El Fine

On this Web 2.0 journey, I learned many new things. I especially liked learning about Flickr and podcasting. Flickr has some really cool pictures, MUCH better than Google images! In fact, I got all of my blog cockatoo photos from Flickr. I also identified some really interesting podcasts, which I will listen to on a regular basis. I now know what an avatar is; I can even create my own. I enjoyed "flying" with Google Earth, and I can now listen to my own mix of music on Pandora.

I enjoyed learning about the 20 things - I'm not sure I will use all of these things, though. In fact, I can say for sure that I will never use many of them.

Nevertheless, I now know more than I did before my Web 2.0 journey. Knowledge is a good thing.

Gaming - Or, Flax and Monster Play Chess

I tried Wordsense as one of the 5-minute Daily Games, and it was easy and fun. I also played chess, although I had to create a Yahoo account to do it (I didn't like that part - I don't need another online account!).

I'm not a gaming person - I would rather read a good book than to play an online game. So, the probability of my downloading a game to my home computer, or paying for a game to download to my home computer, is pretty much zero.

Implications for our workforce? Provide entertainment during breaks?

Incidentally, the game pictured above is called "budgie chess". The object of the game is to throw as many chess pieces on the floor as you can. The winner? Flax (the yellow bird).

Google Earth and As the Cockatoo Flies

Wow! This was cool. I located the two houses in which I grew up - 32 Montrose Rd., Scarsdale, NY, and 1328 Greenwood Ave., Wilmette, IL. For the latter I was able to retrace my daily walking route from my house to New Trier High School in Winnetka. Both houses looked pretty much the same as when I lived in them in another life.

What surprised me? The "flying" feature. When they say "fly" they really mean it! I also thought the Flight Simulator was amazing! This week was just plain fun.

Book lover/bird lady avatar!

It was fun to create my own avatar from Tektek, although it is a little corny (I tried DoppelMe as well, and thought those avatars were cornier).

I am pleased to find out that my alma mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, offers a four-week course about Virtual World Librarianship in Second Life. I have always been extremely proud that I obtained my M.S. in Library Science from their Graduate School of Library and Information Science, consistently ranked as #1 in the country throughout the years!

It was fun to watch videos of the Second Life world - some of them were quite good!

What do I think about our virtual selves vs. our “real” selves? I think we need to spend more time with the latter, not the former.

Do I already live in Second Life? No.
Would I like to live in Second Life? No.
Why not? See my answer above concerning our virtual selves vs. our "real" selves.
I'm sorry, but a Second Life world just doesn't interest me - I'd rather live in the real one.

Cockatoos are cool

Cockatoos are cool - beautiful, smart, playful and affectionate.

I published this to my blog through Zoho Writer and also converted it to a PDF file.

I like the concept of Online Applications & Tools. Your documents, spreadsheets, etc. are not restricted to access at one computer only; you can log in at any computer anywhere and add/edit documents online. Also, the idea of shared collaboration in creation/editing of documents is wonderful - there is one document and one document only to which editors can make changes! How many headaches will that one little feature prevent??

Cockatoos are cool

Cockatoos are cool - beautiful, smart, playful and affectionate.

I published this to my blog through Google Docs.

Search Engines and Male Moluccan Cockatoos

I tried Rollyo, Mamma, and Dogpile, searching for articles about Moluccan cockatoos. In Mamma I found a wonderful article about male Moluccan cockatoos titled "Magnificent Male Moluccan". I also like the concept behind Rollyo - creating your own customized search engine, or searchroll, which can eliminate a lot of unwanted information from websites you don't really care about.