WA Library Unconference 2009

If you work in a library, use the libraries, think about libraries or want to take a part in making a change of your library, there will be Library Camp in Perth early next month.

There are only 100 places available for this event, and I heard so far there are at least 79 people have registered. Here is the details:

Date: Saturday, 3 October 2009
Time: 9:30am for a 10am start. 4pm finish.
Venue: Central TAFE, 140 Royal St, East Perth.
Cost: No financial cost but everyone is expected to actively contribute.
Catering: Lunch and coffee/tea will be provided free of charge during the day

In this event, anyone can prepare topics, but sessions are decided on the day. Everyone is expected to participate by either presenting, joining in the discussion or doing another job. In principle, whoever turns up is the right person and whatever he/she discusses is the right thing.

Dr Michael Stephens, Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University and author of the influential "Tame the Webblog", will also be a special guest participant in this event.

Some of the topics of the discussion include:
1. iPhone apps
2. RFID
3. Drupal for Library Websites
4. Mandatory Internet Filtering in Australia
5. Library of 2019
6. Zotero vs Refworks vs Endnote Cage Match
7. New Library Tools
8. etc

If you are interested to come, you may check the registration process here.

Sharing Video with Family and Friends

Youtube has become the most well-known platform to share your videos for the last few years.

However, sometimes you may have any private video that you would only like to share with our loved ones. Youtube enables you to do that, but each of your contacts need to have Youtube user ID and accept your invitation in order to be able to view your video. You can set that only friends are able to comment your video, but the video is not private and available for public viewing.

Google videos used to provide a service that enables you to upload your video to Google videos and share it only to few designated people by sending a link to their email, just like Picasa 3, the Google photo sharing platform. Unless your recipients forward it to other people, the video will only be available to them.



Yet, this service is no longer available. Google videos is currently only a Video Search Machine, where you could only search and videos taken from Youtube and other websites, but you can’t upload and share your own video anymore using Google uploader.

Currently, one of good tools to share a private video is using Gabble. Developed by HP, Gabble is an easy tool to upload your video and send its link to your designated contacts by email. Your recipients will only need to click the link and they can view your video without having to be the Gabble members. Nevertheless, if you become a Gabbler, you can participate or make your own private community to discuss the video with your network. Gabble is also a collaborative tool for business and education.

Networked Learning Conference 2010

The 7th International Conference on Networked Learning will be held in Aalborg, Denmark on the 3rd and 4th May 2010. The keynote speakers of the conference will be Yrjö Engeström and Etienne Wenger.

The Networked Learning is an international, research-based conference on technology-enhanced learning. Aalborg University, Denmark and the Open University of the Netherland (OUNL) will be the hosts of the 2010’s conference.

Ad-free Web 2.0 services for education, do we need that?

Wetpaint is an interesting platform to start your own online community website. It provides a set of great features, such as: wiki, video, photo, discussion board, membership, etc. coming in a package, where we can easily customize for our own purposes.

Webpaint is not only good for entertainment purposes, but also for education purposes. Teachers can easily manage their courses on their Webpaint websites. Using Webpaint is like using a simple web 2.0 Moodle or Blackboard platform.

Yet, one of the current major concerns of using Webpaint for education is their policy on Google advertisements. Their services are still “free”, but as users, you have to bear with uncontrolled Google ads on your free websites. Although I personally have not experienced any ”inappropriate” ads on my websites, I often come across some “irrelevant” ads on others and mine. In addition, having commercial ads on the education websites can sometimes be annoying.

Before August 2009, they offered completely free advertisement services, but apparently they also need to make money at some point to survive. Off course, if you don’t want the Google ads, you can have them removed from your websites for US$20/month. US$20/month for removing ads on a website can be insignificant for some people, but at the same time it can be a burden for those who pay less for their monthly Internet service.