Thing 22 and 23 - This is the end...

...my only friend, THE END!

I am really glad I tried this endeavor (and even gladder that I made it to the finish line). I think that this was an outstanding program and really worth the time. So, now what?

The fact is - of the 20-some things we looked at - some I really liked, some seemed okay, and a few did not seem worth the time or effort. I truly believe this idea of prioritizing is important. There is no way I could keep up with and utilize EVERYTHING that is out there. However, I do think that if I can narrow my focus down to the handful of things that I like and use - that will still make me rather progressive in my profession. I am surprised to say that Bloglines has probably proven itself to be the most useful of all the tools to me personally. It has really cut down on my "surfing" time not checking sites that haven't been updated since the last time I visited them. I also see myself using things like Flickr, LibraryThing, Shelfari, del.icio.us, a great deal in the future.

Does that mean that I will close my eyes to the other (and future) Web 2.o tools out there? I certainly hope not. I do resolve that I will do my best to keep as current/informed as I possibly can to this ever-changing technology. I can't promise that this blog will stay alive - I currently have three blogs going (one for a grad class, one for my library and this one) - not bad for a kid who had never blogged until 4 months ago!

Once again, kudos to those who worked so hard to put this program together - it really was a worthwhile endeavor.

Thing 21 - Other Social Networks

I know I gave the impression that I wasn't too fired up about social networking a couple of posts ago. However, the social networks discussed in this "Thing" are ones I could see myself spending a bit more time with.

Obviously, the professional networking aspect to sites like these is fairly appealing. The ability to "hook up" with like-minded people or other librarians could be very beneficial. I stopped into the 23 Things Ning (say that three times fast) and got a chance to "see" some of the people going through this program. Beyond that, Shelfari is one that caught my eye. Much like LibraryThing, I like how it connects people through books - and the widgets look pretty cool on a blog.

When I find the time, I am going to try and look into some other social networks that may pay dividends at work - too fried to try it right now.

Thing 13 - Online Productivity

Is that an oxymoron? I think sometimes that the time I can spend online "working" actually makes me less productive than I could be.

Anyways, I do have some experience with some of these tools. I have start pages through both MyYahoo and MyMSN. The Yahoo one came about through Fantasy Football. While I do not use it for my personal homepage - I do like the way that it allows you to predetermine what headlines and information you see up front. The MSN page is the homepage for my desktop computer at home. Again, it shows local news and weather reports which is nice.

One thing I was interested in was the online calendar sites. Scrybe was not accepting new registrations so I went to 30 Boxes. The site is okay - although I did run into some annoying snags. I did put a widget from my calendar on this blog. I also tried to place it on my library homepage through edublogs.org, but it did not work out (probably more of an issue with my host site).

Overall, I think this stuff is okay - but there is nothing wrong with using a trusty pen and day planner.