Reflection on 23 Things

The Things I've continued to use after my first try are my blog and—mainly as a reader—Twitter. I'm certain I'll use Doodle again, probably Google Docs, possibly Evernote. I will make another effort to get into the habit of checking a feed reader: that must be the most painless way to top up your library current awareness. I've not used iGoogle since my Oscar Wilde quote gadget broke down.

This blog, though, has borrowed most of its momentum from the 23 Things programme. Will I keep it going after 23 Things ends? Yes, I think so. Having this platform's already invited odd items like 'Professionalism' and 'Unusual punishments', and I expect it will again.

Or as Wilde put it: 'Unable to retrieve: http://googlewidgets.net/gadgets/quotes/g/owilde.xml.php.'

Blogger, continued

It's certainly easy to open a blog with Blogger, but I had some trouble making mine look the way I wanted. Too many things, I found, were locked down behind the Template Designer interface. For example, I didn't want the background gradients at the edge of the text area that came with the first 'Simple' template, and it took several minutes to realise I was supposed to express this by choosing a different template.

Neither did Template Designer give me control over the text size, or font properties other than colour, to apply to the blog description. It didn't give me control over the text size to apply to date headers. And I couldn't have my blog title appear in capitals (which seemed important). On the other hand, you're free to edit the HTML template, where I could do these things.

Blogger

I think my blog has found its final shape, so it's time to post my thoughts on making it, along with what I hope to get out of 23 Things and my previous experience of social software. My only experience is of bookmarking sites like Delicious and Connotea, which I used around 2006: I wrote my library school dissertation on indexing in these systems. I'm not sure message boards count, but in my teens (the late 1990s) I followed one dedicated to the cinema of the nouvelle vague. Oh all right—Nintendo games.

What I hope to get out of 23 Things is a better awareness of the variety and possibilities of social software, through a weekly prod into trying out different systems. My blog, where I'll report what I've done, I also wanted to be anchored in living and working in Cambridge, which I hope explains the bulletins from civil society. Something I've realised this week I should think about is how professionalism sits with a political commitment. Perhaps I could start by looking into the work of the Haldane Society, for lawyers.

I'll post later on making my blog.