#18 Concluding summary

As a final exercise
Favorites:
Most of the things I liked I probably already knew, but may not have taken the next step of taking out an account and adding my comments to the great sea of unconnected words and stray thoughts on the web. Now I quite happily signup with another password and throw some words on a page to see what happens, further clutter up the Internet.

Lifelong learning goals:
Having started late, I am stunned that I have finished within striking distance of the finishing line. I certainly have tried everything, whether I remember how to do 90% of what I have done or find a deep and meaningful reason to maintain a blog is doubtful but I do have a better understanding of what is possible and will more willingly signup for passwords to try new things. (Desperately trying to maintain the balance of refusing all telemarketing offers on principle).

Reservations about the value of the program:
Program in itself was sound and while I didn't take up the offer, it was good to know that I could have attended one of the weekly sessions and been helped through those nagging items where I would try 3 and 4 times before I cracked the code of how to do something.
I would also like to see new items added to the list, as some of this technology is now becoming mainstream and some newer elements should be starting to creep into the program.

Future:
The hard part starts now - how to continue investigating new and emerging technologies and whether I continue to use any of these technologies or whether, as I suspect this blog will die with this entry never to be given a proper burial but to lapse into disuse as so many before it have.

The other hard part is if we do get fired up that we can use blogs and it might be worth creating a 2nd life avatar - how can this be made use of in the library context - as by the nature of this technology it is an individual lonely world divorced from the rest of the library not a community activity in most instances. Further there is the fact that we have not yet embraced the concept of most staff having the right to post items to wikis or anywhere else that has not been vetted by the library. So it needs to go on the planning board to discuss at service forums and staff meetings how this early learning skill can be made a mainstream skill set. Staff to be actively encouraged to add to blog discussions and to create content for wiki entries for the wider world.