Some blog comments

I think I read all the blog comments, it took awhile. Some of you are very funny. I can get Polish translated. :^)

A couple comments...

1) I understand your comments about not getting access to resources such as Books 24x7 until it was late in your program. That is unfortunate. But, I can put it in perspective a bit.

First, I probably showed you the best of the best, in terms of Gartner and Books 24x7. The other resources are not as rich, and probably harder to find. All the resources for computer science students are listed on the DePaul library page we visited (where the links to Gartner and Books 24x7 are on top). I think there is a link to some IEEE papers there that may be of interest to some of you.

You probably will want to check the other subject areas on the left menu, and also other Subject Guides, such as Business. See http://www.lib.depaul.edu/eresource/subject_search.asp . The databases ABI/Informs and Business Source Elite are pretty good.

Second, you have access until shortly after you graduate, so for some of you this will be quite awhile. I have found there are too many resources, to a point where it becomes overwhelming. You end up spending more time searching than learning.

Depending on what you want, I think the vendor white paper approach is your best bet. Download the magic quadrant (there's usually a pdf), you get the industry competitors. Then, search their site for more information.

2) You probably know by now, blogging is as much an art as a science. You have to practice to get good at it. Some blog entries can be long, nothing wrong with that, if you are being comprehensive. But, sometimes it's easier to just be descriptive and point to a resource. For example, the Krugle comment about searching code worked pretty well. (You can search for it at the top of the page.)

A blog for 29 students is probably too big in scope. It is probably easier to narrow the focus to a few people with similar interests, that way you know what you are getting. Again, you need to practice.

Trust me, the payoff is worth it over time. It's too hard to find good resources, and you'll forget what you have within a month or so. If you make a blog record of worthwhile resources, you always know they are there. Over time, it saves a lot of time wasted searching.

3) I was able to crunch the numbers and record total number of posts for each of you. Your grade will be based on that, to a degree, but especially the quality of your posts. Some of you wrote very nice answers to the CMS questions, for example, so that counts substantially.

I will eventually post a final letter grade for you to COLWeb, with comments as necessary. It should take another few days.