Well... we've arrived at Week 9. Taking a cue from Katherine, I decided to finish-up the 23 Things from home tonight (instead of writing my final paper for my class). At least I'm cramming for something, right?
As a huge fan of the audio-book (I commuted from Richmond to Petersburg each day for five years), I am familiar with downloading audio content off the web. I used to get my audio-books from Audible.com but at the time I didn't have an MP3 player. As a result, I have hundreds of CDs with a wide variety of books on them that I used during my commute. If you'd like a list of books that I have available for people to borrow I'd be glad to send one along. Last Christmas I bought the girlfriend an MP3 player and discovered iTunes. The fact that I can get some really wonderful audio content over the web is astonishing to me - especially because a lot of it is free. I've downloaded lectures by well-known historians, weekly podcasts about gardening and, of course, Star Wars, and tours of Civil War battlefields in the Richmond area. My favorite podcast (really a radio program available on iTunes) is Backstory with the History Guys. Ed Ayres and two of his former colleagues from UVa have a weekly call-in program in which they pick a topic, do interviews, and take calls. It's really a good time and great to have during an evening walk.
I'm not sure what's going to happen to this blog once we're done with the 23 Things... I hope I'll continue to add content since I've really enjoyed writing it. I want to thank Katherine for organizing this whole thing. I've learned a great deal about the web and hope to be able to keep up with new developments.
Just remember, you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.
Monday, December 1, 2008
General Orders No. 8
OK... I'll admit it. I love Google. I love searching for information and images using Google's search engine, I love making and sharing maps using GoogleMaps, I love looking for bargains using Froogle, I love downloading or reviewing scans of books using GoogleBooks, and now I love Google for giving me the change to share a document among multiple users without having to send it back-and-forth by email. Thank you... thank you... thank you Google!
Right now we're working on a grant proposal for the Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission. Jim, Bill, and I keep emailing version after version of the same document to one another. GoogleDocs would make our job so much more efficient. GoogleDocs would allow us to work on one version and avoid a whole bunch of confusion. An added bonus is that the document is available from anywhere. I'm really looking forward to trying this out soon.
What will the folks at Google think of next? Someone said to me the other day that the "newness" of the internet hasn't really given people an opportunity to figure out the best way to use it. One example of this is online media which hasn't figured out that an online news source isn't just a digital version of a newspaper but demands an entirely new philosophical base. If anyone is going to shape how we use the web I think it will be all those geniuses at Google.
Right now we're working on a grant proposal for the Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission. Jim, Bill, and I keep emailing version after version of the same document to one another. GoogleDocs would make our job so much more efficient. GoogleDocs would allow us to work on one version and avoid a whole bunch of confusion. An added bonus is that the document is available from anywhere. I'm really looking forward to trying this out soon.
What will the folks at Google think of next? Someone said to me the other day that the "newness" of the internet hasn't really given people an opportunity to figure out the best way to use it. One example of this is online media which hasn't figured out that an online news source isn't just a digital version of a newspaper but demands an entirely new philosophical base. If anyone is going to shape how we use the web I think it will be all those geniuses at Google.
General Orders No. 7
I guess I didn't understand that "Wiki" was a thing... I've used Wikipedia for quite some time and, while I realized that many of the entries were written and edited by users I didn't realize that there were other types of Wikis. I found a really great Star Wars Wiki called Wookiepedia. You can go look up all you ever wanted to know about Mynocks or Huttese by clicking here.
The VHS Wiki seems to be a very useful tool. I was able to post comments on other people's entries, edit my space on the Lumpkin's Jail sign-up sheet to let Meg know that I don't have a hardhat, and get some information about projects in the manuscripts department. In just a couple of weeks people have seemed to find a number of good uses for the tool and I'd imagine more will come later.
The VHS Wiki seems to be a very useful tool. I was able to post comments on other people's entries, edit my space on the Lumpkin's Jail sign-up sheet to let Meg know that I don't have a hardhat, and get some information about projects in the manuscripts department. In just a couple of weeks people have seemed to find a number of good uses for the tool and I'd imagine more will come later.
General Orders No. 6
Working my way backwards a bit, I was able to sign-out of Facebook long enough to check out Week 5 activities. To be honest, I didn't find Delicious to be very appetizing. While I appreciate the ability to use my bookmarks from any computer (something I have never actually been called upon to do) I don't really see the point in sharing my bookmarks. Maybe my problem is that I don't really think that very many people on the web have very interesting things to share. Maybe it's because I'm an only child. I guess if I want to find all of the most popular Star Wars websites, I can do that by a Google search for 'Star Wars.' My understanding is that Google will order the hits according to the most relevant and the most popular. Maybe I'm wrong in that assumption.
I think Delicious brings me back to my old problem with Web 2.0... too much information. I went to Delicious "Home" and chose one of the tags for the first link. The tag read "Aggregator." I was then presented with an entire page of similarly tagged sites. Great! Now what? I think part of the problem, and one of the things I like about Google, is that you can't really see anything about the content of the site without clicking on it and going to that page. When you realize that you don't want to be there you need to go back. Kind of annoying. I think I'll stick to my Bookmark tab at the top of Firefox and take my chances on the road.
I have some ideas "percolating" about Technorati. Since I haven't been conditioned to use blogs for news collecting I didn't really know that there was so much out there. The idea of a single site that can tell you what the most popular and most recent news items are in the bloggosphere seems like a pretty handy tool. If I want to keep my finger on the pulse, this seems to be a good place to do it. One of the things I do like about blogs is that they can be hyper-local. Some blogs in Richmond are as specific as a certain neighborhood. This seems to me to be really useful since there are no other outlets covering hyper-local news and events. If I want to know about Brittany's latest flashing episode, I'm sure it will be front page news on all the major networks. If I want to know why there were police officers searching through my neighborhood, I might look to a blog. Unfortunately, I don't think the Reedy Creek neighborhood is going to make it on Technorati.
I guess for the VHS, the key element in all of this is to make sure that our website, blog, and other web resources are tagged in such a way so that our information can be separated from all the chaff out there...
I checked out the Meebo site and was reminded about a conversation I had the other day about the impersonal nature of instant messaging in the workplace. I say its impersonal and can lead to all sorts of misunderstandings... what ever happened to talking with people and being civil. Karri made a good point, although it does lead us down a slippery-slope. From a productivity standpoint, instant messaging does allow people to get right to the point (i.e. Katherine, do we have 'x' book?) instead of all that civility stuff that usually comes before the question if I called her on the phone. And god forbid I actually go down to the library to ask her in person.
Funny that much of this Web 2.0 stuff is designed to get us socially networking, yet it may have an unintended consequence of disabling some of our social niceties... Anyway, back to Facebook.
I think Delicious brings me back to my old problem with Web 2.0... too much information. I went to Delicious "Home" and chose one of the tags for the first link. The tag read "Aggregator." I was then presented with an entire page of similarly tagged sites. Great! Now what? I think part of the problem, and one of the things I like about Google, is that you can't really see anything about the content of the site without clicking on it and going to that page. When you realize that you don't want to be there you need to go back. Kind of annoying. I think I'll stick to my Bookmark tab at the top of Firefox and take my chances on the road.
I have some ideas "percolating" about Technorati. Since I haven't been conditioned to use blogs for news collecting I didn't really know that there was so much out there. The idea of a single site that can tell you what the most popular and most recent news items are in the bloggosphere seems like a pretty handy tool. If I want to keep my finger on the pulse, this seems to be a good place to do it. One of the things I do like about blogs is that they can be hyper-local. Some blogs in Richmond are as specific as a certain neighborhood. This seems to me to be really useful since there are no other outlets covering hyper-local news and events. If I want to know about Brittany's latest flashing episode, I'm sure it will be front page news on all the major networks. If I want to know why there were police officers searching through my neighborhood, I might look to a blog. Unfortunately, I don't think the Reedy Creek neighborhood is going to make it on Technorati.
I guess for the VHS, the key element in all of this is to make sure that our website, blog, and other web resources are tagged in such a way so that our information can be separated from all the chaff out there...
I checked out the Meebo site and was reminded about a conversation I had the other day about the impersonal nature of instant messaging in the workplace. I say its impersonal and can lead to all sorts of misunderstandings... what ever happened to talking with people and being civil. Karri made a good point, although it does lead us down a slippery-slope. From a productivity standpoint, instant messaging does allow people to get right to the point (i.e. Katherine, do we have 'x' book?) instead of all that civility stuff that usually comes before the question if I called her on the phone. And god forbid I actually go down to the library to ask her in person.
Funny that much of this Web 2.0 stuff is designed to get us socially networking, yet it may have an unintended consequence of disabling some of our social niceties... Anyway, back to Facebook.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
General Orders No. 5
I'm thinking that some folks out there are going to be soon challenged to a duel. At the urging of my girlfriend, Karri, we joined Facebook together. Within 12-hours of being a member I saw photographs of people I haven't seen in 20 years, was openly mocked on my "Wall" about the image from the VHS collection I posted to represent me, and realized that I have more virtual friends than real ones.
All joking aside, social networking seems like it could have significant benefits to the Virginia Historical Society. By collecting virtual friends, the VHS can instantly communicate with a number of people and, through them, a whole host of other people. Considering the limited resources for advertising and the short time it takes to update a profile page with new information, the exposure on-line that the VHS could receive seems like it would multiply in cyberspace and reach a good many people. Plus, it's FREE. That is unless you can't get the person in charge of updating the profile to stop looking for old boy/girlfriends and schoolmates.
Now... time to 'poke' someone...
All joking aside, social networking seems like it could have significant benefits to the Virginia Historical Society. By collecting virtual friends, the VHS can instantly communicate with a number of people and, through them, a whole host of other people. Considering the limited resources for advertising and the short time it takes to update a profile page with new information, the exposure on-line that the VHS could receive seems like it would multiply in cyberspace and reach a good many people. Plus, it's FREE. That is unless you can't get the person in charge of updating the profile to stop looking for old boy/girlfriends and schoolmates.
Now... time to 'poke' someone...
Friday, November 7, 2008
General Orders No. 4
I spent a bit of time last week reviewing all of the "For Fun" websites... For someone who likes own books (reading them is kind of an afterthought). I really liked the potential of LibraryThing as a way for people to discuss books in a virtual environment. For quite some time now I've been reading books in a bit of a void... you know how it is. You read the book, you get to the end, you make an assessment about whether you liked it or not, and then the book goes back on the shelf and you really don't think about it again.
I also learned that according to Generator Land...
THA NOTORIOUS NOODLE is my Gangsta name, HECTOR THE GOON is my Mafia name, MORNINGPOLLEN WINDVOICE is my Hippy name. If I were a Greek God I would be URANONO, God of Neutering and Frequent Urination. If I were an American Indian I would be SNUGGLES MUD of the Plattbego Tribe. If I were a Star Wars character I would be ANDTA RABOS Vokcaravan of Walatin.
Best of all though was a video I saw on one of the websites that led me to a literal version of the Aha! video for "Take on Me." Too funny... here's the link for those of you who remember pop culture in the 80s. You can watch it if you click here.
Lastly, I have decided that I don't want my cell phone to call me to tell me to bring things home. That's why I bought myself a girlfriend.
A.H. Talkov
Brigadier General Commanding
I also learned that according to Generator Land...
THA NOTORIOUS NOODLE is my Gangsta name, HECTOR THE GOON is my Mafia name, MORNINGPOLLEN WINDVOICE is my Hippy name. If I were a Greek God I would be URANONO, God of Neutering and Frequent Urination. If I were an American Indian I would be SNUGGLES MUD of the Plattbego Tribe. If I were a Star Wars character I would be ANDTA RABOS Vokcaravan of Walatin.
Best of all though was a video I saw on one of the websites that led me to a literal version of the Aha! video for "Take on Me." Too funny... here's the link for those of you who remember pop culture in the 80s. You can watch it if you click here.
Lastly, I have decided that I don't want my cell phone to call me to tell me to bring things home. That's why I bought myself a girlfriend.
A.H. Talkov
Brigadier General Commanding
Monday, October 27, 2008
General Orders No. 3
The battle lines (or shall I say blog lines) are drawn.
Our forces are now connected to a Bloglines account and are receiving information from two Civil War related correspondents. For some long I've been hesitant to seek information from the blogs because I couldn't keep track of all of them. With the aggregator it's a snap! One mouseclick and I can receive the latest intelligence (sometimes more and sometimes less). In addition, if I'm surfing the web and find a blog or newsfeed I want to follow I can add it to my Bloglines account with another click.
We shall make great use of this technology in our effort to defeat our greatest enemy - ignorance.
A. H. Talkov
Brigadier-General Commanding
Our forces are now connected to a Bloglines account and are receiving information from two Civil War related correspondents. For some long I've been hesitant to seek information from the blogs because I couldn't keep track of all of them. With the aggregator it's a snap! One mouseclick and I can receive the latest intelligence (sometimes more and sometimes less). In addition, if I'm surfing the web and find a blog or newsfeed I want to follow I can add it to my Bloglines account with another click.
We shall make great use of this technology in our effort to defeat our greatest enemy - ignorance.
A. H. Talkov
Brigadier-General Commanding
Monday, October 20, 2008
General Orders No. 2
Richmond, Va., October 20, 2008
We have conducted our reconnaissance into the territory controlled by the Flickrs and, in the immortal words of Captain James T. Kirk, "Too... much... information... makes... my... brain... hurt."
I did a search for 'Civil War' and came up with a collection of images related to the American Civil War, the Spanish Civil War, and whatever is happening in Iraq that they refuse to call a Civil War. I'm not sure but it seems as though Flickr might not run on a Google-type search engine that brings up the most popularly visited sites. As a result, what you get is a bevy of images that may or may not really relate to your search. That said, I suppose Flickr is mainly a resource to share images as opposed to a search engine to locate images. As far as UGC (user generated content) is concerned, my problem is that most users don't have anything particularly interesting to say... and some are downright vile. With all the information out there it seems like it would be difficult for a VHS Flickr page to be found among the vast sea of information and, if found, to get a critical mass of loyal users to stay committed. Given the fact that any images (of events for instance) that the VHS wants to promote could be promoted on our website makes Flickr probably less useful for our applications. I'll have to think on this for a bit though...
I did enjoy using the Flikr spelling tool and loved my Flikr chia-pet...
A.H. Talkov
Brigadier-General, Commanding
We have conducted our reconnaissance into the territory controlled by the Flickrs and, in the immortal words of Captain James T. Kirk, "Too... much... information... makes... my... brain... hurt."
I did a search for 'Civil War' and came up with a collection of images related to the American Civil War, the Spanish Civil War, and whatever is happening in Iraq that they refuse to call a Civil War. I'm not sure but it seems as though Flickr might not run on a Google-type search engine that brings up the most popularly visited sites. As a result, what you get is a bevy of images that may or may not really relate to your search. That said, I suppose Flickr is mainly a resource to share images as opposed to a search engine to locate images. As far as UGC (user generated content) is concerned, my problem is that most users don't have anything particularly interesting to say... and some are downright vile. With all the information out there it seems like it would be difficult for a VHS Flickr page to be found among the vast sea of information and, if found, to get a critical mass of loyal users to stay committed. Given the fact that any images (of events for instance) that the VHS wants to promote could be promoted on our website makes Flickr probably less useful for our applications. I'll have to think on this for a bit though...
I did enjoy using the Flikr spelling tool and loved my Flikr chia-pet...
A.H. Talkov
Brigadier-General, Commanding
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
General Orders No. 1
Richmond, Va., October 7, 2008.
Let us understand each other. I have come to you from the South (of the James) where we have always seen the backs of our enemies; from an army whose business it has been to seek the adversary and to beat him where he is found; whose policy has been the attack and not defense... Let us look before us and not behind. Success and glory are in the advance, disaster and shame lurk in the rear.
A. H. Talkov,
Brigadier-General, Commanding.
Let us understand each other. I have come to you from the South (of the James) where we have always seen the backs of our enemies; from an army whose business it has been to seek the adversary and to beat him where he is found; whose policy has been the attack and not defense... Let us look before us and not behind. Success and glory are in the advance, disaster and shame lurk in the rear.
A. H. Talkov,
Brigadier-General, Commanding.
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