Ok, so the next two things on the ‘to-do’ list involved Podcasting and Youtube.

Podcasting is a new area of web 2.0 for me. From my experience so far, it seems to me that podcasting is a way of providing information to someone, but through audio/video means rather than through reading. This would be useful depending on what type of information the person wants to know. For example, if you want to listen to a series of lectures through podcasting, that would be different as compared to listening to general news or listening to an interview. Lectures would in my opinion be more interesting through the channel of audio rather than through reading notes. But one negative point would be that I wouldn’t be able to take in the information at my own pace through podcasting. Listening or watching an interview is far more effective through podcasting as compared to reading an interview on a website or magazine. In both cases you would feel more ‘involved’, because it’s on a more personal level and it gives more of an ‘interactive’ feel in these contexts.

However, in the case of general news/information, I would prefer reading it rather than listening or watching through podcasts. This is because, I would be able to take in the information at my own pace and be able to see any related links or stories to the information i’m reading. You would also be able to see other reader’s comments on the same topics of your interest, which wouldn’t be the case with podcasting.

After browsing around I have subscribed to 3 feeds; ‘Radio 1 Stories’ on the BBC website, ‘PSY 1010: General Psychology’ on podcast.com and ‘GeekBrief.tv’ on podcastalley.com

The next ‘Thing’ was related to Youtube. This task was very easy for me to do, as I am familiar with the website and have visited it regularly in the past 5 years or so; pretty much since it has been launched. I absolutely love this site and feel that for me personally, it has been the most entertaining, interesting and useful resource on the Internet. As a tool for Libraries, I do feel that it’s a useful form of communication and providing information. Our Library (Bodleian Social Science Library) uploaded a video some time ago on youtube that showed the effective use of video for educational purpose. It gives you a tour of the Library itself and shows how you can make the most use of it’s facilities.
Here is a link of the video, it’s quite humerous too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8POQ9YB7V0

I viewed the Channel belonging to University College London and after having a quick browse, it actually looks really interesting. They have videos on various lectures, demonstartions of different experiments carried out by the students and interviews by numerous staff members of the University. Impressive indeed.

I have an account on YouTube, my username is ‘MooMeowMin’ and have subscribed to numerous channels over time. You also have the option of saving particular videos on your ‘favourites’ section.  Overall, I cannot fault this form of Web 2.0