Thing#23-The end or the beginning?

It has been a worthwhile journey exploring many of the "things" offered on Web 2.0. I didn't really get going until after Christmas, and wish I'd have started earlier. There were a couple of hard applications that didn't work right for me and that took a lot of time and I wondered if I would be able to finish on time--but here I am, and with a couple of days to spare before the deadline. I'm glad I stuck with it! I learned a lot, and even if I don't use some of the specific applications, just having the general understanding of what these things are and how they work is beneficial.

I'm starting to encounter some of these things in my workplace, and I don't have to be intimidated wondering what this is and how they do it. Yesterday I got a Google meeting invitation, and I could easily sign up and respond to it confidently. I also looked at a presentation by a vendor who used his own interface and just had some of the Web.2 applications plugged into it.

The "things" that were the hardest for me were Thing #3 and #4, and putting the link for my blog post into the comments after the "Thing" for the first couple of times. Of course by now, due to all the opportunities to use it, it is second nature. I thought Instant Message would be an easy one because I've used it in the past, but I had all kinds of trouble getting it to work and the first time never did connect to the other person, so I finally did what I should have done sooner and just started all over again and created a new account. That's one of the frustrations in technology; something that should have been easy takes hours to figure out.

I liked the fact that there were easier lessons interspersed with harder ones, so it wasn't as grueling. I wish I would have kept track of the time I spent on each lesson. Some were short and took under an hour, and others I spent 5-6 hours on. Of course some of it depends on how much time you want to spend looking around at all the options.

My favorite things were Thing#19 on Web 2.0 applications, Google Docs. I was intrigued with how it was set up. I looked like it might be a good option, especially for those who don't want to pay for Microsoft Office. I wondered though, about where your documents are stored and how secure they are. I also enjoyed Thing#20, Picnik. I love digital photography and spent a lot of time playing with all the different effects and options that program offered.

Thank you so much for this opportunity. I learned a lot more than just sitting in a workshop or seminar because I was actually practising what I was learning. I hope you offer more options like this in the future. It was definitely worth my while.