Technology Tapas: Wikis

Wikis have been a staple of my Internet information searching experience for many years.

I enjoyed the examples given for library-oriented wikis. The ALA Conference wiki was particularly enlightening. I think that libraries can effectively utilize wikis to provide more precise information about their programming efforts. These wikis can then involve library users and employees alike to create resources that will be useful to the library's customers.

My favorite wikis are those that truly engage and involve their users to create a resource that is useful to others. Some examples are:

• Wikipedia - This is the premiere wiki and, IMHO, one of the best reference resources available to anyone looking to find initial knowledge about practically any subject. I normally begin my information search by utilizing Wikipedia to learn a little about a subject I know nothing about. After using Wikipedia as a starting point, I use the supplied links to find out more information about the subject or initiate my own search elsewhere.
• WoWWiki - I am a hardcore PC gamer and one of my favorite games is World of Warcraft. I use Wowwiki to find out more detailed information about the game.
  

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Technology Tapas: Web 2.0 Awards: Im Cooked

I chose http://www.imcooked.com from the Web 2.0 Awards list and saw that it is a pretty useful cooking tool that offers something that no other recipe site that I have seen offers: videos cooking tutorials made by real people. This allows people to express themselves while demonstrating how they cook their favorite meals. Very entertaining. The next time I feel the urge to cook, I am going to try out this site. I am not sure of it's usefulness in a library setting, but I liked seeing how other people cook meals that I know how to cook myself. I learned a couple things about how to make Wonton Soup and how to do some different things with making spaghetti gravy with sausage and meatballs.

Technology Tapas: Google Documents

Continuing with this week's Technology Tapas activities, I applied my knowledge of Google Documents as we looked at Web 2.0 Applications. I have used Google Docs pretty heavily during the couple years, mainly as a collaborative tool. I usually set up a document, invite a number of participants from my network and then edit the document collaboratively with them. This avoids having to send files back and forth between collaborators and the latest version is always available on the web at time to any of the document's participants. Currently, I am using a Google Doc to plan an upcoming conference presentation with three other participants.

Technology Tapas: Del.icio.us

This week's Technology Tapas topic is Social Bookmarking and Web 2.0 Applications. As part of the activity, I set up a Delicious account and began adding bookmarks, tagging the bookmarks all the time. I am discovering other users' lists of bookmarks and searching their lists by tag name in order to find what I want. Delicious is a great and convenient tool, one that I knew about before Tapas but never had the time to explore. One aspect of Delicious that will be convenient for me is to be able to have a bookmarks list accessible from anywhere I have an Internet connection. Being able to easily organize these bookmarks by subject through tagging will certainly be of value. And certainly being able to draw from the bookmarks of others when searching for information will be a useful tool.

The Outer Limits: The Galaxy Being (1963)