#23 THE END!

Learning about 2.0 through the 23 things programme has been a very interesting (though often frustrating) experience and I have discovered and explored things I wuould never have known about without the programme. I feel a bit more confident about the Web now and how to do things, like exporting pictures from Flickr, and it has made me want to learn more so I will go back to some of the exercises that I enjoyed (Generator)and play some more. I also want to find out more about the things that didn't work as I wanted or expected and see if I can learn how to get it right.
Thank you for the opportunity to learn more about this stuff and for the patience you have shown and help you have given to us all as we have struggled through.

Social networking

Social networking for libraries on MySpace, Bebo or Facebook seems to be a good way to reach the (mostly) young people using these sites. They are supposedly used mainly by the 16 - 25 year age group, who are notoriously poor face to face communicators, so this format is ideally suited for anonymous comments and requests.
Some of the sites I visited were not very imaginative (Albany County Public Library) while others (Brooklyn College Library and London, Ontario) were more attractive and lively with music, videos and other links. The sites need to be VERY current and interactive to keep up with the techy users.

Get social

Bebo: The Bebo spots by Auckland and Rotorua Libraries was an interesting way to reach young Bebo devotees with the library message.

MySpace: Another social networking tool with an amazing collection of videos both amateur and professional including Tve series episodes from BBC and ABC.

Facebook: I use Facebook mainly to access photos posted by my stepson in Guatemala - I wish I was clever enough to share them because they are fantastic.
I did it with help from Rose.

eBooks

I looked at Project Gutenberg for Jane Austen's Pride and prejudice - there were 4 entries on offer, available in various formats including HTML, plain text and Adobe PDF.
Amazon Kindle books had 75 results available for purchase from as little as 25c but that one had a very bad review!
I can't get enthusiastic about eBooks even if the format is small however, I can see that people might use them while commuting by bus or train, but then you can always read a REAL book.

Podcasts

I looked at iTunes which was loaded on our desktop but I had never used. I listened to Alan Alda talking about his book 'Things I overheard while talking to myself'. There are a lot of these author talks and book reviews which would be interesting to explore further. Then I looked around Podnova and added an RSS feed of Saturday Night Jam, a regular session by a group called Fuze. It appeared to load sucessfully but didn't come up on my list on Bloglines. Anyway the music was good.
I tried again today and with a bit of fiddling, the feed worked and I was able to play the music.

YouTube

This is the trailer for Local hero, a movie I loved when it came out in (I can't believe it) 1983. The music is great too.

Exploring 2.0

Still on the travel theme, I chose Boo.com to explore. I looked at Budapest and there was plenty of information for trip planning and learning about the city's attractions and history. The Ibis in Pest has the same room design as the Ibis in Wellington. This is a comprehensive site that would prove very useful and I'm sure I will go back to it again.