The hare and the snail

Okay, so I have only just worked out that I can save my post and publish it later, doh, which will save me feeling like I have to have enough time get it right before I publish and can more easily add stuff as I go along.

I have been one of those people who has refrained from using images for fear of breaching copyright - feeling I would have no defense given that my job involves a degree of copyright knowledge. So, it was great for me to see more about how to use images for free and I love the idea that people are sharing all this stuff. I feel a bit embarassed to say that I had heard of creative commons but never made use of it. I have been really impressed by seeing how images can be used to liven up presentations, specifically in Emily's Law for the Terrified session and feel a bit sheepish about using so much text in our Digitisation presentation earlier in the year. Though a quick flickr search made me think we'd have to be really imaginative to find ways of illustrating digitisation... but I guess that is the point, to get into a more creative headspace about what could be a dry issue.

So I had a go at finding more interesting images, as it just seemed easier to begin with. My search for monsters made out of ceramics and wool didn't bring up much so I searched for a related group and found quite an interesting one containing sculptures of monster/fantasy creatures by artists. However, the images were are 'all rights reserved'. Found this one under creative commons though. This 'monster inside' somehow reminds me of how my little shrunken brain sometimes feels when I'm attempting these 23 things!

image courtesy of gydnew

I found it rather tricky inserting these images. Though I tried several images I was not able to insert a link either long or short to the image using the icon in blogger. I had to get help and copy and paste the html, which seemed to work, but wasn't the intuitive route I expected to be able to use.

I think the issue of intellectual copyright is actually really interesting and have often wondered how far you can actually copyright an idea... given that it's possible for others to have the same idea independently. Who owns ideas any way and what about collective consciousness? However, when it comes to pictures that someone has taken time and effort to create I think it's right that they should have some ownership, so I think it's great now that people are able to share stuff and have some say about how it's used if they want to. 

I am finding it a bit of a challenge to keep up with several new things each week even working at getting one week's things done in two weeks, so was relieved that this week was relatively light on things. No chance of me getting caught up in the catch up week though. I will just smooch along as all you hares leave me in a cloud of dust... ah I have remembered the parable incorrectly, it's the hare and the tortoise not the hare and the snail. Oh well.

Courtesy of tamburix

Blimey... and monsters

Having thought that RSS feeds would be more my thing I have struggled to find pages that I want feeds from. The websites I am interested in, to remind me when my favourite bands and comedians are gigging, do not seem to have RSS feed options. Perhaps I need to spend more time looking for sites... Or perhaps my interests are too obscure!
Any way I managed to find a couple of things and after a little initial confusion found adding the feeds not so difficult. I didn't see the RSS feed icon I was expecting for subscribing to the 23 things blog and had to do it a different way - is this to do with browsers? It is really useful to have the feed to 23 things blog so I can see each week as a separate entry rather than interminably scrolling up and down trying to find the start of a week.
My brain is currently a bit overloaded but I was determined to try the cool extra thing. And it paid off because now I have an alert called 'making monsters out of wool and ceramics' which actually lead me to a site which has really lovely and odd creatures made out of recycled materials. http://www.etsy.com/shop/sweetpoppycat

I am finding it a bit frustrating doing everything in a rush as I would love to be able to explore the functionality of these things a bit more, but hopefully getting the basics will encourage me to come back and explore more later. I guess the benefits so far are that I have found some interesting stuff I wouldn't have necessarily looked for and I have a way of keeping up with news which might be more effective than what I currently do. I often berate myself for not watching the news enough, but if I simply change igoogle to my home page it will come to me every day.

Going Google eyed

I am well and truly going Google eyed (Google-i-ed, i-google... has someone else beat me to that pun already?) Yes, all this web stuff does have the potential to make me goggled eyed, but it's somewhat more fun to get that way trying to pick out backgrounds themes on i-google than from squinting at spreadsheets. I enjoyed trying to customize my i-google page, though ultimately got somewhat annoyed that I couldn't find a theme that truly represented me! I don't expect much... Also I was a bit purturbed to find that i-google is not asking me to log in, it just knows who I am. No doubt there is a way I can fix this if I have time to investigate.

I've never used i-google, though I do remember having pageflakes demonstrated. What I found really interesting was that trying to choose relevant gadgets made me question, what information do I really want most? It was kind of like a mental exercise in prioritising my whole life (I haven't got there yet). I realised here is a tool where I can choose what I want to have in the forefront of my consciousness - or brought to the forefront of my consciousness. Let's say something like knitting is really important to me, but I never seem to find the time to do it or think about it - I can remind myself to do this, to focus on what's really important in my life, by using something like i-google. I like this idea. Also, sadly I rarely have time to use the internet for pleasure - yet I know there's lots of interesting stuff out there and if I could make it 'come to me' rather than me 'going to it' then I might be more likely to have my life enriched with all the stuff out there that could encourage me to indulge my interests and be creative.

So far, as far as I've got with this is to have chosen a veggie cookery magazine and children's book of the day. I kept rather little of what google selected for me and found that searching for gadgets involved being discerning about how useful they each were. But perhaps I haven't put enough time into it to find the right ones yet. I suspect that RSS feeds may actually be easier to tailor to what I'm interested in. However I do like the tool nature of some of these things like 'artist a day' and 'phases of the moon' - things I wouldn't think to look up but are quite interesting to have presented to me.

To Web 2.0 or not to Web 2.0

Realised I am supposed to add a second post and I haven't included any tags!

So, a bit about me... I work in Digitisation at Northampton Square Library. When I am not here I work as a counsellor in a few different places. The hecticness of my life reflects some of how I feel about Web 2.0 - too much going on! As one of those people who feels that 'modern life' is too busy, complicated and stressful (and I have only made it worse for myself by having three or four jobs!) I some times find the idea of Web 2.0 and social networking overwhelming. I have enough trouble keeping on top of my email without a thousand RSS feeds coming in and new technologies to learn. HOWEVER, I know that a lot of these things can help to make things quicker and easier too. AND I do find myself excited by the prospect of shared interactive learning, freely available images and all the other stuff I have yet to learn about. So when I start to get all fuddy duddy I have to give myself a talking to and be open to these new (and sometimes scary) things.

I have just made the pleasant discovery that I can use spell check in blogger. I have sometimes been frustrated that what I see as new technologies fail to do basic things like that. Tags seem fairly straighforward and I've used them when using the Portal. It's easy to forget to do. Also, there seems to be a potential for a lot of variation in how individuals use tags - spellings, punctuation etc - how clever is any given tool at picking up tags that may refer to the same thing but look different?

And finally... I enjoyed all the blogs I read. Library Apocolypse - how important to have a name that draws you in. I was pleased to hear that there's another part-timer attempting this programme - PartTimeLibrarian and I had a silent chuckle at Hazel's Kindle hiccup. That's all for now...

A slow start...

I fear everything about my blog will be slow, which is partly why I called it SnailSpace, but partly cos I just love snails... I work part time and was on leave last week, so I am already behind everyone else but I am content to just go at my own pace and hope I benefit from hearing what everyone else did first! I hope some  people may still read my blog even though I will complete the programme in probably twice the time.
I've never blogged and have some mixed feelings about it. I was suprised, but should have guessed, that it would be this easy to actually set one up. I guess it takes more time and talent to work out how to use all the bells and whistles. I would love to have a truly individual and stylish looking blog, but time being a factor I will settle with trying to learn the technical basics. I found myself able to select a template and amend it ever so slightly. Already having a google account meant this first week's things didn't take too much thinking about - I am eager to get on to next week's things now!