Beyond 2.0

Week 5 - Virtual Worlds

2009-03-23T07:48:00.000-07:00

To successfully complete No. 5 - Virtual Worlds you must...

READ this blog post.
DO and THINK about the information in the "Learn More About" activities.
LEARN by completing the Hands On Activities, including reading the Important Tips.

Your total time commitment is about 45 minutes.

Introduction to Virtual Worlds
A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment created and maintained for user inhabitation and interactions through text based or grahpical reprentations known as avatars. Virtual environments are being used in a variety of contexts: classroom teching, informal learning, distance learning, business and e-applications.

There are a growning number of businesses and other organizations turning to 3-D environments to eliminate communication issues and other obstacles to collaboration. In addition, virtual workds offer interactivity and freedom of movement that other collaboration tools such as web, video and teleconference lack.

Learning More about "Virtual Worlds"
1. Read this web page summary of Vitual worlds at http://www.virtualworldsreview.com/info/whatis.shtml. (Time Commitment 10 minutes)
2. Watch this YouTube video, Virtual Social Worlds and the Future of Learning. (Time Commitment 9:42 minutes)
3. Watch this YouTube video, Virtual Word Tour 2008. (Time Commitment 8:05 minutes)

Hands On Activities

Due to restrictions on software downloads on library staff computers, there is no hands on activity for this blog post.

Week 4 - Social Computing

2009-03-16T07:47:00.000-07:00

To successfully complete No. 4 - Social Computing you must...

READ this blog post.
DO and THINK about the information in the "Learn More About" activities.
LEARN by completing the Hands On Activities, including reading the Important Tips.

Your total time commitment is about 45 minutes.

Introduction to Social Computing

Humans are funamentally social. From birth, we interact with each other. In the process, we gain an understanding and deveop a proficieny in spoken and written expression and social interactions. In other words, we gain a social context that we apply to living.

We all know that using the web can be a solitary experience. When others are present, we can transform our experience online into something more. It's natural that we want to translate our social contexts into the digital world. But, how is it possible?

Social software and social technology are the answer. They allow people, regardless of location, to interact online. Social computing is the concept of creating or reusing social conventions and social contexts online through the use of computer software and technology. Or in other words, social computing is the use of technology to bring people together online to connect, work and play.

"Learn More about Social Computing"

1. Watch this video on YouTube, What is Social Computing? (Time commitment 51 seconds)
2. Read this Wikipedia article, Social Computing. (Time commitment 5 - 10 minutes)
3. Listen to this podcast the first five minutes of this 17 minute podcast, Social Computing a Boon for Business. (Time commitment 5 minutes)

"Hands On Activity"
1. Read a recent blog post from either Inside VBPL or VBPL Talks.
2. Comment on what you read.
Congrats! You just engaged in social computing.

Week 3 - Privacy

2009-03-08T10:32:00.000-07:00

To successfully complete No. 3 - Privacy you must...

READ this blog post.
DO and THINK about the information in the "Learn More About" activities.
LEARN by completing the Hands On Activities, including reading the Important Tips.

Your total time commitment is about 45 minutes.

Introduction to Privacy
Everything we do online creates a transaction record. Technology makes the collection and storing of that data both easy and inexpensive. As a result, governments and companies store, process and analyze vast amounts of information from Internet users / consumers. In the U.S., it seems that privacy is the individual right of a consumer that can be traded for a benefit --- especially the free use of the Internet or an Internet service.

Consumer advocates say that online data collection and tracking is going too far. Here's an example: On your next visit to Amazon.com, your welcome page recommends a book based on your heart disease. You just had an EKG at your last doctor's visit. Creepy? No, it's something called behavioral marketing. It's really big!

Marketers say consumers benefit from seeing advertising that's relevant to their interests. They further contend that consumer are willing to relinguish some personal data to get free access to Internet content. After all, advertising pays for the free stuff. Here's an example: On your next visit to Facebook, you see an ad that says 40 and fat. You just had your forty birthday. You could lose a few pounds. You click on the ad to see how the person in the picture got those amazing results?

Where is the balance between data collection and user privacy? In the United States, public policies on privacy date to 1973, when the U.S. Deparmtne of Health, Education and Welfare set seminal guidelines for the fair use of computerized personal information. Advocates point out that these policies where crafted based on who you are. Today, we need to look at privacy based on more than who we are; it's also what we do.

Learn More About Privacy
1. Browse the 20 page report, Online Privacy --- A Tutorial for Parents and Teachers from TrustE, a nonprofti that sets guidelines for online privacy and awards a seal of approval for companies meeting those guidelines. (Time commitment 10 - 20 minutes)
2. Go to Technorati's blog tag page --- privacy at http://technorati.com/tag/privacy. Select one post; read it and share what you learned with your peers. (10 minutes)

Hands On Activity
1. Visit the Federal Trade Commission's web site at http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/index.html.
2. Read about one recent case. They are often posted under the hot links. Here is an example: Sony BMG Music
3. Let a friend or co-worker about what you discovered.

Hungry for More?
1. Read the new recommendations for industry self regulations from the Federal Trade Commission at http://www.ftc.gov/os/2009/02/P085400behavadreport.pdf.
2. Check out the privacy Coalition's web site at http://privacycoalition.org/.
3. Review the EPIC's Online Guide to Privacy Resources at http://epic.org/privacy/privacy_resources_faq.html.
4. Share with a kid or concerned parent, the Kidz Privacy web site at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/kidzprivacy/.
5. Keep informed! Go to the Privacy Rights ClearingHouse web site at http://www.privacyrights.org/.

Week 2 - Aggregators

2009-03-01T12:28:00.000-08:00

To successfully complete No. - Aggregators you must...

READ this blog post.
DO and THINK about the information in the "Learn More About" activities.
LEARN by completing the Hands On Activities, including reading the Important Tips. Your total time commitment is about 45 minutes.

Introduction to Aggregators

There is an explosion of information and innovation swirling around you on the web. What can you do? Take a look at an aggregator. It can help you manage your digital lifestyle. How? An aggregator serves to provide web users with one, simple interface to the widely dispersed, frequently changing information landscape that surrounds them. Aggregators are not limited to RSS. There are hordes of them appearing on the web.

Social aggregators let you centralize and syndicate your online life. You can use an aggregator with your OpenID account so that all of your contact information is centralized and available for use on any new service that you join. You will save time and effort by eliminating the need to edit and update your profile information spread out over the web. I use a Friendfeed app in Facebook to keep up.

For your specialized interests, there are one page aggregators that look and feel like web portals. By using one, you can stay on top of all the latest news and developments.

For photography, try Mashfot. Users can find the latest news and popular links relating to photography and view the latest photographs from various photo sharing websites. View photos from Flickr and 23, news from Digg and Blogs, and links from Del.icious and Blinklist, etc...

I use originalsignal to track what's happening with gadgets. In truth, it is a huge aggregator for news and developments concerning the web, technology, entertainment, business and the world. You can customize its look and feel, grab RSS for all or just one "signal", share with other, post a gadget for signal on your site or view/use it on your portal device.

Try one of several media aggregators! The Internet TV Charts allows you to track the most popular online video clips each week from four leading Internet TV sites. All the best video clips, are on one page.

One of my favorite aggregators is Popurls. Popurls gives you the latest buzz about web sites, social sites and aggregating sites. Viewers get headlines from sites such as Digg, Del.icio.us, Reddit, Newsvine, and TailRank as well as media from Flickr, Youtube, Odeo, iFilm, and more. If you are trying to find what’s new and buzzing on the web, Popurls is the place to look.

If you love the micro-blogging service Twitter, there are 12 aggregators and web trend sites that help you filter the Twittersphere. Imagine that! There is so little time to tweet. :) But, that is ok because you have at least 12 different ways to tweet smarter!

If you don't find an aggregator that suits your needs, then build one. SpeedyFeed allows you to import your favorite feeds and display them in a one page format like Popurls.

"Learn More About" Aggregators
1. Read this Wikipedia article, Aggregator (Time commitment 5 - 10 minutes). This is a new article so it changes often.
2. Read this article from Socialwebtools, Top 10 Top Social Aggregators and get a feel for how you might use one. (10 - 20 minutes)

Important Tips, Tricks
1. Anything that you share with an online community such as Facebook becomes property of the community. You have no future control over it. So, don't share it if you want it private now or at some point in the future.

Week 1 - Avatars

2009-02-23T02:00:00.000-08:00

To successfully complete No. - Avatars you must...

READ this blog post.
DO and THINK about the information in the "Learn More About" activities.
LEARN by completing the Hands On Activities, including reading the Important Tips.

Your total time commitment is about 45 minutes.

Introduction to Avatars

In an digital environment, an avatar is a graphical representation of self; the form can be one, two or three dimensional. It can be male, female, animal, robot, or even a plate of spaghetti.

An avatar is an object that represents the user or gamer in the digital environment; it may often conform to the personality connected with the computer user or gamer. Just as often, an avatar will be the reverse alter-ego of the computer user or gamer.

Avatars are used in many different web-based platforms or services including forum, communities, chat, online gaming and social networking sites.

"Learn More About Avatars"
1. Read the article, Avatars (Computing)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(computing) (Time commitment 15 minutes)
2. Watch this fun YouTube video, "Create Your Own Avatar" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INGPe4VP4iY (Time 3:50 minutes)
3. Listen to this podcast (Time 1:34 minutes)

"Hands On Activity"
1. Go to http://www.meez.com/main.dm
2. Select the gender of your avatar.
3. Give your avatar a special look. Select
"Change your Look". Choose a body type,
face, hair, clothes, accessories and more.

NOTE: Your avatar appears in the large
box at left. Your choices appear in the smaller
boxes at right.

4. OPTIONAL --- Save your avatar. Fill
out the online form that appears when you
select save.

Important - Tips, Hints and Tricks
1. Not all features under "change your look" are free at http://meez.com/. You earn the coins used to pay for non-free items from signing up for an account, a newsletters, etc...
2. If you want to save your avatar for later use, you will need to create a free account.
3. You can export your avatar for use on web sites, blogs etc...
4. You can add all kinds of cool things like backgrounds and animations.

What's It All About?

2008-11-21T05:13:00.000-08:00

From February 23 to May 4, 2009, the Virginia Beach Public Library will offer Beyond 2.0 - Playful Teamwork, a life-long learning and team collaboration experience for library staff. The program is designed to:

enhance business practices through the use of technology to improve internal operations and communications and enhance services to citizens
contribute to a fun, playful workplace that inspires collaboration among library staff members
expand library staff's knowledge base
foster implementation of web 2.0 skills

The Beyond 2.0 program is be comprised of two parts:

A learning based blog
A staff collaboration opportunity

Beyond 2.0 Blog --- A Learning Blog

2008-11-21T05:08:00.000-08:00

This blog will feature weekly blog posts that stretch across five consecutive weeks beginning on February 23 and ending in March 2009. Five topics will be discussed; one topic per week.

The weekly topics are common themes visible across the web:

aggregators
avatars
privacy
social computing
virtual worlds

Participants are not required to register. In addition, they do not have to record their work. Before beginning, all participants are encouraged to discuss their participation with their supervisor.

Beyond 2.0 FAQs

2008-11-21T05:07:00.001-08:00

Why should I participate?
Beyond 2.0 extends the knowledge that you gained while participating in either Learning 2.0 @ the Beach or Learning 2.0 Remix. It's an opportunity for you to learn more by reading articles, listening to podcasts or watching videos. You will learn through completing hands-on activities. You will be able to do more in your professional and personal life due to increased awareness, knowledge and skill.

How does this online learning program work?
This online learning program encourages Virginia Beach Public Library staff to experience prevalent and emerging web-based technologies. Through play and self-discovery, library staff are encouraged to take control of their learning and to utilize their lifelong learning skills.

Are there classes or workshops?
There will be no classes or workshops offered to support this program. Instead, library staff are encouraged to work together and share their discoveries with each other.

Do I have to register to participate?
No, you do not need to register. However, please discuss and obtain your supervisor's approval before participating in this learning experience.

How do I record my work?
You will not record the work you do while exploring technologies presented in the Beyond 2.0 blog.

Do I receive training credit for this program?
No training credit is available for this online learning experience.

Playful Teamwork --- Collaborative Opportunity

2008-11-21T05:07:00.000-08:00

Using web 2.0 concepts or tools, participants are challenged to work together to create something of value for library staff or customers. Here are several examples of possible projects for an agency or team:

The law library might use a wiki format to create an online resource on privacy and the Internet.
The Reader’s Advisory group might use a social network like Ning to connect readers and facilitate book discussions and merchandise library materials.

To complete the challenge, participants can use either their current work groups, teams or form new ones. Already established groups and teams are encouraged to work together. Participants should discuss and obtain their supervisor's approval before participating.

On or before May 4, participants will submit their projects for review to a panel of judges. Using the Project Review Process, the panel of judges will select one project to be presented at the May 2009 LCDT meeting. All projects submitted will be showcased with a display board at the May 2009 LCDT.

Each project will be required to demonstrate the following:
1. Support the library's mission and / or strategic plan
2. Add value for either internal and / or external customers
3. Collaboration
4. Creative or innovative approach
5. Knowledge of web 2.0 tools

To be considered for review, each group needs to submit the following:
1. Playful Teamwork ProjectForm
2. Display board showcasing their project
3. URL of their project, if appropriate

Playful Teamwork --- Project Review Process

2008-11-21T05:02:00.000-08:00

On or before May 4, Playful Teamwork participants need to submit their projects for review. A panel of judges will review all projects.

Each project will be required to demonstrate the following:

1. Support the library's mission and / or strategic plan
2. Add value for either internal and / or external customers
3. Collaboration
4. Creative or innovative approach
5. Knowledge of web 2.0 tools

The project selected by the panel of judges will be presented at the May 2009 LCDT meeting. Participating groups are invited to submit a display board for their project. All projects displays submitted will be showcased at the May 2009 LCDT meeting.

To be considered for review, each group needs to submit the following:
1. Playful Teamwork Project Form
2. Display board showcasing their project
3. URL of their project, if appropriate

Playful Teamwork FAQs

2008-11-21T04:59:00.000-08:00

Why Should I participate?
This program allows you to expand your knowledge of web 2.0 concepts and tools. It also provides you with an opportunity to have fun at work through purposeful collaboration with peers and crafting innovative uses of technology.

How do I participate?
After obtaining your supervisor's approval, you can participate by joining your current work group or teams' effort.

What should we do?
Read the blog posts on Playful Teamwork, scan your enviroment for ideas and get creative. Your goal is to enhance the library's business through the use of technology. You might want to use technology to solve a customer service issue, design a creative approach to delivering a library service or product, or come up with a cool way to improve communications. There are several examples listed in the Playful Teamwork --- Collaborative Opportunity blog post.

What are other examples are possible projects?
Here are several more examples to get you started:

Special Services might use a special mashup to deliver services to people with low or no vision.
Cataloging Services might use a wiki to create a policy and procedures manual for their division.
RFID team could make a training video on how to tag and inventory library materials.

What is the timeline for Playful Teamwork?
To participate, each group needs to submit their project before May 4, 2009.

How does a group sumbit a project?
To be considered for review, each group needs to submit the following:

Playful Work Project Submission Form
Display board showcasing their project
URL of their project, if appropriate

How will the projects be reviewed?
A panel of judges will review each project. The project selected by the judges will be presented at the May 2009 LCDT meeting.

What will the judges be looking for?
The review panel will be looking for the project that best fits the critieria outlined in the review process. All the details are available in the Playful Work - Review Process blog post. All projects must support the library's mission and/or strategic plan.