Booktalk - Acceleration

Task #10 - Posting the video booktalk

First problem: I couldn't download the flipcam software to my computer--"insufficient privileges." That's an irritating start to things. Then I read the instructions after I'd filmed Kim's talk and I guess I should have done that in reverse so I could have tried a little zooming for variety.

...[later] ok, software got installed. The process was straightfoward to put it up on youtube, but here are a few things that could be added to the task details:

• do I choose delete from videocam when I save it?
• you can't just log in to youtube--you need to set up an account
• look for video on left side of page when you go to drag it over to share

Hey, it's up! And really it was a breeze. Too bad I wobbled the camera at the end in trying to turn it off. I was hoping I could clip the last two seconds in the youtube edit, but no luck. Thanks to Kim's fantastic delivery though I think it's not bad for off the cuff filming. That completes the work more or less!

Task #9 - Plan a video booktalk

Well that was easy. Kim was able to do a one minute booktalk without a script or any planning. She's good! Let's hope the flipcam worked and that I can post it easily.

Privacy and web 2.0

I'm wondering if privacy issues should be touched on at the start of the program. It's alluded to in the reminder to think before posting and noting that you can set up a accounts not using your own name, but I wonder if it needs to be dealt with more directly?

Task # 9 - Video booktalking

Hmmm, well I'm not sure about this one. I like Kayleigh's spot. Smart writing, smooth delivery, brief--nice. As for the other samples, the one walking down the street was nicely done, the Scholastic one was a bit boring I thought, and the kids' one I abandoned (over 3 minutes! too long!)--and do you notice: 667 hits. Is it worth the effort? On the other hand, it might be fun for some staff to do one or two (or maybe a TAG group.)

I'll think some more about what I might do with this assignment. Just learning to use the flipcam and how to upload to youtube would be useful.

Task #8 - Twitter

I just tried following TrainingKFPL and KFPLtraining (which one is correct?) but still no luck. I've noticed before that twitter's search function is not reliable and sometimes it seems to take a few days for a new account to show up. Will try again later.

Task #7 - Podcasts

You can listen to podcasts on a computer or you can download podcasts to your mp3 player or ipod. My ipod is filled with podcasts which I subscribe to through itunes so I don't have to remember to download them each week. I'm more apt to listen to a podcast than to turn the radio on these days....

Here's what I listened to on the weekend while I puttered around and made rustic rolls for a potluck and ginger cookies for a cookie exchange: two episodes of The sniffer (a 5 to 10 minute podcast about current trends with Cathi Bond and Nora Young which is one of my favourites), Mark Kermode's films reviews from BBC Radio 5, CBC Spark (the CBC's now hourlong tech show with Nora Young) CNET UK's Crave (another tech one) and an episode of Alexander McCall Smith's The dog who came in from the cold which the Telegraph is offering.

Task #6 - Wikis

Oh my, that's not the most user-friendly interface. (Sorry.) I had trouble signing in and then I couldn't put my blog address into a new page under blogs of interest, but maybe that's me not understanding how it works. I have an aversion to reading instructions whether it's on the computer or putting together something from Ikea. Something that is well-designed should be usable right away. Anyway I was able to add it under discussion.

We used a wiki on a project at Central a couple of years ago here (pbwiki) and it was hard to get staff to use it. This version is maybe a little slicker, but still not intuitive (at least for me.) Ok, I only played with it for less than 5 minutes so maybe I should take another look...

I know some libraries use wikis for booklists which seems like a good possible use. And I suppose doing projects together would be a possibility. The branch librarians just used Word when we did a revision of the page manual and the sticky notes and comments and so on were a bit of a pain, but my brief look at this wiki doesn't make me think it would be a lot better. On the other hand, I've made a few changes in wikipedia and that process seemed ok.

Task #5 - Shelfari

I set up the account--it's a breeze, and more attractive than Library Thing which I've used before. I'm not sure if there's as much community here though. Library Thing has been around for a long time.

I easily added a shelfari widget to this blog. Couldn't find any friends yet though, but will do that later.

In the end though, much as I like gadgets, keeping track of my reading in my little moleskine works best for me.

Faceless

Saw Manu Luksch's film Faceless last night at Agnes Etherington. It's a film entirely made from CCTV footage. Scary. And depressing. There's a Surveillance Studies Centre at Queen's...