I've finally started to put some of my photographs up on Flickr - It took me long enough!! This picture is one of many that I took in Mississippi a year ago this past January - not very long after Hurricane Katrina wiped out many seaside communities in Mississippi and Louisiana. This picture was taken in Waveland, MS...one of the hardest hit communities in Mississippi. This was the scene all over the beach...slabs of concrete and pillars that were once houses. It's something very different to see devastation in person...television just doesn't show everything.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Wayfaring Project
Here is the map that I created in Wayfaring. I found this program cumbersome to use at points...and find it ridiculous that the part of the program that lets you type in locations doesn't seem to work. Dragging yourself all over the country isn't fun...and makes it very difficult to use.
http://www.wayfaring.com/maps/show/34631
Also...we had to look at a few mashups...here are the ones that I chose that were interesting to me...
1. http://www.programmableweb.com/url/4775 - Hurricane tracker
As a weather junky this was incredibly cool to me...especially being that I don't like being glued to the weather channel when things like hurricanes are striking the US. After seeing the aftermath of Katrina first hand and having someone close to me loose everything, mashups like this can be very informative. It also has a lot of potential to incorporate more at some later point.
2. http://www.programmableweb.com/url/375 - Weather Bonk
Again...the weather junky in me shines again... This is nifty...and the more I play with it, the more I discover. It's a complex mashup...but has a lot of neat integration.
3. http://www.programmableweb.com/url/1129 - Sept. 11 Mashup
While this is always a touchy subject...I found this mashup to be tastefully done. With personal accounts and pictures...I think this is a creative integration of visual and verbal memories.
~Meaghan
http://www.wayfaring.com/maps/show/34631
Also...we had to look at a few mashups...here are the ones that I chose that were interesting to me...
1. http://www.programmableweb.com/url/4775 - Hurricane tracker
As a weather junky this was incredibly cool to me...especially being that I don't like being glued to the weather channel when things like hurricanes are striking the US. After seeing the aftermath of Katrina first hand and having someone close to me loose everything, mashups like this can be very informative. It also has a lot of potential to incorporate more at some later point.
2. http://www.programmableweb.com/url/375 - Weather Bonk
Again...the weather junky in me shines again... This is nifty...and the more I play with it, the more I discover. It's a complex mashup...but has a lot of neat integration.
3. http://www.programmableweb.com/url/1129 - Sept. 11 Mashup
While this is always a touchy subject...I found this mashup to be tastefully done. With personal accounts and pictures...I think this is a creative integration of visual and verbal memories.
~Meaghan
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Information Overload??
One thing that caught my eye in the readings this past week was the concept of Information Overload...and it got me thinking... Are we putting too much out there on the web?? Are we relying on the web too heavily?? How do we know what we're reading is truly genuine?? As the article from Ruby on Rails discussed, this concept of information overload is truly "the root of all evil".
With all of the information on the web, you and I both know that you can find just about anything. But could that be a problem too?? I found through my research last term on Network Neutrality for my Online Research class that I could spend hours and hours researching and only come up with a handful of really informative websites. Are we filling the web with too much gobbledygook?? When I go researching online I expect what I expect from an encyclopedia. Information that is well thought out, true, and information that can lead me down a path of self discovery...information that will make me want to learn more. But even with very definitive guidelines set, I seem to still come up with material that is off base and completely off topic. This is something that truly frustrates me as a web user.
Sometimes Web 2.0 makes me tired...and makes me wonder what the world would be like without it. There are benefits to the services that Web 2.0 offers - families are able to send video messages to their loved ones overseas fighting...grandparents can see photo albums compiled of their grandchildren and watch them grow up from far away...and people can take educational courses from thousands of miles away from an institution. But all of these things really make you wonder what the world would be like if we didn't have any of this stuff. Would you be able to survive without Web 2.0??
With all of the information on the web, you and I both know that you can find just about anything. But could that be a problem too?? I found through my research last term on Network Neutrality for my Online Research class that I could spend hours and hours researching and only come up with a handful of really informative websites. Are we filling the web with too much gobbledygook?? When I go researching online I expect what I expect from an encyclopedia. Information that is well thought out, true, and information that can lead me down a path of self discovery...information that will make me want to learn more. But even with very definitive guidelines set, I seem to still come up with material that is off base and completely off topic. This is something that truly frustrates me as a web user.
Sometimes Web 2.0 makes me tired...and makes me wonder what the world would be like without it. There are benefits to the services that Web 2.0 offers - families are able to send video messages to their loved ones overseas fighting...grandparents can see photo albums compiled of their grandchildren and watch them grow up from far away...and people can take educational courses from thousands of miles away from an institution. But all of these things really make you wonder what the world would be like if we didn't have any of this stuff. Would you be able to survive without Web 2.0??
"Folksonomy"
The term that caught my attention in the reading this week was "Folksonomy".
Wikipedia's Definition: A folksonomy is a user generated taxonomy used to categorize and retrieve Web pages, photographs, Web links and other web content using open ended labels called tags. Typically, folksonomies are Internet-based, but their use may occur in other contexts as well. The process of folksonomic tagging is intended to make a body of information increasingly easier to search, discover, and navigate over time. A well-developed folksonomy is ideally accessible as a shared vocabulary that is both originated by, and familiar to, its primary users. Two widely cited examples of websites using folksonomic tagging are Flickr and del.icio.us, although it has been suggested that Flickr is not a good example of folksonomy.
One point that interested me most was that the article from Wired.com claims that Folksonomy is "nearly useless for searching, accurate information...". This interested me because the first thing that came to my mind was, isn't that the point of tagging in the Internet world?? It's not necessarily something that you do so that people can navigate themselves around your tagged sites. I think of places like del.icio.us as a place that I go to to navigate through the sites that I have posted. So it makes sense that you tag them the way YOU want to tag them. Because in theory...you are the one returning to that site to look at the pages you have bookmarked.
I have found through my use of both Furl and del.icio.us that I prefer del.icio.us. I like the simplicity the del.icio.us offers...and find that I can navigate myself around it a lot easier. I have been using del.icio.us for a few months now...specifically because my Online Research course last trimester made a tool like this useful.
They are interesting tools...but I'll be honest...I hadn't heard about them at all until this past trimester. And I think that if I hadn't heard about them through Marlboro that I would still search and bookmark the Internet the old fashioned way...and be ok with that.
Wikipedia's Definition: A folksonomy is a user generated taxonomy used to categorize and retrieve Web pages, photographs, Web links and other web content using open ended labels called tags. Typically, folksonomies are Internet-based, but their use may occur in other contexts as well. The process of folksonomic tagging is intended to make a body of information increasingly easier to search, discover, and navigate over time. A well-developed folksonomy is ideally accessible as a shared vocabulary that is both originated by, and familiar to, its primary users. Two widely cited examples of websites using folksonomic tagging are Flickr and del.icio.us, although it has been suggested that Flickr is not a good example of folksonomy.
One point that interested me most was that the article from Wired.com claims that Folksonomy is "nearly useless for searching, accurate information...". This interested me because the first thing that came to my mind was, isn't that the point of tagging in the Internet world?? It's not necessarily something that you do so that people can navigate themselves around your tagged sites. I think of places like del.icio.us as a place that I go to to navigate through the sites that I have posted. So it makes sense that you tag them the way YOU want to tag them. Because in theory...you are the one returning to that site to look at the pages you have bookmarked.
I have found through my use of both Furl and del.icio.us that I prefer del.icio.us. I like the simplicity the del.icio.us offers...and find that I can navigate myself around it a lot easier. I have been using del.icio.us for a few months now...specifically because my Online Research course last trimester made a tool like this useful.
They are interesting tools...but I'll be honest...I hadn't heard about them at all until this past trimester. And I think that if I hadn't heard about them through Marlboro that I would still search and bookmark the Internet the old fashioned way...and be ok with that.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Audio Project - Adding Feeds into Bloglines
Adding blogs into RSS Aggregators like Bloglines is something that is becoming more common by the day. This quick tutorial is designed to help new users add blogs into their Bloglines Aggregator.
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