Tuesday, August 28, 2007

My-Space to Address Wikis

On to the Wonder of Wikis. I do like the idea of Wikis. One article we read talked about teen poetry sites. A wiki I visited on WetPaint http://www.wetpaint.com/ had info. on Wii games and cheat codes. That is a great idea for my Teen Gamers Group here at the library. Also it will help me with my gaming. I will now be able to change the color of my Wii bowling ball.

On Wikipedia, I looked up info. on Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens. (Yes, on work time too!) Wikipedia put a separate link to info. on whether or not they are dating, as they say it can't be confirmed. Hmm, an open site that can't confirm - isn't all of it in the same status? I think perhaps too many people were giving input on that topic. They must not have tween nieces to consult as I do. Also on a HSM note - my son and I sang the HSM2 soundtrack all the way to school/work today, and I recommended it to several library staff. Also, I put up the new Corbin Bleu ALA poster in the Teen Center and very few staff knew who that was. Several of them now have HSM #1 on hold to view. This is after they finish Jinny Williams, I expect. I am introducing important culture, one person at a time...

On WikiHow, I learned "How to Look Like a Twilight Vampire". Am I the only one who is mystified by the Twilight craze? I like vampire books to a certain extent, and am a fan of Atwater-Rhodes, and Schreiber. But - shhhh, I didn't like Twilight. Did any readers of this blog like it? I am going to try listening to it. Here's the thing - I don't have to like it to make sure my teens who love it have plenty of copies and other teens to talk about the books with.

Then - I decided to find some Cooking Wikis of course. WikiHow actually has sites on how to make a better muffin, but I decided I did not have the patience to try those. Anything over 8 steps is usually ignored by me. Here are a couple Cooking Wiki sites, including one for 'Radish pie'. Seriously. This is like all the prune recipes in the old cookbooks. My friend Pam's Mom made Prune Whip when she was younger. While I do love to try weird recipes, I have to literally be able to stomach them, and I'm not sure I could do that one.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Radish_Pie

Finally, we had to post to a STDL wiki, and there was a section on books we liked as teens. I mentioned The Outsiders as the first assigned book I actually liked (one of the few). Then I discussed the movie and how I had a posted of Leif with his feathered hair in my locker. Come on - I know I'm not alone with that one!

Our next topic is MySpace and sadly I know way way way too much about this one, having done about 12 workshops on social networking and safety. I got asked to do another one today, and the smart person came at me in person where I found it harder to say no. In IL we have the dubious distinction of having some of the strictest laws being proposed on social networking. I participated in a chat (nice irony, eh?) with a Senator who told me he would decide on a case by case basis which social networking types were appropriate for schools and libraries. That would definitely be a busy man. I asked about our online reference, and got no answer. At first, the legislation was like a super DOPA, where schools and libraries would be sued if they had access to social networking sites, but now they have scaled down to a still scary but different version. What a waste of all of our time. Yes, the Internet has scary aspects, just like High school does in real life. The answer is education not limiting. Nothing appeals to teens more than breaking boundaries.

The STDL Myspace teen site www.myspace.com/stdlteen has increased our program participation 20%. I do like the Charlotte Mecklenberg one with pod and vodcasts on it, and hope ours will have some of those features soon.

It was my pleasure to work a little bit on the social networking safety bookmarks with ILA. Director Bob Doyle is trying to fight the legislation with practical action - what a concept! Every library in IL got them for parents, teens and kids, then many more were handed out at ALA.

I'm also doing a staff presentation in November on some social networking and gaming, and my niece is training me on how to do Disney Virtual Magic Kingdom. This is the coolest thing ever and will now tide me over in between real trips down to Orlando.

I am not sure how to tie in cooking with MySpace except that I wish Bobby Flay had a Myspace site...

1 comment:

Sarah said...

I thought of you as soon as I saw Zac Ephron and Whatshername on the cover of People magazine. I'd say it's a yes that they are dating, though having read Secrets of My Hollywood Life: On Location I'd say it could all be a marketing ploy!