Task Force on Social Networking Software

Interested in current and emerging mobile technologies, mobile device initiatives, useful mobile software applications, & funding options? Tune into Cut the Cord: Connecting to our Mobile Users, MLA’s November Educational Webcast, November 18, 2009, 1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m. CST and earn 2 hours of CE credit.

Registration opens September 1st, 2009.
Detailed information is now available here.

Wolfram|Alpha, Google Squared, now Bing, what’s up with all the new search engines?  If you are unsure what all of these search engines are about or just what to know what the differences are, check out this blog post from the Disruptive Library Technology Jester blog.  About halfway down there is this great YouTube Video which does a good overview of each and how they compare.

Bart

Facebook announced this week that that it has begun making status messages, photos and videos visible to the public at large by default instead of being visible only to a user’s approved friends. An article in the Technology section of the NYT examines the implications.

It will be interesting to see whether Facebook uses your public updates for good (free message search API for developers) or evil (selling your updates to marketers). As my coworker observes, “I don’t think it will matter. Someone will hack into it and steal all our identities first.”

PC World has a recent article with some tips on how to make your Facebook profile more private. What privacy tips do you have?

(Mine: get work to block Facebook so you don’t have to worry about it.)

Ever feel contrained by the need to be connected to some server or service on the Web?  In this hi-tech hi-speed digital world Mark Funk asked us to Only Connect.  Do i really need a middle man to negotiate the process.

The Opera browser is challenging the notion that servers and the owners of servers need to mitigate the process.  Check out this short video.

Read more at http://unite.opera.com/

 

I just watched Google Video Presentation on their new experiment call Google Wave.  So with MLA and vacation I hadn’t checked my RSS feeds for awhile so I felt a little behind. This morning I opened up my RSS reader excited to hear what everyone had to say and to my surprise there was amazingly little chatter about Google Wave.  Maybe I’m wrong here, but about 10 social networking light bulbs went off when I watched the video. Heck I watched the entire 120 minutes video and I never do that! 

So if you don’t know about Google Wave please consider this:

• It’s being developed by the people that worked on Google Maps (and we all like that)
• Email was developed 30 years ago and based on a paper system.  Google Wave is based on how you would design email in today’s social world.
• It’s like merging IM, email, Wikis, Blogs, and any other collaboration tools into one place.
• Google wants developers to develop which means its useful application will grow much like the iPhone. 
• It’s another step towards Software as a Service and Cloud Computing.

 

 

So before you think I have stock in Google (and I don’t) there are going to be plenty of problems with Google Wave.  All I’m saying is check it out.  The concept is pretty darn cool and I’m sure we will see aspects of this in our Web in the near future.  The two readings below provide a great overview of the pros and cons.

Some interesting reads:

Google Wave: What Might Email Look Like If It Were Invented Today?
http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/05/google-wave-what-might-email-l.html

Debating the power of Google’s Wave
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10256471-2.html

This Time article, Facebook’s Big Move Toward the AfterWeb,  is very interesting.  The Facebook part is interesting enough, however the portion on Adobe Air and the afterweb is relevant for libraries.  Personally I have always doubted the usefulness of Facebook in libraries.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen some good library sites in Facebook, I’m just not sure that our patrons want us in their space.  What I do feel is useful is to leverage the power of Facebook and other social networking resources.  If we can develop apps for Facebook and mash this up with local data using something like Adobe Air, now we are talking!

Bart

Every wonder where the collective intelligence of Flickr might lead?  Check out this TED Talk “Blaise Aguera y Arcas: Jaw-dropping Photosynth“.  The first part is visually very cool, but make sure you watch the video around the 4 minute mark.  You’ll see how the collective memory of Flickr can be drawn upon to create 3D links between all images and allow one to dive in and out of the Notre Dame Cathedral all based on user tags.

Well, it had to happen.  With a product as good as Jing, TechSmith is ready to try and make some money off of it.  The good news is that the free version is still free.  If you don’t know the product, Jing is a screencapturing tool that allows you to grab images or even video of any action you perform on your computer.  It even gives you some server space to easily upload your captures. I’ve found a lot of uses for it in my job.

The for fee version, called Jing Pro, promises to provide better video quality,  smaller files sizes, direct uploads to YouTube, and no Jing logos.  It costs $14.95 per year so it’s not cost prohibitive.  It looks like the storage capacity at screencast.com is still the same 2 GB and I would have like to see that increase.   I also did not like that Jing (which loads when I start my computer) took possession of my desktop to tell me about the new version. Bad TechSmith Bad!

You can check out either version at http://www.jingproject.com/.

If you want to learn more about Jing and how it might help you in your job, just wait for my next post or check out the next MLA-Focus. There is going to be a free learning opportunity for MLA members concerning Media Sharing very soon.  Hint Hint – Jing just might be involved.

Bart

Check out this short video by Jesse Dylan about Science Commons, a Creative Commons sister project encouraging an easier way for scientists to share and distribute upstream data.

Science Commons’ goal is to “speed the translation of data into discovery — unlocking the value of research so more people can benefit from the work scientists are doing.”

Science Commons projects include:

• NeuroCommons, a project seeking to integrate a number of existing public databases inlcuding MeSH, Medline and other Entrez resources. (Currently there is no user interface, but plenty of back-end documentation.
• Health Commons, “where a researcher will be able to order everything needed to replicate a published experiment as easily as ordering DVDs from Amazon.”

(Still wondering about Creative Commons? Consider this: Barack Obama’s Presidential transition website Change.gov was put under Creative Commons in November.)

(And yes, Jesse Dylan is related to that folk singer.)

A new data memo from Pew Internet & American Life Project looks at barriers to technology use in their report “When technology fails.”

According to the press release:

• 44% of those with home internet access say their connection failed to work properly at some time in the previous 12 months.

• 39% of those with desktop or laptop computers have had their machines not work properly at some time in the previous 12 months.

• 29% of cell phone users say their device failed to work properly at some time in the previous year.

Also, younger cell phone owners are significantly more likely than seniors to have their
cell phones break, and men were found significantly more likely than women to fix gadget problems by themselves.  Read the full report here.