At our 11/19/07 OPAL meeting we agreed that we needed a place to put suggestions for new content. As we review content on the 23 things blog (see sidebar for url), we also agreed to make pertinent comments within each section of the blog. A few ideas that came up at yesterday's meeting appear below.
New Content Ideas (for last two things, or advanced challenges)
Having a "challenge" or more on this topic section would broaden the reach. Then novices and the more experienced could both be challenged.
Ann WS says....I like Aurora's idea of Gather.com as part of the MN Suite (or whatever we call it or however we use the MN stuff) since it is local and Web 2.0 and social networking. Good intro to people who are hesitant about MySpace or Facebook, et. al.
something about gaming--Second Life or something--is a good idea, but a huge topic. How to break it down for the uninitiated. Would be a great ''challenge" piece.
Cindy Gruwell (Academic from CMLE land) suggests....
Collaborations Online: Experiment with a variety of social networking tools for collaborative efforts:
- Science: Scivee.com, dnatube.com
- Others: vyew.com, Ning.com, Flock.com, mugshot.org, bumpin.com
New Content Ideas for Helping Name Blogs (Blogger was down so I resorted to putting my content here)- Patricia
Given we are working with librarians (who CAN be very detailed), I would suspect they may have some of the same questions I had about naming their blog. Could we make this easier by adding a FAQ section on naming. Something that would answer the following questions:
* Can I create multiple blogs with different names in Blogger for multiple purposes? Yes
* Should I consider naming this blog in a similar way to the way my colleagues would name theirs so we can spot each other when we are blogging?
* If I pick something anonymous, will my multitype know who I am and will I get credit for doing these exercises?
* Can I easily delete blogs from Blogger? Yes--there is a "delete" button on the Settings --> Basic page
* Can I change the name of my blog? Yes--this also on the Settings --> Basic page
* Can there be multiple Blogs with the same name from different bloggers?
Walking the Fine Line
The creators of this learning program have walked the line of introducing these technologies to newbies in a way that is very helpful, but not too intimidating.
As with all fine lines, it could have gone either way.
Pipes
An interesting topic to hit on future 23 things on a Stick might be pipes. Pipes is a powerful composition tool to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the web.
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/
Organizing the blogs
It might have been more useful to have the blogs organized, not by region, but by the type of library we serve. I am on Thing 15/Gaming. The discussion about whether these games have a role in libraries is really dependent on the type of library. I do not work in a public library but I would think those individuals would be most interested in seeing the views of others from the same work environment-- not necessarily from those in the same geographical area.
**I would like to add that many of the areas could be organized according to the libraries that one serves in, yet the appeal to me was to learn about new tools and ideas on the internet. I like the fact that the only thing that matters is that I try these thing. Not the end product. That certainly takes away the intimidation factor. I would like to have a listing of these many areas to go back to and use as time permits so that I can become more confortable with them and continue to use what is applicable to me. --JH
Another great tool
For those people who have website development skills, Google offers a neat tool to insert a Google-powered search engine into any existing webpage. It simply requires creating a Google account, go to more tools and click on custom search. http://www.google.com/coop/cse/ This allows you to create a search engine for whatever pages you want. We used it to search our school's webpage. Once the search is created, copy and paste the code into your page. It works very well. This may be more advanced, but I can see some people really liking it. For 23 things on a stick, the search could be pasted into the blog.
http://www.shelfari.com/ I discovered this tool while working on 23 things on a stick. 
Keeping up with 23 Things on a stick
For those who are new to 23 things, I would highly recommend that you spend some time every day learning the new things. I would also recommend that you keep a book of passwords close by your computer! This really can be a great learning experience if only you take the time to do it. I work in a school library and have found many ideas to be a great collaboration tool for teachers. -sl
More online Applications for PC World,.
While looking at Wikis, I ran across an article from PC World "Life Without Desktop Software". It was very timely for this class as it offers some good suggestions as well as sharing the problems the author had with both Google, and Zoho. He also shared another application that I will let you find. If you go to the article, be sure and read the comments...they were also informative. Here is the link:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,138645-page,1-c,internetnetworking/article.html I sure see the application potential, but am not sure I am totally ready to take the big step to all online apps. Have fun. and good luck on the rest of your 23 Things. fairpan
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