Creating an Orkut account

For the third social network site I chose Orkut. This time I was comfortable entering my profile information and adding my photo. I invited people to be my friends and one accepted. I didn't see any place to add color or design so I created a photo album and linked both my Flickr account and Blogspot account to my page. The link to my profile is: http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=5946713050236149559

Creating a Facebook Account

I created a Facebook account and after receiving email confirmation the first thing I did was invite friends. I joined three groups and added my picture to my profile. I added a photo album. I poked someone having no idea what that would do! Someone poked me so then I knew. I wasn't as intimated by working with Facebook as I was with MySpace. The url to my Facebook account is: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1244312506

Creating a MySpace account

I created a MySpace account. Initially I skipped uploading my photo and adding friends because I expected to see a page layout first. After verifying my email address and getting into my page I found that I automatically had a friend. What a surprise, but I didn't want that friend, so after much confusion, I deleted him. I created a url, changed my profile, invited people to be my friends and joined a group. Then I used profile editor to add a background, added colors and borders, and created a photo album. The last thing I did was add music. I wanted the music to play when someone looked at my profile but had to settle for placing a play button on my page. Now I can at least say I have a better understanding about the appeal of MySpace. The link to my profile is http://www.myspace.com/geolmary

Create Your Own Video

As an optional activity I created a video of my grandson coloring Easter eggs and uploaded it to YouTube. It was fairly simple, logging on to YouTube with my Google account, filling out additional information and then uploading the video from my personal home computer. The upload did take several minutes. Here it is

YouTube Video Review

The Columbus, Nebraska Public Library created an excellent promotional video. A statement from the About This Video page on YouTube says "A pop-up book combining digital still images and live footage in 3 dimensional space". The young narrator speaks in a distinct voice describing the variety of materials and services offered by the library. The length of the video seemed to be appropriate for the information they were trying to share. Check it out!

YouTube Video Review

The Columbus, Nebraska Public Library created an excellent promotional video for a public library. A statement from the About This Video on the YouTube page says "a pop-up book combining digital still images and live footage in 3 dimensional space". The young narrator mentions what materials and services they offer at the library. Check it out

Podcasting

This activity has not been an easy one for me. First of all I had great difficulty thinking of something to say in a podcast. Having made my decision and after reading and watching video tutorials I was finally able to create my podcast as an mp3 file on my personal computer but I could not figure out after rereading and rewatching videos and creating a Feedburner account how to get the file from my personal computer into my blog. I finally used the HELP on blogger.com, created a MoveDigital account and hope this works. The link to my podcast is http://www.movedigital.com/go/geolmary/113464/Blue2.0pocast.mp3

Creating photos

I've used a digital camera for quite some time but only stored the photos on my own computer. I now have a bit of experience using Flickr. After uploading six photos I changed the layout, added comments to all, and added a note to one. One of my son's would be so proud! My photos can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24727355@N04/
One use of this image hosting site for the Geological Sciences Library/Maps Collection could be to keep our primary patrons up-to-date on the renovation of King Library Addition for the Science Library. I have photos taken before work started and could upload those as well as upload photos taken during the renovation process.

Clone yourself

I had a lot of fun creating a weemee! I wanted to place it in the profile section of my blog but after numerous unsuccessful attempts I settled for just placing it as a blog post. Then I wasn't happy with that so I removed it. Then I decided to put it back. Decisions, decisions...

Advanced Blogging

I needed to "jazz up" my basic blog so I experimented with adding a picture to the header, adding other pictures, changing text size, changing some text colors and edited posts by adding titles. I tried unsuccessfully to put an avatar in my profile.

Explore Google Docs

Today I have completed an exercise for the UKBlue2.0 learning program in which I created an account on the Del.icio.us website. It was very easy to do. I am in the process of learning about Google Docs.

Creating a del.icio.us account

I found this exercise very easy to do. I have to admit that I had never heard of this "social bookmarking" site but now I've had a bit of experience. The link to my del.icio.us account is http://del.icio.us/MarySpencer.

Create a wiki

I finally was able to create a wiki. I examined PB Wiki Video Gallery, Wikis :A Beginner's Look and looked at a few suggested library wikis before beginning to create my own. I had a great deal of difficulty with using my email address on the pbwiki site but finally after 2 frustrating attempts I was successful. You can view my wiki at: http://magnificentshells.pbwiki.com/FrontPage

Exploring a feed reader

I created a Bloglines account and added some feeds just for practice. I plan to add others very soon. I thought this exercise was very easy to complete.

Chatting

Setting up an instant messaging account was not difficult at all and I practiced chatting with several colleagues. I have been using IM from home for quite some time.

Setting up my own blog

Creating this blog was not difficult.

I might be able to use this blog to communicate with faculty and students in the earth sciences discipline.