Wk 3- Feed My Inbox

When I approached this week's tutorial, Thoreau's (I think it's by him!) oft quoted phrase "simplify, simplify" came to mind... I have RSS feeds and I subscribe to some blogs and sites by signing up, but this is easy and streamlines the whole process, without having to enter my details automatically.

Yes I would recommend this to customers as it's simple and easy to use. One can bookmark FeedMy Inbox so that adding feeds can be done with a simple touch of the button, although I wonder how that would work for public or our workroom computers?? If so, it would be great to track interesting library sites and blogs... The free subscription gives you 5 feeds, which I think is enough for most people. I struggle with information overload as it is!!

My only fear now is that should I subscribe to even MORE stuff, it will be all that much harder to clear out my inbox!! (might start with the emails from 2 years ago!!! :P)

Week 2 PicApp

So.... I am still waiting for the PicApp application to look for my rather obscure keyword search... Umm, maybe I should try something more "normal" like "cat"...So when I type "cats" most of the images are cat scans! :P The first animal photo I encounter is that of a close up of a cat's mite infested ear! .. Go figure!

I finally found an image that I like... It's of 2 friends hanging out at the library. 

It is interesting to read the About Us bit of the PiccApp website...And I quote:

Picapp is all about more opportunities and choices:
Where You-- the publisher get access to millions of premium, legal images, updated by the minute and can use them in your posts- for free!
Where You-- content owner enjoys this innovative yet monitored distribution channel to reach new users and increase revenue
Where You-- advertiser reaches targeted, well segmented audience and access to premium ad inventory
A true Win-Win.

It could be a great resource for Manukau libraries to draw on for our websites and blogs and stuff. And to attract a specific customer base, cos the photos supposed to have "the right meta-data to assist search engines index the images and your posts better".
 
 If you are looking for something basic and simple, it is that, just a copy and paste type of thing. One frustrating thing is that I can't format it the way I want, can't do text wrapping on Blogger. Maybe if I was using Wordpress I would have more freedom with photo placement etc? I also had trouble with browsing the site, it was going rather slowly and subsequent pages of pix refused to load, which made me tempted to give up altogether!!

So it was a bit of a mixed bag for me... I lik the free and legal aspects of it, but I lament that the formatting options are limited (maybe it's just my blog?) and that the site tendeth towards lethargy! (sooooooooo sloooooooooww!) So am not sure I will recommend it to that many people to be honest!

"Box" it!

Box is cool... I like it. I like how we can not only share but also work on documents as a team, how simple and easy it is to use. I also like the OpenBox Applications that allow me to share my files easily, by Facebook, gmail etc.

I have just created a folder and invited 3 colleagues to contribute to planning for an upcoming Library week event! Let's see how that goes!!

The only thing I am wary about is the security of my files, although if you opt for the paying subscriptions, system security is higher.

And yes I would promote this to customers, cos many of them ask about saving their files, and we usually say email the doc to yourself! Cos it's 100% portability (assuming internet access is available!)


I would rate Box 8 out of 10!