December 30, 2008 – 12:28 am
Linux Journal is one of the few magazine subscriptions I’ve kept. However, there’s also a lot of free content on the site. So I was pleased to see a recent blog post on LinuxJournal.com about open source and libraries.
The post is based on Aaron Swartz’s rant against OCLC and WorldCat. It is, however, a valid rant. Libraries have tolerated OCLC’s “less than open” practices because there wasn’t much alternative. Now that open alternatives such as Open Library and ‡biblios.net are growing, it will be interesting to see what happens. With the growing popularity of open source in libraries, having open records and open cataloging will be very important.
October 5, 2008 – 5:27 pm
The Kentucky Library Association held its annual conference this past week. On Thursday I presented Integrating Web 2.0 Tools into Your Web Site. The session covered easy ways to integrate content from Google Calendar, Custom Search Engine, Maps, YouTube, Flickr, and RSS feeds.
Most of the slides are screenshots and the URL for the tool or example site can be found at the top of each of those slides.
September 28, 2008 – 11:12 pm
Integrating Web 2.0 Tools into Your Website
October 2
Kentucky Library Association Conference
Louisville, Kentucky
Technology Trends
October 13
Wright Memorial Public Library
Dayton, Ohio
Mashup to Keep Up
October 24
Ohio Educational Library Media Association (OELMA) Conference
Columbus, Ohio
Breakout Session
November 18
Web 2.0 Exposed
Athens, Ohio
September 23, 2008 – 10:38 pm
What’s a “Flexbook” you ask?
The Virginia Physics “Flexbook” project is a collaborative effort of the Secretaries of Education and Technology and the Department of Education that seeks to elevate the quality of physics instruction across the Commonwealth. Participating educators will create and compile supplemental materials relating to 21st century physics in an open–source format that can be used to strengthen existing physics content.
The concept of open source textbooks is very cool. Open source and education are a natural match. I know there are other free textbooks out there, but I really like the level of collaboration Virginia trying to achieve here. The finished materials will be released under a Creative Commons Attribution Share–Alike license.
It will be interesting to see if the term “flexbook” catches on. I like it.
Find out more on the Virginia Secretary of Technology’s website.
September 8, 2008 – 11:59 pm
I’m a big advocate of open source software and feel most comfortable when I’m using a Linux OS. However, I’m quite content on just about any OS as long as I have my Firefox. I seem to live out of my browser anymore and the OS comes second. Tasks that used to require a separate client such as email, calendars, tasks, and even word processing now have a home in my browser. I even present my talks these days using Firefox and Google Docs.
There have been rumors for a while that Google is working on its own Linux Distribution. Some expect Google to release it to world some day and others think it is just an internal project intended for Google employees. This past week Google finally released its operating system – and it’s a browser. This makes total sense because most of Google’s applications and services are either totally or partially web-based. Google Docs, Maps, Calendar, and Gmail are the applications and Chrome is the OS. Sure the apps will run on other browsers, but you can bet that Chrome will be optimized to run Google’s services at peak efficiency. Chrome even has a built-in task manager (as do all operating systems) to manage the many processes one may have open. Another OS-like feature in Chrome allows you easily create desktop shortcuts of your web apps.
Chrome is no-where near as feature rich or extensible as Firefox currently is and so far it only runs on Windows. I’m willing to bet, however, that Chrome will be a viable alternative browser (OS?) in the next couple of years. Word is that Google is also preparing a version of Chrome for future versions of its Android platform for mobile devices.
