dwmoody.net

Well, I thought I’d just take a moment to let everyone know out there that I will be closing this site down soon. This is the second blog I’ve maintained. The first more personal and took in a good deal of effort, but this one has been more sporadic with grad school taking up much of my time, so I’ve decided to close it down. This won’t be the end, no, no…

At a later date I’ll relaunch the site, but this time it will be more of a focus on my poetry and other creative pursuits. Till then, au revoir.  

Thanks, for everyone who has communicated including Jonnie. Also, thanks Infopeople for the honorable mention during the 23 Things project.

 Cheers and ta ta for now!

This post originally appeared on one of my class sites. I have made some slight edits and then reposted it over here on my personal site.

Wikinomics follows a similar trend that the Cluetrain Manifesto follows, in that both seem highly influenced by the trends spilling out from Web 2.0. The Cluetrain Manifesto demanded that companies be honest, open and take part in the economy through communication with all, whether it be members of the company, consumers or others. Wikinomics, also, insists that successful companies need to follow the Web 2.0 elements of being open and allowing a spirit of participation. The focus of Wikinomics though, isn’t so much about a conversation with others, but on opening up a company to outsiders and thus allowing participation by many, even those who aren’t paid by the company.

This seems to fly in the face of what Andrew Keen, author of The Cult of the Amateur, beleives for he thinks that allowing participation by “non-professionals” is a truly bad thing and will lead to less valuable work. What Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics, and others, such as Thomas L. Friedman, author of The World is Flat, argue though is that this new shift, in which companies open up some of their data or proprietary information and allow others outside the company to take part in shaping  and being a part of the success of the company, is really the shape of the future and is actually good for companies.

Tapscott shows how much of this shift came about through the open source community, which led to great strides in a variety of software and computer technologies. Both Friedman and Tapscott show as an example the company Goldcorp. Goldcorp is a gold mining company based in Canada that through opening up their data and propietary information to the world were able to improve their ability to find gold, increase their profits and allowed technological advancements. This came about through the achievements of many outsiders working to solve the problem for this goldmining company.

What wikinomics shows is that giving up some things for free, but holding back a few key proprietary elements of one’s company can be good for a company. In the world now, companies that don’t wish to share are only hurting themselves.

Wikinomics can be seen in the numerous ventures and alliances being set up. Through some of these ventures not only do companies open data up so that others can work on or use it, but they are maximizing the number of individuals who can assist in solving a problem that a company is working on or even more so helping grow the succes of the company.

One of the best examples of this is a concept pulled from Web 2.0 and is known as “crowdsourcing”. What crowdsourcing allows is the greatest number of individuals to be used to tackle a problem and create a solution. In other words, it is asking the assistance of a crowd, rather than select individuals. Despite Andrew Keen’s abhorrance of the idea, this practice is actually benefitting a number of companies. Tapscott shows that this is partially able to work because individuals choose what they wish to work on and when individuals have a motiviation to help out they are more likely to make a contribution than someone who has little interest. The key is people show an interest and then decide to help. It is not a matter of everybody or a mass of amateurs rushing out to help a company or to solve some problem, but rather motivated individuals, often with some knowledge in the area or interest that allows them to be of use.

This spirit of change has come about largely through Web 2.0. Through creating tools and environments that have encouraged innovation, participation, openness, access to large amounts of data and leveraging the crowd Web 2.0 has become an agent of social change. It is not just a technological trend, but a social movement as well.

As mentioned earlier,  the open source community has resulted in many technological leaps from the Linux operating system, to Apache (which has become a dominant platform for most websites), to the development of competing resources, such as the Firefox browser. Companies have come to realize that this environment of cooperativeness can be beneficial.

As Tapscott points out, among some of the companies that have latched on to this trend are pharmaceutical companies. Some of them have taken to sharing their data with others in the community, as well as retired or independent scientists. This allows a greater pool of resources or talent in solving scientific problems for these companies. Many other such endeavors are under  way or are sure to develop in solving a variety of scientific and technical problems.

So despite what naysayers, like Andrew Keen or David Scott Lewis, may think will happen because of a reliance on crowdsourcing it seems instead that there is great promise as well for this trend. As an article in Wired magazine on the changing face of the newsroom demonstrates, crowdsourcing is much more likely to not only change businesses, but allow them to continue to succeed hand in hand with professionals working within those businesses.

One of the best things that can be said about Web 2.0 is that it has allowed many to look at things in a new way. As Carol Jones, of IBM, states

“It opens people’s minds to something they hadn’t realized was possible.”

Thus, Web 2.0 has helped generate new ways of looking at things, such as in business and the Cluetrain Manifesto and Wikinomics are great examples of this.

Wikinomics seems to show great promise as a model to follow in shaping a new way of conducting business. This doesn’t mean to follow blindly and show all of one’s data or necessarily allow everyone to help one’s business. These might be valid things to follow, but one also needs to look at one’s business and figure out how to best implement the philosophy of Wikinomics into one’s company to make it work.

Finally, another semester over. Whew! Has it been long semester. I can finally get a few weeks of rest before the next semester starts. I am looking forward to a few weeks of R&R.

I am going to transfer a few of one of my class blog’s postings. I’ll go through edit and then add those entries that seem interesting and not too much of a focus on my classes. I’ll do that within the next week or so. Keep your eyes peeled for that.

Also, one more thing to look forward to- In a couple weeks you should be seeing my first book of poetry finally out as an e-book!

Well I’m out to enjoy a little rest from this exhausting semester.

Okay, it is finally here. The day I wrap this all up. No more 23 Things. It is over! Bring out the champagne and let’s celebrate! Or more likely for me, let out a big sigh of relief and head off to something else.

So what do I think of all this? Did I learn anything? Has it been mind opening? Life changing? Are these things I will use in my professional life? Personal life? Did I waste my time or that of anyone else who stumbled across my posts?

Well as for the latter that is up to the individual who came across my posts whether they were useful and served a purpose or just wasted a few minutes of their time. I can’t speak for others, but myself….

I think overall I learned a lot. Part of that I think was because of the serious effort I put in to learn many of these things. Some of them I was already familiar with and didn’t learn anything new, such as Google Docs, wikis, and Bloglines. Some I was familiar with, but built upon what I knew, such as Flickr, libraries enhanced with Web 2.0, social bookmarking, mashups, YouTube and Google Maps. While others I knew little or nothing about and learned a great deal about such as Rollyo, Twitter, LibraryThing, image generators, Technoratti, and del.icio.us. Some of these I may never use again, such as Technoratti, Rollyo or Twitter, but then again you never know I may come to use them at a later date and find that my understanding of them was a great benefit. Maybe I might be working with or helping someone who is interested in some of these services then my knowledge of them would be of great benefit. I think what I learned from many of these things it that they are a great benefit in enriching my activities outside of work and in what I do at work. Already I have come up with ideas just from playing with these tools and am working to implement some of these ideas within my branch.

I think also it is good to be aware of the technology out there and I encourage all library staff to take a look at some of the online resources that are out there and whether they may be of benefit to their work, people they know or even for themselves. These 23 Things I beleive are barely a fraction of the Web 2.0 tools out there and as technology and the times move forward I’m sure many more will come, and perhaps some of them will even replace some that are the current fashion. As information professionals we owe it to our profession to aware of the ever changing variety of information resources out there and how they are being used within our society. A couple of great finds to continue your Web 2.0 journey are TechCrunch (Michael Arrington’s impressive site covering the Internet and various Web 2.0 companies) and Learning 2.1.

Well, that is all for now… Boy, now I need to find something else to blab about…

Okay, I am truly not sure how to answer this…

I have helped many in the past use some of these resources including staff, friends and family. My family and friends I have introduced them to Flickr and shown them how to get set up, adding photos, adding keyword tags, creating a set and other features from within the site. A few of the patrons who have come into the library I have shown them Google Docs and Spreadsheets. I wish I would have shown more, but one thing I notice is that sometimes we forget that we could have  shown someone a great resource until they have already left. Various staffmembers  I have introduced or taught them how to use various Web 2.0 resources including blogs, Flickr, image generators and Bloglines. Various other tools or resources I have learned about I have even shared with staff. I have noticed that at times while moving through the 23 Things I have shared what I learned with other staffmembers.

It is good to teach others, to share what you know or have learned. You empower those around you with the knowledge you give them. Besides that you help build relationships with the people around you by being open to help, learn, teach and understand the needs and interests of the people you come across. By teaching someone something you have learned you potentially open doorways of new thoughts, ideas or paths for that person. I highly encourage everyone to share their knowledge and their expertise with someone even if it is one person. We each hold the potential of enriching the lives of others through a very simple exchange of information.

Okay, I hope I didn’t babble too much on this one or get too preachy or sound like a fortune cookie…

Ahh, one last one….

Okay, I’m ready to cross the finish line. No more 23 things. So, until the next post, see ya!

Okay, down to the wire…

Podcasting, for those who don’t know is basically an audio file with RSS. This allows one to develop audio shows, on just about anything from informative podcasts, to news gathering, humor, interviews, poetry readings or whatever and then one can subscribe to these podcasts using an RSS feed reader. You can save an audio file in various formats, but saving it as an MP3 is best in order to allow the most users to access the broadcast using whatever multimedia player they have on their computer. You don’t need to subscribe to listen to a podcast, that is only a feature podcasts allow you to do. If you want to listen depending on what your multimedia software is, such as Windows Media Player, GOM (my favorite), Realplayer, or whatever else you might have, you can save it to your computer and open it to play the file. Some multimedia programs will let you automatically listen to the file if you simply click on the podcast.

I thought it was pretty hilarious that the link we were given to check out search services for podcasts was for Yahoo Podcasts, just happen to have a large message at the top of the screen that they were closing down the site effective October 31st. Apparently, a podcasting division must not have worked out for them. On the other hand their well known music service, Yahoo! Music Engine (aka Yahoo! Music Jukebox) apparently has a plugin to allow you to subscribe to podcasts. It would appear that they were using this to help develop their podcasting web directory. One thing I really liked about Yahoo’s Podcasting service was their clear explanation of not only how to subscribe to podcasts, but how to create your own podcasts. I felt this was one of the clearest explanations I’ve seen so far. (Note: I’ve created links to some of the things talked about on Yahoo’s Podcasting service, but once the site goes down these might not be effective anymore.)

In any case Yahoo isn’t the only place where you can go to find podcasts, there are plenty of other directories on the Internet, including podfeed.net, pluggd, or pod-planet to name a few. Of course, the monster of them all is Apple’s I-Tunes podcasting service, which helped make podcasting so common throughout the world.

Okay, who hasn’t heard of YouTube? The place is filled with all kinds of stuff, all kinds of videos have been uploaded there, stuff from around the world, so talk about going global!

Anyhoo, personally I am addicted to Taiwanese and Japanese dramas that you can find uploaded there. Some of them just make me laugh, so much like GTO. A great show I highly recommend you check out. Or if you are looking for something that will make you cry like a baby, even you big, tough guys, check out One Litre of Tears. 

What I am most amazed by is how there is an entire subculture that works to make these dramas available to the public. They literally spend their free time not just downloading and uploading them to YouTube, but translating them and subtitling them into English. The work some of these groups do is often phenomenally good. They also tend to give themselves or their team cute names or cool names depending on how you look at it.

YouTube has a lot of other functions built in besides just viewing videos, you can e-mail videos to your friends or paste your favorite video into a blog, website or your friends’ MySpace site. You can post comments to videos that are on the site. If you create an account not only can you upload your own videos, but you can subscribe to watch some videos that won’t be listed on the public end of the site or you can share videos you are watching at the same time with other users like your friends.

Other aspects of YouTube that are pretty cool is the Video Toolbox where they actually teach you how to make a good video for the internet. They have tricks about editing, lighting and other production tips.

If you have some technical chops behind you, then they have the API available for if you want to create your own mashup or plugin. Just check out their Developer Corner. Which for me personally, the great find being a YouTube plugin someone created for Wordpress. Now that is cool!

Other things YouTube is working on can be found in their TestTube area. Some cool finds are floating around here if you weren’t aware that YouTube was about more than just looking at stupid videos people have posted. Two that sound really promising here are Remixer and AudioSwap, one seems to be a way to edit your video and another allows you to use music from “officially licensed sources” in your video.

Yeah, YouTube is a lot of fun. Power to the people!

One final thought before I skedaddle. Apparently YouTube isn’t the only video uploading site out there, no I’m not talking GoogleVideo or anything like that. No, apparently there are numerous video uploading sites out there, but YouTube just happens to be the giant gorilla that everyone notices. I haven’t checked out many of these other sites, but I’m sure many of them have their good points.

Oh, and finally if you are looking for a lot of cool stuff that happens to be in the public domain and you might want to use it to make your own creations check out the Internet Archive.

Okay, Google Maps is it cool or what? Yeah, I got to hand it to them they’ve developed a pretty cool app, even though I prefer to get my driving directions from Mapquest. There is so much more to Google Maps than you realize at first.

I understand that they have gotten a few people unhappy with their feature that allows you to roam around some cities at street level, but personally I really enjoyed the experience and, hey, it is a public place that this is occurring in, you know? I took my online street level tour by using Google Maps to move around the streets of San Francisco. It was pretty easy to navigate down streets, make turns onto another street and even move into traffic to get a really interesting experience. Unfortunately, this isn’t available for all cities, so you have to kind of take a guess, whether the city you are interested has that feature. I took a gamble and, lucky for me San Francisco was a good guess. Tip think big…

Google Maps has a lot built in. The whole satellite image of the area you are looking at is pretty cool, although that feature is available with other map services out there.  One thing I really like is the way you can create a hybrid that places the names of the streets onto the satellite photo. One creepy thing was the fact that images of locations appear without any people in them. They remind me of a photo I saw in the Taipei Fine Arts Museum.

Another great thing, which was in the news a while back, is how the API is available to create your own Mashups. Further, if you login you can see and use a lot of cool mashups that others have developed using the Google Maps API. My favorite was a nifty one that if you click a spot on the map would show you where you would wind up if you dug your way through the Earth. It is pretty cool and gives new life to the phrase, “Digging your way to China.”

Of course, other great features are how you can insert or create a link of a map you create and place it on your webpage or blog. I did this to place a map and picture of the library I work at in the sidebar. I had to do a lot of work to adjust the size, so it would appear decently in my sidebar, but after a week I decided it was time for the map to go. I could see a lot of great uses to this, such as explaining where an event is taking place and simply embedding a map in the web page showing the location of the place. Using a similar idea Google Maps lets you e-mail the map you have created to a particular e-mail account, I suppose in case you want to view it later  or send it to friends.

Google Maps is pretty easy to use and although you can type in an address to move in to a location, I found it pretty easy to simply zoom in and navigate using the map with nothing more than the mouse and the zoom in and out functions built into the map.

In any case, I think they have a great product and not only did I have a lot of fun playing around with it, but founnd that it can be a very useful tool to use for a variety of purposes. All right, I guess a babbled enough about Google Maps, too bad they don’t pay me after gushing over how cool they are. You know like a marketing fee or something. Nah, nevermind…

Okay, now here is something I am familiar with. Online productivity tools are largely touted as the end of many software giants, such as Microsoft, model of offering services from one’s desktop. This new model focusses on creating programs or tools that accessed from one’s Internet browser. This means no buying or downloading onto one’s own computer. Nope, access your account or file online and begin working. Of course, this means that you have to have access to a computer with the Internet accessible from it.

There are actually companies that offer a range of online productivity tools for businesses to use without having to purchase or download specific software. I believe the client pays a nominal sum to have this other company store their data or files and to upgrade and improve the services of that productivity tool. No more paying for IT support on staff, yikes!

Anyhoo, the big behemoth that all eyes are on happens to be Google. With their acquisition of Writely and renaming their online productivity service Google Docs they gave Microsoft a rude awakening of what the future might hold. Too bad Microsoft spent so much to get Vista out. Then again most likely, with the fact that online productivity tools being accessible online, the future will likely be a mix of desktop centered and online accessible tools and applications. Nevertheless, the desktop module will definitely not be the only way of looking at things anymore.

With such services available one doesn’t need to worry about upgrades, your computer crashing and losing it, having to store it on some device to transport it and even better, with many of these services you can even share your documents with others such as a group project, research team or a business team. One can upload a document and invite others to work on it. I used Google Docs and Writeboard in school to allow another individual to edit and further develop a story I developed and created a poem, where in true Web 2.0 fashion others could be invited in to make their own contributions to the poem. There are a number of other online productivity tools out there, check out this list I found online.

As I pointed out to a friend, what is great about this for libraries, especially if you get patrons like we do, is that when someone comes in to work on something they don’t have to worry about whether they brought a flash drive or whatever that library allows for storing docs, no, they can simply save it online and access it later if they need to. Further, figure about did they save it in the right file format or type to be opened on our computers just access and open it online and they are ready to go. They can work on it later, invite others, e-mail or even print it out all by simply going online and accessing their saved document.

Well that is it for now.

Okay, this was an easy one, although it took me a while to get a chance to do this. Once I got to the wiki I couldn’t help wanting to go through and correct the glaring errors others had in their entries, okay not that every entry had mistakes the majority of the entries were just fine. In any case I sat down and went through “helping out” the wiki, making it look better. You could definitely get a sense of community for everyone had a different way of writing about things. Thus, I know that there is a good chance that someone won’t like my changes or may even come along and “correct” my entry. That is the power of the crowd at work, things have the inherent potential to change.

As for adding an entry, something I should be familiar with doing since I have set up a blog in school before, well, it actually took me a few minutes to figure out what to do. Naturally once figured out, you realize, “oh, is that all? how simple!” After scrolling through the entries to see what 23 Things wasn’t listed, I then found myself with a good group of options and to think I was afraid I would be late to the party and would have to simply add to an entry already worked on. So, what to go with? In the end I wound up creating an entry for Image Generators and proceeded to write my lame explanation of what they are. Feel free to check out my entry if you want and edit it to your heart’s content.