Thing 45--Cloud Computing

I have already, on rare occasions, “remoted in” to my work computer from my home computer to grab a file I had there, or to use a program I don’t have on my home computer. But so much of what I now do on the computer IS web-based, that I rarely need to link to my own computer. I check email, read my feeds, etc., from whichever computer I have access to. I guess I already use the cloud more than I realized.

While I haven’t made regular use of GoogleDocs, my son in High School has. He was encouraged by his school librarian (YEA!) to use it. She allowed students who were printing from GoogleDocs to print for free. He was immediately sold. He also took a creative writing class last summer that used the program to share and read and comment on each other’s writing. So I recognize the potential, even if I personally am still a dinosaur.

My only concerns about the cloud revolve around security. I don’t mind having what I choose to be public be public—I just don’t want other things to become public without my permission. A concept that is harder and harder to control…

Thing 30 -- More RSS and Delicious

I have a link to Google Reader on my iGoogle page, which is my homepage at work. I spend about 10 to 15 minutes each morning skimming through the short versions of posts, and click on the full texts of those that I want to read more fully. I do this every work day, and usually on the weekend too. If I go to Google Reader separately, which I do if there are over 50 feeds, I have the feeds sorted into folders. For example, all the 23 things blogs are in the same folder. It helps somewhat, so that I know what it is I'm looking at. I do not use feeds for ordinary news material--it would just overwhelm me. I keep it--for the most part--professional. (Ok, Mark Bittmann's food blog doesn't count, but...)

I don't really use most of the Delicious bells and whistles. I did take advantage of this "thing" to improve my sorting of tags, tag bundles, etc. I got rid of duplicates, and added a bunch of new tag bundles to make my account more useful. For this "Thing" I added people to my network and tried subscribing to a few tags. But I have a feeling I will just end up with too much. I find most of my sites through all the feeds I subscribe to. But I will give it a try to see if I find new material this way too.

I do like the tag cloud, especially after I tweaked the size. I'm still going to try to tweak the color so that it matches my blog layout better. The new cloud from delicious comes with a button, so I didn't add a separate one.

Thing 28 -- Personalize Your Homepage

Because I had created an iGoogle page with the original 23 Things class, I chose to do more with that homepage. I chose it initially because I had begun to use Google Reader, so it seemed a logical fit. Now that I have changed my Internet provider at home, I have also started using gmail for my home account.

As part of this Thing, I added back my Yahoo mail account to the front page. I also added a Twitter gadget, a gadget to link to the MToaS wiki, a tab with Library materials, and a few more news and education gadgets. Because that felt a bit too "plug and play," I decided I would try to create a new theme for my home page. That took a bit more effort, since Google was not particularly clear what size or shape of photo would work. My effort isn't particularly spectacular, but it uses a photo from my vacation last year, so I like it. (It doesn't seem to be available to be shared, although I thought I gave that permission. It's called "Mountain Sunshine," if it ever shows up.)

I would have to say that I like having Twitter there, as well as Reader and the email accounts. I also find that the education gadgets often point me to things useful for my school. Many of the other gadgets and widgets seem too much for play and not so much for work.

I really want to explore how I can use these items as part of my library or for school services. I'm still trying to figure that one out. Some of the reading (the end of the Metz article) got more technical than I am, so I am still unsure how I can make this work.