Social Software highlighted on The Shifted Librarian

Just checked one of my favourite blogs and found this valuable resource: "The Library Social" conference presentation (pdf format) on social software from The Shifted Librarian, Jenny Levine. (Northeast Kansas Library System).
Includes comments on IM, SMS and other tools such as blogs, wikis etc and many examples of social software.
Comprehensive paper with useful links. Posted a link to my del.icio.us social bookmarks to share with others interested in social software, folksonomies.

Konfabulator widgets now in Yahoo! stable

The Konfabulator widget gallery is growing in popularity as more widget makers contribute their widgets, ranging from cool tools and utilites, incorporating RSS, webcams and the like to utterly useless and cute or geekie widgets. The ratings and numbers of downloads give useful clues. Some of the lowly rated widgets still have high download figures! Lots of widget fans must be keeping watch on the gallery judging by the numbers of downloads for some widgets within 24-48 hours of posting to the gallery.

The Loosley Coupled blog provides some thoughts on Yahoo's purchase of Pixoria and acquisition of Konfabulator for the ability of widgets "to feed live information directly to the desktop, bypassing the browser."
Download Konfabulator 2 for Windows or Mac from the Yahoo! Widgets site.

Buckyballs DownUnder

Schools Australia-wide will be participating in 'buckyball' workshops with Nobel Prize winner, Sir Harry Kroto, on 17th August, during National Science week. Workshops will be streamed live to their schools via technology provided by Centra Australia.

Wonderful use of technology to provide not only a series of face to face workshops but also a virtual experience with a world renowned scientist and hundreds of middle and senior school students.

EdNA Online provides additional information on Sir Harry Kroto. "In 1996, (he) won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, for his discovery of the ball-like C60 carbon molecule, Buckminsterfullerene. This discovery has since had impact on the science of nano-technology." Autobography on NobelPrize.org and Wikipedia and details of his 1996 win in the field of Chemistry.

Wonderful world of web 2.0

Lots of interesting posts relevant to the revolutionary world of web 2.0 which is transforming the way we use the web. I like this posting "Posting, Subscribing, and Tagging" by VC (Fred Wilson) which I came across via a Technorati tag for web 2.0 and discovered how popular it was when I added it to my del.icio.us bookmarks along with 52 others! Blogs, feeds and tags and the new social collaboration or folksonomy are opening up opportunities not possible under web 1.0 but blossoming in the wonderful world of web 2.0.
Fred comments, "We are five years into the posting revolution, two to three years into the subscribing revolution, and maybe one year into the tagging revolution" and there's more to come. What's around the corner?
Another must read posting on web 2.0 is from Troy Angrignon's blog: "Shifting paradigms: The mental evolutionary process of moving from web 1.0 to web 2.0 in 17 steps."

Casting the Net collaborative space

EdNA Groups is hosting a Learnscope "Casting the Net" project in a collaborative space on "audio lessons, MP3 players, audioblogging and podcasting in education".
The focus is on "creation of audio materials" eg podcasting and audioblogging for learners with "low levels of literacy and with auditory learning styles".
Lots of useful resources and tools to provide opportunities for educators to share understandings.

GoogleMaps API

Exploring things geospatial and, thanks to the power of social bookmarking viz. my fabulous del.icio.us bookmarking tool, exploring the powers of the GoogleMaps API.

ZdNet commented on the value of open source power in an article, "Google map API transforms the Web." One example is the combination of GoogleMaps satellite imagery, RSS feeds from the BBC news, images and tagging to produce an uptodate, visual account of the London Terrorist Bomb attacks on geepster.
"Google Maps enabled open source journalism to get the story faster, and get it better, than the mainstream media."
Combination of using the javascript API, satellite imagery, RSS feeds, tags to develop a resource which is visual (multiliteracies), interactive, updated and engaging.

Potential for ICT integration in curriculum. Investigation of contemporary environmental, social, political, health and other issues and using Web 2.0 tools for collaboration, reflection, publishing.

Live 8 blogging and Technorati

Who could miss "Live 8" on the web, TV, radio and other media? I have been following the posts on Technorati (currently 11,060 current posts). An amazing world response to a global crisis and Make Poverty History campaign to influence G8 leaders.
Technorati is promoting world bloggers to participate and add to global voices to make a difference to world poverty through "debt relief, aid and trade justice for Africa."

This statement, from a link on Technorati, on Thinking without a box blog - "Live 8 where were you" refers to the one powerful message we hope to get across.
"But they'll only do it if enough people tell them to. That's why we're staging LIVE 8.
...... 10 concerts, 100 artists, a million spectators, 2 billion viewers, and 1 message ... To get those 8 men, in that 1 room, to stop 30,000 children dying every single day of extreme poverty."
Add your voice and make a difference!