"Go web. Fly. Up, up, and away web! Shazam!"

I have been learning about the RSS feeds this week and it was a little hard for me to figure out. I finally realized that my difficulty was nested in the fact I don’t seem to use the web the same way other people use it. I don’t know why that hadn’t occurred to me before. Perhaps because this is the first time I’ve ever really been able to examine and compare my surfing habits with others in a controlled setting. Suddenly, I’m not sure what the internet really is.

I had an Ah HA moment superimposed on a state of extreme disorientation….don’t stare!

I use the web like Spidey. I rarely read news or articles on the web. I don’t watch American news on television and I don’t have cable or NetFlix. If it didn’t pop up on the MSN homepage as newsworthy as I headed into my hotmail account, I didn’t hear about it. Now if something surfaces of great interest to me, I will shift gears…. (Usually I will ask Randi about it when I get to work….) No, really… I will Google the item for additional information and check Wikipedia (if that is pertinent) because news is compiled so efficiently and in a manner in which I find easy to follow.

This made me wonder, how did this happen that I am so different from everyone else? I think it is because I came into an interest in what the internet could DO by virtue of accidentally finding a chat community. My web-jones is the spawn of socializing on-line. Just about all of my skills (or lack of them) sprouted from interaction within that chat room, in one way or another. When the SYSOP would add something new to the site or a chatter would get excited about an innovation, they explained it to us and we all went and investigated it, if it interested us. Is it any wonder why I have enjoyed this summers Learning 2.0 project so much!! This is SO my sandbox!

Prior to that experience I used the web much like I would use the Encyclopedia as a child: Start out looking up one thing and find a bunch of other stuff that was thrilling, then Mom calls me for dinner….oh, and I used the web for shopping, of course. I like to shop on-line.

So when it came time to line up things to put on a RSS feed there was not much for me to put on there, really. Who needs Bloglines when you have Spidey-Sense? I did find it efficient for putting everyone’s Learning 2.0 blogs in a handy spot so I can see who is currently posting. Otherwise, until my research habits evolve, I’m going to just continue using my favorites.

Perhaps when I learn a little more about the tools a newsreader can provide, I will press myself into more sophisticated internet habits. I look forward to that.

Blogging: the wheat and the chaff

I found this link in a favorite blog of mine called "As Time Goes By" and I want to share it with you because I found it valuable in explaining to me the importance of understanding blogging in terms of how information is processed these days. It is about freedom of speech in the form of blogging and how it has sometimes supplanted a rather cumbersome mass media in America.... among other things...

From As time Goes By,

"....On Tuesday, Jay published a story on alternet.org (reprinted from Huffington Post) titled, “A Blog is a Little First Amendment Machine.” Due to blogs and the emerging two-way nature of the web, Jay explains, media is no longer a one-way street from producer to audience...."

We have the good fortune to be born in a time when we can be empowered to express ourselves and communicate in innovative ways, if we choose. We have the additional fortuity to be employed in a library during these exciting times.

Kindness

“…Let’s be like David Dangeli, let’s pray on our knees in privacy – Let’s say 'Oh Thinker of all this, be kind'- Let’s entreat him, or it, to be kind in those thoughts – All he has to do is think kind thoughts, God, and the world is saved – And everyone of us is God – What else? And what else when we’re praying on our knees in privacy?...I’ve said my peace.”

Jack Kerouac
Desolation Angels

I've been reading a lot of Kerouac lately and so when something in my day happens...or doesn't happen, I'll open up my reading material and there will be something there for me - What else?

...thats all I have to say about that.

Those on the front will be bringing up the rear

First of all, this is a wonderful idea. Kudos to all who have organized this.

Second of all, please be gentle with us service desk folks! We rarely have large slots of time that we can dedicate to technical problem solving with the people needing help at the counter and the phones and gates ringing....you get the idea. So be kind and spare us the, "Haven't you done that yet?" and consider some patience and perhaps an, "Oh! you've done that already? ...and with all that interruption? Well DONE!" Okay...I guess that's a bit much to ask for but thanks in advance for your consideration.

See me for help with your rubber spatulas.