ResourceShelf » Web 2.0

Huffington Post Readers Select Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director the Media “Game Change” of the 2009

resourceshelf — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:46:39 +0000

As they say, one Wikipedia post (see post immediately below his one) deserves another Wikimedia Foundation post, directly above it.

What’s up?

The Huffington Post reader’s have selected Wikimedia Foundation (the organization that oversees all Wikimedia projects) Executive Director, Sue Gardner, as media “game changer” of 2009.

From the HP Post:

Changing The Game By: Taking the people’s online encyclopedia to the next level. Drawing on the Wikimedia Foundation’s mission of bringing free knowledge to everybody, executive director Gardner is overseeing a strategic plan to broaden access to Wikipedia’s vast storehouse of information. Her battle plan: making Wikipedia easier to use and available to more people worldwide. Expansion takes money, but it helps to be one of the Web’s five most-trafficked sites. In the depths of the recession, the foundation raised $3 million in ten days, completely covering its 2009 operating budget.

Killer Quote: “The smart geeks are always going to be the heart and soul of what we do. But… the goal is to make the whole editing system more user-friendly so we’re not excluding the people who aren’t as tech-centric as our core community.”

Note: Regarding Gardner’s “Killer Quote,” we’ve seen similar comments from Wikipedia co-founder, Jimmy Wales. Here’s one example from a recent interview with Silicon.com. One example, of Wikipedia reaching was this event at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD.

Source: Huffington Post

Wikipedia Founder Creates On-Line Source of Help for Tampa Bay’s Homeless

ResourceShelf — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:07:00 +0000

Wikipedia founder creates on-line source of help for Tampa Bay’s homeless

Between stops in his globe-trotting life as an Internet mogul, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales came to Ybor City Friday to launch a new Web site that offers a wide range of resources for the homeless in the Tampa Bay area.

The new site, tampabayhomeless.wikia.com, was introduced after the Hillsborough Homeless Coalition’s annual meeting at Teatro on Seventh, a restaurant on Eighth Avenue.

Coalition CEO Rayme Nuckles said the site would be only the third of its kind in the world. The first two were created in San Francisco, where Wikipedia operations are based, and Los Angeles, Wales said.

Source: St. Petersburg Times

Note: Shirl Kennedy, ResourceShelf senior editor, is a news researcher for the St. Petersburg Times.

Online Video Keeps Streaming Along as Social Networkers View More than Ever

resourceshelf — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:21:08 +0000

From the Blog Post:

The Nielsen Company today reported overall online video usage and top online brands ranked by video streams for October 2009. Year-over-year, unique viewers, total streams, streams per viewer and time per viewer were up, led by a 26 percent growth in total streams.

What’s most interesting is who the number three provider of streaming video is (based on total number of streams). Of course, YouTube is number one; Hulu is number two; and number three is…?

That’s right, Facebook

The complete list can be accessed here.

Source: Nielsen Wire

P2P Comes to the Aid of Audiovisual Search

resourceshelf — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:19:35 +0000

From the Article:

Current methods of searching audiovisual content can be a hit-and-miss affair. Manually tagging online media content is time consuming, and costly. But new ‘query by example’ methods, built on peer-to-peer (P2P) architectures, could provide the way forward for such data-intensive content searches, say European researchers.

A team of researchers have turned to peer-to-peer (P2P) technology, in which data is distributed and shared directly between computers, to power potent yet data intensive audiovisual search technology. The technique, known as query by example, uses content, rather than text, to search for similar content, providing more accurate search results and reducing or even eliminating the need for pictures, videos and audio recordings to be laboriously annotated manually. However, effectively implementing content-based search on a large scale requires a fundamentally different approach to the text-based search technology running on the centralised systems of the likes of Google, Yahoo and MSN.

“Because we’re dealing with images, video and audio, content-based search is very data intensive. Comparing two images is not a problem, but comparing hundreds of thousands of images is not practical using a centralised system,” says Yosi Mass, an expert on audiovisual search technology at IBM Research in Haifa, Israel. “A P2P architecture offers a scalable solution by distributing the data across different peers in a network and ensuring there is no central point of failure.”

Access the Complete Article

Source: ICT Results

Buying Your Friends and Followers on Social Networks

resourceshelf — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:57:28 +0000

From the Article:

Facebook has threatened legal action against a service that sells friends on the social networking site.

It said it would take the action against marketing firm USocial unless it stopped violating Facebook’s rights.

[Snip]

Customers of USocial use it to boost follower and friend numbers on social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

On micro-blogging site Twitter, followers can be bought in blocks starting at £53 for 1,000. The biggest block USocial is selling is 100,000 people.

Access the Complete Article

Source: BBC

Twitter Tunes: The Album, Ready for Download (Free)

resourceshelf — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:35:27 +0000

From the Article:

The tunes may be a little avant-garde for most tastes. They’re unlikely to give Britney Spears and Beyoncé a run for their money, but are impressive achievements all the same. Musical twitterers have found a way to condense entire compositions to fit in single, 140-character tweets.

The trend started earlier this year when Dan Stowell, a composer and computer scientist at Queen Mary, University of London, encoded the sound of waves crashing on the shore using the programming language SuperCollider and then tweeted the results.

Other users of the micro-blogging site responded by devising and posting their own compositions. Now a free to download, best-of album of 22 Twitter tunes has been released, entitled sc140.
Much More in the Complete Article

Access the Album

Source: New Scientist

Citizen Media Law Project Launches Legal Assistance Network for Online Journalists

ResourceShelf — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:06:09 +0000

Citizen Media Law Project Launches Legal Assistance Network for Online Journalists
Source: Citizen Media Law Project

We are delighted to announce (PDF) the public launch of the Berkman Center’s Online Media Legal Network (OMLN), a new pro bono (i.e., free!) initiative that connects lawyers and law school clinics from across the country with online journalists and digital media creators who need legal help. Lawyers participating in OMLN will provide qualifying online publishers with pro bono and reduced fee legal assistance on a broad range of legal issues, including business formation and governance, copyright licensing and fair use, employment and freelancer agreements, access to government information, pre-publication review of content, and representation in litigation.

Source: Citizen Media Law Project (Berkman Center for Internet & Society)

Closer Look Report, “U.S. Public Libraries and the Use of Web Technologies”

resourceshelf — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:01:39 +0000

From a Blog Post:

In the spring of 2008, we visited the websites of nearly 600 public libraries in the United States, including all Colorado public libraries, looking for the presence of web technologies, including those identified as “Web 2.0.” This report details our findings about what public libraries are doing on the web, and the characteristics that “early adopters” share.

Access the Complete Report (52 pages; PDF)

Source: Library Research Service, State of Colorado
Hat Tip: ALA Direct

Government 2.0: New Book Details Challenges of Web 2.0 Usage Across the Globe

resourceshelf — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:38:11 +0000

An Audio Report is Also Available at the Top of the Web Page.

From the Article

Starting Wednesday in Sweden, the European Union is holding a conference of ministers of technology from across Europe that will be looking at lessons learned throughout the EU.

In conjunction with that, a new book is out: State of the eUnion: Government 2.0 and Onwards. It’s available online for free, and will eventually come to a store near you.

It pulls from some of the Web 2.0 thought leaders, many of whom you have heard here on Federal News Radio, including Tim O’Reilly, Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig, and Mark Drapeau from George Washington University.

Source: Federal News Radio
Hat Tip: Pete W.

Access the Full Text Book: State of the eUnion: Government 2.0 and Onwards (321 pages; PDF)

Find Similar Images with GazoPa (Beta)

resourceshelf — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:21:28 +0000

Here’s a beta image search engine named GazoPa.

It allows the user to upload an image, enter an image URL, draw a picture (cool!), or keyword search a database of the GazoPa database and then find SIMILAR images based on the image that was upload or keyword search. You can also combine an image (what they call a “key image”) with keyword(s). A Firefox addon, a bookmarklet, and an iPhone app are also available. GazoPa is not exactly new (their blog goes back to September, 2008) but it’s new to us. So, why not share. Their colorful logo might remind some of other search engines with colorful logos. (-:

The home page also claims the database is large, more that 60 million images. We need to confirm this but the way we read the final page of the FAQ is that the 60 million images were crawled by GazoPa. They also have a page for webmasters about their crawler, GazoPabot. In other words, they’re not buying their image collection by stringing together other image databases they’ve been given access to for free or a fee.

Results pages offer four types of results:

+ Images
+ Videos (it appears that most of the results come from YouTube)
+ News Images (it appears to be a GazoPa crawl)
+ Flickr (Is the Flickr database included in the 60 million images total?)

Worth mentioning, GozaPa is a venture project of the Hitachi Corporation (note the copyright info at the bottom of the home page).

So, go forward and demo. We’ll do the same and report back in a week or so.

See Also: GazoPa Blog

See Also: GazoPa Twitter Feed

See Also: A little over a week ago we posted about a reverse image search named Tin Eye. tool has users upload an image and then the Tin Eye technology goes out on the web to see if others are using your content.

Consumer Electronics: Five Technology Trends to Watch – 2010

ResourceShelf — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:37:23 +0000

5 Technology Trends to Watch – 2010 (PDF; 2.1 MB)

Welcome to the latest edition of Five Technology Trends to Watch. This annual Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) publication looks at the new technologies that will shape our future. I remain optimistic despite the challenges to the economy. The consumer technology industry continues to show promise with sales expected to reach $172 billion for 2009.

This year we look at the evolution of content, connected devices in the home, TV beyond HD, connected cars and the smart grid. The publication also takes a peek at the future of CE. For example, IBM is working to develop artificial DNA nanostructures as a framework to build the tiny microchips used in electronics devices. Although still many years out, this work could one day impact how we build, operate and interact with electronics. Learn also about advances in a holographic storage material capable of storing 500GB of data on a DVD-sized optical disc – ten times the amount that can be stored on a dual-layer Blu-ray disc. It’s not here yet but discs of this size could one day store 3D video.

Source: Consumer Electronics Association

Hat tip: AT

Social Networks, Sharing, and the Patient

resourceshelf — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:42:09 +0000

The report can streamed online. It runs 4:21.

From the Summary Article:

About 20 percent of e-patients go to Internet and social-networking sites where they can talk to medical experts and other patients, says Susannah Fox, with the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

“They are posting their first-person accounts of treatments and side effects from medications,” says Fox. “They are recording and posting those podcasts. They’re tagging content. They are part of the conversation. And that, I think, is an indicator of where we could be going in terms of the future of participatory medicine.”

This reflects the growth of social-networking sites. “The Internet now is not just information,” says Fox. “There is a social life of information online. And people are using all these tools to connect with friends and family, to connect with health professionals. And people are accessing a much deeper level of information now than they were five years ago.”

The web site Patients Like Me is also mentioned.

Source: National Public Radio
Hat Tip: Jana L.

Reading E-Books on Your Smartphone

resourceshelf — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:00:47 +0000

From the Article:

Many people who want to read electronic books are discovering that they can do so on the smartphones that are already in their pockets — bringing a whole new meaning to “phone book.” And they like that they can save the $250 to $350 that they would otherwise spend on yet another gadget.

[Snip]

All of that activity raises a question: Does the future of book reading lie in dedicated devices like the Kindle, or in more versatile gadgets like mobile phones? So far, e-book software for phones does not appear to have cut into demand for single-function e-readers. According to the Codex Group, a consultant to the publishing industry, about 1.7 million people now own one, and that number could rise to four million by the end of the holiday season.

Source: New York Times

Note from Gary: I have a Kindle (first generation) but do most of my eBook reading using the Kindle for iPhone app. Yes, the screen is smaller but I want to be able to read in low light (before bedtime) and the Kindle doesn’t cut it. Attaching a booklight cover to the Kindle cover is possible. I’ve tried it and Amazon suggests it. But, IMHO it doesn’t solve the problem. For me, the light causes a glare that makes reading not very enjoyable. The Kindle for iPhone app lets you move around the eBook very quickly, offers the same note and highlighting features as the Kindle device does, turning pages is a breeze, and allows you to change the background color and the color of the text.

Article: Real Vlogs: The Rules and Meanings of Online Personal Videos

resourceshelf — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:11:01 +0000

From the Abstract:

This paper explores what the “rules” of vlogging (video blogging) are: the various visual and social practices viewers and creators understand and debate as either authentic or inauthentic on YouTube. It analyzes a small, random set of vlogs on YouTube and highlight several controversies around key celebrities on the site. This essay concludes by challenging whether conversations around authenticity will persist in dialogues about online video.

Access the Complete Article by Aymar Jean Christian

Source: First Monday

Challenger: Social Networking Explodes as a Job Search Tool

resourceshelf — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:01:47 +0000

Stuart Basefsky has the details via an announcement from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

From the Announcement:

As the nation’s job seekers attempt to find any advantage in a tight job market, more and more are turning to social networking to stand out from the crowd. However, while these sites have the potential to revolutionize the job search, they could also prove harmful for those who rely too heavily on them or misuse them, warns one employment authority.

“The job search has changed radically over the last two decades with the advent of electronic mail, the Internet, social networking, smart phones, etc. However, it is important to remember that all of these technologies simply enhance the job search; they will never replace the face-to-face connections that are critical to a successful search,” said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., which provides job-search training and counseling to individuals who have lost their job.

“That being said, we feel that these new networking tools are essential and now advise all of the job seekers going through our program to open LinkedIn accounts and to consider other services such as Facebook and Twitter,” said Challenger.

Much More in the Complete Announcement
You’ll also find several tips to make the best use social networking resources.

Online Maps: Everyman Offers New Directions

ResourceShelf — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:56:26 +0000

Online Maps: Everyman Offers New Directions

They don’t know it, but people who use Google’s online maps may be getting directions from Richard Hintz.

Mr. Hintz, a 62-year-old engineer who lives in Berkeley, Calif., has tweaked the locations of more than 200 business listings and points of interest in cities across the state, sliding an on-screen place marker down the block here, moving another one across the street there. Farther afield, he has mapped parts of Cambodia and Laos, where he likes to go on motorcycle trips.

Mr. Hintz said these acts of geo-volunteerism were motivated in part by self-interest: he wants to know where he’s going. But “it has this added attraction that it helps others,” he said.

Mr. Hintz is a foot soldier in an army of volunteer cartographers who are logging every detail of neighborhoods near and far into online atlases. From Petaluma to Peshawar, these amateurs are arming themselves with GPS devices and easy-to-use software to create digital maps where none were available before, or fixing mistakes and adding information to existing ones.

Source: New York Times

Just for Fun: Take a Brief Photo Tour of Twitter’s New HQ

resourceshelf — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:01:23 +0000

Twitter co-founder Evan Williams’ (he’s also the founder of Blogger) wife, Sara Morishige Williams, helped design the space that includes a DJ booth. A dance as you tweet kind of thing. (-:

The Twitter HQ photo tour can be accessed here.

Source: Venture Beat

Guide: U.S. Department of Defense Social Media Sites and Services

resourceshelf — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:11:04 +0000

Last Thursday we posted a new compilation of NARA’s (National Archives and Records Administration) social media sites and services. Today, the same sort of thing but this time from DoD (U.S. Department of Defense). You’re going to find a lot of resources from many social media services.

Direct to DoD Social Media

Look for Material from these Services
+ Delicious
+ Facebook
+ Flickr
+ iReport
+ MySpace
+ nowpublic
+ Twitter
+ Vimeo
+ YouTube
+ and a good helping of blogs.

This is also a compilation where you need to read the disclaimer. The guide sits on a Department of Defense server but DoD doesn’t endorse the content on any of these social media sites/services or exercise any editorial control over the information.

So, awareness of the situation (read the disclaimer) and some good critical info skills are required for effective use of these resources which have the potential for being both interesting and useful.

Here’s the Disclaimer:

The appearance of external hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the United States Department of Defense of the linked web sites, or the information, products or services contained therein. For other than authorized activities as military exchanges and Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) sites, the United States Department of Defense does not exersise any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations. All links are provided consistent with the mission of Defense.gov. Please let us know about existing external links which you believe are inappropriate.

Source: U.S. Department of Defense
Hat Tip: Free Government Information (Good Post to Check For More Info and Some Interesting Links)

Wikimedia Begins Its Annual Fundraising Drive

resourceshelf — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:50:03 +0000

A post on the Wikimedia Foundation blog by Sue Gardner, Executive Director of Wikimedia, says that the 2009 drive began last week.

She Writes:

When Jimmy Wales founded Wikipedia in 2001, it was just an experiment. Nobody imagined Wikipedia would really succeed — least of all, probably, Jimmy. He just thought it would be interesting to try.

But now, fewer than 10 years later, the number of people who use Wikipedia has grown to 330 million. Students, teachers, tourists, entrepreneurs, parents, job-hunters, retired people, doctors, artists, engineers — everywhere around the world. We use Wikipedia because it’s free, it’s convenient, and it gives us the information we’re looking for. It’s always there when we want it.

Gardner says this year’s fundraising goal is $7.5 million.

The 2009 slogan is “Wikipedia Forever.” You’ll see it at the top of every Wikipedia entry. Clicking on it takes you to this page with a picture of Jimmy Wales, an FAQ, and a box to make your donation. The mobile version has a box bar at the top of every page asking you to text the word WIKI to a number and make a $10 donation.

Source: Wikipedia Blog

From the News Release:

Wikipedia has become more than just a website,” said Jimmy Wales, founder of the free online encyclopedia, which is now one of the five most popular websites in the

world according to comScore. “For millions of people, it’s become an indispensable part of their daily lives.”

Funds raised by the campaign will be used to defray normal operating costs such as the cost of bandwidth and servers, as well as to support projects aimed at making Wikipedia easier to use, encouraging more people to contribute, and increasing the availability of free knowledge for more people, in more languages, in more parts of the world. Wikipedia currently offers 13 million articles in over 250 languages, and is used by 330 million people around the world.

ResourceShelf » Web 2.0

Huffington Post Readers Select Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director the Media “Game Change” of the 2009

Wikipedia Founder Creates On-Line Source of Help for Tampa Bay’s Homeless

Online Video Keeps Streaming Along as Social Networkers View More than Ever

P2P Comes to the Aid of Audiovisual Search

Buying Your Friends and Followers on Social Networks

Twitter Tunes: The Album, Ready for Download (Free)

Citizen Media Law Project Launches Legal Assistance Network for Online Journalists

Closer Look Report, “U.S. Public Libraries and the Use of Web Technologies”

Government 2.0: New Book Details Challenges of Web 2.0 Usage Across the Globe

Find Similar Images with GazoPa (Beta)

Consumer Electronics: Five Technology Trends to Watch – 2010

Social Networks, Sharing, and the Patient

Reading E-Books on Your Smartphone

Article: Real Vlogs: The Rules and Meanings of Online Personal Videos

Challenger: Social Networking Explodes as a Job Search Tool

Online Maps: Everyman Offers New Directions

Recently Updated CRS Report: Text and Multimedia Messaging: Emerging Issues for Congress

Just for Fun: Take a Brief Photo Tour of Twitter’s New HQ

Guide: U.S. Department of Defense Social Media Sites and Services

Wikimedia Begins Its Annual Fundraising Drive