CJRLC Tech Challenge, Mission Accomplished

On March 23, I posted an update on my status for the CJRLC tech challenge and do believe I'm finished now.

1.Register with Blogger (or another service) and set up a blog Obviously done

2.Start a Flickr photo account Done, see previous post.

3.Subscribe to an aggregator like Bloglines and set up RSS feeds from blogs or websites. I gave bloglines another try, and though I enjoy some of the features I rarely use it. I think this is just a matter of changing my habits. I usually post links to blogs on either my personal blog, this blog, or I bookmark them on my personal computer.

4.Read about Web 2.0 and Library 2.0; post some comments on your blog. Done. See post here.

5.Learn to use at least one of the following: LibraryThing, Google Maps, Delicious, Squidoo I've been using GoogleMaps as my default directional tool for a couple of years now. I've encountered someone with whom I have a lot of bizarre similarities on LibraryThing. Delicious and Squidoo still escape me. I've played around with both, but they seem to fill a function I don't need. (Or at least I don't know I need it.)

6.Teach someone else how to use one of the technologies described above!I've been helping a colleague figure out Blogger.

Email just for "old fogeys"?

This article was linked in last week's American Libraries Direct. Is email the new snail mail, replaced by texting and IM? Maybe, but like most articles I've seen on texting the author doesn't seem to have much experience with it himself.

Ok, I'm tired of a couple of things. One, being on the "younger" end of trends like this, when most everyone I want to communicate with is not. Instant messaging and texting is a much more satisfying form of communication than email, because it's happening in real time. It mimics a phone call (including talking/typing over each other), but allows for a multimedia communication. Talking about seeing the new Spiderman movie? You can send a link to the trailer. Wanna share the art exhibit you went to last week? Well, another link will take care of that. In a way this is the closest to face-to-face interaction we have yet. Add in a webcam and you're almost there.

And two, texting is not all about silly acronyms. I know few people who use them seriously, and a few who loathe them. But, that's just in my circle. Who am I to speak for society or 20-somethings at large? I still contend that silly acronyms constitute a v. small percentage of IM and text conversations.

Do teens really speak in acronyms, as suggested by this Unshelved?