Phil Bradley's weblog

Quick potted guide to RSS

RSS isn't a difficult subject to master - at least once you know what it is. That seems to be the difficult bit, as it does appear to be a subject that can be hard to grasp. This is a nice presentation that hopefully makes it a little easier.

A Potted Guide to RSS

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Write Rhymes

Budding poet, but you can't find words that rhyme? Can't think of a two syllable word that rhymes with book? Then look no further, because Write Rhymes is a nifty resource (don't think it quite qualifies as a searche engine really) that will do the job for you.

Great if you're in a school environment, or working with members of the public, or setting up some sort of literary event, it's a nice resource to point to.

Book Seer suggests books to read.

I just discovered BookSeer which is a discovery engine of sorts.

Painfully easy to use - just type in title and author and it will come up with suggestions for what to move onto next. It pulls content from Amazon and LibraryThing (though LibraryThing had thrown a moody when I was playing with this, so I wasn't getting anything back from there).

It seemed to work very well, giving about 10 recommendations from Amazon (and I presume a similar number for LibraryThing). A search for 'The Wasp Factory' by Iain Banks suggested 'The Crow Road' by the same author and also 'The Bell Jar' by Sylvia Plath. 'Here comes everybody' by Clay Shirky led to the suggestion 'Wikinomics' by Don Tapscott. 'How to use web 2.0 in your library' by, errr, me, lead to 'Library 2.0 and Beyond: Innovative Technologies and Tomorrow's User' by Nancy Courtney.

Nice resource - simple, easy and quick to use. Great to have easy to hand at the public library enquiry desk when the question is asked. However, if you don't like this you could try:

What Should I read next?
Literature Map
Debbiesidea
Booklamp

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Top 10 Tools for Learning Professionals

Jane Hart runs a very splendid resource, Top Tools for Learning and she invites information professionals to list their favourite top ten tools. I thought this would be a nice blogging opportunity to look back at the tools I suggested over a year ago, to see how many I would still recommend, and which - if any - have been replaced with something else.

The tools that I chose in February 2008 were:
Audacity (an audio recording piece of software)
Bloglines (RSS reader)
Firefox (web browser)
Flickr (Photograph sharing resource)
FURL (boomarking resource)
Pageflakes (home/start page resource)
PBWiki (a wiki creation package)
Slideshare (social media resource for storing and sharing presentations)
Typepad (Blogging tool)
Twitter

So, what's changed, and what remained the same?
Audacity was great, but it's slightly limited in that it's really just for voice. These days if I want to record, I prefer to narrate a screencast, and the software that I prefer for that is a nifty little thing called ScreenToaster, which is easy to setup and use.

Bloglines is not my preferred software now in the field of RSS readers - I got fed up with them messing around, technical errors, lack of information and so on. and switched to Google RSS Reader instead. I'm not overly fond of promoting Google when there's a good alternative, but the Reader has always performed really well. I've been back to Bloglines since, and it seems to have recovered well, but it's a little too late for me - I'm used to the way that Google's reader does things, and I don't want to go back and relearn something else. I think this shows the danger of loosing users - it's very hard to then get them back!

Firefox is still my preferred browser of choice and don't understand why it's not got more users in the UK than it has. It's fast, flexible, I love the add on utilities and it doesn't feel clunky in the way that IE does.

Flickr is still my photograph sharing resource. I've just paid out for another two years of use, which says all that needs to be said really. Oh, other than, if you want to look at my photographs you're more than welcome and they're at http://www.flickr.com/photos/philbradley/

FURL was my preferred option for bookmarking. However, it's now been bought out and closed down by Diigo. I moved everything across but to be honest, I've not gone back to Diigo since. I'd always used Delicious as a backup resource, and have found that I'm using that more and more now. So Delicious is currently winning out for me.

I loved Pageflakes as my home/start page, I really did. However, they were sold to some idiot who simply doesn't understand the concept behind them, and the company alienated their users by forcing advertising on pages, and then crashing for a week without even an apology when it came back online. I now recommend Netvibes instead. Just as good, better in many respects, they're going from strength to strength. This is probably the single piece of software I use most in a day since it's always the first thing that gets loaded when the browser starts. I'd happily pay to use it if necessary.

PBWiki has now turned into PBWorks. Straightfoward and easy to use. Free and paid accounts. I still use this on my courses and have no problems with it. Sure, there's plenty of other resources out there, but PBWorks is still fine by me!

Slideshare is still the first place that I put my presentations. They did have a blip on April 1st when they played a slightly illthought out prank, but everyone is entitled to a mistake now and then, and I'm still happy to use them.

Typepad as my weblog authoring tool. I've been using this product for 3 or 4 years now. Quite frankly, I don't like it that much now. They 'improved' the product by reducing functionality and making it much harder to use. I'm still with them basically because I can't cope with the idea of moving the blog again and starting from scratch. Consequently I don't feel able to recommend them. If you want a good blogging tool, it's got to be Blogger, since it's free, easy to use, flexible and does what it should do.

Twitter is the resource that I'm most surprised about, since I was singing its praises over a year ago, and predicted good things for it. If anything it's even more vital now than it was then. I've been saying for a while now that Twitter is going to end up only second to Google as the most important tool on the net *IF* they don't get themselves bought out or dramatically change what they do and how they do it.

So, that's my current top ten tools that I can't be without. Let's have a look at the overall top ten on Jane's list.

1. Twitter. Obviously.
2. Delicious. Makes perfect sense.
3. Google Reader. Still matching my choices so far!
4. Skype. I have to admit that I've never got into Skype, having always preferred email and written communications. However, it's a very good tool if you like that kind of thing!
5. PowerPoint. I sort of agree with this one, but I've taken it to the next step with Slideshare.
6. Google Search. I can see why this is valuable - I'm fascinated to see where it is in the list, but I wouldn't regard it as a tool in the same way that I have referred to the others.
7. Google Docs. A great way to store and share resources. I tend not to use this one so much, though I teach it on courses because - since I work alone - I don't have that many times when I need to share content.
8. WordPress. Well, I've gone with Blogger as you know, but as long as there's a blogging tool in the top ten I think that's important.
9 - 11 Gmail/Slideshare/SnagIT These all share the same spot. I have one of them in there, so I'm happy with that. SnagIt is a capture tool that I've not used, since I prefer Fireshot as a Firefox add on. I do agree however that some sort of screen capture device is very important.

So - that's my list; what about yours?

Slideshare April Fool joke goes disastrously wrong

Slideshare. is a resource that allows you to upload your PowerPoint presentations which can then be shared with other people, embedded on webpages or weblogs or kept to a small group of colleagues. It seems (and I have to say at this point I've not got any confirmation from Slideshare themselves) that they've played an April Fool's Day joke that has gone terribly wrong.

I, and everyone else who has an account there got an email this morning congratulating me on being a Slideshare rockstar:
"We've noticed that your slideshow on SlideShare has been getting a LOT of views in the last 24 hours. Great job ... you must be doing something right. ;-) Why don't you tweet or blog this? Use the hashtag #bestofslideshare so we can track the conversation."

I thought this was slightly odd since I have a lot of slideshows there, and the email didn't say which one they were referring to. Sure enough, when I went to my account the number of views had gone through the roof. I thought it was odd, but that was that. I certainly didn't think of commenting on Twitter for example, though a lot of other people have done.

It's looking as though this is a prank by Slideshare on their users. This is a huge error for a number of reasons:
1. I don't appreciate anyone manipulating data on my content. That Slideshare are so relaxed about this, and feel they can do what they like is really sending entirely the wrong message about how they view users and content.
2. Using an April Fool prank to generate comment and visits is dubious at best. If they'd not used the hashtag suggestion I wouldn't have worried about it, but it's a deliberate attempt to get publicity.
3. This has lead to a huge spike in traffic to the site. This is the most annoying aspect because the whole POINT of the site is to allow people to get access to slideshows directly from the site. It's slowed down to a point where it's entirely unusable. I'm just grateful that I don't have any need to use it professionally today.
4. There's already a really big backlash against this prank on Twitter - people who are using the hashtag are looking stupid, which is making them angry. Clicking on a link privately and realising you've been caught is one thing - getting them to do it in public is another thing entirely.

I'm already seeing a lot of tweets from people saying that they're annoyed and unhappy. Several are asking for suggestions of different resources to use. If you're in that category, try:

Authorstream which is a tool that I've used once or twice - works very well. Maximum upload size is 30Mb, and it supports Voice over narration.

Sliderocket which is attractive and very glossy.

280Slides which is quite new and still finding its feet but getting there.

Slideboom which allows for narration, video, animation and so on.

If you want more suggestions, take a look at my collection which lists 25 alternatives to Slideshare (you'll need to scroll down the page to 'Presentations').

Very disappointing to see this from Slideshare, and I suspect they're going to be regretting it very shortly.

HerdictWeb - site down for everyone or?

HerdictWeb. Have you ever come across a web site that you could not access and wondered,"Am I the only one?" Herdict Web aggregates reports of inaccessible sites, allowing users to compare data to see if inaccessibility is a shared problem. By crowdsourcing data from around the world, we can document accessibility for any web site, anywhere. This looks like a more advanced version of 'Down for everyone or just me?

Backing up your Delicious bookmarks

Given that some people are getting (understandably) concerned about their content on the web, and with the bookmarking Magnolia resource down, I've been alerted to this useful resource that allows you to Export Your Bookmarks on Delicious  which I got from Dave Briggs. Very easy to use - give it your user name details if you're not already logged in and download your collection as an HTML file. Better safe than sorry!

Introduction to Netvibes Screen cast

This is by way of a test as much as anything else. I've previously been playing around with Screentoaster which is a simple to use screencast product (that is to say, a resource that you can use to capture what you're seeing on the screen and annotate or narrate it as a tutorial for example), but thought I'd try a few others as well. This one is from Screencast-o-matic and it's another free resource that will also host the screencast for you as well. I found it very simple and easy to use; it doesn't require any download and runs entirely from the browser window. You can pause and annotate the screencast, though I didn't see any easy way to edit the narration, which I was doing without rehearsal, so apologies for the relaxed approach and occasional fluffs!

It didn't take very long to create the screencast, and if you want to see what it's like on the site itself you can take a look. Of course, if you're interested in the basics of using Netvibes, feel free to watch the entire thing! I should also point out that this time around I just used a spoken narration; the screencast itself is designed to be seen either with the sound on, or with the accompaniment of a handout that I use, so apologies in advance if you're listening without speakers - but I hope that it still makes some sense! It comes with 3 different screen resolutions, original, small and tiny. The others played in the embedded version, but I can't seem to make this (tiny) one do the same, which is a learning tip as we're going along I guess! Still, clicking on the link or the image should let you see it in full size.

SlideShare allows easy YouTube integration

If you've not discovered Slideshare yet I'd certainly recommend it. It's a really good resource for placing, storing and sharing PowerPoint presentations. The SlideShare Blog has announced that it's now possible to embed YouTube videos into presentations. I followed the instructions and it's astonishingly easy to do, especially in comparison to manual attempts to do it - simply upload your presentation (or use an existing one), go to edit, choose the Edit YouTube tab, choose where you want the YouTube video placed, copy in the URL of said video and you're done.

Instant, simple and very useful. It took me about 20 seconds from start to finish. Just another reason to use Slideshare!

YouTube mutes videos with unauthorised musical soundtrack

I suspect that lots of people are going to be peering at their speakers and tapping them because the videos that they're watching on YouTube are silent all of a sudden. The reason for this is that YouTube has now started to mute soundtracks for videos that use music illegally. Underneath the video viewers see a message:

YouTube - Laundromat Blues - Albert King via kwout

It's not taken long before people have got up in arms about this - TechCrunch is talking about YouTube Full Of Creepy, Soundless Music Videos

Over at Mashable they're talking about "tens of thousands of fan made videos, funny spoofs, remixes and the like being pretty much destroyed, and I’m guessing users will be less than thrilled about it." Gerd Leonhard has some sensible comments to make about this; he says "would it not make sense for the music (publishing) industry to instead provide a non-commercial LICENSE for UGC content, and in return get traffic, referrals and shares of ad revenues?"

It certainly seems a slightly odd step to take just to launch this out of the blue, and it's by no means comprehensive, since I found plenty of videos that use copyright music (It's a Buffy/Spike/ABBA compilation if you're interested) which I'm guessing is probably breaking more than one copyright law! On the other hand, the banner over at YouTube does say 'Broadcast yourself' not 'Broadcast yourself to a musical accompaniment you've nicked from someone else'. On the other hand, I'm astonished that it's taken them this long to get around to it. I really can see the TechCrunch point though - it's a blunt way to approach this. I suspect that we're at the beginning of a long epic.