Lesson #21

I wanted to make a simple mashup using Google Maps, but I could not figure out how to get started with any of the mashup editors. The directions at Yahoo! Pipes and QEDWiki were simply too oblique to follow.
Addenda: Today (12/7), my colleague, NZ, got me started with Yahoo! Pipes.
After several fits and starts my mashup now works.
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=ZABRb_Ok3BGB7rsezKky6g

But yesterday (12/6), I chose Option Two.
At the Mashup Awards site, I looked at two global, real-time mapping sites. Filtering by category, I found "polling" with Ask500People ("Do you like your job?") and "wikipedia" with Wikipedia as it was being edited and where.
Fascinating.
On a more fun note, a very simple and award-winning mashup was Preetings. You can type a word or phrase, choose a photo, and then make a photo greeting card as in:
http://phreetings.com/trhmrr53
You can also make a photo mosiac of your Flickr photos using Mosaickr. Here is a low-resolution example:
http://mosaickr.com/free/e3926657b7e4b421ce4ba07fd23e63b665ec56d72816d7e929d2ff9f756cb25ff.jpg
In addition to these fun sites, a very complex mapping of your own musical preferences can be created at: http://musicovery.com/
You can then click to purchase your favorites songs from iTunes, ebay, or Amazon.com.
And finally, there is http://lazylibrary.com/ for folks too lazy to read a book longer than 200 pages!

Lesson #20

Using the Mashup Directory, I used the search box and found a Google Map of yard sales in Bowling Green, KY from the Bowling Green Daily News. From the Directory (proper), I looked at a Google Map of the 25 most dangerous cities in America. Each city had a more datailed cliackable map that listed police stations and after schools programs. The directory listed a total of 32 local and national crime-related mashups. I then looked at a Google Maps / Fortune mashup that listed the 25 best companies to work for in the United States.
For example, while the entire entry had much more detail, this was the headline for #19. Alston & Bird
What makes it so great?
At this 113-year-old Atlanta law firm, hourly employees get annual bonuses up to 9% of salary, an onsite center cares for 130 children, and a few years back the executive dining room was opened to the whole staff.
Headquarters: Atlanta
Top 3 (of 5) U.S. locations: Atlanta , Charlotte , New York 2005
revenue ($ millions): 395
Website: www.alston.com
It would seem that any business or service would benefit greatly from having a GoogleMaps mashup.

Lesson #19

I used the Yahoo! Podcasts directory to find the Slate Magazine Daily Podcast (at http://www.slate.com/podcast/). Given the paucity of political podcasts, especially interesting ones, I assume that podcasting will go video and explode, or continue to languish in obscurity when compared to its more popular Internet cousin: Blogs.

Lesson #18

I love the old and new music on You Tube. As far as this black & white clip goes, it is not the best version. Still, "Crossroads" by The Cream is one of my favorites.
I think that the medium would be an excellent one for information literacy and library instruction.

Lesson #17

How does the application you chose compare to word processing software you're familiar with?

Wow! At best, Google Docs seems fairly barebones to me.

What features did you like/dislike the most?

GD really feels limited and clunky. I don't know where I am on the page. Eww!

Can you think of any ways the application you chose would be useful to you or to EKU students?

No, not unless the student lacked the funds to purchase Microsoft Word for their computer.

Optional: If you're up for the challenge, try writing your blog entry in ZW or GD and then using the "publish" feature to post it to your blog.

Testing GD...

Post Publication from GD:

Awful automatic formatting. I really don't have any desire to go into html to edit the extra lines out of the post.

Ugh!

Post Blog Publication:

The URL is not lesson-17.html but

how-does-application-you-chose-compare.html

UGH!

Lesson #16

Which of these applications (if any) sound interesting to you?
Actually, the floor planner and SketchUp. While a bit clunky, these graphics applications could be very useful.
Which of them do you think EKU students might find useful?
The web annotating software might be useful to students who are using a lot of websites to write a given paper.
How important do you think it is for library staff members who work in higher education to be aware of web applications such as these?
I have no idea, but we should try to be aware of the possibility of (greater) funcationality for any of these web-based, freeware applications.

Lesson #15

Discovery Exercise:
Once you have edited or created a page, write a short blog entry about wikis.
It was fun to make a few entries on pbwiki.com software. I invited the Reference Team to edit "Favorite Restaurants," and I am eager to see what they will come up with.

How could we use a wiki in the library? At today's (8/24/07) brownbag, it was suggested that a wiki could be used as the Libraries' Intranet. Given some of the difficulties with SharePoint, that might be a really good suggestion. Another idea put forth was making a wiki of your presentations. If a number of librarians contributed, this wiki would have the potential to end up as an excellent information source. And finally, I think that wikis could work well for database reviews.

Can you think of another use for a wiki outside the library? For the creation of any document where multiple and diverse perspectives would be beneficial, a wiki could be a very good way to go. (Ex.: Brainstorming, priority setting, et cetera).

One major problem with wikis is those who have an agenda, (a financial or other interest), can edit the wiki to benefit them. (Ex.: "Electronic Voting" in Wikipedia). This could really distort what would otherwise be a superior document.