I am alive..

Christmas has been and gone
But thoughts of it remain
The recycling is full of wrapping paper
The scales report a gain

*waaah!*

We had a beach picnic for Christmas lunch - try not to be blinded by the white kauri stumps I'm displaying...
The weather wasn't perfect, overcast and some sun but we enjoyed the beach and Aunty makes a great castle construction assistant. I did get in the water but only because DS wanted a swim and I had to assist. It was quite warm actually with the tide coming in over the sand flats that had been heated by the sun.

Have managed to do some crafty stuff. Two canvases (one not shown), and some cards. Really enjoying my Stampin' Up! stamps and accessories. Thank you Rachel :)

A double LO with Stampin Up! papers and Kaiser papers. I did some paper tole on the red blooms.
Of course there are more photos of Christmas but there are only so many I can be bothered putting on a LO!

DH and I decided not to get each other anything but we did treat ourselves to a few things in the Boxing Day sales. Can't believe we were crazy enough to go to the shops along with the rest of New Zealand! But I did get a Cuttle bug font at half price so that was cool.

Better get off here and go and plant my lettuces.

Hanging on

by the skin of my teeth until I finish work Thursday afternoon.
Who knows if I will blog anything worthwhile between now and Christmas. Haven't even thought about the November Reading Round up - I think I did read something though.

The kids and I put the tree up and I took photos for the SBO challenge but never got time to make the LO for it. I'm giving up on the rest of the challenges - it's just too hard for me to get time to do it. In my more frustrated moments I consider packing up all my scrapbooking and sewing and giving it away because I despair of finding time! But... mustn't give in to self-pity.






Last week was insanely busy with work and school Christmas parties left right and centre. I did get the Christmas cake made, some chocolate panforte made for presents and on Thursday I made the Christmas pudding (aka the Scarlet w*ore of Babylon). True, I did have to get up at 1am to turn off the oven when it was cooked but it is done!

On Friday I made some gift Christmas cakes and lemon cordial. Saturday was the daycare Christmas party and Missy Moo once more demonstrated how different she is to her brother. While he clung to me like a burr, she was up on the stage boogying to the music. Even Santa didn't bother her. Here she is (in the red dress) singing about Santa Claus... he's outside ringing his bells.

I then went to find some summer clothes for the kids because DS only has about 3 pairs of shorts that fit him that don't have holes in the wrong places! And Missy Moo really doesn't fit size 1 anymore however much I try to deny the fact she is growing up. DH needed a couple of new go-to-church-shirts too; the Barkers outlet store had buy one get one half price so I managed to sort that out easily.

Saturday afternoon we went to a wedding.


DS wanted to know what it was all about.

Me: We have to get dressed to go to the wedding.
DS: Whats a wedding?
Me: It's when people get married. You know, like Mummy and Daddy did.
DS: Why?
Me: Ummm.. well, Fred and Julia fell in love and so they decided to get married.
DS: Why?
Me: *inside: aaaarggghh!! So they can't be accused of living in sin? They want to make it legal? They felt like a party?* Just get dressed okay? It's at the beach and there will be sausage rolls.

The latter mention of sausage rolls was a mistake because he then spent most of the ceremony asking me where the food was and when he could eat it.

And there were no sausage rolls.

Fortunately there were sufficient sandwiches to cope with his appetite. I think he's having a growth spurt. He ate 4 helpings of lasagne last night.

Missy Moo enjoyed the cupcakes, and they both liked the beach.





Now the lovely Rachel has kindly awarded me with this Kreative Blogger award. Thank you!


The rules for the award are this:
.
1. The winner may put the logo on their blog.
2. Put a link to the person who sent you the award.
3. Nominate 5 blogs.
4. Provide links to their blogs.
5. Leave a message for your nominees.

I'm going to have a think about this one and get back to ya!

Ostrich in action

Because I'm ignoring how much stuff I have to do before Christmas I'm here on my blog posting some photos.....

A layout of Missy Moo having a tanty in the corner of the bathroom and me making her laugh in the middle of her hissy fit.



My Dad retires this month from the University* having been there 36 years. As he said in his farewell speech, it was difficult to find many people to invite to the dinner who had been there for as long as he had! LOL! There was a nice mix of folks there from all areas of the University.

The dinner was very nice, held at Old Government House which is a lovely old building. Apparently it would cost 6 million to bring up to scratch which is such a shame because it really is a piece of history worth keeping.

My dad. He's my hero.

The dinner attendees (my mum, sister and DH and Dean of the faculty at the front table).



The menu!

* University of Auckland. I know Em, there is another uni in town these days but I still think of my alma mater as The University.

National Digital Forum

National Digital Forum

My notes from a few of the sessions I attended.
I enjoyed going along to this.  It was a last minute thing as another staff member couldn't go for the whole time and suggested I go instead.  I certainly felt energised by the whole thing and re-inspired about the whole digital content + web 2.0 thing + libraries.  (This was somewhat flattened today by some staff members quibbling about the need for IM. *sigh*)

Web Metrics

Seb Chan Powerhouse Museum, Sydney

More and more people are not going through the front page.  Google provides them with a “fire escape” entry.  This can create a problem because stat counters/log stats might not pick them up.

Some good free web metrics include:

 Google analytics

• Use for web sites, blogs etc
• Use the segmentation option
• Google trends

Feedburner

• Tracks RSS subs for blogs and podcasts
• Can report on those who just read in their feed reader

Technorati

• Measuring blogs
• Some people prefer to count how many comments they get
• Or who blogs about them

 Howsociable.com

• Scores your site in different social networking apps

Net promoter score:

% promotors - % detractors = NPS

Summary

• Set goals, segment, observe trends
• Use appropriate measurement tools
• Find benchmarks (e.g. World internet report)
• Combine quantitative with qualitative
• Visits do not equal satisfaction

http://www.archimuse.com/mw2008/papers/chan-metrics/chan-metrics.html

Seb blogs at the museum 

Useful book: Web analytics: an hour a day by Avinash Kasushik

 Open Source initiatives at Archives New Zealand

Kathy Longson Archives NZ (www.archives.govt.nz/)

• Cost effective, not necessarily free

• Adaptable and flexible
• User supported communities
• Contributed to by the community
• Enables rapid development
• Open source and open standards digital continuity

 Open Source products

• Drupal
• Used by NZ War Art (http://warart.archives.govt.nz/)
• NRAM (http://www.nram.org.nz/)
• Continuum website (http://continuum.archives.govt.nz/)
• Fedora/Fez – digital repository software ( fedoraproject.org/)
• Dspace – digital repository software (www.dspace.org)

 
Need ongoing access to expertise

• Software developers who understand your organisation are significant advantage 
  

Using Social Media

Seb Chan Powerhouse Museum, Sydney (www.powerhousemuseum.com)

 "What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

From The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams).

Lesson: When something is loved, it doesn’t stay preserved

When something is made available via social media it will not “stay preserved” but it will be real and have meaning to those who “play” with it.

Think about

• Strategy
• Measurement
• Impact on business models e.g. putting up a Youtube video about an exhibition can bring more fee paying people through your door

 The web is now about participation, not just information

• No longer web sites but web presence
• User patterns are now social not informational
• Messaging, social networks, casual gaming, multi-tasking/multi-channel
• High noise ratio

 Macarthur Typology

• http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/
• interest driven practices
• friendship driven practices - if your friend recommends it, you are more likely to follow it up

 Using social media means

• Have to give up some control
• Sharing
• Conversations
• E.g. how we share experiences today – via photos, txt, videos

 Resourcing a web presence

• Increases over time, doesn’t drop off once the ‘launch’ is over
• Community or persona “managers” needed for
• Customer service 24/7
• Doesn’t scale ( e.g. 1 to 1)

 It's quite frustrating for me to work in a place where I am one of 2-3 staff members who are interested in Web 2.0 and it's applications to libraries.  Our student base at this campus appears to be a step behind in terms of embracing social networking compared with other institutions too.

 

 

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