The New Web 2007

Day one
Nothing works. Regular searches return “0 results”. “Search the Web” returns a page dump. Maybe I’ll try this again later.

Day Two
Search for “museum” returns the “War Eagles Air Museum” and the “Virtual Museum of Sex”. Better. Now let’s figure out what this does…
Whatever it does, it’s definitely two-point-oh
Before I even try to figure out what this web site is or does, it’s clear to me that it’s web 2.0-type stuff. The main subjects include “groups” and “tags”; it’s beta!; patents are pending; it looks vaguely like an ipod.

It has something to do with “activeWeb”, which sounds pretty good. Without getting into it, I’d say it’s like a google, but that it uses moderation of some kind to return more meaningful results. Maybe kind of like digg, but seeding a database of content, rather than providing articles? Close to del.icio.us, but with a stronger focus on search?

Visually it’s not bad. Simple, plenty of white space. One flaw would be, on a site that’s so focused on search, the search box should probably have a higher profile, maybe higher than a quote from a satisfied cutomer.

So now let’s see what it actually does
First off, the user must download a toolbar for their web browser. Relatively painless, but a bit of a leap of faith. If I understood what exactly what this site / app “does” I would be more excited about it, but I still don’t *really* get it.

Ok, so now I am revisiting the home page and, since I have the filangy toolbar installed, I see a different interface, with some links that look oddly familiar… When I logged in last night, I still didn’t see this, but I chose to “import firefox bookmarks” from the toolbar. I got a message about waiting 15 minutes, which is longer than I’ve waited for something online for a long time. After about a half hour, I didn’t see any change to the home page, my searches didn’t seem any more “relevant” than before, and wondered if I did something wrong. I went out online and tried manually adding a page to my cache, but got the same “wait 15 minutes” message. When I come back to the page more than 24 hours later (and 72 hours after I initially visited the site), I am *finally* starting to see something emerging.

Now when I search for “great wall”, I get a link to the Powerhouse Museum web site that I just visited today. This is right at the top of my results, above tour companies, wikipedia, tech suppliers, and others. The Powerhouse just doesn’t even rank in a similar search on Google.

So I rethink what this actually is, and think it’s more like Alexa - a plug in that basically tracks me through the web, caching and storing the pages I’ve visited, increasing their relevance based on how often and how recently I’ve been to each of them. I can definitely see a profit model in the product: sharing information about “most popular sites” and “browsing habits” with marketers. Whether the makers of Filangy plan to take advantage of this or not, I don’t know, but I found myself looking carefully through my links, checking for any of questionable nature. Privacy questions abound. I’m not big on having a shoulder surfer along for the ride.

It appears that I am able to set my “webmarks” to private (only 10 at a time), but the default state is public. And I imported all 500-odd of my Firefox bookmarks… I’ll be going through now, 10 at a time, and setting them private. Any visitor to Filangy, searching for something that is contained in one of my webmarks, will find a link to me as a “relevant user” and will be able to browse all of my webmarks. And I was stupid enough to use my real name.

I decided to look out online to see what people were saying about Filangy, and maybe figure out what *precisely* it does. Good review on Rob’s Blog. It turns out, what I thought it’s doing is pretty close, but not exact. Filangy reports back to the mothership with each web location that you visit. The Filangy servers then go out on their own (to save on transfer time from your system to Filangy) and sucks up the content from the page you just visited. You can later conduct a search (15 minutes or more later?), and Filangy will be able to find content cached from the pages you visited. And this is Filangy’s big strength: if you can’t remember what page you were on 6 weeks ago, or how you got there, but remember that you were looking at some Jon Stewart video, Filangy will be able to (likely) find it for you. I really wish this was explained in a clear, straightforward way on Filangy’s own site before I installed it. Because of this assignment, I’ve given this tool much more time than I would otherwise.

Filangy is a pretty interesting application, but ultimately I don’t think I want to make the potential privacy tradeoffs AND install another custom plugin for the features offered. I will be uninstalling Filangy for now.

Everone,

It was a great pleasure to work with and learn with all of you over the last five days. Thanks for a great week.
This blog will be available as long as possible, but I won’t be posting any additional information. The del.icio.us bookmark set will remain as will the Flickr site and (hopefully more photos will be added there).

Please stay in touch. All the best.

Jim

Ma.gnolia

Similar to del.iciou.us, Ma.gnolia is a social bookmarking site that keeps bookmarks on the web instead of on your computer so that you can access them from any browser. You can keep your bookmarks private or you can share them with the public or in groups. There are many features in Ma.gnolia such as the ability to tag your bookmarks for easy searching as well as the ability to rate them out of 5 stars.

When bookmarking sites on Ma.gnolia, there are many options such as a bookmarklet on your browser, copy and pasting into the ma.gnolia site or a snap mark which is a small easy pop-up. Once you have bookmarked a site a small thumbnail of the sites homepage appears next to your bookmark. There are also four icons next to your bookmark which allow you to: make the bookmark public or private (lock), delete it, send it to a contact, or send it to a group. You also have the ability to tag your bookmarks and rate them so that you can find them easier. You can search your own bookmakrs or the site’s entire public collection by tag, title or descriptive words. There is also a bookmark importer tool which allows you to import your bookmarks from your computer or from del.iciou.us.

Ma.gnolia allows you to become a member or groups that fit your interest. These groups can be public or private groups and you can create your own. If you are interested in a topic such as “contemporary Furniture� you can join the group and post as well as visit related bookmarks with ratings. The groups are monitored by group managers and there is a discussion chat area for members as well as group emails.

One of the interesting things about Magnolia is that you can view other people’s bookmarks (if they mark their selections and profiles as public). If you find someone that has similar tastes in bookmarks as you, you can add them as a contact so that “you can make a personal connection.� You can also see how they rate their sites.

While I have my own myspace, read blogs, share photos and use Wikis I had used of a social bookmarking site until I started this project. The idea that I can have my bookmarks online is great especially when I travel a lot and work with several computers for one project. I am not very technology savvy when it comes to web 2.0 lingo and while I have used many of these sites, I am oblivious to the process and technology behind it (part of the reason I am taking the course). Therefore I cannot really comment too much on things like rss feeds and APIs – yet! However I did think that the interface of the site was very simple and pleasant to look at. The directions and tutorials for the site are easy to follow and there is even a wiki for furthur questions about ma.gnolia. I found the search tools and groups very easy to navigate and after a few hours felt comfortable with the site.

How would this work in a museum context. Well I think that the idea of a bookmark site organized by groups, tags and topics could easily be used for museum databases. Changing the bookmarks into collection pieces. I think the idea of creating a more social form of databasing really allows the individual to beomce more involved and excited about the collection. How interesting would it be if you could go to the Vancouver Art Gallery database and join a group on Emily Carr or Bruce Mao. It would be a great way for people with similar interests to get together and share what they have to offer.

The greatest part of Stumbleupon is the fact that you can stumble upon sites that you probably wouldn’t find on Google or any other search engine. The handy Stumbleupon logo that is embedded in the Firefox toolbar allows you to essentially flip through various sites that are tagged by other members of stumbleupon. The beauty of the site is that you don’t know what is coming next or what area of interest it will pick up on. Its like flipping channels on the TV without a TV guide. As you stumble you can exercise your ‘thumbs’. By clicking on the ‘I like it!’ thumb you can add the site to your pages so you can revisit them and they then become part of the greater pool that others draw from as they stumble. You can also choose to say you don’t like a site and ask not to be sent a site like it again and you are given credit for ‘Discovering’ a site as well when you add one that you find on your own.

This is can quickly become an addictive pastime. Some of the sites are marginal – but that can vary with the topic that is selected. Every member who discovers a site also adds value to others experiences by providing another avenue to sites that may never be accessed through a Google or Yahoo search.
The cooking sites that I have Stumbled upon have been the most consistently slick.

There is the ability to send messages to other members, blog on your user page, comment and tag the sites you visit and make ‘friends’. The site is easy to use – there is a lot to explore, lots to learn about especially for a chronic lurker. It is a broad social network, with a handy introduction message that lays out the site and its tools. There is the ability to set your personal settings to meet other people based on your interests and personal information – everything from favourite movies and books to body type. I found the Friends option confusing as well as the Fans and the Network. The site suggested many friends for me but the more I explored the options, the more confusing it was. The majority of the suggested friends were people who live in Nelson – and although many of the people who live in Nelson share the same interests and passions, chances are I would meet them on the street. It also recommended me as a Friend – and although I find the recesses of my mind fascinating - it just doesn’t seem right. You can also import your Del.icio.us bookmarks into the as well.

The catch is that there are some features that are only available to Sponsors, a feature that can be yours for $20 a year. I was thrilled with this site until I realized that its main promotion (and its revenue generation) is based on viral marketing.

First off the museum world will benefit from this network in an indirect way if their web presence is strong enough to warrant someone adding them to their pages they like. There is also the ability to purchase some promotion (premium is 5 cents per targeted visitor). It would be like preaching to the converted, as your site is only sent to those who have chosen your topic as one of their topics of interest. If the site ever built in a non-profit fee schedule – I could see it taking off for museums, but as it stands, I think that the best bet for museums is to have an outstanding web presence that will encourage people to visit it, recommend it and pass it on. A non-fee based version of viral marketing.

As a bit of a newbie in the online world of social sites, I spent time with several of these to get a feel for how they work. I started out with my assigned site, Blue Dot, then moved on to discovering some of the others which I found to be more of a match with my interests. I was drawn to the ones which seem to afford the greatest potential for personal expression of a point of view. I’m a visual and concept person, and so was attracted to formats which provided tools for the expression of creativity and original thought.

Blue Dot
This seems at first to be quite a simple, maybe a limited experience. I had initial difficulty seeing a larger use of the concept beyond simply an improved favorites list. The tags function would seem to be an editing feature, however each tags search returning a couple of hundred dots is still pretty general. Within a group of friends, checking for and noting new recommendations frequently is valid, but is it that much different from attaching a link to an email? Different in form but perhaps not so different in results. True, the site does make all this easier and more interesting to do; the addition of visual content and especially the ability to include content from a site directly into the Blue Dot format creates more interest.
The design of the site is quite straightforward. The use of file folder type tabs for headers is good, even if a bit simplistic- a header titled “everyone� is a bit scary to me- I don’t know if I want everyone involved. The “about� notes speak about a new type of communication called “social discovery� (reg trademarked). This is an interesting concept which is a great feature of this product. The fact that discovery in real time is taking place among peers is good, even though it could be (mostly seems to be) just talking about pop culture and shopping. There is an extensive Tool Box which contains a large number of features for useability. The remote functions of the site are interesting. ‘Dot this remotely’ allows instant and more universal access, ‘new content update’ functions are a great shortcut. All this means that Blue Dot is not only entertaining but does function as data management.
Almost hidden among the features is a very important item. “Add ‘Dot This’ to my website/blog� is a feature which ultimately drives traffic to a member’s own site, which is clearly a bonus in the numbers game.

As I am familiar with the special event context, I can see ways in which social sites could transform the idea of conferences and group exchanges. A group planning an event or project could use Blue Dot to collaborate and have great brainstorming sessions by sending content back and forth. At first, a wide-ranging exploration where anything goes could be followed by a refining of the ideas which the group responds to.
The group could illustrate its ideas and have stuff- images, products, goofy fun stories- to work with as they discussed what the event was going to be like, or what form a project was going to take. As the concept comes together, the site functions as a database where group members can archive web content which relates to each member’s part in the project. That way, members can make suggestions and keep informed about the progress of each other’s work. However, since the site archives primarily web content, its usefulness is limited by the fact that it really is a type of clip-art file of ideas, like cutting things out of magazines. It may not allow for that much actual creation or development of ideas within Blue Dot.
Second Life
As for an event itself, a traditional format corporate event where a representative group flies around the country for real-time face to face meetings with others from somewhere else, could be easily broadened to include those left back at head office. Second Life is a much more complex and deeper concept social site, which could have huge implications for this application. For example, those who are back home at their desks could get involved through their avatars who could shadow the “real event� participants, who would be presenting through Second Life what they are experiencing in real life. Of course, the very quick extrapolation of this would be that there is no longer any real need for participants to physically relocate, but rather the whole event/meet new people/get new ideas function of a traditional “conference� could be fulfilled within the Second Life world. This way, the traditional draw of going to a conference (get out of my own milieu, flirt with new attractions, get too drunk at the open bar etc.) could translate very well to Second Life. We would get to create a new persona for ourselves, and our avatars could get to have a lot of fun as well as do a lot of work. There would be many opportunities for “conference services� such as interesting venues for activities, team building, cultural activities etc which are a part of traditional events. This would fit in well with Second Life’s apparent openness to entrepreneurial endeavours.
Flikr is clearly a draw for genealogy fans. One big challenge in this area is input of the materials, since so much of the information is on paper. Most people don’t relish sitting over a scanner for hours on end with all those photos and documents, and conservators will be nervous about the fragility of the original source material. However once the goods are digitized, it becomes easier for people to discover and share their personal histories. How could we facilitate this type of input, so that people could get right down to making interesting stories using all that fantastic source material which is sitting in old photo albums, trunks full of letters, and boxes of memorabilia?
Jumpcut. This definately appeals to me. It takes just a bit of time to become familiar with the functions, and there is a lot which can be done in a simple way. After a bit of practice, this could be a great way to comment on an experience. If members of a group which had shared an experience and recorded material surrounding it were to each make a vid it would allow for some great discussions about different interpretations of the same event. I think this would work great for young people because the interface is easy to master. For example, participants could have an experience in real life (say a visit to a traditional museum). Part of this experience would be the capturing of “raw material� in the form of clips, stills, interviews, sampled information etc. By creating videos out of this material, the group members get to comment on and share their experience, thereby greatly expanding what began as a simple visit to an exhibition or event. The feature of Jumpcut which I most value is its suitability for true personal expression. Many social sites are great for making comments and recommendations, but Jumpcut makes it easy to express a point of view. This is its genius. The additional feature of remix is also interesting, because it underscores the fact that the message is in the editing. A single video can be made to express different points of view by different edit versions. Not only is this a potent reminder of the fact that the camera does “lie�, it is also a fun way to explore the nature of meaning and communication.

My personal take on social sites in general is perhaps skewed by the fact of my tendency to be less chatty than many bloggers and commentators seem to be(yes that would be the dreaded lurker). My immediate reaction to the existence of hundreds of postings of samplings from popular culture and endless commentary on them is…who cares? Call me a skeptic but there is a lot of simply uninteresting content floating around these places. However, the technology is there, and how we use it is up for grabs. I am excited by the suitability of the medium for the eventual creation of truly original thought and expression. I think about how when Gutenberg invented the printing press, it was first used to broadcast orthodoxy. It was only much later that it allowed the invention of a totally new form, the novel, which became a huge force for the expression of personal creativity.
Roger Huffman

Everyone,

If you have questions you’d like to see answered about museum blogs, their readers, writers and operators–please add them here in the comments.

Seb and I will be (hopefully) putting together a comprehensive survey in the next month. Your suggestions would be appreciated.

Introduction
There has been a great deal of discussion among web developers about whether to use Flash or AJAX for certain types of website development. Rather than provide a long explaination about the qualities, benefits, and drawbacks of these two sometime competing technologies, I’d like the class to explore this together.

The Activity
We’ll break into two groups, the Flash group and AJAX group. Each group will champion their own technology and look for flaws in the other. Use the the Web and blogosphere to find the necessary information.

What’s Expected
Each group needs to present a description of the technology, along with its key benefits. Be prepared to show a few examples of technology in action. The opposing team will have an opportunity to respond and to point out the limitations or flaws in the opposing technology. You’ll have 30 minutes to research and 5 minutes to present.
The Prize
There is no prize for this activity. Knowing when it is best to use Flash or AJAX is priceless.