The End

Well I thoroughly enjoyed doing the Amazing Challenge. It was exciting to learn new web technologies every week. I found the embedding a video in a blog fun. I liked creating a blog and continually adding new posts. I found editing a wiki a responsible task as I didn't want to add something that wasn't accurate for the site. Further, I loved delicious.com, doing social bookmarking. Delicious.com was the site I found most interesting. I enjoyed trawling the web for favourite sites to add as links. For our library I think a Greerton Library blog would be worthwhile and RSS feeds would enable retrieval of useful information with minimum effort. I was surprised at how easy it was to embed a video into a blog. One of the areas which could be improved would be to create a podcast and set up a Greerton library facebook page. Take our own photos and then upload to Flickr. It looks like I achieved my goals. I was worried about lack of access but this doesn't seem to have hindered me.Items I mentioned I might have trouble accessing a digital camera and headset and microphone weren't needed in the challenge.Overall, I again reiterate that I have loved doign this challenge

Social networking sites - love or loathe

I am fairly ambivalent about social networking sites. I have a facebook page that I use marginally. I find myself wondering about the amount of time some people must spend on the site. Either posting comments or also finding other sites or photos or YouTube items to post. Where do they get the time? I feel that it is very much a young persons activity. They seem to revel in the instant communication. They appear to rather sit in their rooms in front of a screen than catch up with friends in real time. If social networking disappeared overnight I wouldn't be phased. So, I guess you could say that I am veering toward the loathe of these sites. I love catching up with news about friends in actual person to person contact. I consider myself old school, still loving collecting cds instead of using an ipod, preferring maximum security for my use of any site instead of sharing with everyone. However, I am really interested to see where social networking sites go to from here. Whether in a few years I too will be hooked on instant comunication via these sites. We will have to wait and see. Now that maybe worth waiting for.....

White Nights

This has to be one of my all time favourite pieces of dance. I grew up watching this sequence and the movie over and over again. Even now I still love it.

Radical Dance at Delicious.com

I chose delicious .com to complete this task. I liked the site although the visuals could have been more attractive and captivating. I enjoyed the way you could group together images and videos. My entry is at http://delicious.com/stacks/korksallan where I listed radical dance images and videos. I also liked that I could share my entry. It was easy to use and I would recommend it to others.However, I think it could be more obvious in what you could use the bookmarking for. I could use it in my job by bookmarking relevant library articles.It could be used  further  by bookmarking some of the videos which I have watched while completing the amazing challenge so far. They give useful instructions on how to use web technologies which are becoming increasingly relevant to librarianship.

RSS Feeds

Regarding setting up a RSS I enjoyed how easy it was to subscribe. I subscribed to  (a)-arts - dance - the New York Times, (b) BBC - home, (c) company- locus research, (d) eonline - entertainment news,(e) stuff.co.nz - news site. I found using the keyword search to find sites you know but not the url very helpful instead of searching through google or your memory for the relevant url. I also found it useful when searching for a new site to subscribe to. The area which I found more difficult to use was to actually read what the RSS had imported. I found that the only place I could read the information was on Reader Play. However, on leaving the RSS for awhile then returning to it I see all my imported news there available to be read. I love keeping uptodate with news so it is going to be beneficial for me to use RSS to collate the latest in news from around the world. It will reduce the amount of searching I do on individual sites and through old news still posted on sites. The locus research site is my brother's business website so I can keep abreast of what is happening in his world. He is involved in some exciting work which interests me. Libraries can use this technology to keep up with the latest innovations in libraries throughout the world by subscribing to various practical library and information studies sites. By having the latest news downloaded to their google reader this enables busy library managers to have a one stop shop for new information. They could also use the reader to download current affairs onto their library site which would allow users to have quick access to news. Further, there may be some benefit to genealogy users if you had new genealogy information downloaded onto one place which is then connected to the library website.

Flickr

So, I have just created a Flickr account and downloaded some photos which was fun. Flickr was easy to use and especially to change features within the account like name of the photo or set which I had labelled inaccurately.  I have chosen a dance image to import into this blog because to me they make exciting photos.This photo shows an aspect of contact dance and the shape of their limbs creates a vibrant, moving image.  I have enjoyed joining my blog with flickr. The photo link to flickr is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/korksallan/?saved=1

forever learning

So, far I have created two blogs. One on contemporary dance and this one. The blog on contemporary dance helped me learn how to import images to create a unique blog. I am enjoying creating a space where I am able to express my opinion and learn new skills. I have used the internet to write this blog and to choose images. It was a much easier than I originally thought it would be.However, I found it challenging moving back and forwards between the different windows of the blog as there didn't seem to be an option to do so. For example, how to find the unposted blog once you are in the blog home window. I also had to figure out how to change my background because I didn't like the first option.It isn't the easiest of sites to move around on. But one of my aims was to create a blog which I have now done. From playing around with the site I feel much more confident  in creating a unique blog through importing images, selecting the style of background I would prefer and editing my profile.I found that I did not need a digital camera for this project as I use google images instead. In the future I am looking forward to editing a wiki and working on a podcast. I will need a headset and microphone to create a podcast which I can do in my place of work. The wiki I imagine I can do from any internet access.I am hoping to be challenged to improve my skills through working on these web technologies.