SLQ's Licence 2 Test Drive #2 - Mashups

I just love the term Mashups - so no surprise to learn that it hails from the music industry where all of those clever DJs are mixing the music and vocals of different songs - but in the IT industry it refers to a web application that uses more than 1 source of content to create a new service which improves usability and makes it more engaging.

In this tute we looked at various examples of Mashups including the use of Flickr and Google (maps, street view and earth), Youtube using multiple video sources to create an entertaining speech from a string of different movies, news headlines (my least favourite - I'd rather get in there and be able to view the news links in text, read and get out) and a fantastic site for those interested in real estate - Suburb View, which allows you to search for listings in your suburb, see the location map and even the house itself - great way to save on time and fuel!

From the Mashups awards site I would have to say that I was quite surprised to see how many of the winners relate back to Twitter. Now I'm still a little slow on the uptake with Twitter and admit that it holds no interest to me in the slightest - but in the interest of the exploration part of this tuturial I have chosen Twitrans which allows you to translate your tweets to any language using human translators - for a cost of 5c a word and all within the hour! Would people actually pay to let their friends/family know the mundane and silly things that they are up to?? Apparently they do....

But Twitrans is not just for the Twitterers - it can be used by Businesses or Academics wanting to translate whole files - which includes an independant review of the translation. Of course this review pushes the cost up to 10c a word, and for an 'expert' translator as opposed to the professional translator, you'll be looking at 15c a word. All in all, probably not a bad service as it is available 7 days a week, 24 hours a day from the ease and comfort of your office/study!

SLQ's Licence 2 Test Drive #1 - Online Applications and Tools

Today we looked at a range of many different and often free online productivity software such as word processing, web conferencing and presentations. It is really quite amazing just how many different ones there are available and in all honestly I have only heard of Google Docs and Slideshare before.

I can certainly see the benefits of using such applications - they are flexible enough to allow those you want to have access to them as well as portable so that they can be accessed on any computer with Internet access. Brilliant really!

Out of everything we looked at in this tute - I have only ever used zamzar before so I have found it all to be very interesting indeed!

Week 8: Searching the Web

This week presented us with the perfect opportunity to take a look around the web and see what else is available to us other than Google.

Of the 5 suggested, I quite liked how Exalead allows you to add your own shortcuts to the homepage - it's nice to personalise things afterall.
The people search engine Wink was also very interesting in that I was able to find myself - interestingly, it was my facebook profile from about 5 photos ago so who knows how current the site is.

To rap things up - I'd like to thank Mr (and Mrs) Jones for the program. I will be able to take with me a whole bunch of knowledge about Web 2.0 that I didn't formerly have, and honestly, probably wouldn't have had the inclination to seek out - so in the [shortcut-ted] words of Fall Out Boy - thx fr th mmrs!

Week 7: Librarything and Doppelme

Librarything - is kinda similar to Delicious but instead of using websites it uses books to link like-minded people together with title lists, reviews and ratings. It could be used to introduce you to new authors and/or if you are in a book club.

Doppelme - this was a bit of fun although i couldn't work out how to save my avatar to my blog at first but a little bit of playing around and it all came back to me - that's what several months off from doing the Joneses will do...

Week 6: RSS Feeds and Rollyo

Things have been a little crazy-busy of late, hence the looonng break between weeks but I'm back and determined to finish the Joneses 2.0 - sheez, there is just about a Joneses 3.0 out after all!

Bloglines - makes organising your RSS feeds a breeze and was very easy to set up. The signup process is quick and painless and it has a simple to use interface, which allows you to group feeds into different folders. I subscribed to a couple of different feeds including book reviews, word of the day and science blogs.

Rollyo - is a personal search engine that you customize with a list of your own choice of URLs to search. I created a Reference based list which means that the results of my search will only be retrieved from these sites. I could see the potential for this for those that are doing very specific research but for me personally - i don't think that I would use it.

Week 5: Wikis & Widgets

Wikis - pretty cool as they are collaborative and therefore quite vast in the information offered up. I use wikipedia a bit as it seems to be an excellent initial source when looking for more obscure, contemporary and up to the minute information.

I checked out a music wiki: http://music.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

Widgets - can be a lot of fun and add a certain extra something to your blog/site rather than just plain text and pictures. I thought this mini piano was kinda cool (if you have sound on your PC).

Through initial experimentation I also managed to add a fitness tip of the day widget to the bottom of my blog...

Week 4: Social Networking

Facebook - another good way to keep in touch although some of those applications are a bit too much!

Google Talk - will have to check it out with the family in Germany.