I approached 23 things with a healthy degree of skepticism. Partly, this was because of all the 'Things' that were to be covered by the course most of them I already used or had strenuously avoided. Additionally, there is a certain amount of 'sameness' to all these Web 2.0 technologies. They deliver the same or similar services for the end of internet socialisation. Most of the interfaces and protocols are very much the same and so it seemed that once you had used one you could use them all.
However, I have found the 'things' for each week extremely interesting and discovered the potential for some of them. Of all the technologies I am most impressed with Twitter. It was much to my surprise as well. I had heard said of Twitter that it was essentially a place to vent all your passing fads and fancies. To indulge yourself in how interesting your own life and interests are. I had also the impression that it was chaotic. An endless stream of drivel delivered 24 hours a day to be absorbed as mindlessly as it was created. Hence my allusions to the mythical nymph Echo, who was only able to repeat that which another spoke onto her and failed to win the love of Narcissus who is only in love with himself. This I am happy to say is not the case, or at least it need not be. The level of control which you have (based on those you follow) over the material that pops up means that meaningful, relevant material can and is flagged up. Only last week I discovered, thanks to Emma, the #Savelibraries initiative to try to prevent the odious fellow in charge of the treasury butchering our local libraries. In addition, I discovered cataloguers and articles relevant to current issues in the field. In this sense, Twitter has opened doors to information I would otherwise be ignorant of.
The other technologies which I was new to were Facebook and Doodle. Although I have been encouraged to Facebook by people for as long as I can remember since it was available for use by all (2006? or around then). I have never signed up and I believe I never will. I do not need to create a cyber-me. Telephones, letters and emails allow me to contact who I want. And frankly I don't want to have my life exposed to scrutiny. I do agree though that institutional facebook pages are a handy way to post up-to-date information on the institution and as a space for interaction between patron and user.
Doodle on the other hand I found very useful. Though the interface is a bit clunky I have subsequently used it to arrange social meetings with my friends, much to my boozey satisfaction.
I don't think I will ever go back to using IE as my default browser... ever! Even if Bill Gates himself ritually disembowels himself as a blood sacrifice to the almighty cyber-god on the alter of a IBM for the secret formula to perfect internet browsing. Still. Firefox isn't perfect and there are still some things that only IE can do. (Raaah!!!)
Overall, then it has been illuminating to explore these technologies. I don't see anything intimidating about them and I will probably continue to make use of them, just not as unconsciously as I once did. I look forward to the next episode of thinging in a world of things!
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