Week 8 Online Applications & Tools

Table of Contents 18. Take a look at some online productivity (word processing, spreadsheet) tools. (Estimate of time: 2 hours) Overview Benefits Perspectives Discovery Reflections: Localize your learning 19. Explore any site from the Web 2.0 awards list, play with it and write a blog post about your findings. Estimate of time: 1.0 Hour or as long as you'd like! Overview Benefits Perspectives Discovery Reflections Challenge 18. Take a look at some online productivity (word processing, spreadsheet) tools. (Estimate of time: 2 hours)

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Overview Have you ever watched a SciFi show where the actor can stop time in order to do something while everyone else is frozen in the moment? How many of you have wanted just a few more hours in your day to get things done?!? Our hope in presenting some of the tools people use in their daily lives to keep it all together and get things done is to... allow you to be more productive and focused in your work/life pursuits; discover new ways to organize your thoughts/ideas and collaborate online; reach for new goals and endeavors that you haven't had time to do; and/or just spend more quality time with your family and friends. Benefits Save time on needless management of things. Keep ideas organized. Clear your brain of needless lists of things you have to do, want to do, plan to do. Pursue new endeavors, spend more time with your family and friends, and/or just unwind for a bit. Perspectives Read About.com: Top Ten Productivity Web Site Consider subscribing to Lifehacker blog  Take a look at Lifehacker's 2007 Guide to Free Software and Webbapps Review the shared bookmarks on Del.icio.us/tag/gtd  (GTD = Getting Things Done) View the YouTube video: Getting Things Done (Time: 45:51:00)

Shared bookmarks: Getting Things Done  Delicious/tag/gtd (recent bookmarks tagged gtd) Alltop - Top GTD News diyp3_core_cl.pdf (application/pdf Object) Tour of Gantt chart software. Project planning application explained. Google Tastk Adobe Aire My Softwares Testing Time-Management Strategies - WSJ.com Time management: How an MIT postdoc writes 3 books, a PhD defense, and 6+ peer-reviewed papers — and finishes by 5:30pm | I Will Teach You To Be Rich Simple Online Time Tracking, Timesheet and Reporting Software: Harvest

Discovery

Take some time to explore some or all of the tools below. Select an entire category of tools to explore or a specific application within each category. Localize your learning by applying to a specific project in your work or personal life.

Reflections: Localize your learning

• Which applications did you select to test drive and why?
• Did you discover other applications not on the list? If yes, please explain what you found and how you envisioned applying them.
• Share the tools you use in your daily life to help you get things done.

19. Explore any site from the Web 2.0 awards list, play with it and write a blog post about your findings.

Estimate of time: 1.0 Hour or as long as you'd like!

Overview

This is like a trip to the World's Fair of online gadgetry! The Web 2.0 Awards are given each year to innovative technologies by SEOmoz, a consulting company that specializes in Internet marketing and search engine optimization services. Here's what they say about the awards:

"Over 200 Web 2.0 Sites in 41 Categories, Rated, Ranked and Awarded. Our team reviewed hundreds of sites in the Web 2.0 sphere to uncover the best in each of 41 categories. From there, we assembled a team of 25 of the most knowledgeable, well-respected experts in the field to vote on the winners."
(Available at http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0, accessed March 25, 2008).

Benefits

• Stay abreast of Web technologies as they continue to evolve.
• Opportunity to review a list of top pick Web 2.0 tools and select the ones that would be relevant to your users.

Perspectives

Not only is it fun to explore these new ways of connecting our clients to their information and expertise needs, special librarians are in a position to take a leading role in this area!

Discovery

1. Go to the SEOmoz site listed above and browse through the categories and the category winners. Who won in the "Mashups" category?
2. Visit a site that's appealing to you and spend some time surfing around in it.

Reflections

• Did you find a Web 2.0 winner that you can use with any of your new online talents?
• Did you find some useful sites and learn more about its features and tools? Share your thoughts on your blog about the site, who would find it valuable and why.

Challenge

As time allows, revisit some of the online productivity tools or Web 2.0 Awards winners to check out those that you didn't choose in the exercises. Be sure to be on the lookout for new tools and the 2008 winners when they are announced!