davidrothman.net

I’m not the first to blog about these and I certainly won’t be the last, but I wanted to say a few brief “me too’s”:

I’m going to order Social Software in Libraries…

…and not just because Meredith mentions LibWorm in Chapter Three, either! I’m going to order it because Meredith’s writings on technology (at both her own blog and at TechEssence) are smart, clear and practical- and they don’t leave out the human element. I expect her book will have similar qualities.

I won’t go so far as to recommend that others purchase a book that I haven’t myself yet read, but I will say that I am definitely ordering my copy the instant I can.[1]. [Other biblioblog chatter about this book]

I will also need to buy a copy of Phil Bradley’s new book, How to Use Web 2.0 in Your Library[2]:

Like Meredith’s book, Phil’s has a companion Web site, and also mentions LibWorm (curiously, also in Chapter Three). I subscribe to Phil’s blog and routinely learn new things from him, so I can’t be without this book. I just hope it gets published in the States, too- the exchange rates from Pound to Dollar and shipping from the U.K. are probably going to be painful.

Lastly, I’m going to order a copy of this book [3]:

While I don’t yet have any indication that it mentions LibWorm ( ) and I’m still not yet wholly comfortable with the term “Library 2.0″, everything I’ve read that Casey and/or Savastinuk have written on the topic has been thought-provoking, required reading. I wouldn’t miss getting my own copy for any reason. [Other biblioblog chatter about this book]

If I read German, I’d also want a copy of this book by Oliver Obst.

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[1] – It goes without saying that if Meredith wants to send me a copy, I will of course devour it and write a detailed review.

(I’m subtle, huh? My subtlety is inversely proportionate to my budget for discretionary spending.)

February 27th, 2007 | Category: "Library 2.0", "Social Software", Blogging, Interfaces, LibWorm, Mashups, Podcasting, Professional Development, RSS/Feeds, Technology, Web Applications, Wikis | Comments (3)

Web 2.0 in Libraries: Theory and Practice
SLA Click University Live
From 1/10/2007

Web 2.0 in Libraries: The Tools of Web 2.0
SLA Click University Live
From 1/24/2007

Other presentations Meredith has uploaded to SlideShare

February 19th, 2007 | Category: "Library 2.0", "Social Software", Presentations, Technology, Web Applications | Comments (4)

List

Here are the web-based spreadsheet applications I’m aware of:

ajaxXLS

EditGrid

Xcellery

Google Docs & Spreadsheets

iRows

Numbler

NumSum

Simple Spreadsheet

ThinkFree Calc

Zoho Sheet

Comparison

This spreadsheet comparing EditGrid, Google Spreadsheets, iRows, Numbler, NumSum and Zoho Sheet has been created in each of the following applications, giving you yet another way to compare them:

EditGrid

Google Spreadsheet

iRows

Numbler

NumSum

Zoho Sheet

WikiCalc, iWoorx, and a video of interest to Web 2.0 enthusiasts

And here’s an interesting video about iWoorx Wiki Spreadsheets (built on WikiCalc).

February 19th, 2007 | Category: Technology, Web Applications | Comments (1)

If you are comfortable with web-based feed mashing/filtering applications like BlogSieve, FEEDblendr, FEEDcombine, FeedRinse, Feedshake, or FeedSifter, you can jump right into Pipes and start using it. You won’t be building mega mashups right away, but you can benefit from using it as the best RSS filter/combiner yet seen.

Feed Translation

A couple months ago, Oliver asked if any tools existed for machine translating RSS Feeds.

It occurred to me while playing around with Pipes that it would take about two minutes to produce versions of this blog’s feed that are machine translated by Babelfish.

Here are the machine translated feeds:

Dutch
French
German

(I routinely use Babelfish to translate blogs written in French, German, or Dutch to English. It is far from perfect, but is usually good enough to let me get a solid idea what the blogger is writing about. If you’re a native reader of German, Dutch, or French, I’d be curious to hear if you think Babelfish works well enough FROM English.)

It’s really easy to do. Plug the source feed URL into a Fetch Module, pipe it to a Babelfish module, and pipe that to output.

Also, I can use one of the RSS-to-Web page tools to display the feed in an alternate language on a web page:

One-upping Technorati

You’ve seen these on blog sidebars, right? You click on it to see what other blogs have been indexed by Technorati has having linked to the blog. I decided to use Pipes to make something that would catch more references to this blog than Technorati can. I also used RSS Feed Converter to output it to a page of the blog itself using the blog’s CSS for formatting (so it looks like it fits in with the blog). I think it came out pretty well, but have a look and let me know what you think. You can see how it was built here (requires a Yahoo account, but that only takes a minute to sign up for).

Web-based tools for manipulation of feeds just took a big leap forward. Pipes was only just released in beta, and neither of these is an especially complex application.

Additional Info

Libraryfolk talking about Pipes.

A quick basic tutorial to get you started with Pipes.

February 11th, 2007 | Category: Blogging, Mashups, RSS/Feeds, Technology, Web Applications | Comments (7)

The rumor is that Google is soon to release a presentation tool (a sort of online version of MS PowerPoint or Keynote or OpenOffice Impress) a part of Google Docs and Spreadsheets. So now Google offers email, calendars, word processing, spreadsheets and (soon) presentation software.

Other online presentation applications (or online office suites with presentation features) I’m aware of:

• Empressr
• Spresent
• ThinkFree Show
• Thumbstacks
• TonicPoint (in private beta)
• Toufee
• Zoho Show
• Preezo is supposed to be on the way.

Let me know if there are others I’m missing?

(Let’s hope that the final name Google gives to its presentation tool ISN’T “Presently.” Euucccchh.)

February 4th, 2007 | Category: Presentations, Teaching/Training, Technology, Web Applications | Comments (7)

As mentioned previously, Guus van den Brekel has been traveling in Norway (Oslo and Trondheim) to give talks and run workshops about library web technology.

I try to follow most of what Guus does online because I can’t really get enough of tech-savvy medical librarians. So when I saw he’d posted another presentation on SlideShare titled “Web Developments & Trends,” I started looking through it right away- and was delighted to see that three slides (35, 36 and 37) are screen captures of LibWorm!

(Check out more from Guus’ trip to Norway here.)

Guus, we’re delighted that LibWorm was a part of your presentation! Please let your workshop attendees know they should email us if they have any questions, concerns or (our favorite) suggestions for improvement: david [AT] libworm [DOT] com.

January 20th, 2007 | Category: LibWorm, Presentations, RSS/Feeds, Technology, Web Applications | Comments Off

Just noticed these this evening:

Karen Schneider: Library 2.0 Cookbook

Dave Pattern: Introduction to Web 2.0 & Library 2.0

January 15th, 2007 | Category: "Library 2.0", Blogging, Presentations, Professional Development, RSS/Feeds, Technology, Web Applications | Comments Off

Update, 1/17/2006:

Added RSS Scrollbox Widget and RSS Ticker Widget.

Thank you, DigiZen!

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I could’ve sworn that I’d seen a site that shows the same feed presented in a number of different RSS-to-Web-Page tools, but I can’t find it…so I made one with the feed from this blog.

Click here to see it.

I have my own opinions about which ones I like better than others, but I’d be grateful to hear yours- so please leave a comment.

January 15th, 2007 | Category: RSS/Feeds, Technology, Web Applications | Comments (10)

Update, 1/4/2007: Someone submitted this to Digg. Neat!
Update, 1/5/2007: Based on comments from folks at Phixr and at Fauxto, I have made revisions to the comparison chart. Revisions are highlighted.

http://digg.com/software/Online_Photoshop_Clones_Comparison_Chart

I just recently stumbled across fauxto.com and was pleasantly surprised by how intuitive the interface was, and how well it imitated Photoshop and Paintshop Pro. This reminded me, though, that I have bookmarked a number of online image editors and never worked out which one to use for what purposes. I decided to make a chart comparing the features of these:

Fauxto

Phixr

Pixer

PXN8

Snipshot

Cellsea

The comparison chart is posted here.

When Fauxto has a few more features, it’ll be very impressive. Until then, I’m finding myself pretty satisfied with Cellsea when at a computer without imaging software installed.

January 1st, 2007 | Category: Technology, Web Applications | Comments (11)

I’ve mentioned MDCalc before.

Now it features SI units and can be downloaded and run on a Pocket PC (a Palm version is in the works).

Details here.

November 26th, 2006 | Category: For Medical Libraryfolk, Technology, Web Applications | Comments Off

Yeah, I think I really, really like SlideShare.net.

Anyway, this is a great introduction to Open Source LMS options and has me thinking about how I could start playing with Koha.

November 23rd, 2006 | Category: Teaching/Training, Technology, Vendors, Web Applications | Comments Off