Kim-23things

Ah, Flickr, Flickr, Flickr. Although it seems like I've been a member of Flickr forever, I checked my personal Flickr account and my welcome e-mail from them was sent April 2006.

The beautiful thing about Flickr is the social tagging function. We librarians (especially art librarians) know that access to visual information has always been challenging.

Flickr lets the users add their own descriptors or tags and essentially do the work! You can search your own photos or photos of everyone in the Flickr community. While the precision of the search may be compromised (Searching for a comic character named "Fray" leads to photos of a band called "The Fray," frayed edges, a town called Fray Bentos... You get the idea. "Fishing cat," however, produces pretty relevant results), the recall is pretty good.

As with all of these Web 2.0 applications, practically anyone can now publish material online; meaning, of course that you'll have blurry, ugly snapshots that seem rather worthless on Flickr. On the other hand, you can discover amazing talents. Haiku Garry (see above right) is one such photographer I've discovered. Two other of my favorite Flickr members include: LynnInSingapore and Vision Aerie (Check them out. Their work is amazing!).

I haven't even touched upon how Flickr has allowed me to keep in touch with friends who love to document their lives. I'd like to believe that sites like Flickr and Blogger have made keeping in touch with loved ones more easy. You no longer have to wait for that once a year holiday newsletter. Can these sites also result in people not socializing face to face as often? Sure. But really, how often can you afford to visit that friend living states, even countries away?

So this avatar was created through Simpsonize Me. I was actually impressed with the sophistication of this image generator. The initial image is generated from a close-up photo you upload. You also provide some additional information about yourself. The character is then generated and you get to tinker with specific features (eyes, nose, hair, clothing and background). There is then the option of downloading the resulting avatar or e-mailing it to a friend. So I guess the big question is, do you see the resemblance?

7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners

1. Begin with the end in mind.
2. Accept responsibility for your own learning.
3. View problems as challenges.
4. Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner.
5. Create your own learning toolbox.
6. Use technology to your advantage.
7. Teach/mentor others.
7 1/2. Play!

Of all of these habits, I think that the hardest one for me would to be to view problems as challenges. I think I tend to view problems as challenges in general, but it really is difficult to do this when the problem is interfering with a task that has a deadline or when time is precious!

The easiest habits for me would be the last two. I am a teacher at heart and view this 23 Things blog as a record of my journey but also as a way to inspire others with their 23 Things tasks. I've already talked to a number of coworkers, encouraging them to sign up to 23 Things and to come to me with any questions they may have.

And of course playing is very easy. One of my mentors when I interned at National Geographic Libraries, Karen Huffman (Manager, Knowledge Initiatives), is a wiz at Web 2.0 and the excitement she has for these technologies is contagious. It isn't rare for Karen to play with different wiki applications over weekends. Karen is definitely an exemplar of a highly successful lifelong learner. She in fact wrote an article pertinent to the 23 Things community: Web 2.0: Beyond the Concept; Practical Ways to Implement RSS, Podcasts, and Wikis (PDF)

A Summary of My Thoughts About Lifelong Learning

Learning is not easy. When we are children we make many mistakes: falling off bicycles, using words incorrectly, coloring outside of the lines... We stumble and it is accepted as normal--part of the learning process. But as we get older we forget this. Making mistakes becomes an inconvenience and oftentimes embarrassing. We feel comfortable with what we currently know. But we need remind ourselves that it is OK to make mistakes. Learning is hard, but in the end it can be very rewarding. And personally, I think it makes life very new and exciting.

Okay, well I'm skipping around the 23 Things list. This image was actually generated using two image generators. The first is Meez, a site where you can create your own digital persona to use in blogs, web profiles, etc. The second is through the Wired Magazine site, powered by Xerox and allowing you to create your own Wired Magazine cover.

Unfortunately the latter generator didn't have a function whereby you could post just the magazine cover into a blog. Therefore I captured a screenshot and then uploaded it onto Blogger. You can click on the image on the left for a larger version. This is how I look at work.

You may wonder when this would come in handy. For one, avatars are a great option for those who have an online presence but do not want to use their actual image. Also, image and word generators can come in handy in more unlikely situations. I had a girl library patron the other day who wanted to name her summer reading prize (a fish bath toy) a Pokemon-like name. We looked up a list of current Pokemon names online to give her an idea. In the end, we decided to use an online Pokemon name generator.

Certain generators allow the option for you to print your result, a wonderful way to put together customized art for library programming and displays.

For more online image generators, one can visit the following sites: The Generator Blog , Letter James , FD Toys

I first discovered the original 23 Things at the beginning of this year when I was the Learning and Technology Intern at National Geographic Libraries and Information Services. My goal as the Learning and Technology Intern was to encourage and educate employees about the various Web 2.0 technologies available through the staff intranet. Web 2.0 can be best explained as a movement of the World Wide Web toward programs and resources that allow for more collaboration, interaction and participation by users. For instance, blogs allow for user comments and ease of publishing. You no longer have to design a website from scratch in order to publish your writing. Now you can just go to a site like Blogger and set up a blog account in minutes.

An important lessoned I learned at National Geographic is that while Web 2.0 applications provide additional avenues of communication, collaboration and disseminating information, they are not all equal in the benefits they offer. And they aren't appropriate for all situations. Oftentimes, Web 2.0 applications are used in combination and this is when they are most effective.

Although I'm no stranger to Web 2.0 (I've kept in touch with friends through LiveJournal since 2003), I actually have never started a blog via Blogger. At the top of this blog you will see links to two Web 2.0 sites that I regularly use.

Children's Lit Love is a Wiki that I started, using WetPaint. All Consuming is a collaborative site where one adds movies, books and food they've "consumed." Book and movie information is pulled off of Amazon. Here one can also write reviews and thoughts about these items and recommend material to other members. Members can also "cheer" entries and conversely, receive cheers for their entries by others.

All Consuming was created by The Robot Co-op the same folks who created 43 Things, 43 People and 43 Places. I'll go more into these in a later entry (But 23 Things was undoubtedly inspired by 43 Things, at least in name). Meanwhile, here is a list of additional Web 2.0 sites that I use (have used):
Backpack , Del.icio.us , Flickr , Friendster , Kaboodle
LibraryThing , MediaWiki , Stikipad , Yahoo Groups

While here are some others that I've explored:
Facebook , MySpace , Squidoo , Twitter , YouTube

As you can see, the list can go on and on. There is little doubt that collaborative websites and applications are prevalent today in both social networking and in the working environment. More to come on Web 2.0 and an in-depth look at some of these sites.