Web 2.0 Activity Check List

Are you one of my fellow library critters who's doing this fun little web 2.0 familiarization course? Are you sure you've got everything done and that you'll qualify for the prize thingy at the end? Well, I've made this list which has all the activities we've been required to complete, taken directly from the Joliet Library Discovers Blog. The list is a google document, which we were required to learn how to use as one of the steps in the course. It is available here:https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AQEpUwCoHcfBZGQ5azMzcmNfMTM0Z25ncHhycTk&hl=en

I'll update it as more posts come from the assignment blog, though I'm doing it manually it might not update as fast as some might like. I'll post again after the last assignment with the completed list. 


Regards,
-Benjamin

Blogging about Web 2.0 tools

Another day, another assignment which I will endeavor to mock slightly while technically completing thus qualifying for the thingy at the end. Today I've got this list of web 2.0 tools to explore, some of them are quite cool and I've been using them for years, so I'll give you a list, I like lists.

Top 15 Web 2.0 tools that I have used and were awesome which are also mentioned in the SEOmoz.org's web 2.0 awards page here:

1. StumbleUpon 
2. Craigslist 
3. Google Docs 
4. Geni 
5. Google Maps
6. Twitter
7. Picasa 
8. Yahoo! Answers 
9. Facebook 
10. Reddit 
11. Digg 
12. YouTube 
13. Flock 
14. Metacafe
15. Etsy

 That's the end of that chapter.

Regards,
-Benjamin

Blogging about Google Reader

So, I checked my google reader feed this afternoon, where I subscribe to several hundred different RSS feeds, including the Joliet Library Discovers blog where I get these assignments from. (Ok, so not that many any more but at one time I had well over 300 feeds subscribed to.)  There I saw the new assignment for this web 2.0 program I'm doing at work... I lol'd.

I've been using Google reader for years, probably from it's very launch in October 2005. I have been and remain impressed with the growth of features I've seen come out of Google labs for Google Reader. I'd have to say that the best feature of Google Reader is the keyboard shortcut navigation. The j and k keys send you "next" and "back" respecively, r reloads the feed, gh "goes home", ag "goes to all", v to "view" the original page, etc, etc.

Recently, they've added some "social" features to the reader, probably part of their whole friend connect platform and the push at Google to integrate themselves into the entire semantic web enterprise. If you want to read my shared items you can find them here in my shared item feed.  The feed mostly contains comics and other funny stuff but occasionally I'll include a political piece that I rally agree with or a relevant news story. You can also see the latest couple in a widget on this blog, over there --->

Regards,
-Benjamin