Thing 6: Flickr Mashups

I went back to the mashup I've used before to see if it had improved any. Called retievr, it lets you choose a color and draw a shape. It then matches what you drew with Flickr photos. It is still pretty ineffective.

I went to check out Montager, but there was a warning that it may crash your browser. I'll try something else.




Check out this lush purple. It is by eason at http://www.flickr.com/photos/eason/35585494/sizes/s/in/pool-31917163@N00/. I found it using the color fields color pickr.
If you're into color, go here! There is also a slide bar that allows you to adjust brightness.





But, the great thing is that there is a slew of categories to pick your images from. This one, by funkandjazz http://www.flickr.com/photos/phunk/6173317/sizes/s/in/pool-49503134345@N01/http://www.flickr.com/photos/phunk/6173317/sizes/s/in/pool-49503134345@N01/ , is from graffiti. ( A few Google ads along the side might be useful to those who need graffiti removal services. Ha!)



I just spent WAY TOO MUCH TIME on findr. This site groups together photos by tags. For example, I picked Tokyo and then narrowed it to Tokyo + Harajuku, then narrowed it to Tokyo + Harajuku + portrait. I got some wild photos, but I gave up looking for one that could be shared. This is addicting!



Then there are your truly useless mashups, like clockr. Wait! I take that back! At first the numbers weren't changing, but now they are. Still useless, but cool.



by spell with flickr

Thing 5: Flickr

Something I didn't know about tags and Flickr: You can let your friends add tags to your photos.

Some numbers: Each item can have up to 75 tags. You may join as many as 10 group pools if you have a regular Flickr account.

Two kinds of groups: Anyone can join and invitation only. Private groups cannot be made public.

When you create a group, you automatically become it's administrator.

I tried yesterday to insert a photo here from my Flickr account, but was unsuccessful. I used the "blog this" button in the top of the photo in Flickr, but it put the picture in a completely new post. I wanted to put it in this one only. I will try again using the image button from this end.

I tried various ways of pulling it directly from Flickr, but was unsuccessful. Instead, I saved it to my desktop and loaded it that way.

This picture (below) was placed here according to the rules of Flickr. The rules say that if you post a Flickr photo on an external website, you must link back to its photo page. I have done that by cutting and pasting html code into this page. I am proud to say that I now know what that means!
However, I clearly don't yet know how to write alongside this picture. I will have to live with that for now.

I came across something in this Flickr exploration called "hotlinking." I am trying to get a handle on it. I have read that this happens when you use someone else's server, "stealing bandwidth", to post a picture on your site. I've just read from http://www.simplykristi.com/online_help/webpage_help/webpage_netiquette/stealing_bandwith/ that
that it occurs when you link directly to someone else's web page instead of uploading it to your own. I'm a little confused, because I was under the impression that Flickr wanted me to do that.

So many things to learn . . .

Thing 4: RSS and Newsreaders

Real Simple Sindication, it is a file format (on a web server) for delivering updated info on the web. RSS is read by an RSS aggregator. Aggregators are also called readers.

Blogs are a very common source of RSS feeds. So are podcasts. iTunes is a common aggregator for collecting podcasts.

I've never followed blogs or websites consistently, but here goes. I choose Google Reader as an aggregator.

http://www.epnweb.org/ This is the address to the Education Podcast Network which brings together podcasts on education and learning. There was no feed for this one.

I am now following four blogs, all belonging to my co-workers. We are all working on the 23 Things. In addition to those, I am also following a blog called Library Storytime and David King. David King talks about tech in libraries, social networking and such, so that would be a good one to keep an eye on. I also signed up for feeds for the Huffington Post, Google News, and TED.

We Interrupt 23 Things for Photoshop Update

It is so very difficult to learn this stuff without someone sitting next to you to tell you what to do. I can't tell you how many Youtube videos I have consulted. I spent hours again yesterday with the octopus image I am trying to use on my website. I even drove my sister crazy trying to learn it over the phone from her. I ended up running out of gas.

I am probably putting a disproportionate amount of time into this. After all, I could just use a photograph and not worry about changing the background, etc. However, I want to get something new out of this web building experience. I struggled last semester with Instructional Graphics, and I want to keep progressing, even if the pace is slow.

I am happy to report that I finally got the image onto my background and managed to save it! I'm now learning how to work with text in photoshop. I am satisfied with todays work and am going to get back to the 23 Things.

Thing 3: Blog Search Tools

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Thing 3: Blog Search Tools
Thing 3: Blog Search Tools Though blogging is "firmly entrenched in the mainstream" according to Technorati's State of the Blogosphere, I am pretty much still on the outskirts. I have two blogs of my own now, one for class and this one. As far as contributing to other blogs, I am what they refer to as a "lurker", someone who hangs around looking, but doesn't reveal themselves. Sounds creepy! I am going to record here Technorati's definition of the active blogosphere: "The ecosystem of interconnected communities of bloggers and readers at the convergence of journalism and conversation."“Video will also become increasingly important to convey complex messages that are often lost in text - while audio will continue to fall away to this new medium, save those 'casts with high production values." This quote by Chris Pirillo made an impression on me. I'll be learning how to do podcasts in one of my classes. Maybe I'll see about video, too!Interesting fact: Some people are profiting of their blogs. Mean annual investment is $1,800 and mean annual revenue is $6,000.

Exploring Technorati:

Like I do when I start off so many times with new technological concepts, I went to Wikipedia first. This distills it down to the basics before I look at the whole, huge website.

From Wikipedia: An internet search engine for searching blogs.

From Technorati: Blogs are not just personal diaries.

I started exploring by going to the subject list. I clicked on Real Estate (under Business) and ended up following the advice of a blogger to listen to a radio show featuring Peter Schiff. I looked under celebrity gossip and didn't find anything compelling. Literature didn't suck me in, either.

I tried the videos section, but that didn't grab me. I can watch only so many Christian Bale remixes.

One of the exercises for Thing 3 is to do a seach in Technorati and compare it to a search of another database. I chose Google Blog Search. I looked up chemical injury. I was a little surprised to find that Technorati did not yeild all that much that was relevant. I tried clicking on the box that allows you to choose "most authority," and still got results that seemed "silly" to me. Maybe, because I'm in school, "authority" means something different to me. I believe that the way that authority was defined in Technorati, was the number of links to an external website in a blog. That's a different type of authority than what I am used to thinking of.

Google Blog Search seemed to yield more relevant results. In fact, the Search Engine Journal does give it higher ratings for relevance than it does Technorati. What's the authority of the Search Engine Journal? It is difficult to know which sources to trust.

The Google Blog Search is now not letting me in for some reason, so I'll have to postpone further comparisons.

Technorati allows for sorting of various types. In addition to how much authority you want to choose, you can also choose language, whether you want to search photos, blogs, or videos.

I am highly sceptical of blogs when they don't cite their findings. But, it is fun to see the blogging trends. For example Blogpulse lets you track blogging trends. You can compare, for instance, blogging on auto loans, college loans, and mortgages. Mortgages was by far the most active, spiking in mid Novemeber 2008.

Thing 2: Library 2.0

The way I understand Library 2.0, based on Web 2.0, is that it involves a shift from static viewing/reading to interactivity. Another idea that often comes upregarding library 2.0 is that it meets users where they are (not necessarily in the library).Two impressions from the Steve Abrams video: 1) in order to learn this stuff, you have to be immersed, actively learning by doing, and 2) you will be most successful if you are engaged.To be fully engaged is a challenge, I find, because we are so very busy. However, as Abrams points out, you have to make a commitment to find those fifteen minutes a day.John Blyberg's blog post: Interesting to me is the "peer-to-peer" ideas that Blyberg speaks of. He says that libraries are going to need to "pool their resources." I wonder how that would work.The Ongoing Web Revolution, article from Library Technology Reports: Director Josie Parker of the Ann Arbor District Library reports that, after two years of blogging and commenting, there was only one case of profanity (by a patron). Wow.

Thing 1: Overdue!

Thing 1: Overdue! Ignore any posts from 2007 when I first started the 23 Things. I am starting over!I have done a blog before for class, but used it just to track progress, not really to interact. I will take it a step further this time and actually comment on others' progess. Feel free to do the same to me!

The 23 Things: Library 2.0

Since one of our modules is on social networking and new technology, I am hoping to cover all of the bases by doing the 23 Things. (This is the program first developed by Helene Blowers to familiarize those working in libraries with Library 2.0 concepts.) I had started this program in 2007, but petered out after a few things. Here I go again, and this time I am going finish it! This is something I am also doing in conjunction with my coworkers, as you will see from some of the comments. Much of the blog postings I will be doing for this class will be different from the postings I'm doing for work. Here, I will be doing a lot of note-taking so that I can go back and refresh and reinforce later. I don't want to bore my co-workers with that. On their side, I will be doing more reaction and commenting (which is what social software is all about).

Photoshop Elements

I was ready to go yesterday, but the wind gradually got taken out of my sails. I spent hours trying to learn the most basic things about Photoshop elements. All I wanted to do was remove an image from the background and put in on top of a new background. I am sure the process cannot be that difficult, but finding the right teaching tool is so frustrating. I went to Youtube and saw various videos, but there was always something I didn't catch, or the screen was blurry and I couldn't see what they were doing. I wish I had a tutor! I got a book from the library, but that is confusing me, too. Our library has no DVD's on it. I've looked at Help. . . There is just so much and I get pulled in different directions. I have got to be careful about allocating my time in these projects and not getting stuck.

Photoshop Elements: Leave the fear behind!

I am actually going to try to keep track of my topics of learning by (get this!) assigning particular topics to their corresponding postings. Maybe I will be a true librarian some day after all!

My husband bought this (Photoshop Elements 3) years ago, and we still don't know how to use it! I am extracting the things that I am likely to forget from the Help tutorial.

Layers:

adding layers increases file size.

Each layer remains independent until you merge them. Layers may be linked to work on them simultaneously.

Ordinary layers are pixel-based, but you can create type layers and shape layers that are vector-based.

Understanding Digital Images

I really want to get a handle on how images work. I have bits and pieces of info. swirling around, but nothing fits together in a pattern yet. I went to the library and got a beginner's book on Photoshop Elements 4. My husband has had Photoshop Elements 3 for a while, but we both really need to learn.

I will track my progress and do notetaking here. At some point, I hope it will gel.

Embrace the struggle.

raster: = bitmap images. Dots arranged in a grid pattern. larger file sizes. pixels.

vector: equations rather than pixels. Easily scaled. Download quickly.

Choosing Resolutions:

For Web: 72 pixels/inch.

B & W on regular paper: 150 pixels/inch

Color mag. or brochure: 250 pixels/inch