RSS Feeds, CPL 2.0

I've been using Bloglines for a while as an RSS feed.  Mostly it's for personal reasons, so that I can see the latest updates from my friends and family who blog.  Often their blogs include pictures of their kids and so I get to keep up with what's new. 

I can't imagine using it for work - simply because I think that keeping up on the results would be a job in itself. It's a good way of receiving information - but unless you are careful about how you set the parameters you can end up with massive lists of things to read, that just become another thing that I end up putting off on my to-do list while I deal with more pressing (and deadline oriented things). 

My advice, definitely use RSS feeds but sign up for them slowly, don't go nuts and sign up for tons at once - because it just becomes another thing you need to try and keep up to date on! 

Google Universe - CPL 2.0

The more time I spend with Google's various products the more I realize that I couldn't live without them.  Particularly the calendar feature - which is something I check multiple times daily.  My fiance and I have a joint Google calendar - that we use to plan our lives.  Between working late (author readings - family dinners - plans with friends - and particularly wedding planning) I don't think we could live without the calendar. 

What's particularly great is that I have it linked to my work outlook calendar - that I then connect to my iPhone - so I know where I'm supposed to be at all times.  The only thing that I don't like is my to-do list isn't connected as well - although that might be a good thing because it might make me hyperventilate!  Fun though. 

Thanks goodness for google and technology.  I'd definitely recommend the joint calendar to friends and colleagues! 

Facebook and CPL 2.0

I'm seriously of two minds about Facebook.  I love it for so many things.  Some of the things I use Facebook for are: Keeping in touch with friends that I live far away from, Geting to know my cousins more (mostly the younger ones), and Seeing up to date photos of my friends children, and my nieces and nephews.  I have stronger relationships with my distant family now because of Facebook - mostly with cousins that I didn't know that well - but would see at family occasions, and now I know what's they're doing - what movies they are seeing, what books they are reading, etc.  It has lead to more similarities between my family and me than I ever knew before. 

However, at the same time - I get annoyed at the ads, I worry about how much information my younger (less privacy aware cousins) feel comfortable putting out there.  And sometimes it feels just too public.  I had an argument once with my fiance about changing our status to "married" while we were in Vegas.  (He thought it would be funny - i disagreed).  Once I explained the web of connections to him (my sister-in law would see it - she would phone my dad - who would phone my mom, etc....) and he quickly realized that something that was meant to be a funny joke could be taken seriously - and could definitely upset people... 

Really for me - Facebook is a bit of a time-waster - but at this point I enjoy enough of it that I'm not willing to stop! 

CPL 2.0 Wikipedia

I find the phenomenon of wikipedia very interesting.  It's a good resource to use as a starting point - but I wouldn't ever rely on it to be completely accurate.  I found the editing process to be super simple (you just click edit and then make the changes) but it's a bit more complicated reading what's in the editing box (unless you have a basic understanding of HTML).  I found a few grammatical errors in an entry on "Pride and Prejudice" and changed a few things around - but they were very minimal.  I was amazed at the detail provided - and I wondered a bit about some of the info provided (ie. stating the ages of many of the characters).  I might not have read the book closely enough to note these except for the obvious ones - but I did wonder (since there weren't any page references to the book) just how accurate some of the stated ages were? 

I do also think that Wikipedia as a phenomenon is dying.  The strength and weakness of it is all in the editors and people being willing to participate.  I think it's a bit of a fad that is slowly dying, because the number of contributors is dwindling.  People are too busy with other things to spend large amounts of time reading, writing, and editing wikipedia articles.  I suppose we will see over the next three years.