Method 12

Yay—I’ve come to the end of the exercises in this course and have completed it before the deadline!

Some of my favorite discoveries centered on acquiring more knowledge about Flickr, Picasa, and YouTube. And I loved learning about making movies with either your photos or videos using Windows Movie Maker. These 12 Steps has indeed rekindled my love for learning. It was very energizing. In my art, I always love to try new techniques and use different media. I am always experimenting and asking myself, “what would happen if I did this or that?” Because of that intuitive approach, I become a conduct for the creative process instead of dictating and planning.

In these exercises, there was a lot of high-tech terms I had heard about but not really understood or had ever used. Now, I have a better understanding of RSS feeds, of sharing documents and bookmarks, of twittering and IM’ing, of wikis and podcasts. And I thought of new potentials for social networking that I already used.

This is a well-thought out program that builds on previous steps, so I think it succeeds quite well. And yes, I’d definitely like to take another like this in the future, even if it was not offered through work. As a matter of fact, I put a link to the Dozen Ways to Two Step on both my personal Facebook site and art blog and have a few positive responses for spreading the word!

Method 11

The Wide World of Podcasting

The first several podcasts I tried to play did not work. Exploring other subjects on Podcast.com I lost the signal when trying more pages several times. This was becoming frustrating and I was beginning to doubt I’d really hear any podcast. At one point, the session jammed that made Microsoft Explorer close.

After re-starting, I went to the wiki library listings and randomly clicked on the Belk Library Audio (http://belklibrarypodcast.blogspot.com/) and went to the most recent podcast about their databases. Temporarily, I was waiting, expecting video, like YouTube. Reminding myself this is strictly audio, I skipped over to the Lunar and Planetary Institute Library (http://www.lpi.usra.edu/library/mp3.xml) and listened to what was new at their library.

The next day, I was able to listen to an interview with a writer whose book I recently read. The podcast was about 59 minutes and I could pause, go back, re-listen to sections whenever I found I was missing something.

Being a visual person and comparing the same writer talking about his book on YouTube, I have to say I lean more toward the visual broadcast rather than podcast. However, simply listening can also free you to do other things, like having a radio or music on in the background.

How can my library use podcasts? Good question. I searched for my library and university on the podcast web site. Found podcasts by those who had taught or attended the university. Nothing created by my library, yet.

Off the top of my head, podcasts could be used by circulation to remind patrons of closing times, books are due, and when the coffee bar closes. These updates could be helpful to students, especially during finals. Podcasts of all academic subjects could be used by faculty in classrooms, by staff for software updates (although YouTube might be more helpful), by campus-wide announcements of benefit plan updates.

Method # 3

Reading about computing in the clouds, I think that storing your files where you can access them anywhere is a radical shift—instead of software strictly on your hard drive computer, you can put your documents, spread sheets, and video out into space, in a cloud.

If my library were to adopt this in the future, there might not be any need to buy expensive software for each machine. Staff would be trained to learn the new cloud concepts and storage. But, would software companies go out of business or shift from producing expensive software to cloud-based space and software? Would computer techies now become savvy about retrieving your floating documents?

The whole concept keeps moving technology to the point where it’s untethered.

Untethered. That word has reverberated in my skull since I’ve begun this program. Like an astronaut taking a space walk, but without his umbilical cord, floating along, hopefully with powerful space jets to get him back to the safety of ship.

If you are over 40, you've had to constantly deal with change and upgrades. Just look at computer storage devices: 8” floppy, 3.5 floppy, Zip drive, USB, and now large-capacity external hard drives. You realize kids today are not tethered like we were. Instead of having to use a home telephone at the exact spot where it was hardwired (before the portable clips and wires were invented, allowing you to unplug and re-plug in a different room), they have always known about cell phones. Instead of having to use a record player or stereo plugged into a wall, they can carry tunes in their MP3, iPod, or Blackberry, or iPhone. Instead of having to use either a portable or electric typewriter, they can type on laptops or text on phones. Instead of needing an expensive and heavy Betamax machine with large blank tapes to either record programs off the air from a handful of commercial channels or buy pre-recorded movies, they can see digital commercial shows as well as tons of amateur videos (YouTube) on their choice of portable device or online computer.

A pattern emerges when new technology is developed: the latest device is unveiled and hailed, it is very expensive, people rush to buy it, the price drops, more can afford it, it becomes commonplace and is absorbed into the culture, and it becomes obsolete. Then the pattern repeats.

Today, we live in a science-fiction world. Untethered. Portable. All-in-one device. Freeing up where and when you can do certain activities. Untethering allows you to take your phone, e-mail, music, videos, GPS maps, etc. with you when you travel across town or around the world. Incredible!

Some of the articles and comments about cloud computing point out the risks of putting valuable documents out there in space. Along with teaching new software and storage methods, a library needs to balance instructions with warnings about cloud computing. Like any new technology, the positive and negatives will emerge as it becomes used or discarded.

So, will this become a viable alternative to commercial software tethered to one or a network of computers? Will it become safe and stable? It seems there are more questions than answers at this point. Only time will tell.