23 Things of the Past

Well...I've arrived! 23 Things is now a thing of the past. It certainly feels good to accomplish everything. And with two weeks to spare! (Too bad finishing early doesn't increase your prize-winning potential. :o) )

As for my reflections... My general impression of 23 Things is fairly high. I think the tasks were, for the most part, useful and relevant. I've had several patrons ask me questions about Flickr or YouTube, and it's nice to feel more confident in my answers. I will not be surprised if patrons ask about quite a few of the things we've journeyed through. However, some of the activities were more tedious and less likely, I think, to be a source of patron inquiry. Perhaps my least favorite thing was the RSS feeds. Maybe it came more naturally to others, but frankly, I find RSS feeds a pain. I did what I had to do for the Thing, but I didn't enjoy myself. Nor do I see myself returning to RSS on my own time. Ever. But that's just me.

More practically than my thoughts on the individual tasks, I am not sure the program of 23 Things was structured as well as it could have been. I happen to be full-time, and have a generous amount of off-desk time. It was easy for me to donate an hour here and there of my precious off-desk time to completing these 23 Things, but I don't think there is a single other person in my entire branch who would feel the same way. 23 Things is very, very time consuming. Unless you have earned your own personal WIZ award in technological savvy, you simply cannot get through these things quickly. Even those who aren't completely helpless on computers want and need more time to complete Things. The tasks are interesting and important, and I think we all want to understand them well...not just slide by with completing the task just enough to qualify for a prize. I'll admit, I did that several times, but it is not my ideal. No, I'm not asking for 23 Hours per Thing, but I do know some people struggled to even complete one Thing in the one hour during the week they have allotted to spend.

I don't know how it could have been different, really. Though one coworker did say she thinks it unfair that 40 hour employees are competing for the same prize as 20 or less hour employees. This is a valid point. I am able to spend the time to get the tasks done, but my 15 hour coworker is not. Is it fair that I am now in the running for the laptop, but my coworker may not be simply because her hours are less? Or, perhaps my coworker will choose to do 23 Things at home. But therein, again, lies the question of fairness. I get paid to do 23 Things, and I'm in the running for a prize. My coworker may be eligible for the prize after completing 23 Things at home, but she has used personal time to do so and has not gotten paid for it.

These are just some practical concerns on the project. Like I said before, though, overall I think the experience was valuable and useful. I am not one to "surf the net" in my spare time, so this program introduced me to a wide variety of things I would never have otherwise known about. I think it's a wonderful idea, and I appreciate the hard work of those behind it. If PPLD were to repeat the program, I'm sure there would be some tweaking. The tweaking is necessary, I think, but it should be fairly simple. (I hope...obviously I'm not the one coordinating these things!) So yes...should PPLD offer this again, I would probably go through it all and attempt to learn as much as possible!

So thank you to those of you who've worked so hard to make 23 Things possible! It has been a good and informative experience for me!