I joined FriendFeed (as DeborahWK--same as Twitter) several Things ago, and subscribed to the feeds of several people I know. I mostly monitor it the same way I monitor my other web 2.0 sites, by a gadget on my iGoogle home page. Which makes me wondor sometimes if FriendFeed isn't therefore rather redundant--what's the point of having a feed to update me with information I can see in my other gadgets on the same page? One major drawback, as far as I'm concerned, is the fact that FriendFeed can't pull in my status updates from Facebook. Therefore, people who follow me (admittedly not very many at this point) are missing a large part of my online life. After searching through several online forums I discovered this is a common problem for Facebook/FriendFeed users. Even so, I'll continue to use it for the time being, primarily for professional networking/development. Most of my personal online interaction still happens through Facebook.
My library began using Digsby for our IM reference service in the middle of the past semester. We have a Facebook account and one of the librarians received a chat reference query while she was logged in. It made us realize that since Trillian (our IM software at the time) couldn't monitor our Facebook account, we were potentially missing out on assisting users. Digsby solved that problem for us, aggregating all the chat services we use in one place. Another advantage to Digsby is it allows us to create chat widgets to place on pages of our web site where students might be looking for help.
Showing posts with label RSS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RSS. Show all posts
Friday, June 19, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Thing #40 -- Mashup the Web
I'm always on the lookout for any tools that can keep me up-to-date on current issues and trends, without requiring a whole lot of web surfing or feed reading. So LibWorm interests me. I created a couple of search feeds using it, which I added to Google Reader. We'll see if this seems to work better than following individual feeds.
Just for fun I played around with Walk Score -- my current neighborhood is 62 out of 100, somewhat walkable. Then I tried an old address from when I lived in Uptown, Minneapolis, and it scored 92, Walker's Paradise. Guess that's how I survived living there when I didn't own a car. I also looked at Wheel of Lunch, which is very similar to Urbanspoon. I have the Urbanspoon app on my iPod, and below is the widget they make available for the Twin Cities.
When I first went to Dapper it seemed like it was geared for commercial business, but after a bit of browsing around I discovered their "open" site. I created a few feed tools and widgets, and can see there could be a use for these on my library's site. I'll have to come back later and explore it some more.
Just for fun I played around with Walk Score -- my current neighborhood is 62 out of 100, somewhat walkable. Then I tried an old address from when I lived in Uptown, Minneapolis, and it scored 92, Walker's Paradise. Guess that's how I survived living there when I didn't own a car. I also looked at Wheel of Lunch, which is very similar to Urbanspoon. I have the Urbanspoon app on my iPod, and below is the widget they make available for the Twin Cities.
When I first went to Dapper it seemed like it was geared for commercial business, but after a bit of browsing around I discovered their "open" site. I created a few feed tools and widgets, and can see there could be a use for these on my library's site. I'll have to come back later and explore it some more.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Thing #30 -- More Ways to Use RSS
I use Google Reader for my RSS feeds and once I added the Reader gadget to my iGoogle home page (as part of Thing 28) that became the primary way I view them. I'll usually check several times a week, skimming the list, and only reading the ones that interest me. Organizing feeds into folders really helps. I have folders for general library feeds, specific library subjects, news, technology, and a few others. It helps me keep my reading focused; many times I don't check every folder each time--deciding which folders have interest for me depending on my mood or circumstances. Using folders also keeps any one list of posts from getting too long and overwhelming.
Even so, the technology folder still has a lot in it. Both Lifehacker and Engadget, for example, post several times an hour, and it's hard to weed out the few gems I care about from all the rest. I was glad to discover FeedRinse as part of this Thing, and am experimenting with it. I created "rinsed" versions of my technology related feeds, based on what tags are in a post, and set up a separate folder for those. This will allow me to compare what's getting through my filters with the full blog. Once it seems to be giving me just the posts I care about I'll remove the full feeds from my reader.
The concept behind Spreed is an interesting one. I can see its appeal for some people, those whose job requires them to keep up on all the news in a particular area. It's nice that Spreed provides options to speed read a story or see the full article, and to set the words per minute. I had a hard time with it, though. On slower speeds the story didn't flow--my mind kept treating each screen of 2-4 words as a distinct chunk rather than knitting them together to make a sentence. Increasing the speed made me tense, as my comprehension tried to keep up with my reading.
In the "file it away for later" category is Simple Tracking.com. Next time I have a package to track it will be nice to have a feed that updates when the package's status changes.
I also may try twitterfeed later on, depending on how much I end up using Twitter, and how many people follow me. Twitterfeed would be an easy way for libraries with both blogs and Twitter accounts to keep users informed about the library, by passing blog posts into their Twitter stream. A painless way to reach users where they are, in whichever social medium they prefer.
I'll save more things with delicious for my next post.
Even so, the technology folder still has a lot in it. Both Lifehacker and Engadget, for example, post several times an hour, and it's hard to weed out the few gems I care about from all the rest. I was glad to discover FeedRinse as part of this Thing, and am experimenting with it. I created "rinsed" versions of my technology related feeds, based on what tags are in a post, and set up a separate folder for those. This will allow me to compare what's getting through my filters with the full blog. Once it seems to be giving me just the posts I care about I'll remove the full feeds from my reader.
The concept behind Spreed is an interesting one. I can see its appeal for some people, those whose job requires them to keep up on all the news in a particular area. It's nice that Spreed provides options to speed read a story or see the full article, and to set the words per minute. I had a hard time with it, though. On slower speeds the story didn't flow--my mind kept treating each screen of 2-4 words as a distinct chunk rather than knitting them together to make a sentence. Increasing the speed made me tense, as my comprehension tried to keep up with my reading.
In the "file it away for later" category is Simple Tracking.com. Next time I have a package to track it will be nice to have a feed that updates when the package's status changes.
I also may try twitterfeed later on, depending on how much I end up using Twitter, and how many people follow me. Twitterfeed would be an easy way for libraries with both blogs and Twitter accounts to keep users informed about the library, by passing blog posts into their Twitter stream. A painless way to reach users where they are, in whichever social medium they prefer.
I'll save more things with delicious for my next post.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Thing #3 -- RSS
I began subscribing to RSS feeds a couple years ago, using the Sage extension for Firefox. I like having my feeds available as a sidebar in my browser, but have found myself going through stages. Sometimes I'm really involved in keeping up with the various feeds I track, and at other times I just mark items unread without actually reading them. It depends on the amount of time I have. I find myself going though these cycles with my email listservs as well.
I've been happy using Sage, but decided to try one of the feed readers mentioned in Thing #3. I went with Google Reader since I already use several other of Google's services, and this way I didn't have to create yet another account. I added my current feeds to Google Reader and took the opportunity to browse around for some new ones I might be interested in, which I added to both readers. Google Reader has some nice features that aren't available with Sage, such as being able to "star" items of interest. However, I think for my day-to-day (really week-to-week I guess) reading I'll stick with Sage. Except now I have the option if I see something I want to hang onto of going into Google Reader to star it, and using Google to manage those items.
I've been happy using Sage, but decided to try one of the feed readers mentioned in Thing #3. I went with Google Reader since I already use several other of Google's services, and this way I didn't have to create yet another account. I added my current feeds to Google Reader and took the opportunity to browse around for some new ones I might be interested in, which I added to both readers. Google Reader has some nice features that aren't available with Sage, such as being able to "star" items of interest. However, I think for my day-to-day (really week-to-week I guess) reading I'll stick with Sage. Except now I have the option if I see something I want to hang onto of going into Google Reader to star it, and using Google to manage those items.
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