23 Opportunities for Mashing up my Mind

Resentment of 23 Things is building within some folks around me. I listen to some of my peers as they race through their Things. Their goal is to get through their Things as quickly as possible. They are busy people. They have a lot of things to do besides Things. They grumble, they resent the time. I am sad. I think, they are missing an opportunity here. They have a choice. They can resist having to do Things, or they can welcome this chance to learn someThing new. So if you are one of those people, before you continue on your quick, efficient path think about this. Just as you can look at an optical illusion and see it one way one moment, and then other way the next, I would like you to try to think differently about 23 Things.

The Pikes Peak Library District is offering to pay you to learn about what is going on on the cutting edge of technology. Are you going to look this gift horse in the mouth? Do you think it doesn’t apply to you? Ok, so most of us know nothing about the concept of Web 2.0 or mash-ups. But do you really think that this stuff is going to become less part of the world we live in? All this stuff that the Things are made of is only going to become more embedded in our society, not less. We are learning about the stuff on the tip of the technology iceberg. This shouldn’t be stuff that we learn about and forget, moving on to the next item on our list. This is stuff that is part of our daily lives and will continue to build around us. Are you ready to throw in your technology towel and draw the line in the sand right here? This is all you want to know? Well, not me. This is an opportunity to try to understand how our world is changing and the direction it is going. Reach out and take the opportunity. They’re paying you to do it, for Pete’s sake.

Case in point, what I learned in Thing 6. What exactly does the concept of Web 2.0 mean? I had never heard of it before. So I looked it up on Wikipedia and what I think I learned is this. The web used to be an “information silo”, a place where information was kept and available for access. It still is, but now it is so much more. Introducing the concept of “Web 2.0”. Although the web technology hasn’t really changed, the way people are using it has. Now people look to the web for more than just information. They expect the web to be interactive. They want to be able to take the information and “mash it up” with other information on the web and make a whole new tool that everyone on the web can use. They want to collaborate. They want to add what they know to someone else’s knowledge (thus, wiki’s and blogs). Face it, folks. The way people are using the web is changing, and we’re not going back to the information silo days. We’re moving forward. Wanna come along? Or do you want to stop right here, knowing that as the years go by you will understand less and less about what people around you are talking about. Wow! What an opportunity for lifelong learners! You get out of this what you put into it! Don’t blow it.