Outside Lands San Francisco is a podcast related to the west side of San Francisco, the Sunset district, near Ocean Beach.  My dad, who is a native San Franciscan, told me about the podcast, and I am glad he did.  There are literally hundreds of podcasts, focusing on various elements of the district, all things that make me a little homesick, and also help remind me of what it was that I loved about living and being from there.
 
I listened to podcast #26, Oddities of the Avenues, which was about the buildings in the district that are somewhat of an anomaly, those that are differently structured, or larger, or are unique in some way.   I learned a lot about the region within the short 20 minutes that the podcast ran, and look forward to listening to some of the others.

At this point, the only thing that I have ready to share is a thesis I wrote in 2005, which I was able to find on WorldCat (!), but I couldn’t figure out how to link it to my Researchgate profile.  I did add some information to my RG profile, though I haven't completed it yet.  Since I am interested in working in the field of research, and support of researchers, I will need to get that populated entirely, so that I can locate some possible positions.
 
I don’t feel ready to have anything academic published, nor have I done that level of work in my LIS program thus far.  I will be creating a thesis for my MLIS, so that will be something to publish once I have decided on a topic and completed the writing.  The purpose of the publication of this item will be admission to a relevant PhD program and/or to secure a position in a special library, therefore the audience would be a selection team.  I’m looking into cultural programs related to art, so the thesis itself will be something about where art, culture, and information intersect.

I don’t give personal info to websites, and keep a gmail account (again with an alias) that I use to sign up for anything that is not official.  This keeps all my potential spam and unwanted email going to the same address, so I can look at infrequently and not miss anything important.
 
I don’t download any illegal music, movies, software, and I only connect to official wifi when outside of my home or the home of trusted friends and family.  I don’t respond to unwanted emails, and utilize a strong spam filter, so I hardly have to look at them at all.  Just once a day in case something has slipped in accidentally.
 
I use strong unique passwords for almost all sites, and I keep them in a password manager.  I recently did Tactical Tech’s Data Detox (highly recommended), which also changed my practices.  I started using Duck Duck Go, as a result, started to use a variety of blockers on my browsers.

I made my first Wikipedia edits!
 
This was an interesting endeavor, because I had to think to edit something about which I had a lot of knowledge.  I looked up County Community Schools, which took me to “Community Day Schools,” and of course, as per usual, there were errors in the description.  I made a couple of changes, and realized that there is not page for County Community Schools, so when I have more time, I will attend to the creation of this page.
 
I think it’s important to be knowledgeable about a subject before heading off to edit it in Wikipedia.  Of course, if there is no Wiki page for the item, it would be good to just make a starter page, so there is something that people can then add to.  Accuracy is important and I was happy to read that things have changed since Wikipedia’s incarnation, to include the immediacy of editing and changes to be quicker than I had previously known.  People all over the world will be looking to Wikipedia for quick information, if not more in-depth info.  If I were leading a course on wiki-editing, I would be sure to convey the importance of accuracy to my students.  However, one should not be timid when deciding whether or not to edit.  If you see something incorrect, you should fix it, provided you know the accurate information.

I’ve used Evernote in the past, but didn’t stick with it.  I don’t find the interface intuitive, and it’s a bit too busy in its layout.  I’m not sure what an equivalent would be, maybe Trello (?), but for now, I’m going to focus on Trello/Asana/etc. for my project management needs.  I feel that with Evernote, I’m just burying my information deeper into a system that’s not easy to access or use quickly.  For this thing, I’ve set up folders for job searches, and used the web-clipping tool.  This tool would actually come in handy for saving things, instead of using a bookmark, but when I downloaded “Pocket,”  I think that might actually work better.
 
Pocket is a great way to capture all of those things that I come across when researching, but just don’t have the time to read at that moment. I want to read them, so I bookmark them, but then I never go back to the bookmarks, except to clean them out, and then sometimes those items aren’t relevant or pertinent anymore, so I just end up deleting them.  Pocket allows me to save those readings, thereby uncluttering my bookmarks toolbar and bookmarks folders, and puts them all into one easily accessible spot.  I also downloaded the Chrome extension, which makes saving the item even easier.
 
I poked around a bit on “don’t forget the Milk,” and I like the interface and its features a lot.  I especially like how everything is on one screen.  I’ve gotten used to using To-Doist, because it syncs with my i-devices, and so while I do appreciate all the DFtM has to offer, I’m going to stick with to-doist.  Plus, I have a premium membership, which allows me to color-code my projects, and sync my to do list with my calendar.  I can color code with DFtM, but not sync with iCal.

My last collaborative project was a combination of virtual and face-to-face.  My school colleague and I were hired by a client to do research work for his website.  I met virtually with my colleague and face-to-face with the client.
 
We meet weekly using Zoom, a skype-like interface which allowed recording and screen sharing. We organized and communicated our project in Asana instead of email, which was convenient because it focused the project into one container, that we would check-into when we were working on that element of our day.  We considered Trello and Slack, but went with Asana, because it offer a premium edition free for the duration of our project because we were students.  It had drawbacks, and I hope to be able to try-out Slack and Trello at some point.  Something that came to mind when I was working on the project was that because our LIS program is entirely online, that our University should offer some sort of Project Management software to every student – not only for personal organization and workflow, but because it would be super-useful for all of the virtual group projects we are asked to do.
 
My experience was 100% positive, but that was entirely due to my colleague.  She was conscientious, prompt, engaging, funny, and dependable.
 
I’ve used Doodle, which is awesome and such a relief if you’ve ever been victim of an email thread where everyone lists their availability and it goes back and forth for weeks.  It’s a dream come true for schedulers, admins, meeting organizers.
 
And as an expat, Skype is a lifesaver.  I Skype regularly with relatives, which makes them feel not so far away.  I keep my work and my personal-life separate, so it’s nice to have another option (Zoom) available.

I've had a LinkedIn account for a number of years.  I don't go on very much, and think of it more as a place to check into every week or so, to see who is posting what within the organizations I'm interested in, and would like to work for.  It's also a place for me to store my resume and current work information, though I also use this website for that.

I had never heard of ORCID before, but now I have my very own identifier.  Since I am interested in research and supporting those who are also doing research, I am thrilled to find an organization more aligned with the goals and principles of my future career.

Keeping the twitter professional-like.

I like my professional twitter feed, full of museums and non-profits, and cultural orgs, and libraries.  It's an escape into sanity.