My journey through Web 2.0 Adventure!!!

Six weeks!!! That was super fast. I am still feeling I didn't have enough of this adventure. There were easy time and difficult time. It was like riding a roller coaster through the journey.

This is my first time using Google Blogger. I used to blog on MSN Live Spaces. That was quite easy to use with some pre-set application. I didn't explore too much of my Live Space because my PC takes ages to apply/embed new application into the life space.

Google Blogger impressed me a lot. The page uploading is faster than my Live Space. Plus, it has more gadget options provided, even with another supplimentary site, the Blogger Buster. Blogger Buster allows me to find new templates and other gadget applications that I want to embed into my blog. It was contributed by most Blogger users.

Back to my rollercoaster story. The fun part that I like most was exploring You Tube and SlideShare. I was surprised to find out that YouTube and SlideShares are good resources for teaching information literacy. They can be used in creating informative library blogs, or library websites, or even information literacy tutorial class, but have to use under Creative Common License. Oh Yes!! Talking about Creative Common License, it is another big discovery for me. I went to explore its web site and try to understand different categories of license listed in there. It helps me to better understand the copyright issue in the open net environment.

The social bookmarking, mashup and wikipedia editing gave me a huge headache. It is easy to contribute and make changes in the Australian Newspapers collaboration site, but not so in the actual wikipedia site. I guess the actual wikipedia site is governed by strict rules and its too complicatate for me to do editing at this stage. But, from my other course, I have the opportunity to use PbWikis just 2 weeks after the wikipedia adventure, and I have done some editing in that PbWiki for our group assignment.

I was overwhelmed with the information I encountered in social bookmarking and mashup. Most of the time, I was thinking "The site seems interesting, do I really need this?" "Am I taking too much time to learn a new application and manage it?" For example: I have installed the Diigo tool bar in my PC, I never have the time to learn, dig into it, explore all its applications and use them.

Mashup is terribly difficult, and seriously I haven't fully understood the principal behind it. I think if I know API, I can understand that better. But point is, I don't know API.

In conclusion, after 6 weeks, I should say my adventure through web 2.0 was a success. I have learned many new applications, and pushed my embedding skills to higher level. I wish to learn how to embed podcasting application, and embedding movies, but I think that probably be too difficult to manage within one week. I heard of this Adobe Captivate, it can capture the screen shots and used as a tool to design and develop web-based tutorial classes for students. But it is very expensive. I wonder, is there any similar version of this exists in the web and hosted by some web developers? I guess to upload podcast and vimeo will be my next target of learning in web 2.0.

Is this an end? No!! This is just the beginning of my journey into this big Machine (internet). And I really appreciate Doc Man in creating this starting point for me.

Stay tuned!! I won't stop blogging on my discovery on web 2.0 and perhaps web 3.0 or even semantic web.

I hate you, Wikipedia!!!

Yes, this is exactly what I felt last week. Totally disappointed with it. I have tried to edit some articles in the wikis, I even signed up for it, and it didn't let me do any editing. I have tried to add some useful links URL to library location, and it was telling me that: external links are better to add in the footnote or reference part. I was furious!!!! So, no luck on editing Wikis.

Yea yea, I know that wikipedia is a really powerful online free encyclopedia, it is dynamic, attractive, open to public, easy to access from anywhere with internet facilities. In one simple description: the 21st century online collaborative tool... But, I was told it is not an authoritative source from the first lecture I have in this course. I was taught as an information manager, I have to think of the following questions:
1. Do we(information profession) use it?
2. Do we encourage people to use it?
3. Do we train people to use it? If so, how do we train people to use the wiki with evaluative and critical eyes.

I also learned that, apart from wikipedia, there are a lot of other similar collaborative tool in the web. I list some of them here:
1. Encyclopedia of Life - an online collaborative encyclopedia between scientific community and the general public. Goal: to provide knowledge about all the world's organism or living species. This is done in a more controlled environment. It is authoritative and restricted. Information is more reliable.
2. Conservapedia - American, conservative point of view, wiki-based Web encyclopedia.
3. Scholarpedia - this is a peer-reviewed open-access encyclopedia. Articles in there are dynamic. They provide up-to-date and high quality of content.
4. Knol - Google version of collaborative encyclopedia. Knol = a unit of knowledge. Some pages are opinion pages, selling products, how to use product and etc.
5. Citizendium - this includes acticles with reliable, authoratitive and quality. The contributors must use their real name in posting articles.