Roll Over Ben Franklin and Send Ranganathan the News!

Here we are at the end of our course, and I at the end of my coursework.  It’s been quite a journey, and somehow fitting to end with a course like Web 2.0, because it is the way of the future.  I remember in my very first class the professor told us that no longer were librarians the stereotypical gray-haired bespectacled, hair-netted old ladies.  It’s a new library now, in need of new people and ideas.  I felt tempted to get up and leave right there!  But I’m glad I didn’t because I found out that even gray-haired bespectacled old ladies can learn new things (just a little more slowly).

Even though the library continues to evolve, I believe that the core values remain the same: preserving great works,  respecting privacy and freedom of expression,  self-improvement through education,  free public access, and democratic ideals are still the values we vow to uphold.  We are just driving a shiny, new, streamlined sports car instead of a rickety old Tin Lizzie, that’s all.  The precious cargo remains the same, and in the end, is the reason for the ride!

Thanks Professor Mikesell and classmates. I enjoyed the class very much. Hope everyone has a happy, restful holiday season, and a blessed New Year!

Keep on Bla-bla-blogging!

Mary

Cellphone, Laptop, Remote Control – The World At Your Fingertips

Thanks to the internet, we really do have a world at our fingertips.  Communication occurs at a split second pace now.  No matter where we are on the globe, if we can pick up a signal, we can connect to others many thousands of miles away.  Digital media can be  stored and retrieved at our whim.  We can text, tweet, email, video conference, and network with few, if any limits.  I don’t think many of us could have foreseen the many new avenues that this new technology would have opened for us, and the ways it would change our lives.  The future is now, and if things continue to evolve at a similar rate, who knows what new changes will come about in the foreseeable future? What was once the realm of sci fi and fantasy is here.

Scotty, Beam me Up!

Confessions of a FaceBook Flop

I admit it. I was dragged screaming and kicking onto Facebook.  I couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. But, my family members are all on there, including those living 3,000 miles away in sunny California, and others living 3,000 miles away in the other direction in Europe. For a time, Facebook made it easy and convenient to stay in light touch with one another,  something like a year round Christmas card.  Nothing too in depth or heavy, just enough to know what is going on with your friends and family, and those of interest to you.

The world is suddenly a whole lot smaller.  You no longer need to fuss about stamps and phone numbers.  Just log on to Face Book (or another social networking site, like MySpace) and you’re instantly connected to all of your friends.  You can have thousands of them if you like (or if they like you).  You can read about what your friends have been up to lately.  You can post and view photos of yourself and your near and dear.  All the people you have “friended” can read your posts (called status updates), and view your photos and videos (and visa versa).    In fact, friends of your friends will be able to see your photo if you have been “tagged” and you will see theirs as well.  It’s something like looking through a glass darkly, not face to face.  Yet, rather than picking up the phone and just calling, you find yourself logging on to see what everyone is up to today.  There is a slightly voyeuristic quality to FaceBook.

FaceBook has its own rules of etiquette and it’s own dialect as well, using the short forms of words like “u” for you and “b” for be, etc.   When something really excites you, you can show it by extending the word as in:  see-e-e-e-e-e-e-e! or co-o-o-o-o-ollllll!!!!!

Many cultural institutions have a presence on Facebook. My favorite is the Library of Congress.  Their major events are advertised there. And, they have interactive book reads for children and young adults.  The one on now is a forensic mystery chapter book that is intended to engage children’s curiosity and bring them back for more.  Patrons can leave feedback on the programs and posts as well. I was also subscribed to PBS on Facebook and a number of others as well.

Unfortunately, I was attacked by cybergremlins who managed to hack into my account and started sending my “friends” links to x-rated video sites.  Though I changed my password, they still managed to get in a second time.  Since many of my “friends” are my children, nieces and nephews, it was acutely embarrassing, and I resigned from FaceBook in disgrace.  Good thing I didn’t use my real name or birth date.  Everyone knew me by my nickname though.

And so, sady, I have “unfriended” FaceBook (which has been named, by the way, the top WORD of 2009).  I will leave it to my more adventurous, saavy, compatriots to carry the torch forward.  If my “friends” want to find out what I am up to, I guess they will just have to pick up a phone and call.

Yours truly,

FaceBook Flop

P.S. “Flop” is a funny word, isn’t it?

Our You Tube

Though You Tube is a relatively new phenomenon in earth years, in internet time, it’s yesterday’s news. It started a few years ago when a couple of friends out in California launched it as a video sharing site and it caught on like wildfire.  In a short time, it was bought by Google, and  has become a cornerstone of the creative commons, where anyone with a free account can upload whatever videos they wish onto the site, and anyone, anywhere on the globe with internet access, can access them.

Millions of videos are uploaded each year, as numerous as the stars in the sky; and the range, quality, scope and diversity of material on You Tube are just as seemingly endless.  The “most watched” videos rise to the top like cream, and are presented daily on the front page. Also, the site is interactive, allowing viewers to leave feedback.  It is as eclectic as humanity itself, with themes ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, and everything in between.  It is the kitchen sink, a mishmash, a conglomeration, a big stew. You will find videos as heart-stoppingly beautiful as the Chinese lantern festival, where thousands of glowing lanterns are launched into the starry night simultaneously in one glorious extravaganza, and as ridiculous as a guy dressed up in a spandex superman costume, singing the superman theme song, which my husband plays before leaving for work each morning. (What the neighbors must think….)  There is, indeed, something for everyone.   You can learn how to play an instrument, speak a language, or ace a job interview.  MIT and Harvard have entire courses uploaded on You Tube for anyone in the world to access – the epitome of western generosity.

As with everything, You Tube has its downside.  The ease of video sharing makes it all too easy to invade the privacy of others by making private moments public.  Also, there have been numerous issues with copyright infringement which have had to be hammered out in the courts.

These things aside, You Tube is loud, raucous, and unrestrained.  It is also elegant, sophisticated and democratic.    It is our You Tube.

Now JING? Is it me, or did the world take a silly pill?

Google, Twitter, Blog, Ning, Ping, Bing….Now Jing?????  Ah come on.  With our advancing technnology, is our language regressing into baby babble?  How about a new website called Goo Goo Ga Ga?  I think that might be next.

But this is my blog and I digress.

What is Jing?

I don’t know exactly, but here is its address and self-description:

http://www.jingproject.com/

Add visuals to your online conversations!

Snap a picture of your screen!

Record Video of Onscreen Action!

Share instantly over the Web, IM or email!

Instead of typing at people, show them what you are talking about”

In short, you can create your own tutorials using Jing.

The Jing website consists of three parts:  Site, Blog and Help Center.   It explains how to use the program, fields questions people have about using the program, and offers technical support. The site also explains what Jing does, and its interface with other hardware and software like cameras and other websites, and its relationship with Screencast.com, where Jings can be saved, organized, edited and retrieved.  Jing comes in free and professional (fee-based) versions.

“Jing is a great ‘quick and dirty’ solution for producing simple video tutorials in a hurry.”

Dave Kaminski Web Video University Blog

For online tutorials,  I’ll have to give JING a swing!

References:

http://www.jingproject.com/

BING

Not to be outdone by Google, Microsoft has come up with its own search engine now with a similarly catchy, silly sounding name:  BING.   It’s not exactly new, but it is the new and IMPROVED replacement for Microsoft’s Live Search.  It went online in June of 2009. By August it had gained over 9% of the internet search market.

How come I’ve never heard of this?

Improvements over Live Search include search suggestions, and the ability to save and share searches through an interface with Sky Drive, Facebook and email.

And Bing will now officially power Yahoo! Search.

The bloodfeud between the two modern megaliths, Google and Microsoft, wages on in cyberspace, as Google and Bing battle it out in an all out contest for domination of the Internet search market.  The stakes are high, but in open market competition, the winners are we, the internet search users!

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_(search_engine)

Photo Credits:

http://blog.taragana.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/microsoft-vs-google1.jpg

PING

Ping is a software program written in 1983 by Mark Muuss that was, and still is, used far and wide in the IT community to test and troubleshoot internet connectivity problems.   To diagnose connectivity problems, the tester would shoot of a pulse to a target IP address. If successful, it would hit the target and ping back to the sender, confirming connectivity.   The term “ping” is similar to the sound that sonar makes when it is sent out in maritime situations, hits is target and returns the confirming “ping” to the sender.  Because some hackers have used Ping to attack computers and introduce worms, some IP providers banned Ping requests from their sites, making Ping a less reliable tool for respectable diagnosticians.

“ Not only did the availability of ping responses leak information to an attacker, it added to the overall load on networks, causing problems for routers across the Internet.”   (Wikipedia 2009)

“Although RFC 1122 prescribes that any host must accept an echo-request and issue an echo-reply in return, this is supposedly a security risk. Thus, hosts that no longer follow this standard are frequent on the public Internet.”  (Wikipedia, 2009)

Ping has been used to crash systems by sending a ping packet that is one byte too large that computers can’t handle.  “This exploit has affected a wide variety of systems, including Unix, Linux, Mac, Windows, printers, and routers. However, most systems since 1997-1998 have been fixed, so this bug is mostly historical.”

But in recent years, internet gremlins have come up with new evil ways to misuse Ping known as Ping flooding.   They send out so much ping traffic  that normal traffic cannot reach the system, causing it to crash. This is known as a “denial of service attack.”

Those gremlins again……

The term Ping, in common usage, has also come to mean the amount of time it takes for a message to be sent out and return to its sender. It also has come to convey availability on Instant Messenger.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping

Photo Credits:

http://www.impawards.com/1984/posters/gremlins_ver2.jpg