Amazing Challenge - New Zealand

My favourite part of this challenge was exploring other web 2.0 things in England, mostly because I was already familiar with the things we explored in the other countries. I also got a new insight into the uses of YouTube in HongKong - I didn't realise there was so much instructional material there.
Although I found some new cool things, I didn't see much that immediately had an application for our library. Perhaps, now the Hunt and Gather has been canned we could put videos of how to search the library catalogue onto YouTube? We don't want the OPACs to be able to link to YouTube though. I wonder if there is a way around it.
I learnt some new stuff and had some fun but didn't get very much inspiration for new ways to use web 2.0 in the library so my goals were mostly met.
I enjoyed the way the challenge was set up and thought that the tutorials you found were great. Well done Ellie!

Social Networking - Italy

I had a look at the Library Beebo but couldn't work out how to add a comment. I wondered if you needed an account before you could do this. I have a Facebook account but not a Beebo one.
I found an article "Stalking the Wild Appeal Factor: Readers' Advisory and Social Networking Sites" in Academic Research Library. It was talking about using sites like LibraryThing, Shelfari and GoodRead to help in Readers' Advisory work. I love LibraryThing but hadn't really thought of it as a social networking site. I guess it is if you get into the discussion boards and 'follow' people with interesting libraries but I don't use it like that. I do check my Facebook page every day. Quite a few of my in-laws are on Facebook and it is a good way to keep up-to-date with their comings and goings. David's sister and her husband have recently moved to the UK and I enjoy reading their updates as they find jobs and places to live. I don't bother with the quizzes (particularly after reading Philip's email) but do play some of the games.

Podcasting - HongKong

Every week I download interesting podcasts from National Radio and listen them while I am gardening or doing housework but I haven't explored YouTube much. With a wedding cake to make in a couple of weeks I thought I would see if there was a podcast on making chocolate roses - there was.

Social Bookmarking - Finland

I have been using Delicious for quite a while (http://delicious.com/RefPenny) so not too much new to learn there. I decided instead to look at Technorati.
I didn't think much of their 'channels' - 'entertainment' didn't include books and 'lifestyle' didn't include cooking, craft or gardening. The blog directory did have a headings for 'food and wine' and 'home and garden' but still nothing on books. I tried searching for blogs on storytelling but didn't have much luck until I searched for blogs with 'storytelling' as a tag rather than blog posts with storytelling as a tag. This type of search wasn't immediately apparent. You need to 'search the blogasphere' first before it gives you search options.
I also 'claimed my blog' - time will tell as to whether the traffic increases.

Web 2.0 applications (England)

I have written some prayers that will be included in a book due to be published next year but would love to have a whole book so I had a good look at Lulu. It looks easy enough to use but it is a bit hard to evaluate without actually publishing a book and I don't have one lying around. This site may be an option if I ever get round to writing a whole book and can't find a publisher. I would certainly recommend it to any of my friends who are thinking of writing a book (not a vast pool of people but there is one!).There were some other interesting sites on the list but probably none that I would use on a regular basis. I found all sorts of interesting things at .Docstoc. I could have done with it a couple of years ago when my son often asked me to set him maths problems! I liked the sound of Mango to learn or brush up a foreign language prior to travelling but discovered you had to pay. Apparently libraries can subscribe so their members can use it. That would be cool but probably unlikely. Boo is another potentially useful site when planning travel. It has hotel and bar details along with photos, weather and general city reviews. The main drawback to this site is that there isn't a section for attractions. I may use this next time we are planning a trip.I loved One Sentence - lots of true (supposedly) stories told in a single sentence - a great time waster.

RSS Feeds

I have been using iGoogle for over a year so was interested to compare it with Google Reader. I think I prefer iGoogle. I like being able to have different types of feed on different pages and the pictures add interest. I think Google Reader may be better for news then iGoogle as you can see all the new headlines whereas iGoogle you set how many items you you want to see from each which is great for blogs but probably not so good for news (unless you set the limit fairly high).
I use iGoogle all the time for keeping up with my favourite blogs but I like the fact that if I don't look at at it for a few days (or weeks) there are only the latest posts there and I don't feel guilty about the ones I missed.
Libraries can use RSS by putting feeds on their website - new books, events etc. Apart from personal professional development I can't think of another way to ue RSS in libraries.

Photo Sharing

I do have a Flickr account but I haven't used it much and couldn't remember my password. I decided to see what images there are of libraries. I already knew of the group that aim to take a picture of their library every day so thought there would be plenty of images to choose from. I came across Erik who has a series of images of 'Beautiful libraries'. I really like this shot because of the odd angles http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikvanhannen/2254208405/in/set-72157603863752660/