very wide.

I can use a browse or keyword search for blogs/podcasts to which I can subscribe.



Let's say I type in fiction, I get a list of results including

Fiction and Poetry, Crime Fiction Dossier, Science Fiction News, etc.

I click on the + subscribe button to subscribe to these feeds. The list of blogs to which I subscribe appears on the left of Google Reader.


When I click on one of the blogs I can see a list of articles appear on the right of Google Reader. I click on one of the articles and click on the Share button.


OK, so I can do this over and over to build up a list of shared articles. Now it's time to add this to Blogger.

I click on the link to shared items in the menu at the left of Google Reader. Then I click on the link that says to add a clip to your blog. This will open up a popup window.


I choose a title for the shared items, a color scheme and click on the Add to Blogger button.


Blogger adds a widget to my sidebar with links to the shared articles. The Blogger layout template will open in a new window or tab and you'll see the widget display in the sidebar. You can place your mouse over this and move it further down the sidebar. When you are finished click on the Save button. This will save the template.



Now go and visit your blog and see if it worked.

You can change the articles you want to share. Unshare some and add others.

Let me know if it works or if you get totally lost! Have fun

Cheers, webgurl

Week 2 #3 - What's the deal with 23squared?

Staff at Eastern Regional Libraries along with other Victorian Public Libraries are participating in the 23 Things program Learning 2.0. We're playing with social networking tools and thinking about their application in public libraries. Blah blah!!

Well I've decided to take this further and use this blog I'm developing for week one of the program to introduce some of the cool things I've found on the 'net. It's an expansion of 23 Things hence the 23squared title. Think of it as not just a swan-dive into the 23 Things but a Inward 3 and 1/2 somersault in the tuck position. :-)

Cheers, webgurl