Archive for February 2008

The Sunday Times (UK) has a helpful article compiling several etiquette guides including a section dedicated to online etiquette. If you’re unsure of the codes of behavior in Second Life, the principles of social networking in Facebook, or the standards of attributing credit to fellow bloggers, or you’d just like to be up on the latest gaming slang, you’ll want to check out this article.

Mashable tells us to forget PowerPoint in favor of 13 online presentation creators. These applications enable users to create PowerPoint-like slideshows on the Web, share them, store them, and some can even be embedded in within websites and blogs. I would add that once the slideshows are complete, they can also be uploaded to Slideshare.net to be shared and displayed in widgets on Facebook and other social networking profiles.

Also, check out Mashable’s lists of 14 online spreadsheet applications and 13 online word processors.

College Degree.com brings us 25 Awesome Beta Research Tools from Libraries Around the World which includes efforts at both academic and public libraries. The list includes prototype initiatives such as the University of Virginia Libraries’ faceted discovery tool, Project Blacklight and the Web Curator Tool project by the by the National Library of New Zealand and the British Library.

And for more betas check out Ken Varnum’s Directory of Experimental Library Tools at RSS4Lib.

The LibrarianInBlack gives us a great list of add-ons for the Firefox browser in Sarah’s Top Ten Firefox Plug-ins and Extensions, which actually provides thirteen items if you count the bonus extensions. Three from the list which caught my eye are:

• Column Bookmarks
• Autofill Forms
• Facebook Toolbar

The OEDb has created a massive list of 100 educational podcasts, walking tours, and reference resources available to load onto your iPod. They have divided this list of educational tools into the following categories:

• Study Guides
• Podcasts and More
• Tutorials
• Applications
• More Downloads
• Classroom Help
• iPod Learning Support
• Tools and Sites
• iTunes U
• Miscellaneous

The New York Times reports that faculty members at Harvard University will be voting today to decide whether or not to distribute their scholarly articles on the Web in an open-access repository which would make them freely available. Today’s decision will apply to Harvard’s arts and sciences faculty.

“In place of a closed, privileged and costly system, it will help open up the world of learning to everyone who wants to learn,” said Robert Darnton, director of the university library. “It will be a first step toward freeing scholarship from the stranglehold of commercial publishers by making it freely available on our own university repository.”

The MySpace social network has added a Games area of its website community which offers single and multiplayer Flash games, the ability to add games to profiles, and to chat with other gamers. These casual games can all be quickly learned and played and include such titles as Mah Jong, Jewel Quest, Backgammon, Sudoku, etc.

via TechCrunch

Those of you who blog using Google’s Blogger platform will want to check out these Top 10 Blogger Hacks and Tips. This article provides instructions for how to customize your blog site. Some of the standouts include:

• How to remove the Blogger bar from the top of the page
• How to add a Recent Comments module along your sidebar
• How to use your domain name instead of a blogspot address
• How to add instant messaging
• How to use Feedburner

The LifeDev blog has compiled an annotated guide of 25 Firefox extensions for productivity. Here are their top five picks:

1. Autocopy
2. Better Gmail
3. Better GReader
4. No Squint
5. Remember the Milk for Gmail

The New York Times has coverage of the recently released Microsoft Popfly, a mashup creator for the non-programmer. Similar to Yahoo! Pipes and Google Mashup Editor tools, Popfly has gained over 100,000 users and 50,000 mashups.

“The Popfly programmers, however, have gone a step further in an effort to design a tool that is intended for a generation of Web users who are familiar with the Internet but are not skilled programmers.

A user might take Popfly and mash up his list of Amazon book recommendations with the Seattle Library book catalog on the Web, he said, and receive a notification when the waiting list for a particular book was down to zero.”

via Social Media

According to a comScore Video Metrix report, nearly 141 million U.S. Internet users watched more than 10 billion videos online during the month of December 2007. The report measured actual video viewing, rather than simply website visitation. Google websites ranked highest for the most videos viewed with their YouTube property accounting for 97% of those viewers.

via WebbAlert

Both Tame the Web and Web Worker Daily have coverage of the new Google Apps Team Edition which enables groups of students or co-workers to share and collaborate using:

• Google Docs
• Google Calendar
• Google Talk
• Google Start Page

With team edition, collaborators can:

• Work on the same document together, instead of sorting out changes in attachments
• Share documents and calendars securely with your co-workers/classmates with a click
• Arrange meetings, set schedules, and publish event information.
• Instant message and make PC-to-PC voice calls for free.
• Access it all from any computer, and even from mobile phones
• Find others from your organization who are using Team Edition and invite them to share with you

These are my upcoming presentations and classes for the next few months, drop me a line if you’ll be nearby or attending.

Feb 26 – Social Bookmarking Complete at Metropolitan New York Library Council (NYC)

Mar 22 – Card Sorting A-Z at Simmons College (MA)

Mar 28 – Social Software in Academic Libraries at New York Public Library (NYC)

Apr 7 – Beyond Libraries: Industries Using Hot Tech at Computers in Libraries 2008 Conference (D.C.)

Apr 7 – Industry Learnings & Libraries at Computers in Libraries 2008 Conference (D.C.)

Apr 8 – Drupal & Libraries at Computers in Libraries 2008 Conference (D.C.)

Apr 12 – Tagging, Folksonomies, and Libraries at ABQLA Conference (Montreal)

Apr 25 – Online Community at Hartford Public Library (CT)

Apr 28 – Technology Solutions Planning at Metropolitan New York Library Council (NYC)

Apr 29 – Web 2.0 for Librarians and Information Professionals at Education Institute (Online)

May – June – Web 2.0 for Information Professionals Course at Pratt Institute SILS (NYC)

Jun – Aug – Web 2.0 Course at San Jose State University SLIS (Online)

Jun 17 – Libraries and the Hive Mind at Metropolitan New York Library Council (NYC)

Aug – Social News Course at Long Island University, C.W. Post Campus (NYC)

There may be a few more Mac users out there following last month’s release of the MacBook Air. If you’re a new Mac user, here are a few resources to get you going:

7 Tools for Easing the Switch from a PC to a Mac

Moving from Windows to a Mac? 16 Ways to Get Up to Speed

Top 100 Mac Apps

Top 100 Essential Mac Applications

Jimmy Atkinson at the WHDb blog has created a mammoth list of quality open source programs in his Top 50 Proprietary Programs that Drive You Crazy — and Their Open Source Alternatives. The resources are divided into helpful categories including:

• Basics
• Office Suites
• Office Tools
• Productivity
• Graphic Programs
• Web Editors
• Publishing
• Communications
• Media
• Utilities
• Security
• Financial