I have, like the majority of online users, sourced a lot of information via Wikipedia but have never delved any further into the world of Wikis. 23 Things has changed all that. I didn't even know that 'wiki' is Hawaiian for 'quick'!
A wiki is a quick way of making a website which allows many people to edit, add to and update the content. Because of this is it very useful for collaboration purposes. Wikipedia is of course the largest and most well-known, however there are thousands of wikis out there.
For this course I have looked at a variety of wikis and found them all absolutely fascinating. I really enjoyed browsing through the wikiHow website - http://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page - it gives advice on how to do countless weird and wonderful things, such as 'How to make a Zen Garden for your desk' or 'How to ungoogle yourself'!
Whilst browsing through the multitude of wikis out there I found one on World Cruising which is of interest to me and I will definitely revisit it at a later date.
Wikis can be very useful for the individual but also for groups and organisations. One example of this is the Travel Group wiki set up by Stirling's Bridge of Allan Library for members of the public to use. Group members can use this wiki to share their travel experiences and give advice to other travellers.
The Libary Service I work for could possibly benefit from having a wiki for those branches which have regular Book Group meetings.
Monday, 20 February 2012
Monday, 13 February 2012
RSS Feeds
A friend recommended a while back that I use Google Reader, so I did set it up and add some subscriptions to it but as with everything else I didn't really have time to keep up to date with it. I have revisited it now for the 23 Things course and found that one of my subscriptions has had almost 900 updates since I last looked at it and several others have had a few hundred updates. I have too many interests!
RSS apparently stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’, which I didn't know. You learn something new every day. Really Simple Syndication means that something like Google Reader can collect all the updates from your favourite sites and let you look at them in one place, ie the 'reader'. This can save you lots of time as it saves checking all of the websites individually.
Even if you publish your own website you can use RSS files to create a feed for your readers, if they subscribe to you. This is useful for libraries because they can do things like creating a new feed for additions to the online catalogue or for new events taking place.
I have added some new subscriptions to my Google Reader and I have made a resolution to use it more often!
RSS apparently stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’, which I didn't know. You learn something new every day. Really Simple Syndication means that something like Google Reader can collect all the updates from your favourite sites and let you look at them in one place, ie the 'reader'. This can save you lots of time as it saves checking all of the websites individually.
Even if you publish your own website you can use RSS files to create a feed for your readers, if they subscribe to you. This is useful for libraries because they can do things like creating a new feed for additions to the online catalogue or for new events taking place.
I have added some new subscriptions to my Google Reader and I have made a resolution to use it more often!
Monday, 6 February 2012
Searching and Q&A Forums
I am continuing with further modules on the 23 Things course and the next section is on 'Searching and Q&A Forums'. It starts off with the following:
"Why do I need to know about searching on the internet?" you may ask. "I just Google it."
The above most definitely applies to me. Whenever I want to look for anything online, I simply Google it. I am hoping that what I am learning via 23 Things will change this for the better.
I have had a look at Phil Bradley's list of Search Engines - http://www.philb.com/webse.htm
Within the Phil Bradley website there is a link to 170+ web search engines. One of these is www.answers.com - I used this to type in the question "How many passengers does the Queen Mary 2 hold?" - and compared the results to a Google search. I have to say that the 'Answers' website took me around the houses whereas I found the answer immediately on Google.
For the next part of this module I created my own search engine by using Google custom search. I chose to select sites on the ocean liner Queen Mary 2 as I am making the transatlantic crossing to New York on her this October.
Here is the search engine I created:
Next, I watched a short video on how to use Yahoo Answers - available here:
http://www.5min.com/Video/Essential-Yahoo---6---How-to-use-Yahoo-Answers-210064834
Perhaps unfortunately, I chose to ask the question "What do you call someone from Edinburgh?" because this was a question which genuinely came up at home over the Festive Season. Some of the answers were just plain annoying/funny, such as "Unlucky", "A Scot", "McSnob" and "An alcoholic". The answer given which seemed nearest the truth was "An Edinburgher" - but as I was unsure whether this was 100% correct or not I went into Google to find a website to verify it.
Due to the stupidity of some of the answers I found using Yahoo Answers I probably wouldn't use this site in future.
"Why do I need to know about searching on the internet?" you may ask. "I just Google it."
The above most definitely applies to me. Whenever I want to look for anything online, I simply Google it. I am hoping that what I am learning via 23 Things will change this for the better.
I have had a look at Phil Bradley's list of Search Engines - http://www.philb.com/webse.htm
Within the Phil Bradley website there is a link to 170+ web search engines. One of these is www.answers.com - I used this to type in the question "How many passengers does the Queen Mary 2 hold?" - and compared the results to a Google search. I have to say that the 'Answers' website took me around the houses whereas I found the answer immediately on Google.
For the next part of this module I created my own search engine by using Google custom search. I chose to select sites on the ocean liner Queen Mary 2 as I am making the transatlantic crossing to New York on her this October.
Here is the search engine I created:
Loading
Next, I watched a short video on how to use Yahoo Answers - available here:
http://www.5min.com/Video/Essential-Yahoo---6---How-to-use-Yahoo-Answers-210064834
Perhaps unfortunately, I chose to ask the question "What do you call someone from Edinburgh?" because this was a question which genuinely came up at home over the Festive Season. Some of the answers were just plain annoying/funny, such as "Unlucky", "A Scot", "McSnob" and "An alcoholic". The answer given which seemed nearest the truth was "An Edinburgher" - but as I was unsure whether this was 100% correct or not I went into Google to find a website to verify it.
Due to the stupidity of some of the answers I found using Yahoo Answers I probably wouldn't use this site in future.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)