The terminator

Wow, already at the time for the final exams!

I guess the most important thing I learned in the Betty Blogger course was that many of the Web 2.0 features are quite simple to grasp and you can quickly see their utility. In other words, I should not be shy about leaping in and using the new tools. Frankly I had been a bit hesitant, expecting that the learning curve would be steeper than it has proven to be (maybe because Betty has greased the slope). I also had feared that you would need to invest much time and effort up-front before you could begin to apply the tools to everyday life.

The challenging part of the Betty Blogger course is not the course content itself, which I thought was well presented, but rather figuring out how to effectively use the new tools to which I have been introduced. I guess the best example of this is wiki -- I need to explore this application more deeply to see how I can best use it. I know that some community groups have decided to move from a traditional website to a wiki-driven web service. To understand this concept I plan to explore further online. I also have put in requests with my local library for some of the recommended supplementary reading materials from Betty.

I had no problem with the "self-directed" learning approach. In fact I think this is the only effective way to be introduced to new web concepts. You have to get in there and muck about. Maybe that's why the cooking metaphor works well in the instructional material. It is not enough to read about boiling, braising, broiling and baking -- you have to put on your apron and start chopping , stuffing, kneading or whatever.

Back at the beginning of the course I indicated that I wanted to know more about social media. This is completely relevant to Facebook and Wiki. I had anticipated that those aspects of the course would be useful. I had not realized the potential offered by Google Docs or Library Thing. Had I not taken the course I would probably have never learned about those very useful tools. Just as an initial indication, using Library Thing, I have found other users with similar interests who have found books which look very interesting. Thanks to Betty I will be in a position to track down lots of good reading. I would say that Betty has exceeded my expectations.

Please do run the program again. I have already recommended it to friends. If possible, please retain my contact information so that I can alert them to register when (or if) you run the program again.

I think this a great initiative by Burlington Public Library, and, as one of the "interlopers" who does not live in Burlington (and thus supports another library system with my taxes) I want to thank the people of Burlington for letting me in on this.

I intend to inform my own public library in Ottawa about my participation in the Betty Blogger course. Maybe there is some way in which other library systems could collaborate with Library Lady in bringing this course to a wider audience across the province.

Truly a Library Thaang

To find my profile go to http://www.librarything.com/profile/Bluster

I think this is a great application. I was particularly impressed at the speed with which the books were identified when I typed in the ISBN.

Yes I do intend to use this in the future. I plan to return to the site to explore similar books in others' profiles, to search on tags etc. I haven't yet explored the reviews which other users have written; this is another aspect I think could be quite valuable.

Really simple syndication -- really!

I subscribed to several RSS feeds including Apartment613 and Greater Ottawa. The former is a rather neat service about things happening in downtown Ottawa (where I live) and the latter is a blog maintained by one of the writers of the Ottawa Citizen newspaper.

I found Google Reader quite easy to use but I am not sure whether I should use it as my RSS aggregator. I can also receive RSS service directly in my Microsoft Explorer browser and there is also an RSS feature in Adobe Acrobat. In the browser I subscribe to CBC national news and CBC Ottawa regional news. In addition I get feeds of TED lectures (TEDTalks).

I will need to experiment a bit more to figure out which aggregator services best suit my needs.

Google Docs - seems a winner

We are not asked to comment on Google Docs as a tool but I would suggest that this is quite a valuable feature for collaborating or for working in groups.

I am also impressed that this tool offers many of the features found in productivity suites which have traditionally been sold. Here it is worth noting that there is a free suite from Sun called OpenOffice.org which provides word processing, spreadsheet and presentations software (as does Google Docs) but also includes a database product.

I will definitely come back to Google Docs to explore further its potential. Thanks Betty for introducing it to me.

Wiki wicked piknik

Confirming my pretentious nature to all, I proposed cold decorated trout in wine aspic from Julia Child's "From Julia Child's Kitchen" [ISBN 0-394-71027-4] as a contribution to the great Betty Blogger picnic. I went throught the entire list and did not find any fish (or seafood) on the list. Maybe raw oysters would have been another idea -- just don't litter the site with discarded shells.

I found the PBWorks experience very easy. What I'm not sure about is when the wiki tool is more appropriate than the Google Docs toolkit. I can see using the wiki tool when you want to open info to everyone for updating or modification in a simple document. By contrast the Google Docs tool seems more appropriate when you have a limited number of people working on a more sophisticated sort of document -- text with word processing features, a spreadsheet or a presentation for projection.

I'm not sure whether I will be using the wiki facility. For the moment, the collaborative tools of Google Docs seem more relevant; they seem to be designed for group editing and development of documents. Once I and others have a document, we could use the blog tools to have others comment on what we have proposed.

With a wiki (and maybe I have not grasped all the ins-and-outs of the tool) it would seem most appropriate for collection of information about which there is limited dispute. It would work well if contributors are adding information (such as additional things to bring to a picnic) but it might not be so good if the participants have differing views to express and attack the text written by others.

Recipe from Google Docs

Chicken Breast Tapenade Bob Dees




From "Simply Mediterranean Cooking" by Byron Ayanoglu, published by Robert Rose Inc., 1998

Ingredients 250 g skinless boneless chicken breast 25 ml all-purpose flour 25 ml olive oil 1 ml freshly ground black pepper 15 ml finely chopped garlic 2 minced anchovies 15 ml lemon zest 25 ml lemon juice 250 ml chicken stock 5 ml dried thyme 8 black olives, pitted and chopped 1 small tomato, diced fresh basil or parsley, chopped

Instructions Cut chicken into 1 cm strips; dredge in flour. In a large non-stick frypan, heat oil. Add pepper over high heat. Add garlic, anchovies (substitute anchovy paste) and lemon zest. Stir fry briefly. Add chicken and stir fry until browned on all sides Add lemon juice and stir. Add chicken stock and thyme. Bring to a boil. Add olives and cook stirring, until sauce is syrupy. Serve with rice or potatoes. Garnish with tomato and parsley or basil. This is a great recipe if you want make a satisfying meal for two people (or maybe even three) from one single chicken breast.

© Stacey Dowswell 2009

Photos from Picassa

Yes I went in to Picassa and because I was feeling devilish I thought about a wild festival held annually in the USA called Burning Man. Folk gather out in some desert location for several days of unrestrained activity which leads to a ceremony in which they burn a figure of a man. (I guess it could be compared to the British Guy Fawkes Day but much less restrained.)
So following the tag "Burning Man" I found eventually a photo of two attractive topless young ladies who had painted bar codes across their breasts. They captioned the photo "scan this". The tag was "Burning Man 2008". I think Burning Man 2009 would be held in the next couple of weeks (at the end of summer).
I thought Picassa was very good for those of us interested in peeking at others' photos. I can certainly see the utility for sharing photos with others. I have used Flickr which I think is the Yahoo equivalent of Picassa (which is associated with Google).
I will continue to use Picassa to look at photos from my brother-in-law who uses it extensively to share photos about family events and travel. I don't know whether I will use the photo editing tools from Picassa because I am more accustomed to Adobe Photoshop Elements, but I may take a look at them when I have a moment (between homework assignments from Betty Blogger).

Facing down Facebook

I had opened an account with Facebook several months ago but had really made no use of it. My original idea had been to look into comment about political issues in Ottawa as they were reflected in the Facebook comments. I found it a bit frustrating to find anything meaningful and didn't look at Facebook again, even though I had the account.
Then I started to receive some e-mail messages with links into Facebook images of relatives and I did look to see photos they had posted.
This time, on returning to Facebook at Betty's instruction, I've looked around a bit more. I need to see how Facebook can be used to rally people around specific issues or common experiences. I am a little concerned that I may spend a fair bit of time to get to the point that I can see how Facebook can actually be useful.
I do have some concern about the privacy aspect of Facebook and I should look at the supplementary material pointed out by Betty to understand the issue better. I was surprised to see that earlier I had posted my birthdate for all to see in my profile. On reflection I'm not sure that is a good idea and I have changed the info that is provided.
I think I will use Facebook in the future, not because I now completely see how I can best use it, but rather because others use it and I expect I have to communicate with them. It's a bit like learning a new language -- it would be simpler for me if everyone just used my language, but if I want to really communicate with the natives, I better learn some of their language.

How delicious

Well I jumped into Delicious as Betty instructed. First I found a wonderful list of salad recipes from the New York Times, but decided that with the cool summer we are having I should not bookmark salads.

What I did bookmark are The New Yorker magazine [http://www.newyorker.com/] and Art & Letters Daily [http://www.aldaily.com/]. These are existing favourites of mine -- particularly the latter, which can prove to be just as significant waster of time as YouTube (if you like reading).

Through Delicious I also discover two previously unknown sites I wanted to bookmark. The first is makeuseof.com [http://www.makeuseof.com/] which has a wide variety of articles on software etc. The second appealed to my love of the slightly weird; it is BoingBoing [http://www.boingboing.net/]. Maybe everyone knows about this site except me.

The tags I connected to the bookmarks included "diversion" and "fun" for BoingBoing, "web2.0" and "tips" for Makeuseof, "culture" for Arts & Letters Daily and the New Yorker.

Yes I will continue to use Delicious. I think it will take a while for me to understand all the possibilities offered by the site.

Predictable Irrationality

Usually we assume that we act rationally and that others will do the same. Most of the time this is a reasonable assumption (maybe it did not apply when I was an adolescent) but perhaps we don't examine our thinking as carefully as we should.


Here is a professor from Duke University who has studied how we make decisions. His conclusion is that often we are not rational but that our strange irrational behaviour can be predicted. In other words, he believes that humans have an irrational side which can be studied.


This is a good example of the kind of thing I like on YouTube.


- Did I enjoy my YouTube experience?

Yes indeed. In fact I find it difficult to tear myself away. Once I find something of interest, other links dealing with related subjects appear. It is a great way to spend time -- but, depending on what you are watching, may be a better investment of time than some other distractions.


- Why do I think streaming has become so popular?

At one time "broadcasting" was the fad. We watched TV, accepting what others chose to show us. Today "narrowcasting" has become possible through technology. It is possible to pursue very specialized interests by selecting a specific subject. No doubt there is an article somewhere on the web about Latvian music for the kazoo. That interest can only be deepened through links to notable Latvian kazoo artists performing in streaming video.

But the streaming aspect is also important. It is not necessary to download and retain the information on your computer. You can experience it and move on (presumably to kazoo celebrities from the Comoros Islands, for example.)



- Will I continue to use YouTube?

I'm not sure that I'm ready to start posting original videos, but no doubt friends will continue to refer me to strange and amusing items on YouTube.

Dipping first toe into blogging

After hearing for months about the phenomenon of social media, it was not a minute too soon when I learned of the Betty Blogger training course.

I am deeply involved in community issues and colleagues keep telling me about the potential offered by social media. They say that this is a highly effective way to reach others, particularly young adults, who have an interest in their community but are not engaged through traditional means, such as meetings or newpapers. I have a reasonable understanding of the utility of the classic website but am at a loss when others talk about engagement through the new social media tools.

This was particularly frustrating when I participated in a recent conference under the title "ChangeCamp". Other participants (almost all of them much younger than I am) were interested in the same issues as am I, but they seemed to be engaged in way that I did not comprehend. In the midst of the meeting, they all seemed to be communicating electronically. While I was involved in one discussion group at a time, they seemed to be simultaneously participating in several.

All this stimulated me to jump at the chance for a friendly introduction to Web 2.0, thanks to the Betty Blogger course.