Online "Filter Bubbles" - TedTalk by Eli Pariser

California Teacher Librarian Susie Goodin alerted California librarians to a TedTalk by Eli Pariser on the dangers of online "filter bubbles".  The description states that as web companies tailor their services and search results to our personal tastes, there is a dangerous yet unintended consequence -- we get trapped in a "Filter bubble" and don't get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldview.  Pariser argues that this will ultimately prove to be bad for us and for democracy.

This is particularly interesting for educators, given the high degree of Internet filtering in schools, thanks in large part to federal funding requirements under the E-Rate (Education Rate) program.

Google DemoSlams

After spending a few hours at the Googleplex being interviewed about my search strategy (what a scary thought...), I was asked if I could have anything more to help me search, what would it be.  I said "voice", the abilty to state what I wanted rather than type it in.  Then I said that there must already be an app for that on mobile devices.  

As it turns out, Google Voice does just that on mobile phones.  See "Chubby Bunny", one of the best demos featuring Google Voice.  Better yet, spend your lunchtime with DemoSlam by Google.  If you have a large screen monitor, it would be fun for a bunch of teachers or students to watch and vote for their favorite demos.


Here's an idea: Challenge middle and high school students to create demos and submit them -- use the school library as a backdrop!  Learn how to submit a demo to Google.  Have a blast.

Connie's suitcase @ airport

Petaluma (CA) High School Librarian Connie Williams now writes a monthly article for Follett Software's Library Connections blog.  Connie tells a story or two about using a technology, and then connects them to the school library.  "The Suitcase Strategy and the Power of Search" is a good example: two technology stories on the power of "search".

Connie's is the kind of column that should appear in the general news media, such as local newspapers.  How does a column get syndicated?  Educators and librarians spend too much time preaching to the choir and not enough time reaching out to the public, public policymakers, and TV/movie producers.

PIVOT - Gary Flake

A "tweet" from Bill Gates alerted me to a 6 minute TED presentation by Microsoft Technical Fellow Gary Flake on PIVOT, a tool that looks for patterns in massive amounts of data to find information and possibly knowledge. See the video below:

EveryZING - search spoken words within videos

American Libraries Direct 10/23 carried an item about EveryZING and its universal search technology for online audio and video.

"New media player allows spoken-word searchEveryZing, a media indexing company, is launching its own media player that lets people search for spoken words within videos. The new video player, called MetaPlayer, uses technology the company already has in its ezSearch and ezSEO products. On sites that support it (the first announced is the Dallas Cowboys site), users will be able to type in a query in the video player and see where the term entered comes up; they can then jump to that spot....Webware, October 22." Note: Making videos more searchable is good for users, but the bottom line is advertising -- it allows marketing programs to be attached to particular points in a video, possibly automatically. Humm.

Information Visualization Using Mashups and Web 2.0 Tools

Here is a third post about the CARL IT workshop, "Mashup the Library" from July 25, 2008. The third presenter in this information-packed day at Santa Clara University was Jill Tinsley of the University of Arizona. Jill's topic was “Information Visualization Using Mashups and Web 2.0 Tools.” [ The photo shows CARL North IT Co-President Sheila Cunningham and Jill Tinsley. ]

Jill showed the audience a whirlwind tour of visual sites grouped into three categories: searching, news, searches-photos. I'm listing some of the many sites so I can go back and look at them again.

Visual searching:

• Grokker – free web version organizes things logically. Jill likes it better than Google.
• Kartoo
• Quintura and Quintura Kids.
• Oskope lets you search Amazon, E-Bay, and other databases.
• Like for online visual shopping.

Visual news:

• Reverbiage - NPR stories
• Marumushi – top US news
• Digg Labs arc - stories arrange themselves around a colorful circle
• Digg Labs/stack – real time activity. Stories "fall from above"
• Digg labs big spy
• Digg labs swarm
• Searchmapr (Google, Yahoo, Trynt) - note: "Searching - Please Be Patient" Check out your town, school, or local library -- who knows what you will find.
• Room for milk - "fresh skimmed Slashdot headlines"- color coded by "freshness" Note that Slashdot is described as "news for nerds." - techie news that relys on news and comments by its subscribers.
• Buzz tracker

Visual searches – photos

• Idee labs
• BYO Image Search Labs -- so colorful and cool!
• Amadig – YouTube and Amazon - "graphical Amazon browser"
• Visual Twitter (size)
• Tuneglue – will relate to other artists. "Music map"
• Musicmesh
• Flight wait – real time flight conditions.
• Onondaga County Public Library (Aqua Browser)
• Web Brain – shows relationships "smartest way to see the web"
• Tafiti (must first download)
• Vima Visual Image/maps
• Piclens -- check it out!
• Viewzi
  www.searchme.com/jilltinsley
  http://www.slideshare.net/
  scu.edu/library or encore.scu.edu – tagging

SpaceTime - 3D Search

Have you seen the demo of Spacetime?
It has a lot of the look and feel of the 3D features of the Apple Leopard operating system.

LibraryThing on Your Cell Phone

How many times have you visited a bookstore without your list of "must have" books? Check whether you've got a book already when you're standing in the bookshop. LibraryThing Mobile gives you the power of LibraryThing wherever you roam. Just point your phone's browser to: http://www.librarything.com/m.

Search Tool - Quintera

Joan posted about a new search tool widget, Quintera. This is one way to find words that might relate to your research topic, or help better identify search terms. There is a tutorial on the main page, and another tutorial for a kids version of Quintera. Check it out.

WEEK 5: Rollyo (#12 Thing)

For some reason, I have something similar to writer's block when it comes to Rollyo. Maybe it's the name -- Rollyo -- or just that I don't feel like learning yet another web 2.0 thing. I forced myself to create a Rollyo account and two "searchrolls" of websites. I used a hotlist I already had on gifts for book and library lovers and called my new Rollyo site "Gifts4BookLovers." Somehow, three copies of my roll appeared on my "dashboard." Next, I created a searchroll related to Mother-Daughter Book Clubs, again using one of my existing hotlists.

I don't think I want to add a "searchbox" to my blog yet, so I passed on that optional exercise.
Hopefully, the WEEK 6 Discovery Exercises will interest me more.