WLA 2007: Web 2.0

Presented by Keith Schroeder, who also gave a great session on podcasting before this one.

What is Web 2.0?

• RSS
• wikis
• new programming tools: AJAX, API
• blogs
• recommender function
• personalized alerts
• folksonomies
• social networking
• IM
• ways to connect people and encourage collaboration

For a good video, see Web 2.0 on youtube.

Sites to try:

• Bloglines (RSS reader)
  
• del.icio.us (social bookmarking - see the presenter's bookmarks at del.icio.us/kschroed )
• Doodle (polls)
• Skype (voice over IP - Schroeder suggested using this to connect with authors: if you have a computer, projector and webcam, and the author has a webcam, you could project your web session with the author for a distance ed/program - good idea!)
• zamzar (file conversion)
• Firefox (web browser - tabbed browsing, loads of extensions to customize it the way you want it)
• zoho (free MS Office-like products)
• meebo (instant messaging)
• slideshare (slide sharing... doh!)
• writeboard (similar to a wiki, but more like a whiteboard)
• CalendarHub (shared calendars)

Check out this Top 10 Tools Lists for Learning.

What can you do with these tools?

• move your support system to a message board
• use them for products that can help you not to repeat yourself (create podcasts)
  
• move your intranet to a wiki
• find out who your passionate users are
• create wikis on specialized topics
• use TeacherTube or Google video (not as much junk on those sites & Google video uses a review process before posting anything) to share instructional materials

Why do we need to pay attention to this?

• It's not going away!

Tips:

• focus on what you CAN do
• instead of just saying NO - work with staff, patrons, etc. to see how you can help them
• you need to embrace what you can and work with people to make the best of Web 2.0 work
• it's what's best for patrons
  

The sites shared were pretty mainstream, so I didn't feel like I heard many new things. However! I will definitely be checking out his del.icio.us Web 2.0 links, because there's lots of stuff there I haven't come across before. He also recommended going to Go2Web20 for a comprehensive list of Web 2.0 tools to try. And, last but not least, Schroeder has created a list of all of the things presented in his talk, along with the PowerPoint, available on his web site. Fun ahead!