These are my links for September 11th through September 16th:
- Google to unveil social networking feature – latimes.com – Probably not news to many people, but clearly Google ramping up the expectations for their much-heralded new social network venture. No doubt some pressure to ensure they get this right, given the lack of buzzz with Buzz and the minor ripple that was Wave.
- Seesmic Desktop 2 Brings More than 40 Social Networking Apps to One Window – I’ve recently installed the new version (have been using Seesmic 1 for some time) and can verify the credentials described here. It’s a great way of joining up conversations that are happening in an increasingly dissagreagrated social web environment. In fact, precisely the approach we are taking with the Knowledge Hub project – sometimes referred to as “Communities of Practice 2.0″ (http://www.local.gov.uk/lgv2/core/page.do?pageId=174022). Seems like we’re all suffering from the same problems and coming to similar solutions.
- Improving visualisation – Gallery – Examples of data visualistion for the Public Sector
- mySociety cache of Ordnance Survey OpenData and more – This is the mySociety cache of OS OpenData, released 1st April 2010, and other related similarly-licensed data, as allowed under the licences.
These are my links for September 9th through September 11th:
- Local Spending Data Guidance | data.gov.uk – This guidance has been produced by the Local Public Data Panel, and builds on the draft guidance published in June this year by the panel, on comments made on that guidance, the Treasury guidance to central government departments on releasing their spending data, and experience from publishing the data, and, crucially, using and analysing it.
- Local Council Spending over £500 – Ask every local authority in England to publish all its spending over £500 in an open format and what do you get? A whole load of PDFs. See our list of the best and the worst.
- 10 Killer Google Chrome Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts – Here are 10 tried and tested hints that will help you to get the most out of Chrome (Chrome) by taking advantage of some of its more functional tools and time-saving setups.
- Germany to prohibit employers from using social networking sites – I think this is pretty enlightened thinking from the German government and can only hope that the remainder of the EU community take note. Many Facebook (and other social network) users are bit naive around the issue of personal and private data, and particularly the cohort that Facebook was originally aimed at, i.e. college and university students, where the social life is as important (or some may argue…more important) than their academic life. It's only when these students start to look for employment that their past (e.g. Facebook conversations and photos) start to catch up with them. This proposed law recognises that we need to have some demarcation between 'social life' and 'professional life'. I hope it succeeds.
- Social Network Analysis – Social network analysis [SNA] is the mapping and measuring of relationships and flows between people, groups, organizations, computers, URLs, and other connected information/knowledge entities. The nodes in the network are the people and groups while the links show relationships or flows between the nodes. SNA provides both a visual and a mathematical analysis of human relationships. Management consultants use this methodology with their business clients and call it Organizational Network Analysis [ONA].
These are my links for September 5th through September 8th:
- Calendar of the Future – If the 21st century is the age of social media and the social web, then the calendar is still firmly rooted in 20th century technology. The best we seem to have at present is the abilty to synchonise or share calendars. Is this enough? How can I better optimise my time using a calendar injected with some degree of ‘intelligence’ as to what my priorities and routines are?An interesting proposition from Tungle.me. My only surprise is that no-one has thought of it before.
- » Legislation.gov.uk VoxPopuLII – The launch of legislation.gov.uk by The [UK] National Archives marks a step change in public access to a primary source of legal information for citizens in the UK. Legislation.gov.uk is extensive, covering the four jurisdictions that make up the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) and over 800 years of history. An excelent summary by John Sheridan,h ead of e-Services and Strategy at The [UK] National Archives, where he leads the team responsible for legislation.gov.uk.
These are my links for September 3rd through September 4th:
- The State of Linked Data in 2010 – A good summary and explanation of open and linked data. A reminder too that not all linked data is open, and not all open data is linked.
- Facebook blocks Apple over Ping – Another example of the ‘closed shop’ mentality at Facebook? I guess we could take this at face value and believe that it really is something to do with loading the Facebook infrastucture with people sync’ing their social graph from other networks. Or is it a case of ‘competitors keep out!’? It will be interesting to see how Google’s much-hyped ‘Facebook killer’ – Google Me – handles links with other networks. Their whole model is based on openness, so I’m guessing they will integrate with Ping, Twitter and any other service in the social web. Well….at least I’m hoping so!
- Insight Web Family > Home > Nottingham Insight – Open and linked data in action. Nottingham Insight, previously known as NOMAD+, is a shared evidence base that provides access to data, information and intelligence about Nottingham and the surrounding area. This partnership system aims to improve decision-making, support partnership working and better prepare us for the future.
- Welcome to East Suxxes in Figures – Another example of open and linked data proving information and analysis about your location.
- Crime mapping for English and Welsh police forces – CrimeMapper – This website provides you with information on crime and antisocial behaviour in your neighbourhood, wherever you live in England or Wales.
It also enables you to access and compare the latest information on a range of crime types with other neighbourhoods.
You will also be able to access the details of your local neighbourhood policing team, policing priorities and information on the policing pledge.
These are my links for August 30th through September 2nd:
- Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes in Ping – Apple takes further strides to integrate iTunes with social networks. I'm wondering where this leaves services such as Last.fm and Blip.fm?
- 10 Tips For Aspiring Community Managers – As the world of dominant brands becomes more fragmented, established companies and startups are hiring community managers to cultivate an engaged community in a digital world where customers’ experiences with the product is amplified through social media, whether good or bad. And it’s not just the experience that users value; the relationships and connections they are able to make with companies and fellow consumers are just as important.
- Drupal Gardens | Get a Free Drupal 7 Site Here – Build community websites simply and easily. Can be hosted by Drupal Gardens of exported to your chosen hosting service.
- 500 Internal Server Error – 500 Internal Server Error
- Google buys another social networking site in preparation for GoogleMe – Looks like the rumours about Google gearing up to launch a 'GoogleMe' social networking site to rival Facebook may be true. Why else aquire yet another social networking website and add to its stable of social media/social networking experts? Google has been dabbling around with social networking for some time. It owns the Orkut social network website, which has been active since 2004 and is extremely popular in Brazil and India but less so in the rest of the world. Google Friend Connect was an attempt to allow users to connect friends together on different websites, which again has failed to make much impact. Howevere, these are all lessons learned and I think that Google is determined to get it right with Google Me.
These are my links for August 27th through August 28th:
These are my links for August 24th through August 26th:
- 500 Internal Server Error – 500 Internal Server Error
- The beauty of data visualization | Video on TED.com – David McCandless turns complex data sets (like worldwide military spending, media buzz, Facebook status updates) into beautiful, simple diagrams that tease out unseen patterns and connections.
- Ning says googbye to free accounts – The problem with a free lunch is that you don't always get to choose what you eat. I sympathise with the many users that have decided to close their Ning account rather than pay (the not unreasonable) monthly subscription. One thing I always look for now on any free service is what tools are available for exporting/migrating content. I learnt my lesson the hard way using Magnolia (all bookmarks lost) and Twine (now www.evri.com). At least with a paid service there is some liability on the service provider to deliver and maintain the service.<br />
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Sounds like Ning have have made the right choices.
- Google Buzz not Buzzing – Google still doesn't appear to have hit that sweet spot of social networking. They should be applauded for persistence, but not sure how many bites of the cherry they will get before users grow tired of engaging with the latest beta product. I've been a long-time user of FriendFeed, so Buzz was not really a radical and compelling service. It's going to have to produce something pretty radical to shift users away from Facebook, which I still think is their long-term goal. Anyone out there who thrives on Buzz?
- DC10plus – DC10plus -The network for change – The DC10plus network aims to address social, economic, environmental and improved service delivery through the use of technology and innovation. It is a collaborative network of over 2,500 local authorities, industry, academe and the third sector partners dedicated to creating partnerships, sharing good practice and developing new initiatives.
These are my links for August 21st through August 24th:
- 500 Internal Server Error – 500 Internal Server Error
- WSRP v2.0 Specification – Integration of remote content and application logic into an End-User presentation has been a task requiring significant custom programming effort. Typically, vendors of aggregating applications, such as a portal, write special adapters for applications and content providers to accommodate the variety of different interfaces and protocols those providers use. The goal of this specification is to enable an application designer or administrator to pick from a rich choice of compliant remote content and application providers, and integrate them with just a few mouse clicks and no programming effort. This revision of the specification adds Consumer managed coordination, additional lifecycle management and a set of related aggregation enhancements.
- URIBurner.com – A simple but powerful service that delivers RDF-based structured descriptions of Web addressable resources (documents or real world objects) in a variety of formats through Generic HTTP URIs. The underlying technology is Virtuoso's Sponger, which takes an existing Web-accessible resource (webpage, media) and generates an RDF graph of its metadata using existing well-known ontologies as well as site-specific knowledge. URIBurner then re-presents this data as either a new HTML webpage, or directly as RDF in a variety of serializations (RDF/XML, text/n3, turtle, JSON).
- 500 Internal Server Error – 500 Internal Server Error
- Twitter » 60 Twitter Tools to Track Tweets – Does what is says on the tin!
These are my links for August 14th through August 20th:
- 23 Things Home – 23 Things – Welcome to 23 Things, the course which introduces library staff to Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and new technologies. It has been developed by Portsmouth and Surrey library staff.
- A timeline of open government data – A time-line of events in the development of current open government data initiatives in the UK.
- OS OpenSpace developer wiki – Welcome to the OpenSpace wiki. The wiki has been created to help you during the development of your OS OpenSpace Application. OS OpenSpace allows Ordnance Survey Mapping to be displayed in your Web Page, below you will find a simple example of this.
- China leading the way in development of the Semantic Web? – As content and data-mining transitions from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0, or from Social Media to the Semantic Web, most thought leaders are betting on China as the front-runner in leading this charge. Chine is investing unprecedent amounts in developing 'the Internet of Things' and speculators are forcasting that Chongqing will be the next Silicon Valley. With the effects of the recession still biting in Europe and the US, I wouldn't bet against China taking an unassailable lead in the next generation development of the Web – variously labelled as Web 3.0, Semantic Web or Linked Data. Will this be of ultimate benefit to us all, or just to China? I think I know the answer to that one!
- Managing Personal Information and Knowledge Needs – I am honoured to have been asked by the Network for Information and Knowledge Exchange (NetIKX) to give a talk/presentation at their AGM on 29th September about the challenges facing information professionals in today's digitally connected world. Exciting times – challenging times. Has there ever been a better time to be an infiormation professional?<br />
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Please register for the meeting if this is a topic that may be of interest to you.
These are my links for August 10th through August 14th:
- Local Government Alliance Community of Practice – The International Development & Local Government Community of Practice (CoP) is now live! If you are working in local government and have an interest in international development issues, join our Community and meet & share ideas with like-minded people.
- 500 Internal Server Error – 500 Internal Server Error
- LocalGov 2.0 – Filed under 'data' – Examples of open and linked data use in Government and Local Government
- The Open Graph Protocol – The Open Graph protocol enables any web page to become a rich object in a social graph. For instance, this is used on Facebook to enable any web page to have the same functionality as a Facebook Page.<br />
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While many different technologies and schemas exist and could be combined together, there isn't a single technology which provides enough information to richly represent any web page within the social graph. The Open Graph protocol builds on these existing technologies and gives developers one thing to implement. Developer simplicity is a key goal of the Open Graph protocol which has informed many of the technical design decisions.
- HOW TO: Manage a Sustainable Online Community – A 2008 Gartner study on social software noted that “about 70 percent of the community typically fails to coalesce.” <br />
There are detrimental effects of over-hyping the technology and then committing the three cardinal sins of running a community:<br />
* If you build it they will come. This can be attributed to the lure of “social software” that companies repeatedly bite at, as opposed to seeking to extend or create value for their customers.<br />
* Once I’ve launched it, I’m done. Many communities launch successfully, only to fade out and disappear. Due in large part to a failure to assign ownership of the community and to have a strategy that lasts past “launch.”<br />
* Bigger is better. The assumption that the overall size of a community is indicative of its success.<br />
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All three can cause a community to fail, and there are plenty of examples. Understanding the community life cycle can help you avoid making these mistakes.
