Twitter - Thing 27

Twitter is the newest type of internet blog. Now that I know what it is I have heard a few news stories about it. One was about a congressman who was on a top secret trip to Iraq--at least it was top secret until he twittered about it ("Now entering the green zone"). Silly. I read through the mountains of information about twitter before I signed up and I have to admit that the Twitter dictionary was the point where I quit reading. I'm not sure what to think of Twitter--is it like facebook? I don't have any friends on Twitter so I feel like I am reading mini news.
I did enjoy putting on a new background. It was not without difficulty though and I now have a kente cloth background on my computer as a result.
I have to say that I am totally ambivalent about Twitter. I liked the way that the Hibbing Public Library uses Twitter--just as an announcement board--storytime, board meeting etc. The Library of Congress twitter has some actually interesting links to articles (how big is the library of congress?) The MPR uses lots of abbreviations--might have to go back to that dictionary. Al Gore tells me that Antartica is melting and Britney Spears is having a great tour.
I still don't know how to interact with Twitter. Is there a conversation going on somewhere about the posts that I'm not aware of? I did reply to the library of congress saying "Wowee" or something lame.
I think the best use of my library twitter is to post events--Storytime Tuesday at 11:00, or information--get your MN tax forms. Not totally sure what a badge is but I do have a link from my blog to my twitter.

23 Things on a Stick Ning -- Thing 26

View my page on 23 Things on a Stick
I have been navigating around a web network called "Ning". I joined it in the first round of the 23 Things, but I haven't used it since. I was able to see a few familiar names on the site--Sue of Olivia and Patricia of CMLE. I joined the CMLE group and joined a discussion about revealing identity (I'm all for it). I also requested that Sue be my friend.
I can see some use for the discussion forums as it relates to library business. I recently received a string of e-mail from the public library division of MLA about how to handle inter library loan requests. I'm not sure that I appreciated it on my e-mail. It could have been a great Ning discussion.
I already use "Facebook" to network with friends and relatives so I don't think I need one more site for that.
As a site like Ning gets used more, it will have more value to the librarians who use it.