Entries in "Computers, Software, & the Internet" ( for this category only)

Street View by Google

Google is traveling around with a 360-degree camera to add a street view to its maps. Cleveland made its debut has the first Ohio city to be visually documented by Google.

See the Plain Dealer article for some more highlights.

Go to http://maps.google.com/ and enter a Cleveland address. Hit "street" view and if the streets are highlighted in blue you can get the view as if you are driving by. Just click on the street and enjoy. Arrows direct your travel and your view.

I went with the "full screen" view and the images are very good quality and can be zoomed. Not quite good enough to read a license plate, but they show quite a bit of detail.

Wii Preparation for Surgeons

Years ago we had reports that our Desert Storm pilots were better than their former colleagues, due to being raised as children with video games. Now, we a have a study that shows surgeons that warm up or train on Wii perform better in surgeries.

Game players scored nearly 50% higher on tool control and overall performance than other trainees.

Source: 'Wii warm-up' good for surgeons from BBC News (January 17, 2008)

From the File of Where Else Did They Look

I found this video about Gmail discussed in a Walking Paper blog entry. In general the video is Gmail engineers reading emails they receive from happy users. The last one in the video was a freshman chemical engineering student who was working on a group project and the answer the group needed appeared in the targeted Gmail ads. The Google engineer said "this person was able to use gmail ads to find something she couldn’t find anywhere else".

Really? I did a similar project on photoremediation during my undergraduate degree in chemical engineering and I found all the necessary information from the library.

I have two concerns with this video and the suggestions made. First, I question where else did these students look. Second, Google is doing some wonderful things but they are not the only source. It leads me to challenge are libraries doing enough to be in front of the users eyes.

Google 2008 Anita Borg Scholarship

The Google 2008 Anita Borg Scholarship is open for application until Friday, February 1, 2008.

As part of Google's ongoing commitment to furthering Anita's vision, we are pleased to announce the 2008 Google Anita Borg Scholarship, through which we hope to encourage women to excel in computing and technology and become active role models and leaders.

Google offers 411 Service

Did you know Google offers a 411 service that is totally free? It can be used by calling 1-800-GOOG-411. I tried it for a few random searches. It is not perfect as it is computer automated. If you do not speak clearly or speak too fast, it does get confused.

Web 3.0 on the Horizon

Have you learned everything about how to use web 2.0 effectively? If not, get ready to fall further behind. Articles are already starting to circulate about web 3.0 and what that will mean for Internet users.

CNNMoney.com in an article by Michael V. Copeland shared how researchers are looking into the efficient use of the semantic web. In other words how can computers help to organize all the data, including that within documents, for the benefit of Internet searchers.

If you are looking for future employment opportunities consider this data from the article:

One estimate pegs the market for products and services stemming from semantic Web technologies at $50 billion by 2010, up from about $7 billion today.

Interface to the Virtual World

Benjamin Chodroff, a Case Western Reserve University student, recently participated in an IBM internship called "Extreme Blue" in India. He proposed an interface to connect real and virtual worlds, such as Second Life.

SPARC Video Contest

Check out this video contest!

CALL FOR ENTRIES
SPARC Announces Mind Mashup:
A Video Contest to Showcase Student Views on Information Sharing

Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales and Documentary Filmmaker Peter Wintonick Among Judges Selecting $1,000 Prize Winner

Washington, DC - July 25, 2007 - SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) today announced the launch of the first annual SPARC Discovery Awards, a contest to promote the open exchange of information. Mind Mashup, the theme of the 2007 contest, calls on entrants to illustrate in a short video the importance of sharing ideas and information of all kinds. Mashup is an expression referring to a song, video, Web site or software application that combines content from more than one source.

Consistent with SPARC's mission as an international alliance of academic and research libraries promoting the benefits of information sharing, the contest encourages new voices to join the public discussion of information policy in the Internet age. Designed for adoption as a college or high school class assignment, the SPARC Discovery Awards are open to anyone over the age of 15.

Contestants are asked to submit videos of two minutes or less that imaginatively show the benefits of bringing down barriers to the open exchange of information. Submissions will be judged by a panel that includes:

• Aaron Delwiche, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas
• José-Marie Griffiths, Professor & Dean at the School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Rick Johnson, communications consultant and founding director of SPARC
• Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC
• Karen Rustad, president of Free Culture 5C and a senior at Scripps College majoring in media studies
• Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia
• Peter Wintonick, award-winning documentary filmmaker and principal of Necessary Illusions Productions Inc.

"I'm very proud to be judging this contest," said Karen Rustad. "When it comes to debates over Internet information policy, students are usually subjects for study or an object for concern. I can't wait to see what my contemporaries have to say about mashup culture and open access to information once they're given the mike -- or, rather, the camera."

The contest takes as its inspiration a quote from George Bernard Shaw: "If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas."

Submissions must be received by December 2, 2007. Winners - including a first-place winner and two runners up - will be announced in January 2008. The winner will receive $1,000 and a "Sparky Award." The runners up will each receive $500. Winning entries will be publicly screened at the American Library Association Midwinter Conference in January 2008 in Philadelphia and will be prominently featured in SPARC's international advocacy and campus education activities.

For further details, please see the contest Web site at http://sparkyawards.org.

SPARC
SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), with SPARC Europe and SPARC Japan, is an international alliance of more than 800 academic and research libraries working to create a more open system of scholarly communication. SPARC is a founding member of the Alliance for Taxpayer Access, a coalition of patient, academic, research, and publishing organizations that supports open public access to the results of federally funded research - including research funded by the National Institutes of Health. SPARC is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/sparc/.

Aerospace Industry is Graying & Recruits Virtually

According to the Akron Beacon Journal (Aerospace industry beckons, 5/28/07), 1 out of 4 in the aerospace industry will be eligible for retirement next year. Aerospace companies and recruiters are now using "virtual" tools to recruit, such as Facebook groups and chat rooms. These social tools are being used to educate potential future employers, peak interest in the industry, and maintain content with past interns.

Girls Ask Alice for Programming Skills

Alice is an open source program to create 3D computer animations. Due to its ease of use, it is being used to target future programmers, especially minorities and woman that make up the smaller percentages of the field.

[VIA: What's New @ IEEE for Students, April 2007 Volume 8, Number 4]

Social Computing Specialization - How Much More 2.0 Can Your Degree Be

The University of Michigan School of Information now offers a specialization in Social Computing.

Have other schools or degree programs went beyond a single class or workshop? I have not seen any myself.

(As a person living in Ohio, I am only allowed to use the "m" word once a year, so this was it.)

Google Maps has a Sense of Humor

1. Go to Google Maps
2. Click on "get directions"
3. Type "New York" in the first box  (the "from" box)
4. Type "London"  in the second box (the "to" box) (hit get directions)
5. Scroll down  to step #23

Will your face be your next password?

Check out this CNET News.com video that demonstrates a desktop 3D face recognition camera that could be the future of computer and data security.

Continue reading "Will your face be your next password?"

Google in All Languages

According to CIO Insight, Google is building their own machine translation algorithms. Google has always offered some form of translation services through third party service, but now the ones for Arabic, Chinese and Russian are in-house creations.

What Does Cleveland 2.0 Look Like?

Have you tried Second Life yet? I have been participating since late last year. Many libraries have built virtual offices and buildings. I personally have been using it as a tool to communicate and share ideas with other librarians. I have already attended several online conferences and poster sessions within Second Life. It has been a nice networking tool to meet with people from other libraries that do not attend the same real world meetings or conferences as me.

I am excited to see OneCleveland and that Case is leading the way. For more local information, see the following articles:

• Cleveland 2.0: Where avatars fly, chat, tour the Rock Hall, The Plain Dealer, Friday, March 16, 2007, Tom Feran
• Plain Dealer Early Edition: Cleveland gets a Second Life, The Plain Dealer, Friday, March 15, 2007, Tom Feran
• Plain Dealer Early Edition: Want a Second Life? It's Yours, The Plain Dealer, Friday, March 15, 2007, Tom Feran

I took these photos over the weekend.

The map that greats visitors to OneCleveland.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/briangray/890245864/

Kelvin Smith Library in OneCleveland.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/briangray/542633772/

More on New Workshop

As I mentioned before, I am teaching a new workshop for the Kent State University School of Library & Information Science.

I have used a couple of the existing web 2.0 tools to share my workshop content. Check out the Squidoo page to see what readings and tools we used. On SlideShare, I posted the introductory slides I used before we moved on to our hands-on assignments.

What You Post Today Can Get You Fired Later

Here is another example of a person forgetting that the Internet is open to the world and you cannot take back you email once you hit send. In this case, it was a city worker forwarding political cartoons using a work computer. After being forwarded several times among other people, it was forwarded to the local newspaper as an example of government waste. What do you think - 6 month of investigation or weeks of secret interviews and computer filtering? No, the paper had it in less than 6 hours of the email starting its circulation.

UPDATE: Link fixed on March 5, 2007.

Rexa - Computer Science Literature

Rexa is a digital library and search engine covering the computer science research literature and the people who create it. Rexa aims to facilitate research progress and collaboration by providing efficient browsing, search, associations and analysis among papers, people, organizations, venues and research communities.

• Keyword search on over 7 million papers (mostly in computer science)
• Cross-linked pages for papers, authors, topics and NSF grants
• Browsing by citations, authors, topics, co-authors, cited authors, citing authors; (find who cites you most by clicking "Citing authors" on your home page)
• Web-2.0-style "tagging" to bookmark papers
• Automatically-gathered contact info and photos of author's faces
• Analysis of research topics, their impact, and how they relate

Check out the FAQ for more information.

Descriptions pulled from About Rexa and Rexa FAQ.

Rexa blog also provides more information and highlights additional resources.

100 Million Web Sites on the Internet

Netcraft reported in November of 2006 that the Internet contains over 100 million web sites. It estimated a doubling of the number of sites since May of 2004.

IEEE Spectrum - The Firefox Kid

In November of 2006, IEEE Spectrum interviewed Blake Ross, founder of Firefox. The article explores the early years of Ross (if a 20 year old has early years) and looks at his next project: Parakey - a "web operating system that can do everything an OS can do".

Cell Broadband Engine (Cell/B.E.) Challenge

IBM is pleased to announce an excellent opportunity for you to put your skills to the test and allow innovation to take the lead!

You can participate in this contest whether you have little or no Cell/B.E. Processor experience, some understanding of the techology, or have mastered this subject for some time now.

What you really need is the drive and competitive spirit to expand your mind, learn about this cutting edge technology, and show off your coding prowess. With some hard work and dedication, you could win some great cash prizes!

Learn more about the contest.

[VIA: Case Daily - February 20, 2007]

Larry Page to Scientists

CNet News.com shares a image of Larry Page, co-founder of Google, speaking to the scientists at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). CNET reported that Page told the scientists to "market them (scientific studies) better and make them readily accessible to the world".

What if Academic Libraries Ceased to Exist?

Lynn Scott Cochrane, Director of Libraries at Denison University, shares several scenarios that demonstrate why "not everything is available free on the web." This is a great read for anyone that thinks the Internet holds all the answers, or if you do not know (or cannot explain) how libraries and the Internet complement each other.

[VIA: EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 42, no. 1 (January/February 2007): 6–7]

User Annotation of Videos - Very Web 2.0

The other day I posted a YouTube video called Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us.

The author has went Web 2.0 to the extreme. If you watch the same video from a website called mojiti, you get to add you own comments.

Video: Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

Want to summarize Web 2.0 in under 5 minutes - this YouTube video does just that.

Even better check out the same video using a website called mojiti. It allows a user to annotate and comment within the video. The author of the original video posted it and said give me your thoughts. How Web 2.0 of him/her!

Google Snippets Still Illegal in Belgium

The Library Journal has reported that a Belgian court upheld the earlier ruling that Google "snippets" of Belgian newspapers in Google News violated Belgian copyright laws.

[VIA: Library Journal Academic Newswire, February 15, 2007]

What is Web 2.0?

This video demonstrates Web 2.0 in under 5 minutes.

What if Academic Libraries Ceased to Exist?

Lynn Scott Cochrane, Director of Libraries at Denison University, shares several scenarios that demonstrate why "not everything is available free on the web." This is a great read for anyone that thinks the Internet holds all the answers, or if you do not know (or cannot explain) how libraries and the Internet complement each other.

[VIA: EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 42, no. 1 (January/February 2007): 6–7]

Do You Expect Photo Privacy on the Net

When you post pictures online, do you expect privacy or the ability to remain anonymous? I personally feel if you post online you waived all those expectations. The Internet is open to the world, so you will eventually be found by someone.

National Geographic News (January 5, 2007) reports that the ability to stay anonymous in photos is really changing in the near future. Currently, photos can only be searched by the words in the caption or filename. A company called Polar Rose plans to launch an Internet - based face recognition software that will be compatible with Flickr.

I agree that the software can be abused by the criminal element, potential employers reaching beyond traditional due diligence, or current employers monitoring the non-work activities of employers. I believe you go after the abusers and not the tools.

This tool will be powerful and very beneficial. Imagine searching for a lost child or a criminal on the run. Or, imagine being able to locate pictures others are posting of you. I think the benefits greatly outweigh the possible abuses. Besides, I will go back to my original statement - if you post on the Internet, you have already waived your rights to privacy.

Continue reading "Do You Expect Photo Privacy on the Net"

Web 2.0 Does not Mix Well with Driving

Here is an example of one negative component that has been created by the younger generations, technology, and/or the desire to always be connected.

According to the Seattle Times (December 6, 2006), a BlackBerry user caused a multiple car accident during rush hour. The article points out that all the emphasis put on phone use in cars has not been directed towards other communication devices yet.

At least the man could immediately email his insurance information to everyone.

[VIA: CNET News.com, December 6, 2006]

Google Answers Being Shut down

Google has announced the Google Answers will no longer be accepting questions. By the end of the year, new answers will no longer be accepted as well. It appears with the goal of focusing on searching and innovation, this 4+ year old research project has stopped creating new ideas.

Not Heard Often - Google Makes a Subtraction

Google has announced the Google Answers will no longer be accepting questions. By the end of the year, new answers will no longer be accepted as well. It appears with the goal of focusing on searching and innovation, this 4+ year old research project has stopped creating new ideas.

Exploding Laptop Battery Demonstration

Here is a video created by some people that wanted to demonstrate the danger of an exploding laptop battery. I would not want this occurring in my lap. Reminds up to backup our data as well.

What did you do for World Usability Day 2006

Over at my other blog, Are You 2.0 Yet?, I focus on topics related to Web 2.0 and its application in libraries.

I have posted about a local event I attended in support of World Usability Day 2006. It also allowed me a sneak peak into the Cleveland Art Museum during their big remodeling and expansion.

World Usability Day 2006

What did you do for World Usability Day on November 14, 2006?

I attended a session consisting of roundtable discussions on Web Accessibility, Web 2.0, User Research, Remote Usability Testing, Eye Tracking, Internal Usability Testing, Art and Usability, and Landing Page Usability with representatives from KeyBank, Intuit, Progressive Insurance, Ernst & Young, eMergent Marketing, Brulant, Kent State University (IAKM) and other northeast Ohio companies and universities.

It was hosted at the Cleveland Museum of Art, sponsored by KeyBank, and facilitated by the Northeast Ohio Chapter of the Usability Professionals Association (NEOUPA).

It was nice to explore what others were doing and have a combination of corporations, academics, and non-profits share in these discussions. KeyBank demonstrated their portable usability system that they use to record employee responses when using various web applications. Ernst & Young demonstrated how they use web conferencing software to allow employees from all over the world to participate in their usability studies. Someone demonstrated how using eye tracking software you can record where people look and how long they look at specific locations on your website. A speaker from Progressive discussed how Web 2.0 is changing expectations in usability and making attempts for standardization tougher. Another speaker explored designing websites with accessibility for those with disabilities. Kent State demonstrated their usability lab and related research.

The Wiki has been Googlized

Will the Wiki go mainstream now that Google has bought JotSpot? Read more about the Google and JotSpot relationship.

Search Mash

Search Mash lets you search the internet in new ways. It is constantly evolving as they come up with ideas and figure out what works and what doesn't. Checkout the features page from time to time to see what has changed, and also to tell them which features are useful to you. They ask that you bear with them when the site is unavailable as they are limiting its use. Also, see the Terms of Service and Privacy statements.

[VIA: Journal of Search-Engines, LISNews, October 4, 2006]

Continue reading "Search Mash"

Warning - MySpace Phishing

MySpace has become the newest target of phishing attacks. Phishing is the sending out of an email that appears to be legitimate in order to steal personal or credit card information from a recipient.

No Google Snippets in Belgium

Google has lost a court case in Belgium to include "snippets" of newspaper articles in Google News. In the U.S., publishers have been asking Google to index more content in order to push subscriptions and pay-per-view purchases. I guess Google needs to walk a real interesting tight rope.

[VIA: Library Journal - Academic Newswire, September 28, 2006]

Continue reading "No Google Snippets in Belgium"

Craigslist Not For Sale

CNN.com reports that Craigslist is not for sale, even though another social networking website MySpace was just valued at over $15 million.

The founder of Craigslist, Craig Newmark, is a Case alumnus.

Movable Type Owner Acquires Rojo Networks

September 9, 2006 - Six Apart the company that developed and supports Movable Type, which is Case's blogging platform, has announced they have acquired Rojo Networks. Rojo runs a web-based RSS feed reader. Maybe Case will end up with a recommended feed reader as a companion to the blog system?

See the full Six Apart - Press.

The MySpace Ecosystem

Business Week (July 25, 2006) documents the amazing growth of MySpace and how 3rd party participants are investing in its future.

• In the past year, MySpace went from 17 million unique monthly visitors to 54 million unique monthly users
• Generates more page views than any other site on the Web, except for Yahoo!

(VIA: Slashdot, July 21, 2006)

Google Accessible Search

Accessible Search is an early Google Labs product designed to identify and prioritize search results that are more easily usable by blind and visually impaired users. Regular Google search helps you find a set of documents that is most relevant to your tasks. Accessible Search goes one step further by helping you find the most accessible pages in that result set.

(VIA: CNET News.com, July 19, 2006)

Google & ACS Trademark Case

According to CNET News.com, the Google Scholar trademark case ends with the American Chemical Society.

ACS, which was founded in 1876 and claims to be the world's largest scientific society, sued Google in 2004. The suit claimed that the free "Google Scholar" journal-search service unfairly competes with ACS' "SciFinder Scholar," which appears to be more comprehensive but charges a fee.

Google Desktop Gadget Contest

Do you have what it takes to create a great Google Desktop Gadget? Have you been waiting for some motivation to prove it? Well, good news -- the Google Desktop Gadget Contest is here to spur you into brilliant action.

The contest runs until August 14, 2006 and, while supplies last, each developer who submits an approved gadget will receive a limited edition Google Desktop Developer T-shirt and have their gadget shown to millions of Google Desktop users around the world. A panel of judges will also award three prizes based on popularity, visual appeal, use of new features and creativity. We'll award $5,000 to the first place winner, $2,000 for second place, and $1,000 for third place.

E-Mail, IM & Blog Risks - From the Employer Perspective

On July 11, 2006, the American Management Association (AMA) and the ePolicy Institute have released the results of their 2006 Workplace E-Mail, Instant Messaging & Blog Survey.

Here are a few highlights to raise your interest:

• 24% of organizations have had employee e-mail subpoenaed
• 15% of companies have gone to court to battle lawsuits triggered by employee e-mail
• 26% of employers have terminated employees for e-mail misuse
• Nearly 2% have fired workers for offensive blog content

The AMA summary provides many more details, including highlighting some blogging concerns such as copyright, harassment, or security breaches.

Mapping Wireless Networks

MIT's iSPOTS project aims at describing changes in living and working at MIT by mapping the dynamics of the wireless network in real-time. Check out the various graphic representations of wireless usage at MIT. They are hoping this project would lead to analysis tools that other organizations and cities could use.