To summarise my thoughts

6 weeks and 6 new accounts... I cannot believe I'm such an avid social-networking fanatic!

I've opened a new account with Google, I've set up a blog, I've signed up for Twitter, I've registered with Diigo, I've started a Wiki and I've joined Flickr too. Such an overdose of web applications that I find difficult to digest quite honestly. But I suppose it's not about my contribution to the Web 2.0 flood of social tools, instead it's about understanding and appreciating the manifold ways to share information online.

From a healthcare provision perspective, the active and collaborative sharing of medical data can be definitely an asset. This applies to individuals seeking health information, to patients wanting to find others who are battling the same health issues and to professionals connecting to share information, network and learn from each other.

I am aware that by becoming acquainted with nowadays pervasive social media tools, we, in the Library, can increase the number of channels used to communicate with our users and we can assist them in their study or work across as wide a range of technologies as possible.

I am very grateful to the 11½ Things team for giving me an insight into the fast developing Web 2.0 world... I really enjoyed my weekly appointment with your Things.

If you liked my smiley, have a look at Smiley Generators ;-)

Examples of Wikis

I think Wikis can be useful tools especially in Higher Education. Wikis provide a space to share information but most of all to learn through group building activities. My impression is that Wikis are used more in schools and universities for such purpose. For instance I came across the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Wiki which gives space to different departments (i.e. Genetics and Genomics, Hematology and Medical Oncology, Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics).

The Institute of Child Health Library has its own Wiki to share useful information about all its resources among the library staff.

Sharing presentations

SlideShare and Prezi can be useful tools for clinicians and researchers to present medical findings, publish papers submitted at conferences and show their own works especially when diagrams, tables and pictures are required.

SlideShare is quite easy to use and to me it seems the web version of PowerPoint. In addition it shows the date of the last uploading, the categories associated to the presentation, a full range of statistics and a very useful transcript of the text contained.

• I found Trauma and Post Traumatic Stress an interesting presentation. Contents were explained in a precise and clear way and backed always by scientific data. Also the issue of copyright was addressed with the owner of the presentation claiming to have been stolen of her creation.

• Likewise I thought Journey to Transplant was a very useful presentation. It relies heavily on diagrams, tables and statistics which, in my opinion, makes the sharing of information much more effective.

Instead of traditional slides, Prezi uses a single canvas and offers a very different visual experience. As it relies heavily on visual effects - zooming, rotation, bouncing - I think it is a tool that aims more at catching the viewer's attention rather than conveying long messages or articulated findings. Perhaps that's why I could not come across real good examples of presentations with Prezi in the field of biomedicine and health.

• The best I could find is Atherosclerosis where the visual impact is kept to a minimum and the text prevails on images, videos and other art effects.

Impressions of Diigo

I felt like having a print page where you can freely highlight sentences, add notes and making comments. I think it is useful to be able to modify a web page, which normally can be only read, in a way  more similar to a Word document rather than to a fixed HTML page. However, when I opened an article in PDF format, the "highlight" function was disabled, thus reducing the utility of this tool for clinicians and researchers that heavily rely on e-journals. Also, when looking at the "bookmark" function, I was given the total number of people that had bookmarked that page before with even the exact date of the first one... Frankly, some information that I was not very interested in.

Example of a social networking site

Disaboom

Disaboom provides a wealth of information for people with disabilities. It brings together solid medical expertise and a large online network of personal experiences. I think it is a very useful social networking site. On one side it serves a vast community of people - individuals with disabilities, but also caregivers, employers, family members, teachers etc - and on the other it can assist the work of researchers, medical practitioners and clinicians.

The site covers a broad range of topics, from conditions such as arthritis and cancer, to non medical categories such as disability rights and adapted technology.

There is an integrated social networking site which allows users to start their own blog and group. There is a function to join discussions and chats. Plus there is a section where you can upload photos and even curricula vitae in order to apply for jobs. All functionalities can be browsed with no need to register first.

This seemed to me an example of social network full of relevant information for researchers and clinicians and very popular too.

Examples of blogs

Mothers in Medicine

Mothers in Medicine is a group blog created and maintained by physician-mothers. They write about health related problems affecting the two distinct patient populations they are in contact with at their workplace and at home. The sharing of the personal as well as professional stories by these doctors make the blog an interesting and useful source of medical information.

The blog uses light colours and has rather long posts with links to other social network tools. There is a continuous flow of posts, almost one per day.


The Health Hut

The Health Hut provides readers with fitness, nutrition and health tips. I think that the post about the "25 most famous hospitals in the world" is very interesting as it lists also Great Ormond Street - and the ICH Library is attached to it! However, posts are not added frequently.

The blog hosts excerpts of posts that can be read in full if clicked on them. The design is plain, the elements essential and the text rich in links.


K-International

This language blog is a collection of the best stories about languages, translation, travels and countries from around the world. Posts are added on a daily basis and they display a mixture of text and pictures. There is a useful "Search" function and several "Categories" in which the posts are grouped.

The layout is pleasant and it is very easy to navigate the blog. All the social network tools and clear contact details can be found in a section on the upper part of the screen. I liked this blog a lot.