Lesson 5-Ultimate Mashup-Widgets, Gadgets and Pipes

In this last lesson we are going add gadgets to your blog. On your sidebar, we will add content from your del.icio.us account, your LibraryThing account and a Flickr slide show. This lesson will be fairly easy and will give you time to catch up on previous lessons if you have not done so.


Create a Flickr slide show:



In one browser, open your blog. Click on the "Layout" tab. Click on "Create a Gadget". Click on "Slideshow". In the menu box choose Flickr as the source and make up a keyword for Flickr to create a slideshow in your blog. The default is "sunset". It's fun to experiment with different words for concrete entities or abstract ideas. Click on the "Save button". Click on "View Blog" and look at your slide show.


You've completed your first gadget.


Add your del.icio.us links to your blog.


Remain logged into Blogger and open your del.icio.us account in another browser. Click on the "Help" tab at the top of the page and then click on "Need tools?" from the drop-down menu. Under "Add your bookmarks and tags to your website or blog", click on "Tagrolls". Copy the HTML code generated in the box.


Go to your blog and, as you did before, go to the "Layout" page and click on "Add a Gadget". From the drop-down menu, click on "HTML/Java Script" Paste the code you copied from del.icio.us into the content box. Label the gadget "My del.icio.us Tags" and save. Click on "View Blog".



Add LibraryThing to your blog.


Open your LibraryThing account and click on the "blog widgets" tab in the far right-hand corner of the page. Copy the HTML code in the box.


Open your blog and again, go to "Add Widgets". From the drop down list, click on HTML/Java and paste the code into the content box. Click on "Save" and click on "View Blog"

You are done with adding gadgets to your blog.

Explore Dipity

Before you leave this page please explore a Dipity site I created called Five Things; here's the url: http://www.dipity.com/user/bslavin/timeline/Five_Things. In the site I put feeds from this Five Things blog, Millie's Whittemore Library blog and the Massachusetts Library Association Conference Reports.

It's fun to play around with the time lines and explore blog posts from different sources in the same time period.

Looking ahead to National Library Week
Sneak preview of newer mashups:


This is from Yahoo Pipes. I have added a pipe to this post and to the sidebar. It is derived from all items searched in Google described as "events and activities" and filtered to exclude everything but "Three Cups of Tea". This will be updated frequently.

And now a word to you using a Flickr mashup called "Spell with Flickr". The URL is http://metaatem.net/words/

LibraryThing - Lesson 4

............................................................................................................................

LibraryThing is an online tool designed to help you organize your books and connect to other readers. In this lesson we are going to set up a LibraryThing account, add books to your account, learn how to connect with other LibraryThing readers and do a little tagging.

Photo titled: Manga Reader
Photo by Poo-tee-weet
See Creative Commons license

Set up account....

Click on the url: http://www.librarything.com

Log in with your user name; make up a password and add your email address. This is important if you forget your password. Enter. You have set up your LibraryThing account.

..............................................................................................................

Add a book......

We are going to start by adding one book. Click on the "Add Books" tab. In the search screen, we will start by adding a book by the ISBN number. Please type in "0060175966" and enter. You will see the book The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester pop up on the right. Click on it. You've added a book to your library. You may delete it later.

Click on "Home" tab.

You will see that LibraryThing has created a list of recommended books for you based on your one entry. Under "Recent Recommendations" you'll see recommendations automatically generated by LibraryThing based on your choice and personal recommendations from LibraryThing members who have read the Professor and the Madman.

............................................................................................................................................
Add another book.......

Grab a favorite book from your library shelf at home or work and add it to LibraryThing. Unless your book is pretty old, you'll find the ISBN number on the copyright page in the front matter of the book. Type in the ISBN number in the search box and enter.

To the right you'll see the title, any maybe an image, of the book. Click on it to add to your library. You've added another book to your library.

Click on "home" tag.


........................................................................................................................................




Join a group........

Click on the "Groups" tab. In "search for groups" box, type in keyword(s) for a group that might interest you; it can be the author or a subject keyword. Explore groups and join one of them by clicking on the "Join this group" yellow icon in the upper-right side of the web page. (You can "un-join" later if you decide to leave).

Photograph titled: Le Reader, photo by Moriza
Read her Creative Commons license

You have a library of two books and you've joined a book group!

...........................................................................................................................................

Click on "your profile" tab at the top of the browser. Notice "Connection News" Already you have a number of connections because others have also added your same books to their library and have activity in their libraries, mostly adding books or adding comments. Click on "Connections News" and on the drop down list click on "Connections" and spend little time looking the the books recently added by your connections.

Back to the input mode:
...........................................................................................

Add more books........

Grab any seven books you like from the Whittemore Library or home bookshelf and add them to your library. If you choose books with ISBN numbers in the front matter, this will go quickly, but it's a good practice to enter one old book from your shelf.

Take a coffee break or just play around with LibraryThing.

End of break

Make a LibraryThing friend or two.....

Click on your "profile" tab and look at the "Members With Your Books" list in the green panel on the right. Click on "weighted", "raw" and "recent" outputs. You will intuitively understand the difference by looking at the difference in the results. Click on and explore the libraries of various members. Choose one you like and click on "Add to Friends" icon in the upper right-hand side of browser. You have sent an invitation to become a friend, but it won't be official until he/she accepts your offer.

Photograph titled Attimi Rubati, photograph by seleniamorgillo
See his Creative Commons license

Add me as a friend. I promise to accept you and will check LibraryThing once a day.

Click on the "Search" tab and type "blavin" in the "members and location" box in the lower right-hand corner of the page. Click on where you see a link to "bslavin" of Framingham, MA. Click on "Add to friends". As soon as I accept you offer you will have a friend in LibraryThing.

............................................................................................................................................

One more book and you are done adding books.....

Click on "Zeitgeist" tab and explore the page. Look at "Top 75 Authors" in the lower right-hand side of page and click on an author you have read. From the list of books written by the author, add one you have read to your library by clicking on "add to your library"

..............................................................................................................................................

Almost done...tagging next.....

Click on "my library" tab. Click on "covers" tab and look at results. Click on "list". Play with "styles" tab and find the style you like. Return to style "A". Locate a favorite book and add a tag. A tag would be a way of describing the book or the "aboutness" of the book. So A Hundred Years of Solitude might have a tags like "South American Novel" or "novel" or "Gabriel Garcia Marquez". Tag two more books in your library.

Done!

Congratulations. You've complete the LibraryThing lesson. There's a lot more to it, so please explore it's many facets and features.

Please add a comment to the bottom of this post that you have completed the assignment.

Thanks.

One more lesson to go.

Explore Flickr - Lesson 3

Flickr is a great application for sharing and organizing your photographs.

I am not asking you to join Flickr; we are just going to explore its many features. We are going to start by just jumping in.

Click on http://www.flickr.com/explore

Photograph by Douglas Walker

Creative Commons license Non-commercial 2.0 Generic

In the search bar in the upper right hand page, search for "White Wagtail" in with the "full text" option and the "tags only" option. Notice how many more "hits" there are with full text.

Next, look at on of Sergey's photograph of a White Wagtail in Flickr.

Photograph by Sergey Yeliseev
Creative Commons License

• Look at his tags to the right of the picture: he keeps them simple with the scientific name and common name of the bird (in English).


• His description includes the name of the city: Moscow.
  

Go back to the explore page and search for "Moscow White Wagtail" with the "full text" option and the "tags only" option.

• Notice you will get nine (or more) results with the full text option and none with the tags only option.

Please take time to go back to Sergey's site and click on his "sets" tab. Check on the "wagtails and pipets" set. Chick on "detail" and bookmark this page in del.icio.us with any tags you like.

Go back to the original White Wagtail picture.

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


• Notice the sets to the right of the picture. As we have seen, he created a set for "wagtails and pipets" for his own internal organization, but also entered his photograph in a Flickr group called "Birds, Birds, Birds".
  


• Click on the pool and and tag it any fashion you like in Del.icio.us. Notice this group or pool has over 13,000 members

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

Photograph by Ahmed Rabea
Creative Commons license

Take a coffee break or spend a little time exploring Flickr on your own. Have fun and play.

End of break.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Let's jump in again.

Let's go back to the Flickr explore page.



Photography by undercurrent_oa0 Creative Commons license


Explore in Time

• Under the header "interestingness", in the box "Select a Month", choose August, 2004. You will see photographs that qualified as "interesting" from that month.



• Choose any photo and tag it any way you like in del.icio.us.

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

Explore the World

• We are still on the Flickr Explore page. On "Other places to explore", click on "A Map of the World". Spend time playing with the zoom controls and tags controls. You'll see the icons in the upper right hand corner. Explore the world.
  


• In the search box, search for "college" in the second box and "Framingham" in the third box. Enter. Click and click again on any of the pictures that pop up until you see the photograph in its Flickr context.
  



• It will be a photograph I've taken at Framingham State College. Because it was geotagged (as well as tagged) the picture is searchable on this map.

Explore a Photo

Look at the photograph of the bound journals. Notice:

• My tagging-the key words I use to describe the photograph. At this point my tagging is a lot messier than Sergey's tagging.

• My groups-the pools I've added the photograph to with the idea of sharing.
• My sets- my own system or organizing my photographs. in Del.icio.us.

Click on the group (pool) "Libraries From Around the World" and tag it in any fashion you like.

Photograph by Barbara L. Slavin
Creative Commons License

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

Creative Commons

When you upload a photograph to Flickr, the default for copyright is "All Rights Reserved", which means that you retain full copyright protection. Take a moment to look at the Creative Commons website. If you decide to share your photograph by giving your photograph a Creative Commons license you are allowing others to share, reuse and remix your photographs. Look at the types of licenses in the Creative Commons page in Flickr.

Click on Flickr Advanced Search. In the search window type in anything you would like to search for. Near the bottom of the page, put a check mark next to "Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content" Click on "Search". Click on any photograph and tag it in any fashion you like in del.icio.us.

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

Congratulations. You've finished the assignment for Flickr. I'll look for your tags in del.icio.us. Leave a comment in this blog that you have finished. Thank you!