Wikis

I must admit that Wikis make a lot more sense to me that blogs. Especially as you can limit the people that are allowed edit them. Even Wikipedia sets limits - for certain controversial subjects only recognised users that have already contributed can edit the pages - while other subjects are completely locked and cannot be contributed to at all.

What about the problem of Spam? The idea of "everyone contributes no one controls" sounds pretty good, until you find your page as been ravished by advertising for porn or dubious objects and services. I understand the 'wisdom of the crowd' in principle - but in practice some of the crowd are not only unwise, they are downright objectionable.

I think things like Scholarpedia use wikis to their best potential. I hate to admit it, because I don't like to think of myself as a control freak, but to be really useful I think Wikis do need to be under the control of some group other than just 'the crowd'.

Having said that - I think Wikis are a wonderful tool for people to collaborate and I am quite excited by the technology. Definitely Subject Wikis are in our future.

Take my poll

I can see that having RSS feeds from databases would be very useful for an academic, or other specialist, so they could be sure they kept current in their subject area. However for most people I think it would probably lead to 'information overload'.
Most of our databases source hundreds of journals, and to attempt to keep up to date with everything written in an area of expertise, or even interest, is a *lot* to ask of yourself, your students and even your academics :)

Still I subscribed to CHOICE online (I have to buy a new fridge) - so I can see that having all the articles delivered to your door is useful if you have a very narrow interest (eg. Fridges) and don't try to read everything (though that article on the lawn mowers does look interesting).

RSS Feeds

The whole RSS feed thing is fun, but also a scary time vacuum.
My problem is that I am interested in almost everything - so I start off looking at some librarian's work related blog, then click on the photo of her dog, and then find myself an hour later reading all about Jack Russell racing in England.
RSS feeders don't stop me doing this - they just let me do it more efficiently.
I suppose part of the joy of the Web is that you never know where you will end up - but it really does exercise all your time management muscles.
I am quickly becoming a Net-Junky and have decided to get a laptop and broadband connection at home so I can feed this addiction in the privacy of my own home.
Does anyone else have this problem? If you do, what strategies are you using to overcome it? I'm thinking of not logging on until after 4pm but I'm open to other ideas.

I set up a bloglines reader because that is one of the 23 things I am supposed to do, but I must admit I much prefer Google Reader. I have now subscribed to the blogs of everyone else in the group and so know when something new has been added.

Of course being me, I've also subscribed to many MANY other blogs, all of which are terribly interesting and all of which are quite active. When I barely have time to read these blogs it does make me wonder how others find the time to write them.

A thing of beauty.

I've been looking for an avatar to represent myself on the web, and I have been a bit disappointed with what is available. There are several sites that allow you to create your own avatar but there are almost NO fat avatars available. I'm fat, and I'm not ashamed of being fat, and I don't want an avatar that portrays me as a sex goddess in my 20s.
Eventually I found the South Park Studio site which allowed me to make a librarian avatar with which I am quite happy. What do you guys think? Does it remind you of me?