Wikipedia has clearly become a destination for those seeking information online, but this category of web resource still attracts some competitors. Perhaps concerns regarding the quality of content allow opportunities for challengers.
Some offer an alternative based on a potentially superior way of organizating and sharing information (e.g., Freebase) and others an approach that address the information quality issue by incorporating an editorial element of some form. Citizendium falls into the second category (my earlier post on a plan to addres this shortfall). Comments on the vision, the process, etc. can be found on the About page. Among the adaptations – individuals are designated to observe and guide, individuals who contribute must be identifiable (e.g., use an email address that requires a real name).
I am the treasurer for the National Consortium for Instruction and Cognition. Our organization has a web site and sometimes I am asked a question (e.g., where do I find the dues statement) that requires I provide an address for the web site. Much to my frustration I have great difficulty locating this site using search engines. I can locate those individuals who have presented at paper sessions (part of AERA) hosted by NCIC and I can locate individuals who claim on their vitae to be members of NCIC. I just can’t find the organization’s web site.
This probably one of those situations in which a site must be linked to by someone before the site becomes visible to the search engines. So this is an experiment. This post provides a link to the NCIC site and hopefully in a day or so I will be able to locate the site through Google.
I have discussed computer security and open ports in previous posts. I worry about open ports (and so do the university folks of monitor my activities) because I operate servers and must allow for interaction (port 8o for HTML, 22,23 for FTP and 25 for Email). You may have other ports open on your equipment if you do things like share iTunes. I happen to be listening to one of Leo Laport’s podcasts and he was interviewing Steve Gibson. Steve participates from time to time on this program and is a security expert. Steve has a business related to security and storage systems and offers some free resources. Try ShieldsUP! to evaluate the port security of your computers. The link I provide is from the home page and will have to navigate from this page to the ShieldsUp! page (expect some ads and product pitches). What you are looking for is a site that will evaluate the port security on your machine. This is good information.
Flickr is one of those great services that began as an independent initiative and then was purchased by one of the larger “players” (Yahoo in this case). I have always assumed this was a business model – become popular, get purchased – because how the original Flickr folks expected to cover their costs was never obvious to me.
It now appears that Yahoo is making the effort to integrate Flickr as a service. When Flickr was first purchased, the impact on users was minimal. The service you were using was simply owned by someone else. I am guessing this situation did not tie in Flickr users sufficiently to benefit Yahoo. A transition of sorts required users to obtain a Yahoo account (no cost) and this process probably brought some exposure to other Yahoo services AND the ads embedded within such services.
Yahoo now appears to want to clean up loose ends and completely integrate Flickr within Yahoo. Those of us who joined before the transition received the following message:
You’re getting this email from Flickr HQ because you decided to detach your “markdgrabe” Flickr account from its Yahoo! ID. That means you’ve got what we like to call a “dangly” Flickr account that you need to deal with.
I have been trying untangle this situation for several days without much luck. I don’t have a great investment in the images I have stored in Flickr because this is one more of those services I have used so that I have an understanding of how the service works and can discuss the service based on experience. If a “dangly” account goes away, I can upload some new sample images without much difficult. However, I do like to play with the gadgets, widgets, or whatever offered by these services and have embedded Flickr services in several of my public offerings (e.g., this blog). I may have to wait for something to break and then fix it before this Yahoo transition makes sense to me.
Locating images for projects is regarded by many as a challenge. When possible, I think there is educational benefit in capturing images personally. However, this option is sometimes not available. Andrew Ferguson (goldengod) explains and provides links to Creative Commons sources. Note that this post was not written with a focus on educational applications. Note also that not all images appearing on the sites mentioned are available under a creative commons agreement.
The trip was going so well, but things have now gone south (or west in this case). The Hawaii flight was a little slow in getting into Las Vegas and Northwest said that 45 minutes would not be enough time to load our bags and passengers must fly with their bags. One in our party has a 6 month old and could have gone without bags so she could get the baby home, but Northwest had already taken the opportunity to give our seats away. There are no open seats for several days – I suppose because of Spring break. We will try to get out stand by at 6 in the morning.
One positive thing about the Las Vegas airport – free wifi.
Rest of the story:
S0, it is Friday and there are no open seats out until Tuesday. We go stand by.
Cindy and Lynn (with baby Addison) are allowed on a 6 AM flight. Women with children and women with broken leg (Cindy) first!
Kim and Jimbo make it on a 12 noon flight. Only room for two.
ME? I am the only one left, but they start allowing “elite” members to go to the head of the list. I am not elite enough.
5:50 PM and somebody fails to show. I get my chance. I have watched this process now for many hours and I have witnessed the angry passengers show up a few minutes to late and confront the individual at the gate to let them board. I am nervous until the door is closed. We taxi to the end of the runway and stop. We all wait. After a couple of minutes, the pilot comes on the intercom and says that his computer is showing an error message. He was able to reset the computer, but the maintenance people want to have a look. Fine with me. We taxi back to the gate and sit there – for a couple of hours.
They open the door to allow the maintenance men into the plane. No one follows to drag me off.
It turns out to be something related to the avionics cooling system. It is like those little fans in your computer says the captain. I get back to MSP sometime after midnight.
PS – I would have updated this blog from the Las Vegas airport, but I left my computer glasses (something like reading glasses) in the plane we took from Hawaii. When I get very tired (evidently sometime past 30 hours), things begin to look fuzzy. Sometimes, it is just better to get up the next day and start over. 🙂
Here is perhaps a glimpse at something new (actually old as an idea, but new as a product).
Here is a new service to keep your eye on (I have probably said this before). Freebase is a new type of user authored information source in which users add both content and connections. It is dangerous to suggest comparisons to the human brain, but one thing our brains appear to do that offers an advantage over simple storage is to connect the units of information we store (nodes and links). Looking up information when we want is great and the reality of access to information on demand argues against the need to memorize. However, what people miss in suggesting that searching the net eliminates the need for personal storage is that we do more than store information. We connect it. The connections we form may be activated when we retrieve this information and the connected information likely has some utility for us or we would not have formed the connections during encoding. The next generation or semantic web may offer potentially useful connections as well as the information we request.
In describing Freebase, blogger Nicholas Carr describes a wiki-like repository layered with user created metadata connecting elements of information.
Esther Dyson offers additional comments on this project.
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