Week 5 – Web Office Tools
Week 5 – Web Office Tools
My response to the MLA Web 2.0 101 Week 5 assignment was first prepared as a GoogleDocs document, then saved to my Blog for further editing.
- I first imported an existing WEBTREAT on end of life care to GoogleDocs and saved it to my Blog. I then made a minor change to the document and saved it to my Blog again. I was pleased to note that GoogleDocs reminded me that I already had saved a document with the same name to my Blog and asked me if I wanted to replace it.
- One problem that I noticed in transferring a Office Open Writer document to Word to GoogleDocs to my Blog was spacing, so I don’t recommend so many generations of programs going into a Blog. However, importing my document into GoogleDocs seemed just fine.
- Pulling up the spreadsheet and making changes was very easy.
- Creating a presentation slide was more challenging on a dial-up connection. I thought I had lost my slides as I kept getting error messages when I tried to save the show, but an earlier version was still there. I was able to edit it and share it with people. Apparently you can not post a slide show to a Blog however. Too bad!
- Comparing GoogleDocs to Zoho, Microsoft, and Webex: I did not get into any of these three products to check them out. Zoho required too much paperwork, Microsoft did not display the required fields, so I could not register, and the Webex website did not work. I like that GoogleDocs did not require any upfront paperwork – just an existing Google account.
- Do I think that GoogleDocs and similar Web-based products are the future of office software? Probably not, or not any time soon. For me, they have great potential. I’m part-time, so it will be nice to be able to work on documents at home and at work in the same format. I can also see great potential for group document development, although my (cheap) husband said that he just sends an e-mail. Assuming that these documents are really secure and safe, I can see keeping some common documents on the Web, so that they can be used at home or at work. For instance, we respond to dozens of incoming e-mail messages every day, many asking for guidelines form our organization or other commons questions. We keep various “cheat sheets” that summarize some answers on our computers at work. My boss also keeps them on a portable hard drive. Keeping them on the web might make more sense – and perhaps we might even want to share some of them as FAQS.
- Obviously one needs to be very careful about what one stores on the Web and how one shares information. I keep adding websites to del.icio.us for my own quick reference, including adding a FacePage and other sites from this course. The FacePage site had more than 600 co-links – all spam! So that was probably not a good idea.
Week 3 – FaceBook continued
Today I was able to finally write on a FaceBook wall (JR – my cubicle mate who is also taking this course). I wrote on her wall, sent her a gift, left her a message, and poked her. Such fun!
Week 3 – Facebook, My Space, and Linkedin
Blog for Week Three of MLA 2.0 Course – MySpace, Facebook, and Linkedin
I found this week’s assignments much easier than I thought they would be. My main problem is that I’m trying to take this course at home on an old laptop computer with dialup Internet access. I was afraid that I would not be able to get into Facebook at all, but it wasn’t that time consuming to access it. I have learned a few lessons about trying to do Web 2.0 on an old computer with dialup access – that will be another Blog soon, I hope. I also plan to clean up my Blog pages and add some photos.
I finally figured out that one of my problems with setting up my Blog was that I was importing text incorrectly. And once I finally saw the video on how to blog, it all became much more clear.
This week I was able to successfully set up a Facebook and Linkedin account and view the MySpace library sites mentioned in exercise 3.
Anyway, on to Week Three Assignments:
- How can social networking be used by MLA to connect members: Linked In is certainly a way that MLA and other organizations could connect members. It appears to be most suited for job placement. Perhaps it could replace the current systems that MLA uses.
- I found the questions asked quite disturbing, and apparently I had to answer them before being allowed to sign up. I don’t lie well, so I had to add real information that I would rather not share. I assume that other librarians and professionals might also be reluctant to participate at this time if forced to divulge such details.
- Should your library have a Facebook or MySpace page? Not at this time. Having a MySpace page for the entire organization to reach young people – both younger members and younger consumers – might be quite effective. I really enjoyed the Denver library site!
- Are there privacy concerns for individuals when using social networking sites. Absolutely, especially for women. We hear horror stories about problems with potential employers, stalkers, other users spreading false rumors, and other bad things.
- What did you like or not like about your experience with Facebook or MySpace. The exercise was with MySpace, not Facebook. I found the sign up procedure for MySpace to be unnecessarily difficult. It should warn potential users that they cannot access MySpace until they process an e-mail message that MySpace sends. I was not able to use MySpace for several days because the message was sent to my work e-mail and I could not set up a different account with my Gmail account. Once I could access my account, I found it quite easy to use, although I had the same problems as others did in that it primarily looked for “friends” with similar e-mail accounts. I found it relatively easy to find the pages for MLA, PUBMED, and WorldCat and add them to my page. Would I use any of these in real life? Not at this time. But it was fun to play with them.
