The end is just the beginning

Whew! I made it through all the different 2.0 tasks...just in the nick of time! So many things got in the way of completing each item's required tasks, I feared I would not finish before my 4 months were up.

It's been quite an adventure going through each step. I learned so much, and there are so many things (the rest of the video sites, for example) I plan to go back and explore further. My favorite pieces were the steps where I signed up for a Facebook account (and later when I learned how to add Scrabulous to it--both are addictive!), signed up for a Pandora Radio profile, watched funny videos, and learned how to create this blog. I did enjoy many of the other sites & features we tried out as well--Flower Sudoku was fun, Flickr can be an enjoyable way to waste time online, RSS feeds are good for helping me remember what the heck it was I wanted to keep reading (like friends' blogs and so on) and letting me know when Nancy Pearl has a new podcast (radio broadcast). Meebo with the Firefox add-on helps me keep track of when friends & family are online without me having to toggle back & forth between tabs--this is a handy timesaver for me. I already had a Goodreads account, but I enjoyed creating a LibraryThing account and comparing the two. And it was good to create a Google doc from scratch instead of only knowing how to follow a set link to get to one particular file I could edit--a wide world opened up for me with that one.

I won't bother to talk about the steps I didn't like as much or find as useful. I've ranted about those enough already. If you really want to know how I feel about them, you can always re-read prior blog posts. I won't bore either of us with a repetition of my complaints & frustrations.

When I began this program four months ago, I had no idea I would find some of these 2.0 technologies so incredibly addictive or fun. I wanted to learn more about them so I wouldn't sound so clueless when interacting with patrons (especially teenagers), but I didn't think I personally would find some of them as fabulous as I did. What a wonderful surprise! And to think I got paid to learn these great new tools...wow.

I was able to find friends on Facebook whom I had not spoken to in years--never knew what happened to them after we graduated, for example. I'm glad I was sitting at my desk at the time so I didn't startle any patrons with my exclamations of joy & astonishment. :) (Apologies to any coworkers who weren't so lucky and got to share in my delight.) That was probably my most favorite aspect of this whole program and the part I'll use the most in the future, both on a personal level and probably on a professional basis as well, eventually.

My only suggestion for improvement with this 2.0 program would be that a few of the steps could use more explicit instructions. There were several times when I had to ask Sam for help because I had no idea how to accomplish something. (I can track backwards if you want to know specifics.) And there was one item where the instructions on how to accomplish a task were in the comments below the post, not the post itself. I have no objection to asking colleagues for help, and I actually think it's a better way to learn something if you have to teach someone else, but sometimes there isn't anyone around when you get to a step where you need help. So rather than saying things like "Go here and embed such-and-such in your blog," it would be helpful to include step-by-step instructions as to HOW to do that, for example. Overall, though, I think this whole experience was fantastic and completely worthwhile. Thank you very much, Discover 2.0 planning team! I look forward to using my new skills for years to come, adapting to updates and changes and new inventions as they come.

Playing around on Facebook & Meebo

Ooooh, telling us to sign up with Facebook (or MySpace) is a dangerous thing! I've become addicted, especially since I rediscovered several long-lost friends from childhood & college. I learned how to upload some photos, post on people's walls, send messages.... I'm still trying to figure out the deal with all these applications you can add. And what is the point of this "poking" thing? Very strange.

Today on Meebo I figured out how to change my buddy icon. Not very personalized yet, but at least it's not the photo of some man I don't recognize. (My first attempt was sort of an accident.) Now I need to start remembering to change my status message when I leave my desk or whatnot. But I like the Firefox Meebo add-on Sara told me about that keeps my buddy list in a side pane within Firefox so I can still get things done online and keep an eye on who's logged in all at the same time. (Thankfully, most of my friends seem to be offline most of the time, thereby reducing the temptation to chat instead of work.)

One thing I find REALLY annoying is how often Facebook is too busy to load. What's up with that? They need to add more servers or something. Drives me crazy when I can't navigate the site or post something and have to keep trying & trying until suddenly it goes through or the page decides it's now in the mood to load. Argh. Still...I keep trying. Addiction is a powerful motivator. Or perhaps Facebook is really some sociology professor's grand experiment? With young adults instead of mice, and computers instead of pushing bars to get the food pellets? Something to think about....

The meebo learning curve

Whew! Thank goodness for Sam's expertise with this one. (Yea, Sam!) Reading the stuff in the Discover 2.0 blog post on Meebo did not help hardly at all when it came to actually understanding how to use Meebo and insert the widget, I'm sorry to say. It was lovely background & all, but I already knew that Meebo was a way to let you chat with people on a bunch of other chat services all in one place/at one time. What I needed to know was how to do that--whether I had to sign up with a Meebo ID or could just use my existing Gmail ID (turns out yes, I needed a Meebo ID in order to get the widget thing), for example, and step-by-step instructions for installing the widget in this blog. This was the most confusing 2.0 step thus far.

I've been able to spend a little bit of time playing around with it now that I have it, and I think it will be useful. I can see how easy it would be to install the widget on our FVRL webpage for chat reference...although staffing could be problematic. But definitely something to think about for the future.

I like that Meebo gathers various chat IDs in one place so it's easy to see who's online at any given time. I will have to work on finding out which of my friends has a chat ID (or 2) so I can add them as "buddies."