Thing 4...RSS and Newsreaders

Sometimes I think that in spite of my seeming sophistication and frequent use of computers, I'm still an infant when it comes to all these new technologies. I watched the video from Common Craft Show. This is a great site for folks like me, it broke down the concept of RSS feeds and Newsreaders in really simple terms.

The problem comes when I try to think of my favorite websites. I sit in front of a computer all day, answer emails (this has become the main venue for giving and receiving work), look up information for patrons, type reports, but I don't really have any favorite websites. My daughter loves to watch YouTube and she is constantly looking up songs to watch and listen to, but I'm still in the real world more than the virtual world.

OK so this is a fun experiment. I signed up with Bloglines and added a few subscriptions to news, music and a few other irreverent sites. Now, I'll see if I use it.

That's enough fun for one day.

Thing 3...searching the blogosphere

I love all the new vocabulary that the internet has brought about. I remember hearing about weblogs maybe 10 years ago. Many started as political rants. Weblogs turned to blogs and now we have a "blogosphere." It's right up there with atmosphere and hemisphere and connotes something really big. I first heard the term "blogosphere" a year ago from my friend's 25 year old, New Yorker niece, (very hip) and she was always searching for election gossip, especially Obama info since she was a big supporter. She told me about the Huffington Post , which I had never heard of previously. I checked it out and found it was like reading a newspaper editorial. I realize, especially now that I am writing a blog, that the blogosphere is universe of editorials. Some interesting (especially if they agree with your opinion) some boring.

I searched Technorati, Blog Pulse and Blog Lines (notice the hyperlinks!). Technorati has the best reputation it seems or is the mostly widely known. I did the same search on all three search engines . The search was "library budget cuts" in quotation marks and Technorati gave me 2 results that we 90 and 97 days old. I got better results in Blog Pulse and Blog Lines which delivered many of the same articles.

It's all very interesting and I keep thinking about that video that said something like we are bombarded with more information in 24 hours than most people 100 years ago got in a lifetime. I think, do I want this much information? Is this what I want to be doing with my time.

I'm doing it for 23 Things, so that I'm informed, but really I'd rather be outside.