For those who work in higher education and want to get into podcasting, take a look at this lengthy article from Educause Review. While you’re at it, grab the RSS feed for the publication, as Educause puts out some great content. (link via j’s scratchpad)
This is pretty slick, and, if developed well, could be huge. Kaboodle allows you to easily create favorites lists, with a Flickrish type style. After creating a public or private Kaboodle, you can customize everything that is displayed and the order in which they appear. Anyone can comment on each entry on the list.
I’ve created a quick list of librarian blogs that I love. You can also invite others to add items to the lists. Again, slick.
What is Kaboodle missing? RSS feeds for each list so that I can be notified when a list gets updated. Follow along with the development on their blog.
About Altered Books:
“Cut the bindings off of books found at a used book store. Find poems in the pages by the process of obliteration. Put pages in the mail and send them all around the world. Lather, rinse, repeat.”
Lots more poems on the blog, some beautifully written, others aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Warning: Very addicting. Also, a reminder: please don’t do this to library books!
I have a new favorite blog and it’s not (GASP!) library related. I scored it off of Howard Rheingold’s del.icio.us tags (which I was shocked to find out only 20 or so subscribers in Bloglines) and have been in blog reading-heaven since 10:00PM tonight with archive perusal.
The blog is the work of Irving Wladawsky-Berger who is Vice President, Technical Strategy and Innovation at IBM Corporation (Doesn’t he look like Ben Stein?). Dr. Wladawsky-Berger talks about innovation in IT on his blog and focuses on one of my favorite topics: Social Networks. More importanlty, he discusses how new forms of social networks and collaboration affect communities and businesses. Thus, a must read in my aggregator (I actually felt a gasp of appreciation from Aggie after I subscribed – I have a feeling that she likes this type of thing).
About a week ago, Dr. Wladawsky Berger wrote about Jams (A new word in my social networking lexicon), which he describes as the following:
“A Jam is a massive online discussion, where people contribute their ideas, and build on each other’s ideas in a kind of structured conversation, under the guidance of subject-matter experts and moderators. After the Jam is completed, extensive analysis is used to produce insight into the perceptions and priorities of the Jam participants, and to develop action plans out of their multiplicity of perspectives.”
OK, I’m hooked, and the Web 2.0 community should be too, because many of the tools that are being created could be enhanced in a Jam-type environment. Think of all of the new tools that you have been looking at over the past few months. A few examples include Air Set (I’ve actually been using this one and love it – I have heard from the guys there that they will be enhancing the product soon), which can be used to form online groups and collaborate within those groups and Meebo, the best IM web-client in the business. Incorporating the Jam theory into these clients might increase their use by those other than us geeks. More from Dr. Wladawsky-Berger:
“Jams are a genuinely new medium, enabling a new kind of mass collaboration and problem-solving that will now be applied to critical urban issues, such as improving the lives of people living in slums; access to water; environmental sustainability; safety and security; finance and governance; and the future of our cities.”
This is where I think Web 2.0 tools can be made to enhance not only our work lives, but to build social capital, and thus, actually have a positive effect on the phycial world. Study after study has shown that social capital increases individual happiness, reduces crime, and creates stable communities (I’m simplifying, but take a look at the seminal book in this area, Bowling Alone). I’m really excited about learning more about Jams and will try my hardest to take part in HabitatJam, although I will be attending a social networking conference in Jersey City at the same time (irony duly noted). One last quote from Dr. Wladawsky-Berger:
“The world is full of seemingly insoluble problems such as energy, the environment, war, poverty and urban sustainability. These problems are so complex, so seemingly intractable, that it is easy to be dismayed — and maybe to be cynical and dismissive of initiatives like Habitat Jam. But on the other hand, we have never had capabilities like the Internet and Jams that can reach out to the full scope of humanity — across boundaries of nation, class, race, language, economic status, education and culture — to engage in a population-scale dialogue with others around the world and uncover innovative answers through our collective wisdom. Such new and powerful capabilities should give us reasons for hope, and encourage us to get involved and do what we can to help improve our world.”
Web 2.0 community. I urge you to step up the plate and create Jam worthy tools and initiatives for us to take part in. Collective wisdom works (Wikipedia is the best example of this) and Web 2.0 tools and resources push the collective intelligence envelope further. Sure, we can manage our grocery lists easier, share books and music files that we have read and listened to, set up reminders, while we tag and tag and tag and tag. But what should be more important is how we can leverage these tools for the benefit of everyone.
I’m going to try to read more about Jams (which is taken from the definition of musicians getting together and playing with their hearts and without pre-written sheets) and how the library community can use them to build communities. This is amazing stuff.
This was bound to happen. Take a look at Web 2.0 Bingo. I think I’ll print out a bunch of these and have attendees play the game along with my presentation. (link via Adam Kalsey)
Michael Arrington just posted a note on TechCrunch that the Web 2.0 Workgroup has now reached 20 blogs. I guess 20 is one decimal place away from 2.0 so its significance is worth noting.
I am thrilled to be part of this workgroup and hope that we get more members added as these exciting new times progress. I’d also love to see some sort of open Web 2.0 community. Maybe we can get the help of the folks from Rollyo or Scoopgo to help out. Guys?
I have about 4 new tools to review and I’ll try to get to them all within the next 24 hours. First up, Trend Sweet Trend (TST). TST takes Livemarks (which is so addicting that I don’t allow myself to load it unless I have at least 10 minutes to kill) data and creates colored tables based on popularity trends. (Livemarks gets data from del.icio.us – follow me?). TST is a quick way of gaging which popular bookmarks are rising and falling in the past 9 hours.
I know. It needs to be RSS enabled. David Sterry, the man behind this project, has mentioned to me that he’s open to creating feeds. I’d really love to see that.
On another note, I’d love to see a Livemarks tool based on the most popular tags (and maybe related tags) So, for all the bookmarks for the keyword ‘library’, give me a live real-time page to look at. And, of course, use TST to show trends.
As of 8:34PM EST, there are 40 trading cards in the pool. Remember to tell your colleagues and let’s try to make this thing as large as possible…as a collective group. Unlike the Librarians With Giant Calculators meme at Internet Librarian, this one is open to all who want to create their own, not restricted to those whose pictures were taken by a select few.
If you want to follow along with the new cards that are being added to the pool, grab the feed. Should we have a goal in mind? How about 200 librarian cards?
Welcome to the Carnival folks. Step right up and read some special posts from around the library blog world.
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Joy Weese Moll of the Wanderings of a Student Librarian blogs about “an idea, inspired by The Cluetrain Manifesto, to offer backstage tours instead of ordinary library orientation tours.
The Krafty Librarian gives her thoughts on Cheryl Banick’s Library Journal article, Libraries: How can we ensure that small medical libraries continue to provide good medicine? In these changing times what are the four biggest threats to hospital libraries and how can librarians combat them.
Chris Deweese blogs: “While at the session today, I heard a recurring theme. People needed tools that would help them circumvent their IT departments restrictions. Why is this so?”
Amanda J. Robertson blogs about calculating the value of knowledge management and blogging in academia replying in an article in Slate.
Eli on the closing…well “downsizing (basically the elimination) of the News Research Library at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.” – and a follow-up.
Meredith celebrates her “blogoversary” and explains how much she has done in just one year. Congrats Meredith!
Library Clips discusses the 4 stages of RSS Anxiety.
Rochelle Hartman on Google fatigue.
And, if you haven’t created your library trading card yet…get over there!
The Carnival is off next week. Send your entries to Rochelle for her entry on December 5th.
Last week, I mentioned Instant Domain Search, as a quick and easy way to look up domains. This evening, Aggie sent me AjaxWhois, a similar tool. Not only will it check for availability of any domain, but it will provide you with other suffix options and you can check the ownership directly from the site.
I love Instant Domain Search for its ability to locate domains in real-time as I type them in, AjazWhois does a bit more in terms of reach and “Ajaxiness” and quick information providing (Hey, I’m a librarian!). You can also follow along with the development of AjaxWhois on their blog.
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