23Things #13 del.icio.us

I first became interested in del.icio.us as a way of hacking categories for blogger. I've put off that exploration in hopes I can transfer to Blogger Beta, but as soon as I noticed del.icio.us in the 23 Things I created an account (doing the Things slightly out of order) and have been tagging since, slightly frustrated by a suspicion that I could be using better tags.

To commemorate Thing#13/23 though, I have accepted the offer of a tagroll for my sidebar. (update Jan2007: lost and not yet replaced on switch to new blogger)

I love the way that if I del.icio.us tag a flickr photo page the photo appears in my del.icio.us page making it prettier.

23Things #12 Clearly I don't do a lot of searching...

because I don't yet have my own need for Rollyo (or Google's Custom Search Engine).

I've spent a little time trying to conceive of a combination of sources useful to me, but as yet ... nada.

I would relish a work-related purpose when the time comes, and I'd be very interested to hear experiences of improved results or search time from the tools.

23Things #11 My LibraryThing

Since joining up with LibraryThing (before this Learning2.0 thing appeared on my radar) I've managed to upload most of my ISBNs, and entered a bundle that could not be found, and begun loading books without ISBNs. Unfortunately my database has notes that if they were able to be uploaded I didn't know how, and LibraryThing doesn't help me track the value of my library.

Thanks to Superpatron I am now aware of GuruLib - whose design I appreciate for the visual simplicity in sorting by location, and format (book, music, movie, game, software), but again I can't see a way to record and calculate replacement value. match what my Access database could do with a field for estimated item replacement value: totalling the value of my library inventory. I use that total to be sure I have enough insurance cover.

Rana's comment prompted me to go have another look so I could be as clear as possible in clarification. My guess is restricted by not seeing behind the scenes because I don't want to provide all the details required to sign up.

Compare:
LibraryThing requires: username + password
GuruLib requires: First name, last name, gender, GuruLibID, password, and in case you lose your password personal security question and answer, date of birth, zipcode and email address.

By perusing top users libraries I've noticed that it is possible to sort items by best or new price for which there must be fields, so perhaps it would be possible to extract the information I would use: an estimated total replacement value of my library (for insurance).

I also noticed that some users created subject 'shelves' instead of physical location shelves - neat if not quite the flexibility of tags.

23Things #10 Image Generators

With so many to choose from surely it shouldn't have taken so long to find one I could enjoy? Many hours later ...

Thanks to other 2.0Learners I drifted by Yahoo Avatars, and just in case I ever take it back out of my blogger template...



Because I like Questing Librarian's poster from her hero, I took a look at the Hero Machine, but I couldn't decide what my heroine would look like.

And days later...Until a personality reconfiguration makes me either profound or witty ... this was just for the learning, and pretty...

Communicating Compassionately with yourself and others

Sunday, 22nd October at 2.30 p.m.

at my house (please book)

An introductory exploration of the basic principles of Non-Violent Communication, guided by Cherie Scott, based on the work of
Marshall Rosenberg

• Create empowering heart-centred relationships
• Hear behind the words to what people are really saying
• Learn how to have compassion for yourself and others in difficult situations
• Express your needs with clarity and compassion
• Be free of blame, guilt, criticism and submission.
• Support others emotionally in a way that enriches you (and doesn't wear you out!)

23Things #9 Finding Feeds

I'm not in interested in fishing for more feeds - I'm already caught up in the internet equivalent of the East Australian Current.

I have a button (bookmarklet) in my Firefox toolbar, which gets a work out thanks to serendipity.

So rather than exploring, I took a quick look only at Technorati (interesting, social - but I couldn't see it offering anything I need beyond del.icio.us?), Feedster (restful on the eyes), Topix (I did indeed find local news) and Syndic8 (?)

My easiest source of feeds? Serendipitous surfing.

23Things #8 RSS, Bloglines and feeds

RSS became useful to me a few years ago when I found an interesting source of news in the field of breastfeeding promotion. Nervously I subscribed to the service and happily received regular emails although I didn't appreciate how automated they were.

Since then my google searches would often offer results at blogs that were motherloads of the kind of information I enjoyed. I'd bookmark them, but found it difficult to find the time to visit them regularly. I signed up to receive regular Bloglet emails from Peter Scott's Library Blog - http://blog.xrefer.com (where is that now?).

Then Bloglet (or was it another service) suggested I move to Feedblitz several months ago. Feedblitz made it very easy to subscribe to the motherloads of information I was now discovering in blogs, each of which introduced me to other interesting blogs. Daily emails were full of fascinating updates - but also links to even more interesting sources.

I'd see blogrolls in blog sidebars everywhere and wanted one. Some were powered by Bloglines. I couldn't see anyway to get a blogroll from Feedblitz, but changing feed service wasn't attractive - wouldn't this mean going through a fiddly process of copying the feeding URLs? Still, for the sake of learning (and a blogroll) I set up my own account and noticed this 'import' option. Sure enough when I checked back at Feedblitz - they had a straightforward process to export to an OPML file.

It was worthwhile - it is now so much easier to scan the sources I like - although it is still a time-challenge when a new post sends me surfing.

So for my #8 I decided to work out how to get a blogroll. Super-easy. Then just another fiddle with the template and there it is.