Archive for the Category ◊ social web ◊

How to get the most out of Twitter #hashtags
Thursday, May 21st, 2009 | Author:

twitterhash Hashtags are keywords added to a Tweet starting with a “#”. Simply put, it’s a way to tag your twitter posts. Mashable has a great article detailing how to make the most of hashtags which highlights identifying, tracking, using and organizing hashtags. Sites and services pointed out include Twubs, Tagalus, and Tweetgrid among others.

Category: social web, twitter  | Leave a Comment
Finally, free anti-virus for libraries
Monday, May 18th, 2009 | Author:

I’ve been playing for the last week with Panda Cloud Antivirus and so far I’m impressed. It works differently than your standard AV program as it relies on the cloud for continuing updates and has a very small memory footprint. Additionally, and maybe more importantly, I can find nothing on the Web site that indicates that a library would be breaking a license agreement for using it. (As happens with many other AV programs with both free and pay-for versions.) Check out this video from Panda for a more complete description and they try ditching that expensive AV subscription.

<a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/youtube.com/watch?v=0-JfW4Ut8kg&amp;hl');" href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=0-JfW4Ut8kg&amp;hl">http://youtube.com/watch?v=0-JfW4Ut8kg&amp;hl</a>

Additional notes: Panda Cloud Antivirus will not install on 64-bit versions of Windows. Also, be sure to uninstall any other AV programs before installing this one. (In fact, on my computers this installation even uninstalled my old AV program for me, but you should make sure first.) Lastly, be sure to subscribe to the blog after you become a user.

Category: anti-virus, social web, software  | Leave a Comment
Twitter and the News
Friday, May 15th, 2009 | Author:

Category: social web, twitter, video  | Leave a Comment
Keep Me Out
Monday, May 11th, 2009 | Author:

image Do you find yourself visiting particular Web sites a little too often? Sure, checking Facebook while at work is generally considered ok these days but 10 times in a hour may be just a smidge too often. If you find yourself in such a situation try keepmeout.com. Just enter the URL of the site in question, set a time period in which you shouldn’t be visiting that site more than once and click submit. Lastly, replace your bookmark to the site with the new URL you’ve been given. Now, if you use that bookmark a little to often, you’ll be warned that you’re doing so.

Category: social web, Web tools  | Leave a Comment
Who am I? Search me.
Monday, April 27th, 2009 | Author:

Imagine the love child of a vanity search engine and iTunes’ cover flow feature. If you can picture that, you can picture searchme. Just enter your name, or someone else’s, and search. (You can also limit by such options as blogs, shopping, libraries, and others.) Your results will be displayed, and browseable, in a very iTunes-esque way. I’ve tested it on myself and I was impressed. It even found a few sites I had accounts with that I’d forgotten about.

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Category: searching, social web  | Leave a Comment
What are people doing online and who's doing it
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 | Author:

Today just a simple chart from Business Week. Here’s a snippet of the chart. Click for the full version.

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Category: social web  | Leave a Comment
Imagining a Smithsonian Commons
Friday, April 03rd, 2009 | Author:

I’m back from Computers in Libraries 2009 and I’ve got a lot to share. The first is Wednesday’s keynote talk from Michael Edson, Director of Web and New Media Strategy at the Smithsonian Institution. It was streamed live online (a first for CIL) and was recorded. Listen to him and then go read all the books he mentions in his talk. (I’ve read all but one of them and I’m on the list at LCL for it now.)

Online TV Shows by Ustream

He also put up a text version of his presentation in SlideShare. I’ve embedded it here for you.

CIL 2009 Michael Edson (text version)
View more documents from edsonm.
Category: Conference, creativecommons, social web, video  | Leave a Comment
Track Congress via RSS
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 | Author:

logo_opencongress Wondering what you’re senator or representative has been up to lately regarding voting on legislation? Interested in tracking a certain bill or all bills on a certain topic? Check out OpenCongress.org. Enter your zip code to find your federal legislators or search of a certain bill and then subscribe to the related feed. Then, when something happens in Congress, you’ll know about it. Beyond the RSS features, you can also personally vote on bills and participate in online conversations. The powers-that-be may not read the results but it’s an interesting way to get to know what others feel about the issues at hand.

Category: government, social web  | Leave a Comment
Better Twitter new subscriber e-mails
Monday, March 09th, 2009 | Author:

image Admit it, the e-mail that Twitter sends you when you have a new follower pretty much sucks. To find out anything about your new follower you have to go off to Twitter itself before you make the follow-back decision. Instead, you can set up your Twitter account to use twimailer. Once you’ve signed up and changed the necessary settings, your new e-mails will contain the new follower’s avatar, the number of followers they have and the number they follow. Also, the e-mail will contain their last ten tweets and a simple follow back link. This is what Twitter e-mails always should have been.

Category: social web, Web tools  | Leave a Comment
Nebraska Learns 2.0 Wrap-Up
Tuesday, March 03rd, 2009 | Author:

Nebraska Learns 2.0, Nebraska’s version of the popular “23 Things” online learning program originally developed by Helene Blowers at the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, officially wrapped up on January 30, 2009. The intent of the 16-week program, which kicked off on October 6, 2008, was to encourage participants to learn about emerging technologies on the web that are changing the way people, society and libraries access information and communicate with each other.

When beginning the program participants were each required to create a blog and register its URL with program coordinators. During subsequent weeks, participants were prompted to experiment with and blog about a number of new technologies and tools, including instant messaging, RSS, Flickr, LibraryThing, Twitter, Delicious, Slideshare, wikis, YouTube, and podcasts.

In total, 165 participants registered blogs and began the program. During the ensuing 16 weeks they wrote 2,383 blog posts and left 2,257 comments on the Nebraska Learns 2.0 blog. Of the 165 who began the program, 83 finished all 23 Things by the January 30, 2009 deadline.

Participants who completed all 23 Things by the deadline received 15 CE credits and had their names entered in a prize drawing for nine 8 GB Creative Zen MP3 players. These MP3 players were made available through generous donations from ITART, NEMA, and NLA.

The following nine participants’ names were drawn:

The Nebraska Learns 2.0 program is still available online. Although it is not currently being updated it will remain live indefinitely. A list of all participant blogs is also available.

Category: ITART, social web  | Leave a Comment
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