Thing 23: The end of the beginning

The summer has gone away as quickly as it arrived, my time in Cambridge is coming to an end, and what better way to round it off than with a bit of reflection about our rerunning of the Cambridge 23 Things programme.

I have greatly enjoyed blogging on a regular basis; it has helped keep me writing and reflecting in my post-graduation period and I hope I will manage to keep it up during the years to come, even if the focus of the posts might shift a bit. 

My blog, in Wordle format! Created using http://www.wordle.net/

There is no doubt that a lot of the Things which I have learnt about in the programme will come in handy in the years to come, though admittedly, some will see greater use than others - I'm going to start my reflection with the less successful Things (but only so I can end on the good ones!)

Bottom of the class

• LibraryThing was an unmitigated disappointment for me. The design was poor, the interface complicated, and the results inaccurate at best. A great idea wasted, in my humble opinion.
• Google+. I know this wasn't a "Thing", but it popped up during the programme and again, promised so much but delivered...not a lot. It claimed to be "the" successor to Facebook and 101 other media tools but frankly (FB's new update and all), it really has to step up to compete with existing applications, not to mention taking a good hard look at its privacy policy...

by  rich115

My Cam23Things end of term report

Must try harder
(N.B. It's really me that should try harder, rather than the applications...)

• RSS feeds are a fantastic idea and I am using them in a small way via my Netvibes homepage. However, I am yet to find a reader/streaming program that really works for me, but I'm sure there is one out there.
• Evernote is a great resource, but I've yet to make it a real part of my online routine. Initially I used it for links, but Delicious overtook it. I have saved some images to it but I'd rather just keep them all in the "My Pictures" folder on my PC. I really like the idea and the design of Evernote but is it really useful to me? The jury's out.
• I need to get into the habit of using Creative Commons licensing tags because a) it's far more professional, b) provides more information for people who might see my reuse of stuff and c) it's an excellent idea that needs promoting! The problem is getting the formatting to match up to the picture, but once I get to grips with Ange's very useful workaround, I will develop better CC-tagging habits (see above for my first attempt!)

Gold stars all round

• Lightshot - lauded by all, so I won't bore you with any more hyperbole about the incredibly easy-to-use, superb, immensely useful and all-round Best App in the World Ever. 
• Prezi's popularity is attested to by its prominent position in the Wordle cloud above, which was unexpected...but then I really did enjoy all the neat tricks and formats it provides (to be used in moderation, of course)
• The Thing I use with the most regularity is probably Delicious - so much clearer than browser favourites and accessible from everywhere, it's simple but superb.
• I'm ready to hang my head in shame as I admit that Twitter is the second most used Thing that I have used in this programme. I only use it during work hours but as a medium for sharing professional information and engaging with others in the profession, it's unparallelled. I have also benefited from it in a personal capacity in terms of hearing about culturally exciting things (the Short Story Tweetathon, for one) and understanding certain issues better (mental illness, for example).
• Finally, all the amazing Cam23 bloggers, who have brought their own take on the Things offered and presented them in their individual and inimitable styles - it has been a privilege to read so many interesting things by interesting people that I had never heard of before.

On that note I'm going to finish with an homage to on of the other participants, my fabulously supportive boss Lyn, who has inspired me with her fantastic final post from last year's programme:

Blogging 'bout Things
Like a Doodle or two
Things
Like iGoogle for you
Things
(Things?) Like a Wordle cloud
Turn that podcast right up loud

Things that Flickr makes so pretty
Things that make a blog so witty
Screencasting for all the world to see
Though wikis may not be the Thing for me

Read about Things
On an RSS feed
Things
On Delicious to read
Things
Filed in Zotero
(Oh Oh) Reflecting on the Things you know

Things
Like the Lightshot feather
Things
That Link(ed) us In together
Twitter is the Thing we're talking through
And Facebook is one Thing we like to do.
(You can find Bobby Darin's somewhat more lyrical original "Things" here)

Thanks for the good times.

Becky :)

A glut of extra things (but lots of pretty pictures)

It's a bit of a last-minute rush, but I simply couldn't bear to leave all the pretty Extra Things undone before Cam23 is over for another year.

Starting with the prettiest of all the Extra Things, the data visualisation section has cheered up many of our blogs, as well as celebrating blogiversaries and even, crucially, promoting libraries!

I have used Wordle in the past and will be using it as part of my final post (*sob*) so I decided to give Tagxedo a go for this extra thing. I like Wordle very much but Tagxedo allowed me to produce this:

Although Tagxedo is a little less straightforward to use, it offers a much more simple way to shape your word clouds and create something perhaps more coherent with it. I chose a lightning bolt because the Cam23 programme has been full of little flashes of inspiration, as well as the occasional bolt from the blue! 

I was looking forward to Gliffy after seeing all the lovely floorplans that have popped up liberally across the Cam23 blogosphere. However, whilst I could try to recreate my lovely new terraced house in York, I've only spent about 15 minutes in it to date and therefore can't really remember what it's like. Instead I've decided to try something a little more serious with a Venn diagram about the overlap between librarianship and academia:

Created using www.gliffy.com

As a disclaimer, it is, necessarily a bit of a generalization on both sides. It's actually quite a difficult topic to expand upon though, because there are so many almost-correlations, and a lot of myths on both sides. I used this helpful post by Betsy and a careers case-study to help, not to mention sending my Classics colleagues into a right old debate in the office - so I hope that you agree with some of my ideas, and if you disagree with other, please let me know why and we can carry the debate on here!

Back to data visualisation for the moment - what better way to promote your library/webpage/blog/links than with a personalised QR code? The codes in themselves are a very clever marketing ploy (as long as your target audience is smartphone-savvy!) but are eeeeven cooler if they reflect the product (for want of a better  word) as well. Something along these lines, perhaps...

Created at http://vanity-qrcode.com/

Shameless, shameless (and in this context, slightly pointless) self-promotion.

What's left for this whistlestop tour? I blogged about list-making software and, naturally, tried out all the ones that I blogged about. In fact, some of my opinions are pretty thinly veiled in the Cam23 thing post here. My favourite was TeuxDeux, and I'm pleased to report that it has been successful...at the other end of the office, where Lyn raves about it! But me, I'm devoted to my scrappy bits of paper and notes stuck to the computer monitor - call me a luddite, but there's something very satisfying about tearing up a completed task, altering an ongoing one, or doodling all around the job you're putting off (as opposed to on Teux Deux, where your outstanding tasks chase you from day to day!)

Another very pretty Thing (or couple of Things) is the Tumblr/Posterous brand of short blogging. I haven't used either of these programs but I can definitely see the usefulness of them. I think the kinds of images and quotes I like to share are a little too random and unfocused to warrant a whole Tumblr page, for instance, and so I tend to share them as individual weird ideas on Facebook or Twitter (this was today's offering, which really made me smile!) I find that Facebook also allows me to discuss such things with friends more easily, because of the extended contacts that I have built up over 5 years (!) of using it and because it is an accepted (maybe expected?) way in which my friends and I utilise the Facebook News Feed. However, I think this site is a brilliant use of the software (even if the premise itself confuses me a little) so if I had a coherent and clearly defined point to make, I would definitely look to these kinds of tools.

And finally, I cannot forget Dropbox from weeks and weeks ago - I have an account because a friend sent me some large files using it some time ago. I must admit that it worked very well on that occasion...and that I haven't used it since. Photos I send via email, documents I share using Google Docs, resources I have posted up on Wikis...these all seem like perfectly viable ways of working, so for the moment, Dropbox is a bit redundant. Never say never though.