Thing 20--Gaming in Libraries

Gaming is a double edged sword. I could see 16 computers at once being tied up with a Mmorpg to everyone's detriment. In fact, I have experienced the downside in the PCC when several lads came in to play Runescape and would be talking loudly across the room to coordinate their efforts, not to mention leaping up to show a partner what they wanted. On one hand I can't see where gaming is any different from any other entertainment the library provides, from cheesy detective fiction to CDs, DVDs, and many websites, on the other hand it can be disruptive--like playing handball in the middle of the 2nd floor--and a resource hog if many players want to be online at once.

Thing 19--Google Wave

This one was easy to do since I haven't been invited to test Google Wave. It looks interesting, especially as a part-time quasi-journalist. Any collaborative thing would benefit using this tool but it remains to be seen how much use it gets if, like blogs and a million other tools, it's just the latest flavor of the day. On the gripping hand several of the items we've explored in 23 things have become indispensable parts of my life on the Web, so I'll try to catch the wave whenever the heck it arrives.

Thing 18--SurveyMonkey

One of the downsides of working in the same room as 23 Things guru, peskew, is that if you try to slide on one of the Things he'll call you on it, which is what happened with Thing 18 and am I glad that it did. Instead of going through the motions of designing a poll I actually created one to survey the listeners of my community radio show Dark End of the Street on Community radio WFHB (Take the survey). So I guess it's an upside.

Maybe I'll try one to sort out Joe's Russian brides next.

I started with Zoomerang and SurveyMonkey but ended up with PollDaddy when I forgot my Zoomerang password. All the services are straightforward and easy to use. I was able to link mine in Facebook immediately and now I'm kicking back with a non-alcoholic brewski awaiting the results.

I didn't use any open-ended questions but it certainly could be useful if you want to find out what an individual is thinking, although judging by what I'm seeing nationally everybody seems more interested in push polls, something I'll leave for people with degrees who do that dishonest sort of thing for a living.

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Thing 17--Other Social Networks

Wah, me got no time for all of this social media. It looks great, though. Gather seems like a combo of Twitter and Facebook, only ranked by category. I've had an account with WebJunction for a year and never use it! I want to but you know how it goes. Yelp shows the Ellettsville branch for the main branch of MCPL. (And First Books Library is what exactly?)

I'm going to try Gather for awhile, the others look intriguing but I can't imagine I'll be trying many recipes and I honestly don't care about other people's opinions of film (especially when their top 10 movies are all Tarantino and mafia flicks--what's with that?) I can't understand why the greatest social media site of all time, 2nd Life, is missing.

Thing 15--Podcasts

For me podcasts are more of an issue of information overload than anything else. Searching for a program that might interest me only to discover a pair of poorly recorded idiots nattering on about a subject I'm far more conversant with than they are is not my idea of fun. On the other hand the hunt can pull up some real gems--Astronomycast for one--and a method of storing, promoting, and replaying information and educational programs that I can access at my convenience is appealing--where has it been all my life?. All in all I'm glad for the introduction and will continue using podcasts, hoping that the more familiar I become with the services the better I will be at finding what is useful to me.

I actually have a use for creating podcasts but no time. Maybe this will help me down the road.

(PS. Including the Good Beer podcasts in Thing 15 has offended me deeply.)