#7

I toyed around with a few image generators, but the one I found by far to be the most useful (and fun) is a color palette generator from BigHugeLabs.  This tool takes any photo you upload and analyzes the colors in the photo to create a color palette.  As is stated on the site, this would be most useful to graphic designers or others who may have a website or art/design project they're working on.  For instance, it's a quick and easy way for an ad agency to come up with a color scheme and identity for a new business that will be located in a well-known, historic building where the new business owner wants to maintain the integrity of the original building while incorporating it into their new endeavor.  The business owner could take a few photos of the property as it exists, hand them over to the agency, and voila! -- instant color palette.  I'm sure that most ad agencies have plenty of resources at their disposal to accomplish such tasks, but for someone on a shoestring budget or a do-it-yourselfer, this could be a great tool.  Being no stranger to budget cutbacks, libraries could be said DIYer: I could see a budget-conscious librarian utilizing a tool like this for special themes (books and materials related to Halloween, for instance) in which displays and other promotional materials would be created to grab library patrons' attention.  The library staff would be able to incorporate the colors on the book covers when creating customized backdrops or displays to tie in with the actual materials being promoted.  The library could be its own, self-sufficient, marketing firm.

#6

It's a good thing I'm doing this blog, as it's forcing me to check out a variety of resources and utilize different tools I never would have sought out otherwise.  There's a lot of goofy stuff on the internet, but I have to admit that Thing 6 (image mash-up/manipulation) got me giggling.  Below is a pic my wife took of me a year-and-a-half ago during her sister's wedding rehearsal in which I was ordained to do the service.  Obviously, we were taking a break when this candid shot was captured, but don't you think it's a fitting image to grace the cover of Esquire?  Yeah, me neither.  But, it makes me laugh.  I found this on PhotoFunia, which has some nice tools like photo cropping that I didn't see much of on other mash-up sites.  I was able to crop the photo to get my moment of glory just right!  (It would be better, though, if I could insert another photo in place of this dude to make it appear I'm reading a magazine article about myself.)

Flickr in the Pan

It's interesting to explore Flickr now, when photo sharing on the web has become nothing if not ubiquitous; everyone and his uncle has a digital camera, many of which are merely a component of smartphones that enable instantaneous photo uploading to the internet.  When Flickr began in 2004, Facebook wasn't yet Facebook (anyone seen The Social Network?), and the idea of photo sharing I think was more about folks (mostly amateur or aspiring photographers) getting their photographs out into the world in a new and exciting way.  I may be totally uninformed with that statement, but based on personal experience that seems to be the case.  That's when digital cameras were emerging into mainstream consumerism, yet were still expensive enough that I think only those serious about photography (or those with some disposable income) indulged and did away with their film counterparts.

I started a Flickr account a little over three years ago, posting some photos I'd taken on a beautiful fall afternoon, and thought "I should make it a weekly activity/challenge for myself to post at least one new meaningful or artistic picture a week" to reignite my photography hobby.  I'd begun a new Facebook account a few months prior to keep in touch with folks who came to our wedding, and it seemed like whenever I, or anyone for that matter, posted pictures online, it was on Facebook.  I told myself that I would post pictures from trips and fun events on Facebook, while maintaining my Flickr page for more artistic or "photography for the sake of photography" pictures.  A pipe dream, I guess, because I didn't keep it up.

One cool thing about Flickr is that it seems to have remained largely unaffected by the epidemic-like spread of folks sharing everything with everyone on the internet.  Looking at it for the first time in a couple of years, it looks virtually the same.  I know many bloggers use Flickr for hosting their embedded photos, and others have groups organized on Flickr itself.  I explored this feature, simply searching "Columbus, Ohio" and found a really cool group called Not There Anymore that posts photos of buildings or other public fixtures that have changed or been destroyed.  (One contributor used this outlet for a bit of commentary on how society largely does not value buildings and other structures of historical nature and/or value, which I think is great.)  Flickr is yet another great tool to link folks together through an artistic medium.  Not surprisingly, librarians and library lovers alike use Flickr to connect, as I found here!

#4

As one may surmise from reading my previous entries here, I'm not much of an internet hound.  With that in mind, figuring out what exactly RSS (Really Simple Syndication -- a surprisingly straightforward name and acronym) feeds are was somewhat of a daunting task.  Sure, I've seen the little three curved-line, rectangular orange symbol on various and sundry sites, and heard grad-school friends/pros mention catching up on their RSS feeds all morning, but did not really understand how it works or its purpose until a few weeks ago (I should tag this "delayed blog post").

So, I did what any non-RSSer would do, and ran a Google search for "RSS" -- which, unsurprisingly listed Google Reader as the first recommended RSS site...which I, also unsurprisingly, enlisted as my inaugural RSS feed.  Dubious as to what this would result in, I actually have found it to be fairly useful, although not to the extent (yet) that so many others have.  I elected to subscribe to the website Columbus Underground and a friend's Live Journal blog entitled Watch Out For Snakes.  Columbus Underground is a great "here's what's going on in the city that you may or may not already be aware of and would possibly like to do" resource -- it digs a little bit deeper than the local newsweekly and discusses indie rock shows that may have fallen under the radar, among other cool, "alternative" endeavors.  My friend's blog is something I've seen him link to via his Facebook page and thought I'd check out -- his writing is witty and subversive, and he can elaborate hilariously on some of the most mundane activities (his most recent post detailed his being bumped into by three different individuals in a four-block walking span).

Using RSS for both of these sites (along with the three other blogs on Blogger that I commenced following when I began this project, AND which automatically linked into my Reader feed thanks to the incestuous nature of Google...not to mention the internet at large) has proven very handy; it's a concise way for me to keep up with the sites I want to all in one location.  Although my wife is a blog enthusiast, she is someone who I believe does not do any kind of RSS feed to keep track of their updates.  I know she spends a considerable amount of time going from blog to blog, quickly moving on to the next one should the current one not have new content for her to explore.  I'm sure an RSS feed would be useful to her, but I also know that going from one blog to another is part of the appeal -- it's a passive and pleasurable way to spend some down time, and a few seconds here or there don't make much of a difference to her.  For myself, I may have only used RSS marginally thus far, but I certainly do see its value, and more than likely will continue to utilize it as I tune in to more and more library resources while progressing through my studies.

The Magic Number

To be quite honest, I don't spend much time on the internet.  I go through phases where "wasting" a couple hours here or there looking at, well, whatever, is completely appealing and fulfilling...in some ways (for many people, anyway), it's the modern-day version of channel clicking while lazing about on the couch.  Most of my internet time is spent looking for, listening to, and reading about new music.  I never have been much of a blog follower, either, but for this assignment (checking out blog search tools), I decided to search for music blogs using Technorati.

In the past, I've had habit to visit Carrie Brownstein's Monitor Mix on NPR.org, and Ted Leo's blog on his website, as they are musicians (intermittent, and current, respectively) whose music I am a fan of, and whose opinions and insights I mostly enjoy (and agree with).  But, honestly, that's about it (besides Muzzle of Bees, a local Madison music promoter/blogger that I no longer follow due to my having left the area a few months back).  Most other blogs I have ever looked at have actually been linked to from those pages, or have been emailed to me from my wife or friends who happened to come across something they think I would be interested in.

At least part of my lack of interest in searching for music blogs, I believe, is the simple fact of music being such a popular pursuit (particularly in the digital world, with the promise of free mp3s and torrent sites abound) -- there's just so much information out there, it's too much to bear to try and filter through it all.  Congruous to my thoughts, I ran a test search on Technorati for "music blogs" which found over 53 thousand results!  Out of curiosity, I ran another search for "library blogs," which unsurprisingly returned much fewer (2,834, to be exact).  The obvious reason for this is, though libraries are quite ubiquitous, blogging about them is quite the niche market -- one that is growing, I'm sure; but one that can't even compare number-wise to a topic such as music.  And -- drum roll, please -- this is a big reason why (along with the fact of librarianship being my impending career!) searching library blogs is infinitely more appealing to me than looking at those dedicated to music will ever be.

With my brief exploration of using a blog search engine, I've found a few library-inspired blogs that I may just decide to keep up with: Free Range Librarian and The Unquiet Librarian, to name two.  From this experience alone, I'm already realizing the usefulness of blog search tools, and am sure to continue sifting.  As with any topic these days, there is much information to sift through to locate what is really pertinent to one's interests.  If I discover any that prove to be the glue that draws me to my computer more often than usual, I will be sure to comment further on them, and even place them on my blog roll!

It's A 2.0 Thing

I feel a bit late to the party in addressing the topic of Web 2.0 (about six years late to be precise), but I will do so in this post in beginning my conquest of the 23 Things assignment for LIS 635.  I won't attempt to define the term "Web 2.0" at this time, because, even if you don't know what it means, you more than likely have engaged in some form of Web 2.0-ing whether you knew it or not.  This term basically refers to the ways in which users digest and interact with content on the internet - "interact with" being the key here.  Whether it be posting an inane comment on a Yahoo! Sports article to "liking" a NY Times article that then posts to my Facebook account, the fact of interaction with content on the internet qualifies it as Web 2.0.

In most ways, this not-so-new wave of interaction on the web is harmless.  Even though I use it very little, there is a tinge of gratification I feel (wait, which everyone feels) when I (they) get an email from Facebook stating "Friend X wrote something on your wall..."  WOO-HOO!  Yes!  I am worthy!  It's nice to be thought of, isn't it?  Social networking through Facebook and other sites like it (I know MySpace is one, and I'm sure there are others, but I don't keep track) allows people who may be more of a casual acquaintance to keep in touch with you and be aware of what's going on in your life without having to send you an email or call (wait, TEXT) you on the phone.  I may sound cynical when discussing this (part of me is, though I do concede the usefulness of FB), but there really isn't anything wrong with me hearing about tidbits ranging from one of my oldest friend's firstborn child's first day of school/word spoken/tooth sprouted, to what a classmate from high school whom I never talk to did over the weekend, on Facebook.  If the old friend and I want to talk, we step it up and do just that.  Anyway, off the soapbox.  Many other ways of sharing information and interacting with it on the web are fun: photo sharing on Flickr, recommending a song to a friend on iTunes, posting a YouTube video of a friend's wedding reception; but there are also many that are not fun, or are downright tedious and annoying.  I won't go into that here, but the aforementioned user comments on sites like Yahoo! Sports are just another showcase for so many people to spout off who really have nothing of value to say.  It's a mild form of narcissism just to see your profile up on the screen, even if all you said was "Pujols is on the juice!"

You know the notion of how everything that is perceived to be a good thing can be abused and made into a bad thing?  Well, that's the main facet of Web 2.0 that I find detrimental.  Save those who are really careful and don't do this (probably the minority of folks), most everyone's online profile on one site tends to be the same or a variation upon the original identity on another, and another, and another, and so on...PLUS many of these accounts are (or at least, have the potential to be) intertwined.  You know, you can have your Twitter update your Facebook...you can have Google Chrome remember your password...you can set up a universal password on your browser so that you never have to remember that your password for your Walgreen's account no longer has to have "underscore 14" at the end of your pet's name.  Yes, this universality and intertwined nature make things easier, but there's a sinister aspect to all of it when you think about identity theft and the like.  To a lesser degree, maybe you post something on your Twitter about someone you maybe don't care for, but then they happen to be a Facebook friend, and your Twitter updates your Facebook, and then that person sees your comment about them that they wouldn't have normally seen had you not interconnected the two accounts...and you see where I'm headed with this.  I'm sure I'm not the first to have these reservations, but people just need to be smart about how they handle their online lives.

But, back to the good: the pursuit of knowledge in this way can really be rewarding.  Say I'm reading a blog, and the author is discussing something I'm curious about and hyper-links to another online resource where I can learn more about the topic at hand - how is this bad?  It's not.  Though hyper-linking and following and liking and friending and all the other terms described with obscure and trendy verbiage can lead one down a bit of an information black hole, there is really something great about how reading one thing can lead to looking at another, and possibly discovering something you never knew before existed.  And it's really great how users can come back to the original source and pay gratitude and share comments, or partake in polite debate and make corrections.  This is where the issue of Library 2.0 comes into play.  As I'm quite the novice at all things library at this time, I plan to explore the topic of Library 2.0 more in detail as I continue working on the 23 Things; however, I believe that the inevitable movement toward Library 2.0 results from all the good aspects of Web 2.0.