Much ado about wiki

Wikis are so much easier than I thought they were! I have just started one for a 20 year school reunion.
Email had made it easier than it would have been just with telephones and letter writing, but even with email once the mailing list got bigger it was harder and harder to keep track.
As soon as I started the wiki I could see that it was going to be much easier as long as everyone else uses it.
I simply can't believe how easy they are to use. The possibilities for them are huge! Even things like roster availibilities for staff members or library holiday activity bookings could be done this way.
I am planning to investigate what sort of things wikis are being used for.

RSS a go go

So I signed up for both google reader and bloglines. Google reader because I use gmail and my blogs are through blogspot which is affiliated with google. Blogspot because the course suggested it. Well, I don't know how time saving this venture is likely to be for me, given that by the time I checked out their suggestions and subscribed to some favourites I found that in no time at all I had 321 feeds to wade through. Admittedly if I do the wade I will at least only be wading through things I am apparently interested in but still 300+ feeds is a fair amount.

Some of the subscriptions chosen were 'library' and 'web 2.0' so I am hoping I will come across some useful stuff. I must admit I also subscribed to 'Harry Potter' so I am hoping to beat my sister to the lastest news there!

Get on down

One of the most interesting things about Flickr has been the fact that I can merrily upload my photos, create sets, show them to my relatives across the seas...but I can't download them myself!

The whole premise of signing up to Flickr (as they promote it) is, what if there were a fire? What would you save? The incentive screen suggests, family, pets and then photos. By 'backing them up' to Flickr, you have saved them.

I live in a bushfire prone area, so let's imagine that my house burns down. Naturally, I have also lost my computer. Thank goodness I uploaded my special photos to Flickr! Now, I just want to make some new prints of the kids as babies and me when I still had a waistline... Oh hang on, I live in Australia, this means I can't order prints. Can I at least downlaod them to my new computer and print them myself? Ummm, apparently not!

So I have come across my first major issue with Flickr. However, having long been a trawler for good free software (I love open office) I come across this programme made available on this site;

http://www.greggman.com/pages/flickrdown.htm

Well Greggman, you rock! I did have to also download microsoft net 2.0 to get it to work, but Greggman has kindly given me the link for that as well.

Another reminder of why information and programme sharing is so important! Flickr now really does what I need it to do. Stores my photos safely, shares them with my friends and family, allows me to check out other amazing photos and let's me download, print or use my prints when I need to.

"The Library"

"The Library"
Originally uploaded by Here's Kate

Ok, so just getting my head around Flickr, I have managed to blog this fantastic photo, originally uploaded by Here's Kate. I still have a few bits and pieces to work out, such as how on earth do I print photos? Can I save them onto a memory stick if I want to print professionally? Can I attach photoss from Flickr to emails or ebay etc... Have spent pretty much all day playing with this and hope to master it fairly soon. The whole Creative Commons thing has given me a great deal to thnk about too.

The garden blog is born

If you are interested in sustainable gardening, I just started my other blog. The link is a s follows
http://fruitsofmyyard.blogspot.com/

A blogstar is born.

Let's start at the very beginning...

Two significant things have brought me to this moment. The moment when I actively embrace 2.0 and take a skinny dip in the world wide web.

The first is that after 2 years of working in public libraries and a second semester of online study, I recognise the need to shed my remaining luddite ways and embrace the future (and indeed the present). The second is that I have recently made a serious 'tree change'. My family have abandoned the city and want to live a more sustainable life. I want to create a blog that follows the progress of our attempt at 'the good life'

So here we go, the first small step... A blog that documents my discoveries and observations as I learn about web 2.0

By the end of this wee course, I hope to be blogging, flickring, youtubing and other verbs made of cool web things.

I am excited and nervous. See you next blog!