Week 6 - Tagging, Folksonomies & Technorati

Exercise 13: This week I created a account at Del.icio.us and bookmarked some sites that I frequently visit. I created tags for my bookmarked sites that are descriptive of what can be found at the bookmarked website. When I created my bookmarks I noticed that some of the sites that I added were already bookmarked by other users. When I clicked on the link that shows how many people have saved the site in their own bookmarks I was able to see their comments about the site. I think this site can be used by people who are doing research because when a word or phrase is typed in the search area, a list of matches is displayed. The user can also see the bookmarked sites of other users. This will cut down on the amount of time it takes someone who is doing research to search through other popular search engines like google and yahoo. I added my Del.icio.us bookmarks to my blog.

Exercise 14: I explored Technorati and this technology is used to help user's identify blogs that fit their interests. I did a search for Web 2.0 and noticed that when you click on the posts tab any post that contains the words web 2.0 is displayed. When I clicked on Blogs it displayed any blog that has anything to do with web 2.0. When I clicked on quick view all the different categories were displayed like posts, videos and blogs. I linked my blog to my Technorati account and added a tool to my blog that automatically adds my blog to Technorati users favorites. I also experimented with tagging and placed a tag at the end of this message.

Exercise 15: I read the Web 2.0 article from Wikipedia and I think Web 2.0 is supposed to improve communication and sharing of information between users utilizing the world wide web. Applications are available via the web that are platform independent and are used to share data and perform tasks. I personally think that web 2.0 is a good concept because it focuses on creating platform independent applications that can be run on any browser without having to purchase software from a vendor. A user can log onto a web page using a mac or a windows system and use the same programs and have it be compatible with their system. The user becomes more involved with the applications and is able to use the web as an interactive tool to do spreadsheets and word processing. I can definitely see the possibilities of this technology.

[Web 2.0]

Week 5/Online Image Generators/LibraryThing/Rollyo

This week I played around with different online image generators. I liked the different tools that I found at www.pimp-my-profile.com.This generator can be used to create banner's, my space contact areas and a generator that allows you to display whatever you typed with a glitter effect. I generated a Banner that can be used on webpages.



I created a library with some titles that I recently read using LibraryThing. I did a search in LibraryThing to see what other titles I would be intrested in and found a couple books that I would like to read. I like that you see suggestions and book lists of other individuals to similar tastes of your own. I added my booklist to my blog.

Rollyo is a great search tool. It is especially useful to people who need to do research. Rollyo is used to limit your searches to only trusted websites or sites that you find useful. Students can use it to limit your search results instead of having to go to yahoo and google which will display results of anything that has a similar name. It is very difficult to sort through the different results and find information. I looked through different search rolls and found some good recipes and books to read. I created a rollyo that can be used to find computer term definitions. I am going to use it for my classes. I have posted it on my blog.

Week 4/RSS Newsfeeds

I think RSS newsfeeds can be used here at the University to distribute UVI announcements to staff, faculty and students. RSS newsfeeds can be viewed on computers, cell phones or other portable devices. RSS newsfeeds can also send me updated headlines daily. I like this because I don't have to actually go to the webpage and search for what articles I want to see.

When adding feeds to my blogs I noticed that some of the feeds were written in XML (extensible markup lanquage). I learned about this technology and had a programming class in XML at the University of Phoenix. This lanquage makes it possible for you to define your own tags in a programming lanquage and separate the data from presentation. This means that you can store all the data in one file (ex. news articles) and design different CSS (cascading stylesheets) to be used on different devices like a pc, cell phone or pda. This way you only have to update one data file.

I located my RSS feeds using the search tool in bloglines and by going to websites that I regularly visit and looking for an RSS icon.

I added my bloglines feeds to my blog.

Trunk Bay, St. John, US Virgin Islands

Trunk Bay, St. John, US Virgin Islands
Originally uploaded by Yirong & Rui

This is a beautiful image of Trunk Bay on St. John that I found on Flickr. There are some other really nice photos that you all need to see. Do a search for the Virgin Islands and see what comes up.

Anything Technology Related/Web Services

Web Services are a standardized way of ensuring security and the ability to manage technologies by combining web based applications that are independent of a vendor. Web Services are independent of a browser or HTML. Web services allow different machines that otherwise wouldn't be able to communicate with each other the ability to do so. Web Services focus on business functions and data which is communicated using different programming languages to produce a functional application that will met the requirements of a business. The web services are then added to a GUI (graphical user interface) which can be a web page or a executable program that is presented to the user. The communication that takes place in Web Services is between different programming tools like XML (Extensible Markup Lanquage), SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) , WSDL (Web Services Description lanquage) and UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration).

Web services are a good way for businesses to communicate with customer's and improve information flow between both parties. Their usage has grown in the last couple of years because developers have seen the potential of web services as a tool that can improve customer and business satisfaction. Some examples of web services would be sites that provide up to the minute stock quotes and online auctioning sites such as Ebay. Ebay is using (API's) application programming interfaces to provide a way for customer's to interact directly with their databases giving to up to the minute information on the products offered and the current selling price.

According to Webopedia, there is a website called Wikimaps that's using new web services called mash-up's. A mash-up can take information from different sites such as Google maps or yahoo maps and combine it with another web application to create one web service with information from all these areas. The website for wikimaps is www.mywikimap.com

Week 3/Flickr Mashups & 3rd Party Sites

I am really enjoying FD toys( http://flagrantdisregard.com/flickr/). I am especially intriqued with the calendar mashup. I am creating calendars to send to friends and family with different family photos. There are alot of good mashups that can be used with Flickr. I didn't know that there were some many. I also like the billboard and magazine cover mashups. These tools make it easier to manipulate your photos and have fun at the same time. I am going to edit some of my digital photos with these tools and add some pizazz to my family albums. I knew about Flickr before but I never really did anything with the mashups. I used Flickr similar to how you would use facebook. I used it just to share photos and assign permissions to my albums.

Now if only I had a better color printer.....:-)

My Goals/Thoughts on the Learning 2.0 program

My goals for learning about technology are to gain knowledge about as many different technologies as I possibly can. I am currently finishing up my degree in Information Technology/Information Security Systems. Since I began attending the University of Phoenix, I was able to gain knowledge on various programming languages, database concepts, systems analysis, project planning, windows networking and web technologies. I will soon be taking my first course in Information Systems Security. I look forward to taking these courses because it is very important to make sure that a Enterprise's information is protected from unwanted intrusions.

I think that Learning 2.0 is a great program for the ITS group. It provides an opportunity for staff members to enhance their knowledge on current technology trends. I am familiar with most of the technologies that will be discussed during this project but, I know there are other's in the department who are not. This is a chance for those individuals to explore these technologies and use the technologies in their work or home environment to their advantage.

7 and 1/2 lifelong learning habits comments

The easiest task in the 7 and 1/2 lifelong learning habits for me is to accept responsibility for your own learning. I enrolled myself in the University of Phoenix in the Bachelor of Science in Information Technology/Information Security Systems to provide myself with a foundation that can enhance my career opportunities. Any training opportunity that arises, I find a way to take part. I am eager to learn and never step down from a challenge.

The hardest of the learning habits will be to find time to play. When you are working full time, going to school and raising two young children, it is very difficult to find time to play. I do find time to explore new technologies online and tutor myself but I would like to find time to do alot more.