rss via bloglines et al .....

So, bloglines. I've added multiple feeds, blogs, news items, a podcast, and created my public url thingy at rujaly

Have to admit, not sure what this public url is for - I gather it is for others to see my bloglines? I guess so, but ...?? Isn't bloglines for me, to make my life easier? Who would want to look at other's bloglines when they might be having enough trouble keeping up with their own. OK, I guess I might learn about other good sites/blogs/feeds/ete from someone else, but I'm still to be convinced.

OK, here's the answer, from The Things:

"Why have a public account? To share blog rolls with others, of course. That's how the L2 participants list is updated; it's powered through a public blogroll. :)"

hmmmm! I just found some people had similar thoughts to me, so I posted on The Things, in reply to this comment:

I use Firefox at home and have a variety of feeds there. I like that because it reminds me that I have them while I have to remember to go to Blogline.

My reply was:

"I agree - in fact, I was just investigating how I might be able to incorporate bloglines into MY blog, or on my igoogle page. At the moment, I also use firefox and googlereader feeds and find these very straightforward. Bloglines is a little complicated to set up and there are a few things that are not very well explained.
Bloglines is a good idea - but it is really just another site to have to remember to visit."

RSS is very useful of course. I've added to my igoogle page before, plus to firefox as well. I'll say it again, I wish that bloglines could be incorporated into my favourite places because it's just another page to visit. I will keep looking.

I think bloglines layout is a little dated and don't really like the colours. (Gee, there's no pleasing me today is there!) But it is a useful one stop shop for all the feeds you could dream of - how many are too many, begs the question. When am I ever going to read all of this?

Of course it has great applications for both work and my personal interests, keeping easy tabs on what's new. We are using RSS already on our homepage for new books in the Library and I receive that feed in igoogle. So yes it's a good thing.

It's 'Learning101' for me ...

Having created a blog before, this part is not new, but I know there will be lots of new things to come in the 23 things that I am embarking upon.

This is Step 3 in the Learning 2.0 program, a library focused self-directed course on emerging web technologies and the way people access information and communicate with each other. I will use this blog to record the steps in the program as well as what I learn along the way. This will be a learning curve for me, not too steep I hope, but one where I will try to challenge myself on each step, trying something new or different as often as possible.

Step 2 involved us thinking about the 7½ habits of lifelong learners. We were asked to think of the easiest and the hardest habits. For me, the easiest would be the last: to play. I always find it a great way to learn things. It really works for me - play, try things out and see what happens. The hardest habit would be the first, start with an end in mind. I'm not sure what I am going to do with all these new skills, but I guess one way of thinking about this could be ...
I will have a range of new skills at my fingertips and new opportunities may arise from it all.

So, here goes ....!