Wiki, wiki, who's got a wiki?

Thoughts on Thing 17.

I love those "something, something, something in plain English" videos. And, that guy is so cool. I want to learn how to flick paper off a drafting table like that.

Anyway, now I understand wikis like I never did before, but what happens when a whole bunch of friends (the camping group, for instance) all start editing and saving at once? If three of them suddenly realized they needed a tent and offered their own, does the "what we have" list show three tents? Who dominates (oooh, that's a loaded word)? Who edits for criss-crossed posts? The owner of the wiki?

A curious mind wants to know.

Ciao. Barb

Playing catch-up with Thing #15

I read most of the material Heather provided through the links on the Thing #15 ELL page. Now that the stuff has marinated a bit in my brain, I don't think anything I read sums up my thinking on Library 2.0 better that Rick Anderson's article "Away from the Icebergs." Here's the salient quote from the end of his piece:

"No profession can survive if it throws its core principles and values overboard in response to every shift in the zeitgeist. However, it can be equally disastrous when a profession fails to acknowledge and adapt to radical, fundamental change in the marketplace it serves. At this point in time, our profession is far closer to the latter type of disaster than it is to the former. We need to shift direction, and we can’t wait for the big ship of our profession to change course first. It’s going to have to happen one library—one little boat—at a time."

I'm not inclined to elaborate at length (that's different for me), I'll just add that this ELL program, the up-grades to our sites, our blogs, our Loft 2.0 features, and the like are exactly the right things to be doing now.

I have two worries:

Are we leaving the non-digitally connected segments of our population in the dust? Are we moving too fast for them?

What happens when we lose the power grid? Even a temporary shutdown wreaks havoc on things. I see more of that happening not less. (Yeah, a pretty dystopic view of the future, isn't it?)

On that cheery note...
Ciao. Barb

Thing 11--Library Thing

OK, I put in some titles, mostly books waiting to be read or reads in progress. I am not inclined to take full advantage of all the Library Thing features. I attend one bookclub (sometimes two if I go to the North Branch session), and talk books with people all the time. I have no urge to do this virtually. I do understand that it's a blessing for many who can't get out, prefer to chat and share ideas online, want to be anonymous and the like, and I say, "Go for it!" to them. If I were to start using this site regularly, I don't know when I'd get time to read. Here's the link to my site. Wanna talk? Call me....

click here

Ciao. Barb

Boomers take over Facebook! MySpace under threat!

Just imagine if social networking became as popular with the people in my age demographic as it is with the teens and 20-somethings. The Baby Boomers would take over the social sites. Would that be bad? It might be the kiss of death for this kind of thing for the age group these sites were originally aimed at. There are probably quite a few young people who don't like the idea of anyone over, say, 30 joining "their" sites, and just imagining their mom or dad or (gasp) grandma networking and becoming their friends creeps them out.

But, hey, maybe I'm the one with the problem. Am I being age-ist here? Am I imposing my own ambiguous feelings about a)--social networking (a virtual experience) replacing real-life/real-time/face-to-face experiences, and b)--my own discomfort at being thought too old to be hip anymore? In all honesty, I think there's a bit of that going on with me these days which is why the ELL is a good thing even if I don't join up or use every 2.0 tool we're exploring.

Ciao. Barb

LibraryThing and me

Thing 11--LibraryThing--wasn't hard to do. It was, however, one of those things in life where once you get started, it's hard to stop. So many links to click, so many FAQs to read, so many potential ways to spend life on a website [sigh]. Honestly, I have to wonder how 2.0 fans have the time to keep up their own blogs, read all their RSS feeds, up-date their Flickr and YouTube accounts, visit their social sites, check emails (how quaint, email), text, eat and breathe. It's all so, um, virtual. My goodness, this has turned into a bit of a rant. I thinks it's time for me to go offline for a while.

Ciao. Barb

Vive la difference!

In answer to the age-old question "is contra dancing like square dancing?"...I'd have to say yes and no. The calls are similar--allemande, balance & swing, do-si-do, etc.--the patterns are not. There is a caller for contras, but he or she is usually calling a specific dance, whereas many square dance callers wing it, making the dance pattern up as they go. And, a huge difference is that lady contra dancers don't dress in extreme versions of what I call a twirling skirt, there are no ruffled petticoats or poufy sleeves; and the gents don't wear those string ties. I do sometimes wear my cowboy boots, they are just the best for an occasional stomp or two. To muddy the waters a bit, contra groups will throw in a square dance now and then. Here's an example of what was done at Chicago Barn Dance last fall. The goofy turkey hats? Don't ask...please just try to ignore them.



I forgot to mention that the groups that meet regularly in the Chicago area always feature live music and some folks come just for that (entry fee is $6/person). The type of music varies from Old-Time-y, jazzy folk, Celtic, good ol' American country, you name it. Most times there are fiddle, banjo, and guitar players, sometimes base and keyboard.

Hope some of the ELL learners would like to give this a try. It's good for the body, brain, and soul.

Ciao. Barb

Contra dancing--what's that?

I love all kinds of dance, and have taken classes in ballet, modern, jazz, salsa and more for a long, long time. I've been contra dancing for four years now. Many folks aren't quite sure what it is. I usually describe it as like the line dancing you'd see in the movie "Pride and Prejudice" (you know--two lines facing each other, partners weaving in and out in complex patterns, flirting with each other like crazy). So, for the YouTube Thing, I thought it would be fun to show you what contra dancing looks like. There are a couple of places around Chicago where there are regular dance gatherings, so I just entered the search terms "contra dance Chicago," and, sure enough, there they were. One was from a University of Chicago contra dance that I've attended. I clicked play to check it out, and, by golly, there I was center screen!

Anyone interested in a fun, energetic, social evening can join us this coming Monday for the Chicago Barn Dance gathering in Evanston. Visit the site for details
Chicago Barn Dance

The University of Chicago contra gatherings are during the school year on the 1st Saturday of each month. Here's the site with the schedule for the 08/09
U of C. Folk

Ciao. Barb