Exploring Omeka - repository software

I'm still in the process of exploring repository software. Here is my brief overview with some examples.
Omeka has a lot to offer for a learning objects repository but it doesn't handle textual documents so well.  

Exploring Omeka from robin f

Choosing Technology (free webinar!)

Choosing Technology: How We Decide What Technologies Work Best in Our Libraries
( http://georgialibraries.org/events/wed-web-series/choosing-technology-how-we-decide-what-technologies-work-best-our-libraries )Presented by Tim Daniels
Wednesday, January 19, 2011, 10:00am - 11:00am Eastern Time
Separate registration is required for each hour-long session (free & open to everyone!)
In today's environment librarians are constantly bombarded with new and emerging technologies. These technologies can run the gamut from smart phone applications to enterprise-wide systems. How can we decide which technologies are the best, which ones to keep an eye on, and which ones to avoid? During this session we will talk about decision making and apply it to technology.


Personal Knowledge Management: A Framework for Librarians
( http://georgialibraries.org/events/wed-web-series/personal-knowledge-management-framework-librarians )Presented by Elisabeth Shields

Wednesday, January 19, 2011, 11:15am - 12:15pm Eastern Time
Separate registration is required for each hour-long session.

Searching is the easy part. But what do you do with all the material youve collected? What happens when you find an article that reminds you of something someone said in a meeting two weeks ago (or was it three)? What do you do to share your own thoughts, insights from articles and blogs, and what your manager said at the last staff meeting with the team charged with developing a strategic plan?

Tools for knowledge management are usually meant for institutions and are correspondingly expensive. But there are many tools for personal knowledge management that are very affordable. Discuss personal management needs with Elisabeth Shields; hear about the types of tools available with examples of each type.

Please contact a member of the Wednesday Webinar planning team with questions or ideas:
Sarah Steiner, Georgia Library Association, PACE Chair, ssteiner@gsu.edu
Buffy Hamilton, Wednesday Webinars Steering Committee, buffy.hamilton@gmail.com
Pat Carterette, Georgia Public Library Service, pcarterette@georgialibraries.org
-------------------------
The Georgia Library Association and Georgia Public Library Service are pleased to announce the January 2011 sessions of the Wednesday Webinar series (WWS) ( http://georgialibraries.org/events/webinars ), which highlights trends, innovation, and best practices in Georgia Libraries. The webinars feature Georgia speakers, but registration is open to anyone, anywhere. Topics are chosen to be of interest to employees of all library types, and each session is approved for one Georgia Continuing Education (CE) contact hour. The sessions will be recorded and available on the WWS archives ( http://georgialibraries.org/events/wednesday_webinars_archives )site for later viewing.

Question of the day: What to use to catalog a small church library?

So, the question of the day was about how to catalog a church's library.

This article has some great suggestions especially in regards to collection management decision making.

In addition to determining which audience level, type of media, and subject headings schema to use (Sears, LCSH, etc.), I would add to also figure out how you want to provide access to the catalog and what you want to use it for. Do you want a system where you can also circulate items? Can you host it on your server or does it need to be hosted elsewhere?

Hosted elsewhere solutions
LibraryThing.org: many small libraries have used librarything to catalog their items; Community contributed records but no checkin/checkout functionality

Hosted on your server (software)
Opensource. Features include membership creation, assigning/printing barcodes, an online user-searchable cataloge, run circulation tasks, etc.
Koha, http://www.koha.org.
Evergreen, http://open-ils.org/

Biblios.net, http://biblios.net/ Biblios.net has a webbased cataloging client and allows for sharing of records, although you'd need a database to then put your work back into.

Lots of choices at this website.

Dispora* opensource social community (yeah, kind of like facebook, but well.. not)

Really interesting article about the progress of dispora* as well as interviews with the developers.

Diaspora*—if it worked—would do everything Facebook did. But users would own their data. If they wished, they could run their own servers. There would be no data-mining. No whiplash privacy protocols. And no Mark Zuckerberg.

http://nymag.com/news/features/establishments/68512/

whitehouse.gov moves to drupal

Obama's campaign site was running Expression Engine... interesting to see this move to opensource. (yay! opensource.... altho' I do have a special spot in my heart for EE, it's where I cut my CMS teeth... where I began to be brave enough to contribute solutions to a public forum ... LOL)

Last week, WhiteHouse.gov announced its release of custom code developed during its first six months of Drupal implementation for WhiteHouse.gov. The news was also revealed during a speech at DrupalCon (video) in San Francisco on April 21.

The open source code, created by the president's web team, will allow developers to re-use what the White House has developed. There are four contributions from WhiteHouse.gov:

• A module called "Context HTTP Headers," which allows website builders to add new metadata to the content they serve. "We use this to tell our servers how to handle specific pages, such as 'cache this type of page for 15 minutes' or 'that type for 30,'" explained the Whitehouse.gov press release.
• A module called "Akamai," which allows WhiteHouse.gov to integrate with its content delivery network.
• A module called "GovDelivery," which allows emails to be customized to users' specifications.
• A module called "Node Embed," which makes sure all images on the site have the appropriate metadata to make them readable via screen-reading software.

Read more: http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/whitehouse-govs-contribution-drupal-win-win/2010-04-26?sms_ss=twitter#ixzz0mECPrE4W

Join us -- new Drupal and Expression Engine Groups

Hola! I'm chairing the ATHDrupal group and for now, I am just "helping" the EEATH group (I hope a Chair rises organically in the group).
ATHDrupal is a new regional Drupal group (forming out of the ashes of UGA Drupal Group). We would like to invite anyone interested in Drupal to join us. We hope to have some f2f meetings -- perhaps, semesterly (and also, to connect up with DrupalAtlanta at some point).

Drupal is an opensource content management system.
You can join the Drupal group @
http://groups.google.com/group/athdrupal

Additionally a new regional group has formed for the CMS, Expression Engine
http://groups.google.com/group/eeath

If you have questions, just drop me a line. thanks, robin
georgiawebgurl@gmail.com

Opensource, community source, open system, closed system (presentation)

Closed systems, open systems

View more presentations from robinfay.

Open Library project update

The final report of the Open Library Environment project is available for reading. ♥ this project with its focus on the behind the scenes... because if the behind the scenes (processing system/database/data) doesn't work very well, the public interface is not going to work very well. I am definitely keeping an eye on this project and I hope to be able to contribute in some way in the future.

A few points of interest (amongst many....)

• The project planners chose to define a system that supports libraries as a central player in the research process.
• Libraries need to be able to leverage a dynamic information environment to support the research and educational mission of their institutions.
• Libraries must respond to the dynamic information environment by re-engineering its organization and the workflows carried out by its personnel.
  

I don't know if these statements are Yays or DUHs, because they seem so obvious, yet some do not grasp that simple reality of library catalog software and library information silos such as databases, websites, etc.

And then the key features:

• Flexibility
• Community ownership
• Service Orientation
• Enterprise-Level Integration
• Efficiency
• Sustainability
  

-----------------
Reposting:
The Open Library Environment (OLE) Project has posted a draft of its final report. We are excited to offer this report publicly to the community and welcome your comments. As a community-source project, your input is vital to the future and success of the OLE Project. You can access the report at this address:
http://oleproject.org/final-ole-project-report/

About the Open Library Environment Project:
With support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, a multinational group of libraries is developing the design for an Open Library Environment (OLE), an alternative to the current model of an Integrated Library System. The goal is to produce a design document to inform open source library system development efforts, to guide future library system
implementations, and to influence current Integrated Library System vendor products.

OpenOffice 3.0

Nice preview of openoffice 3 (woohoo!) Honestly, I haven't missed dumping Microsoft Office yet...

...and if you'd like to see a little demo, try this one which covers all of the types of openoffice (databases, word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations):

Intro to Cataloging (My little overview)

I was digging around in my webspace and found this brief overview of cataloging. This was created for an introductory technical services class for the Gwinnett school medial library program.

Cataloging basics

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: basics training)

new art, new writings, new music -- it's moonshine!

Lots of new writings, new art, new music. I'm finishing up my art interviews with artists (the creativity series) and a short (!) book review.
Oh, and of course, the cover graphic is mine. ;-)



-------------------------
These are the dog days of summer, is it any wonder that everything seems to droop a little? Stay inside in the cool and check out the latest writings, music, paintings, photography... Moonshine celebrates a milestone, which would not be possible without the wonderful artists and writers who share their thoughts, writings, and art. Read, see, and listen!

ORIGINAL WRITINGS
Part 1 of Jasmine Rizer's serial, "Keeping it in the Family"; Fab Irony's "Oz Redux", and McCabe Coolidge continues his series, Seven Questions with
"Don't you Miss the Farm?" Thoughtful poetry from Brenda L Basham (Bloodshed of the Holocaust; Imagination; and Unlock the Power ), Russell Lee Hale I (Knobby Knees; Memories ), John S Moon (World ) and Sandy Vanderbleek (life flow ).

FROM THE STUDIO
Studio views features Sandra Babb's essay on improvisation, Rolling with the Punch Bowl and Hannah Leatherbury's audio interview (a podcast) with multi-media artist Sherry Lynn Wood about her latest project to collect mantras via her Mantra Trailer. (courtesy of the Southern Arts Federation).

ON CREATIVITY AND THE CULTURE OF ART
robin fay continues to explore Creativity (pt. 5 in a series, focusing on the artistic process) while Drék Davis explores his own Confessions of a Wayward Artist. Amber Moore jumps into the playful and educational world of the Children's Museum of the Shoals in Look and DO Touch: Children Learn with Hands-On Activities in Florence, Alabama.

ART & TECHNOLOGY
Lori Lejeune gets creative with 3D digital art in From the Studio: An Exposition on 3-d Digital Artistry and Donna Rosser aka The Barefoot Photographer shows us how to take our photos to the next level with Lensbaby in Getting Creative: Your Photography and a Lensbaby.

REVIEWS
Book reviews for August are Southern Comforts: Rooted in a Florida Place by Suyde Cauthen, a memoir of growing up in the South, and Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, a magical novel set in North Carolina. Music matters features a review of The Rest of the Year , the new CD from the Georgia folk trio, the Solstice Sisters. Hannah Leatherbury talks with Charles "Wsir" Johnson about the necessity of knowing how to repair and create his own instruments while living in a rural community as well as his experience getting commissioned by Chuck D. (from Hannah Leatherbury, courtesy of the Southern Arts Federation).

Check in with a Short Girl comix, book reviews, work from the Southerncreativity gallery (@ Flickr), art announcements & calls for entries.

If you're on this list in error, please do let us know, so that we can remove you from the list (and sorry for any inconvenience).

To receive moonshine in its entirety via email, drop us a line at southerncreativity.com@gmail.com

If you would like to contribute to moonshine, please drop us a line at southerncreativity.com@gmail.com

The Opensource model, what it is and how it works

Excellent article and overview of opensource, covering everything from licensing (yes, opensource has it), its evolution, security, issues, & more.

Raymond has compared the development of OSS to a bazaar, where large numbers of interested individuals congregate to contribute (code contributors are called committers) or to provide peer review of the wares in the market (in this case, testing and new feature recommendations for the software in the repositories [1]). A great deal of research, then, has focused on what motivates individuals to join such communities, how they are organized, the group dynamics, and governance structures. For example, Scacchi asserts that open-source communities form a highly adaptive but loosely coupled virtual enterprise, organized in a “layered meritocracy” with a usual team critical mass of five to 15 people [4]. OSS community cultures have even been likened to those of wasps and other swarming insects, in terms of the social network interactions [5].

Library news roundup: nexgen catalogs, institutional repositories, and more

Well, since I have so many little library related tidbits floating around in my reader, I'm just going to do a roundup:

• Over at the shifted librarian, she has a nice blog post about the new startup project, bibliocommons @ the Oakville, Ontario library, to build a library catalog interface from scratch. The interface includes things like reviews, tagging, faceted searching, etc. Looks very drupalesque to me.
• A few discussions about defining repository and of course, wikipedia's definition.
• Pew statistical study on blog reading: "' Do you ever read someone else's online journal or blog?'. In total, 33% of internet users (the equivalent of 24% of all adults) say they read blogs, with 11% of internet users doing so on a typical day. " I wonder how many people read blogs without knowing they are reading a blog.
• EDUCause's 7things you should know about Wii (I always think the 7things series are just great!) including an overview of what it is and how it works, why it is important, and how it can be used for teaching and learning.
• From Equinox's blog, Five public libraries and one academic moved to the opensource Evergreen library catalog software. Approximately 30 more migrations are in the works.
• Mobile! Mobile! Mobile! Honestly, if you're already tired of hearing about the iphone, just wait until Google's Android hits. On the move with mobile web; Semantic web, mobiles and libraries picking up the pace; the catalog in your hand; and just google iphone or android, for the billions of articles and blogposts about them. ;-)

Image galleries: Coppermine, 4images, plogger, Gallery

I've been looking at a plugin to expand my image gallery (hosted at my domain via opensource coppermine, not the flickr version) by using feeds -- basically, for each category I would have a feed. I looked at migrating to different systems, too: Gallery, plogger, and 4images.

Here is the rundown of what I need:

• RSS Feeds per category/image album
• Ability to list an image in more than one category/album, e.g., black and white photographs all in one album + in subject albums
• Ability to assign keywords
• Easily customizable through CSS and maybe a sprinkling of php
  
• Opensource, hosted on my domain (I already have a several art/photography sites at social networking spots)
  
• Easy batch upload process
• Good enhancement and upgrade workflow
  
• Plus:
• Easy import/migration from Coppermine
• Bridging or crosswalking to Drupal
  
• Good documentation (I can usually make things work without a lot of help)
• Note the importance of easy!
  

Coppermine does all of that minus the feeds, but there is a feed plugin. To be honest, my only complaints with coppermine, have been 1)some of the developers/user community help -- it can get harsh 2)lack of built in RSS feeds and 3)crosswalking into Drupal -- it's doable, but not quite what I have in mind. Of course, using feeds would probably give me what I need, anyhow.

So, in my various experiments and investigations:

• Plogger, Gallery, and 4images all have some form of a RSS.
• Plogger, Gallery, and 4images are all opensource.
• Plogger, Gallery, and 4images all seem to be relatively easy to install -- relatively.
• 
  
• I can import/migrate my coppermine gallery into Gallery. I couldn't figure out if I could do that in plogger or 4images. 4images is primarily in German, so I hit some language barriers a few times.

..and here is my comparison chart -- I'm still trying to figure out some of the plogger features, so that part is a little bit incomplete.

Expression Engine security vs. drupal

Nice outline of pros and cons of two security models (closed vs. opensource), expression engine (ee) vs. drupal. Of course, lullabot also is closely tied to drupal, so take it for what it is worth.

http://www.lullabot.com/articles/drupal-and-expressionengine-security-models

Most useful Drupal modules

I thought I would crosspost some of what I consider my most useful Drupal handout information from my demo and presentation for the UGADG. Of course, this doesn't include the demo part at the moment! Maybe I will screencapture that part and add it in later. Another thing for the todo list! Anyhow, you can see the handouts here

..and now to the top ten (plus):

• Book: Built in (core) functionality to create a book-like structure with table of contents and linking pages. Pages can be hierarchical, too.
• BUEditor: HTML editor. Available at http://drupal.org/project/bueditor
• CCK (Construction Kit): Create new content types and more with non-standard fields. Available at http://drupal.org/project/cck
• Clone: Easily clone (could be useful if manually migrating a website). Available at http://drupal.org/project/node_clone
• Front: Create a splah page, flash based intro page, or create a front page which has a distinct and different feel from the rest of the website. Available at http://drupal.org/project/front
• Image: Useful in creating an image gallery; note content from third party applications (flickr, youtube, etc.) can be crosswalked via rss or modules. Available at http://drupal.org/project/image
• Metatags (aka Nodewords): Add meta information to a page. Available at http://drupal.org/project/nodewords
• Nodeteaser: Create a teaser for a node that's different from the standard "first paragraph" Drupal teaser.Available at http://drupal.org/project/nodeteaser
• Panels: Preformatted templates for the content areas in Drupal.Available at http://drupal.org/project/panels
• Pathauto: Specify URLs that aren't just node/xxx -- say, /2008/blog/title-here. Another option is using mod_rewrite in apache. Available at http://drupal.org/project/pathauto
• Sidecontent: Adds a sidebar to pages. Available at http://drupal.org/project/sidecontent
• Upload: Built in (core) functionality to control the type of uploading allowed.
• Webform: Create webforms to solicit feedback from users. Available at http://drupal.org/project/webform
• Views: Build lists of content and present them in whatever format and order you want. Create custom lists, tables and teaser lists. Available at http://drupal.org/project/views

Import HTML: import html from existing website. Information available at http://cvs.drupal.org/viewvc.py/drupal/contributions/modules/import_html/import_html_help.htm?view=text&revision=HEAD

Access control & users:

• Captcha (or Recaptcha) - Antispam. User types in the text of a word. Available at http://drupal.org/project/captcha
• Diff: allows a wiki-like comparison of revisions (Drupal does have a built in 'track' feature for each user). Available at http://drupal.org/project/diff
• LDAP Integration for authenticating using a LDAP directory. Available at http://drupal.org/project/ldap_integration
• Organic Groups: granularity of user privileges (access levels; restrict content) which could be useful in hosted blogging or a large scale website with multiple content contributors. Available at http://drupal.org/project/og
• Secure pages: Adds https to login, admin pages. Available at http://drupal.org/project/securepages
• TinyMCE: wysiwyg editor for creating content. Need TinyMCE editor (third party, opensource) loaded first; then module. Available at http://drupal.org/project/tinymce

Extras:

• Ad module: Rotating javascript ad banner. Available at http://drupal.org/project/ad
• Blog: Built in (core) blog functionality.
• Bibliography: Create and publish scholarly works. Available at http://drupal.org/project/biblio
• Community Tags: Allows users to create and assign their own tags to content. Available at http://drupal.org/project/community_tags
• Gmap: Build a googlemap for a single institution, library branch or a combined map with all of your locations. Available at http://drupal.org/project/gmap
• FAQ + fivestar: FAQ gives you a content type specifically for FAQs with the option to format how those questions are shown. Fivestar adds a a "rate this" block of stars underneath any content type you specify. It's an instant FAQ section, and if you always categorize your questions, you'll quickly put together a large FAQ section organized by topic. Available at http://drupal.org/project/faq and http://drupal.org/project/fivestar.
• Forum: Built-in (core) functionality for user forums.
• MARC: Import MARC formatted records (e.g., library catalog) into a node. Available at http://drupal.org/project/marc
• Nodequeue: Easily create lists of nodes, e.g., a list of book reviews which can incorporated into a block on the site. Available at http://drupal.org/project/nodequeue
• Poll: Built in (core) polling functionality. Easily create polls, surveys, quizzes, etc.
• Profile: Built in (core) fuctionality to create customizable profiles.
• ImageCache: Make as many copies of an image you want at any size depending on location or anything else you specify. Available at http://drupal.org/project/imagecache
• Scheduler: Publish and unpublish articles at a set time. Available at http://drupal.org/project/scheduler
• Tagadelic: Tag Cloud module. Available at http://drupal.org/project/tagadelic
• Thickbox: A jQuery plugin that gives you very sleek photo popup/slideshow functionality. Available at http://drupal.org/project/thickbox
• Workflow: Provides an alternate means of controlling information placed on the site, e.g., must be reviewed before published. Available at http://drupal.org/project/workflow

Drupal Modules Finder http://drupalmodules.com/module-finder

Thanks to:

Top 10 Drupal Modules http://webpodge.com/2007/02/22/top-10-drupal-modules/;
Drupal4Libraries Listserv, Amy Qualls-McClure (Huntsville - Madison County Public Library); Cary Gordon Cary Gordon (The Cherry Hill Company, http://www.chillco.com); Ken Newquist, (Lafayette College, https://ww2.lafayette.edu/~soapbox/blog/newquisk) and Leo Klein (The Chicago Librarian, http://www.leoklein.com)

See resources for more links.

new art, new writings, latest issue of moonshine is available!

For those interested, the latest issue of moonshine, a magazine of the southern arts is available
online (& free) at
http://www.moonshine.southerncreativity.com

(moonshine is run on pacercms opensource newspaper & journal software; for more info about that), drop me a line.


details:
-------------------------
It's not just the weather that is hot. Take a break and check out some smokin' work from Southern writers & artists. It's so hot, it's cool. Read, see, and listen!

oRiGiNaL ArT
James McCallister goes to Ask the Ducks, while Jasmine Rizer's serial, "Tough Love" concludes. Lisa Taylor comments on Barbecuing for Jesus and Mccabe Coolidge begins the first of The Seven Questions.What haven't you done that you've always wanted to do?

Sandy Vanderbleek tests the headwinds of reality while Gilbert Head visits Five Flowers in Summer and The Alley of Dreams, Revisited. John S Moon is on Night Watch and Russell Lee Hale II gives us Gypsy Hearts.

sTuDiO ViEwS
Studio views features Hannah Leatherbury's audio interview (podcast) with abstract painter Liisa Salosaari-Jasinsk (courtesy of the Southern Arts Federation). Plein air painter Sandra Babb braves the heat and is Eating Up the Profits.

cReAtiVitY
robin fay continues to explore creativity (pt. 5), with artist interviews focusing on the medium and its impact on artwork; Carmela Cattuti explains What is soul focus? and Dorothy Birch provides some tips for An Inspired Summer.

tEcHnOLoGy & aRT
Donna Rosser aka the Barefoot Photographer provides practical tips and advice for photographing artwork in Digital Images of Your Work.

cULtuRe oF aRT
What have you done with your vacation photos? Amber Moore is here to help with ideas in Vacation Memories Make Great Art. Diane Moran shares her story of her travel to New Orleans: creating artwork, fundraising and more in post-Katrina New Orleans in the The Heart of Art.

mUsIc maTtErS
Music matters features an audio interview with Jazz Vocalist/Composer and Educator, Nnenna Freelon (from Hannah Leatherbury, courtesy of the Southern Arts Federation).

bOoK rEViEwS
Need some quality reading for your summer reading list? Check out these offerings:
Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist by Nancy Goldenstein
reviewed by Jasmine Rizer; Little Things: A Memoir in Slices by Jeffrey Brown
reviewed by Andrew Shuping; and Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005 by Robert Hass
reviewed by Heather Kline.

mOrE
Check in with a Short Girl comix, book reviews, work from the Southerncreativity gallery (@ Flickr), art announcements & calls for entries.

HP, MIT bolster DSpace open-source archives

Kind of old news at this point (it's been floating around in my inbox!), but I find it interesting that someone from the Internet Archive has been appointed the director of the DSpace Foundation. Verrry interesting...



-----------------

Users of DSpace digital-archiving technology will now receive help and support via a not-for-profit organization set up by the creators of the tool, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Hewlett-Packard.



Announced Wednesday, the DSpace Foundation will provide support to more than 200 institutions around the world that use the open-source online tool to manage their digital document archives, HP and MIT said.



The organizations also announced that Michele Kimpton, formerly of the Internet Archive, has been appointed as director of the DSpace Foundation.



more at

http://tinyurl.com/546xrm

new things for 2008... crystal ball gazing with opensource, social networking, digital identity, and more aka the predictions.

I was poking around trying to find a better video editor, when I stumbled across an opensource project called, Jahshaka. Jahshaka is positioning itself as being a fullbodied product that can compete with such software as finalcut pro (wow!). Not sure about that, because I could never (ever, ever) get the windows installer to work properly. Maybe if I had already switched to ubuntu ALREADY...

Anyhow, I started thinking about all of the new things out there that I probably don't know about (and some that I do) and somehow I ended up crystal ball gazing (a very dangerous occupation).

It is really amazing how fullbodied some of the opensource products are (openoffice, wordpress, drupal, anyone?) and perhaps, even more amazing, all of the online tools now available (thinkfree, etc.)

As for my thoughts on the near future on the 'net: niche social networking, user centered aggregated content (perhaps, even some consolidation?), and digital identity. Web3.0 and semantic web? Maybe.

I think niche social networking will become even more popular (social networking sites tailored to the needs of visual artists have popped up recently). Considering how easy it is to get lost in the crowd at facebook or myspace, I can see how appealing a specialized site is. Plus, the one size fits all just does not really... well, fit. Visual artists have been advocating/begging/petitioning myspace for years to create a visual arts portal, as myspace has for musicians. Why bother with that, when there are several sites specifically for visual artists?

However, having a specialized site means another profile and spot on the web to maintain. Social networking and content aggregators are surely to be even stronger in '08. How else to manage all of the personal content bits floating out on the web? All of the stuff you want to read? Google reader can help, Pageflakes might be even be more useful (a variety of content, not just feeds or clipped websites), but then there is the other stuff: all of the various profiles, with logins and passwords. Social networking aggregators such as spokeo, profilactic and others, can be handy. Digital identity tools are certainly helpful, for logging in OpenID (one login for multiple sites) and in distinguishing what is yours and perhaps, more importantly, what is NOT yours (and is in no way affiliated.) Consolidation is bound to happen and a little is a good thing -- unless google ends up owning EVERYTHING....

Among sites being touted as 'hot' for '08: PowerSearch (a semantic search engine) , Pownce (social networking & more), etsy (an online store similar to ebay focused on handmade and originally produced products... most of the art community that I know, do not seem overly enamored with etsy, thus far), Dopplr.com (a travel & meetup site), twitter (really? I thought we were all tired of twitter by now), children's social networking such as moshimonsters and webkinz (if you know a tween or preteen, just ask them about webkinz), seesmic (video diaries)...

..and of course, Google opensocial, if it ever makes headway. I also like some of the projects which allow users to make a positive contribution to a body of knowledge in some way, like the steve museum project, where users assign keywords/tag artwork, identifying artists' work, and more) and also recaptcha, which uses scanned images from books as captchas (a phrase or word typed in some sort of form, that the user must enter in a text box, which prevent spambots from automatically using the form).

..and then there is always wikipedia, citizendium, the new Google Knol, and those sorts of sites.

Other trends & technologies that have popped up in the onslaught of 2008 predictions posts/articles include:

Location based services (niche marketing of a sort), Mobile Social Networking (I keep reading about this as a big trend, but it just seems more like a means of access to me -- be it a pda, iphone, laptop, desktop, psp or whatever... but freely available WIFI at most public buildings, that could definitely continue to change things), lots of chatter about Google taking on the cellphone/mobile industry with Android, Gaming, SecondLife/Virtual Worlds (OpenSL?), internet habits changing as the mobile industry & high demand downloads continue to increase, increase in usage of Linux and other opensource projects (evergreen, the opensource ILS?), and an increase in distrust in google (I love google products, but they are a corporation after all.)

Creating widgets and apps to work with much of this technology is usually (but not always, of course) fairly easy to do and can easily be done by someone with minimal coding experience. I see lots of places where libraries can be, if they want to be. I guess that is the question.

Facebook is so last year http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/dec/24/facebook.socialnetworking

2008 Predictions http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/2008_web_predictions.php

2008 Technology predictions http://latestgeeknews.blogspot.com/2007/12/2008-technology-prediction.html

The Economists Prediction for 2008 http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10410912

Top 10 Startups Worth Watching in 2008 http://www.wired.com/techbiz/startups/news/2007/12/YE_10_startups

30 Library Technology Predictions http://stephenslighthouse.sirsidynix.com/archives/2007/12/30_library_tech.html

..and of course, a generous sprinkling of my thoughts.

e-zine using wordpress

I'm going to add this to my e-zine list, but I think this e-zine template for wordpress looks really good.

I do wonder about the pre-publishing and issue creation, though. One of the advantages of pacercms is that I can create the issues prior to publication. I do think draft posts could accomplish some of that, but...