Friday 25 May 2012

Thing 4 - current awareness - Twitter, RSS and Storify

I've taken a bit of time with this one, although I'm not sure I've used the time constructively...

Twitter - My first attempt some time ago was a complete failure; I just didn't get it. I've since tried again, and have had an account for a while, @nancecc, but haven't used it much due to the whole personal/professional quandary. I've rather randomly picked a few library people to follow, in addition to local organisations and a couple of obligatory famous people. I have to psyche myself up to post anything, let alone reply to someone else, but am getting the impression that I really shouldn't worry about it! Even though I haven't posted much myself, I have found it really useful for news I might otherwise have missed.

I also intend to tweet separately as the library for work; just need to make sure I can think of sensible and original things to regularly announce...

RSS - I was aware of RSS feeds before joining CPD23, but never subscribed to any having got into the habit of just looking at certain websites every now and then. However, I've now got myself a Google Reader account and have subscribed to the cpd23 feed as well as a few other blogs, and am gradually organising things into folders. I'm not actually using Reader on a PC (find the experience a bit clunky), but have downloaded the iPad app 'Mr. Reader' which is great: It allows me to view each post in a window within the app, so I can easily comment if I want, but also retain Google's features such as starring.

Storify - This was the first thing I was completely ignorant of. Whilst I'd love to be enthusiastic about it, I think I currently just see it as another complication - but probably only because I can't think of any way in which it can currently help me. But then that's how I started with Twitter, so things could change...

5 comments:

  1. Interested to read about Mr Reader which sounds like a good tip. I'm using MobileRSS on my iPad and getting a bit fed up. It doesn't always download the full post, then crashes when it does. However, gulp, I see Mr Reader is £2.49! I'm such a cheapskate when it comes to apps, I really, really like free ones. So would you say this is definitely worth shelling out for?

    Yet to publish Thing 4 myself (doing it in 3 bits) - I'm at http://anabellibraryworld.wordpress.com/

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    1. Oh, I'm all for free apps! But I tried several RSS thingies I didn't like before paying out ( wish there were more free trials) and I'm quite satisfied with Mr. Reader. It's been reliable so far, and allows me to interact with blogs without having to load up anything else.

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    2. Downloaded it last night and happy so far!

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  2. Definitely don't worry about posting and replying to people on twitter. I've only recently started interacting with people on twitter rather than just lurking and broadcasting my blog posts, as I felt I would be intruding, but people have been really friendly. And I'm finding treating twitter as a conversation really does help me get more out of it.

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