Tricky Wikis

I'm not sure why I'm doing this sprint towards the end of this course.  I guess I procrastinated too long and hard.  I avoided sitting at the computer by doing a lot of housework (ugh) and watching tv.  Now the rubbish has liquefied.  I have no control.  It is bubbling and pouring out of my head.  My arthritic fingers can't keep up with my thoughts.  Stop!  For God's sake, stop.  Oh how my brain hurts.

Focus, you must focus. 

I have had so much trouble contributing to the course wiki as 17 Luddite that I'm going gaga. There doesn't seem to be enough help on the site to answer all my basic questions.  I want to turn to someone and ask "Where do I go from here?" But I'm all alone with this dumbass computer that doesn't know or feel anything.  It's all too confusing for me I'm afraid.  I want words of comfort and encouragement, a human touch. 

(Puts on sanity hat) The idea of using a wiki sounds great in theory.  The Adult Community Education Services (ACES) group that I belong to tried to have a wiki but no-one used it because it was unwieldy and not user-friendly.  In addition only a few people were willing, or perhaps had the time, to share information.  I suppose that's the rub.  People have to be committed to the task of maintaining a wiki, otherwise it dies a slow death.   

RSS Aggregator/Feeds

This task has been the most time-consuming so far. I hope that this course gets easier as it goes along. I had problems subscribing to some blogs and they didn't appear on the list on Google Reader so heaven knows where they are.

Another one like Retro Pottery Net had two parts of it so you could read the posts in one subscription and the comments in the other.  I don't like this sort of feed because it's too complicated.
I chose this blog because I collect West German Pottery and it's very hard to get information about the pots and their manufacturers.  Over  the years I had accumulated a number of vases.  It didn't dawn on me that they were all West German until I looked at all their bases one day (not into cleaning).  Obviously I had been drawn to the colours and textures.  Now, I seek them out at markets and garage sales. 

Hank, John & Wally did a good
job of setting the Hills Hoist into
a concrete round in 1959.



Their inscription lasted longer
than the clothes line.



                                                    

The Marrickvillia is one of my favourite blogs.  A few years ago I Googled a book, "Marrickville Backyards" which was a collection of oral histories celebrating the diversity of back yards of Marrickville residents.  The only link I found was this blog written by Dr Meredith Jones who mentioned that she had some copies of the book which was published in 2001.  I posted a request on her blog and she sent me a  copy for free.  How generous was that! Her blog is a great resource depicting life in Marrickville.  She talks about the local people - their homes (especially the architecture which I love), where they work and delicious personal vignettes that give you great insight into her own life and that of the community. 

I also subscribed to a couple of work related blogs:

ACMI is the Australian Centre for the Moving Image.  I find their Digital Storytelling projects to be inspiring. I'm interested in helping people tell their stories - whether it's a writing group publishing their prose or it's an oral history or a vox pop.   Getting the stories to the wider community however is the biggest challenge.

The Human Library used to be called Living Libraries and I'm looking at this blog, that draws information from around the world, to get some fresh ideas.  I would like to get local people to come to the library and other venues to share their stories.

Western Australia Public Libraries - Learning 2.0 Basics is a compulsory and useful blog (suck).

Sharing Images

http://www.flickr.com/photos/glennaa/2619180756/

This image moves me to tears.  The names on the suitcases are like names on gravestones.  What did these people pack inside?  Personal items such hairbrushes, favourite items of clothes, tidbits of food, photos of loved ones?  How could they know that their heads would be shaved, that they would all wear the same uniform, that maggots would be swimming in their watery soup and the photos would be all that remained of their relatives.

This is a photo of my mother and a towel that my mother embroidered in her teens in the 1930’s.  My grandmother made the linen in the village of Bolshoi Osnyaki (now called Velike Osnyaki in the Ukraine).  The women and girls would sit next to each other at night and copy the traditional motifs from one another.  It is one of the few things that survived my mother’s evacuation from USSR to a forced labour camp in Germany in 1941.   When I was little I also remember that she had a small yellow purse with a delicate silver chain handle and a light brown silk lining.  It was made of a celluloid material and one corner was burnt red.   She kept her photos in that purse.  Later she threw it away together with many of the photos.

Flickr is a valuable resource where we can all share images.  However, every picture has a story, a provenance.  Often the stories aren’t told and this is the shame about Flickr.  It reminds me of my mother’s purse crammed with photos.  There were some taken in Germany after the war. Women dressed in trousers and my mother holding a bike.   There was a man behind them holding his hat above one of their heads.  Another was of women lying on a rug with huge bunches of flowers.  Apart from my mother in the photos who were these people?  What were their names and their stories?

There needs to be more to document photos rather than just a title or tag.  Cockburn Libraries often shares images in Flickr.  These are photos of people who have attended events or workshops.  Sometimes there are close up photos of a few people.  Maybe we have to be more selective of the photos we choose – not put so many, and add the story of the event.  It would be good to put names to the faces and to tell the story, no matter how insignificant it seems to us at the time.  Sometimes the photo might be all that remains.

Purple bag

Recently, someone took my luggage at the airport.  They left their purple bag, which although did look a bit like mine, weighed only 5 kilos.  Mine was packed to the hilt, was fully extended and weighed 20 kilos.   I also marked my handle with bits of white tape, had a plastic nametag and put a huge decorative safetypin through the ends of the zip.  I sadly watched the solitary purple bag travel round and round on the turnstyle and wondered at the mentally of the person who took my bag.  Had they done it on purpose?  Was this some sort of scam? Maybe they just picked up any bag at the airport and left theirs.  What could be inside?  Maybe it was dirty clothing?  Or maybe a body part?  I was rather disappointed when Qantas staff found a nametag on the bag, tracked the passenger down and phoned their mobile.  They asked "Have you picked up your luggage?" The answer must have been "Yes" because the staff member said "You have someone else's bag.  Your bag is still here."  I never saw the person who came back and exchanged the bag.  I was told that they were 10 minutes away but it took about 40 minutes for them to return it.  And when it was returned the name tag and the pin were missing.  Did the person look through my luggage?  That thought didn't worry me.  I had nothing of value inside.  Would I look through someone else's luggage? I probably would.  Not to take anything - I'm just curious.  How do other people live their lives?  I suppose that's the lure of blogs and Facebook and the whole Web 2.0.  It's making that connection and sometimes with someone that I would just pass on the street without a second glance.  And the interesting thing is what people share?   What do they want me to know about them, and why?  Anyway, I give you permission to have a look through my luggage.  You can even sniff it if that's what you like.