imcooked.com is a useful and fun-to-use website that could be even better with a few tweeks and additions. The videos must make the cooking experience more interesting because of the added dimension and the people you'd get to meet. Also, you'd be able to see if the recipe turned out like it was intended to. If it didn't, you could probably chat with people in one of the groups to find out the reason why it didn't turn out the same way.
The search function seems to return good results and there certainly are a lot of tags for many of the recipes, which would make them easy to find. I couldn't find a way to add your own tags, though. Perhaps the person submitting the video can tag or I may have overlooked the way to add them.
One drawback I see is making the video. Most of us are far from professional videographers and it would be a challenge for us to make an attractive video of the quality people are used to from watching cooking shows on televion.
imcooked.com also,in my opinion, should include a written copy of receipes to accompany the videos without having to resort to e-mail to obtain it.
I don't see the concept of imcooked.com translating to libraries unless people wanted to create short book reviews.
All-in-all I give imcooked.com 4 our of 5 stars.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Zoho
Zoho is a pleasant surprise, although I still a few questions about some of its functions. Why would someone want to redo their last action? Undo I can understand. What do they mean by "insert layer" and what's a bookmarklet as compared to a bookmark? That said, Zoho seems good enough that I might even give up Microsoft Word for it. I am impressed with Zolo's relative ease-of-use and intuitiveness. It didn't take long to locate and learn the basic functions. It also has a rather attractive interface.
Zoho dis take a little getting use to, being a web based application. When I went to save my document,I was expecting it to ask me which location to save to!
I am not an expert on Microsoft Word, but Zoho appears to have some functions and flexibility that I couldn't find on Word, such as the capability to import more types of documents and websites. I noticed it also has support for a number of languages. Word might to, but I wasn't able to locate it. Word probably has some functions that Zoho doesn't, but I couldn't find any that I'd use.
I wish that we had Zoho when I was in school all the way from grade school through graduate school because it would have made the group projects we had to do easier more convenient and more fun.
Zoho dis take a little getting use to, being a web based application. When I went to save my document,I was expecting it to ask me which location to save to!
I am not an expert on Microsoft Word, but Zoho appears to have some functions and flexibility that I couldn't find on Word, such as the capability to import more types of documents and websites. I noticed it also has support for a number of languages. Word might to, but I wasn't able to locate it. Word probably has some functions that Zoho doesn't, but I couldn't find any that I'd use.
I wish that we had Zoho when I was in school all the way from grade school through graduate school because it would have made the group projects we had to do easier more convenient and more fun.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Wikis
"To More Powerful Ways to Cooperate" was enlightening in showing that OCLC might well be on the cutting edge of using, implementing and innovating with Wikis and other Web 2.0 software. That makes sense, as they began as a resource sharing cooperative,which is Web 2.0 at its most basic.
I was surprised that, apparently, OCLC will be opening up WorldCat as a Wiki to anyone with an internet connection. At first glance it sounds like a wonderful idea but I doubt the service will include interlibrary loans and relatively few people outside of libraries and academia would be looking for bibliographic information. I'm curious how they envison this type of wiki being used.
At the risk of being cynical,I don't see OCLC's consideration of public tagging, list creation, citation management and more as a good idea. Wikipedia is riddled with errors and the same fate would befall Worldcat, unless they have something very different in mind that doesn't effect WorldCat itself.
I learned something new from this article! I was not familiar with OpenURLs, so I did some extra reading and found out that, in the simplest terms, they are URLs with bibliographic information included about library holdings, articles and e-information.
The most interesting part of the article to me was the mention of OCLC's
cooperartion with Google in making hardcover books available in full text e-format. Also,I didn't know that Wiki archived copies of every version of each page.
The aspect of Wikis I found the most interesting was its usefulness for several people in different locations to easily collaborate to plan an event, communicate in an organization or create a community guide. Those possibilities never occurred to me.
Wikis and libraries seem made for each other. There are many possibilites in a public library to enrich your patrons' experience , as mentioned in the reading we did for week seven. Patrons could add book reviews to the catalog, groups in community could put information about themselves on the library's website, subject guides could be created and meetings could be planned. Doubtless, someone with a better imagination could think of more!
To sum this week up, I see Wikis as networked computers using specially designed software that enables the public to contribute information, possibly edit contents and communicate with others using the same website. They are dynamic, ever changing and flexible sites that can be adapted to the particular user's needs.
I was surprised that, apparently, OCLC will be opening up WorldCat as a Wiki to anyone with an internet connection. At first glance it sounds like a wonderful idea but I doubt the service will include interlibrary loans and relatively few people outside of libraries and academia would be looking for bibliographic information. I'm curious how they envison this type of wiki being used.
At the risk of being cynical,I don't see OCLC's consideration of public tagging, list creation, citation management and more as a good idea. Wikipedia is riddled with errors and the same fate would befall Worldcat, unless they have something very different in mind that doesn't effect WorldCat itself.
I learned something new from this article! I was not familiar with OpenURLs, so I did some extra reading and found out that, in the simplest terms, they are URLs with bibliographic information included about library holdings, articles and e-information.
The most interesting part of the article to me was the mention of OCLC's
cooperartion with Google in making hardcover books available in full text e-format. Also,I didn't know that Wiki archived copies of every version of each page.
The aspect of Wikis I found the most interesting was its usefulness for several people in different locations to easily collaborate to plan an event, communicate in an organization or create a community guide. Those possibilities never occurred to me.
Wikis and libraries seem made for each other. There are many possibilites in a public library to enrich your patrons' experience , as mentioned in the reading we did for week seven. Patrons could add book reviews to the catalog, groups in community could put information about themselves on the library's website, subject guides could be created and meetings could be planned. Doubtless, someone with a better imagination could think of more!
To sum this week up, I see Wikis as networked computers using specially designed software that enables the public to contribute information, possibly edit contents and communicate with others using the same website. They are dynamic, ever changing and flexible sites that can be adapted to the particular user's needs.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Web 2.0 Articles
"To More Powerful Ways To Cooperate" by OCLC's Chip Nilges is probably the most interesting and best written article of the three I read. OCLC sounds like one of the leaders in
aggressively adopting Web 2.0 philosophy, technology and principles to it's products.
Some of their ideas like list creation and sharing notes sound practical and useful, while some of the possibilities he envisions, like tagging and citation management, don't seem like good ideas to me. OCLC already has a professional subject search and I think tagging would open it up to amateur searches. If citation management means allowing the user to modify the initial citation, clearly that could spell disaster.
When I think of Web 2.0, words like sharing, customizing, tagging, cooperation, user friendly technology and social networking come to mind. These and other qualities would allow libraries to offer service that's current, enhanced, useful and more rewarding for our patrons. We've already made a good start! Web 2.0 means, if we are committed to incorporating it into the daily life of the library, we will provide enhanced and more enjoyable service for our patrons as well as keep libraries relevant and viable in our digital age.
aggressively adopting Web 2.0 philosophy, technology and principles to it's products.
Some of their ideas like list creation and sharing notes sound practical and useful, while some of the possibilities he envisions, like tagging and citation management, don't seem like good ideas to me. OCLC already has a professional subject search and I think tagging would open it up to amateur searches. If citation management means allowing the user to modify the initial citation, clearly that could spell disaster.
When I think of Web 2.0, words like sharing, customizing, tagging, cooperation, user friendly technology and social networking come to mind. These and other qualities would allow libraries to offer service that's current, enhanced, useful and more rewarding for our patrons. We've already made a good start! Web 2.0 means, if we are committed to incorporating it into the daily life of the library, we will provide enhanced and more enjoyable service for our patrons as well as keep libraries relevant and viable in our digital age.
Technorati
I am having a little trouble with Technorati and don't find it particularly user friendly. The information they have about their site is too technical for noncomputer people, I think. I did manage to claim my blog and add tags to it. Perhaps later I will try to add the widget codes they suggest to help people find your blog and find out how many people have linked to the blog.
The results from putting pbcls.org were interesting. There was such a diverse range of sites, but I shouldn't have been surprised that there were so many linked to our mouse tutorial. I'm still surprised about the links to Groundhog Day. I'm not sure how the results are ranked, though. Technorati says by freshness, but it's not clear what that means.
The results from putting pbcls.org were interesting. There was such a diverse range of sites, but I shouldn't have been surprised that there were so many linked to our mouse tutorial. I'm still surprised about the links to Groundhog Day. I'm not sure how the results are ranked, though. Technorati says by freshness, but it's not clear what that means.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
del.icio.us
Del.icio.us took me a liitle while to familiarize myself with, but the basics were rather easy. It's certainly a nice site, but I don't see it that different than an expanded and indexed favorites list.
I posted and tagged a couple wesites for PBCLS's del.icio.us's page.
If I had a lot of time, sorting through websites others have posted under a term I was interested in would be benefitial, but for now I'll mostly stick to Google.
I suppose del.icio.us could be a big aid to research, but it would probably be difficult to gage the reliability of many of the sites.
I posted and tagged a couple wesites for PBCLS's del.icio.us's page.
If I had a lot of time, sorting through websites others have posted under a term I was interested in would be benefitial, but for now I'll mostly stick to Google.
I suppose del.icio.us could be a big aid to research, but it would probably be difficult to gage the reliability of many of the sites.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Generators
I took a look at all the generatrors on the list and decided on "TV Guide Sexiest Stars" because it would let me upload a photograph. The URL for my "cover" is http://www.tvguide.com/special/sexieststars2008/covers.aspx.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
WebFeet
I grew up in Minneapolis, so that was my WebFeet search, which yielded an impressive 41,249 results. These articles covered everything from expensive condos in the Uptown area, to articles about Al Franken (Senate candidate), to light-rail plans.
The biggest surprise was how many publications were covered. They included industry-specific titles that in many cases must have a small circulation, yet at least one of the databases picked them up. Another surprise was that the Lexile level was included - I've looked at WebFeet before but hadn't noticed that.
The biggest surprise was how many publications were covered. They included industry-specific titles that in many cases must have a small circulation, yet at least one of the databases picked them up. Another surprise was that the Lexile level was included - I've looked at WebFeet before but hadn't noticed that.
Library Thing
I was surprised by how much is available on Library Thing as far as discussions about genres and actual books. It looks like a great place to go for book-related questions and recommendations and to find out which books are currently trendy. I was also surprised by how many varied groups there are and that participants also come from other countries. I also didn't know that the site offers a chance to review an early copy of a book!
The creation of your own "catalog" is surprisingly easy, but I thought they might import more information about the book, such as the publisher. I guess that isn't necessary though, and importing the cover art is a nice touch.
My library can be found at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/anninwellington.
The creation of your own "catalog" is surprisingly easy, but I thought they might import more information about the book, such as the publisher. I guess that isn't necessary though, and importing the cover art is a nice touch.
My library can be found at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/anninwellington.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
RSS Feeds
I recently became more familiar with RSS feeds, even though I have them on my iGoogle homepage. One thing I realized when doing the exercise of placing RSS tags on my Blogline page, was the difficulty of locating websites that are RSS enabled. I'm still researching ways to find them right now. One thing that surprised me is that I ended up with several RSS feeds that I hadn't selected or added.
As far as being useful for libraries, I don't know how many library related feeds there are - my guess is not many, but the technology is still relatively young. I see it a lot more helpful for people who need to keep up with current news or sports or business information.
As far as being useful for libraries, I don't know how many library related feeds there are - my guess is not many, but the technology is still relatively young. I see it a lot more helpful for people who need to keep up with current news or sports or business information.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Italian Television
We are supposed to write about something technical, so I found some information on Italian TV. Digital television is expanding rapidly in Italy. Most of the major networks offer programming through digital transmission and some offer pay-per-view events. The goal was to have digital TV available in 100% of the country by the end of 2006.
The end of analog transmission, which will require analog TVs to have a converter box, is scheduled for the end of 2012.
There are other ways to obtain your television programs in Italy. Satelilite TV has been available since 1997 and is currently provided by Sky Italia. which provides at least some of its programming in HD.
The end of analog transmission, which will require analog TVs to have a converter box, is scheduled for the end of 2012.
There are other ways to obtain your television programs in Italy. Satelilite TV has been available since 1997 and is currently provided by Sky Italia. which provides at least some of its programming in HD.
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