Archive for May, 2008
Network Information Advisor Interview On Social Graphing
Posted on May 31, 2008 01:55:19 PM
Today, I was interviewed for the December issue of the Information Advisor (knowledge management supplement), this is subscription only…still awaiting my copy. The interview was edited to fit the supplement format, but it has been posted in full at Robert Berkman’s Intelligent Agent blog, the post is John Tropea of LibraryClips discusses enterprise social graph searching. With Robert’s permission I have included the interview here. This space is so fast and still a bit blurry (everyone has their own interpretation)…this interview was back at the start of November, a lot has happened and talked about in this time. In the interim I posted something on this same topic, see Social network and graph ecology. Interview In the December issue of The Information Advisor’s quarterly knowledge management supplement, on an article on Twine and social graph searching, I wrote up an excerpt of an interview with John Tropea, a librarian and blogger at LibraryClips who has spent a great deal of time thinking and writing about social networks and graphs. I could only fit a short portion of the interview in our print publication—here is the entire interview, conducted by email: (apologies for the lack of embedded links!) 1. First, can you tell me a but about your background and blog? In the information industry I have mainly worked as an academic librarian for an Australian college of natural medicine, several non-profit psychotherapy libraries, and about a year ago I moved from our Engineering corporate library to the document management team. As a corporate librarian the focus was on conducting research/analysis and delivery, in a way I was like a consultant working for many projects within our organization.Besides running the library the other main focus was a weekly blog of the latest industry news. …
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Server Fantasy Sports Matrix: Meeting All Your Fanboy Needs?
Posted on May 31, 2008 02:38:16 AM
Today,
With the summer Olympics coming up, there’s been a large push for getting sports content on the web, involved in more distribution methods, and more integrated within existing networks for additional user engagement. While we’re seeing this from larger entities such as FOX, ESPN and NBC, we’re also seeing it from various startups, many of which are taking a portal and start page approach to the delivery of sports.
The other favorite format for startups is the fantasy sports angle, which is becoming increasingly integrated with start page-like functionality, offering users the statistical info right along with the fantasy sports team features (where you need it most, right?). The latest to launch in this space is Fantasy Sports Matrix (FSM), which is releasing its public beta today.
From a personalized news stream that can be filtered according to content origin among other things, to a fantasy sports utility that lets you compete with other FSM users, this new network is taking a bit of an all-encompassing approach to a sports fan social media tool. With individual profile pages, users can promote themselves and their smarts, too, with blogs, media-sharing tools, polls, and wikis. And lets not forget all the authority you can build up with fantasy picks.
Software Microsoft Wins Battle Over Open Document Format
Posted on May 30, 2008 04:30:09 PM
Admin wrote: Microsoft won an international standards designation for its open document format, ending a divisive yearlong battle with some of its commercial competitors before a global standards-setting organization.
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Impressive Picnik Launches Api For Web-based Photo-editing
Posted on May 30, 2008 01:37:45 AM
Today,
Web-based photo editor Picnik has released a new feature called Picnik-in-a-Box, which is its new API offering. Any company can now integrate the Picnik tool into their own website for free. As we’ve seen in the past few months, Picnik has been a top choice for several photo-sharing and other types of social networks for adding the value of editing photos directly within their own services.
Flickr is probably the most notable photo-sharing network that has integrated Picnik’s editing tools, enabling users to edit, add graphics and modify their photos right inside Flickr, without having to work from a desktop application or head over to a third-party website.
Box.net was the other major service to incorporate Picnik’s tools. As a file-sharing network, Box.net’s implementation of Picnik’s photo-editing tool has been quite interesting, as the approach has been to bring in as many third-party solutions for modifying, utilizing and managing your files.
The major competitor at this point is Adobe’s web-based Photoshop Express, which is a lightweight version of its Photoshop software. Adobe has been working to line up partners for its web-based service as well, which so far includes Photobucket.
New Updates Talks Between Hollywood Writers And Producers Break Down
Posted on May 29, 2008 09:36:41 AM
Admin wrote: The latest contract was allowed to expire Wednesday, opening up the possibility that members of the writers’ unions may strike if a deal is not soon reached.
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New Source What’s In A Name? - Knowledge Management 0.0 2008 Conference Event
Posted on May 28, 2008 09:20:08 PM
Today, Over the last couple of days my head has been buzzing around with what promises to be quite an adventure, for sure. Yes, indeed, I am talking about the "Next Generation Knowledge Sharing & Learning Online Conference Event - In Spring 2008?", which I blogged about a couple of days ago. Since that blog post, and after various conversations in Twitter, a number of different ideas and conversations have started to come together and by the looks of it, it sounds like the thought of a face to face event here in Gran Canaria is gaining more and more momentum by the minute. I am in the process now of checking a number of different things and how they could work together, which, for those of you familiar with hosting these kind of events I am sure you can relate to a great extent. At this point in time, I cannot confirm anything at the moment, since I am just getting started with various different conversations trying to find out how we could make it happen, but the fact that we have got about 40 people interested thus far (And more coming up, I am sure) is a good enough start for us, I would think. I have been thinking that having an event with about 200 for the first edition may well be an interesting beginning and already having 20% of that target audience is a good enough motivation to keep moving things further. Or, at least, try to. I am sure that, when the time comes, I will be probably asking for some additional help and advice on a number of different topics, but for the time being I thought I would bring up to you folks what I have been thinking as far as the title of the conference is concerned, so that you would have the opportunity to chime in and share your thoughts on it. …
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Brand New Update Universities To Enforce Copyright Protection Or Else
Posted on May 28, 2008 12:37:18 AM
Admin wrote:
The US House of Representatives has gone a step further in helping the helpless RIAA and MPAA in defending themselves from the monstrous and looming threat of college students with P2P clients. For a while there, I was worried that mom and pop entertainment companies would no longer be able to afford the salaries of those that produce the entertainment for us consumers, but lucky for us Congress is on the job.
In the House Education and Labor Committee’s comprehensive College Opportunity and Affordability Act, there is a small section dictating that any university in receipt of federal funding shall act as an enforcement agents for the stoppage of unlawful downloading. The committee unanimously approved the bill today.
This comes hot on the heels of Warner head’s apology for going to war with its customers, but perhaps he forgot to remind his lobbyists that his customers include kids in college. No matter, though; defunding American higher education is a small price to pay to ensure we remain entertained.
[via ZDnet]
New Scripts Andy Powell Is Spot On
Posted on May 27, 2008 09:30:46 AM
Today, Former colleague Andy Powell is always good value, and this recent blog post about his trip to Melbourne is one small demonstration of why I will always listen to him.It’s hard to nod vehemently in a blog post, and as it’s the school holidays in this part of the UK, screaming ‘Yes’ at the computer just results in children banging down the door to see if I’m ok…So let me draw out three short snippets…, “…our current preoccupation with the building and filling of ‘repositories’ (particularly ‘institutional repositories’) rather than the act of surfacing scholarly material on the Web means that we are focusing on the means rather than the end”"…our focus on the ‘institution’ as the home of repository services is not aligned with the social networks used by scholars, meaning that we will find it very difficult to build tools that are compelling to those people we want to use them”"…that the ’service oriented’ approaches that we have tended to adopt in standards like the OAI-PMH, SRW/SRU and OpenURL sit uncomfortably with the ‘resource oriented’ approach of the Web architecture and the Semantic Web”…comment briefly…Our current approach, fundamentally, is totally, completely, utterly wrong, isn’t it?…and then send you off to read the whole thing. Off you go…Technorati Tags: Andy Powell, open access, open data, repositories, Talis (Source: panlibus)
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Brand New Impressive Orange Users Get Unlimited Bebo Access For £3 Each Month
Posted on May 26, 2008 05:31:49 PM
Today,
Mobile service provider Orange and social network Bebo announced that Orange customers can now get unlimited Bebo access for £3 (6.1 US dollars) per month. This plan, called “Bebo Extra”, will enable users to comment on their friends’ profiles, send Bebo Mails and receive profile notifications via SMS, all at a single price.
Bebo is a hugely popular social network in the UK, and UK users love using SMS. Furthermore, Bebo already has a deal with Orange for the Bebo Mobile service, and they also have a Twitter-like service. This new plan makes it even easier for Orange users to reach their favorite social network through their mobile phones.
Or, as Katrien Barrat, Director of Multimedia and Convergence at Orange UK has put it, “The great thing with Bebo mobile is that we have found one more way to change our customers’ mobiles from a one-to-one communication device to a complete social networking tool, enabling people to engage in conversations, discover new interests and express themselves in a completely new way.”
As far as mobile access goes, Bebo is really trying hard, and since all these cool SMS gizmos are killer features for the European SMS-loving audience, we expect it to continue gaining ground over their competition, at least in the UK.
Brand New Source Google Acquiring An Aura Of Vulnerability
Posted on May 26, 2008 03:16:42 AM
Admin wrote: The decline in Google shares has raised questions, at least on Wall Street, about a company that just four months ago seemed unstoppable.
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