The end!!??!!!

Wow, I believe I've reached the end of 23 things. It has been quite interesting. I've enjoyed learning about new sites & technologies as well as being reminded of ones that I've known about but haven't had time to explore. I think it's wonderful that PPLD has engaged us in this process.
So I guess now it's time to bid adieu!

Fun stuff

Google labs was kind of interesting, I'm always amazed at all the things that Google is involved in. I really liked browsing through the Web 2.0 awards, I could have spent a whole lot of time on this one. Two of my favorite websites from the award list are Pandora and Yelp. Pandora is an internet radio site that allows you to input an artist and then it will create a radio station for you based on that artist's music. As different songs play, you can specify whether you like that song or not to influence what might play in the future, quite fun and I got to listen to music at work, so very cool! Yelp is a city guide full of reviews on music, restaurants, hotels, etc for different cities. Colorado Springs isn't on there yet but what a great resource for assisting with travel plans.

Library 2.0 & del.icio.us

I really like del.icio.us. Every time I'm reminded of this site, I realize how much I really like it. But I just don't use it very often and I'm not sure why. But I think a web-based bookmarking site is awesome and such a great idea.
I've been reading about the concept of Library 2.0 for a couple of years now. I think in general, I appreciate the concepts that Library 2.0 describes. I'm not sure how new some of these concepts really are, but I don't think it hurts to have them described as formal concept to encourage service and innovation.

Facebook, MySpace, Ning & other social stuff

I have been using Facebook for sometime now. Actually, using is not really accurate. Perhaps, I should say I occasionally get on Facebook. One of my younger sisters talked me into setting up account awhile ago, but I really only get on to see my younger siblings in their social element :). I haven't had much luck connecting with friends from the past, only current friends/family. I'm not as familiar with MySpace, so I will have to continue to play around to see which I might prefer. I do like the privacy settings on Facebook better though.
Ning was interesting. I like the idea of setting up a site specifically for a certain group. My family uses another social networking site where we have set up a site just for our family to post photos, video, write blog entries, chat, etc.

Rollyo and other stuff

So, I played around a bit with LinkedIn, Library Thing and Rollyo. I actually think my favorite was rollyo. I like the idea of customizable search engines. In a sense, it's creating a pathfinder of sorts for the internet on specific topics. I think it could be quite useful in library applications. I was not as impressed with LinkedIn, the concept is good, social networking for the working professional. But I'm not sure that I personally would use it all that much and when I tried to find colleagues from a past job, their search function did not work very well. Library Thing is a great concept and I've explored it in the past. It seems to expanding rapidly into many venues and applications, but I am using another site to keep track of books I've read.

RSS

RSS is soooo convenient. I've been using RSS feeds for awhile now. I use Bloglines to track library related blogs and news and use Google Reader and Yahoo for personal stuff. It really saves so much time and allows me to just go a couple of places rather than many different websites. Trying to remember all the different websites I want to keep track of is just too hard, so I could use a bit of help :). I'm definitely a fan of RSS.

Flickr

Erin Christmas
Originally uploaded by Amy_roo

I love photo hosting sites. I haven't set up a flickr account before today, though I browsed through Flickr quite a bit. I have used other photo hosting sites. Flickr offers some wonderful options such as tagging and group interaction. I can think of so many great applications at both a personal and professional level. What a great way to promote events and locations and allow for community interaction. And I certainly do not miss the days of emailing photos back and forth, yikes!!!
Now for some shameless bragging, here is a flickr photo of my daughter, Erin.