Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Thing 7: Web 2.0 Communication Tools

This "Thing" seems like that "remedial math" class I ended up taking in 7th grade. It's a lot of stuff you should know by now but if you didn't learn it when you should have, then you're gonna learn it now, mister (or Miss, as your particular case may be).

Email? I don't even know if I COULD do my job without it. Here at The Library we have MS Outlook for work related stuff but I also maintain a Hotmail account for my more covert maneuvers.

Instant Messaging is a great idea and would be really useful here but there is currently a "ban" on it (imposed by our corporate parent company for "security" reasons). A rep from our Tech Department told me that this could change in the next fiscal year. If it does, I'm gonna be all over this IM thing.

Text Messaging? No way. I'm not even a little bit, kinda, remotely, sorta curious about this option. Besides, I have a friend who once told me a totally made up story about a 13 year old girl who would "tex mex" so much that her thumbs became super huge and muscular. It got so bad, she had to have a friend of hers come over to her house once a week to wash her thumbs with a bucket of soapy water and a sponge tied to a hockey stick. That'll never be me.

Web Conferencing? I end up doing this type of thing three or four times a year for continuing education kinda stuff. Usually through "corporate" but sometimes through MINITEX. It's not my favorite venue for getting information. A disembodied voice describing something while a cursor moves magically around the screen? Given the choice, I'd just as soon get the same info face-to-face. I stare slack-jawed at a computer monitor at least 5 hours a day. Break up that monotony with an actual human being already. On the positive side, a one hour demonstration boils down to about 38 minutes (or less) of actual content. You get 11 minutes of "I-know-this-computer-is-really-slow-today" to fill up the space between the bookends of uncomfortable silence from the instructor, 7 minutes of other attendee comments like the "I'm-having-trouble-logging-on-with-the-username-and-password-you-sent-me-last-week" one, or the "Now-my computer-is-freezing-up-on-me-I-think-I-need-to-reboot-do-I-have-to-login-again-with-a new-user-name-or-can-I..." You get the idea.

Now I know what you're thinking, 38 minutes+11 minutes+7 minutes doesn't equal 1 hour. I know that. You're not the only one around here with an abacus. It equals something else. Something much less, I'm sure. Thanks for reminding me I'm still no good at math. Thanks a lot for that.

1 comment:

Captain Crone said...

LOL! The texting thumb story . . .

I hope you blog on more of the Things.