Medical education sites in Second Life

The list of "Top educational locations in Second Life" from HealthCyberMap includes over 20 virtual learning centers. The compilers of the list have also written about their research on the educational value of 3D virtual worlds in the article "Second Life: an overview of the potential of 3-D virtual worlds in medical and health education" (Health Info Libr J., 2007 Dec;24(4):233-45).

Embed Flickr photos in blogs and web pages

We're covering Flickr in the Web 2.0 class this week, so I decided to create some documentation on how to embed Flickr photos in blog posts, web pages, and other web-based tools (like Sakai discussion posts). Since we're covering Flickr, I created this documentation in Flickr as a series of three screenshots with write-ups in the description fields. I thought I'd share them here too, in case others find them useful. Just click on each image to go to a larger version in Flickr.

Digital divide, Web 2.0, and the real world

Here's a wonderfully written and thoughtful short essay from John Gehner, originally posted to the PUBLIB list, then republished on the website of the Hunger, Homelessness & Poverty Task Force of the Social Responsibilities Round Table of ALA. It provides a nice counterpoise to much of the breathless reportage on Libraries 2.0.

Upload video to YouTube from your cell phone

At Tech Talk yesterday, we talked about uploading video to YouTube from video-enabled cell phones. It's possible! Allen found an announcement on C-Net from last May about it, and I searched the YouTube Help Center this morning and found instructions. So fire up those video phones and share your masterpieces with the world!

A Web 2.0 Experience

I had an interesting web 2.0 experience last week. I got a message on Flickr from a woman who wanted permission to use one of my photos in a software program she was creating for autistic children. I'm not sure how she found the photo, a picture of my son taken on vacation last summer, since it's tagged only with my son's name:



Apparently her software uses pictures to illustrate concepts like listening, to help autistic kids make the connection between words and their meanings. If you want to know more, you can visit her web site at http://www.hiyah.net/software.html.

Anyway, this experience got me thinking a bit about how web 2.0 technologies can bring people together in amazing new ways. How would this woman have found photos for her software before sites like Flickr became available? She would likely either have to purchase stock photos or take her own, either of which would increase the cost of producing her programs. And would I have ever gotten in touch with someone like her? Probably not. Web 2.0 sites like Flickr and YouTube bring people together based on the content they create, rather than stated interests, geographic proximity, etc. And we never know who will be interested in our content, or for what purpose. We just put it out there, tag it, and see what happens.

Chief Thingamabrarian

Chief Thingamabrarian is Tim Spalding, creator of LibraryThing. An article in the current issue of Library Journal features an interview with Spalding in which he talks about integrating LibraryThing into library catalogs, providing an inexpensive way for libraries to offer tagging, reviews, ratings, etc. I'll be interested to see how the new features work. With any luck, he'll give the traditional (and expensive) vendors a run for their money.

Infomania

A story from the Seattle PI reports on a 2-day workshop at Microsoft last week devoted to "infomania" -- "the loss of concentration caused by the constant electronic interruptions that plague many office workers." The article notes some possible technological solutions to the problem (my favorite: a snooze button for email) and also notes that many people overuse Reply to All and copy people who really don't need to receive the message. The article ends with a few tips for managing email and information overload. Worth a read if only to reassure us that we aren't alone in dealing with this problem.