Thing #13: Online Productivity Tools

I have Google and Yahoo email accounts, so I decided to use one of those to make a personalized home page. I chose iGoogle and changed themes and chose topics and added gadgets. I really liked doing this, and made this new page my home page by editing the "Internet Options." I like having the local details that I didn't have with Comcast as my home page before. This Thing was pretty fun for me.

I have to say I wish I had worked on this Thing earlier, as I could have used a Count Up Gadget while working on my geocaching streak. I was trying to cache for at least 365 days, and I was successful. I stopped my streak on October 19th, 2009, so you can guess how far I got when you read this. You might want to use a gadget to compute that too. :)

I have used google calendar for a non-profit for which I used to volunteer. One thing I did for them was to search out events on the web that would be of interest to my group's audience and link them to our calendar of events. This allowed me to learn how to link to other calendars and how cool it is to be able to list the location, summary, and even link to google maps for directions. No paper pocket calendar can do all that!

As far as to-do lists go, I have trouble even writing down paper ones. When I need a list, I write it down quickly on paper and take it with me, usually in my wallet. Taking the time to log into a website to keep track of tasks is overkill. I think I have this feature on my cellphone. I could try that out. I can see the value of using it in a group setting. You can share a calendar or list with others much more easily online, especially if the team members are in different buildings.

Thing #12 Digg, Reddit, and other Social Media

I checked out the homepages and tour/help screens for Digg, Reddit, Newsvine, and Mixx. I did not register with any of them so that I could keep track of my favorite articles, nor my friend's articles. I noticed that the articles on the homepage for Digg, Reddit, and Mixx seemed to be from less well known sites, and the topics were less serious than the top news stories I'm used to seeing on my Comcast homepage or my local news sites. The articles that were most popular were often very bizarre. Newsvine seemed to have articles from sources I recognized more, and what I might call traditional news sources and perhaps had more reliable reporting.

People often talk about bias in the media, and I guess these tools can help the masses decide for themselves what is newsworthy. Someone still needs to write the original content, but those writers could be from anywhere and write about anything.

Honestly, in my worklife, I don't think there is enough time in my day for me to make Digg useful to my patrons. There are things you could do to create a bibliography of sorts, or to even spend time Digging articles that you think could help the internet world at large by, in effect "voting" for them, but I just don't have that kind of time. I could suggest to patrons to try those sites to find the
"best" articles on the topic of their interest.

As for geocaching, well I had a little fun looking up the topic "geocaching" in these sites. One article in particular that was amusing was from the Rachel Maddow Show. She was asking what people thought would be the best changes President Obama could make. One suggestion was to change daylight savings time to make the day lighter later so the poster could go geocaching longer before the sun sets after work! I love it!