I have discovered that subscribing to Lee Lefever through my YouTube account has meant that other web 2.0 clips have been ‘recommended’ on my homepage. Also, other clips to do with computer lectures are being displayed because of my recent search activity.
YouTube is an innovative way of creating an online community through the sharing of videos and comments in a public space. However, it is often in the media because of its less positive ramifications. For example, I was searching for articles about YouTube and came across many which confronted the issue of cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is a disturbing and prevalent concern in many schools all over the world, especially in secondary schools. Interestingly, Froese-Germain’s article Bullying gets digital shot-in-the-arm contends that ‘Online bullying or cyberbullying is one of the changes spawned by the Internet and social networking sites’. He continues to say that social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube are making it easier for students to engage in cyber-bullying against educators and their peers.
I see the potential benefits of YouTube as an online community for people to share amusing videos, as well as educational content (e.g. UC Berkley’s online lectures), but there are also dangers inherent in social networking technologies. User-generated media needs to be monitored, but it also has many benefits in terms of the equitable access to news and other information by anyone with an Internet connection. People are able to build a community in YouTube, and other similar social networking applications. Three ways in which this is made possible is the production and consumption of user-generated media, as well as the inbuilt features enabling social interaction and participation. For more see this article by Guosong Shao.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Victory!
It must have been the computer I was using in the IT lab because I am on a different computer now and both the slideshow and the embedded slideshow from flickr seem to work. Likewise, my YouTube embedded videos weren't working this morning (no audio) and I checked them and they are now. So it's all good to go! I hope you guys enjoy it - I can't wait to see yours.
my discoveries on Flickr
Searching the site
I searched Flickr for ‘roses’ first, and found there were a lot of cakes featured in the results. I refined my search to ‘rose’ and this seemed to be more relevant, with only a few cupcakes! I chose to search for pictures of roses because they are a bit of an obsession of mine. I have drawn, coloured and painted roses of all types and but I prefer to do this by looking at images rather than the roses in my garden (mine are kind of small and shrivelled because of water-restrictions). This has given me an entirely new source of visual data, which will be great when I finally get time to get back into my art. I also enjoyed the different photographic styles that were used (e.g. some black and white roses, and another in a sepia hue).
Below is a link to my search, if you want to take a look at what I found.
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=rose+&m=text
Creating my account & adding a contact
I have created an account on Flickr, and the process required me to sign-up for a Yahoo email account as my ID. I was surprised, as many of the sites we have signed up for (e.g. blogger, reader and YouTube allow people to sign in using Google accounts). It just made realise how dominant Google is on the World Wide Web. I have uploaded a few photos that I took with a digital camera. Here is the link to my site – aren’t my cats cute!
I added Candy as a contact by following the link from her blog entry 'learning new gadgets'. I also sent her a Flickrmail message asking her to please help me add my photos as a slideshow to my blog like she did. Candy, if you're reading this, maybe put your tips into a comment on this post? I tried using the 'add a gadget' function but it kept malfunctioning and didn't seem to have a place to put the link. Below I have also tried to use the embedded link to my Flickr photostream (fingers crossed!). I have changed all the photo privacy settings to public but it hasn't helped.
I searched Flickr for ‘roses’ first, and found there were a lot of cakes featured in the results. I refined my search to ‘rose’ and this seemed to be more relevant, with only a few cupcakes! I chose to search for pictures of roses because they are a bit of an obsession of mine. I have drawn, coloured and painted roses of all types and but I prefer to do this by looking at images rather than the roses in my garden (mine are kind of small and shrivelled because of water-restrictions). This has given me an entirely new source of visual data, which will be great when I finally get time to get back into my art. I also enjoyed the different photographic styles that were used (e.g. some black and white roses, and another in a sepia hue).
Below is a link to my search, if you want to take a look at what I found.
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=rose+&m=text
Creating my account & adding a contact
I have created an account on Flickr, and the process required me to sign-up for a Yahoo email account as my ID. I was surprised, as many of the sites we have signed up for (e.g. blogger, reader and YouTube allow people to sign in using Google accounts). It just made realise how dominant Google is on the World Wide Web. I have uploaded a few photos that I took with a digital camera. Here is the link to my site – aren’t my cats cute!
I added Candy as a contact by following the link from her blog entry 'learning new gadgets'. I also sent her a Flickrmail message asking her to please help me add my photos as a slideshow to my blog like she did. Candy, if you're reading this, maybe put your tips into a comment on this post? I tried using the 'add a gadget' function but it kept malfunctioning and didn't seem to have a place to put the link. Below I have also tried to use the embedded link to my Flickr photostream (fingers crossed!). I have changed all the photo privacy settings to public but it hasn't helped.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
YouTube Exploration
Interestingly, as I am writing this I am at my local library where I have booked a computer because my own attempts to get broadband at home have been delayed (yet again by administrative mishaps at a company who will remain nameless). I am glad that there are public facilities available for general use and access to Internet resources.
Back to the central theme of this entry, though, YouTube. I explored YouTube and found this clip about twitter, it’s a bit of social commentary through comedy. Twitter, with all of its social networking advantages, does have the potential downsides presented in this short cartoon. I think, like any technology, it is a good resource if used with a definite purpose in mind that is relevant to the user. I found creating an account on YouTube quite simple, it just means I need to remember yet another password and user-name! I look forward to using the facilities, as I have perused the videos on YouTube previously – but from now on I will be able to comment, save my favourite videos, subscribe to channels (like on Google Reader) and upload my own videos.
I was also thinking about what would be a valuable addition to my blog, and complement what we have been learning in this course. I located a very brief clip of Tim O’Reilly answering the question ‘What is web 2.0?’. It is not strictly a definition, but it gives much needed perspective in a field where meanings shift with the advent of new technologies.
I also searched for the online lectures from UC Berkley that were mentioned in the online tutorial for this week. These are a wonderful resource; however, as they are quite long (e.g. nearly two hours) I would not suggest downloading them because it takes so much memory. Watch them online, if you are lucky enough to have a broadband or wireless connection that is. If you are interested in the one I found about ‘How search engine’s work’ follow this link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8D5uL0y7ho
Back to the central theme of this entry, though, YouTube. I explored YouTube and found this clip about twitter, it’s a bit of social commentary through comedy. Twitter, with all of its social networking advantages, does have the potential downsides presented in this short cartoon. I think, like any technology, it is a good resource if used with a definite purpose in mind that is relevant to the user. I found creating an account on YouTube quite simple, it just means I need to remember yet another password and user-name! I look forward to using the facilities, as I have perused the videos on YouTube previously – but from now on I will be able to comment, save my favourite videos, subscribe to channels (like on Google Reader) and upload my own videos.
I was also thinking about what would be a valuable addition to my blog, and complement what we have been learning in this course. I located a very brief clip of Tim O’Reilly answering the question ‘What is web 2.0?’. It is not strictly a definition, but it gives much needed perspective in a field where meanings shift with the advent of new technologies.
I also searched for the online lectures from UC Berkley that were mentioned in the online tutorial for this week. These are a wonderful resource; however, as they are quite long (e.g. nearly two hours) I would not suggest downloading them because it takes so much memory. Watch them online, if you are lucky enough to have a broadband or wireless connection that is. If you are interested in the one I found about ‘How search engine’s work’ follow this link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8D5uL0y7ho
Friday, March 27, 2009
Social bookmarking & group discussion
I just signed up for delicious, and investigated it's applications (including whether it has the ability to export references to endnote). I discovered that only connotea seems to have to option to export to your endnote library, so I signed up for this as well. It seems that both have a different perspective/use when it comes to bookmarking your favourite sites. Although you can share bookmarks on connotea, the network and inbox functions on delicious seem to allow a more informal sharing of bookmarks. I will keep both and explore them further.
On another note, our group discussion in the break after out tutorial was quite helpful in clarifying my ideas about social bookmarking technologies. From what my blog buddies were saying, they thought that delicious was slightly more personal than professional in its application. However, we did raise the point that delicious could be used as a library bookmarking page with tags acting as informal subject headings. As with the other Web 2.0 technologies we have explored, the utility of each one will depend on the intention/purpose with which you set out to use it.
As for the differences between social bookmarking technologies and endnote software, both keep track of references/websites for you, but delicious (especially) is not a citation tracker. You still need to reference them yourself. However, connotea does enable you to export bookmarks to endnote. I will investigate how this works when I begin to add assignment references tio my bookmarks.
On another note, our group discussion in the break after out tutorial was quite helpful in clarifying my ideas about social bookmarking technologies. From what my blog buddies were saying, they thought that delicious was slightly more personal than professional in its application. However, we did raise the point that delicious could be used as a library bookmarking page with tags acting as informal subject headings. As with the other Web 2.0 technologies we have explored, the utility of each one will depend on the intention/purpose with which you set out to use it.
As for the differences between social bookmarking technologies and endnote software, both keep track of references/websites for you, but delicious (especially) is not a citation tracker. You still need to reference them yourself. However, connotea does enable you to export bookmarks to endnote. I will investigate how this works when I begin to add assignment references tio my bookmarks.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Adding a video bar
I added a video bar to my blog which subscribes to Lee Lefever's channel. I love his simple 'in plain English' videos about technology, and it turns out he explains other things as well. I guess this is in anticipation of week 5's video task. It means you guys can view the videos by just clicking on them. Let me know what you think.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Exploring social bookmarking - 1st instalment
I know that we are going to be discussing various social bookmarking tools as a group (next time we meet), but I thought I would explore a few on my own seeing I know so little about this technology. I looked at delicious and diigo in depth, and connotea as a comparison to delicious when I was deciding what I should join when I get home.
Diigo
You can create a Diigo account for free, either adding in your details from scratch or using your Facebook profile to create an account. No software apart from an internet browser is needed.
The creators claim diigo enables you to ‘highlight and search the web’. It is a research tool and a ‘knowledge sharing community’. You can highlight part of pages on the internet, and make a comment (great for reading online) which will remain on the page. You can bookmark the page for later, add tags. You can also organise, share and display your bookmarks. You can book you’re and other people’s annotations in the side bar, as well as view your saved bookmarks (search by keywords). Diigo claims to set itself apart from other social bookmarking services because it has a facebook type feature to help you stay in touch with friends or others that share your same interests and see what they are tagging. Diigo groups means that colleagues can collaborate and share their findings (group bookmarks, sticky notes, forum discussions). You can also send message or bookmarks to your contacts. Other community tools include participating in larger networks that form around a particular site or tag (e.g. the New York Times). Diigo can display recommended bookmarks that align with your interests from other users. I found this information on this YouTube video.
The tools on diigo are used mainly to tag free websites. The Web 2.0 tutorial stated that ‘There are several other tools which are intended more for scholarly resources on the web and on proprietary databases. The best known of these are probably CiteULike and Connotea’. So this is probably more of a social interest and bookmarking website, rather than scholarly or academic, many of our lecturers and tutors seem to use delicious or connotea for more simple social bookmarking (without the facebook like networking options). All your bookmarks are stored in the Diigo account that you create, and so it is accessible from any computer with Internet access (any browser).
What similarities / differences can you see with bookmarking/ favourites?
Similarities: your bookmarks are stored and can be accessed from your own computer. The bookmarks can be organised according to their subject through tagging, although tagging offers more flexibility in terms of searching and retrieving bookmarks (you can search your bookmarks by keyword rather than remembering which folder you saved into on your favourites).
Differences: Diigo is a social networking and bookmarking site, with the facility to join networks and stay up to date with your friends and contacts’ latest internet finds. The idea that colleagues could co-ordinate their research on a topic and create a group forum is interesting, but I am not sure whether LinkedIn would serve that purpose better. It is just different. The professional use of Diigo would be resource-centred and that might be better for a group project.
Delicious
Delicious allows users to make bookmarks more portable and useful by accessing them from browser rather than just one computer. The creators of delicious describe it as “All your stuff in one place. Get to your bookmarks from any computer, anytime, anywhere.”
To get started you need to enter your details and sign up for your free account, then you need to add the delicious buttons/icons to your browser so you can add bookmarks to your account easily. You can install add-ons for whatever browser you are using (this is optional). You can import existing bookmarks too. Then will come making your account more personalised and join/create a network.
- Tagging a site that you have decided to save as a bookmark can help the user find it more easily later, and creates a personalised site-organisation system to avoid a chaotic list of sites from all subjects. You search through your saved bookmarks using key words (tags).
- It is a type of social bookmarking because your bookmarks are public, and your colleagues or friends can view your bookmarks (you can also view theirs). You can add them as friends and browse through their bookmarks. This establishes a network which can broaden the range of resources available to all of you on common topics.
- Delicious supports Internet Explorer 5 or 6, Firefox, and Safari; but you still save bookmarks on a browser that delicious does not support like AOL or MSN by using the ‘Save a new bookmark" link in the top right corner of most pages, or visiting delicious.com/save directly. The FAQ page advises that ‘You may want to add that page to your browser's bookmarks/favorites for easy access’. (Information from http://delicious.com/help/faq#tools)
What similarities / differences can you see with bookmarking/ favourites?
Similarities: You still save bookmarks so you can return to the site later. In the favourites section of your browser you can still organise the bookmarks in folders and sub-folders.
Differences: You can access the delicious bookmarks from any computer, not just your own PC or MAC. The system of tagging means you can search for bookmarks (and find them) under a number of different key word categories, and not simply in one folder. The traditional favourites bookmarks on your computer cannot be shared or viewed by other people unless they use your computer.
Delicious includes the social features of creating a ‘network’ which connects you to other users of delicious, and this feature collects your favourite users bookmarks in one place. Delicious has an Inbox link that you to send and receive bookmarks directly to/from other users who are part of your network (or to anyone else in delicious). Delicious states that “Delicious can be easier and quicker than email or instant messaging, and your friend or coworker will have a permanent copy of the link that's easy to add to their own bookmarks.” (http://delicious.com/help/faq#socialbookmarking)
Trying to decide between delicious and connotea…
After having explored the merits of both delicious and diigo, I am seeking to join a simple bookmarking site without all of the additional tools offered by diigo (at this time). I looked at connotea as another possible alternative. It seems to be more professional as it is marketed at a demographic who wants to share references with ‘colleagues’. They claim that it is easy to save and organise references with one click, and access these references from any computer. You can click on related tags to explore other users’ libraries. The references you post can be public, private or shared with a group. There is no storage limit, and it has the ability to save bibliographic information from sites (especially journal sites) which allow it. Even if you cannot do this, you can bookmark and save any page you find on the web. I really like the sound of this! It seems to be suited to students for academic research purposes.
I look foward to talking about the different social bookmarking sites that you either use or are thinking of joining. Particularly, what they are like compared to endnote, also how to integrate the features with that software. I haven't been able to download it at home because of the dial up connection, it keeps timing out.
Diigo
You can create a Diigo account for free, either adding in your details from scratch or using your Facebook profile to create an account. No software apart from an internet browser is needed.
The creators claim diigo enables you to ‘highlight and search the web’. It is a research tool and a ‘knowledge sharing community’. You can highlight part of pages on the internet, and make a comment (great for reading online) which will remain on the page. You can bookmark the page for later, add tags. You can also organise, share and display your bookmarks. You can book you’re and other people’s annotations in the side bar, as well as view your saved bookmarks (search by keywords). Diigo claims to set itself apart from other social bookmarking services because it has a facebook type feature to help you stay in touch with friends or others that share your same interests and see what they are tagging. Diigo groups means that colleagues can collaborate and share their findings (group bookmarks, sticky notes, forum discussions). You can also send message or bookmarks to your contacts. Other community tools include participating in larger networks that form around a particular site or tag (e.g. the New York Times). Diigo can display recommended bookmarks that align with your interests from other users. I found this information on this YouTube video.
The tools on diigo are used mainly to tag free websites. The Web 2.0 tutorial stated that ‘There are several other tools which are intended more for scholarly resources on the web and on proprietary databases. The best known of these are probably CiteULike and Connotea’. So this is probably more of a social interest and bookmarking website, rather than scholarly or academic, many of our lecturers and tutors seem to use delicious or connotea for more simple social bookmarking (without the facebook like networking options). All your bookmarks are stored in the Diigo account that you create, and so it is accessible from any computer with Internet access (any browser).
What similarities / differences can you see with bookmarking/ favourites?
Similarities: your bookmarks are stored and can be accessed from your own computer. The bookmarks can be organised according to their subject through tagging, although tagging offers more flexibility in terms of searching and retrieving bookmarks (you can search your bookmarks by keyword rather than remembering which folder you saved into on your favourites).
Differences: Diigo is a social networking and bookmarking site, with the facility to join networks and stay up to date with your friends and contacts’ latest internet finds. The idea that colleagues could co-ordinate their research on a topic and create a group forum is interesting, but I am not sure whether LinkedIn would serve that purpose better. It is just different. The professional use of Diigo would be resource-centred and that might be better for a group project.
Delicious
Delicious allows users to make bookmarks more portable and useful by accessing them from browser rather than just one computer. The creators of delicious describe it as “All your stuff in one place. Get to your bookmarks from any computer, anytime, anywhere.”
To get started you need to enter your details and sign up for your free account, then you need to add the delicious buttons/icons to your browser so you can add bookmarks to your account easily. You can install add-ons for whatever browser you are using (this is optional). You can import existing bookmarks too. Then will come making your account more personalised and join/create a network.
- Tagging a site that you have decided to save as a bookmark can help the user find it more easily later, and creates a personalised site-organisation system to avoid a chaotic list of sites from all subjects. You search through your saved bookmarks using key words (tags).
- It is a type of social bookmarking because your bookmarks are public, and your colleagues or friends can view your bookmarks (you can also view theirs). You can add them as friends and browse through their bookmarks. This establishes a network which can broaden the range of resources available to all of you on common topics.
- Delicious supports Internet Explorer 5 or 6, Firefox, and Safari; but you still save bookmarks on a browser that delicious does not support like AOL or MSN by using the ‘Save a new bookmark" link in the top right corner of most pages, or visiting delicious.com/save directly. The FAQ page advises that ‘You may want to add that page to your browser's bookmarks/favorites for easy access’. (Information from http://delicious.com/help/faq#tools)
What similarities / differences can you see with bookmarking/ favourites?
Similarities: You still save bookmarks so you can return to the site later. In the favourites section of your browser you can still organise the bookmarks in folders and sub-folders.
Differences: You can access the delicious bookmarks from any computer, not just your own PC or MAC. The system of tagging means you can search for bookmarks (and find them) under a number of different key word categories, and not simply in one folder. The traditional favourites bookmarks on your computer cannot be shared or viewed by other people unless they use your computer.
Delicious includes the social features of creating a ‘network’ which connects you to other users of delicious, and this feature collects your favourite users bookmarks in one place. Delicious has an Inbox link that you to send and receive bookmarks directly to/from other users who are part of your network (or to anyone else in delicious). Delicious states that “Delicious can be easier and quicker than email or instant messaging, and your friend or coworker will have a permanent copy of the link that's easy to add to their own bookmarks.” (http://delicious.com/help/faq#socialbookmarking)
Trying to decide between delicious and connotea…
After having explored the merits of both delicious and diigo, I am seeking to join a simple bookmarking site without all of the additional tools offered by diigo (at this time). I looked at connotea as another possible alternative. It seems to be more professional as it is marketed at a demographic who wants to share references with ‘colleagues’. They claim that it is easy to save and organise references with one click, and access these references from any computer. You can click on related tags to explore other users’ libraries. The references you post can be public, private or shared with a group. There is no storage limit, and it has the ability to save bibliographic information from sites (especially journal sites) which allow it. Even if you cannot do this, you can bookmark and save any page you find on the web. I really like the sound of this! It seems to be suited to students for academic research purposes.
I look foward to talking about the different social bookmarking sites that you either use or are thinking of joining. Particularly, what they are like compared to endnote, also how to integrate the features with that software. I haven't been able to download it at home because of the dial up connection, it keeps timing out.
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