"The End Has Come . . .

. . . and found us here, with our 23 Things scattered all around us here". (With apologizes to Glen Campbell. Although his song does go on to mention a playground, to which perhaps our entire 23 Things journey could serve as analogy.)



This series of exercises has assisted my lifelong learning goals by providing me with brief introductions to many emerging technologies that I would never have explored without this nudge. Some I found more valuable than others. Rollyo's worth I'm still trying to figure out. I still plan to look at other's blogs on that topic to see if perhaps I'm missing something; did others see value where I saw none? Which serves as an excellent segue to the topic of which were my favorite/non-favorite exercises. You've already seen my reaction to Rollyo. I enjoyed Library Thing, not so much for the opportunity to set up my own library shelf, but for the suggestion element, which is useful for readers' advisory and for finding other titles that may be of interest to me as a reader. I also enjoyed learning about the productivity tools, although I will probably not make any great use of them. Social networking is just not for me. So, while I appreciate the opportunity to learn about sites like Del.icio.us, I will not be using them.

I wouldn't call the outcome unexpected, but I did have my eyes opened to a great variety of sites that I had no idea existed. At the very least, I won't have that deer in the headlights look if a customer uses the names of some of these sites in asking for assistance.

One of things that I found most annoying (and so did many others, if casual conversation is any indicator) was the need to create accounts all over the place. I realize that these sites are not in any way related to the compilers of 23 Things and that each one exists independently of the others but if there were any way that could be devised to cut down on these many accounts, that would improve the program.

Given the difficulty of accessing a computer, for those of us in the branches, more time could have been given for completing the program in order to be eligible for system premiums. On a related topic, the issue of how few staff computers exist in the branches is something that needs to be addressed by system administration. This 23 Things program is proof positive that more and more work is being done and shared via electronic means. Having to stand in line for a computer in order to accomplish work is both inefficient and frustrating.

If another discovery program were offered in the future would I participate? Cop-out answer is "it depends". It depends on how long was allotted for completion and my projected workload at the time. This would be my primary consideration, with interest in the overall topic and relevancy to my work a close second.

To sum it up in a few words/phrases - new, different, learning together, wheat and chaff, overview.