confessions of a southside catatonic chataholic

Our discovery exercise for this topic, 'Discovering Web 2.0 tools', is to select a site from the Web 2.0 Awards list. Bit of background on the awards, SEOmz is a Seattle-based company who specialise in '. . . Internet marketing and search engine optimization services.' Don't take my word for it, read it here. I have no idea what this means but doesn't that sound flash? For more information on the awards check here.

Being the impatient type I decided to bypass the full Web 2.0 awards listing and go straight for the short list. The short list shows 1st, 2nd, 3rd and Honorable Mention websites.

Had my eye on the 'Video' category, mostly 'cause I've been watching UFC and was hoping to see who else had fights other than Youtube. Noted that YouTube was listed as no. 1 (no surprise, I guess) and that BBC's iPlayer was at no. 2 - reason enough for me to check it out. So, I headed off to BBC's iPlayer page and clicked on TV Highlights 'When beauty goes wrong'. Shows a picture of a woman with what looks like a VERY badly pierced tongue. I don't remember mine looking like that but I suppose one man's OOHH is another man's EWW. It's meant to be a documentary about '. . .what happens when dreams of looking glamorous turn into a nightmare.' My nightmare seems to be 'Currently BBC iPlayer TV programmes are available to play in the UK only, but all BBC iPlayer Radio programmes are available to you. Why? Go to Radio channels home page.' Only I don't feel like going to Radio channels home page - I feel like telling them where to go instead. Hmm, disappointing.

Headed to Metacafe instead and got the generic '. . . blocked by the Manukau gateway service.' It doesn't surprise me because if we can't access YouTube here at the moment, it'd probably be the same for most video sites. Still, I had to try! Am kinda curious about these sites and how they stack up next to YouTube so will probably have a bash at them at home (after I put in some work on my sadly neglected assignment).

So, on to another category - Music. Selected 'Last FM' - mostly 'cause I ain't never heard of 'em and ignorance is no way to live. Last FM lets you connect with friends, discover music, keep up with music events, download tracks from Amazon or listen to free online radio. Niiiice! Had to sign up - only it didn't want me to be catatonichataholic and I instead got stuck with 'catatonichataho' which didn't endear me to the site at all. I don't wish to be anybody's ho and most certainly not a cataonichata-ho. Hmm@that. Other than that, signing up was a cinch. Then I get a page asking me to enter favourite artists separated by commas. I have quite eclectic tastes so there's everything from Catatonia to Professor Longhair to Bonnie Raitt. Don't tell anyone, but I still have my old Bros LPs in the cupboard. Shame! You also have the opportunity to import your listening history from your favourite media player or ipod - the icons they list are ipod, winamp, windows media player and your itunes. Funnily enough, their suggestions for music like the artists I initially entered are artists I forgot to mention LOL Nice! Very nice! They also offer podcasts and videos by your favourite artists. In the library you create the artists pop up with pictures. Clicking on the pics will give you some bio info on them, as well as a listing of their top tracks, and some recommendations for similar artists. I'm also able to view images, videos, album title/covers, tracklistings, events, chart info, tags (yes, they use tags here, too) and other users who've listed her as a fav artist. So, if you're of a mind to hunt online for music and end up at Last FM, then look me up - can't miss my nic - catatonichataho. Yuck. But damned good site!

As for a benefit in a library setting err absolutely none! At least not in a work sense for staff :D But in a fun sense for customers, sure!

Technorati Tags: web2.0,, learning2.0,, Manukau,, libraries,, seomoz,, LastFM