My thoughts at the end of 23 things programme

Overall, I have very much enjoyed participating in this programme, and it has lived up to my expectations.
I signed up for it as I knew my understanding and experience of web 2.0 was a bit patchy.
I was hoping to learn more and improve my "online confidence" and to look at ways we can incorporate the social web into a library environment.

I admit to being somewhat sceptical and reluctant to give in to the pressure to use web 2.0 both personally and professionally, but this programme had made me re-assess my views.

I now feel much more knowledgeable , far less intimidated by all that is "out there" these days, and positively enthusiastic about using some of it inside and outside my workplace.
As a sociable person , I can now see the benefits of online socialising along with those of face to face encounters and friendships.(much as digitised books and journals can be used in addition to the paper copies !)

Some highlights of the programme for me were:

Learning in a group environment and reading other people's blogs (for "sociable" read "nosy" !)

Editing the Sackler Library entry on Wikipedia

Finding out how easy it is to create and edit
wikis and blogs and use gadgets and widgets to improve their usefulness and appearance.

using igoogle and "reader" to create a central point of access to lots of useful online information in one place.

fidgety widgets and gadgetywhatsits...

As with many of the things we have looked at in this programme, I am very impressed by how simple it is to use both gadgets and widgets, once you are in the right online place to find them and link them to another online space.
In my various online "travels" I have often been impressed by the layouts of the homepages of seasoned bloggers , wiki writers , and institutional websites that are full of these clever devices that take you between pages and applications. I always imagined it required very advanced web skills to create these links.
Now I see it is pretty straightforward ,and am inspired to do more with this blog and incorporate some gadgets and widgets into any future use of web 2.0 in my working life.

Things 19 and 20 Office 2.0 googledocs and Thinkfree

During the course of my online "education" over the time I have worked in libraries, I have seen alot of changes in the way we work and share information.
I remember when we got our own server with shared drive , meaning we could log in and access files and folders from any terminal in the building.This was then extended to the library service as a whole, so I can now log in at a PC in any library to consult a particuluar item.
The office 2.0 applications appear to be a further big step forward,with only a Google account required to access and share documents online from anywhere in the world.Call me old-fashioned, but this amazes me as much as the other aspects of 21st century communication I am rapidly learning to live with and love!

I found google docs very easy to use with clear screens and straightforward instructions,and had no trouble sharing a short document and creating a form.
Thinkfree was a little less straightforward ,but with time to learn its ways, I can see it has equal potential.