Thing 26

I joined the Ning during the first 23 Things....and haven't been back. In fact, I sorta forgot what it was, and went back to the 23 Things website and re-read some information. So today I updated my profile, added a profile picture, uploaded some other photos and left a comment on one of the forum topics. I also read through several of the forums and looked at the groups and photos. 

I can see that this would be a useful tool for projects such as these Things. Someone's having trouble doing something and posts a question. Someone else posts an answer. A way to provide long-distance support. 

Could this be used in a library setting, for library users? Maybe in a reading program that had activities and projects? Or some kind of writing workshops/classes?

This may be a Thing I don't use much, but I can see there are some real-life applications. 

Thing 25.4

Apture and SnapShots look very interesting. I looked at both of the sites and read through the license agreements. I decided to try Apture because SnapShots talks about advertising being one of the things you have to accept with its service. I'm interested in how Apture works both for the library website and for Strikepoint. It would fun to put in a map or add a video or provide some additional context.

I also added a clock on the sidebar.

This Thing has lots of fun stuff to explore but it has taken an IMMENSE amount of time. And there are still several parts of the instructions/linked information that I haven't looked at. I'll keep the information bookmarked, but I've got to move on!

Thing 25.3

I added a photo widget from Good Widgets. Not difficult to do, but kinda time consuming (also interrupted by a desk shift, lunch and creation of some summer reading program materials). 

I did add the ClustrMap to my Strikepoint website. Scroll to the bottom of the homepage to see it.

I need to go and do some work now, but I've been thinking about the widgets. They're very fun and slick, but I don't know how useful a lot of them are in a library setting. I know some libraries run their websites entirely through blogs, which seems limiting to me. So far a lot of the widgets I've seen are basically designed to be used on blogs and are maybe more appropriate for personal blogs than for a business (which is what a library is). I am going to look at a Google Map widget and see if it would work on our website to map our locations, so that would be useful. The photo widget I added would be great but the maximum number of photos it sorts is 10. I guess you could put a widget of 10 photos on a bunch of different pages...

Still Thing 25

I'd prefer to have the ClustrMap over in the sidebar, but can't see how to add it there.

OK - as you can see, I eventually got it in the sidebar. But I was looking for a way to add another area of HTML code and then be able to move it around. I had wanted the map down below some of the other gadgets. Oh, well. 

Having worked a bit longer with Blogger, there are some awkward things about it. Two of our librarians are using WordPress for their library blogs (not the 23 Things ones, I think) and I need to talk with them about how flexible that is.

I think I can add a ClustrMap to my Strikepoint website. I've sent the code home and will try it tonight.

Flickrshow will appear here!

Again, not so successful. I have used Flickr slideshows extensively in my library website and really like them, but it's just not working here in the blog.

That's it for today. I've got to go. But this Thing is taking hours and hours and....

Thing 25.1.2 - Not always a good thing

So I have discovered a problem with the mail-to-blogger feature, at least as it works with my email program. If I copy myself with an email, which I often do, our software autofills in the address and it's choosing the "mail-to-blogger" address, so emails which are not public were showing up on the blog. Now I could go in and delete the address from my address book, but the next time I used the mail-to-blogger feature - assuming that I would remember the address! - the problem would be back. So far I've deleted three posts that shouldn't appear here and I'm waiting for something else to show up.

For me the solution will be to disable the mail feature. If I can figure out how...

Thing 25.1 - Just testing....

If you can read this, then I followed the directions correctly! Woo hoo!

Thing 25 - Bloggers' Toolkit

My first impression of these Beyond 23 Things: they're really long! Lots of links to things to explore. I'm betting most of these will take more time than the first 23.