Thing 8: Google Calendar

Now that Catch Up week is behind us, I've decided to start catching up.

Because I'm a rebel. or perhaps because with so much coursework that needs doing, typing anything else, even if it is work related, feels like procrastination. But then I saw that my colleague was fully 5 Things ahead of me, and I suddenly decided it was a competition.

So, what to say about Google  Calendar


Google Calendar is a calendar....

There doesn't really seem to be a huge amount left to say on the subject to be honest. it's a free calendar, which is nice, and one that you can access from anywhere, which is useful, and other people can add to it, making it somewhat like every other calendar.

It's probably something I'd appreciate more if I was in a more senior position. Currently any meeting etc I have to attend are automatically added to my Outlook calendar, and as all university staff are on this system, a second one seems fairly superfluous. And any social engagements are usually stored in the brain of my fiancée, who will then remind me with as much accuracy as a computer would anyway.

And whilst the recommended blog did indeed have some good ideas on how to use Google Calendar in a library, we've yet to convince management to update our  browser from Internet Explorer 6, let alone switch over to something useful such as Chrome, so I shouldn't imagine we'll be able to implement any of the ideas here. At least not until I'm running the place.

Is there anyone out there who has found Google Calendar particularly revelatory?

Thing 4: Current Awareness

So, this time we're talking about RSS feeds, twitter, and Pushnote, so I suppose I shall tackle them in order of my familiarity of their use.

RSS

I remember my first few, tentative steps on the internet in the 90's. Honestly, it was so exciting at the time. I could find information on anything, I could go anywhere. Every time I logged on I would go somewhere different, like an explorer in a strange land. Would I go into one of these chat rooms I'd heard so much about? Would I read about computer games, or see pictures from around the world? I'd have no idea until I was actually doing it.

Now that the internet is so much bigger though, it seems so much smaller. In recent years, I no longer jumped from search engine to search engine, racking my brain what to look for first. The internet has shrunk to about 20 sites I checked every day. If I went anywhere else, it's because a news aggregator linked me there.

And then I discovered Google reader, and all my internet comes to me. This is incredibly useful and convenient, but makes me kind of sad. The internet no longer provokes a sense of wonder in me, it's just a tool I would struggle to do without.

None of which has much to do with the task at hand I suppose, I was just in the mood to ramble. Be glad I didn't go into a whole globalisation metaphor, it would have been tedious for both of us. So, inane waffle over.

Right, self-pity aside, I find RSS to be an absolutely amazing feature, and one I've been using every day for about a year now. I'm honestly amazed I went so long without looking into it, despite seeing those little RSS feed links everywhere. I've only tried Google Reader, and I've been so happy with it I've not looked into any of the other options out here. I assume they are all pretty similar? If you're currently not using RSS feeds at all, I strongly suggest you look into it, especially if you have a regular cluster of websites that you use frequently

Twitter

I've avoided twitter for the longest time. I was one of those mentioned on the main CPD23, who assumed it was mostly full of C-List celebrities telling the world about the awesome sandwich they had just made. Having now joined twitter and followed some of the recommended twitterati of the library world, I can certainly see it's professional use. Passing interesting articles and useful finds back and forth in such an easy manner is actually pretty fantastic.

I also keep seeing mention of cyber bullying over twitter on the internet, So I guess I should give that a go while I'm trying new things...


Pushnote

I can really take or leave this to be honest. I can see if's use, and I'm kind of intrigued to see if it catches on, but I'm not really sure I have time for yet another piece of software pointing me towards websites and articles I should read. My Google reader keeps filling up to 1000+ as it is, plus I'm now getting links off twitter, and I still have a huge amount of reading and coursework to do for my Masters. So I'm going to sit this one out for now. I'll probably go back and check it out again at some point, and if I do I'll put my thoughts up on the blog (I know, I know, you can all barely wait).


Right, I'm nearly caught up now. To Thing Five!