For Round 1 & Round 2 Participants 

Here are some hints to get ready for More Things:

1. Find those usernames and passwords—you will need them to go deeper into some of the original 23 Things.
2. Figure out a way to remember all your new usernames and passwords. Wouldn’t it be great if one worked with everything? Check out the info below for some password tools and hints.
3. Find a group of colleagues so you can all work together. Many people mentioned that it would have been more fun—and maybe faster and easier—if they had had people to work with in their library or region. If you are the only person in your library or media center, find a teacher or friend who is eager to learn new things.
4. Re-read your 23 Things On a Stick blog—this will remind you of all the fun and learning and refresh your memory on things you just touched on and haven’t used since.
5. Be sure your preferred browser is up-to-date. Web 2.0 tools may not work with older versions. 
6. Be sure to read the "For Everyone" section below, too.

For New Participants  

Welcome! It will be easier and faster for you to get into More Things On a Stick if you do these activities before January 20.

1. Read through all the original 23 Things so you get a sense of what is to come.
2. Set up a blog (instructions in Thing 1) Your URL must be unique, so be sure you follow all of the steps when creating your blog, especially checking URL availability. The blog name does not need to be unique, but consider the name carefully. Naming your blog 23 Things On a Stick is OK, but it will be confusing to us and to readers.
3. Create accounts in an RSS Reader (Thing 3. Google Reader or Bloglines), Flickr (Thing 4., and Delicious (Thing 11). More Things goes deeper into these tools so you need to be ready and understand the basics of these tools.
4. You will need a Google account, too. If you use Blogger as your blogging service, you will have a Google count.
5. Experiment with a few of the Things so you understand how Web 2.0 tools work.
6. Read some of the Thing 23 posts from Round 1 & Round 2 finishers. This will give you a sense of what you can expect to learn about Web 2.0 tools, online learning, & yourself.
7. Keep reading "For Everyone."

For Everyone 

Browsers 

We recommend that you use Firefox as your browser for More Things On a Stick. Why? In our experience, most of the Web 2.0 tools seem to work better with Firefox. Firefox also has a lot of useful extensions that are discussed in the “For the Curious” sections.  

Other browsers designed for Web 2.0 tools are the new Google Chrome and Flock. Flock is powered by Mozilla (same as Firefox) and describes itself as a “social web browser” with special features for those who blog, use a lot of photos, and frequent sites like Facebook or MySpace. Learn more here. We haven’t used these very much, but you might like to try them.  

All browsers will require a download (IE comes loaded on Windows PCs and Safari is loaded on Macs, but updates always require a download) so be sure to check with your tech people—at home or at work—before you download anything. Find downloads and updates here:

Firefox

Chrome

Flock  

Internet Explorer

Safari (now available for PCs, too) 

Opera

Need more info before you commit? Here are some reviews

of browsers and their features. Whichever browser you use—Internet Explorer, Mac’s Safari, Firefox, Opera, or another one—be sure you have the most up-to-date version. 

Toolbars

Another way to increase your Web 2.0 experience is to add custom toolbars to your browser. Since these require a download, discuss this with your tech people before you do this at work. If others use your home computer, it is a good idea to discuss any changes you might make on that computer, too.

You know that a toolbar is a horizontal or vertical row of icons or buttons that make it easy to click on the features of a particular program, service or tool. Toolbars vary with the program—Word has various toolbars for formatting your document. Firefox and other browsers have toolbars for marking favorites/bookmarks and so on.

You can customize toolbars within your browser such as Firefox or IE or you can download or create toolbars for a variety of resources.

Customizable toolbars are becoming more popular and libraries are using them more and more to increase library users’ search experience. To get an idea of how libraries are using these, see the Library Success Wiki Toolbars and Extensions article. (Scroll down) 

Watch this video for Best Web 2.0 toolbars.

Password Tools and Hints

This is the hard part of Web 2.0—almost every site requires registration and a username and password. This was probably the biggest complaint in Rounds 1 & 2. Well, I wish we could solve that problem, but you do need to be able to access your own account (think email or bank accounts—you need to get access somehow!) and your own stuff on their site. Hints:

1. Buy a tabbed address book to record your usernames/passwords. Enter the tool name under the right letter, then add your personal info. This works well, but don’t lose it!
2. Keep your passwords in a Word document on a flashdrive—you can encrypt the drive, too. But don’t lose it either!
3. Use one username and password for the tools. You can create a free email address in gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, or whatever service you like and use it only when you register for an online tool. Consider using the same password for everything—or vary it so you have a good chance in three tries to figure out what password you used. While it is not a good idea to use the same password for your bank account and your Flickr account, most likely it is OK to use the same simple, easy to remember passwords for Web 2.0 tools. Keep the complicated multi-character passwords for those bank accounts and medical records.
4. If you have a computer that only you use, you can often select “Remember Me on this Computer” and the browser will fill in the username/password boxes. Be careful, though—if you rely on this, you may not be able to remember your login info if you use another computer. And *never* do this on a public or shared computer.
5. Here is AskMetafilter's take on storing passwords. AskMetafilter is part of Metafilter a membership site. AskMetafilter that allows members to post questions and solicit answers from other members. Many librarians appear to be members of Metafilter.
6. These Web 2.0 tools allow you to store your passwords online. Be sure to read all the terms of service and other details before you use them:

• Clipperz
• KeePass 
• PasswordDragon
• MrLogin

Open ID

There are people out there trying to solve this multi-password problem by creating a way to have a single online identity that allows you to login to all your favorite sites without all the “paperwork.” Open ID is an early entry in this. Explore this option to see if it will work for you. Lifehacker conducted a poll about whether or not OpenID is confusing. Read it here. Be sure to read the comments where the discussion took place.

Once you have an OpenID, you can use it to sign in at any site that supports Open ID. Many of the “big” sites use it—Yahoo!, Google, Flickr, PBwiki, WikiSpaces, Wetpaint, and many more. Here’s a list of sites that accept OpenID—the list keeps growing. 

Actually, you already have an OpenID if you used Blogger for 23 Things On a Stick. These services’ usernames also work as OpenID. Another way to use OpenID is to connect an email address to your account—here’s how. Once you are set up with OpenID, you use the same login info for all the sites you use that accept OpenID.