The Winners' Circle

I checked out the Web 2.0 Award winners for the categories of Books, Games and Collaborative Writing and Word Processing. Nothing new in Books, but I got a huge kick out of Guess the Google (an image guessing game). The game presents a mashup of images, all purportedly retrieved as a result of entering a shared search word; the game objective is to guess the one-word search term that links all the tiny images. Mildly addictive, the game increases mental flexibility with its reverse search strategy. That's the rationale I offered as I tapped the keys repeatedly for one more round of intellectual calisthenics.

I was pleased to see the online word processors accorded recognition; these are a boon for library customers using public internet computers. They really deserve their own module in our 2.0 exercise, and many other Learning 2.0 programs accord them their due. Familiarity with tools like Zoho, Thinkfree and Google Docs should be required competency for library staffers, especially where access to proprietary productivity software (e.g. Microsoft Office) is limited and in high demand. A valuable exercise would be to challenge staff to create a blog post using one of the free web-based word processors. The investment in boosting staff awareness of these tools would pay off smartly in enhanced customer service and public appreciation.