A Reflection on Web 2.0.

One of my friends, after years of resistance, finally succumbed and joined Facebook, which then compelled me to tag 50 photos of him, leave him messages on his wall and post a link for him to look at. He nearly punched me in the face when I saw him yesterday. With the confidence I gained doing these exercises I told him it was his age showing. He is only 30. I was so smarmy, if he really punched me I would have deserved it.

Like it or not, these web technologies are becoming more a part of our lives. I'm still not sure I like Twitter, someone called me a 'Twitface' (someone that uses Twitter and Facebook) the other day, and I wasn't sure if I liked that or not. I do like the instant messages of Twitter but more for the informative aspect, like Beth Ditto announcing a new album cover for the Gossip, or programs at the State Library of Victoria.

I really love the learning aspect of Youtube which I had never thought of exploring, it help me set up my Mac Mail, which I had put off for years because it was just too confusing reading instructions, and forums were just not very helpful. The visual aid of a video clip is worth a 1000 words sometimes.

I think I've learnt to embrace these tools more and have really tried to cement myself online. I feel more plugged in to this great platform for information, and the tasks given has equipped me better for making some order out the mess and chaos of the Internet. I'm worried that now I've been exposed to these great tools, if I don't keep up I'll just fall so far behind that it will soon be 'Web 3.0', and I'll be a year older and won't know what's going on. I feel like if I blink everyone will be using 'Twitface' or something new and better.

So many of these great tools are online, I came across Zoho, an website that offers online applications, so you can use it to create a word document or other types without the use of Microsoft, send it to yourself, and email or blog it. All online. So if I was half way across the world and needed to type something up quickly, I could just log in, type it up and send it to myself, all from some dingy Internet cafe. I'm just giddy with excitement, it's so geeky.

Yahoo Pipes was a challenge, but the mash ups available, some great ones that me and my fellow groups members looked at, were fantastic, particularly Mashpedia and Google Maps. With all these avenues for information, it's become easier to help people at work. I could, not only show someone an address on Google maps but, show them a street level image that could tell them what the building they were searching for looked like, and Flickr is great for this also, particularly for overseas places.

Searching and deploying information is made so much easier, but because of the high volume of  user-generated content, and lack of infrastructure on the World Wide Web, setting things up can be time consuming, and remaining engaged can also eat up a lot of time. I won't let it deter me though, I'm really loving it, especially the social aspect of it, and everything's so useful, the RSS feeds, my growing number of bookmarks, my LibraryThing.

It's hard to imagine that it's only been six weeks, I've learnt so much but it feels like we only touched the tip of the iceberg. I wished I had engaged more with my group, we seemed to chug through it okay, I think, and reading everyone's post was great for support and tips.

I haven't made myself ill with information overload yet, I'm just too excited by the prospects of web technologies for information management. I might even start to love Twitter.

Microblogging, it's Twitterrific!

I'm not sure I like Twitter. It is information O-VER-LOAD, like someone shoving pavlova into my mouth, my eyes and my ears, while speaking to me in reverse to the beat of a Toto song. It's not in big readable chunks but a lot of snippets, some hard to see in context without previous tweets, and the language of Twitter takes some getting used to.

It's a great marketing tool for getting information out quick. I'm following my favourite bands at the moment and one has tweeted information about canceled shows and additional shows they've added on last minute. Melbourne Open House tweeted previously about their open days for 2010. Organisations that need to relay information fast can use Twitter for such a purpose, but the tweets are limited in word space, so if the message is short and sweet it is ideal, and with the use of shortened links, more information is being squeezed into 140 characters.

The big down side: I made the mistake of following too many people. There was just too much going on from Neil Gaiman's trip in NZ to Neil Patrick Harris sitting in Singapore Airport. When Twitter is like reality TV in the palm of your hand, it's not really useful unless you want to stalk them. This bombardment of information is like static, where maybe 1% of tweets have information I want to read. It's like someone giving you just 140 characters of their state right now, or now, or wait a minute... now. It's either too much or not enough. Following friends is great too, but following too long is like overstaying your welcome. I like my friends but I don't want an update about their life every minute of everyday.

I'll see how I feel about it in a few weeks. I wish I could just channel that bit of Gen Y and say I hate it and quit it, but here is my Twitter Page, which you can follow. I'm not sure if what I tweet will be very poignant but I promise I won't regale you with a blow by blow post vindaloo episode.

I'll save that for my facebook.