My Space as a Mom

I knew something was up when a teen boy walked by the computer and commented to my daughter, who was having a get together, "Hey, Dayna, your mom is on My Space!"

So what would be peculiar about that, I wondered?

Well, it is peculiar for a parent to have a My Space because teens want to have freedom and do not want their parents spying on them - as told to me by my 15 year old. It's a free way for them to express themselves whether in an appropriate manner or not.

Why did I sign up for a My Space? Well, of course, to spy on my kids' sites! It's about the only way to keep up with their lives outside of my home. We have many talks about being appropriate - including all those crazy pics - and to always be accountable for what you post.

Now I've used My Space to keep up with music groups and where they're performing. Do I spy much - no! So, K & D, behave yourselves on My Space, why can't I be in your top friend list and, when you block me, no more computer for you!

My MP3 Player!

Hi all! I'm looking forward to having an MP3 player for several reasons. One, because I've spent many hundreds of dollars so that my two teen daughters may have the lastest and greatest Ipods and they use them constantly. Secondly, I would like to listen to music while walking and this will be great - less bulky than the portable CD player. Finally, as a teacher I have many students who ask me how to use them, how to upload music, etc. and now I'll be able to offer first-hand experience! :)

Introducing Live Plasma!

http://liveplasma.com/

Liveplasma is a wonderful site for searching music and films. Introduced to me by Learn 2.0, I've explored briefly and am impressed.

This site gives the information as a visual map - data is grouped according to interests, style, epoch and other criteria which suggest that someone will like it - as it relates to their search. The closer a film or band is to your favorite artist/film, the greater chances are that you will also enjoy that particular artist/film. Liveplasma can become your personal directory search tool for movies and bands/artists.

Just as an example, I did a search for Joe Nichols, a country-western artist. The map which gives related artists is quite colorful and informative. The 3 closests artists returned for this search were Darryl Worley (I checked out at OCLS his latest CD - not real impressed but can hear similarities), Alan Jackson and George Strait.

Also to the left is the Discography pane which lists the works of the artists. In this case, it gave about 5 CD's of Nichols which is linked to Amazon.com. (Awesome place to shop for 'used' CD's, etc.)

Log on and you can do searches by Artist/Band, Movie, Director and Actor. Have fun discovering new, related artists/movies!

OCLS Learn 2.0

OCLS offered all staff this class - Learn 2.0 and it's been fun and a wonderful learning experience. I've created blogs, explored many websites that incorporate unique search options and results, learned more about Web 2.0 - the "new generation" internet and much more. I've just finished Week 8 and would like to encourage all to keep learning, exploring and seeing what is out there that will make you think, productive and enrich your career and/or life! :)

Web 2.0 ~ Web Based Communities and More!

Web 2.0, a phrase created by O'Reilly Media in 2003 refers to a "perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0) — which encourages persons with shared interests to contribute ideas with each other.

Through an online class with OCLS, I was asked to explore a Web 2.0 site. Following is a particularly interesting one if you are interested in Top 10 lists. This site contains many categories for Top 10, gives a brief explanation and then gives the link for the article. Give it a try! Below are several interesting Top 10's I found while investigating http://www.toptentoptenlists.com/ .

TopTen Gadgets - #4 12 Ways to Pimp Your Office http://positivesharing.com/2007/03/12-ways-to-pimp-your-office/

TopTen Health - Top 10 Dad-Tested Ways to Soothe a Crying Baby http://www.babycentre.co.uk/baby/dads/10waystosoothebaby/

Topten Business - Top 5 Reasons Why "The Customer is Always Right" is wrong

Click here for the complete article and links to http://www.positivesharing.com/ .

There is also a Top 10 Web 2.0 list! Remember the coined phrase that said the internet is like a super-highway. Now, it's even speedier and can reach more places than the Concord!

Mashup? Got Gravy?

Mashup? I heard the term for the first time today. And being close to lunch time, I immediately thought about mashed potatoes, homemade with butter, sour cream and garlic - yummy~ OK, enough of that. Seriously, mashup does provide the gravy with some lumps!

Mashup defined by www.answers.com is "A mixture of content or elements. For example, an application that was built from routines from multiple sources or a Web site that combines content and/or scripts from multiple sources is said to be a mashup. The term became popular in the 2005 time frame." In other words, mashups are unique site that uses data from two or more other web sites to add value to both of them. (aka: multi-tasking web sites)

An example of a website that uses the mashup concept is http://www.housingmaps.com/ . Houses for sale advertised on craigslist.org are injected into Google Maps, allowing users to see the location of properties they are interested in.

Another mashup is http://www.markovic.com/markovic.com/ebay/search.php which allows a person to plot Ebay items on a Google map.

Mashups, being a fairly new phenomenon, provides interesting information (the gravy) but also comes with some issues (or lumps). According to an article from New Scientist Tech by by Paul Marks, dated May 12, 2006,
www.newscientisttech.com/article/mg19025516.400 , mashups are a hackers 'dream come true' because security is rarely considered and the information may be incorrect or false.

Ron Musser of www.programmableweb.com/ is well respected in the area of tracking and providing information about mashups. On the homepage to the lower left are links to popular mashups on topics such as dating, crimes, maps, photo, shopping, animal, new, celebrity and more. A wide variety of topics with many links to interesting sites.

Personally, I've found while researching the topic of mashups, that I will most likely will not search one out because it's a mashup, but will notice if it is a mashup once I am on the site. As far as security, I discovered that it only costs $60 a year for an SSL certificate that authenticates a server. Seems like a small price to pay to improve the issue of security. As with most new concepts with the internet and computers, the bugs need to be worked out and issues will be around as long as the internet exists. Be aware!

Wow! Have You Tried "GROKKER"?

What is Grokker? Grokker™ (www.grokker.com) is "a web-based enterprise search management platform that leverages the power of federated content access and visualization to maximize the value of information assets for enterprises, content publishers, libraries and other research-intensive organizations."

To be more clear, currently there are over 8 billion indexed web pages available from search engines like Google™ and Yahoo™. It's estimated that content found within company databases and Intranets may be 500 times larger than the public Web. (Can you do the math? 8,000,000,000 x 500 = 4,000,000,000,000!) Grokker delivers information from enterprise search applications such as the Google Search Appliance and FAST ESP, subscription content, and public web sources in a single web application - "all at once, all in one place".

Why would anyone need Grokker? A recent IDC (a company that compiles research of information technology companies and markets) study found that workers spend about 25% of their time searching for information with more than a third of that time producing unsatisfactory results - not pinpointing the desired topic specifically.

What's the answer? Grokker indexes content from across the entire enterprise, search applications make it easier for workers to find information. The challenge for the enterprise is that these solutions can be too successful – returning hundreds or even thousands of results for a single query leading to information overload. (Is that anything like email overload?)

Using Grokker will lead you to many more informative sites and then some! It provides an index where you then can narrow your search. For example, the "blogging for children" search provided 146 results divided into 28 sub-topics. For each result, it provided the outline title (Blogs for Kids #8, Blogging Classroom #7 to Social Networking #4 and Mother #3) - these titles will lead you to explore relevant topics. Select a result title and the specific results are listed in the right side pane. Even then you may specify the pane to show Less, Medium or More details.

From there, you're able to narrow down your search by viewing the titles of the sites found. However, I did find the information to be too much and like so often happens when I'm researching and browsing for information, I got bogged down. The good news is that this site will allow you to do your searching and view results that you're missing using Google™ and Yahoo™.

Try it - you might like it!

New to Blogging? (No, you don't need exercise equipment!)

~ Remember Your Blogging Manners ~

FYI - If your blog is a public blog (a blog that allows anyone to read it compared to one that is a private journal), you will be inviting people to read and comment on what you have written. In fact, the readers of your blog will be similar to having a visitor in your home. When you have visitors, you expect them to act a certain way - to behave appropriately. Now that you have or are considering having a blog, you will want those visiting (and those you vist, as well) to be polite and use some etiquette. Below are a few suggested "blog manners" that you may consider. They are not mandatory but 'blogging etiquette' is appreciated.

Leaving Comments

• It's not expected that you leave a comment when 'browsing' through blogs. You may certainly read, learn and enjoy and if you feel inclined, then post a comment.
• Compliments are always welcome. We all like to hear that we've done something well and that others have learned from us or even smiled from what we've done or written.
• If you do have a problem with something in the blog - your opinion and criticism may not be appreciated. If you do want to leave a comment, try making it 'constructive' and not 'destructive'. An attack, or flame, is in bad taste.
• Remember the saying, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" applies here ~ no need to be obnoxious or mean.
• Another 'in bad taste' action is that of being "Anonymous". It's usually considered unpolite and those who do post this way, should be ignored.
• Not all comments are responded to and not all posts will receive comments. That is perfectly OK ~ don't take it personally.
• If you have a blog and someone has commented (positively or negatively), it is considered polite to reply to their comment, thanking them for reading and commenting.
• Stalking is not appropriate! If you are constantly leaving comments on a blog or asking questions that are not responded to - take the hint - this blogger does not want to communicate.
• Never send an email to a blogger unless you've been invited to do so or if the blogger displays the e-mail address on the blog.
• Don't get personal with the blogger - however, if you're a regular visitor and you've experienced several exhanges with the blogger (positive ones, that is), a friendship may grow. Only at that time is it acceptable to exchange personal information. However, for many reasons, most bloggers like to remain anonymous and all relationships remain off-line and impersonal.
• Speaking of getting personal - don't be the one to ask for personal information. If the other person wants you to have any personal information, they will offer it.
• If and when you are 'flamed' or attacked for your postings, try to remain calm, don't stoop to the level of the flamer, use rational, well-thought-out arguments and be sure to (even though this might be difficult) thank the commentor for taking the time to read and comment. As they say, "Kill 'em with kindness."
• If you borrower something from someone else - a block of text, a unique phrase, a picture or graphic from another blog or website - indicate where it came from. Remember that copyrighted material is protected by law.

Adapted from My-Tech-Guide.com : 2006