Lesson #15 - Wiki Sandbox

We've used wikis in the learning 2.0 planning project, to help plan conference presentations. Wikis are a great way to collaborate in groups that are separated by time and distance. Asynchronous or synchronous.

Lesson #14 Wikis

I've used LibSuccess with great success :-) to see what other libraries are doing and to get ideas for new things we can do here at EKU Libraries.

Lesson #13 - Tagging part 2

Exercise 2:

I think tag clouds effectiveness is spotty, and depends on what you're looking for and the flexibility of the searcher. they are great for acquiring ideas when you're not exactly sure what you're looking for. I basically would expand on the ideas that tags clouds are good "zeroing in" tools, but can be used to expand your search as well and that care needs to be used in employing them.

Exercise 3:

I've presented on del.iciou.us four separate times, so I definitely think it and other social bookmarking sites are worthwhile. I use it to store bookmarks in a central location, search for websites others have tagged, and to share my own. It is great for expertise mining - identifying someone who really knows what they're talking about - and monitoring their bookmarks.

Exercise 4:

tried a search , but didn't get my blog.

Lesson #12 - Tagging

I tried "web 2.0" in Google and received 517 *million* hits.
I chose "web 2.0", tried a simple guided keyword search and got 388 hits. They were scattered all over the place. I got titles on the Eisenhower roadway system, national forests in Arizona and the like in addition to titles on web 2.0
Tried a subject search in Equest and got 0 hits.

The parallel between between the catalog and tagging is that both describe the object and are intended to make retrieval easier and more efficient. The difference is that tagging is assigned by "real" users and isn't part of a controlled vocabulary. It trades ease and breadth of searching for precision, so the searcher needs to be aware of that caveat.

Assignment #11 - Search Tools

I tried Rollyo and wasn't impressed. Very clunky. I spent probably the same amount of time fiddling with it that it would've taken me to do the searches normally. I do think it could be potentially useful, although I prefer to use other tools to do pretty much the same things.

http://rollyo.com/ehlrond/my_first_searchroll/

Assignment #9 - Finding Feeds

i generally used the search tools of the reader when I'm focused and looking for a specific thing. I keep an eye open for the icons and add when I come across stuff I'm interested in.

Assignment #8 RSS

i was already pretty familiar with RSS feeds and have accounts in Googlereader and Bloglines. Its a great way to stay up with topics you are interested in without having to troll the web to find the info. I have to say though, it is still hard to keep up with all the feeds sometimes.