Digital cameras have made it much easier for us to take lots and lots of photos! But many of us are bad at remembering to download them to a computer or share them with friends. New photo sharing sites make it easier to do both.
Here's a video on Online Photo Sharing in Plain English: Flickr is the most popular of the photo sharing sites. As you can see, Flickr gives you a way to back up your photos, organize them, and share them.
This week's TechPlay Exercise:
1. Go to http://www.flickr.com and search "LaGrange Library" Try it both with and without a space in the city name. Can you find our Flickr photos?
2. See how various libraries are using Flickr by checking out some of our neighbors:
4. Post to your blog about today's exercise. Any suggestions for photos we should put on our Flickr account? Do you have digital photos of the library that you'd like to share?
YouTube.com is a host site for viral videos – that is, video clips that can be easily dispersed around the web. The sheer number of clips is staggering, but they are catalogued in various ways and it’s easy to browse by keyword. Users can post clips to the site, view them, and share them with others; it’s not necessary to have an account in order to view video clips. Warning: While this site is highly addictive, it does require high-speed Internet access.
This week's TechPlay exercise:
Step 1. Go to www.youtube.com. In the white search box below the word “home,” type “noel zethmayr” and hit your keyboard’s “enter” key. Scroll down and click on “Book Talks – Blackthorn Winter.” View the video.
Step 2. Return to the white search box, which is above the video you just watched. Now type in “gertie the dinosaur” and hit “enter.” On the task bar below the video, find the volume icon. To the right of the volume, find the “full screen mode” icon and click on it. View the video. (This is an excellent example of YouTube’s archival function; many old and obscure video clips can be found here.)
Step 3. When the video is over, click the red "share" button on the upper left side of the screen. This should present you with two options. Click on "email this video" and send the video to ya@lagrangelibrary.org.
Step 4. Return to the white search box and type in any keyword you like (e.g. Sarah Palin, Disney, Marilyn Monroe, knitting). You'll find there are videos on almost every subject! Choose a video and watch it. (Hint -- if a video keeps "buffering," or stopping and starting, hit the "pause" key on the lower left side of the video screen. You'll see the red timer bar turn to pink as it crawls from left to right, loading the video. Wait until the video is loaded, then hit the "pause" key to resume playing.)
Step 5. Post an entry on your blog describing the video you chose, as well as your reaction. Have fun!
Social networking sites are online communication tools used by millions of people all over the world. Three of the most popular sites in the United States are MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn. People use social networking sites to share information about themselves and their interests, as well as music, videos, and pictures. All require users to sign up for an account, and in most cases users must be over the age of thirteen to use the site legally. This, however, does not stop the under thirteen crowd from using the sites, as age verification is nearly impossible.
While these sites are immensely popular among teens and adults, some are not as wary as they should be about putting personal information out there in cyberspace for anyone who is at all tech-savvy to read. There have been recent reports of colleges and employers checking the major social networking sites before accepting or hiring individuals, not to mention kids being suspended from schools and other activities for appearing on their sites with pictures of them engaging in some underage drinking.
Still, these sites offer great opportunities to keep in touch with friends and family who may be widely scattered, or to find people with similar interests. Through the network, it is also possible to get back in touch with long-lost friends or classmates. Here is a little bit about how the most popular sites work:
Social Networking in Plain English
This Week's TechPlay Exercise – My Space The original and most popular site until April 2008, when it came in #2 to Facebook.
Once there, you can set up an account, or log in if you already have an account. Without having an account or logging in, you will already have access to many people’s information.
Try clicking on “Find People” on the task bar on top, and type in the name of someone or someplace you know, such as LaGrange Public Library. When you find it, find out if it is listed as "male" or "female", and its age.
See how many people have your name!
You can also search for people by school name, or look for people with similar interest in books, music, or movies. I do note that librarian is not one of the searchable careers. You can also “Browse People” and go looking for love, based on age, sex, and marital status. There are forums set up to put in your two cents on many topics from automotive to sports to television, as well as a place to post music and videos.
Post a message to your blog about privacy. How would you feel about posting this kind of private information to the web?
Challenge Exercise One - Facebook Facebook began as a networking tool for college students, but it has grown and expanded to include people of all ages.
Access the website at http://www.facebook.com/ , where you will have to set up an account if you would like to be able to see anyone else’s information. You need only enter the bare minimum of information, if you like.
Once you have created an account, you may log in with your e-mail address and chosen password.
Once logged in, you have the opportunity to create your profile and go looking for friends. Clicking on “Friends”, then on “Find Friends” brings up a screen that will walk you through finding people you may know. It will first suggest people who are in your e-mail address book. The more you have in your profile, the more suggestions it will make. For example, if you specified your elementary school, high school, and/or college, it will search for others who also put those schools in their personal profiles. For others to be able to access your whole page, you must agree to “friend” them. If you don’t agree, they can only see your thumbnail picture if you have one, and your name.
Optional Exercise Two - LinkedIn LinkedIn is aimed at a slighter older, more educated crowd than MySpace and Facebook, and promotes itself as a “Professional” network. To obtain access, go to http://www.linkedin.com/ and create an account. It will ask you to set up a profile which includes your educational background and place of employment. You will then be able to search people, jobs, or groups.
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