Reflecting back over the past six weeks, I feel as though I have achieved at least some of the goals I set for myself in Week 1. I have explored with some new things, programs such as Endnote and Twitter.
While I learnt that Twitter does have some advantages, I don't think I will ever be an avid user of it. I just can't see myself ever getting into Twitter.
I was able to edit some newspaper articles which I found on Trove, and also looked at some other databases in the tutorial when dealing with Endnote - databases such as Web Science and Proquest.
Creating a blog in the first place was a new thing for me, along with creating an HTML document.
I actually like blogging - being able to express all my thoughts and ideas, and record what I have found interesting and struggles that I've had. These sorts of things I would find difficult to express in person, but it is easy for me to communicate all of it in blog form. I like the fact that I can be creative with blogs, being able to embed images, links and videos to make it visually appealing.
One thing which I think I could have had a go at is editing a Wikipedia article, but other than that I am happy with what I've learnt and been able to accomplish through this blog assignment.

In week 5, I had my first go at creating an HTML document which involved typing out a copious amount of coding into "Notepad," saving it then viewing the document as a web page. I found it quite straightforward - it was fairly time consuming typing out all the coding but it worked. I now have a deeper understanding into how web pages, HTMLs in particular, are created. I learnt that inserting certain characters into the coding creates a paragraph or a break in the text etc. For example:
<p> indicates insertion of a new paragraph
<a> means "anchor" which is inserted after a link is posted within the coding
<li> indicates a list (a bullet point)
<hr> creates a divide between sections of text, like in the form of an invisible horizontal line
<b> makes the text bold
However, I also learnt that, when it comes to creating an HTML document, making it presentable is difficult. For example, in HTML coding there is an emphasis on 'structural' as opposed to 'presentational.'
In my spare time, I decided to explore mashups. I've already done things within Google maps, so I decided to look at Yahoo! Pipes and learn how to create basic mashups using this application. First I created a Yahoo account, then created a 'pipe.' I selected the module 'Fetch feed' out of the list of modules. After dragging this into the central graphic idea, I entered a few URLs (links to blogs about movie posters because that's something I'm interested in). Then I connected the fetch feed to the module to the Pipe output, but when I clicked to look at my pipe it didn't display correctly and wouldn't work - there was something wrong with the URL links. I wasn't really sure how to fix it. I don't really see the point of creating a pipe after all that.
I went and looked at Libraryhack and looked at some of the mashup entries which were submitted as part of the competition. I liked the range of mashup formats eg. some of the entries were in video format, some were an amalgamation of images put together, sound wave files, and others consisted of one image that had been edited. Some of them have important messages attached to them (eg. this one about global warming):
"Early Evidence of Global Warming"

Here is the link to the entries:
http://libraryhack.org/mix-mash-win/hack-entries/

These are the ones which I found the most interesting out of all the entries:

In this first one on the left I like how they've combined a whole series of propaganda, old advertisements, to form one big poster. The second is a mashup of three photos combined to create the effect of a 'ghostly train ride.' I like the contrast between the old historical black and white images of the woman and motor car interior, with the bright modern and colourful Ferris wheel. There were so many entries, many of which I found a bit strange, but I would recommend looking at the site.
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"Ghost Train"

"Seaside mishmashed"

"Ready for Service"

"Hidden Theatres beneath the River City"

"Reflection of Time" - a photograph of a 1920's Australian street

interposed with a glimpse of the future

In week 4, we continued experimenting further with Endnote. I had a few difficulties with inserting the right reference into the article at first but was able to work it out. I think I would actually find it easier to just do the in-text references and bibliography manually without the aid of Endnote - maybe it's because I've written so many essays that I'm used to referencing and don't find it too challenging.
Anyway, I looked at some social bookmarking sites. I created accounts with 'Delicious' and also 'Diigo' last year for Information Provision 1 but didn't really explore the sites very much. I decided to revisit the sites and have a further explore at their features and what they had to offer.
http://delicious.com is a little bit confusing to begin with - I was trying to work out what the primary purpose of the website was and the function of a 'stack.' One of the purposes for the website is to share links to interesting sites with other people - these sites are sometimes in the form of blogs. Rather than sharing my stuff with other people, I have only used the site so far to link pre-existing blogs set up by other people to my page as a "bookmark," for my viewing. After creating a couple of stacks, I added a couple of links to pages on children's literature, and found it relatively easy to select which 'stack' I wanted the links to go in. Watching the video posted on blackboard about social bookmarking, it talked about 'tags.' As I added links to my stacks, a list of tags was created on the site.
When I went to the homepage for Delicious it came up with other people's stacks for viewing, which had links to fascinating blogs such as one on contemporary movie posters, which I linked to my page. This blog featured movie posters, including Alfred Hitchcock, with clever simple designs. Here is a link to the blog:
http://brickhut.wordpress.com
Certain aspects of Diigo are similar to Delicious although there are some differences. I was able to become a member of groups such as 'Art.In.General,' a group for those interested in art. I found the site a little bit similar to Facebook in this way.
Members of the group can share bookmarks with each other and write reviews. On both pages Diigo and Delicious you are able to create networks with people and create bookmarks. On Diigo there is a series of "Hot tags" on various topics and when you click on a topic it provides a list of sites relevant to that topic.
By following people through 'My network' on Diigo it allows you to see updates from them and invite friends (in this way it's a little bit like Twitter). By adding Diigo as a bookmark so it becomes 'Diigolet,' you can write sticky notes and highlight passages to create annotations which I experimented with. You can also view the most popular bookmarks that have been added to Diigo by other people. I didn't find the website Diigo really helpful and applicable to me (eg. it contains tools for saving tweets which are posted on Twitter) but I can see how it would help certain people to store and save information and network with others.