Thing #14

Having a tool like Technorati to tag and categorize the onslaught of blogs being created on a daily basis is beyond a doubt one of the most useful of the tools thus far in my opinion. Of course, the inherent problem with tags are that anyone can tag something anything they want. Without a standardization, there might be THE MOST USEFUL BLOG EVER!, but you might never find it because you don't know what someone has tagged it as. You could be using a search term to find that exact blog, but never find it due to this. However, that aside, the fact that there is some organization to these blogs and that they are searchable is invaluable. Using these tags and search capabilities, finding blogs to help me in my professional field is easier than ever before. Thanks, Technorati!

Thing #12

1. 2 important aspects of commenting: Comment because you have something important to share or you are "driven" to share. Criticize kindly.

I think these two points are essential when thinking about blogging or Internet etiquette. Commenting a simple "I agree" statement adds nothing to the discussion and clogs up time wading through irrelevant comments. In addition, people sometimes think because the Internet gives them a feeling of anonymity they can post whatever they see fit, forgetting real people are reading these posts and reacting to them. Don't say on the Internet or on a blog what you wouldn't say in person!

2. I posted comments to blogs from previous courses as well as the current go round. I'd like to think people who have been through the 23 Things want to continue their professional development and I found some of their blogs quite useful since they've already been through this process!

3.
Noflyingnotights - a great blog about anime/manga. This is vital as I scour sources for information on the ever popular graphic novels the students in my library want me to buy.
http://www.noflyingnotights.com/

Graphic Novel Review - another blog about anime/manga. It is so hard to find good information about graphic novels and to find reviews for graphic novels, that I am always looking for more sources.
http://www.graphicnovelreview.com/

Thing #9

I love the idea of being able to search for blogs to meet my needs. Many of these search tools were blocked at school, so this is a bummer since I use my RSS Feed mostly for work-related purposes, but one good one that was not blocked was Technorati. I did a search for "anime" to see what blogs I could find on anime since this is an extremely popular genre in my library and finding good sources of information about anime is difficult at best. I was impressed by the selection of blogs covering this topic and liked how the blogs were tagged so I could find other similar blogs. Through my search I found some useful sites including MangaBlog and JadeDragonOnline. None of the search tools were really difficult to use, but like with any new tool, the more it is used the more acclimated you become to the tool and the more useful it becomes as new uses are discovered.

Thing #3

Creating a blog and an avatar were not new activities for me, so the process was fairly simple. What was different was playing with new layouts and the initial excitement of setting up a blog. Creating a blog requires one to focus on the 4 C's discussed in thing #3 - community, content, consistency, and clarity. These factors effect everything from the layout of the blog to the posts included in the blog. And all of these have to be determined when first creating the blog! That's a lot of pressure!