Thing #7 : Communication Tools

Email, yikes! Pretty much everyone uses it now. I have 5-6 accounts I use. I am still amazed at how many people come in that don't have accounts. It's tough to help them set one up when they aren't used to computers, but they need email addresses for everything these days; from online orders to filling out government forms.

I have been using IM for years, since 2001 when I started using AOL. I switched over to YM after a while and really liked that. I even used the voice part of YM to talk for free over the internet with my mom in Wisconsin. I have fallen off in my personal use of IM, but now I use it daily at work. I think it is a good tool for quick one-on-one communication and it really does help keep the noise down by not haver the staff calls ring in. I have to give credit to IM for speeding up my typing skills. I have improved a lot in the past 8 years!

I have been in chat sessions, but I really don't like texting, and have not used that feature of my phone. As an English Major, I really don't like what has happened to the language because of texting. I use some of the abbreviations in IM, sure, but the texting is so much worse.

I wish this Thing addressed Message Boards or Forums. They are communication tools that many people use. Maybe that's just too Web 1.0. I do regular posting on two Geocaching forums. One is for the MnGCA. The other is secret. Shhhhhh!!

I don't recall attending a webinar before, but I had seen snippets, since I knew what to expect. I watched one of the Minitex ones on Proquest Newsstand Complete. I never new that only the major 27 papers were indexed. I thought they all were. I see how webinars can be very useful to get training out to the masses. It's a little dry, but it gets information out there.