Exploring You Tube

You Tube was not a new phenomenon to me. I had seen OK go, the evolution of dance and some of the other classics such as KRL's "fish story". I am amazed at what a phenomenon it has become. I did a search for French Cats just to see what would pop up and it was amusing and frightening at the same time. I then did a search for the Eiffel Tower and found a couple of clips that I posted below. I especially like the one of the Eiffel sparkling as that's what it was doing when my husband got down on one knee 7 years ago. I would be interested to know if the ratio of people posting videos is equal or lesser than the number of people viewing videos. I read somewhere that Gen X could possibly be the most narcissistic generation yet with YouTube, the Iphone and My Space. The new Wii gaming system also panders to this mentality in that you can create your own little person that can look just like you to run around and play tennis, baseball, golf and bowling. For the most part YouTube seems to me to be a guilty pleasure. However, I am sure that the candidates are grateful for a venue to reach young voters. YouTube has also contributed to the birth of other websites such as GodTube and it seems like you see embedded videos all over the web nowadays. It will be interesting to see what the next big Internet fad will be. Until next time....

Time Lapse of the Eiffel Tower



See the Eiffel Tower Sparkle!

That Thing called Library Thing

Well, I have created a small library of what else, but books on France. I liked the interactive options that allow you to see what other people are reading and what they think of books that you have in common. The options concerning whether or not you would share your information with the rest of the world was also nice. There weren't any conversations presently on any of the books I picked except Peter Mayle's, A Good Year. This book was most likely singled out because Ridley Scott directed a movie adaptation with Russell Crowe. I clicked on the conversations link and read posts about books that had been made into movies. It was called, "When the book is better than the movie or vice versa." It was quite fun to read through different peoples' reviews on different movie adaptations of well known books. Once again I appreciated the tagging as I was able to find several other books that I had never heard of and added to my library so that I would remember to look them up and eventually check them out from our illustrious collection. I am also a huge Jane Austen fan and can only imagine what I might stumble upon if I went poking around for her works. I enjoyed learning about Library Thing and will most likely use it in the future. I can see how book groups would find this especially useful along with people who are into a specific genre such as mystery. Well, that is all for now, back to my corner of cubeland in the outback.

Flitting about Flickr

I was already familiar with Flickr before this assignment. I believe that I even have a Flickr account which I created in order to view a friend's photos but alas I am afraid that once again the password has escaped me. So I just took the tour of the site and searched for what else but pictures of France. I then took a stroll down memory lane and looked at pictures of the Eiffel tower where my husband proposed to me. I just went to the most popular tags page and was able to find what I was looking for very quickly. I posted one of the photos I came across at the beginning of my post. As I was uploading this photo that someone so skillfully took I wondered if there are any copyright laws attached to these photos? Can you use them for power point presentations, screen savers or whatever you so desire? Just wondering.... I was introduced to Flickr some time ago by a friend who is an amateur photographer looking to eventually start her own business. So she loads her photos onto Flickr in order to have somewhere to direct people that are interested in hiring her. She also uses it as a place for family to see up-to-date pictures of her family. I like how you can select certain settings that can limit the amount of access people have to your photos. Overall, I think that Flickr is a great tool, mostly for sharing photos with family or friends or helping to promote a business. I also thought it was quite fun how people can leave comments on the pictures themselves. Well, even though I would much rather be nibbling on a baguette at the La tour Eiffel I must go back to my corner.

Back in the saddle with RSS Feeds

Well, it has been quite some time since I have ventured into KRL2.0 land. So long in fact that I couldn't remember any of my passwords. After I surrendered to the password gods I reset my gmail password and dove in. I found this to be one of the more simple assignments so far. I subscribed to a couple of staff blogs as well as two card making websites to feed my need for papercrafting ideas. I am looking forward to reading new posts from all of these sites as they are created. I am excited to finally be in "the know" about RSS feeds asI have seen the icon on many websites that I frequent. I would have to say that RSS feeds along with creating a delicious account have been some of the more practical tools we have been introduced to so far in KRL 2.0. I can see this being useful for our individual department pages on the staff website. For example, you wouldn't necessarily have to send out an e-mail whenever you updated instructions or templates as long as everyone who needed this information subscribed to the RSS feed they would automatically be notified. I am making a New Year's Resolution to do more KRL 2.0 so that I can get caught up and remember my darn password. Well, its time for me to go back to my corner. Until next time...

Tagging.....

Well, I must say that I am learning quite a lot as I work through KRL2ptO. When I first glanced at the instructions for tagging I was a bit overwhelmed but it was much easier than I thought. I can see how this is more convenient and easier to organize than using your favorites list. I really enjoyed seeing what tags other people used and even added a couple sites from other people's lists. I know I will continue to add to my del.icio.us list often. It is also quite fun to see who else has posted your blog to their list. I also appreciated that my list can be accessed from any computer. I accompanied my husband this weekend on a business trip and I certainly could have used a del.icio.us account as I was using the hotels communal computer. I can see how a department here at KRL could have a delicious account that they accessed with common sites that are needed on a day to day basis like the Port Orchard Ref list. Additionally, I can see how as an organization we could share useful information using del.icio.us. It really helps create a feeling of community to have access to other people's lists of what they find useful for work or just plain interesting. Del.icio.us will also aid me in my quest for the French villa that I will own some day. Until I post again....

43 things i might want to do this year RESPONSE

I must say that I was somewhat inspired by this article. It is very exciting to explore these new high tech frontiers. After Library 2.0 I might even be able to have an intelligent conversation with a teenager! One of the reasons that I was excited to participate in this training was to become more informed about what resources and tools are really out there to utilize at work and in my everyday life. The only thing that bothers me a little is how with these leaps and bounds in technology we are moving away from actually connecting with people face to face or on a personal level. However, there is a certain thrill in instant messaging someone or connecting with friends far away in Holland via a web cam. So I guess I am a bit conflicted on the whole issue of starting and finishing a list of web based goals. It would be hard not to throw in a couple of other goals like winning the lottery, scrap booking all of my photographs (including my wedding 6 years ago), learning Chinese and owning a house in the French countryside just outside of Paris that I could renovate and live in 6 months out of the year like Frances Mayes and her beloved Bramesole. I think my first goal will be to make a list of 43 things that contains a healthy balance of web education and personal aspirations both practical and imaginary. I did appreciate the list of suggested goals and I look forward to exploring several of them when I am not shopping for my French villa. Ohr vwahr for now!