Mashing continued...

Music lovers have known about mashups for a while and there are some hilarious examples of overlaying the music from one band over images of another to create something new ( great examples here). But Web 2.0 programmers have taken this mashing idea to a whole new level. Entire websites can contain no original content of their own, instead luring data from a variety of applications into the one site. In terms of disseminating a range of viewpoints on a particular topic, this is a wonderful advancement in the development of the Internet.
Already libraries in their physical realm are a mash of information as various books, magazines, the Internet and newspapers can be found in the one location. It is no wonder then that Librarians are investigating web 2.0 mashups for their digital content, particularly as they continue to search for ways to manage information. One book will be particularly helpful for librarians, "Library Mashups: Exploring New Ways to Deliver Library Data," edited by Nicole C. Engard.
As Annie Armstrong (2010) reviews more succinctly then I can paraphrase:
“Once a librarian or developer discovers the key to extracting and combining data from myriad websites, s/he can transform static, lifeless library web pages into dynamic, interactive user-centered experiences by incorporating such features as interactive maps, book suggestion services, video and image collections, and OPAC or federated search widgets.”

There is one website that is the epitome of dynamic in its mashup makeup and that is Mashpedia. I love this website. It takes Google to a whole new level, incorporating the one word subject search tool the site locates a range of information from different web sites and brings them to you. I Mashpedia'd information management and videos from YouTube, Tweets from Twitter, a definition from Wikipedia as well as related news from a variety of journals was all brought to the one page. Though some of the results were not useful, some were and the fact that one search could cross all different websites using different applications was amazing.
As our tutor John Tyrell has noted, local communities have also benefited from mashups as groups share information about local events, trails and tours. I couldn’t get onto Localhero.biz but my friends and I have been talking about organising a bike ride while the weather is warm and Bikely.com has already been useful in researching where to go.
So, mashups. Before this assignment I had never heard of them. Now I’ll be noting them wherever I search, they seem to be everywhere!

Map Experiment- The Great Ocean Road

This week I have been battling with GoogleMaps and Blogger applications to effectively share my recent holiday with the electronic world. There was so much to experiment with I decided the project needed its own page. Click here to view details of my recent Great Ocean Road Adventure (also linked at the top of my Home page).

As I had already used Flickr in the past I thought I would try a different photo program for my album and inevitable slideshow. I chose Photobucket because it was mentioned on this Blogger site so I figured they would be compatible. Photobucket works the same as Flickr with its options to upload photos and give them tags and titles to make them easier to find. Though it was very user friendly it does have advertising on its homepage, which Flickr seems to do without.
I also uploaded some of my photos to my markers on my GoogleMap and imbdeded the map into my blog. As I am fairly new to all this it has taken me a long time to organise my data (maps, photos, slideshow and video) to then embed into other programs. I can only admire the programmers of sites like Mashpedia from afar. That site is so amazing that needs an entry of its own. I think I'll leave that for tomorrow.