Libraries and Twitter - should we? Will you follow?

I roamed the countryside searching for answers to things I did not understand. Why shells existed on the tops of mountains. How the various circles of water form around the spot which has been struck by a stone, and why a bird sustains itself in the air.

Leonardo da Vinci
(artist, architect, musician and scientist), 1452-1519

Time is the one thing we all seem to be short of, yet here we are still exploring the ever-expanding cyberworld. Where will it all end? This exercise has thrown up some nice library twitter pages, with quite a variety of styles. Most tweets appear to be being posted by often only 1 or 2 librarians at each institution, and there didn't seem to be a lot of interaction on many of the ones I looked at. Most content seemed to be promoting library events or resources - always a good thing - and I really liked the tweets on the College of Du Page, Glen Ellyn (Illinois) "LibrarySecrets" page, and they have a good following, so it looks as though a lot of other people like them as well. Rodney Libraries has a chatty style and a mix of library and 'newsy' tweets, but at least the language is clear. Nathaniel Hawthorne said "Easy reading is damn hard writing", and with only 140 characters available for a tweet, good skills in the art of writing must surely be a real asset?

If NSL were twittering, a tweet about the Northcote Maori Collection could look something like this - "Mā te huruhuru te manu ka rere ai / With feathers a bird can fly". Come and meet Manu Aute and browse her treasures.

Twitter searching - (not) hunting in the deep?

“The fact is, that among his hunters at least, the whale would by all hands be considered a noble dish, were there not so much of him; but when you come to sit down before a meat-pie nearly one hundred feet long, it takes away your appetite.”

Herman Melville, 'Moby Dick' (1851)

And my appetite for searching Twitter has certainly been taken away on this exercise. I guess I like my information in more than just the mini-bites dished up by Twitter, and in plain english rather than the 'tinglish' that seems to abound. For some people Twitter may be all they need or want, and that's okay, but it's not really for this lobo, I feel. After striking out with my first search about the resumption of the sanctioned shooting of wolves again in the Greater Yellowstone region, (I used various brief search strings, but almost everything that came back involved the movie "Twilight") I revised my search and went looking for "Japanese whaling". There were some good results on the Twitter search engine, although I did feel somewhat cheated at the very brief accounts, because understandably you can't convey a heck of a lot information on such a subject in only 140 characters. The links to longer articles or posts were helpful, though, and I can see in the coming weeks it could be a very good way of keeping track of what is happening as this year's "whaling season" gets underway in the Antarctic, so I may yet find myself making more use of this. TweepSearch wasn't the right option for this particular topic, but I did like Twoogle, and if I were to do any regular visiting to Twitter, this would probably be my search engine of choice. You can get your tweets and your meat, so to speak, in the one search, satisfying the news junkie side of me, and giving some real-time news-bytes at the same time. So, it would definitely depend on what you were searching for, but this could be worth persevering with, after all...

What's the tweet, tell me what's happening...

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”

Henry David Thoreau

(American essayist, poet and philosopher, 1817-1862), Journal, 19 August 1851

Like this wolf photographed by Scott Ian Barry, peering up into the tree at a bird and looking rather puzzled, so too am I rather puzzled - by Twitter. Things such as Twitter have an unnerving ability to make me feel as though I'm too old and crusty to appreciate them properly, and maybe I am, but it seems to me that some people really could (and perhaps should) spend their time at better pursuits. The Internet has become such an extension of peoples' everyday lives, but just because you "can" do it, it doesn't necessarily mean you "should" join the latest online fad or fashion. I looked at Dr Maya Angelou's page and maybe she was "experimenting", but she only "tweeted" 4 times over 5 days - back in February. Perhaps she's found she prefers other ways of occupying her time?

There was quite a variety in the number and frequency of tweets on various accounts I looked at, and if it wasn't for this exercise, I doubt I would have even looked at that many. The content of the tweeting was as varied as the different tweeters and their subjects - but for someone who has only recently entered the world of phone texting, the Cookbook via Twitter to me was just a mess! I'm afraid I couldn't be bothered trying to 'translate' it, and can't really see the point in that one! I regularly follow a blog by author Jon Katz, and he also has a Twitter account, which I decided to check out. I can see the uses of Twitter, and I think Jon Katz's works well, combining tweets about events with thoughts and musings, without being too inane. I really like his attitude to all this though. He is currently incommunicado from his blogging and tweeting while he is taking an extended weekend break in the Big Apple - and reconnecting with real people, friends and family, in his life. However, from what I have discovered so far on this exercise, I am unlikely to be a regular follower of anyone on Twitter, and it doesn't entice me to become a tweeter myself - yet. Who knows what I'll discover when I do some Twitter searching for myself...

Creative Commons - to share or not?

"There is no delight in owning anything unshared"

Seneca (Roman philosopher, mid-1st century AD)

I loved this beautiful crisp image of prints in the snow and the story around how the photographer got the photo. I hope I'm as lucky some day. Have a peek at this http://www.flickr.com/photos/13909675@N08/2162477433/sizes/o/ This comes with a Creative Commons license which has some rights reserved - attribution, non-commercial and share alike (BY-NC-SA), 2.0 generic. So this lovely image may be shared, remixed, tweaked, and built upon for non-commercial purposes, as long as credit is given to m.d.d. and the new creation must be licensed under his identical terms.

The Creative Commons licence for the "Get With It" programme is BY-NC 3.0 New Zealand. This licence lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this work noncommercially and although new works must acknowledge NSL and be noncommercial, they don't have to license their works on the same terms.

Copyright is full of many issues, and with such a multitude of new and different means of accessing and using all this stuff, it's really good to know that you are able to at least try to retain some kind of intellectual property rights over works you may create by licensing something in this way.

OpenID - WHO are YOU? (Who, Who) Who's asking??

"Where id was, there shall ego be"

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)




OpenID sounds good in theory, and no doubt for people who do spend a lot of time online, it is probably a very useful thing to know about, but I don't think I'm likely to "sign on". It sounds a bit like letting someone else have the keys, and forget that you should be taking some responsibility yourself for your own online security and wellbeing. We hear stories about the 'fun' some people like to derive from creating online mischief - why should OpenID be any different? Personally I have better things to do with my time, but I know there are plenty of people out there who would delight in being able to indulge in some 'online vandalism' and OpenID could be a great place to stir such havoc. We seem to be all-too-quick to leap to new ways of making our lives 'easier', but like everything - the more gadgetry, the more there is to beware of. I will certainly keep my eye out for the OpenID tag and icon on sites, though, and if I feel it could be helpful in the future, I may give it a go. In the meantime, I'll keep charge of my own 'identities', and make sure my doors and windows remain my responsibility.

Making trails through Online Privacy and Security

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."
Helen Keller (1880-1968)

Online security is something I find myself wrestling with quite a bit lately, having recently got myself "connected" at home, so this exercise is personally very timely. We can all too quickly and easily overlook it, or simply take it for granted, believing our electronic toys are as secure as the locks and bolts on our doors and windows. After all, who would want to get inside these little boxes and snoop - or steal - their contents? We still don't perceive these cyber-thieves to be as dangerous as the commonplace burglar, when potentially there is no end to the mischief that could be caused should the snoop happen to get inside this box. The more I've been exploring various options recently, the less I feel I know, and trust, about the whole business of cyber-security. Once we go online, it's so, so easy to get lost in this other-world, and leave behind our cautionary instincts - and naively leave lots of little trails to follow in the process. And there are so many trails to tempt us all into following - all you have to do is "click".

The resources given for this exercise were very useful, and certainly worth sharing with friends, family and patrons. The information on the McAfee and Netsafe sites was well put together, but I couldn't help thinking much of it was good old common sense - which is perhaps an instinct being eroded by so much time being spent in an online world? While you can never be completely "safe", you can certainly minimise the risk.

I'm intrigued by keepass and password generator - they certainly would have been useful for 23 Things, and I will certainly keep them in mind should I find passwords, usernames, etc getting out of control. However, before we came to rely on this electronic access as part of our daily lives, how did we keep track of our personal matters? We took care to keep control of such things, so why do we drop our guard so much with regard to electronic "gate-keeping"? Some patrons may be happy to know about them, but it is yet another thing to keep track of.

So, just like the wolves in the western United States who, try as they might can't avoid the danger of the guns which are once again sadly being trained on them, so must we be alert to the dangers abounding in this "connected" and exposed world. We can't completely close the shutters, nor let our guard down, but we can still explore in a safe way if we stay aware and pay attention to the signs around us - and keep that security up-to-date.

Web who.0 - Journeys end?

A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step

Lao-Tzu

Well, after this long journey, I must admit to feeling rather like a mama polar bear, emerging blinkingly into the spring sunshine from the winter hibernation, new babes in tow. The first days of this exploration did indeed seem a long time ago, and I know there were a number of us questioning the wisdom of the quest. But persevere we have, and we have learnt much along the way. Helen Keller once said "Life is either a daring adventure - or nothing."

It's hard to pick highlights, so maybe I'll start with the lowlights, as they are quite fresh in my mind. I can't see that I'll hurry back to places like bebo, facebook or myspace for more explorations, apart from taking a peek at the NSL community there. Rollyo is also something I can't see a great deal of use for, personally, as well as finding it a bit clumsy to use.

RSS I still haven't come completely to grips with, but as I have moved on and done more exploring I have used it a little more, and can see the possibilities and usefulness of it as a way of keeping up-to-date with various topics that are of particular interest, and which you won't necessarily have a chance to seek out yourself. So not quite singing it's praises yet, but... (and you can guess where my quest here will focus on).

Exercises I did enjoy were much like some others whose comments I have read - Generators and YouTube were a lot of fun, places you can too easily while away hours and hours of time, being quite unsociable in the process if you're not careful. LibraryThing I will also probably continue to use. E-books was more enjoyable than I thought it would be, although this isn't a format I can picture myself using for my reading pleasure. I will have to remember to revisit Zoho and master some more of it's tools. I may be doing this the wrong way, but I have difficulty dropping images to my posts in the place I would prefer them, something Zoho is good for. Yet another skill to work on. Flickr and wikis are also places I will remember to come back to for some more exploring, once I have got over the fact we don't 'have' to anymore.

Some things I am still not convinced about are technorati and del.icio.us. Clever sites, and I can see their usefulness, but not for me I feel. Mashups are something I still need lots of practice with, but I can't imagine returning here just to 'play'.

So what have I learned? Life truly is a mystery. What gives sense to it is learning - learning that leads to insight and then to understanding. Irrespective of how long in the tooth we may be, all of us must be prepared to learn. Challenge assumptions - explore beliefs. Discover new trails; revisit old ones, and where needed - make fresh tracks. Let the pack sing out a collective howl of thanks to our alpha leaders, aka the NSL Web 2.0 Admin Team, who have marked out a path through the snow, mushed the way ahead and kept the pack (mostly) on task.

However, there are those among us who have ranged the rugged wilderness of cyberspace, on edge. Cautious and ever watchful - hackles up, neck ruff raised, noses lifted to the four winds. On guard - alone and independent. The lone maverick wolf - fringe guardian of the pack, curious but mistrustful of the material, and alert to all - seen and unseen - that flows by.

Just as wolves have been reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park, this Web 2.0 experience has reintroduced me to a professional landscape and convention I thought I knew well. However, on occasions I have felt like a recently released wolf might, liberated at last and left to fend for myself in an environment culturally familiar, yet disconcertingly foreign - all at the same time. I sought to avoid traps that could waylay me on the journey - and have only lost a little bit of fur along the way.

So - has it been worth it? Sometimes. I've really enjoyed the creative process week by week, thinking about the images and quotations I've used to illustrate my ideas - an acknowledgment to the innate and intuitive wisdom of the Great Spirit, and the connectedness of all things - a trait also inherent in canis lupus. The duties to consider the great drifts of information along this trail has been exhausting at times, and not entirely rewarding - akin at times to when the alpha leaders return to the den after the hunt - unrewarded! Owhoooo - no meat on the bone there! As H D Thoreau so aptly said - "In wildness is the preservation of the world". Which leads us to a question - will lupi not the olive oil continue in the blogosphere, or fade back into the timberlands? Now - that's a mystery.