Wk7 - Social Networking

Facebook - I was probably one of the last people on planet Earth to create and run a Facebook account.  It's something that has never really appealled to me and I could never understand all the hype!  And so with much intrepidation, I took the plunge!!  Easy to open (another username and password to remember!!) and set up..  I decided to open it under a pseudonym to start and then if I think I will get some use out of it, I can change the name under my profile later.  I sent out a couple of requests for friends (sounds so sad!) and got a few quick responses.  I can see why this social networking site has become the world's favourite.  The instant messages are amazing and I sat and had a conversation with an old colleague in the UK.  My mum goes into hospital next Thu to have a hip replacement.  She's going to be housebound for a few weeks and so I decided to set up Wordscraper (like Scrabble - a big family favourite).  When she's home, we will be able to play games daily even though she's in Kent, UK and I'm 14,500kms away in Mandurah,Australia .....amazing...... and she's over the moon that we'll be in constant contact and can help ease her boredom.  It is probably the best of the bunch for the library too - getting messages out quickly, advertising events, school activities, promoting our services, and the good thing is that the majority of people know how to use it.
Twitter - Can't make my mind up about Twitter yet.  It was easy enough to open an account and start using immediately, but I can't help but think it's like having a digital-diary!!  It seems that all and sundry seem to use one!  I even saw that Kevin Rudd has one up and running!  Again it seems to be a quick and easy way of passing messages and information on..... 
  

OK - will do for now!!

OK.. so at least I now know that Twitter will stay at the top - shame I can't get it over onto the lefthand side...there must be a way!!  Just need to change it's colour now!

Testing, Testing 1, 2, 3.....

After 20mins I have managed to add Twitter to my Blog...I'm not happy about it's location on the screen (or it's colour!) so I've tried to re-arrange page, but I don't have full control over where everything fits!  So I just want to see when I post this new blog, if Twitter is still at the top of the page, or whether it has moved down below this post.  I know it probably sounds petty, but I want to control my Blog, not the other way round!

OMG! Week 6/Tagging, Delicious and LibraryThing

Perhaps it's me, but I'm finding it more and more difficult as the weeks go on!  This is the most frustrating week so far for me.  Firstly LibraryThing - this part was OK and I followed the instructions and managed to load it into my Blog.  My mind suddenly went blank when I tried to add some of the books I have read recently - typical,...but I dredged the bottom of my mind and came up with a few.  I like this tool and can see the benefits of using it.  I thought of all our senior patrons that come into the library regularly and seem to pick the same books over and over!  With LibraryThing we could collate this information for them...no more initialling the books! 
Delicious/tagging - This part I found extremely frustrating - especially 'Explore 1' where you had to set up your own Delicious account and put a link to it in your blog.  I spent 2.5hrs trying to achieve this and visited over 20 websites trying to get help on how to do it and watched 5 different Youtube tutorials!!  I looked at some of Group 1's blogs and couldn't see the link. My stubborness kicked in - this was NOT going to beat me...and eventually I managed to do it!!!!  Now I just need to establish how to use it via my blog!!  On a positive note, I can see it's potential.  When we eventually open these social network sites to our patrons, I think Delicious would be an idea tool for anyone studying/projects/assignments/etc as they can setup tags/bookmarks to their favourite websites and have the information sent to them.  

Eeeek! A month gone already!

Where does the time go? I've just logged on and realised nearly a month has passed already since I've written a post!  So this week my intention is to complete weeks 6 & 7 (hopefully!)... so expect a few entries on your Blogs this week...