Ten Weeks Later: Catching Up With Myself

I left off describing the conclusion of our journey, in mid-flight so to speak, while Zhar and I were perusing a odd scrap of paper collected by our scavenging acquaintance, Mr. Crow, who had scooted over to our library billet to offer us the rather suspect job of educating his newly formed theatre company about the possibilities of Web 2.0 podcasts and videos. Zhar naturally declined. He has a standing engagement with the Moscow ballet. I fluffed my flight feathers and considered. A few more weeks sampling sun-ripened California while assisting some grateful thespians? Or finishing my decade-long nest tidying project in the Urals? No hard choice. To celebrate Zhar's departure and my new role as their technical advisor, the troupe laid out a delectable banquet for us at their rehearsal studio/rooming house, located (you guessed it) in that very same well-protected garden spot I have previously written about. So we feasted on fruits legitimately picked and borrowed parrot biscuits, while toasting the future success of our hosts' theatrical venture.

Week 4: A Proposal for Implementing Social Software in the San Jose Library

(A very crumpled draft)

This proposal is designed to use the wonderfully rich multicultural heritage of San Jose to build a wiki, A Thousand Flavors of San José, that will collect through personal accounts a historical portrait of San Jose life from 1900 to the present with a focus on family and communal celebrations during which a sharing of traditional ethnic foods strengthened old ties while creating new friendships. Any photos or artwork contributed to wiki would be stored on Flickr.

According to Wikipedia, "A wiki is a collaborative website which can be directly edited by anyone with access to it. Ward Cunningham, developer of the first wiki WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as 'the simplest online database that could possibly work'." Wikipedia describes Flickr as "a photo sharing website and web services suite, and an online community platform..."

The implementation of A Thousand Flavors of San José wiki would require
collaborating with such library departments as Partners in Reading (PAR), Adult Services, the California Room, and our Multicultural Committee, and partnering with such community organizations as the Mexican Heritage Center, Japanese American Museum of San Jose, Viet Heritage Society, and Chinese Historical and Cultural Project. A few examples of possible collaboration: PAR could incorporate entries to the wiki into its Learners program; Adult Services could design a program to elicit family reminiscences, for instance a Vietnamese New Moon festival gathering or a Mexican Quinceañera. The stories collected could be used to enhance other library programs. Contributors would have the satisfaction of sharing their experiences with a wide San Jose audience through technology utilized by their library.

Obvious roadblocks to this sort of project are: 1) Selling this project to administration and department partners. 2) Deciding whether wiki should be hosted or on the library's server, in which case software would need to be selected and purchased. 2) Finding staff time to discuss idea, address any legal or policy issues, set up the organization of the wiki, inform the library and public about it, provide instruction in how to contribute text and photos, review entries on a weekly basis, and plan ways to use the material accumulated in this wiki database. 4) Locating and involving community groups. 5) Addressing question of legal ownership of the material/photos.

These roadblocks could be addressed by: 1) Submitting a detailed, carefully researched proposal with realistic goals and measurable benefits. 2) Researching hosting and software and presenting this information to administration and library IT for a decision. 3) Assigning a scheduled block of time per week for staff involved in project. 4) Utilizing already developed contacts with community organizations, placing a visible promotion of the wiki on our library website, and producing handouts about the wiki for library programs. 5) Adding a legal disclaimer/policy statement to wiki.

---

"Not yours?" queries the crow. "Not a jot!" Zhar looks offended. Despite his fiery personality, my friend hasn't the claw for cooking. I, on the other hand, have stirred up a tasty pot of stone soup, baked Pompeii bread in hot ashes, and attempted Mouse ala Kiev. This proposal could elicit some flavorful recipes. "Too frivolous," is Zhar's considered opinion. "Not at all," I retort. "Food preparation has always been a way of bringing folk who have mouths and stomachs together - whether human or not. Sharing communal feasts promotes better understanding of each other's preferences and eating habits." Mr. Publicity (whose indelicate corvid eating habits are far too well known) is poking his beak into A Proposal to discover its content. Next moment he bops up with "Could I interest you, sir and madam, in a tasting tour of downtown's best restaurant garbage bins?" But, of course. We just need to find napkins.

Week 4: Effectively Implementing Social Software

Ah, virginal September, proffering us grateful creatures her harvest cornucopia. Zhar and I are once more enjoying an early morning view of the SJSU campus from our library perch while nibbling on grapes, pomegranates, and insect tidbits borrowed last night from that well-stocked garden. Two small white dogs who could be litter mates of the garden's guards are chasing each other and the squirrels. Does the university also employ a spitz security service? A flap of untidy wings announces our new friend, Mr. Crow who bumps down beside us. "Thanks for that expert advice. I've met with a librarian lady as you suggested. She's considering how we can collaborated. Plus the troupe's got an interview this afternoon with one of the local papers. Mr. Goodnight sent me to look for you two to ask if you would be interested in staying on for a bit in San Jose as our technical consultants? By the way, did you drop this?" Mr. Publicity extracts a very crumpled bit of paper from under his wing feathers. Fastidiously smoothing the sheet out with a golden beak, Zhar declaims, "A Proposal for Implementing Social Software in the San Jose Library."

Week 3: Flickr, Podcasting, and Vodcasting

Determined to introduce our equally famous selves to winged San Jose City media stars, the three peregrine youngsters, Zhar and I are still roosting on campus. Zhar, preening his glowing plumage, considers "Would I be as photogenic as those falcon triplets?" I've been digesting peaches and attending to a few still sticky feathers, so my answer is succinct. "It depends on the camera, the vision of the photographer, and clever editing." Tonight I intend to secretly fly into David Free's wiki and David Lee King's website to hunt for pod/vodcasting tools that will fit into Zhar's sturdy satchel. "Excuse me, sir, madam." We both look up startled. A large crow has quietly (for a crow) joined us. "You appear to be of a theatrical character, yes?" "Yes, and no," says Zhar. "It so happens that I am the publicity agent for a newly formed San Jose theatre troupe and thought you might be members of a foreign touring company." We stare at him so he goes on, hopping back and forth on black stick feet. "We are as yet a small number of actors and actresses, with a property manager, Fluffovits, a director Mr. Osmandius, a producer Mr. Goodnight, and myself. It's an all animal/bird troupe. No humans to allowed to join." "What sort of repertoire do you perform?" asks the experienced Zhar. "Aesop's Fables for starters, but we are working up some original material to fit our special talents. What we are most in need of is a venue, a place to perform, a stage to strut on." The peaches must now be thoroughly digested, because a clever idea pops into my head. "What about making a video of your act?" I've caught Mr. Publicity by surprise. Crows do think they know all the tricks. "How would we do that?" he croaks. "See this lovely bird hotel we're perched on? It's a library. A library means an audience of kids and a gaggle of librarians hoping to find programs to entertain and instruct them. As a novice troupe you might not want to perform publicly but a video of your act added to this library's website could be a perfect solution for their problems and yours." "I see I have a lot to learn from such well-travelled, technologically aware avians," says Mr. Crow (quite humbly for a corvid). "I'll get right on this proposal. Thanks, and hope to see you around later." Zhar and I watch him take off a bit awkwardly with my idea in his craw. What do they teach these Silicon Valley avians!

Week 3: Flickr, Podcasting, and Vodcasting

A dip in the campus fountain removes the incriminating peach juice. Zhar reminds me Flickr is next on our itinerary. Naturally he wants to find a picture of himself. But I instruct him first to pick the "jaguar" tag (I'd never seek out a member of the cat family unless it was a sphinx) while I search for "librarian" (and "Melusina"). Then together we'll browse the Libraries and Librarians group. My Melusina search led me to Sirena del Sol, who has a wonderful gallery of siren artwork. I've left her my Flickr nest address in case she would like to meet a real sirin of the air and view my collection of watercolors which include Awakening. Question after sorting librarian by "most interesting": Are human beings always more interesting if they wear glasses? Zhar joins me, puzzling over the oddities of tagging. "What do a cat and a car have in common besides the letters "ca?" "I suppose you found the tag "Firebird?" He inclines his head glumly. Our group exploration proves very tantalizing. We swoop into several links, finally landing in a Second Life virtual world inhabited by Rowdykians. Another question: Where are these Rowdykians living their First Life? Time to take care of our present avian one by filling our empty stomachs.

Week 2: RSS, Wikis, My Space, and Other Online Communities

Far better than a market stall is a peach tree heavily laden with fragrantly inviting fruit. I am not a fruitarian but neither will I ungraciously refuse nature's proffered menu. We munch messily and review our travels. As required in my flight instructions for Week 2, I have set up a roost at Google Reader, installing 5 blog feeds: Caveat Lector, The Goblin, Leaping Librarian, Librarian in Black, and Tame the Web. Then we doubled back to Bloglines, as I had promised Zhar, to drop these same "feeds" (what a satisfying term) into my library folder already packed with goodies. Browsing here saves me foraging. As thoughtfully suggested by our travel guide we visited her Bloglines roost, opening the Librarians & Library Related folder to excitedly discover A Wandering Eyre. "An avian's journal?" Sadly, no. Merely the peripatetic musings of a human librarian. Once again airborne Zhar asks, "Do you think I should sign up for a roost in MySpace such as Ann Arbor District Library created?" forgetting how many centuries ago he was a teenbird. "That would be like choosing a diet of pretty sugar-frosted confections, not at all good for an adult avian," I admonish, noticing my chest feathers have become sticky. "My Own Cafe isn't a bonbon." In fact, it isn't even the sort of cafe Zhar imagined it when he had proposed visiting to order a glass of tea. We agree that My Own Cafe was a treat while we eye a lovely fat bunch of grapes in this garden. Unfortunately the grape vine is guarded by a green macaw wearing a soldierly red feather headband, who upon sighting us shouts "Thieves! Police!" from his window post, immediately alerting two small spitz dogs armed with vicious barks. To our further discomfiture a black cat smirks from an adjacent window. Not the spot for more quiet conversation.

Week 2: RSS, Wikis, My Space, and Other Online Communities

Zhar and I are perched companionably near the SJPL Staff Development & Training blog, which we have graciously been permitted to visit even though we aren't employees. "Very useful," Zhar concludes from his experience working for theatre and opera companies, while I attend to cleaning my claws. It's been a busy seven days darting from wiki to wiki, chasing RSS feeds, and hanging out on MySpace branches. We searched Hennepin County Public Library's Catalog for cookery (an excellent breakfast choice); darted back to Ohio University to see the Biz Wiki (good resources); hopped over to St. Joseph County Public Library; roosted briefly in Roc Wiki, then zoomed back to Davis Wiki in California. Having flapped through several thousand birthdays, one's wings will ache after such overexertion. So, why wiki? There seem to be many reasons to do so. I've been swinging thoughtfully on our bough by the library, listening to Zhar's musings on the value of blogs and wikis. "A wiki is like a larder where one stores supplies. Suppliers can pop in and put goods on the appropriate shelf." "This century, humans would think of a refrigerator," I amend. "Whether you call it a larder, pantry, or refrigerator, we can't do without a place to put food. Now a blog gives me a stage from which to discuss something, preferably of immediate concern, such as what are we having for dinner tonight, while providing you, the audience, a way to express your opinion. Let's take this San Jose Library. It's got a lot of goods stacked up in its website; the problem may be to find out on which shelf in which pantry. Keeping stock fresh isn't a difficulty since designated staff can add content to the various refrigerators (or databases). Would a wiki system offer a quicker way to retrieve the ingredients for one's meal?" Zhar pauses for dramatic effect. "It's easier to blog-talk, than to wikiize information. Now, how about a bit of San Jose farmers market research while stalls are still open before we go on to the topics of RSS and MySpace?"

Week 1: More about Social Software, and Blogs

An easy flight west again to San Jose's Dr. King Library and San Jose State University on whose campus we hope to meet a famous peregrine falcon family. "Does this library have a blog," asks Zhar. "There are several branch blogs on this library's tree: Almaden and Seventrees. I expect every branch will have one, once library administration has come up with a design template, guidelines for content, a plan for sharing skills and responsibility for weekly postings." This sort of complicated planning always delights a byzantine bird. "The SJLibrary.org website," I explain, "is very complex because it provides information about two different entities: a public library and a university library. Imagine two trees grafted together which still branch out to produce different fruit." (Oops, Zhar is looking hungry again.) "The website is shared wood, but blogs could be the several sorts of fruit, satisfying very different customer needs." "Immediate needs," murmurs, Zhar, eyeing a campus fig tree. "Blogs are a comfortable way of making friends," I continue, ignoring his hint. " I suppose it's a question of deciding which communities of friends a library wants to attract. There could be a blog for seniors (sort-lived humans have serious problems with aging), for children (Conroy Cougar can earn his keep), for business-minded city citizens, for parents who never have enough time or resources, and a blog to assist students find their library footing, and so on." "I might have an idea, too," suggests Zhar, "if I just munch a fig or two." Well, that's a firebird's genetic relationship to a kitchen stove for you.

Week 1: Social Software, and Blogs

Anticipating a strenuous trip of four weeks, Zhar insisted on a short detour to hunt some lizards for his satchel while I read Time to Check: Are You Using the Right Blogging Tool? by Susanna Gardner. This left me wondering if I should change my present nest to one on a WordPress tree. Again provisioned we took off to Ann Arbor District Library Directory's blog, the first stop on our flight plan. I was very impressed by the pleasing orderliness of this library's site design (I am still reorganizing my roost to achieve this). I felt welcomed and fed with interesting tidbits, lingering to explore AXIS which was promoting an event featuring one of my favorite poets, Rumi. Zhar flushed with enthusiasm darted off to New Jersey's Old Bridge Library Weblog, where he misjudged his landing, and, plumage and spirits river-dampened, had to flutter awkwardly back west to dry off in Marin County Free Library blog. I also ventured east to visit Binghamton University Science blog and Ohio University Libraries Business blog. Not being a scientific or entrepreneurial minded avian, I can only imagine how useful these tools are for a human student. I have collected my rumpled colleague for a luncheon break of black tea and some California smelt sandwiches, which, of course, we will compare with our delectable ones made of Riga smelt. Now fortified for further flight, we agree that Ann Arbor Library is a roost to return to.

An Unexpected Entanglement

This delicious satchel of snacks provided with such forethought by my brilliant companion has sustained us during a most unforeseen and uncomfortable stopover. To put it simply and with a bit of embarrassment, I had upgraded my flight apparatus for this trip and have experienced a nasty glitch that has left me grounded (so to speak) on a tree in a local forest for a fortnight. It has been especially comforting to have his meals of sympathy and advice during the long hours spent disentangling and restraightening feathers (birdie softwear). Today my avian parts are fully restored to operation and the satchel contains only a few hopeful ants. So now upward and onward.

A Second Web 2.0 Journey: Hasty Preparations

An early morning breeze lifts feathers already groomed for flight. I'm just waiting for Zhar Ptitsa to join me with his satchel of snacks for those times when there's no opportunity to hunt for dinner. He's aglow with excitement, imagining his own discoveries as he accompanies me to some of my previous Web 2.0 roosts like Bloglines and Flickr on this new trip, advertised by our travel guide as Connecting with the Community Using Social Software. And I will have the pleasure of discussing my further impressions of these sites with a fabulous critic. Ah, here he comes, fanning a fiery sunrise with his wings.

Week 9: A Summary #23

# 23  I have been joined for a glass of tea by Zhar-Ptitsa, who has been singing in a current production of The Firebird. He is very familiar with quests, having been much sought after in folk history, and excitedly asks if I have returned with any of the magic secrets of Web2.0, would I recommend his undertaking the same journey, what were my favorite roosts, and so on. "Stop, a minute," I say, waving my wings to cool his burning curiosity. "This odyessy of discovery takes hours, days, weeks, but, of course, time is of no matter to immortal creatures such as ourselves who have eons of life during which to learn." My more impetuous friend hesitates, "Really, it took that much time?" he murmurs. "Indeed," I reply. "Yet, I would fly off again in an instant if the call came." Then I describe the fascinations of Flickr, playing tag on Del-icio-us, hunting articles in CiteULike, planning a podcast of poetry. He brightens. "Perhaps we could travel together, share expenses, explore fewer roosts with more care and exchange impressions?" "Yes," I agree. "It's always helpful to chat before putting stylus to tablet." "And eat, too," he adds, examining a sugared square of loukomi. "Well, if my goal was mental food, I certainly returned with a hamper full. However, the trouble with questing is that one quest inevitably leads to another, just as finishing breakfast suggests beginning lunch." I pause for a sip of tea, "As several very famous creatures have remarked in their memoirs, this learning path goes ever on and on, and Alkonost must follow, trilling her blog's Sirin song."

Week 9: Some Recollected Thoughts

# 15  After a meditative return flight, succeeded by a quiet interval of preening plumage, readjusting my crown and halo, I am again settled into a gloriously blossoming almond tree, ready to sing about this Learning2.0 odyssey. Back during Week 6, I skimmed over a number of Library2.0 articles without commenting. One in particular entitled: Web 2.0 and Libraries: Best Practices for Social Software by Michael Stephens, so tickled my feathers, I paused to find out FAQs about Kankakee Library's podcasts, explained in detail even a byzantine bird could comprehend. Excited by podcast possibilities I've begun planning a brief program of psaltery plucking and poetry to record. Kansas City Public Library's nicely designed subject pages (for instance, Our World Guide) utilizing RSS feeds are technologically exciting but the results once I clicked on a link seemed much less well organized because an RSS feed allows for more ephemeral data, more possible mental clutter. Now, a BizWiki, seems a solid idea for sharing and building upon each other's knowledge in a field. Imagine a wiki for all the lore we fabulous creatures have accumulated over the centuries!
# 16  "Why wiki, why wiki, oh, why wiki, cry I? It takes their shared knowledge for humans to fly." Just a bit of silliness before putting quill again to parchment to scribble about wikis, which like fowl, can live on hosted WikiFarms or exist free range on your own server. To regress to Week 7 discoveries, I skimmed over Wikis: A Beginner's Look, following a link in Resources to E-Rhetoric Wiki and Wide Open Spaces: Wikis, Ready or Not (too much to ingest), then backtracking to Using Wikis to Create Online Communities, which talks about wiki subject guides and community wikis. Being better informed I visited SJCPL Subject Guide for Pets which offered me books, links, tips in an easy to digest format. Next I dipped into the Book Lovers Wiki, a bibliophile's Turkish delight. (Oops, time for a real meal or I will be eating my words).
# 23  Even an ardent adventurer like myself must pause for supper before concluding her account.

Week 9: Podcasts, Video & Downloadable Audio, eBooks #20, #21, #22

# 20  Nestled on a remote branch, nibbling a leftover bliny, I am recovering from my visit to YouTube. A feather shuddering experience for a sensitive bird/person. Upon landing there had been too much to view. I immediately decided to select a Bird group, one with a number of members. Parrots had 118. You may smile, but it was a shock to realize these birdies were captive "pets" performing silly, ingratiating tricks. Then I came upon this supremely degrading instructional video: How to Clip a Bird's Wings! My human brain recognized what a useful tool this could be for parrot owners, so my angry bird claws seized upon it, and I soared away trembling from the visual realities of YouTube.
# 21  Legendary powers refreshed, I alighted at Podcast Alley for a quick survey of its territory with a Genre search of Education. This turned up instructive podcasts to teach me French, Spanish, Italian, or Chinese, as well as some rather odd subjects I'll not mention here. But then I spotted the perfect addition to my Bloglines nest - a series of lectures on lives of my old acquaintances, Constantine, Basil, and Alexis. Since there was no time to immerse myself in listening to our shared history, I used Podcast Alley's link to Lars Brownworth's website, 12 Byzantine Rulers, where I got the podcast feed url to put into Bloglines. What pleasure to anticipate hearing again the exploits of my famous friends while ingesting an evening meal!
# 22  Landed at last in familar surroundings: eBooks. I'm not in the mood for NetLibrary's technical books, today. OverDrive Digital Library has an audiobook version of Saving Fish from Drowning I might sample (can one download to a nest?). Instead, I'm bird-hopping on to Project Gutenberg which I know has an online version of this classic avian favorite: The Phoenix and the Carpet by E. Nesbit. The best way I've found to browse if I haven't a title or author, is to try a keyword search from SJLibrary's WIRed page Free eBooks Online. But being especially fond of picture books, I'd rather open an illustrated The Hollow Tree Snowed-In Book or Max und Moritz at Children's Books Online. In International Children's Digital Library I met another fabulous creature El Amaru, a winged snake deity inhabiting the mountains and lakes of Peru. When I again have a desire to hear Beatrix Potter's stories read in English, French, German or Japanese just another hop will bring me to Wired for Books Kids Corner. This rapidly expanding eBooks country certainly provides many excellent perches for the curious mind of an Alkonost-Sirin.

Zoho Writer: Dreamscape - A Sirin Lullaby

Dreamscape

Listen, winged children,
For the panther's cry as it tears
Golden feathers from the sky.
The demon cat of unguarded nights
Pads silver-clawed around our dreams
Til we wake squawking,
Dreading to topple from parents' nest
Down into earth's black paws.

Week 8: Online Applications & Tools #18, #19

# 18  Actually pulled a quill from my gorgeous tail to try out Zoho Writer. Logged in under Alkonost and penned a poem-song inspired by this Dreamscape watercolor. Being cautious, I saved the whole on a floppy disk as a Word document. Then I tried posting it as a draft from Zoho to my blog. This worked only when I was simultaneously logged in at Blogger. The draft was formated in HTML which I edited, taking out repetitive, unnecessary coding, fixing line spacing and margin indent. Perhaps I didn't need to fuss so much with the original draft; it would have been presentable, but as you know by now, I am a perfectionist whether in feather attire or creative endeavor. As soon as I've mastered the technology, you also will be able to hear this siren song.
# 19  Ah, I could happily sing about LibraryThing. A wonderful roost for an avian with a long literary history! Once signed up, I entered a few of my favorite books, choosing less well-known titles tasted decades ago but which have kept their savor, like Twilight of the Gods by Richard Garnett (1 other owner), Walter de la Mare's The Three Mulla-mulgars (3), and Shilappadikaram by Ilango Adigal (0). To properly list a title, I had to determine publisher, edition, date, illustrator, etc., using information from Amazon.com, the Library of Congress, or other sources I selected to search. This meant frequently returning to my booktree to see what I really had. An absorbing exercise for collectors, but a bit frustrating if you'd like to record your library quickly. The exciting part was dipping into other folk's libraries and following tags to reading lists or reviews. Clicking on Albert Bigelow Paine, author of The Hollow Tree Snowed-In Book (0), brought up his more popular stories and their owners. A bookloving bird could easily get lost for the rest of March in this site.

Week 7: Wikis #16, #17

# 16  I'm chewing on some ideas. It's lunch time and this bird is just too hungry for words.
# 17  Finally managed to drop two edits into the Learning 2.0 SandBox wiki's Favorite Animals (naturally) and Favorite Books. This should have been easy but the Point & Click edit mode doesn't work for a sirin using more medieval technology. The Classic mode editor is the appropriate choice. The skimpy help information didn't cover this problem. Apart from having to poke around a lot to understand how to contribute, adding one's own considerable knowledge/expertise to such a public encyclopedia is very satisfying. Flew off with some reading recommendations for that evening I can nestle down with a book.

Week 6: Tagging, Folksonomies & Technorati #13, #14, #15

# 13  Not to denigrate my friends and frequent flight companions, but birds are messy creatures who mark their favorite perches with quantities of droppings. I've picked up some very slovenly habits which make my using Del.icio.us a wing-stretching challenge, therefore I am rushing back to my favorite nests to tidy before attempting to tag their contents. After tossing my smelly dead links, I dropped (oops, a very avian action) my fresh tasty ones into Del.icio.us where I am constructing a new and hopefully better nest in which to keep them. The procedure of tagging is agreeably bird-like; we visually store impressions of the creatures and landscape features we pass over. It's also familiar to have a word-cloud hovering above, although at first it appeared to be more of a word-fog
I'm still tidying but you're welcome to drop in (oops, again) for a guest's taste of what I've collected. Just follow my Flight Path (below left).
# 14  How shall I tag myself? This is the question. Perhaps Technorati will offer a solution. First I tried a Technorati Discover search for lubok to locate any interesting references to my popular 18th century hand-colored woodcut portraits and found that this style of art is still being used in Russia for political caricature and social satire. A photo link to Flickr took me to a reproduction of that Lubok favorite, Celebrating the Dead - Mice on Parade, illustrating rodents happily assisting with a drunkard cat's funeral. I resisted following one of this blog's enticing tags, Vintage Childrens Books, preferring to circle back to claim my blog at Technorati, so I, too, could entice web wanderers.
# 15  Although I visited Wikipedia before undertaking that tagging task, I'd like to fly forward into next week before talking about Web2.0 and the Library of the Future.

Week 5: Play #10, #11, #12

# 10  Haven't had much daylight to play. Birds are always busy searching for food to keep themselves aloft. Tiresome for the human half of me. Can I trade my Melusina image for play credit?
# 11  After circling a bit, decided on a closeup investigation of the Book (link) area of Web 2.0 Award Winners. Found 4 good perches out of 7 sighted. Using Coverpop might qualify as play since it just offers a flashy page of images. However it does have a link to MagazineArt.org's collection of vintage cover art. Zack Bookmaps, a German site, will help me locate a book about mythic (ha!) creatures in selected German, Swedish, Norwegian library catalogs (if I am fluent enough in these languages) as well as in the Library of Congress and Melvyl. Sixapart hosts personal or business and professional blogs for a fee. When I don't have a flight itinerary to follow I'll probably try out Reader2 to find some recommended books about the sort of fabulous adventures I undertake. (I'll hop back to LibraryThing for Thing #19.) But my two favorite perches are Lulu which provides a way for me to publish my autobiography online and in book format, and CiteULike, where I was able to locate a congenial group or two, such as Learn Online and eLearning whose members have submitted some articles I would consider excellent mental food. Tried a search for Mosaics that unearthed a Jstor article on Mosaic Ateliers at Tabarka with a reference to a handsome mosaic depiction of heraldic birds and orants flanked by candles.
# 12  All this flapping around has given me a human-size appetite. With Rollyo's Ask an Avian search tool I did a quick dive into my preferred wild and pet bird websites to seize tips on the most nourishing meal for a stressed avian. Better not mention what I found until I've eaten it.

Week 4: RSS Feeds # 8 & 9

# 8  Arrived at Bloglines and set up yet another Roost which I call Wind Dancer's View. From where I perch there's a bird's eye view of what is happening in my country of origin and elsewhere.
# 9  Technorati let me do a favorite search: Tarot cards. I am so famous there must be a pack that includes an image of me, perhaps on card #14 Temperance, #20 Judgement or #21 The World. Here's one blog site I investigated: The Tarot Channel.

Week 3: Photos & Images # 5, 6 & 7

# 5  Set up a roost on Flickr. The bird part of me delights in viewing photos and even more in examining artwork, probably because, in the long ago days when I was more than legend, a quill might be an artist's tool of choice.
# 6  To remind myself how valuable I've been in making the artist's vision exist for others, I have added a Flash montage of my favorite artwork using Flickr's handy Badge tool. Also created a Sirin trading card to pass out on my travels, but discarded it because FD's Toys asked for access to my Flickr account if published there. Sorry, but I am a private sort of bird. So I flew back and tried again choosing download instead. Voila! Here is Melusina.
# 7  Since the human part of me has occasional trouble navigating and I am now on a challenging journey, finding out about Global Positioning System applications seems very practical. This article What is GPS? has a good explanation of how it works and its uses. To think I have to try to open a printed map while gliding or must inquire directions from a harried avian commuter.
While flying over Albion I noticed a Crowe's Nest meriting much closer examination and dropped a feather to indicate I'd be back.

Week 2: Blogging # 3 & 4

# 3  Setting up a blog roost wasn't so difficult. Just had to spend several hours exploring the terrain, fussing with type and color adjustments to find a look that suits my exotic nature. So after more fussing to return ruffled wing feathers to elegant flying order, I'm ready for take off on this Learning 2.0 journey.
# 4  Here I am, still flapping my wings and waving my two human arms. Well, I'm taking off even if I'm not yet officially registered as one of the adventurers.

Week 1: Introduction # 1 & 2

# 1  Opened the Learning 2.0 map to scanned the sketched route with its 23 milestones. My bird curiosity is intrigued.
# 2  Being a composite of human and fabulous creature it's difficult to decide which of the 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners is easiest and which is hardest. Depends on whether I am thinking with my head or feeling with the rest of me. Perhaps I should say that Habit 3, viewing problems as challenges, is a particular favorite of mine. Certainly, coordinating all my parts is an unceasing challenge at which I am mythically successful. Hardest habit for me to be comfortable with may be Habit 5, acquiring my own toolbox. I can't just pick up any tool (wings can be a nuisance). My tools need to be altered to fit the special abilities of my unusual anatomy. Not an easy process, but as I have confidence in my power to learn and adapt, over the next weeks my tool bag will become increasingly fuller.