OpenStreetMap is a U.K.-based project that fulfills a great need:  an open, collaborative mapping project.  Ever find an error in MapQuest, Google Maps, or Yahoo Maps?  Can’t do much about it, can you?  OpenStreetMap will be able to be updated and corrected by their user base, and will be available for free, as in both beer and speech.  Think of it in terms of Wikipedia, which also illustrates the possibilities for errors and abuse, as well.

They have just jump-started their U.S. mapping effort with mapping information from the U.S. Census Bureau.  They have a long way to go, but with some local effort from people across the country, they could be a serious contender for our mapping needs.

Check out your local area to see what they have, and what they still need for their maps.

found on Linux.com

Ken Varnum – RSS Basics and Beyond : Tips and Tricks for Getting the Most out of Syndicated Content. (PowerPoint) (Handout)

Really Simple Syndication (RSS)

• Data format: RSS, RDF, Atom, etc.
• data interchange (sharing) : syndication – think of what AP or Reuters does with news stories

Where does RSS come from?

• blog software
• CMS/wikis (“what’s new feeds”)
• Perl, PHP, Ruby, etc – search databases (Search Alerts)

Reminder to remember copyright

Tools – common traits

• can access feed
• can track whats been seen already
• can reproduce item content
• can link to original source

Computer-based:

• FeedDemon
• FeedReader
• NetNewsWire (Mac)

Browser-based:

• Safari
• IE7
• Firefox / thunderbird

Aggregators (web-based):

• Yahoo
• Bloglines
• Google Reader (now offline-enabled)

Integration — RSS = Stream of information = easy to integrate into HTML

hooks:

• webblog software
• cms
• wikis

HTML:

• feed2JS (build & post rss html)
• RSS2HTML

Myfeedz — from Adobe’s Romanian office
generates new content based on your feed choices

Create “live” subject guides
del.icio.us (all tags have RSS feeds)

New books lists

Checked out book reminders for patrons

Library Elf

Monitoring the web
web page changes
Google Alerts
Page2RSS

Roll your own
Write by hand (not recommended)
set up free blog
write a script (Perl, PHP, Ruby)
FeedXs

Course reserve lists on class pages as an example of a script

Notes: Kens presentation was great as an overview of what can be done with RSS beyond just blog postings and news story gathering. I plan to use several of his suggestions, and expect that it will change the way I work with the web.

BibMe is a great site for locating and generating bibliographic citations in MLA, APA and Chicago styles, which you can then download to your computer, or store on their server (if you sign up for a free account).

In their Help section, they provide detail as to where they get the bibligraphic information to generate the citations:

from BiblioTech Web

As part of their real estate search area, Yahoo has debuted a School Search feature that provides information and reports on schools throughout the country.

from Search Engine Land

For those who like the power that is offered by the command line, there is Sugarcode The Web!, a site that lets you build search queries using keyboard entries that access many of the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.).  Not really a command line search, and not really a metasearch tool, Sugarcode is certainly something to try out to see what it can do for you.

from TechCrunch

Address Map Coordinate (Lat/Long) Finder will convert an address to a latitude/longitude coordinate, as well as show you the location via Yahoo maps. Oddly enough, the geocode link within the map takes you to Google Maps.

They also work with tab or bar (|) delimited files for batch processing here.

from InfoToGo

Worldcat.org is arriving, starting next month, and OCLC is letting bits and pieces of info out about it.  If they make the interface open enough for people and/or organizations to make adaptations, this could be a big deal in the library world.

Imagine having a Google-like search box that will locate any item available in a library throughout the world, as long as at least one OCLC member library has cataloged it. Now imagine (and I hope this can/will be done) connecting the power of your local library (item check-outs, interlibrary loan, etc.) to this vast catalog.

This already exists, but not in an easily accessible way.  To use Worldcat, you either have to log into OCLC FirstSearch (ask your public or community college library for their login/password), or use Google or Yahoo’s “Find in a Library” method known as Open WorldCat (which contains a limited set of WorldCat records).  Neither are well-known, and neither are straightforward enough for the instant recognition needed for widespread adoption.

This will be different, if it is as open as it seems.  Sites (including LibrarySupportStaff.org, assuming that OCLC’s info matches my interpretation of it) can install the search box and initiate searches.  The results will go to the “Find in a Library” page that will let one determine which local area libraries have that item.

If it is as easy as that, then this will be a big deal.  If it is set up in such a way as to let the sites modify the search in creative ways, then this will be bigger than anything in recent library memory.  If it is locked down or limited too much, the risk is loss of usefulness, and it may go nowhere fast.

August will be an interesting month…