Google Docs and the online/oncampus student

Any time the situation invloves any type of collaborative document creation, team-project etc. I always suggest Google Docs. Even most recently in my Information Visualization class, when I needed to collaborate with another student, I suggest that we both use Google Docs. Lucky for me this student had taken Social-Software with Steve last semester so he had an account. Work was seamless, easy and we got it turned in on time. I have used it for countless other SCILS classes including Metadata and Interface Design. Google Docs is my go-to, get-it-done, online-in-a-cloud favorite app. 

However, in most of these instances the professors had not even thought to work in this way. As a matter of fact most people don't think of working this way, and it's mainly cause they don't know that they can. Once they get going though, it really catches on and they start using it for all kinds of things personal and educational. I think reluctance to use the tool, would only be out of lack-of-knowledge of the tool. I really think that if they know it exists and know what the application is capable and they are open to using online tools for collaboration its a "no-contest" and they generally accept its use. 

As far as efficiency and collaboration its the best tool for the job. Documents are edited in real-time allowing all users to zoom in and out, making changes, adding content all without emailing one single document back and forth. Its one less thing to worry about for project collaboration. No more questions like "is this the most recent version?", "is this the one she/he just emailed me?". Google Docs makes it quick, easy and painless to collaborate on any project. 

PBwiki -vs- Wikidot

I've used PBwiki several times for class projects in the Library Science Program. I've always been frustrated however by its lack of CSS support unless you are a "power-user" and pay for an upgrade. I also like having a little more control over what my wiki looks like. I tried to see if I could do better. I really based on my choice of wiki software on the look of the website design itself, as the tours didnt really give you a look into the interface that you would be presented with and I wanted to make a choice quickly. 

• PBwiki -it's got ease of use on its side, new users should be able to create pages easily. 
• wikidot - its interface is a bit intimidating, it's hard to know where to start, having the "edit button at the bottom of the page is not intuitive. 
• PBwiki edit interface - uses very familiar icons, similiar to using MS office or any type of other popular text editing software, even similiar to Bloggers edit interface.wikidot - opts to use buttons
  
  
  
  
• Wikidot - opts to use buttons that are less intuitive. 
  
  
  
  
• Wikidot suppports all kinds of bizarre and unexpected editor features such as: mathematical equations, inline mathematical expressions, equation reference, bibliography block, citations and footnotes. 
• PBwiki - has many of the above Wikidot features, but they are buried in the plug-ins menu. 
• Wikidot - you can embed audio and video quickly
• PBwiki - you have to find the embed video in the plug-ins section
• Wikidot - not a wysiwyg editor
• PBwiki - closer to a wysiwyg than Wikidot
• Wikidot - has its own html/wiki syntax, not really a plus in my book
• PBwiki - uses nice and straightforward HTML
• Wikidot - no access to the HTML code
  
• PBwiki - can edit the HTML, but no CSS support

In a nutshell, I will gladly resign some control to have the ease of a nicely designed interface to use to create "quick and dirty" wiki pages. Don't think I will be giving up my PBwiki account any time soon for a Wikidot account. 

Del.icio.us -vs- Ma.gnolia

Well, lets just start by saying I am a die-hard Del.icio.us user and supporter. So I'm going to mainly focus on Ma.gnolia and how it differs from Del.icio.us. 

My first impressions:

• Ma.gnolia is its too cutesy! No IT/Techie in thier right mind will feel "cutting-edge" by logging in to share thier bookmarks via Ma.gnolia. 
• the interface is easy to use
  
• the sophistication of Del.icio.us is just not there (lots can be communicated through design)
• I do like the bookmarks page that the user sees first thing after they save a bookmark, but I also find it showing too much unrequested details. If I want to see that info I will select a tab that will show that to me.
• I really like the little webpage thumbnail preview nicely done, however when a thumbnail is that small is it really adding anything other than color to the page? 

Not a great first impression however, one that makes me not want to explore too much more. It's just not my style. However, I can see it's target audience being younger female users, Mom's, etc. Not power users. 

LibraryThing - a digital bookshelf

Library thing is a great way to keep track of your own personal book collection. Library thing allows you to catalog your own book collection. Personally, I use library thing to keep track of my leisure reading, as cataloging all my classical studies books would be a mountainous task. Library thing helps me also keep track of my collection by allowing a type of folksonomy tagging. For example I have my books separated into "unread" and "read" sections via tagging.  I also even have an "unfinished" tag. I tend to "mooch" lots of books via another site called "Bookmooch" and LibraryThing allows me to keep track of what's coming in and going out. 

The interface is very intuitive with navigation tabs: home, profile, you library, tags and add books among other more social and informative navigational tabs further to the right of the main interface. When viewing "your library" LibraryThing gives you several views and ways to examine your collection. 

List Covers

Tags

Styles A B C D E

Power edit Print

All fieldsTitles/authorsTagsReviewsCommentsSubjectsMost fields

In addition to various different way to view your collection. LibraryThing also integrates other services such as: GoogleBooks, Library of Congress Classifications. 

What makes LibraryThing web2.o is the users ability to also view others who have similiar collections to thier own, view all the users that have a particular book in thier collection. Along with lots of user groups users can join such as: Librarians Who LibraryThing or FantasyFans, to more inventive ones such as I Survived the Great Vowel Shift. 

Overall LibraryThing gives users the ability to play librarian of thier own collections, its no surpise so many librarians LibraryThing. Its great to control your inventory, so much so that some libraries are using it for thier collections http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6403633.html. 

When to put up the privacy curtains? You've just received a friend request from you Mom on Facebook...

Ok, just your average day, open up your email to find a Facebook request from you Mom. Yes, your completely and adult, nothing to hide, so no reason not to right? Right? Well, not so fast, I think. Why the hesitation? Maybe its because you also friend lots of people from work and don't want you mom posting weird things like "Miss you Honey, Oh, you look so cute!  -Love you Mom", "When are you going to come visit? - It's been too long, Mom", "do you want a crock-pot? Love, itchy poo" and any other number of weird things and topics. It's not so much you don't want her to see your stuff or read stuff about your friends. However, it's more like you don't want your friends and co-workers reading stuff from you mom, reading your mom's profile, etc. Then again her finding out about the two business trips you've taken right near her hometown via your status messages, might not be so easy to brush over. So what's next twitter? That will be interesting. I say you make a rule, the most diplomatic way possible. When it comes down to friending your mom, de-friend all your family (so no one feels left out) and tell them, I would like to keep my personal life private not from my family, but from everyone else. There, problem solved. 

New to me Social Software Pt. II - The Found Bin!

The Found Bin

http://www.thefoundbin.com/

Ok, being someone who has loved and lost and loved again, I love the idea of this website. However the only way for it to be truly useful is to have a VERY wide user base. I tried doing a few random searches, but nothing came up. However, I still really appreciate the idea behind this website and would love to see it grow and become more widely used. A good way to possibily start to widen that user base would be to work directly with the chamber of commerce in different cities across the globe and incourage them to incorporate the use of this tool into thier own lost-n-found system structures. A few media spots wouldn't be a bad idea either. 

Here's to hoping that some people are reuinited with thier favorite things.

New to me Social Software Pt. I - Wakoopa!

http://wakoopa.com/

What a fun little app! Total invasion of personal time...however, very, very interesting. 

Above is a embedable widget from the site listing all the software I am curretnly running on my PC. Wow! Pretty scary when you think about it. Right now I am just trying to understand the benefits of something like this, or rather the social software benefits of this. Here are some of my initial thoughts.

• discover new software via your contacts
• see what people are doing
• see how you spend your time

Also from a software development/use standpoint, there is lots of usage statistics that can be harvested. For example they have this quote on the website:

"Did you know communicating is the second biggest activity on the computer? We do. Wakoopa knows software" 

What do you guys think?