Week #3, Thing #6, Mashups

As I was checking out different mashups, I stumbled across Tag Galaxy. It is a graphically creative way to view photos from Flickr - using tags. Once you type in the tag you would like to search, a solar system-like representation of your search appears. All of the photos with your "searched" tag are included with the planet in the "center" of the solar system. Planets of various sizes orbit the central one - they are the orginal tag more defined, or broken down further. I am reminded of an old search tool that had a little "genie" and the results of a search were presented graphically/visually with subtopics, or refined" topics branching off from the main search term. (Sorry, can't think of the name of it - if anyone knows, I would love to be reminded.) To view the photos under that tag, simply click on the desired planet and it zooms in toward you. By moving the mouse around the screen, the planet will rotate, allowing you to view all of that set of photos. You can click on any you want to see larger and you can also advance it so that the next set comes onto the screen.

My husband played around with it a little bit and actually figured out how to navigate around and through the planets/tags better than I did. A word of caution though - like any search tool, you can get undesired results. When he searched "trucks", he also got pictures of women.

I found Tag Galaxy to be a more enjoyable way to view photos by their tags than seraching/exploring on Flickr.

Week #3, Thing #5, Flickr Explored (attempt 2)

One Book Survived
Originally uploaded by Editor B

There are so many avenues to explore in Flickr - you could literally "poke"around for days. I took the "Learn More" tour and then started looking around in the groups. I checked out the "Library" group and stumbled upon a post including information about a group at ALA called "Biblioquilters". They are a group of librarians and library staff, who quilt on the side, who meet at ALA and swap fabrics and ideas. I passed this information on to my mom who is a librarian and quilter. She had never come across this group when attending ALA conferences in the past, but she might seek them out now. Okay, so this wasn't the goal of this exercise, but I learned something new I could share.

Now, on to the task at hand. After checking out groups for a while, I searched in the "creative commons" area. I searched "sunsets" looking to see if I could find anything that reminded me of the view from our back deck at the lake. Nothing turned up after a few pages. I left my searching for a few days. When I came back to Flickr, I tried searching "books". This time I came up with something that caught my eye. That is the picture you see above. It is titled "One Book Survived". They note the irony in the title of the book - this was in New Orleans, after Katrina. How striking that this particular book "survived" the devastation, and that someone thought to take a picture of it in the midst of everything that was happening. (This photo was posted by Editor B, and it says it was taken by Eleanor.)

I added the "attempt 2" to my posting title because I tried to upload the image using Blogger's upload tool, but it wouldn't actually show the image. So I went back and set up an account with Flickr so that I could add the image to my post. Perhaps it was just the image I was trying to upload that was giving me fits.

Week #2, Thing #3, Ouchless Blogging

Well, I finally did it... my blog is here. The amazing thing is that it really was painless and very easy. Now I suppose the challenge will be to not let it sit here idle. I'm still in that mode of making sure everything else is finished before I get around to blogging. Time to reevaluate my time management.

Creating my avatar was a lot of fun - I can see students taking forever to complete that task with all of those choices. Even I had to rein myself in. Like others I struggled a little bit with getting my avatar transferred to my blog, but I prevailed.

Catch you later.

Week 1, Thing #2, 7-1/2 Habits Musings

After viewing the 7-1/2 Habits, I really had a tough time deciding which habit was the easiest and the hardest for me. I tend to over analyze things, so I changed my mind numerous times. (I think I "failed" a test in a Psych. course for that very reason.) Probably the habit I have the easiest time with is teaching/mentoring others. I am always looking for ideas, strategies, materials, or tidbits that I can share with my colleagues. The hardest thing for me probably has to do with beginning with the end in mind. I can set goals with no problem, but the more difficult part of this is keeping to some sort of a timetable and breaking down the process into smaller tasks so that I can see some progress as I am on my way to the end goal. It seems there's always something else that needs my attention more urgently, or I tell myself that I'll get to it when I "check" a few other items off my "to do" list. (Which seldom happens before I drift off to dreamland at night.) Of course, the other habit that I often have a tough time getting around to is play. I'm working on that one, sometimes to the deferrment of those goals.

I'm thinking that setting up and signing a contract with myself for the completion of this Web 2.0 course might not be such a bad idea.