Ro's Temporary Class Blog

Feedback for Library Steve

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 21:48:33 PDT

I think this is a very well-organized, well presented class. I wouldn't change much, except maybe try to do a group get together (chat room, sl) at the beguinning and at the end for icebreakers. No group projects week one. You've given us a lot of opportunity for feedback throughout the course, which I really liked, in fact, I would like to see more of that in other classes. Formal anonymous stuff at the end is good (and necessary) to keep, but frankly there is nothing that I would say that I wouldn't say to your face (virtually that is).

I definately got a chance to play with some toys I hadn't bothered with before, I would like to have studied some more case studies of successful lib2.0 tools being implemanted into real libraries as well as some strategies for dealing with some of the dificulties people encounter when attempting to implement new tools in their library. The barriers are coming down, but not fast enough in some cases. :-)

Thanks for a great class Steve!!

Johnson Part 2

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 21:49:23 PDT

Libraries and badness. We've always been bad with our books and all, being censored, shushed, banned. Now we just have more means to communicate and pass along information, more opportunities to be bad. I mean good. I mean bad. I mean... OK, I'm confused.

There is always a tension between those whose philosophy is to want to only provide 'quality' materials to the patrons using public money and those who believe that the public should get what they really are asking for, even if its extra copies of whatever is hot at the moment (more Twillight!). The good news, is that we don't have to worry to much that we're 'dumbing down' our patrons because according to Johnson, that stuff turns out to be good for us after all. Especially the newer stuff, which means for librarians, buy Buffy the Vampire Slayer not Laverne and Shirley. Buy the more complicated multi-plot dramas, not the classics. I think this is a good messege to give to librarians because usually we just roll our eyes when another Pokemon book gets checked out.

Let's be bad.

Boyd Reading

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 21:51:19 PDT

The Boyd reading was very interesting, especially the second one on socio-economic divisions of social networks. I had no idea about that, I though it was more of a high-school/college division than a class division. I'm definitely going to be thinking about that.

As for what librarians should take away from the readings - I think that the take away message is to go where your patrons are - are be prepared to follow them wherever they migrate too. Are your teens using myspace/orkut/facebook? It doesn't take much to set a profile with a link to your catalog or events page. Maybe even develop an application your users can put on their site to access your library parts.

To quote from Boyd: "Charnigo and Barnett-Ellis (2007) found that librarians are overwhelmingly aware of Facebook and are against proposed U.S. legislation that would ban minors from accessing SNSs at libraries, but that most see SNSs as outside the purview of librarianship. Finally, challenging the view that there is nothing educational about SNSs, Perkel (in press) analyzed copy/paste practices on MySpace as a form of literacy involving social and technical skills."

The take home message here is that Librarians, once again, have to fight for people's right to access information. SNS are information too. We may think the kids are 'wasting their time' but here's a newsflash - they're not doing their homework online anyway. This selective censorship of the boogie-man of the day is shortsighted and ridiculous. I'm glad we're fighting it. I just hope we don't think that SNSs are 'outside the purview' of librarianship and begin to use them as an outreach tool. SNSs are useful. Maybe even teach the kids HTML, Javascript using embedded content as examples - wouldn't that be a great twist on 'information literacy'!!

Johnson Part 1 - Stupid pop culture

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 21:52:41 PDT

Steve asks: Is Popular culture just a method to "sophisticated deliver stupidity". I say no, but we are entertaining ourselves to death.

I hate to be an anti-alarmist, but we arent' getting stupider because of pop-culture. I don't think we're getting stupider at all. Deriding 'pop-culture' may be chic, but we used to amuse ourselves en mass by attending public hangings. How is the 'Bachelor' any different? There is no question about it, a lot of stupid can be found around us - in all media forms without exception. But there is a ton of good stuff too. The quality of educational documents available to my child versus what I had available even 20 years ago is a huge diference in quality. And Johnson makes a good argument that its more sophisticated to (ie - smart). Even the junk (reality shows) are getting more complex (what alliance are you in?).

I'm glad pop-culture can be shown to be more sophisticated (in general), it's time we all enjoy it a little. And the discussions are great! What is there to discuss about some of the old shows, they were non-controversial (exceptions aside). Whereas there is nothing that happens on LOST or BSG that doesn't generate a ton of controversy and discussion. That's community building and increasing connections. Not dumbing us down. Yeah pop culture!

Playing Games Online

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 21:54:02 PDT

OK - I spent all evening finding and playing games online. Most required more of a time commitment than I was willing to give them, or they were just short little card games of little significance. So I played little card games with anonymous internet people. I played at Spogg for no particular reason than I found it on a list and it looked better than The Dating Game. Then I played an AOL card game of some sort in which I always lost, except the one time I got lucky and won.

It was interesting... I picked card games I already knew how to play, or thought I did. I didn't know the other person and we didn't talk to each other although we could have because in every game room there was a chat feature. I'm not sure I liked this format a lot.

I do play other games online, ones with communities (the ones you have to invest a little time so wouldn't be appropriate for this assignment). I think these are a little more representative about what internet games are. I'm a fairly loyal easy going person and I've been in this one community for a few years now so I've seen a lot of change both in game play, additions, and of course the drama. There is always some BIG PERSONALITIES online, and people get huffy, and people get attention and they leave, or not. It can get fairly dramatic. I really wish we could embed a librarian in one of these environments and truly document the goings on and growth (or destruction) of online gaming communities. Maybe a psychologist as well. It would be an excellent report. Maybe another future job???

Ning a ling

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:20:26 PDT

I like Ning. To a point. I don't think I use it, or am enthoused about it, nearly as much as I used to be, but I'm still OK with it.

When NING launched in November 2005, it promised to be able to provide anyone the ability to create their own social network. It has delivered its promise. However there are so many social networks out there now, it's a hard choice to decide which one to chose.

NING's advantages are that it can really draw in multi-media into a central social space. A layman can create a mini-network or forum, and its highly customizable.

The limitations are ownership - NING hosts the service, you can't move it. And confusion due to the the customizable choices within NING.

You could use NING in a work environment to form a social network of employees or for commities that need to share files/info but who don't need to necessarily meet in person.

Second Life - For When Your First Just isn't Enough!

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 11:21:38 PST

I like SL. I have no idea what I'm doing there, I usually just wander around aimlessly on InfoIsland when I do get there. But yet, I still like it.

I wish I had stayed on orientation island a little longer. I have no idea how to manipulate a prism. I haven't quite been able to tweek my appearance to what I really want it to be. But the whole thing has potential. A lot of potential. It's not just a game, it's an immersive world with only the limitations your imagination puts on it. And librarians seem to like it.

Over at the Science Library Pad, they've blogged:

"Second Life seems to get more attention in academic circles, perhaps because it is free to the end user, and you can manipulate the environment, creating objects. It took me a long time to "get" Second Life, and my eventual conclusion was that it was like being inside of a programming language. It is not a game in the conventional sense. Second Life is platform, not narrative."

I haven't quite mastered the 'programming language' yet. I need to spend some more time there and maybe set some goals for myself.

I would love a job providing virtual reference in SL.

Console wars. or not.

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 21:57:31 PDT

OK, I'm a Nintendo girl. I'll admit it. I remember begging my mom for the original 8-bit. Super Mario 3 was the ultimate epitome of video game perfection. I make no apologies for my love. The 16-bit Super Nintendo came out. It was OK. Then I left for university. And life interfered with my original love. We grew apart.

Then Todd & I started a family and with a child come responsibilities. Like - how can I let him to grow up with gaming in his life. But the consoles and games had changed so much. The controllers had too many buttons. The games were way more violent then Mortal Kombat ever was. I was a little bit worried. But once again, my old friend came to the rescue.

The Wii. Fun games. Family times.

I love the motion control. I love the Wii Fit (it made my Mii fat, I feel like I have to excercise so that my poor Mii loses weight!). I realise we are still only seeing the first generation of this type of stuff and that in 10 or 20 years when its full suit immersive VR we'll laugh at our pathetic games. But for right now, it's good.

Because of it's unique gameplay I would pick the Wii for any library events (and mine already has, the Youth Librarian didn't need any convincing!). I'm not sure how else you would 'research' a console - does it have good party games, games that libraries can sponser (ie - not GTA or equivalent), or does it have parental controls (they all do), cost (games are the expensive add on). My criteria would be to ask if it is fun in a group? Or, is it easy to learn (no complicated manuals or controls?) The Wii meets all these criteria.

My number is: 4393 1756 2916 8517

Please Friend me!

Social Networks

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:56:30 PDT

What makes social networks sticky?

You can find friends. Your real friends, the ones you went to high school with and then when you took off to university, left the country and changed your name when you got married couldn't find you anymore. Until Facebook came along. At least that is how it went for me and that is why I use Facebook a lot for communication purposes.

I was little slow getting to Facebook, it hit the college scene after I was in college. But I'm very glad I did. It has allowed me to answer some of my burning questions in life like what the hell happened to so and so from way back when? I get to find out who got married and whose had babies. I can show off mine!

Personally Facebook has been a very wonderful addition to my life. I've seen social maps and apparently Facebook is the app of choice for Canadians so it makes sense that that's where most of my old school friends can be found. I've never had a desire to get a myspace account, and after having one for this class I really don't want one. It is as garish as they warned me. I know Facebook has adds, but myspace has w-a-y more. And you can make your page really ugly. I tried, and I know others have done worse. It's just not for me.

That being said, because it's one of the few spots online I use my legal name, I'm very careful to keep my profile 'professional'. No vampire/zombie apps. I do not know what my stripper name is. No drinking games. I do have professional contacts through Facebook. Maybe when we can set different privacy levels for different friends and can go wild with my 'inner circle' - but I'm a cautious and patient person, I can wait.

I think some people have had their reputations damaged by not being careful about what they reveal on these 'supposedly' private social networks. And as the internet gets a longer and longer memory (and better search) you want to be really careful what kind of electronic legacy your leaving.

Cheers!

Podcasting vs. Text Based Blogging.

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:28:54 PDT

Well, I've never listened to as many podcasts as I have during the course of this class. The only podcast I subscribed to was Bill Maher, and that was enough for me. But I'm almost convinced on the merits of podcasting. It certainly allows me to do other things online (like play games) while listening to required homework (no honey, I'm not playing, I'm doing homework!). One could also, in theory, download the podcast to an portable device and do something productive like housework or driving to and fro. There are advantages.

The disadvantages are that you can't extract a portion of the speech very easily to annotate or share or comment on in another medium. With text you can cut and paste to your heart's content. You can also skim text and get to the meaty part of the information being presented. This could save time. You can also re-read the portion that needs to be re-read for clarity or inspiration.

Text also doesn't require a fancy player that your audience may or not have, or have the capacity (monetary, equipment) to acquire. Text is more accessible, which is an issue that information professionals need to be aware of.

I think in the end, I prefer text. I just don't play that many online games!

Flickr & the Laptop.

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:29:42 PDT

The laptop.
Originally uploaded by rmscils598x08

My educational experience at Rutgers has been very great. Other than WISE not providing a link to last years syllabus so that I could know which texts to gather before the class started, everything has gone off without a hitch.

LibrarySteve is phenomenal. My classmates rock.

Since this is an online only class for me my photos are going to reflect the lack of campus. Here is a photo of my laptop, without which there would be nothing....

I guess I'm going to have to make my photos public, but these are the rest of them that I've chosen to represent my educational experience here.

Our class has also pooled our photos. Our group can be found here.

Enjoy the photo's!!

Google Analytics

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 11:21:38 PST

OK, I've checked out my Google stats. Here's the chart for which browsers are viewing me:

Browser                   Visits                          % visits
Firefox                       32                            50.00%
Internet Explorer         16                            25.00%
Opera                         16                            25.00%

Opera is probably me since I'm keeping all this class stuff from clogging up my password features on Firefox (and so I can keep my real accounts open). I'm not surprised in a class of LIS students that Firefox is the most popular.

Most used connection speed:

Cable is our winner (since its a requirement for class) and its mostly fellow students you are going to be looking at this.

Sorry this is a short post. I'm coming down with the flu and my energy levels are dropping....

Tell Steve a Story

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:17:35 PDT

So in this post Steve wants us to tell him a story. I'm terrible at narrating anything off of the top of my head, so I chose to read the first chapter of the Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner because at any given time during the academic semester that is about my reading comprehension level. :-)

Here is an embedded player for your listening enjoyment.

Anderson Chap 8-10 & 14.

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 20:23:03 PDT

or... "The Tyranny of Choice"

I think my blog post titles are getting very boring. Well pooh. These are assignments, not my usual ramblings and I'm going to nuke this blog. I celebrate the DELETE button.

In this post, Steve would like our comments on the following question:

1) Can libraries as a whole effectively utilize the "long tail" of our collections? Is it worth it? What would we have to do?

Yes, libraries can effectively utilize the 'long tail' of our collections. We never have enough of the best-sellers anyway and it wasn't too long ago that their was a consistent one to two hundred long list for Da Vinci code running for a few years (yes, even I succumbed to the temptation and read it...) But, we do have lots of other books and materials!!

Anderson makes it clear that people don't just want variety, they want information about variety. We can provide that information. And, with interlibrary loan we have a very long tail. And yes, it is worth it. Libraries are where the information is. Our current reader's advisory systems are already well-tuned (in other words, we all have Amazon bookmarked) and most libraries have some sort of interlibrary loan system in place. Soon we will have some form of e-book, maybe even print-on-demand. I can't see something like that not happening. But I'm an optimist. :-)

The world of the long tail with its niche products is very exciting. We don't all have to be the same and now we will finally have choice.

Anderson Chap. 4-7

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:51:14 PDT

Steve asks the questions "How do libraries/Librarians fill roles as New Producers, New Markets, and New Tastemakers?"

I especially enjoyed the Capitalization and I suppose New is better then Old. All joking aside David Lee King recently posted this video asking a variant on these questions about libraries enabling user generated content.

This is a conversation that the library community is currently having, and I'm feeling fairly ambivalent about it. Although we've always taken reader's advisory seriously, we can't act like a bookstore/movie distributor too aggressively. People need to feel comfortable coming to the library to browse without necessarily getting 'the experts' opinion on what they 'should' be reading.

In terms of Producing, many of us are struggling to provide enough computers for our communities basic computing needs (homework, resumes, etc). Being the communities multi-media center isn't on the radar yet, not through lack of will power, but lack of funding. Than there may be a responsibility, once the media is produced, to archive for posterity. No one else is archiving local materials, even the local newspaper is sometimes only saved by the actions of the public librarians. Would we not occur some professional responsibility by being Producers instead of just consumers? Maybe we won't, but I'd like to see this question addressed more.

Libraries are the New Frontier. Our roles have changed. Yeah!

Anderson Chap. 1-3

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 22:33:02 PDT

Steve asks: "Is the library as a whole set to benefit from the Long Tail?" and the answer is a resounding .......maybe?

Most libraries (except small, rural, unconnected libraries), usually are able to carry a larger variety of titles than most bookstores. Where else do you go to find Full House novelizations these days? Because we don't even pretend to be able to have the hottest, latest blockbusters stocked on our shelves (but can I put you at the end of a huge wait list??) we are able to try to fulfill the reading needs of a variety of groups (Foreign languages, westerns) with a variety of materials (movies, playaways, cd's) that sometimes go a long way down the long tail. Most libraries are also connected to Worldcat and ILL which can help fulfill patrons needs for even thinner sections of the tail.

This is also our greatest shortcoming is that of a space issue. Many of us, because of population growth, have simply run out of room to serve our patrons the way that the ALA recommends (square footage). This is also a result also of the computer revolution and that fact where once we could have put stacks, we now have computers. Bill Gates needs to be the new Carnegie.

Brown & Duguid Chapter 5

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 16:44:48 PDT

In this chapter, our intrepid authors discuss how we learn, in Theory...and in Practice. Basically we don't learn in a vacuum. Information may be cheaply available, but information is a tool that can be used differently by different people for similar tasks because we learn the information individually in a unique way.

The authors have a number of excellent quotes that summarize their thesis. "Become a member of a community, engage in its practices and you can acquire and make use of its knowledge and information (p. 126). Information is global, knowledge is local.

"What people learn about, then, is always refracted through who they are and what they are learning to be (p. 138)." We a current examples of this as we are learning about social networking tools through library student eyes, as opposed to parent eyes (how safe...), or the disables community (how accessible is this with my screenreader...). Our perceptions are definitely coloured.

The last quote I want to bring your attention to is from page 144: "Information does not travel uniformly throughout the network. It travels according to the local geography." This quote exemplifies by how information is never free from cultural, historical connotations and that the flow of information is always going to have a bumpy road depending upon the learner's situation. Something to keep in mind, when, as 'Information Professionals' we get frustrated when people just don't get the information we are attempting to communicate to them.

Delicious Tags as Virtual Introduction

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 16:20:23 PDT

Umm, I'm not quite sure if this would work for that purpose. Because it shows newest taged first, that its mostly just a chronological listing of what your network has most recently bookmarked, and with 12 (min) posts each that's 324 bookmarks which is a little difficult to wade through in order to be 'introduced' to the one's classmates. It's very interesting, but maybe if we only did 3 or 4 of one's most 'representative' sites (favorite hobby, author, whatnot) you could display all 100 on one page and that might be a little more 'friendly'. That being said, this would still be 1000x better than trying to IM people who haven't even signed into the class yet or who may have dropped it on week 1. That was tough, this is better. Yeah for feedback!!!

WetPaint Vs. Peanut Butter

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:06:06 PDT

I looked at both Wikispaces and Wetpaint and immediately saw a lot of diferences with Wetpaint, so I'm going to choose that service to write this post on.

The first difference that I noticed is in licensing. Wetpaint allowed me to put in diferent licensing schemes such as GNU and Copyleft onto my wiki. As a LIS student concerned with Open Access issues, I'm very impressed with these options - I love to see organizations actively addressing rights issues instead of passively accepting whatever the default is. PB never mentions this as an option. Unfortunately once the copyright settings for a Wetpaint wiki are chosen I see no way to change them and I've looked all over the settings so there is now a small astericked minus in that column.

I like the ability to upload a header image very easily. Wetpaint has a lot more templates than PB (which charges for upgrades), Wetpait allows easy site tracking with Google or Sitemeter (again a PB paid upgrade). You can create a wiki todo list (this would be helpful for wiki's that rely on volunteers such as Dean Giustini's Healthwiki that I worked on for a time) and it felt just felt like it had a better community supporting Wetpaint.

I didn't like the adds however.... PB is add free as far as I'm aware (Or maybe I'm just so add blind I don't see them.... Checking.... Nope, no adds...phew). That could be a concern for any non-profit utilizing their service.

As a wiki user (poweruser? - I have 8 listed in PB, although admitedly some are temporary and already dead) I may be switching over.... we shall see (If I don't swear off wikis and blogs after this course!).

Digg has been Dugg.

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:37:09 PDT

OK, after lurking in the Digg community for awhile I finally created an account (disposable as it is - I feel like I'm polluting with these throwaway accounts!). I liked Digg much better than the other one. I friended LibrarySteve but he hasn't returned the friendship offer (I'd Shout you if I could!) and more friends were easy to find. It felt very friendly.

I like the different news categories, the easy way to share articles (blog, shout, email). The bury or digg feature for great or bad stories is a great way to let the creme raise to the top, and of course the comments which are at the heart of the community are often times amusing and can also be rated up or down. Too many down votes and your comments won't appear anymore which saves others from having to skim through unacceptable comments and makes the community more enjoyable!

Articles are also divided by type (podcasts, images, videos) which is a nice organizational feature. The categories that are displayed are also very easily customizable, I went in and eliminated all sports articles (hubby is a huge sport fan, I don't need more of it on my laptop!).

All in all I found Digg a very clean and easy to use site for sharing stories, articles online. I liked it so much I might create a real account!

Where's my chip?

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:03:00 PDT

I'm ready!!

In all seriousness Feed was an AWESOME read, but I have a serious penchent for post-apocolyptic fiction. Not that Feed was post-apocalyptic, but it had that same vibe - this is our same world, but diferent - that a good p-a book has. Besides, something is terribly wrong - its a totalitarian state, something happened.

Somedays I think I do need a chip - there is just so much info out there I want to learn about. If I could be downloading something when a spare moment appears, or in those spaces between to-do list items.

I'm not going to give a synopsis of the plot, but I can think of some critical questions I would ask if I was suddenly plunked down in Feedland.

Why is it so commercial. Is there not any options for turning off feeds tagged as commercial?
What other types of Feed cultures exist around me? Just the affluent leisure class like our protagonist, where the counter-culture hippies or the tin-foil hat conspiracy nuts? Religions? Mennonites? Luddites? How about those you have fully abandaned their human bodies and are only etheral but very present on the 'Net.
As a final note. I'm going to take a preemptive stand and declare that I will not eat meat grown like a plant on a tissue farm. There must be death.

Brown Duguid Reading

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:04:35 PDT

The lessons for librarians from the Brown Duguid include:

It's the people connection: While information is good; context, background, history, common knowledge, social resources are better.
Even though we are 'information professionals' we can't just plough ahead with technology and information. We have a responsibility to humanize the information. "Attending too closely to information overlooks the social context that helps people understand what that information might mean and why it matters. p5" We can't ignore the social context of our particular patrons.
Beware of disintermediation.
"The way forward is paradoxically to look not ahead, but to look around". Get your head out of your feed reader and talk to the patrons about what their issues or problems accessing/using the information are.
"People act as resources for one another". Note: this does not endorse the manufacture or use of Soylent Green.

New 2.0 Toy

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:08:25 PDT

I'm having a hard time finding one I haven't used before, or at least tried out. But I wanted to stretch myself and decided to do more with my Yahoo Pipe! than just create an account... I think I may need more than one night. I do know HTML and CSS, but I'm just going to need some time to play with it in order to show you guys any sort of product. It just won't happen in the time alloted so I'm going to sorta cheat.

I'm going to look at Propeller. Note, I've never had an account. Note two, I don't think it's going to be much different than digg, or stumpleupon etcetera.

OK, signed up, checked it out. Didn't like it.

It was too commercial. It's owned by AOL/Netscape which I try to avoid unless I'm jonezing for a 1996 fix (not likely).
It is hard, or impossible to find friends. Friend find is buried. Not very social.
You could vote or sink, but couldn't do much more with the article like link it to something.
It just felt kinda sparse. Other newsites do the same and do it better and feel, or are, less commercial

RSSSSSSSSSSS

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 06:44:48 PDT

So overloaded. I find I need to purge my reader every once in a while. Feeds I thought were good end up being too cumbersom. That means, to me, if you are producing more than once a day than you are in danger of being cut. There is a great blog by Peter Suber on OA that is a great resource for this topic. I love it, but it puts out 4 or 5 feeds a day. Too much!!!

RSS feed overload is something that people are trying to figure out ways to manage. Digital Inspiration blogs about strategies for dealing with this issue. One of the suggestions is something I do every once in a while. Just nuke your reader (mark all as read).

Another thing that I do is just skip. No one is going to make you read every item in your reader. Sometimes people's blogs are witty. Sometimes they just post images of their cat. Sometimes you want to see pictures of their cat. Sometimes you dont. Learn the diference.

Bloglines Vs. Google Reader

rmscils598x08@gmail.com (rmscils598x08) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:09:37 PDT

Well, I use Google Reader as my main feed reader. I'm one of those people Steve warned you about in the podcast. I just use Google for everything. That being said, it has served me well so far (although I'm dangerously close to switching to Wordpress for my blogging needs). From my iGoogle page I have my Reader installed, my gMail, my tweets, my calendar, and various other stuff so with one snapshot I can see everything, and from any computer I log onto without having any software to download. It is working for me right now.

But I set up Bloglines and put all my lovely classmates feeds into it. OK... it seems fairly similar, you can sort into folders. I'm sure you can insert it into another page. I can't seem to read my feeds once I've already read them like I can in Google. I can star favorite posts in Google and share, I don't see that feature in Bloglines yet. They both offer suggestions. Google offers to show you Trends.

I'll keep using Bloglines throughout this course (obviously, I'm not sticking all 27 feeds in another reader!). Maybe my opinion will change, but so far I haven't seen anything that would cause me to switch.