I had read Feed for another class (Materials for Young Adults) last spring, and enjoyed it then. However, re-reading it in the context of this class was different. I picked up on things I hadn't noticed before, and it made me think about my own habits.
My favorite part of the book is the dedication - "To all those who resist the feed." Right from the start, Anderson displays an obviously dystopian view of the future. In this future world, consumerism is the name of the game, and everyone's feeds are there to tell them what to buy, what's cool, what to think. Life is simple, and nobody needs to think - the feed thinks for them (see p. 80-81 in the book).
Anderson draws many parallels to today's teens and the teens in the book. They both have their own slang, are tuned into trends, are connected to each other, and experiement with drugs. While teens today use internet short-hand slang (lol, brb, j/k) in everyday speech and writing, the teens in the book use null for boring, unit for guy/girl, mal for bad, and (my favorite), brag for cool. Teens today are connected to each other via always-on cell phones, IM, and social networking sites like MySpace. In the book, the teens are connected via wireless chatlines embedded in their brains. Teens today experiement with all kinds of drugs, from prescription drugs to pot. Teens in the book get scrambled or go mal, which is a way of hacking their internal feeds and going haywire. Feed reminds me of Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series. The teens in that book use their own language, and though they don't have internal feeds, they do have computers monitoring their every move.
I don't know if Anderson's view of the future is possible in the ways he describes it (pod-like homes, vacations on the Moon, flying cars), but the feeds he describes are practically here, they're just not internalized (yet?). We want to be instantly satiated like the kids in the book are - but to the point that nothing is new and exciting? What's clear is that we have become accustomed to instant gratification. Photos can be viewed instantly on a digital camera, and they can be printed in less than an hour. Whole meals can be cooked in the microwave in a matter of minutes. Everything we need is a click away online. Is this good, necessary? Is it good that in the middle of this post, I stopped to check my email? Even while I'm writing, I'm thinking about the myraid other things I could/should/want to be doing online - emailing friends about a party next weekend, seeing if the shoes I want are on sale yet, planning a mini-vacation for November. Doing all of those things requires me to visit many websites. Would it be good if I could just think about all that content and have it delivered to me? The kids in the book would think so.
Personally, Anderson's idea of the feed scares me. Earlier in the week, I signed up for Bloglines and Google Reader. I instantly fell in love with GR - all my feeds in one place! Yes, it's convenient. But is it necessary? Is it that much of a hassle to visit each website? It has simplified my life and cut down on the time I spend online, but is it simplifying me? Technology does save us a lot of time, but we have to be careful not to lose ourselves in order to save a few minutes.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Social software that's new to me...
I was intrigued by the idea of social bookmarking, and was happy to see it included in this class. In playing around with the websites on the sidebar of the wiki, I came upon Delicious. It looked like a cool way to aggregate my bookmarks from my home computer, my work computer, and my boyfriend's computer. I played around with it and fell in love. All of my bookmarks are now in one place, and they're totally organized.
I especially like how tags work in Delicious. In my personal Firefox bookmarks, every bookmark has a folder, or in many cases, a subfolder. I can't just call a blog a blog, it's a fashion blog, a tv blog, etc., and each has it's own subfolder. In Delicious, instead of creating folder upon folder, the tags function so they both separate and coallate bookmarks. It's easy to sort through the tags to find what I want. I also like that there's a Firefox-supported plugin. Instead of copying and pasting links, I just hit the add button. It took a little time to get it set up and organized, but maintenance is very simple.
Overall, a great little piece of social software, especially helpful if you have bookmarks on several computers.
I especially like how tags work in Delicious. In my personal Firefox bookmarks, every bookmark has a folder, or in many cases, a subfolder. I can't just call a blog a blog, it's a fashion blog, a tv blog, etc., and each has it's own subfolder. In Delicious, instead of creating folder upon folder, the tags function so they both separate and coallate bookmarks. It's easy to sort through the tags to find what I want. I also like that there's a Firefox-supported plugin. Instead of copying and pasting links, I just hit the add button. It took a little time to get it set up and organized, but maintenance is very simple.
Overall, a great little piece of social software, especially helpful if you have bookmarks on several computers.
Bloglines vs. Google Reader
As Steve put it in the homework review video, I'm giving all of my intellectual life over to Google. Well, not all of it, but certainly most of it. Ok, all of it. I now have three Gmail accounts - my personal account, an account to which my Rutgers webmail is forwarded, and the account required for this class. My personal account gets the most use, and from it I can chat, schedule my calendar, edit documents (ok, I don't use this feature too much, but it's been helpful), post pictures, and get directions. And now, I can read my blogs from it, too. I love Google Reader.
Let me start by saying that I had no idea what RSS was before this class. The RSS in Plain English video from Commoncraft really cleared things up. After watching that video and this week's other videos, I felt pretty confident that a service like Bloglines would really help me keep track of this class's blogs, as well as the other blogs I read.
Bloglines was cumbersome to set up, and I didn't like the subcription process. Once a URL is entered into the subscribe box, a list of subscription options pops up. First, at least three different feeds are presented. They all look exactly the same. Nowhere is the difference between these feeds explained. After choosing one and hoping it works, there are several more options. First, folder selection. This worked, but I'd prefer to tag the blogs, and have the option to put them in more than one folder - not really necessary for this class, but helpful for my personal blog-reading. Then, there are display settings to be dealt with. I couldn't find any user-defined-default setting for this - the settings for every blog had to be entered individually. This was annoying and time consuming. However, I think the real reason I didn't like Bloglines is because it's a totally new service to me, and I don't like to wade in unfamiliar waters.
Google Reader, on the other hand, worked wonderfully. Since I'm already a Google/Gmail user, I expected the simple interface. Adding a blog was as easy as inserting a link. The settings are universal and are easy to use. One thing I did struggle with at first was adding tags to blogs. I eventually figured out that GR's folders act as tags. I added my Bloglines feeds to GR, and I also added my most frequently-read blogs to my personal GR account. Setting up those blogs was time consuming only because of the volume I had to add; actually adding them was easy. I opened up the blogs in individual tabs, copied and pasted the URL, and closed the tab. Easy cheesy.
Let me start by saying that I had no idea what RSS was before this class. The RSS in Plain English video from Commoncraft really cleared things up. After watching that video and this week's other videos, I felt pretty confident that a service like Bloglines would really help me keep track of this class's blogs, as well as the other blogs I read.
Bloglines was cumbersome to set up, and I didn't like the subcription process. Once a URL is entered into the subscribe box, a list of subscription options pops up. First, at least three different feeds are presented. They all look exactly the same. Nowhere is the difference between these feeds explained. After choosing one and hoping it works, there are several more options. First, folder selection. This worked, but I'd prefer to tag the blogs, and have the option to put them in more than one folder - not really necessary for this class, but helpful for my personal blog-reading. Then, there are display settings to be dealt with. I couldn't find any user-defined-default setting for this - the settings for every blog had to be entered individually. This was annoying and time consuming. However, I think the real reason I didn't like Bloglines is because it's a totally new service to me, and I don't like to wade in unfamiliar waters.
Google Reader, on the other hand, worked wonderfully. Since I'm already a Google/Gmail user, I expected the simple interface. Adding a blog was as easy as inserting a link. The settings are universal and are easy to use. One thing I did struggle with at first was adding tags to blogs. I eventually figured out that GR's folders act as tags. I added my Bloglines feeds to GR, and I also added my most frequently-read blogs to my personal GR account. Setting up those blogs was time consuming only because of the volume I had to add; actually adding them was easy. I opened up the blogs in individual tabs, copied and pasted the URL, and closed the tab. Easy cheesy.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Brown & Duguid, as related to librarians
Brown & Duguid make some interesting points on technology and it's antisocial tendencies. They believe that technology is so driven to bring people together that it drives them apart, as shown in their discussion of the Chiat/Day "hot desking" experiement. While hot desking, the concept of working from wherever there's an internet connection, looked good on paper, it failed miserably in real life. The experiement showed that people need to work together physically as well as digitally to get stuff done. They also discussed how technology is evolving so rapidly that people are expected to conform to it, not the other way around. Technology must be harnessed and used in such a way that it both enhances and expedites office work. Too often, so much time and money is spent to learn or fix technology that it eventually becomes a money pit - a money pit that nobody wants to admit to seeing, but into which everyone will fall.
Libraries and librarians are often afraid of new technologies. They worry that users won't accept them, that technologies will be too expensive or cumbersome to use, or that "the old way works, so why change." Libraries fall into what Brown & Duguid call the "social periphery," a group of organizations that shape the way we live and work. Unfortunately, the social periphery has been cast aside as the digital revolution tunnels forwards, so the social periphery must fight to be included. Libraries must fight to stay relevant, and they must do that by not only embracing, but harnessing new technologies to their best use.
Obviously, not every little piece of new technology will work in a library, but libraries can model the appropriate use of technology, and in turn, the patrons will adapt to it and the library will remain relevant. It's similar to Brown & Duguid's discussion of Bell and his telephone. He figured that if the telephone was put into the hands of the people, they'd figure out how to use it. Give people the opportunity to see firsthand the technology in action, and they will respond. Libraries can do the same with new technologies. They can offer a "virtual reference" service via email or chat. If one patron has a successful experience using it, that patron will tell a friend, who will in turn tell a friend, and eventually patrons will see virtual reference as a standard practice. As users change and adapt to new technologies, so must libraries. They can maintain a physical presence with a brick-and-mortar building, but it is necessary for libraries to develop and maintain a virtual presence online.
Libraries and librarians are often afraid of new technologies. They worry that users won't accept them, that technologies will be too expensive or cumbersome to use, or that "the old way works, so why change." Libraries fall into what Brown & Duguid call the "social periphery," a group of organizations that shape the way we live and work. Unfortunately, the social periphery has been cast aside as the digital revolution tunnels forwards, so the social periphery must fight to be included. Libraries must fight to stay relevant, and they must do that by not only embracing, but harnessing new technologies to their best use.
Obviously, not every little piece of new technology will work in a library, but libraries can model the appropriate use of technology, and in turn, the patrons will adapt to it and the library will remain relevant. It's similar to Brown & Duguid's discussion of Bell and his telephone. He figured that if the telephone was put into the hands of the people, they'd figure out how to use it. Give people the opportunity to see firsthand the technology in action, and they will respond. Libraries can do the same with new technologies. They can offer a "virtual reference" service via email or chat. If one patron has a successful experience using it, that patron will tell a friend, who will in turn tell a friend, and eventually patrons will see virtual reference as a standard practice. As users change and adapt to new technologies, so must libraries. They can maintain a physical presence with a brick-and-mortar building, but it is necessary for libraries to develop and maintain a virtual presence online.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
WordPress vs. Blogger
WordPress is...
For the casual (or class-required) blogger - Blogger. It's free and easy.
For the discriminating (or smarty-pants) blogger - WordPress. It's customizable and has a more grown-up feel.
- more customizable, especially if you know HTML
- has an informative and powerful dashboard
- for "serious bloggers" or businesses
- it has a less user-friendly layout, especially if you don't know HTML
- certain upgrades cost money
- has little social networking; their "blog surfer" feature is beta
- not all layouts support widgets; user has to switch to one that does, or manually fix the code
- great for the casual blogger or those unfamiliar with blogging
- owned by Google, which explains the simple, friendly interface
- big on the social networking/entertainment aspect of blogs, especially with widgets and add-ons
- free
- it's not as customizable as WordPress
- it has limited storage for multimedia
- it's easier if you have a Google/Gmail account (for picture sharing, email, chat)
- feels like an "entry-level" blog, while WordPress feels more grown-up and "corporate"
For the casual (or class-required) blogger - Blogger. It's free and easy.
For the discriminating (or smarty-pants) blogger - WordPress. It's customizable and has a more grown-up feel.
Admirable library blog
I found the Marin County Free Library's blog to be a notable library blog. It has a lot of great features, but a few minor annoyances. Marin County is located in California, north of San Francisco.
The good:
The good:
- Comprehensive information about a variety of programs and activities. Over the course of a few weeks, there are postings about a "henna party" for teens, a puppet show for children, and a poetry reading for adults. A few posts are in-house plugs for library cards, and an FAQ site, but most of the posts are about events happening in the various county libraries. Many of the summer posts were about teen activities. Assuming that many of the library's teenage patrons use the internet and are familiar with the blog, this is a great way to advertise. There is a teen page, part of the library's website, but it isn't as up-to-date as the blog.
- User-friendliness. The blog is easy to read, with muted colors and a basic font. A column on the right displays links to other parts of the library's website, along with direct links to recent posts and archives. It isn't intended for one specific age group; rather, it appeals to all ages.
- Frequency of posts. New posts appear several times a week, and the blog is archived monthly to October 2003. The posts are all substantial and feature pictures and comprehensible information about various activities.
- Chat? There is a link to "Ask a Librarian," which eventually leads to a site called Ask Now. Essentially, the user's question may be answered by any librarian, anywhere in the U.S. Great for providing 24-hour service, but not so great if a user has a question that is specific to the Marin County Library. Additionally, the chat interface requires that you give your name and town (and requests your email, local library branch and zip code), and looks more like a web-based email form than an actual chat window. Once you get in the chat, it looks more like a regular chat screen, but it's full screen and can't be minimized.
- Internal navigation. Most blogs have links at the bottom which take you to older or newer posts - this one doesn't. Instead, you must navigate to older posts using the Archives links. The heading picture is static, unlike many websites which use the logo or header as a link back to the main page. To internally navigate from an archive page to the main page, you have to use the browser's back button. Also, posts aren't tagged, and there is no search feature on the blog, making it difficult to search for a specific post.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
