This week I explored various video hosting sites and learned how to add a video clip to my blog post. I began by going to YouTube to select a video. I chose Lolly Lolly Lolly get your adverbs here. I spent many a Saturday morning, in the 1970's, watching cartoons on ABC. The Schoolhouse Rock segments were some of my favorites. I wish I could say the entire process was easy...but it was not. Following the instructions we were given, once in Blogger, I selected the edit html tab & pasted the code in the window. I then selected the compose tab and attempted to type my comments. Not only did I have problems adding my comments, unbeknownst to me, the entire code wasn't being displayed. After much frustration, I consulted with a much younger colleague, who advised me to paste the code into a word document and copy it again. Finally, on my third attempt I got it to work. Below is my video. Enjoy the clip:
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
Mashups
This week I had an opportunity to explore Mashups & 3rd party sites. As defined by Wikipedia, a mashup is a website or application that combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience. The sites I examined all used Flickr images in their mashups. The first site I looked at was Mappr, which takes photos that have been uploaded into Flickr, and if they have been tagged with place names, sticks them on a map of the United States. Very handy, if a user is trying to locate photos from a certain region or area.
The next site I explored was Flickr Color Pickr. This mashup allows the user to select a specific color and then view groups of pictures in that particular hue.
Finally, I looked at FD Toys’ Trading Card Maker. This is a mashup that allows users to create their own customized trading cards using digital photographs.
Of the three mashup sites I explored, I would have to say that Mappr appeared to be the most useful, but the Trading Card Maker was the most entertaining.
The next site I explored was Flickr Color Pickr. This mashup allows the user to select a specific color and then view groups of pictures in that particular hue.
Finally, I looked at FD Toys’ Trading Card Maker. This is a mashup that allows users to create their own customized trading cards using digital photographs.
Of the three mashup sites I explored, I would have to say that Mappr appeared to be the most useful, but the Trading Card Maker was the most entertaining.
Flickr & Tagging
This week I had an opportunity to continue exploring the site Flickr. As stated before, Flickr is a photo-sharing website that allows users to store digital images and organize them using tags. Although there are many photo-sharing sites, Flickr is by far one of the most popular and widely used. Flickr probably owes its’ immense success to their thriving Web 2.0 community. Other users can view your pictures and add comments, and contacts can be given permission to organize your photos. Also, users can create groups and these groups can host discussions. Besides offering opportunities for users to collaborate and network with one another, Flickr also offers a wide range of nifty features, like tagging. In addition to allowing searchers to find images on a certain topic or subject matter, Flickr also provides tag clouds, which give users access to images tagged with the most popular keywords. Other features include, RSS feeds, geotagging, photo streaming, slideshows, and the list goes on.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Flickr
This week I had an opportunity to begin exploring the site Flickr. Flickr is a photo sharing website that allows users to store digital images and organize them using tags. I began my exploration by first taking a guided tour of the Flickr site and learning about the various tools it offers. After looking around a bit, I selected an image to blog about and post. The image I chose was a photo of a road sign for the small, Bavarian town of Neu-Ulm. I selected this particular image because back in the late 1970’s, my family lived there for three years, (my father was in the Army, and was stationed there). That sign brought back many memories of my life as an adolescent in Germany. After choosing a photograph, I saved the image to my U: drive, then went to my blog and uploaded the picture.
Web 2.0 Awards
This week I had an opportunity to learn more about the Web 2.0 Awards list. The Web 2.0 Awards were created by the company SEOmoz, who reviewed hundreds of sites and then rated and ranked them. Honors were awarded in 41 different categories.
As instructed by the Discovery Exercise, I selected a few of the sites on the list and explored them. The first site I chose was Healia. Healia is a consumer health search engine that allows the user to find high quality & personalized health information on the web. The next site I reviewed was Guess-the-Google, a fun game in which the player guesses which Google search term returned the images that are displayed. Finally, I tried the site Biblio.com. Biblio.com is a marketplace for used, rare and out-of-print books.
Out of the three sites I explored, Healia & Biblio.com were probably the ones that would prove most useful in a library setting. However, I found Guess-the-Google to be the most entertaining.
As instructed by the Discovery Exercise, I selected a few of the sites on the list and explored them. The first site I chose was Healia. Healia is a consumer health search engine that allows the user to find high quality & personalized health information on the web. The next site I reviewed was Guess-the-Google, a fun game in which the player guesses which Google search term returned the images that are displayed. Finally, I tried the site Biblio.com. Biblio.com is a marketplace for used, rare and out-of-print books.
Out of the three sites I explored, Healia & Biblio.com were probably the ones that would prove most useful in a library setting. However, I found Guess-the-Google to be the most entertaining.
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